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Fandango’s Provocative Question #124

Fandango28 Comments
FPQ

Welcome 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 am not preoccupied with death, but I must admit that as I’ve aged, I think more about it now, as a septuagenarian, than I used to in my younger days. We know that none of us is immortal and that we’re all going to die at some point in the future. That brings me to this week’s provocative question:

Would you want to know before hand the date, time, and circumstances of your death, or would you rather not know when and how it will happen?

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 Flashback Friday — May 21st

Fandango21 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 you? 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 Friday Flashback 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 this day (the 21st) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 21, 2018.

Let It Bleed — Nothing Ventured

“I don’t know,” Jon said to Angela, his older sister. “I feel really awkward.”

“You can do it,” she whispered. “I heard her talking to Sarah and she told her that she thinks you’re cute.”

“But she’s never even said hello to me,” Jon countered. “I don’t think she even knows that I exist.”

A look of frustration crossed Angela’s face. “Don’t be such a wuss,” she said. “She’s right over there on the bench sitting all by herself. Go talk to her, ask her out. What’s the worst that could happen, Jon?”

“She’d turn me down flat and I’d be devastated,” Jon said. “And then she’d tell all of her friends and soon I’d be the laughing stock of the school.”

“That could happen,” Angela admitted. “But think of the risk-reward ratio. Take a risk and ask her on a date. If she says yes, think how rewarding that would be.”

“But I’m also risking being rejected when she says no,” Jon said.

Trying to encourage her brother, Angela said, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

“I choose nothing ventured,” he said.

Angela was pissed at her brother about his lack of self-confidence. She walked over to the bench where Sally was sitting and started talking with her. The two girls looked over to where Jon was standing. Angela signaled for Jon to join them but he couldn’t. He just stood there, frozen.

He saw Sally stand up and walk towards him. He felt his stomach tie up into knots. “Hi Jon,” Sally said when she reached him. She stuck out her hand for him to shake. “Angela says that you would like to ask me for a date but you’re afraid I’ll say no.”

Jon hemmed and hawed for a second before finally finding his voice. “Well,” he said, “I’m sure you’ve got lots of guys wanting to go out with you.”

“You’re right, I do,” she said, smiling brightly. “But you’re smart and kinda cute and way too shy. So since you seem reluctant to ask me out on a date, I hope you won’t find it too awkward if I ask you to go out with me.”

“Not at all awkward,” Jon said. “I’m glad you asked.”

“You know what they say, Jon,” Sally said, grabbing both of Jon’s hands. “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

This is a twofer, written for today’s one-word prompt, “awkward,” and the this week’s Let It Bleed prompt, where the phrase, “‘You can do it,’ she whispered,” appears in the post.

2020 is a Dangerous Year

Fandango45 Comments

6FD477C4-A68B-47B2-B66A-E4E245DB7A4DNever use “20” as a substitute for, or an abbreviation of, “2020.”

I learned this yesterday as I was signing a bunch of legal documents having to do with the purchase of my new home. My wife and I were sitting across the table from a notary public who had to witness each of us sign what must have been at least 30 different documents. The notary handed me the first document and said, “Sign and date on the line right above where your name is typed.”

I took the sheet of paper she handed me and used the pen with blue ink she gave me — it had to be blue ink, she said — and affixed my signature in the designated place and then dated it “1/16/20.”

She looked at it and then handed it back to me. “No,” she said, “you need to write ‘2020’ instead of ‘20.’ Writing ‘20’ offers an easy opening for an unscrupulous person to defraud you. It allows them to easily modify the date backwards or forwards. If you abbreviated it to 1/16/20, it’s possible that someone could add two more numbers to the end to change the year to, say,  2019, 2005, or 2022.”

“Really? How could that be used to defraud me?” I asked.

“Well,” she said, “say you wrote a check on February 1, 2020. The U.S. Uniform Commercial Code states that banks don’t have to honor a check six months from the date it was signed. So from February through August, 2020, that check is cashable. But what if you wrote a ‘20’ instead of 2020? Someone could, in theory, change that ‘20’ to ‘2021,’ which would allow that creep to deposit the check again from February through August 2021 without giving the bank tellers anything to look out for.”

“Jeez, I never considered that,” I admitted.

“And it’s even more critical for business purposes,” she added. “If you signed a contract on 2/1/20 binding you to something for a three month period from 2/1/20 through 4/30/20, someone could change those ‘20s’ to any other years this century and drastically change your agreement. Instead of working from February 1, 2020 through April 30, 2020, it could show that you agreed to work from February 1, 2019 through April 30, 2021. Then they could potentially sue you for breach of contact for failing to have to deliver anything you agreed to for the first 12 months of a 27 month contract.”

“Yikes,” I said to her. “I need to warn all of my blogging friends about this.”

Blogging friends, consider yourself warned.

Should Have Swiped Left

Fandango9 Comments

5AC49519-71A0-4130-9E42-5D573B314EA5Chrissy was excited when her doorbell rang and she would finally get to meet the guy she connected with on Tinder. “Hi Chrissy, I’m Reggie,” he said, holding out his hand for her to shake.

After she returned the handshake, she said, “It’s so nice to finally meet you. I really feel we had a connection.”

“Look at you, you’re a feast for the eyes,” Reggie said, stepping back to admire his date after Chrissy let him in.

“Why thank you, Reggie,” Chrissy said, blushing slightly. “Do you like my outfit?”

“I do,” he said. “You look quite fetching.”

“This is just some old thing I pulled out of my closet, Chrissy explained. I was afraid it might be kind of unalluring, but since we’re just going to a movie, I thought it would do.”

“Well, I think it’s a very attractive outfit,” Reggie said.

“You know, some of my friends criticize me for where I shop for my clothes,” Chrissy said, “but it’s truly amazing what you can get at the Salvation Army store for such a paltry sum,” Chrissy said.

“Wait, you buy your clothes from the Salvation Army?”

“Yes, also from Goodwill,” Chrissy said. “You’d be amazed by the bargains you can get there.”

Reggie stepped back, looked at his watch, and said. “Oh my, will you look at the time? I totally forgot that I have a thing this afternoon.” Then he abruptly turned around and ran out of her house.

A0030D6E-1F70-48B9-840A-2ED119AF3967Written for Teresa’s Opposites Attract prompt, where the words today are attractive and unalluring. Also for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (feast), Your Daily Word Prompt (fetching), Ragtag Daily Prompt (closet), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (paltry).

P.S. I have actually purchased some items of clothing at Goodwill and Salvation Army stores, so this post should not be considered as a slam on either.