Category Archives: Uncategorized

For Fibbing Friday

5 Replies

This is What’s What this week for Fibbing Friday,:

1. What is suduku? A university for mallards.
2. What is a vagabond? A close tie between a citizen of Georgia and a citizen of Virginia.
3. What is an anagram? The mother of Anna’s mother.
4. What is cribbage? the state of being too young to sleep in a bed.
5. What is protocol? How someone who approves of burning fossil fuels votes.
6. What is subterfuge? A bomb shelter built under grass-covered dirt.
7. What is rummy? Me, for most of my 20’s.
8. What is a grammy? Grampy’s wife.
9. What is an archive? An arch-shaped home for bees.
10. What is infamy? You, when you are at home with your folks and siblings.

Photo done with aid from AI

“Saudade,” Companion Poem for The Numbers Game

6 Replies

In a comment on someone else’s photo gallery for The Numbers Game, I challenged him to write a line prompted by each photo, then to rearrange them into a poem. Then I decided to take my challenge myself. Here is the resulting poem. Go HERE to see the rest of the photos that prompted the lines. (After you read the poem, I invite you to do the same. Use as many photos to prompt lines as possible, but you need not use them all. I omitted a few in the poem. Then link your poem or story to this page.)

Saudade*

In these weeks before Christmas,
I take solitary morning walks along the tideline
capturing photos along the way.

I am wedded to a communion of senses:
the scent of dried kelp on the sand,
the mist of sea spray,
the orange blossom
of a crown of thorns,
my pants cuff held prisoner
by its barbs.

Drumbeats
of the dancers on the beach,
green fronds swaying in the wind
and a cormorant
on a branch reaching upwards
as though in supplication.

My eyes are captured by the shadow
of the coral succulent blossom
against a rock rolled into a perfect sphere
by the ocean tide.

Closing the garden gate,
I am greeted by
one open-palmed white hibiscus,
tongue extended,
fenced off from the field of wildflowers
that stretch down to the sea.

My ear perks to the purring
of abandoned kittens
in a pile on my couch,
and I move to my bed––
its serpentine twist of sheets
the remnants of a torturous night.

  • Saudade is a feeling of longing, melancholy, or nostalgia.

Heather Cox Richardson Comments on Trump’s Most Recent Irrational Behavior

11 Replies

There are signs the political game has changed in the United States since Hungarian voters rejected Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s leadership on Sunday, April 12. His party’s loss of control of the government to a supermajority of its opponents undermined the belief that right-wing authoritarianism was an unstoppable force in world politics. Since MAGA Republicans had tied themselves to Orbán and his movement, his loss also weakened their own claims to inevitable victory over those trying to protect democracy.

On Sunday night, President Donald J. Trump appeared to melt down on social media. In The Atlantic today, Tom Nichols noted that Trump’s “emotional state seems to be fraying: This weekend, he attacked Pope Leo XIV, presented himself as Jesus Christ, and then jabbed at his phone until dawn.” Nichols notes that after Trump attacked the Pope and portrayed himself as Jesus, he posted an AI version of a Trump Tower on the moon. (“Sure,” Nichols writes. “Why not?”)

Then Trump posted a meme of how senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and former president Joe Biden all look old—unlike Trump—and then posted clips from Newsmax. The postings continued throughout the night. “This is not the behavior of a stable, healthy leader,” Nichols writes. “The American people must not look away…. They must pay attention to the president’s deterioration, and insist that the House and Senate start acting like functioning branches of the government by asking the White House to explain what is happening, without insults or evasions, before the eyes of the country and the world.”

You can read her full commentary on her Substack “Letters From an American”.

The Numbers Game #120. Come Play Along!!

30 Replies

The Numbers Game #120. Come Play Along!!

Welcome to “The Numbers Game #120. Today’s number is 242. To play along, go to your  photos file folder and type the number 242 into the search bar. Then post a selection of the photos you find that include that number and post a link to your blog in my Numbers Game blog of the day. If instead of numbers, you have changed the identifiers of all your photos into words, pick a word or words to use instead, and show us a variety of photos that contain that word in the title. This prompt will repeat each Monday with a new number. If you want to play along, please put a link to your blog in comments below. 

Here are my photos for today. Click on photos to enlarge.
See a companion poem written based on these photos HERE.

Yoli’s Confirmation Cake
1 1/2 ” round stone formed by the wave action in Lake Michigan. Found in a little stand by the side of the road
On the sofa….
Harriet’s centerpiece of Santa in a fishing boat that occasioned much conversation and a half dozen shopping trips and final success
See a companion poem written based on these photos HERE.

Star-gazing for The Sunday Whirl Wordle 752

4 Replies

Star-Gazing

Eyes stalk the skies for lucky stars, hoping to harness their good fortune, and although those heavenly objects pepper the skies like jewels cast across a black velvet blanket, ribbons of clouds start to obscure their glow. Then, splashed  in layers like fresh paint over a graffiti-riddled fence, the faces of clouds completely obscure their light. We must set our minds to other hopes. The light has gone out on today’s.

For The Sunday Whirl Wordle,752, the prompt words are: stalk sky luck harness pepper jewel ribbon splash layers set light face

“Damsels in Distress” for Word of the Day Challenge

Leave a reply

Damsels in Distress

Each myth, legend or fairytale
from “once upon” to “fare thee well”
shares some elements of story
be they sad, uplifting, gory.

Always a damsel in distress—
Rumplestiltskin’s name to guess,
straw to spin out into gold,
or another story to be told.

Too much sleep may be her curse,
ugly stepsisters, or worse:
murder, treason, sloth and pox
emptied from Pandora’s box.

These troubles spread from near to far––
one solved by wishing on a star,
then Zeus forgave Pandora’s shame
and the imp revealed his own strange name.

But the other women described above
were saved by cleverness or love.
Scheherazade escaped the hearse
with stories, legends, tales and verse.

Cinderella rose from hearth and ashes
and Sleeping Beauty opened lashes­­––
both maids saved by daring-do:
one by a kiss, one by a shoe.

So whatever might have been their fate:
loss of child or murderous mate,
wipe tears and fears away with laughter.
They all lived happily ever after.

 

The Word of the Day Challenge prompt word is Stress. Image generated with the use of AI.

A Little Twilight Exercise

6 Replies

I think I should leave it to their eventual families to name these girls, but in the meantime, any idea what we should call them?

 

One Down, Two to Go

9 Replies

These two have a TALENT for inviting attention and have actually worn themselves out for the time being.  Their “keeper” actually looks a bit the same right now. I’m lying in bed, having given all the puppy attention I’m capable of at the time.  Their sister Bonita is happily ensconced in a new family, as demonstrated by the video I posted yesterday. These two are awaiting their futures. They are wanting ever more attention, and inviting yours!!! My phone is 331-860-5304 if you’d like to come make their acquaintance and live close enough to the San Juan Cosala Raquet Club  to do so..

(If you haven’t read an earlier post about these two and their sister pup, they were abandoned in front of my house a few days ago and have taken up residence in mine until we can find a home for them. I’ve had a few further leads and suggestions for shelters or economical paid residence facilities, but I’d rather they go to private homes if possible.) Go HERE for more information.

Here is a video of their sister who has been named “Bonita” by her new family that adopted her yesterday:

 

For RDP the prompt is “Talent.”

Three New Houseguests

17 Replies

Someone abandoned these 3 three-month-old female puppies in the street outside my house in the San Juan Cosala Raquet Club. When I took food out to them and tried to steer them into my garage, another woman came out from up the street with food and water for them. She said she’d been feeding them for two days but couldn’t take them in. They are now residing with me while I try to find them homes. I have a vet coming in an hour to give them vaccinations and to deworm and check for fleas. Hopefully Oscar will help me bathe them tomorrow when he comes to walk my other three dogs.They have comfy beds and a little dog house and space to run and play in to tide them over while they wait for their new people. (I want to keep them separate from my other dogs until the vet gives them a clean bill of health.)  I am willing to pay for more vaccinations and even their eventual spaying, but can’t give them a permanent home. I know most who read this blog are far away, but if you happen to live near Lake Chapala and could give them a home, my phone is 331-860-5304.

Update: on Friday, April 10, 9:00 AM. The vet came yesterday and gave them their initial vaccinations and deworming and flea meds. He says they do need to be isolated from my other dogs for two weeks. I would very much like to find other homes for them before that. I would be willing to arrange for them to be brought to you if you live a distance from Ajijic. I have them in an outdoor protected and gated stone-paved terrace 12X21 feet with a padded doghouse big enough for them all to sleep in, but still would like to see them relocated to a more comfortable place  asap. Please call me if you have any solutions. 

Speaks for Itself.

5 Replies