Tag: Discover Prompts

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Nutso!

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever unintentionally broken the law?
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You gotta be kidding, I mean, asking a former brother of the road who hitched around for years, a die-hard pipe toking Folkie, and an inveterate jaywalker this question! I mean, what are those guys at Prompt Central slipping into the water cooler these days? And are they planning to collect any possible rewards for the apprehension of dangerous felons? informing to DHS ( Department of Homeland Security) and their associated goon squads?

If this comes off a bit brusque, just think of what it implies – Have you ever unintentionally broken the law? I mean, ICE breaking down the door because of an unpaid parking ticket? WordPress, I thought better of you!

OK, I know that between layoffs, firings, and the departure of those with principles, many law enforcement agencies have become short-handed. But get a life, dude! Sub-contracting to the WordPress Prompt Central? This is truly desperate. You know that’s a real sicko hook-up.

Now I know that Prompt Central has a budget problem. That’s why old ones keep recycling endlessly; they can’t afford new ones. But a hook-up with the Feds? That’s just a tunnel to despair. Have you read any government documents? Written in “Federal Document English?” You’ll need the unedited, unexpurgated Oxford Dictionary to figure out the prompts.

Lucky for us, there are the Word of the Day Challenge, the Rag Tag Daily Prompt, Fandango’s One Word Challenge, and lots of others to keep things fresh. And remember, not a word about that weekend in Reno!

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You’re Kidding? Right?

Daily writing prompt
If there were a biography about you, what would the title be?
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That’s correct, the title would be, “You’re kidding? Right?”

And no, I’m not quite that egoist to believe that I’m as great as all that, done so many unique things, or moved great circles. It’s just that I’ve racked up enough “that’s a bit bizarre” credits that I skew a bit further out in the outfield than many of my peers. There would be two volumes.

Volume I – Hubba- Hubba!

The first would be about growing up in New York City. It would contain juicy stories about my time as a folksinger in Greenwich Village. Special attention would be given to those scandal-ridden stories about the famous performers doing weird stuff at parties. Trust me, certain people might pay to have those parts redacted. You know who you are; could you pay up? It was a “playful” time.

But wait! There is more! Most of my peers of the sixties were similar to me. Horrible? I know. I wrote a raft of stories about them and the oddball place we lived in called the Folkie Palace on the backside of Boston’s Beacon Hill. To write the stories, I had to tone some things down and only exaggerate a bit on others. We all had “handles” names we lived by – The Teahead of the August Moon, the Monk, Mike the Vike, the Canary, my best friend Bill, who was Captain Zero, Our Almost Friend John ( the con artist), and others.

Then there were the years I lived with my cat Clancy, AKA The Grey Menace. I still joke that his favorite treat was O-negative blood. But I don’t exaggerate. he had a short fuse, claws that could open an arm in a swat, and then there he was clinically licking off the blood, “Yum! Fresh O-negative, my favorite!” He did have taste in women, however. He had a reliably low regard for 95% of them. Even the loveliest! Then, when I brought my sweetie home, he was in her lap in a second, “You can leave now. Mom and I are going to cuddle.” Of course, with an endorsement like that, I married her.

Volume II – Boring!

Of course, things get rather mundane after that. Marriage, four kids, I got boring. I went from a Pirate to a drone. The second volume probably won’t sell ten copies.

And I only am escaped to tell thee, as the narrator points out in Job and Moby Dick. As such, I’m the one with the last exclusive word. Care to order an autographed prepublication copy of the first volume?

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Hijack

Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?
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The devil is not always in the details. It’s in the pattern.

I come from an infamous line of hijackers on both sides of the family. I was informed early that opportunity did not regularly knock – you had to make an effort to find it, knock it out, and take advantage for yourself, literally. On the Carreras side, the family was from Spain, and in Spanish, I was informed there was a term –Aprovacharse – to take advantage. This was virtually the family motto. Not to take advantage of others, but to turn any opportunity to the advantage of the family. You worked hard to produce the results you desired.

It’s why I grew up in a house with books, and people continuously reading them. Thanks to the Depression and family circumstances, neither of my parents completed high school. They didn’t let that stop them. If a good opportunity for advancement opened for my parents, it was not a random event.

The Library

My father went to sea at about seventeen to help support his ill father and mother. winding up in the engine room, he discovered a mechanical ability and interest that he continued to expand all his life. His personal library was heavily focused on that. My mother was an organizational maven who worked at first in Marine underwriting and then in medical records. Her personal library was much more diverse than my father’s.

Among the first places I was taken as soon as I could walk was the local branch of the New York Public Library. What wasn’t at home could be found there, and soon I was a regular visitor.

The Next Steps

So that was the environment in which I grew up. When the New York City Schools decided to shed me as an incorrigible, I took it as an opportunity, rather than a smear. That was late in 1964. By May of 1975, I was graduating cum laude from Boston University. I did have a few opportunities open for me, but that was because I had worked hard for them.

No, I never became a mega-billionaire. And that goal in life is not what I’m particularly talking about. It’s important to make something of yourself. What depends on you, your drive, and your ambitions. That’s why at the outset I talked about hijacking. Hijacking is taking something, analysing its potential worth to your goals, and using it as a stepping stone. Education, general and specific, is the best thing to take hijack, followed by occupational opportunities. You then apply leverage to obtain your goal.

In Judo, the Japanese martial art, the goal is to use your opponent’s strength against them to your benefit. Think of a Judo throw as the symbol for hijacking.

Remember – The devil is not always in the details. It’s in the pattern.

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Money Talks

Daily writing prompt
If you had the power to change one law, what would it be and why?
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One law? One change? So many goals. Such a small ability to change with only one alteration. But I know what I’d like to do: stem the river of contributions into our elective political system that were forced open by the Supreme Court’s “Citizens United” decision. Supposedly, a restoration of First Amendment rights, it has allowed incorporated entities to flood campaigns with money.

The old saying is that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Well, money in nearly unlimited quantities is the lubricant of corruption. Need money for your primary win, raise money. Your opponent is flush with cash from Pacts and corporations; get some of your own. I’m from New York City, where the saying “ Money talks and bullshit walks” is popular. I can’t imagine a situation where a politician gets big money without ties attached to it. Remember, Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall were New York City institutions. You get what you pay for.

It might be far-fetched to say that all the ills of our current political situation spring from one decision. But when the powerful disproportionately direct the way things are run, the general populace gets the leavings.

For a bit of background on Tammany ( and the dawn of modern-day political corruption), read about it in the short book: Plunkett of Tammany Hall. It’s a memoir of a Tammany Tiger related to a New York City journalist. The link is to a Project Gutenberg e-book. It’s revealing, amusing and educational: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2810/2810-h/2810-h.htm

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New, Old and Redone

Daily writing prompt
Write about your dream home.
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My “image” of people plotting a plan for a dream house is new construction. While I’m not so crazy about parts of my current home, I do like the lot and location. I have an Audubon sanctuary behind me, and part of the lot is lightly wooded. I’ve put lots of work into the garden, done away with the lawn, and don’t want to start over.

The neighborhood is friendly, and it is quiet. I don’t think I want new construction in some place with an invasive Homeowners Association. Yuck! The ringleader would spot me immediately as a troublemaker, and off to the races we’d go with arguments. I can do without that. Slinging mud over the issue of fence repair is not how I wish to spend my time.

No, I’d love to have the cash to redo my current home. The most expensive bit would be redoing the fieldstone basement – either sealing it, or in parts replacing. That alone would greatly improve heat retention in winter and the usability of the basement as a shop. In the winter, I might actually use it for work rather than a place to stow equipment.

Uptairs? A complete solar system, redone spare rooms with extensions, new windows, upgraded electrical, and an elevator for when I get to 100 and can’t use the stairs.

The cats and dogs want pet doors, more large windows and doors for bird viewing, and window seats with big cushy beds for them…oh, yes, they want those heated.

My home dates to 1900, and it is solid construction. Yes, it’s dated, but we like it.

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Amazing!!!!!

Daily writing prompt
You get some great, amazingly fantastic news. What’s the first thing you do?
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I -Money:

If I lived on the wild side, I might leave my job, but I’m way over the retirement age anyway, so no one would remark on it. I buy clothes at LL Bean, I’m not about to suddenly go all Savile Row. I drive a KIA Soul, and I’m not interested in getting a Mercedes. In other words, the materials of my life would not change much, so you might not know anything more significant had happened. My wife might stop picking up overtime shifts. Hurray!

Now on to exclusive memberships in clubs. Snicker! As Groucho Marx said, “I wouldn’t want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.” The country club has no appeal to me.

So, in terms of externals, you might not notice much change in my lifestyle. No hiring of a concierge to manage my restaurant dates, or our attendance at that fancy soiree. I might hire a contractor to redo some of our house’s interior, but I fully acknowledge that it’s an old house, and there is no panacea for all that ails it. but is ours and we like it.

II – The Business

Ah, yes! The attention of the masses to my superior work as a craftsman. Well, let’s not cheapen the brand by accepting all and sundry commissions. I’d say no to Donald on carved decorations for the Ballroom – too crass! Gold leaf is better used in a more subdued manner!

Yes to some fascinating marine portraits of significant vessels. Of course I might agree to teach a master class on my techniques to some worthies, but no I guard my personal trade secrets carefully!

III- My Writing

The word of literary skill has spread from its humble WordPress origins. Of course, I take the accolades delivered in the New York Times and the many other prestigious outlets with humble acceptance. Prominent publishers vie for my content and offer lucrative contracts. It’s only my due!

As you can see, I’ve put some thought into this…one has to be prepared

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The Numbers Game – #111

And Judy’s number today is : 233

little frogs all in line
make a wish
Baggy Wrinkle
carved sloop on top of small box
  • One day at the pond all these little frogs were all in a line
  • Make a wish
  • Baggy wrinkle- found on sailing ships as an antichafing device. Made from strands of unlaid rope.
  • One of my earliest carved boat boxes- just simple carved sloop on the wind
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Nutty

Daily writing prompt
What’s your favorite candy?
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The days of boxes of candy treats lying around the house are long past. But this Christmas, a couple did find their way into the house. One night, I reverted to my thirteen-year-old self and went hunting for favorites. The memories rushed back.

Growing up in New York City as a superintendent’s son, it seemed that the fee for any small favor beyond the call of duty was, at the very least, a box of mixed chocolates from one of the popular chocolatiers. I’d come home from school and see if my sister had beaten me to one of those creamy nougats. If no one was watching, perhaps a seek and eat raid to fill up before dinner, but being careful to leave my sister’s favorites untouched. My raid might escape Mom, but not if my sister tattled.

Now, it seems like those days were so far in the past that they are sort of a Bronze Age. ” Yes, that’s right, Sonny. Before we had steel, it was all bronze, and believe me, getting an edge on a razor to shave was an all-day job!” The couple of boxes this Christmas had to be the first in ages. I have to admit that it’d never occur to me to go out and buy a box. If I have a sore throat, I’ll have a cough drop. I’ll eat cookies or cakes, but a box of candies? These days, I wouldn’t think of it.

Well, now the idea is in my mind…where the heck would I buy them? As a kid, there were actual candy stores all over the place in New York. Around here? I don’t know, maybe I’ll check the grocery store when I go out to get milk and cat food. See what you started!

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Dictablanda

I sometimes see a prompt and have to sit on it for a while. I have to cogitate my veritabilities as my old friend Bill ( Captain Zero) used to say. This one, ” Books I’ve been given,” was one of those. Then it fell into focus. I went out to the porch and started paging through a shelf full of old ethnographies on Spain.

Back in the early seventies, way before Lou as an applied anthropologist, I was dedicated to going to Spain and doing my Ph.D research there, as my mentor in undergraduate anthropology had. By graduation in 1975, I had absorbed pretty much all the Spanish ethnography in English. And quite a few of those available in Spanish.

Dictadura And Dictablanda

Looming large in the background of these ethnographies were the events and personalities of the Spanish Civil War. Caudillos, Anarcho-Syndicalists, Falange, Franco, Primo de Rivera, and many more. And one phrase stuck out: Dictablanda Y Dictadura. Soft dictatorship ( blanda is soft in Spanish), versus hard ( dura is hard in Spanish). Soft dictatorship and hard dictatorship. Think about dictablanda as a sort of dictatorship in which the appearance of civil liberties is preserved. But not the essence. In dictadura You’ve got the big leader who violates civil liberties with impunity and without much excuse.

Many on the Left in the sixties and seventies perceived America as a dictablanda sort of place. If you were a minority, it was harder rather than softer. The Left packed up and left Dodge at the end of Vietnam, and with Civil Rights, they assumed, won. But many of us continued to see how big money talked. Yeah, we continued to think it was dictablanda.

This morning, listening to continued idiocy on the news, this prompt and hunting through the old shelf of ethnography, I started to wonder if it was slipping into dictadura.

I’ll leave you with a very brief Wikipedia articel on this, and let you connect the dots:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictablanda

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Brand New, and In You!

Daily writing prompt
The most important invention in your lifetime is…
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I can think of some inventions that might not occur to others if you haven’t been in the health care field. There are entire classes of surgical materials, from meshes to joint replacements, that did not exist when I was born. Personally, I am a beneficiary of all these.

When I was three, I had my tonsils out, and the anesthesia was by drip, drip ether into an ether anesthesia mask very similar to the 19th-century prototypes. I remember the induction well. Ugh! Today, the surgical environment is ages past that. During my time working in the OR, ether was used occasionally as a cleaning agent. I’d venture a guess that in a modern OR, even that use is gone. The darn stuff is highly inflammable and has numerous side effects.

To this, you can add modern suture materials, instruments, monitoring devices, and drugs. Arguably, inventions and advances in medicine probably directly affect more people than those in many other areas. Think about that next time you use your inhaler, take your allergy medication, or walk on your new knee.