Day: January 12, 2024

WDP — Snack Time

Fandango13 Comments
Bloganuary writing prompt
What snack would you eat right now?
View all responses

Funny you should ask. My wife and I are watching one of the British detective series we’ve been binge-watching and I asked her, “What have we got to snack on?”

My wife smiled, winked at me, and said, “I know just what you want. I’ll be right back.” A few minutes later she walked into the family room and handed me a plate.

“What’s this?” I asked her.

It’s a crunchy peanut butter and banana sandwich on whole wheat toast,” she said.

“But I wanted….”

“I know, Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream ice cream,” she said, “but it’s already 3:30 and dinner is at around six. Ice cream will spoil your appetite. Besides, this is much healthier for you than ice cream.”

“Well, thanks,” I said. “And the good news is that now I not only have a healthy snack, but I can write a post using the word ‘toast,’ which is today’s JusJoJan prompt, from Linda G. Hill, where the word was suggested by Barbara, who resides here.”

Simply 6 Minutes — Judgement Day

Fandango5 Comments

The local pastor was telling his flock that Judgment Day was rapidly approaching. He said that when the day arrives, a stairway to heaven, to God’s Kingdom, would be seen along the shoreline, but only by the two percent of the population that are to be saved and who will ascend the staircase to heaven.

The rest of us — the unworthy — will be left behind to suffer massive earthquakes and firestorms that will begin at around 6 p.m. in each of the world’s time zones, starting with New Zealand. The rest of humanity, the pastor said, would wallow in five months of anguish until “final destruction” and the end of the world.

Many of the followers of this pastor believed him, and quit their jobs, gave away their money and worldly goods, and did other really stupid things in the belief that they’d soon be in heaven. Those not chosen for this heavenly journey were advised to stock up on water, canned goods, and appropriate clothing.

When the day came, hundreds of local citizens lined up on the shoreline hoping to see the staiway to heaven. But no such stairway was there. The pastor claimed that the reason they couldn’t see it was because they were not among the two percent to be saved. But he pointed toward the water and said, “There it is for those who are true believers. If you see it, come with me,” and he started walking into the water.

Reluctant to admit that they couldn’t see the stairway, a surprisingly large number of people stepped into the water, following their pastor to their drowning deaths.

Even after witnessing the drowning, many believed that the pastor and his followers had ascended the stairway to heaven that they, themselves could not see because they were unworthy. They began preparing for the End Times that the pastor predicted.

Only it never came.

Written for Christine Bialczak’s Simply 6 Minutes Challenge. Image credit: https://www.allexamgurublog.com/2012/04/free-amazing-wallpapers.html

Fibbing Friday — More Unusual Words

Fandango7 Comments

Di (aka Pensitivity101) hosts 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, and be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. For this week’s Fibbing Friday, Di has given us a more unusual words and wants to know what we think they mean.

1. Meldrop — a cannabis-infused lemon drop that produces a mellow high.
2. Snirl — a sarcastic smile, like a smirk, where you curl up one side of your mouth.
3. Kiffle — an angry outburst.
4. Fox’s Cough — what your dog gets if it accidentally sniffs a foxtail plant and it gets lodged in its esophagus.
5. Sternutament — giving someone a harsh talking to.
6. Awvish — a feeling of frustration over something.
7. Presenteeism — an obsessive need to lavish people with expensive gifts.
8. Headwarch — a very hard-to-get-rid-of, tiny bug that embeds itself in the heads of people and causes migraines.
9. Kink-Haust — a sexy or revealing outfit worn by dominatrixes.
10. Alysm — a fear of walking around at night in dark alleys.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — January 12th

Fandango12 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 it? 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 Flashback Friday 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 any day this past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on January 12, 2018 in response to Linda G. Hill’s JusJoJan prompt for the day.

#JusJoJan — It Was Me

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So today’s word for Linda G. Hill’s Just Jot It January prompt is “aggravate.” What? Yesterday’s word was “humiliate” and today’s is “aggravate”? Now that’s kind of aggravating, isn’t it? Who would suggest such a word? Oh wait. It was me!

I must have been aggravated about something on December 27th when I responded to Linda’s post asking for words to use for her #JusJoJan thingie. Otherwise, why would I have suggested the word “aggravate”? I don’t recall today what is was that had aggravated me on that particular day, so it probably wasn’t really all that aggravating.

I am not easily aggravated. I think of myself as being fairly easy going and even tempered. I pride myself on being logical, rational, and reasonable. I try not to be ruled by my emotions, particularly negative or destructive emotions.

But something happened yesterday that really aggravated me. Donald Trump, in a meeting with half a dozen members of Congress in the Oval Office, was discussing how to protect immigrants from Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as part of a bipartisan immigration deal.

At one point during the meeting, our apparently frustrated president asked, “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” Then he added, “We should have more people from places like Norway.”

Yes, the President of the United States referred to Haiti, El Salvador, and African countries as “shitholes.”

So brown and black people from “shitholes” like Haiti, El Salvador, and Africa should be either sent back if they’re already in the United States, or not be permitted to immigrate to the U.S. But people from Norway, a predominantly white country, are welcome to come to Trump’s America to help make it great again.

This from the leader of the free world. From perhaps the most important man in the world.

If Linda had asked me today to suggest a word for #JusJoJan, I wouldn’t have suggested “aggravate.”

I would have suggested “ashamed.”

Note from Fandango: Linda’s post today said the word I proposed was “aggravation,” which is somewhat aggravating because the word I actually suggested was “aggravate.” But it’s Linda’s blog and it’s my word, so either one, “aggravate” or “aggravation,” will be fine.

FOWC with Fandango — Bold

Fandango15 Comments
FOWC

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 “bold.”

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, ÿplease 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.