Day: May 7, 2021

The Actors’ Workshop

Fandango4 Comments

“My agent called me and said that I got the part,” Greg said to his best friend while they were sitting at a Starbucks. “I feel like I just won the lottery.”

“That’s great, Greg,” Adam texted back. “I guess that thousand bucks you spent on the acting workshop paid off, huh?”

Greg dunked the end of his biscuit into his coffee and took a bite. “Actually, that workshop got cancelled when the leader of the workshop got arrested.”

“Arrested?” Adam said. “What for?”

“He was accused of sexually assaulting several of the females in the class,” Greg said.

“No shit,” Adam exclaimed. “Wow.”

“Yeah,” Greg said, “it was quite the calamity.”

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (agent), MMA Storytime (friend), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (lottery), Word of the Day Challenge (workshop), Ragtag Daily Prompt (biscuit), and Your Daily Word Prompt (calamity).

12 Bloggerz — May 2021

Fandango15 Comments

Rory is offering up his “12 Bloggers” thing he does once again this month. He poses 12, oh I don’t know, irreverent questions. Here is what he is asking us this month.

1. When was the last time you were totally lost?
[Be this physically, mentally, emotionally or so on, interpretation is yours.]

Pretty much every day.

2. Do you think that we, as viewers to the entertainment industry, have much higher and perhaps unrealistic expectations to the content that we read, watch, or listen to today in comparison to previous years and or generations?

I think so because the technologies used in today’s entertainment industry are so much more sophisticated and advanced than they were in previous generations.

3. Does money ‘really’ make us happy or is that just a myth and more importantly it is ‘what you do with it’ that makes you happier?

I don’t know if money really makes us happy, but it helps.

4. How important to you is it to be right?

I’m not always right, but I’m never wrong.

5. How often do you find yourself completely confused with life and the way it is changing and has changed over the last ten or twenty years?

What confuses me is how divided and polarized our society has become. We have become so entrenched in our own perspectives and beliefs that we no longer listen to or even attempt to see the world through others’ eyes.

7. How many emails do you get a day [roughly] and from who do you get the most?

About a dozen and a half and most of them are from some entity trying to get me to spend money. I get many more text messages than emails each day.

6. When out shopping and carrying your goods or groceries, which do you prefer to use more often – paper or plastic bags [reusable] or cotton totes or something else?

I mostly bring my own reusable (cloth, not plastic) bags. Otherwise, I’ll go with paper bags, which are recyclable.

8. Have you ever made for yourself ‘homemade wine/spirits’ and if so what was it made from and how was it?

I haven’t, but my wife made her own homemade wine from a kit. I designed the labels and printed them up and adhered them to the bottles into which her wine ultimately was poured.

9. In your opinion and from no ‘fixed time period,’ what have been in your eyes the top 5 most memorable television series you have ever watched and what made them special to you?

“The Wire” on HBO, the original “The Twilight Zone,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Cheers,” and “All in the Family.”

10. What’s wrong with today’s music as opposed to the music of your yesterday’s – do you consider the music now to be far worse or greatly improved and why?

I’m stuck in the mid-sixties to late-seventies classic rock from a music perspective. That’s my jam. I’m not going to comment on others’ tastes in music, no matter how bad I think it is.

11. Does world history really matter to our daily lives – is it that important – l mean it’s not like we can change anything right – what do you think?

12. Do you believe that a good night’s sleep and waking up refreshed the following day helps you make better decisions or worthier improvements to your life – or it makes no difference at all?

I know that I feel refreshed and regenerated after a good night’s sleep, so I’m going to say that, for me, anyway, it does make a positive difference.

Friday Fictioneers — The Short Straw

Fandango16 Comments

The dispatcher called me and told me he had a special trailer he needed me to haul with my rig. I was surprised when I saw it was an oversized load of literally half of a house.

I’d never hauled an oversized load before. I was only in my second year of trucking and was shocked that I’d be trusted with a load that size.

Once I left the depot, I realized that I had drawn the short straw. It was very windy with strong gusts and I had a hard time keeping my rig and load on the road.

(100 words)

Written for the Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: Ted Strutz.

Fibbing Friday — Secrets and Magic

Fandango13 Comments

Frank (aka PCGuy) and Di (aka Pensitivity101) alternate as hosts for Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. Today is Di’s turn to host and here are her questions.

1. What is a menagerie?

It’s a type of seedless fruit that is a cross between a tangerine and a mandarin orange.

2. What is Victoria’s Secret?

She’s having a torrid affair with her husband’s brother.

3. What is the secret of The Black Magic Box?

It’s not black and there is nothing magic about it.

4. What do hurricanes, tornadoes, and mosquitoes have in common?

They all suck, either literally or figuratively.

5. What do Merlin and a Griffin have in common?

They are both legendary.

6. Complete this famous trio: Sooty, Sweep, and ……………………

…Scooby Dooby Doo.

7. Who are the Telly Tubbies?

Fat kids who can’t keep secrets.

8. Why are Hymns not called Hers?

Because the church is sexist.

9. Whose signature logo is The Whopper?

Andre the Giant.

10. What is skiffle?

The latest teenage dance craze.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 7th

Fandango20 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 7th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 7, 2018.

If You Got It…

“You couldn’t be more ostentatious,” she said to me. “Look at you with your expensive sports car, your huge house with a swimming pool, and your thousand dollar suits. Who are you trying to impress?”

“Hey, baby,” I responded. “What can I say? When you got it, flaunt it. Am I right?”

“Are you right?” she responded. “Well, yes, if you’re trying to compensate for some shortcomings elsewhere.”

“I’m good in that department, too, baby. I wear a size 11 shoe and I’ve got the hands of a basketball player,” I said, holding up my two enormous hands.

“Oh, you thought that was what I was talking about? Think again, honey,” she said.

“If not that, what are you talking about?” I asked.

“I’m talking about your pea-sized brain,” she said.

“Are you kidding?” I responded. “Look at all I’ve got, lady. You think I would have a 25-room mansion, a gold Lamborghini, and expensive suits if I wasn’t smart. I’m really smart. I’m, like, the smartest person around.”

“Come on,” she said. “You inherited it all from your daddy.”

“Not true,” I said. “He just gave me a small loan to get me started.”

“A small loan? How small of a loan was it?”

“Just a million dollars,” I said. “Chump change.”

“As I said, you’re obnoxious, showy, and ostentatious. You need to be taught a lesson.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “What kind of lesson?”

“Hand me that Forbes magazine over there, Donald,” she said. “Yes, the one with you on the cover. Now drop your pants. Stormy’s gonna teach you a thing or two.”

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “flaunt.” And yes, this is supposed to be fiction.