Provocative Questions

Fandango’s Provocative Question #1 — Revisited

Fandango14 Comments

FPQI am running around like a chicken without a head, as the old saying goes. Between buying a new house, packing up my current house, getting ready to move, and preparing my current house to go on the market, I’ve barely had time to publish many posts, much less to read and comments on others’ posts.

Thus, I decided that, until this whole relocation madness is over, I would suspend my provocative question posts. But then my blogging buddy, Pete, over at Stroke Survivor, suggested, “If you run short in future, just repost an early one. There must be several of us who follow your blog now, who didn’t a year ago.” What a great idea. So until I am all settled into my new house, the next few weeks, at least, of Fandango’s Provocative Question prompts will be my earliest such posts, starting with #1 from November 14, 2018.

So how about this? I’m thinking about starting something new and maybe different. Something that may get your creative juices flowing.

Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

My first provocative question is this:

“If you could be the opposite sex for one day, what would you do?”

Whether or not there will be a second provocative question challenge will depend upon how you all respond to this one. You can also tell me in the comments if you think this idea is a good one or if it sucks.

If you do decide to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And most important, have fun.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #56

Fandango26 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

Okay, here’s the deal. I’ve got so much on my plate right now getting ready for this big move to a new house in a new town in a few weeks that I really haven’t had much of an opportunity to come up with a new, original provocative question for this week. So I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to blatantly steal a question another blogger I follow asked. In her Share Your World prompt on Monday, Melanie, aka Sparks From a Combustible Mind, asked this provocative question:

What’s something you consider to be terrifying that you have come to accept as a fact of life?

I didn’t have time to respond to this week’s Share Your World prompt, but if I had, my answer, which will not surprise anyone who reads my blog, would have been “Donald Trump.” So when you consider how to answer this question, “Donald Trump” has already been taken.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #55

Fandango19 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

I was born shortly after World War II ended. I was a toddler during the Korean War. I was in high school during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I was in college during the Vietnam War. I was a working man during the Gulf War, the Iraq War, and the never ending Afghanistan War. Now I’m retired and it seems that we are on the precipice of war with Iran.

So my provocative question today is a three parter:

Do you feel that Donald Trump was justified in ordering a drone strike that resulted in the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s elite Quds Force, in an airstrike in Baghdad last week?

Do you think Trump’s decision will lead America into a hot war with Iran?

Do you think Trump’s motives are political and self serving? 

Before you answer that last question, watch this video from The Daily Show with Trevor Noah.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #54

Fandango25 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

My provocative question last week was about music as the universal language. This week, it’s about verbal and written communications. It was triggered when another blogger — I’m sorry that I can’t remember who — featured this quote from Alan Greenspan, an American economist who served as chairman of the Federal Reserve of the United States from 1987 to 2006.

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Greenspan’s quote got me thinking about human communications. The purpose of communications is to convey information from one person to another. We use both spoken and written words to communicate ideas, concepts, emotions, thoughts, and opinions.

Communications are effective when the recipient of a thought, whether by listening or reading, understands the meaning intended by the speaker or writer.64A6BA61-8D0B-48BC-AB5E-5529A0753CFBUnfortunately, miscommunication is common, where the listener or reader fails to understand what is said or written.

Scientists say that humans began speaking about 100,000 years ago, and writing began around 4000 B.C. Prior to written language, humans used pictures (e.g., cave drawings) to communicate. These drawings evolved into word symbols. The evolution of language from pictures to words suggests that the old adage “a picture is worth a thousand words” is false, since it’s almost impossible to convey conditional, complex, or complicated ideas with a simple image.

And yet these days, people seem to be leveraging emojis more and more on electronic communications to convey ideas, concepts, emotions, thoughts, and opinions.

So, with that background, the provocative question this week is simply this:

Do you believe that, in social media communications, people are going overboard in their use of emojis? Why or why not?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #53

Fandango14 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

My provocative question today has to do with music. I chose to ask this question for two reasons. First, many of us respond to music prompts on WordPress. Prompts like Jim Adams’ Song Lyric Sunday, Laura Venturini’s Weekly Song Challenge, and Paula Light’s Thursday Inspiration prompt, which always features some song lyrics. These music related prompts are very popular.

Second, one of the great debates in the blogosphere at this time of year has to do with Christmas music. Some love it, some hate it, and others can take it or leave it.

So the question today is this:

Do you consider music to be a “universal language” that transcends national borders and resonates across different cultures? Why or why not?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.