Day: September 17, 2017

Sean and the Blondies

Fandango6 Comments

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I saw this blurb in today’s local newspaper and I thought it might be worth sharing. It’s both funny and kinda sad at the same time.

After ESPN publicly scolded host Jemele Hill for tweeting that President Trump is a “white supremacist” — and White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said that could be a “fireable offense” — Fox News’ Sean Hannity called in three panelists to discuss the comments of the African American sportscaster: all women, all white, but with diverse shades of blonde.

Sunday Photo Fiction — Off Campus

Fandango15 Comments

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Henry tentatively walked across the bridge that led away from the campus on which he’d spent the last 35 years.

He stopped every few paces to look back over his shoulder. He looked at the building that housed him. Which window was his, he wondered. On which floor did he live?

He thought about the word “live,” and wondered if living is how he spent his time there. Or was he merely existing, surviving from one day to the next.

A few more paces and another look back over his shoulder. There was a chill in the air and Henry wondered why he wasn’t properly dressed.

A few more paces and another look back. This time Henry saw the two men running toward him. He recognized them and seeing them coming after him filled him with both joy and dread.

The two men finally caught up with Henry, each one gently grabbing one of Henry’s arms.

“Henry,” one of the men said, “we were worried about you. You know you’re not supposed to wander off campus.”

The three men started heading back over the bridge toward the campus. Henry saw the familiar sign that read, “State Hospital for the Criminally Insane.”

(200 words)

Written for this week’s Sunday Photo Fiction challenge.

More WordPress Weirdness

Fandango9 Comments

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Sting is another word for confidence game. A confidence game is “any swindle in which the swindler, after gaining the confidence of the victim, robs the victim by cheating at a gambling game, appropriating funds entrusted for investment, or the like.”

I think WorPress is pulling off a confidence game, a sting, on its loyal bloggers.

How so?

Well, as I write this post, today’s one-word prompt, which happens to be the word “sting,” has 150 “likes” but not one response. That’s not possible.

Of course, this is not the first time something like this has happened. I even wrote this post about the last time there were a bunch of likes but no responses to the WordPress one-word prompt.

So all I can think of is that WordPress is conducting a sting. The WordPress happiness engineers want us to respond to the prompt, but then they take away our ability to share our responses and to read how others approached the same one-word prompt.

Shame on you, WordPress. Your happiness engineers are making us quite unhappy. You gained our confidence and now you’re cheating us. Get your act together.

Day 17 — Economically Speaking

Fandango4 Comments

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Day 17: Was your hometown an economically advantaged or disadvantaged area?

I was raised in what I would call a moderately affluent suburb of Washington, DC. It wasn’t one of the most affluent of the suburban cities and towns that surrounded the Nation’s Capital. Probably not even in the top ten. But it was still relatively affluent.

And because my hometown was a close-in suburb of what was (and still is) our Nation’s Capital, the seat our federal government, it was, overall, not economically disadvantaged.

As a child growing up in that area, I never worried about having enough food to eat, decent clothes to wear, or a comfortable bed in my own room to sleep on. I also possessed most of the stuff a young boy might need or want.

I consider myself to have been very fortunate in that regard.

This post was written for Suzanne McClendon’s September Challenge, which is comprised of 30 questions (one for each day of this month) regarding your background and history.