gift

Writer’s Workshop — It’s Wild World

Fandango16 Comments

For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompts. I am responding to two this week:

  1. Write a post inspired by the word wild.
  2. Write a post in exactly 10 sentences.

The night of graduation, Emma sat on the front porch swing bench, her high school graduation cap still dangling from one hand. Her father leaned against the back of the swing bench, the glow of the porch light carving deep lines into his weathered face.

“First off, I am so proud of you, sweetheart, and I know your mother, God rest her soul, is looking down at you from heaven with a broad smile on her face,” he began. “But she’s not here and it falls upon me to tell you that it’s a wild world out there. You’ll meet people who will smile at you with kindness and compassion and others who will smile just to take advantage of you.”

Emma listened, her chest tight, knowing he wasn’t trying to scare her, just to prepare her.

“There will be nights when the road feels endless and no one is there to guide you,” he said, tenderly reaching out and brushing a strand of hair from her face, the gesture softening his words. “But bravery is born in the messy, unpredictable places and you mustn’t let fear keep you still.”

She nodded, clutching his hand, feeling the weight of his years pressed into her palm. And in that moment, Emma understood that his warning was really a gift of love disguised as caution.


Badge by Patty, http://anothercookieplease.com

Image conjured using ChatGPT.

An Unwanted Gift

Fandango15 Comments

“Seriously, what harm can it cause to display his artwork in the lobby of the building?” the attorney for the family argued in a mellifluent voice. “Hal Simpson was a patient here for many years and his family wants his paintings to be their gift and his legacy. He was, after all, a very versatile artist.”

“A versatile artist?” the building owner stated in a quiet voice, in contrast to that of the attorney. “It’s ridiculous to argue that the family of the creator of pornographic and sacrilegious paintings has a right to hang such offensive paintings in the lobby of a nursing home run by a religious order simply because he was a patient here. The fact that Mr. Simpson put in his will that his paintings were to be hung in the lobby of the nursing home does not put any obligation on the part of the building owner or the nursing home to comply.”

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (artwork), The Daily Spur (harm), Your Daily Word (mellifluent), Fandango’s One Word Challenge (versatile), My Vivid Blog, (quiet), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (ridiculous).

Spam Comment of the Week — Week 6 2023

Fandango24 Comments

I get some interesting spam comments on my blog, most of which are captured by Akismet, WordPress’ spam blocker. I generally do a mass delete of all of my spam comments after checking to see if any legitimate comments got caught up in Akismet’s spam-catching net.

I thought it might be fun to select a particularly interesting or unique or outrageous spam comment and highlight it each week.

This week’s featured spam comment was from Lupe Kimbiel and was in response to my “Who Am I” page.

Can I simply say what a comfort to discover a person that actually knows what they are discussing on the web. You certainly understand how to bring a problem to light and make it important. More and more people should look at this and understand this side of your story. I was surprised that you are not more popular because you certainly possess the gift.

I am certainly pleased that my “Who Am I” page was such a comfort to you. I am a bit confused, though, about what problem I brought to light. That said, Lupe, like you, I too, am surprised that I’m not more popular, given the gift I possess.

Anyway, have you read some catchy spam comments that you’d like to share with us? If so, put them in the comments or create your own post and tag it #FSCW.

Indian Giver

Fandango36 Comments

In this post the other day, Nancy Richy, at The Elephant’s Trunk, mentioned someone who earned a reputation as an “Indian giver.” Nancy the said that she realized that the phrase “Indian giver” these days is “totally un-PC and not acceptable.”

That got me thinking about how the phrase “Indian giver” came about. The expression means one who gives a gift but later takes it back. It derives from the alleged practice of American Indians of taking back gifts from white settlers. Settlers did not understand that gift giving was central to Native American culture. When a gift was presented, it was done so with honor, and with the notion that the gift would be used and valued.

But, if the recipient of the gift did not use it, then that was viewed as disrespect, and the item was taken back, and likely given to someone else who would use it and appreciate it. The settlers, not understanding these aspects of the Native American culture, were, in turn, offended, and phrase Indian giver was born.

Which is interesting because historians would now agree that, where deceit was concerned, it was the settlers who were the front runners. Especially when it came to taking back lands granted to the Native American in peace treaties.

By the 1900s, the term Indian giver had made its way into the American vernacular, eventually used mostly as a schoolyard taunt, such as, “Teacher, Billy gave me the ball and now he wants it back! He’s being an Indian giver!”

Considering the roots of the term Indian giver, it is today considered offensive.

No wonder the Washington professional football team changed the team’s name from the “Redskins” to the “Commanders,” and the Cleveland Major League Baseball team changed its team’s name from the “Indians” to the “Guardians.”

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — February 18th

Fandango26 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 18th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on February 18, 2018.

You Sound Uppity

A6A4D33D-91F3-4F26-BA8B-6C7A612FE227

Everyone else in the class would answer “Here” when the teacher called roll in homeroom. But not Mark. He would always say “Present.” He was the only one who responded to roll calls that way.

“Why do you always say ‘present’ at roll call?” one of the other students asked Mark.

“Because I am present in class,” mark answered.

“But everyone else simply says ‘here.’ Saying ‘present’ makes you sound uppity.”

“But ‘present’ is such an interesting word,” Mark said. It’s more versatile than ‘here.’”

“How so?” the classmate asked.

“Well, for one thing, it means being where you are; being ‘here,’” Mark explained. “It can also mean being in the moment, as being engaged in what is going on. I’m not just ‘here’ taking up space, I am truly ‘present,’ fully aware of what is happening around me.”

“Yes, I can see that.”

“But ‘present’ can also be a verb that means to give something to someone, like when you present someone with an award. Or you can use it as a noun to mean something someone gives you, like a Christmas present or a birthday present.”

“Ah, I get it,” said Mark’s classmate. “Like in, ‘I want to present this present to you.’”

“Exactly,” Mark said. “And it can also mean occurring now, as opposed to having occurred in the past or something that will occur in the future.”

“Wow, ‘present’ is a cool word,” admitted the classmate. “But using it instead of saying ‘here’ during roll call still makes you sound like an uppity asshole.”

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “present.”

The Necklace

Fandango10 Comments

“I’ve had a rather frenetic day and I feel like my head is in a bit of a fog,” Felix said to the man behind the counter. “Maybe you can help me out. I’m looking for a gift for my wife, one that will be a fitting tribute to what she means to me.

“I’d be glad to help,” the man said. “Take a gander at this,” he said, holding up a diamond necklace.

“That’s exquisite,” Felix said. “How much would that set me back?”

The man behind the counter leaned over toward Felix and whispered to him.

Felix let out a whistle. “I love my wife,” he said, “but not that much.”

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (frenetic), Ragtag Daily Prompt (fog), Word of the Day Challenge (tribute), The Daily Spur (glad), Your Daily Word Prompt (gander), and My Vivid Blog (whistle).

The Gift of Gab

FandangoLeave a comment

Donald was born with the gift of gab
When out in public the spotlight he’d grab
And others around him would pick up his tab

But then his rhetoric began to turn grim
His divisive words made his spotlight dim
It wasn’t long before no one listened to him

This lack of attention made Donald very mad
And he started behaving in a manner very bad
Watching him implode like that is really sad

Maybe in the future there will come a day
When for his corruption he’ll be made to pay
They’ll put him in handcuffs and take him away

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver prompt, where the theme is “gift.”

Friday Fictioneers — The Gift

Fandango8 Comments

87422AA2-ABD8-434E-A93A-AA8D4B14C35C“Which one do you think I should get him?” Darryl asked his girlfriend.

Diane shrugged. “How should I know?” she asked. “I’ve only met your father that one time.”

“There are the ones with the floral patterns that say ‘Islander’ on them,” Darryl said, “or the one that says ‘Aloha’ on it. Do you think he’d like one of those?”

“They’re nice,” Diane said.

“Maybe he’d prefer one of the other ones with the straw weave on the front,” Darryl said.

“Darryl,” Diane said, “Whatever you decide, I think he’ll be happy just knowing that you were thinking about him.”

(100 words)

Written for this week’s Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. Photo credit: Jan Wayne Fields.

The Gift

Fandango29 Comments

01D0C047-04EF-40B6-A9C4-EF02F380E38BI’d never heard such a bloodcurdling scream in my entire life. Well, outside of a movie theater showing a horror movie, anyway. But this scream came from my wife, which caused me to run from my home office, where I was busy paying my various monthly bills, to the dining room, where the scream came from.

“Get it out of here!” she screamed at me when I arrived. She pointed and my eyes followed her pointing finger and that’s when I saw it. Our cat, who had been in our backyard, caught a rat and, with rat in mouth, came up to our deck, sauntered into our dining room via the open sliding glass door, and dropped the almost dead rat on the mat just inside the door.

“Get it out of here!” my wife screamed again. She was literally shaking. I grabbed a ziplock bag out of a kitchen drawer, scooped up the mortally wounded rat, and carried it out to the trash bin in our garage.

By the time I got back, my wife had calmed down a bit, but she was still a little shook up. “You okay?” I asked.

“No, I’m not okay,” she said. “I can’t believe the goddam cat brought a rat into our house and dropped it on the mat in our dining room.”

We both looked down at our cat, who looked back at us with either total disinterest or possibly disdain. It was as if he was thinking how ungrateful we were after he went to all the trouble of catching and bringing us a present. “Why aren’t you thanking me? Aren’t you proud of me?” he seemed to be asking us.

Written for Teresa Grabs’ latest writing challenge, where she asks us to “write a rhyming (or not) story for adults using a cat, a rat, and a mat.”