I get some interesting spam comments on my blog, most of which are captured by Akismet, WordPress’ spam blocker. I generally do a mass delete of all of my spam comments after checking to see if any legitimate comments got caught up in Akismet’s spam-catching net.
I thought it might be fun to select a particularly interesting or unique or outrageous spam comment and highlight it each week.
This week I’m featuring a spam comment in response to my FOWC with Fandango — Indebted post. It was from Lacey Bojorquez.
I knhow this if off topic but I’m looking ihto starting my oown bblog and was wondering what all is required too get sset up? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would ost a ppretty penny? I’m not vvery web smart so I’m not 100% sure. Any recommendations or advice woud be greatly appreciated. Appreciate it
Well, Lacey, based upon this comment, my heartfelt recommendation to you is to find yourself another pastime besides blogging. You might consider something for which you may be better suited, like, I don’t know, anything that doesn’t involve writing or technology.
Anyway, have you read some catchy spam comments that you’d like to share with us? If so, put them in the comments or create your own post and tag it #FSCW.
John Steiner, the blogger behind Journeys With Johnbo, has this prompt he calls Cellpic Sunday in which he asks us to post a photo that was taken with a cellphone, tablet, or another mobile device. I thought this might be fun so I decided to join in.
On this Christmas morning, I was browsing through my iPhone’s photo library for any pictures I happened to have taken on a past Christmas day that didn’t reveal the faces of my family or me. I came across this photo from December 25, 2018 that made me chuckle. Can you guess why this picture tickled me?
If you wish to participate in this fun cellphone photo prompt, please click on the link to John’s post at the top of my post to see his photo and to read his instructions.
I timed this post to be published at 6 am Pacific Time on Christmas Day.
I simply want to wish all of my fellow bloggers, whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, pagan, atheist, agnostic, sectarian, nonsectarian, liberal, conservative, Democrat, or yes, even Republican, a very merry (or happy) Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year.)
I sincerely hope that each and every one of you has a wonderful day shared with family and close friends.
This week’s theme for Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday is punk songs. I’ve never been a fan of punk rock, so this is definitely taking me out of my comfort zone. According to Wikipedia, punk bands rejected the perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced short, fast-paced songs with hard-edged melodies and singing styles, stripped-down instrumentation, and often shouted political, anti-establishment lyrics.
One of the bands associated with punk is The Clash. I looked up songs by The Clash, and the only one I recognized was “Rock the Casbah.” I don’t know if that is, indeed, a punk song, but that’s what I’m going with.
“Rock the Casbah” was a song by the English punk rock band The Clash, released in 1982. It was released as the second single from their fifth album, Combat Rock. It reached number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the U.S., and was the band’s only top 10 single there.
The song was composed by the band’s drummer, Topper Headon, based on a piano part that he had been toying with. Finding himself in the studio without his three bandmates, Headon progressively taped the drum, piano and bass parts, recording the bulk of the song’s musical instrumentation himself. Interestingly, Headon had been fired from the group because of drug problems by the time the song became an enormous hit in the U.S.
Headon’s original lyrics were a filthy ode to his girlfriend. Band member Joe Strummer characterized the lyrics as “really pornographic.” Strummer then rewrote the lyrics to make the song about a Middle Eastern king and the king’s efforts to enforce and justify a ban on rock music. It also focused on protests against the ban by holding rock concerts in temples and squares (“rocking the casbah”). This culminates in the king ordering his military’s fighter jets to bomb the protestors. But after taking off, the pilots ignore the king’s orders and instead play rock music on their cockpit radios, joining the protest and implying the loss of the king’s power. The lyrics were loosely based on an actual ban on Western music, including rock music, enforced in Iran since the Iranian Revolution.
When this song became a hit, Strummer considered leaving The Clash. He couldn’t justify singing rebellious songs when the band was rich and successful. In their early years, when they were struggling, their music was sincere, but he felt they were becoming a joke. The band did break up in 1985.
The U.S. military used this song as a rallying cry when they invaded Iraq in 1991 during Operation Desert Storm. Strummer was irate over the song being one of the most requested on American radio because of the misunderstanding that it was anti-Iraq in sentiment.
Here are the lyrics to “Rock the Casbah.”
Now the king told the boogie men "You have to let that raga drop" The oil down the desert way Has been shaken to the top The Sheik he drove his Cadillac He went a-cruisin' down the ville The Muezzin was a-standin' On the radiator grille, ow
Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah The Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah
By order of the Prophet We ban that boogie sound Degenerate the faithful With that crazy Casbah sound But the Bedouin they brought out an electric camel drum The local guitar picker got his guitar pickin' thumb As soon as the Shareef had cleared the square They began to wail
Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah
Now, over at the temple Oh, they really pack 'em in The in-crowd say it's cool To dig this chanting thing But as the wind changed direction And the temple band took five The crowd caught a whiff Of that crazy Casbah jive
Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah
The king called up his jet fighters He said, "You better earn your pay Drop your bombs between the minarets Down the Casbah way" As soon as the Shareef was chauffeured outta there The jet pilots tuned to the cockpit radio blare Soon as the Shareef was outta their hair The jet pilots wail
Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don't like it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah
Shareef don't like it, he thinks it's not kosher Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don't like it, fundamentally can't take it Rockin' the Casbah, Rock the Casbah
Shareef don't like it, you know he really hates it Rockin' the Casbah, rock the Casbah Shareef don't like it, really, really hates it
It’s December 25, 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 “discuss.”
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.
This, That, and the Other 