Day: August 27, 2022

A Night at the Opera

Fandango10 Comments

“Look, here’s the thing,” Joanna said, “I really want to go to that opera and I’m sorry that it’s on the same night as that stupid rock concert by a bunch of feral and frenzied musicians. You can go see them some other time.”

“That’s just not feasible,” Steven said. “This tour is the band’s farewell tour and they’re only appearing here locally that one night. And FYI, The Rolling Stones are arguably one of the greatest rock and roll bands of all time. So forget about your stupid opera, Joanna. It’s in Italian or something, anyway, and I won’t understand a word they’re singing.”

“Well,” Joanna said icily,” we have quite the disagreement here, haven’t we, Steven? Besides, there’s no correlation between the language of an opera and its emotional impact. Don’t you remember Julia Roberts in that scene from the movie Pretty Woman?”

“I hated that movie,” Steven said. “So I’m going to offer the most harmonious solution I can think of. You go to your damn opera alone and I’ll go to the Stones’ concert alone.”

“That’s your harmonious solution?” Joanna said. “We each go our own way, do our own thing? Don’t you think that’s kind of detrimental to the health of our relationship?”

“No, not in the whole scheme of things, Joanna,” Steven said. “We’re both stubborn and neither of us is going to budge, so yeah, let’s just do our own thing that night. It’s just one night, for crissake.”

Joanne looked at her watch. “I’ve got to do some stretches before I get in a few flights on the Stairmaster,” she said. “We can discuss your proposed solution further when I’m done.”

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (look/disagreement), E.M.’s Random Word Prompt (feral and frenzied/harmonious), Your Daily Word Prompt (feasible/detriment), My Vivid Blog (correlation), Word of the Day Challenge (stretches), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (flight).

Note: when I started writing this post I was originally intending it to be in response to Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, which is the word “opera” in exactly 95 words. But I got carried away and have around three times that many words. So sorry about that, Sammi. Maybe next time.

SoCS — Bored Games

Fandango13 Comments

“I’m bored, Daddy,” Erica said.

“I am too,” her younger brother Tommy said.

“But you kids love to play Clue,” Ben said. “It’s your favorite board game.”

“I’m bored with board games, Daddy,” Erica said. “I want to play virtual reality video games like they have for Oculus Quest.”

“I do too, Daddy,” Tommy said.

“Well,” Ben said, “Maybe we’ll see if Santa will bring you something like that for Christmas. In the meantime, let’s finish our game of Clue.”

“Mommy, I’m bored with board games,” Erica called out to her mother who was fixing dinner in the kitchen.

“I am too, Mommy,” Tommy said.

“Deal with it, Ben,” Mona shouted. “I’m busy.”

Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, where Linda has given us the words “board” and “bored.”

Woe Unto You, Universal Studios Hollywood

Fandango39 Comments

I was watching TV last night and and was shocked at what I saw during an ad for Universal Studios Hollywood. So shocked that I whipped out my iPhone and took the picture above of my TV screen.

Can you tell what’s wrong with this picture? Let me give you a hint. There’s a spelling error. Got it yet?

Okay, here’s what’s wrong. The word “whoa” is misspelled. The word “whoa,” as most everyone knows, is used to express surprise, interest, or alarm, or to command a horse to make it stop or slow down, or to urge a person to stop or wait.

In the case of this commercial though, it’s used as a play on the phrase, “Let yourself go,” meaning to relax and behave much more freely than usual; to be unrestrained or uninhibited. In other words, to have fun.

But here’s the rub. There is only one correct way to spell the word “whoa.” And that one way is w-h-o-a.

It’s not “woah.”

It’s not “whoah.”

It’s not “waoh” or “whao” or “whaoh.”

It’s “whoa.”

And it’s only “whoa.”

Even if you’re British or Canadian or Australian, it’s still “whoa.”

I’m just really surprised that the copy editor at the advertising agency for Universal Studios Hollywood didn’t catch the misspelling of the word “whoa.” Unless it was done intentionally to get the attention of someone like me, who, were it not for that misspelling, would never have paid attention to that commercial.

But if they missed it and don’t care that they spelled “whoa” wrong…well, all I can say is woe unto you, Universal Studios Hollywood.

FOWC with Fandango — Disagreement

Fandango31 Comments
FOWC

It’s August 27, 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 “disagreement.”

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. Show them some love.