It’s time once again for E.M. Kingston’s The Sunday Ramble. Her prompt is based upon a certain topic about which she asks five questions. We are invited to ramble on about that topic however we wish. Today’s topic is “Kitchen and Food.”
When you are in the kitchen cooking (or cleaning), do you have anything playing in the background (e.g.,TV, music, Julia Childs, etc.) while you are completing your tasks?
I almost always have my favorite SiriusXM channel, Classic Vinyl, from my TV on in the background. I loved me my classic rock.
What is the weirdest thing you have ever eaten that someone cooked for you?
The idea behind Who Won the Week is to give you the opportunity to select who (or what) you think “won” this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies, TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.
If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.
This week’s Who Won the Week Winner is Texas state judge Amy ClarkMeachum, who issued an temporary injunction against a policy ordered last month by Governor Greg Abbott calling for investigations of parents with transgender children for possible child abuse. I wrote about that in this post.
The ruling stemmed from a legal challenge by the parents of a 16-year-old transgender girl. Her family was among the first to be investigated by the state’s Department of Family and Protective Services. Judge Meachum said the governor’s actions, and those of the agency, “violate separation of powers by impermissibly encroaching into the legislative domain.” She said there was a “substantial likelihood” that plaintiffs would prevail after a trial on the merits because the governor’s order was “unconstitutional.”
The ruling applied to all investigations initiated across Texas under Mr. Abbott’s order, which the court said could no longer be enforced pending a trial on the issue, set for July.
While it seems that sanity and reason has actually prevailed in Texas, at least in this instance, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said, “So we’re definitely going to appeal that and take it to the Texas Supreme Court. I have no doubt that the governor has the authority to do what he’s doing.”
Well, for the time being, let’s applaud Judge Meachum for her rational response to an irrational order by a partisan hack who sits in the Texas Governor’s mansion.
What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?
I contacted a guy who came highly recommended to be a ghostwriter for my autobiography. I sat through hours of being interviewed by him and was persuaded that he was capable, so I offered him the job. He said to give him three months.
Sure enough, at the three-month mark, the ghostwriter showed up with his first draft. I eagerly opened the box containing the manuscript and started reading. After about ten minutes I looked up at the ghostwriter and said, “This is not about me. What the hell is this?”
“It’s an autobiography,” he said. “Didn’t you hire me to write an autobiography?”
“Yes, you imbecile,” I screamed. “But I didn’t I hire you to ghostwrite your own autobiography. I hired you to ghostwrite mine.
“Oh,” he said. “I guess I misunderstood what you meant when you said you wanted me to write an autobiography, which, by definition, is an account of a person’s life written by that person.”
“You idiot,” I said. I threw his manuscript at him and said, “You’re fired.”
“Wait,” he said, “are you giving me the boot and not paying me for three months of hard work?”
“I’m giving you the boot figuratively speaking,” i said, “but if you don’t leave here immediately, I’m going to literally shove my boot up your ass.”
Written for Scott’s Daily Prompt (ghostwriter) and Weekly Prompts Weekend Challenge (boot).
For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams is asking us to focus on songs that mention musical instruments. This was actually a tough one because there are so very many songs that mention musical instruments. But I finally decided to go with the song “Different Drum” as recorded by The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Rhonstadt.
“Different Drum” was written by American singer-songwriter Michael Nesmith in 1964, two years before he joined the made-for-TV group The Monkees. He offered the song to The Monkees, but the producers of the TV show, who had wide control over the group’s musical output early on, turned him down.
The song became a hit in 1967 when it was recorded by the Stone Poneys, a folk trio of Linda Ronstadt, Kenny Edwards, and Bobby Kimmel. Their recording it made it to number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. In 1972, Nesmith recorded his own version and it has since been covered by a number of other artists.
“Different Drum” is about a pair of lovers, one of whom wants to settle down, while the other wants to retain a sense of freedom and independence. Its narrator is the lover who wants to remain free, telling the other that “we’ll both live a lot longer” if they part ways now. Nesmith said that the lyrics had nothing to do with his own personal life. He was newly married with a pregnant wife at the time he wrote it.
In Nesmith’s original song, the girl is trying to tie down the male narrator and he has to leave her to strike out on his own. With Ronstadt singing it, the girl became the one who is being reined in, and she leaves her man so she can do her own thing. She is ready to bail on the relationship, claiming they are very different people and she doesn’t want to be tied down to one person anyway. It’s a classic example of the “it’s not you, it’s me” breakup story.
Here are the lyrics to “Different Drum.”
You and I travel to the beat of a different drum Oh can’t you tell by the way I run Every time you make eyes at me
You cry and moan and say it will work out But honey child I’ve got my doubts You can’t see the forest for the trees
Oh don’t get me wrong It’s not that I knock it It’s just that I am not in the market For a boy who wants to love only me
Yes, and I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty All I’m saying is I’m not ready For any person place or thing To try and pull the reins in on me
So good-bye I’ll be leaving I see no sense in this crying and grieving We’ll both live a lot longer If you live without me
Oh don’t get me wrong It’s not that I knock it It’s just that I am not in the market For a boy who wants to love only me
Yes, and I ain’t saying you ain’t pretty All I’m saying is I’m not ready For any person place or thing To try and pull the reins in on me
So good-bye I’ll be leaving I see no sense in this crying and grieving We’ll both live a lot longer If you live without me
It’s March 13, 2022. Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).
Today’s word is “float.”
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.
This, That, and the Other 