Day: May 28, 2021

The Secrets of the Rainforest

Fandango8 Comments

Whoever wrote the catalog was being mendacious when he or she referred to this as a glamping experience. The accommodations at the campsite can only be described as spartan.

But I must remember that my role here is to study the impact of climate change on the Amazon. To that end, once I finish breakfast, I will be armed with a machete to help cleave an opening through the tropical underbrush in order to uncover the secrets of the rainforest.

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (mendacious), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (spartan), The Daily Spur (climate), MMA Storytime (breakfast), Your Daily Word Prompt (cleave), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (opening).

Fibbing Friday — Anatomy Lesson

Fandango15 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 Frank’s turn to host and he is presenting us with ten medical and anatomical words that need definitions.

1. sphincter

A smaller version of an Egyptian sphinx found in amusement parks around the world.

2. phalanges

A mountain range in South America.

3. rectum

An expression used in sports to indicate that a team badly beat the opposition, as in, “Our boys really rectum, didn’t they?”

4. varicose

It’s when someone is unwilling to fight; the opposite of bellicose.

5. aorta

This is how waiters and waitresses in the Boston area help short order cooks prioritize orders. An a-orta has top priority, a b-orta comes next, followed by a c-orta, etc.

6. vein

This is when someone is excessively proud of or concerned about one’s own appearance, qualities, achievements, etc.

7. artery

This is a main road or highway that runs between towns.

8. alveolus

This is a style of sunglasses most often associated with airplane pilots.

9. bacteria

This is the back of a school’s cafeteria, where those who are antisocial prefer to sit at lunch.

10. virus

This is a violet-colored flower found in many gardens.

Three Line Tales — A Piece of Cake

Fandango7 Comments

She’d been feeling kind of down in the dumps recently, so I thought inviting her to meet me for coffee at one of her favorite cafés might cheer her up a bit.

She was already there sitting at a table in the corner when I arrived at the café, so I walked up to her, said hello, told her that I’d get us each a cup of coffee, and asked her if she’d like anything to eat.

I could tell that she’d been crying, but she looked up at me, managed a smile, and said, “A piece of cake would make me happy.”

Written for Sonya’s Three Line Tales prompt. Photo credit: Bekky Bekks via Unsplash.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 28th

Fandango23 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 28th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 28, 2018.

Happy Retirement

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The retirement ceremony was brief. “In a appreciation of his forty years with Klemperer and Sons, I am pleased to give this engraved silver pocket watch to our retiring head of accounting, Harry Rhodes,” the eldest Klemperer son said.

The two dozen or so employees who were gathered in the large meeting room gave Harry a round of applause. One of them started a “speech! speech!” chant and a few others joined in, prompting Harry to stand up and say a few words.

“I don’t know what to say, and as most of you know, I’m usually not speechless,” Harry said, his quip generating a smattering of chuckles. He looked at the pocket watch George Klemperer has presented to him. “Just what a retiree needs, right? A watch. So that I’ll always know what time it is when what time it is doesn’t really matter all that much anymore.”

Harry took note of the awkward silence. “After forty years with the firm, all working in the accounting department, I’m finally hanging up my visor, pocket protector, and armband and retiring. It’s a good thing I figured out early in my career how to embezzle millions of dollars off the books just for this occasion.”

Again, an awkward silence. “I’m just joking,” Harry said. Then holding up his pocket watch, “I guess I’d better, um, watch what I say, eh?” This time his comment drew laughter and a round of applause.

Harry spent a few more minutes shaking hands and bidding his former coworkers farewell.

As he was leaving the office for the last time, Harry went over to his personal assistant of the past ten years. He winked at her, leaned over, and whispered in her ear, “I wasn’t joking.” Then he placed the pocket watch in her hand and said, “give this to your husband,” and kissed her on the cheek and told her goodbye.

Written for today’s one word prompt, “ceremony.”

FOWC with Fandango — Spartan

Fandango20 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 28, 2021 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “spartan.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.