21 Wits, by Karen

Saturday, November 10, 2012

Six Word Saturday- Can't Believe I -

Welcome to Six Word Saturday

Have you eaten yet?

What in the world

would they be doing with all this fish?

Welcome to

SIX WORD SATURDAY

Where Cate, from "Show my face" blog invites us to express something about our life or other amazing things in Six Words!

MEETING NEW WRITERS

PROMOTES WRITING HEALTH

Once upon a Wednesday evening I discovered a talented writer
teaching a

"Writing for Children" class.

My instructor was

Rose Marie Meuwissen

It turns out she not only happily wrote, but painstakingly put together the most interesting and engaging Norwegian book ever-
and she published it too.

As a matter of fact, I immediately bought a copy, as a Christmas present for my youngest son. He's faithfully engaged in all things of viking and Norwegian history

since it's in his blood from his daddy's side!

Her book

REAL NORWEGIANS EAT LUTEFISK

You can find more about this author and her book at
www.realnorwegianseatlutefisk.com

What I learned from taking her short little one evening class-

1. I need to continue on this writer road of discovery
(note to self-do more of the above)

2. She belongs to writing groups- Kiss of Death and Midwest Fiction Writers - a writer after my own desires of mystery adventures.

3. We all have potentially important stuff to share-
4. Norwegian Cats do exist

A bit of an interesting story revolves around this cat!
http://www.alvdansens.se/about_the_breed.htm
and the funniest story ever- how it got inside her book!

Most of all I know-
(please don't tell Rose Marie)

5. Not all Norwegians eat Lutefisk!

The more we keep on learning the better we become!

If you want to view more Six Word Saturday posts go here

http://www.showmyface.com/2012/11/six-word-saturday_10.html

Saturday Centus- Writer's Block Attack

From the pages of her thoughts, beginning from Chapter: Fighting Back until she closes with....

Welcome to another

Saturday Centus-

from Jenny's blog "Off on my tangent" where she drums up prompts for us to answer with "Flash fiction" as a rule- or not!

Today's prompt is: "The pain was excruciating-" up to 104 words of any style writing and any number of photos we wish to post!

Writer's Block Attack

The pain was excruciating, but my limp fevered fingers trudged on

locked upon delirious thoughts; forever emerging in duplicate form.

Each breath I take, rocks my being from migraine knuckles

onward and throughout

those spawning memories I long to forget.

How do I release these heaping helpings while being too lost for words?

Their surplus bitterly exhausting, to the point of my becoming
violently sick without their release.

Again, I plunge head first- fingers last, slowed to a simple crawl across my keyboard.
My idiot memories tracking my soul, while inflicting my brain in a sludgy, semi consciousness state; leaving me a pain-wracked writer.

Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest of all writers?

For more painfully-awesome and incredibly interesting- check out more Saturday Centus posts go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/11/saturday-centus-pain-was.html

Sepia Saturday Please, Answer the Phone!

Is that the telephone ringing?

announcing....

SEPIA SATURDAY

AND MUCH MORE

(along those lines)

SEPIA SATURDAY

Murder? Or is this post climbing a telephone pole instead?

UNDER A TELEPHONE POLE

I am a copper wire slung in the air,

Slim against the sun I make not even a clear line of shadow.

Night and day I keep singing--humming and thrumming:

It is love and war and money: it is the fighting and the tears, the work

and want,

Death and laughter of men and women passing through me, carrier of

your speech,

In the rain and the wet dripping, in the dawn and the shine drying,

A copper wire.

Carl Sandburg

Welcome back Alan- we've missed you- but Kat has kept everything ship-shape

while you were sailing about the world!

Alan's theme photo this week is all about

Ladies holding down excellent jobs as switch-board operators.

What connected callers to one another were "switches" at a switchboard.

THE TELEPHONE GIRL'S PRAYER

O Lord, for all I done to-day

To cause annoyance and delay

To make a person rant and rave,

For all wrong numbers I have gave,

And gave and gave when I'd be cryin'

For five three seven, thrrree seven, ni-yun,

For all the needless irritation

When I cut off a conversation,

The cusses--calls for information

Because of me--the slaps and slams,

The smashed receivers--darns and damns

I've caused this day--O Lord, for these

And all my sins,

Excuse it. Please!

Amen

Oliver Herford

Amazing how grammar played so little a part in many poems back then.

"When you dial a wrong number, you never get a busy signal." - From Murphy's Law Book Two-

Believe me there were countless openings for this position.

This is Helen, (very intent on doing the most effective job she can) while managing the telephones at Many Glacier Hotel -

June 26, 1925.

This engineer is plowing under some rural wires in Dallas County and it's the first time this device was used in Iowa for putting the wires underground.

1936

Northwestern Bell Telephone

Company Engineer in Iowa.

Of course once the wires have all been laid or telephone poles pounded into the ground and another skilled lineman mounts another pole, those lengthened strands he strings so steadily upright in the sky-next comes the installation inside private houses or companies.

"Oh, I can hardly wait to dial my new telephone. Please do hurry. I have so many calls to make."

Onward towards the many places you could pick up a telephone.

First up the Beatles

Waitin' for a call from you!

Mr. Physician making a major and possibly life threatening decision, or not.

Well, there certainly weren't any pizza delivery places back then.

Just another hot afternoon by the sea......

"Listen darling, do run along now while your mother makes a call.

One must be respectful while using a party line."

From the trenches on all sides of war.....

Telephones were used on the fields during wars, when they were lucky enough to have them.

This lady is taking advantage of the new turn-of-the-century telephone off the wall and into her hand, known as the Candlestick and the Upright.

"My, my Isabella, this is Genevieve, speaking over my new telephone device which is just heaven to use."

Snort, snort, "Oh I heard that, oh my goodness gracious!" If Ernestine wasn't eavesdropping on other people's conversations she might try calling her boyfriend, Vito a telephone repair man, or perhaps switching over to her best friend, Phoenicia another operator.

"Is that you darling?" Alfred Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder"

featuring Grace Kelly, Ray Milland and Robert Cummings.

and

there was "Sorry Wrong Number" or "Who's Calling" and "Speak no Evil."

All apart tangled wires....whispering of murder and into tangle lives fighting to escape.

Barbara Stanwyck and Burt Lancaster

"In the tangled networks of a great city the telephone is the unseen line between a million lives. It is the servant of our common needs--the confidante of our inmost secrets....life and happiness wait upon its ring....and horror....and loneliness.....and death!" --opening crawl from Paramount's Sorry, Wrong Number, 1948.

Now why doesn't she appear a bit happier here?

Once Upon A Honeymoon 1956

"Well, if I called the wrong number, why did you answer the phone?"

James Thurber-

You never ever get the wrong number when you check in on other Sepia Saturday posts.

So why not ring them up

go here

http://sepiasaturday.blogspot.com/2012/11/sepia-saturday-151-10-november-2012.html

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Thematic Photographic - What's for dinner?

Welcome

THEMATIC PHOTOGRAPHIC

Can you spot Chef Tim McKee hard at work? I'm outside looking in at Sea Change Restaurant at The Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis.

He really is right there, look closer.

Will he share "What's for dinner?"

Can you guess that Carmi's theme is-

WHAT'S FOR DINNER?

But wait- stop this posting right now. Did Carmi mention beginning "What's for dinner?"

with dessert first?

But let's not go over-board.

"Stressed, spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!"

***********

What better place (for a young man and his first baby boy) to celebrate his First birthday than here, right?

"You can find your way across this country using burger joints, the way a navigator uses stars." -

Charles Kuralt

What a shame when "What's for dinner?" Becomes-

uneaten and left behind.

Although, some thoughts for dinner should be

left behind!

For the healthier side of eating.

"Hot & Tasty"

Just the way you like it!

Right?

Spicy-style!

Sometimes, what's for dinner is more about people

and the coolest ride ever!

*************

BUT!

Eating dinner at home has it's advantages too!

You can bring out the china!

"As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it, or leave it."-

Buddy Hackett

Sometimes "What's for dinner ....

is still a big mystery to unfold!

Unless you catch it fresh!

Okay, Carmi I'm feeling you really want to know what's for dinner from us

all.

So, who remembers this ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tviyAIS9c_U

Are you hungry yet? For more TP posts about What's for dinner

just in case you have no idea

and it is election night

here

than pop over here and why not bring your own thoughts on dinner- okay!

http://writteninc.blogspot.com/2012/11/thematic-photographic-220-whats-for.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FkIoA+%28Written+Inc.%29

Monday, November 5, 2012

The Mag - 142

WELCOME -

Once again we enjoy - Tess Kincaid's photo prompt for

THE MAG

Charis Wilson

Weston

1937

Lake Ediza - California

Photography by- Edward Henry Weston

Once upon a romance, long ago there was a photographer and he met a lovely, young lady....

Sitting, Between a Rock and a Hard Place

She-

Tired- but eloquent just the same.

A brief nine years before she went

away for places beyond.

Perhaps these knee-high laced up boots

were saying

here she sits one lost, lone survivor.

Wandering silent figures-

they were-

moving blindly into whatever lay beyond

his adulterous affairs.

Was it shame?

Or skill in just another sensual game

that they always shared?

What drove her naked body up and down

sand dunes?

Her warm sweet breath cascading over him

rolling across the hot sands

of their days spent

shooting.

Her very first sight of him

He being the most alive person in one room

and

capturing every one's attention -

He- the one man, whose eyes saw

twice as much as anyone else saw.

She sits in his shadow of life and womb

until

her eyes close.

Her thoughts that day lay still

her soul- almost alien

until

her yearning heart - his selfish endeavours

are to blame

for their demise.

and so

She embarks upon a voyage of love

with lips trembling

and holding-

The key

to her heart-

was his no more.

Charis Wilson

1934

The year she met Weston.

For more posts of The Mag

at Magpie Tales

please go here

http://magpietales.blogspot.com/2012/11/mag-142.html

Sunday, November 4, 2012

Saturday Centus - November Wakes

WELCOME TO

SATURDAY CENTUS

This post is about Flash-Fiction where Jenny, From off on my tangent, blog offers with ever changing rules for responding. This week- "Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November" is the 8 word prompt - any style of writing- 108 words maximum - and any number of photos.

This is Jenny's corresponding photo for our prompt.

NOVEMBER WAKES

From the dim,

last dregs of my memories

I still think of you.

Under gloomy November skies.

The alarm clock of my soul

rings amid a sulfurous rage

cursing your good-bye-

under waning spring skies.

I treasure soaring memories

of gentle nights-

smelling thawed earth

and whispering showers

whilst unleashing hopeful promises.

Now gone astray

long before these November skies.

My body silhouetted against

unseasonable wars of change

and shattered promises.

A drizzling, ugly thought

bedding itself down for the night,

casting a dark slanting light

so I recite

Thirty days hath September, April, June, and November,

and in 121 days

you’ll come back

Whenever April showers come along.

For more exciting flash-fiction why not check these out or maybe bring your own- just go here

http://jennymatlock.blogspot.com/2012/11/saturday-centus-thirty-days-hath.html

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Sepia Saturday - # 150 3 Nov 2012

I can't believe it's November already!

Seriously, wasn't it just August?

Welcome

SEPIA SATURDAY

I'm using Kat's theme photo (slightly, no sports) and begin with a larger group of men and boys. But can you guess what my main topic will be? No, not hats, although there will be some......

Photography by - Lewis Wickes Hine
Okay, ignore a few lads smoking cigarettes, (just trying to be cool) but isn't this just the greatest bunch of young men you've ever seen- just enjoying be alive?
Of course I never had the pleasure of meeting the photographer Lewis Wickes Hine, he died way before I was born, but- just by his photographs, he had to have a great personality with his subjects!

Okay can you guess by this next photo, what my main attraction is?

Yes they're young men- in hats, and two are

smoking a pipe!

About our theme this week.
If you look closely you'll notice..... one man is smoking a pipe. I find the gent in the coat and white shorts rather curious, as he's holding his hand up to his ear like he's on a cell phone.

(As a matter of fact, I was thinking about going with men in white shorts, but it really only appears odd to me in this photo, where everyone else is dressed up over mostly in long pants.)