Poor Donald Trump
Old cronies are starting to flip
His approval rating is starting to slip
He seems to be losing his grip
Impeachment may be more than a blip
Written for the In Other Words prompt from Patricia’s Place. We are asked to “write a story or poem of five lines or less using the word poor.”
Parsimonious, oeuvre, and fugacious are three of today’s word one-word prompts. Who uses words like these in everyday life?
Why not say “stingy,” “frugal,” or “cheap,” instead of “parsimonious”? Who are you trying to impress?
And why not “anthology” or “collective works” rather than “oeuvre”? Are you a pretentious snob who wants to impress people by using a French word?
And why use “fugacious” when what you mean is “fleeting” or “transitory”? Seriously?
What happened to using simple, easy to understand language to effectively communicate an idea or a thought? Why use words that require someone to flutter through the pages of a dictionary or thesaurus or to dig into the origin of such words?
I don’t mean to come across with a sanctimonious attitude towards my fellow one-word promoters, but honestly, people, let’s give people real, everyday words to work with.
Having said that, did I ever tell you the story of my wealthy late uncle? I’m not sure what the origin of his great wealth was, but to give the old guy his due, the oeuvre of his poetry was worth a fortune.
My uncle, despite his great wealth, was a parsimonious bastard. For a while, his poetry did make the hearts of the women in the family flutter. But his allure was fugacious, and he soon wore out his welcome.
Except when it came to the day of the reading of his will. That day the old bastard was quite popular.
Suze who blogs at “Suziland Too or Obsolete Childhood”
Yesterday I wrote a post in which I bemoaned how my blog stats were recently in a nosedive. I admit that I was being a bit whiny, and that’s when Suze put me in my place. She commented, “It is better to speak profoundly to just one than to blather at a world of idiots…yes, you can quote me.”
To which, knowing that today, Wednesday, is Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt, I replied, “I just may do that. Stay tuned!”
I thought that Suze’s highly inspirational and motivational one-liner perfectly fit the bill for this prompt. I believe that Suze was telling me that
In any event, I thought Suze’s comment was, in and of itself, profound. Unfortunately, she has now set the bar quite high for me because I feel as though it’s incumbent upon me to come up with something profound to post about.
Omigod, where is Jack Handey when I need him?
President William Howard Taft
Actually, I try to do both. I write so that the message my words are attempting to convey can be easily understood. And in doing so, I hope that I won’t be misunderstood.
You see, I’m a rather ordinary writer and my writings are not very complex. I don’t have too many hidden meanings or twists and turns. So it doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to get my drift. Know what I mean?
I am a logical, rational thinker and I try to write that way as well. That is one of the reasons I am not a big fan of poetry. Poetry hurts my head. I am intimidated by most poems (outside of limericks). Not only do I not understand poetry, I often misunderstand what the poet is trying to say.
My most dreaded moments in high school literature classes were when the teacher would call on me and ask, “Fandango, what do you think the poet was telling us?” My responses to such questions often turned into word salad. I would hope that, when strung together, my words would sound insightful. They never did.
Anyway, I’ve meandered way off topic and my one-liner post has gone on for way too long.
Happy Wednesday.
Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.
Nouns: you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them. Am I right, or what?
Nouns are words used to identify any of a class of people, places, or things. And while necessary, nouns mostly just sit there. In and of themselves, they don’t do much. Well, except for pronouns like “you” and “me,” “her” and “him,” “them” and “us.” I take pronouns personally.
But when it comes right down to it, I prefer verbs over nouns. Verbs are words used to describe an action, state, or occurrence. Verbs do things while nouns just hang out waiting for verbs to do things to, with, on, or around them.
Take the sentence, “He ate my ice cream.” The words “he,” “my,” and “ice cream” are nouns. (Well, technically, in this sentence the word “ice” might be considered an adjective, as it’s describing a type of cream. It’s ice cream and not sour cream or whipped cream. That said, “ice” can also be a noun, as in “Do you have any ice?”)
But I digress. The key to this sentence is not who did what to whom, but what action was done. He ate my ice cream. He could have done other things to my ice cream, like dropped it or melted it or tossed it. But he ate it. And for that act, I hate him. I really wanted to eat that ice cream myself, dammit.
So be aware, nouns, you may be the subject of — and even the object of — nearly every sentence, but it’s verbs where the action is.
And not to pile on, nouns, but it’s adjectives that make you interesting. It’s adjectives that give you color and size and depth and personality. Without adjectives, nouns, you’re kinda boring and lifeless. And without verbs, you ain’t doing much of anything.
Written for Linda G. Hill’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt. The challenge is to simply to start your post with a noun.
