cool

Can You Tell a Story in 50 Words?

Fandango8 Comments

For her “Can You Tell a Story In…” prompt today, Esther Chilton has challenged us to tell a 50-word story using the words vendetta, cool, dough, wheeze, spider, and reflexology.

Marla ran the reflexology salon with cool precision, her vendetta simmering beneath lavender oil and soft music. Each foot she touched, she judged. One client, a mobster with a doughy body, didn’t recognize her. When he began to wheeze, she smiled, knowing the poisonous spider bite had done its job.

Image created using ideogram.ai.

WDYS — A Crisp Autumn Day

Fandango9 Comments

“Finally that weird early October heat wave has passed and it actually feels like fall has arrived,” Allison said. “Honey, I’m going to take advantage of this crisp autumn day, cut up some fresh pears I picked up yesterday at the farmer’s market, take my book out, and sit down at the picnic table. Why don’t you join me and take advantage of this delightful weather?”

“Yeah I will in a minute, hon,” Richard said. “I’m right in the middle of drafting a post about the critical issues people need to be paying attention to with the election only three weeks away.”

“You use your iPhone for your blog. Just bring it out here and you can finish your post and take advantage of this lovely weather,” Allison said.

“I need to concentrate, babe,” Richard said. “This is too important to get distracted by delightful weather. I just need another few minutes to finish this up and then I’ll join you.”

“Rich, how many people actually visit your blog each day?” Allison asked.

“I see what you’re doing Allison,” Richard said. “On a good day I get about a hundred unique visitors. So yes, my post is not going to make one iota of difference in the outcome of the election. But I just need to get my perspectives off my chest and my blog allows me to vent and rant, even if hardly anyone is reading it.”

“I’ll read it, I promise,” Allison said, “but later when the sun goes down and it’s not a gorgeous day outside.”

“Okay, I’m coming out. I’ll finish my political rant that no one but you is going to read tonight, okay? But you need to send me an anonymous comment telling me how brilliant and insightful you thought my post was.”

“I can do that, sweetheart,” Allison said. “Now come out here and have a pear slice.”

Written for Sadje’s What Do You See prompt. Photo credit: Kateryna Hliznitsova @ Unsplash.

WDP — Keeping My Cool

Fandango20 Comments
Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to increase comfort in your daily life?
View all responses

We are in the middle of yet another heatwave where I live. Hence, my strategy for increasing my comfort in my daily life for the duration of this period of 95 to 100+ degree days is simple: air conditioning.

So go away and don’t bother me before I lose my cool.

Throwback Thursday — Slang

Fandango5 Comments

Maggie, at From Cave Walls, and Lauren, at LSS Attitude of Gratitude, alternate hosting Throwback Thursday. The idea of the prompt is for them to give us a topic and for us to write a post in which we share our own memories or experiences about the given topic. This week, Lauren wants to know about the popular slang of our formative years.

Here are Lauren’s questions.

1. What were the words you would have used to describe something cool or popular?

Cool, groovy, far out, bad, outta site, a gas, boss, unreal, cherry

2. How about those things that were uncool?

Uncool, bummer, downer, a drag, heavy

3. What were the hairstyles of the day?

For guys, crewcuts, flattops, Princeton (hair on the top front of the head is long enough to style with a side part, while the crown of the head is cut short), and the DA (for “duck’s ass” as shown below).

For girls, all I can think of was the beehive and the pixie.

4. Did they have a name everyone used to reference them?

Names above.

5. What were the styles of the time?

I was never one who kept up with the styles of the day, but when I was going through my hippie days, I wore bellbottom jeans, flowered shirts, tie dyed tees, big belts, Chuck Taylor All-Stars (sneakers), wide ties, sandals, polyester leisure suits.

6. What word would you have used to describe something distasteful?

See response to #2.

7. What about peers you were not fond of or were not part of your tribe?

Geek, nerd, fink, panty waste, skuzzball, square, pig

8. Any phrases you remember that were used (or overused)?

Up your nose with a rubber hose, lay it on me, sock it to me, right on, keep on truckin’, gimme some, don’t Bogart that joint, peace out

It’s Cool Inside

Fandango22 Comments

It’s 106° outside, but it’s once again cool inside our home thanks to this guy, Brian, my new best friend. He came out this morning to replace a blown capacitor in our A/C’s compressor.

I had to look up what a capacitor does. Turns out it provides the initial jolt of electricity your air conditioner’s motors need to run successfully. It stores electricity and sends it to your system’s motors in powerful bursts that get your unit revved up as it starts the cooling cycle. So, yeah, if the capacitor is shot, the A/C unit won’t start.

My new best friend did say that most capacitors last for around ten years, so it’s surprising that it would blow after only three years. I told him that the control board on our two year old whole house generator, which is also supposed to last at least ten years, failed after just two years.

After hearing that, my new best friend quickly finished installing the new capacitor and hurriedly left. I think he wanted to avoid getting contaminated by my back luck.

The Hitchiker

Fandango10 Comments

It had been a long day of driving when I saw someone standing by the side of the road with their arm extended and their thumb up. I usually don’t stop for hitchhikers because you just never know who you’d be inviting into your car. But as I got closer, I could see the hitchhiker was a girl, so I figured why not? She’s just a girl, how risky could it be? I decided to give it a go.

I slowed down and rolled to a stop just ahead of her. She was quite an attractive girl, maybe about 18 or 19. She pulled opened the car door, climbed in, and said, “Thanks for the lift.”

“No problem,” I said, smiling at her. “Where are you headed?” I asked as I pulled back out onto the road.

“Wherever you’re going,” she said. She didn’t look at me. Her eyes were looking ahead.

“I’m heading to Provo,” I said. “I teach at the university there.”

“Cool,” she said.

“Where are you from?” I asked.

“Here and there,” she said. Then silence.

We drove for about 30 minutes without conversation. I looked at my watch and it was almost 6:00. “There’s a diner and a gas station about a mile ahead,” I said. “We can stop, I’ll fill up my tank, and we can grab some dinner. Sound good?”

“Cool,” she said.

We were back on the road at around 7:30. When I usually make this trip I stop at a motel at around 9:30 or 10 for the night. I asked her if she wanted to spend the night. I offered to get her a separate room.

“Cool,” she said.

I pulled into the motel parking lot and told her to stay in the car while I checked in and got the rooms. When I got back to the car I lied. I told her that there was only one room left and asked her if she’d mine sharing. “It has two double beds,” I added.

“Cool,” she said.

When we got to the room, I went to the bathroom to wash up. Then she used the bathroom while I changed into my pajamas. She came out wearing just a skimpy t-shirt and panties. I got into my bed and slipped under the covers. She walked over and stood next to my bed and stared down at me. I looked up at her and said, “Do you want to share my bed with me?”

“Cool,” she said.

She crawled into the bed and was all over me. It was the most fabulous night of my life. We were at it into the wee hours and I was satiated and exhausted when we finally went to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning I was alone. I got out of bed, looked around, but there was no sign of her. There was also no sign of my wallet, my watch, my wedding band, my overnight bag, and my car keys. I ran to the window, looked out, and saw that my car was gone. Shit!

I saw a piece of paper on the night table between the beds. Written on it was, “Thanks for the ride, thanks for the dinner, thanks for the sex.”

“Not cool,” I said.

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Opposing Forces, where the words are stop and go and here and there.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — May 27th

FandangoLeave a comment

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 27th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on May 27, 2019.

Old School

c2ccc1b1-a5cf-4050-a2d1-aed67dd0c67e.jpeg

I’m an old guy — as in senior citizen old. And I’m sometimes challenged to keep up with the latest and greatest language lingo and usage.

For example, when my daughter’s boyfriend told me that he was “down with” something I said, I became very defensive, thinking that I was being insulted. I later found out that it meant that he agreed with me or was “okay” with whatever it was that I said.

And when someone recently asked, “Do you feel me?” my response was, “Um, in this #MeToo era, do you really want me to?” I’m glad I asked first.

So these days, before I react to something I hear or read, I often look to the Urban Dictionary to help me understand what the hell people, particularly younger people — which, at my age is almost everyone — are talking about.

A few days ago, I heard someone use the phrase “off-the-hook.” The way I always understood the phrase “off-the-hook” is that it means being relieved from responsibility. For example, when Donald Trump heard that Attorney General Bill Barr’s summary of the Mueller Report found “no collusion and no obstruction” (it did not, in fact, find any such thing), Donald Trump felt like he was off the hook.

But it turns out that the person who used that expression meant it in an entirely different way. When he said it, his intended meaning for something being “off the hook” was that it was “fresh” and “new” and so in demand that the items in question are virtually flying off the hooks (or hangers or shelves) at stores.

Sure enough, when I went to the Urban Dictionary site, that was the second definition. The number one definition was “cool, happening,” as in “Bob’s party was totally off the hook!”

“Off the hook” also refers to something that exceeds a minimal standard of satisfaction or is appealing to one’s mind, as in “that song is off the hook!”

My definition for “off the hook” (to get away with something or to not be responsible for it) is what the Urban Dictionary calls the  “old school” definition.

So I’m “old school,” huh? Well, that’s okay. I don’t really mind being thought of as old school. I take it as a badge of honor. And, by the way, the Urban Dictionary defines “old school” as “anything that is from an earlier era or previous generation and is looked upon with high regard or respect.” Woo hoo!

Besides, it’s also one of my favorite Steely Dan songs. I mean that song is off the hook.

Song Lyric Sunday — Playing It Cool

Fandango20 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams has given us “Cool,” “Freeze,” “Heat,” and “Melt.” I thought I’d play it cool with the Beatles “Hey Jude,” which contains the classic line, “It’s a fool who plays it cool by making his world a little colder.”

“Hey Jude,” released as a non-album single in August 1968, was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. It was a number one hit in many countries around the world. Its nine-week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 tied the all-time record in 1968 for the longest run at the top of the U.S. charts.

The song evolved from “Hey Jules,” something McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon’s 5-year-old son Julian when his parents were getting a divorce after John left his wife and Julian’s mother, Cynthia, for Yoko Ono. The change to “Jude” was inspired by the character “Jud” in the musical Oklahoma!

The lyrics espouse a positive outlook on a sad situation, while also encouraging “Jude” to pursue his opportunities to find love. McCartney said he wrote the line, “Don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better” while thinking about how he could make Jules feel a little better.

Julian said that growing up he’d always felt closer to Paul McCartney than to his own father, but he didn’t realize that the song was written for him until he was a teenager, which was around the time that he reconnected with his father, John, whom he would visit in New York from time to time until his death.

Here are the lyrics to “Hey Jude.”

Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

Hey, Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make it better

And anytime you feel the pain,
Hey, Jude, refrain
Don’t carry the world upon your shoulders
For well you know that it’s a fool
Who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder

Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah

Hey, Jude, don’t let me down
You have found her, now go and get her
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better

So let it out and let it in,
Hey, Jude, begin
You’re waiting for someone to perform with
And don’t you know that it’s just you,
Hey, Jude, you’ll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder

Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah yeah

Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you’ll begin to make it better, better, better, better, better… oh!

Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (Jude)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (yeah, yeah, yeah)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (don’t make it bad, Jude)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (take a sad song and make it better)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (oh, Jude)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (Jude, hey, Jude, whoa)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude (ooh)
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah, nah, nah nah,
Hey, Jude
[fade out]

Share Your World — Cool and Hip Rainy Afternoons

Fandango12 Comments

Share Your WorldMondays mean Melanie’s Share Your World questions. Let’s get right to it.

When you’re 90 years old, what do you suppose will matter most to you?

Good health, enough money to live comfortably, and making it to 91.

What’s the best way to spend a rainy afternoon?

Staying dry.8FCE89C2-2027-46DD-B9E7-F052B86A1A5F

What is one thing you don’t understand about yourself?

Who I really am.7B717F8E-8C91-43DB-BBBC-F3A796322410

When was the last time you tried something to look ‘cool’ (hip), but it ended in utter embarrassment? Details?

It’s been a long time since I tried to look cool or hip. At my age, there’s little that I could to do to achieve being cool or hip, and I fear that any attempt to appear that way would end in embarrassment.

Share a picture, a story, or an event that shows your gratitude

One day after a gunman in Texas killed seven and wounded 21 others,Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, said on “Fox & Friends” that mass shootings are caused by “driving God from the public square,” and specifically by teaching kids about evolution. Why am I grateful for this? Because it illustrates, for the whole world to see, how moronic far-right, Christian conservatives are.