Don’t Spoil The Broth . . . Trim The Fat May 21, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Blogs & Blogging, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Blogs, Word Play, Writing, Writing Exercises
22 comments
Whether you’re focused on fiction or fashion or food, details spice up your writing and make readers come back for seconds.
And thirds.
Nancy Curteman (Global Mysteries) offers up 10 sweet and savory examples designed to make scenes and stage-settings glow with energy and life:
10 Ways Details Can Spice Up Your Writing
BAM!
Just remember, whether you’re cooking in the kitchen or at the keyboard, moderation is key ~ too many seasonings competing for attention results in a mixed up muddled up puddle of a mess . . . a/k/a mud!
That’s boring.
And, as Eric points out with humor, charm, and chutzpah, boring is bad:
Writers have it easy compared to cooks. When something isn’t working, we can exercise our editing muscles to excise the excess . . . we can trim the fat.
In contrast, if too many cooks spoil the broth by adding too much salt to the stew, they find themselves in a real pickle.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Quote to Ponder: I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. ~ Blaise Pascal
Why “O” Rather Than A, E, I, or U? May 20, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Food & Drink, Fun & Games, Humor, Word Play.Tags: Cheerios, Cheetos, Doritos, Food, Fritos, Humor, Word Play
33 comments
Cheerios packaging sold in the U.K. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
While munching a bunch of Fritos, I began thinking about Doritos.
From there, my amusing musings continued on to Cheetos and Cheerios. And, of course, SpaghettiOs.
What is it about “O” that has allowed it to corner the market as the preferred ending vowel sound for food?
Why are we all urged to “give those O’s a go”? What does “O” have that A, E, I, and U are lacking?
Oh, sure, Italy got “I” in on the action:
We got your Ziti right here! And your Rigatoni, Spumoni, Macaroni, Cannoli, and Spaghetti.
But those “I’s” all sound like “E’s.”
Rigaton~E, Spumon~E, Ast~E Spumont~E.
So they don’t count.
Capiche?
Italy also got “A” some action with Pizza and Lasagna. But those “A’s” sound half-hearted. Pizz~UH, Lasag~nyUH. They don’t sound like “A” at all. Imagine if The Fonz had walked around saying “Uh!” instead of “Eh!” . . . Ferget About It!
And what about “E”? Rather a silent sort. Like nice white rice, “E” barely makes its presence known. Not like “O” which demands to be heard no matter how you pronounce it . . . Potato, Potahto, Tomato, Tomahto.
So what is it about “O”?
Why Gelato, not Gelata, Gelati, or Gelatu?
Why Jell-O?
Is it O’s shape . . . a huge gaping hungry open mouth shouting for MORE?
MORE! MORE! MORE!
Perhaps “O” implicitly gives snackers permission to abandon the mantra “less is more” (at least until “the remains of the bag” contain only crumbs too small for a mouse).
Does O’s uncanny resemblance to donuts, pies, cakes, and cookies cause marketeers (and Mouseketeers) to march to the beat of O’s round sound?
But it’s not just in the food arena where “O” makes its presence known.
Oh, no. ”O” has a book named after it ~ The Story of O.
And there have been two magazines titled “O.”
Ignoring A, E, I, and U (each waiting in the wings, ready to step into a Starring Role), Oprah went to court to fight for the right to use “O,” winning her trademark dispute in an epic Goliath vs. David battle.
Can any other vowel make these kind of claims?
NO! N~O!
Although, to be fair, “I” has quite a following among narcissists ~ the “I, Me, Mine” crowd.
But even narcissists abandon “I” and cry out to “O” during impassioned moments . . . O! O! O!
So, what is it about “O”?
I don’t know.
Maybe it just has a nice “ring” to it.
What say U?
Oh . . . that’s better!
3 Dudes Walk Into A Bar May 13, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Fun & Games, Humor, Joke, Word Play.Tags: Bartender, Bet, Food & Drink, Humor, Joke, WP Prompt
43 comments
Three dudes walk into a bar.Two of them grab a table while the third weaves over to the bar to order a round of drinks.
Bartender shakes his head, “Can’t serve ya. Yer already drunk.”
“Sez who?! I’m nots drunk and I can prove it.”
“How?”
“Set up a bottle at the far end of the bar. I’ll pee into it without mishing a drop. If I win the bet, you give us a round of drinks on the house.”
“Fair enough. But, if you lose, you owe me $100.”
“Deal.”
Wager accepted, the drunk took aim and fired.
As expected, he missed his mark by meters while the bartender laughed at having won the bet.
Unperturbed, the drunk zipped up, gave the bartender $100, then crossed the room to his waiting companions.
“Pay up, fellas! You each owe me $200! I told ya I could pee all over the bar while the bartender stood by and laughed.”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Holiday at The Dew Drop Inn May 11, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Writing & Writers, Word Play.Tags: Writing, Books, Word Play, Dew Drop Inn
18 comments
When I received this book as a child, I giggled at its title . . . and dove right in to the Dew Drop Inn.
Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn (third in the series, The Family from One End Street) describes Kate Ruggles’ summer holiday at the Dew Drop Inn.
The Family from One End Street beat out Tolkien’s The Hobbit to receive the 2nd annual Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s book by a British subject in 1937.
Seventy years later, a panel selected it for the Top Ten List of Medal winning works.
Eve Garnett wrote the series to address the social conditions of the working class in England at the time.
Have you met Kate?
Consistency is Over-rated May 10, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Poetry, Synchronicity & Mystery, Word Play.Tags: Consistency, Happiness, Poetry, Self-Esteem, Weekend Theme
29 comments
If a man admits
That a choice he made was wrong
Will he then be right?
Looking within leads
to the next best step . . . just start
and the way appears
Final walk-through: turn
in the keys and turn the page
as that chapter ends
Consistency is
over-rated . . . to become
whole, let go the past
An early morning
Up before the dawn, we yawn
As the full moon shines
Aah . . . that’s better!
Sidey’s Weekend Theme ~ Inconsistency
What You Lose on the Roundabout May 7, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Humor, Life Balance, Life Lessons, Word Play.Tags: Life Balance, Life Lessons, Roundabout, Weekend Theme, Word Play
41 comments
When I first saw Sidey’s weekend theme ~ Swings and Roundabout ~ I didn’t know what she was on about.
So I decided to sit this one out.
Reading Col’s post, A Really Awful Spin on a Pendulum, gave me a glimmer of an inkling.
He shared an expression that no one had ever expressed or uttered before in my presence:
“What you lose on the swings you gain on the roundabout.”
As it turns out, the expression, and its vice versa, is British/Australian.
Here, in the USA, we tend to say, “you win some, you lose some.”
However you express the thought, it’s all about maintaining balance (and our sense of humor) in the face of life’s inevitable twists and turns.
A swing roundabout Google led me to an intriguing book, What You Lose on the Roundabout, written by a 57-year-old Brit misdiagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease who did just that ~ maintained her sense of humor (and got a tattoo!).
Did ya hear that Rosie? . . . she got a tattoo! 
Aah . . . that’s better!
NASA’s “Out Of This World” Poetry Contest May 3, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Bulletin Board, Fun & Games, Humor, Poetry, Word Play.Tags: Contest, DVD, Earth, Haiku, Humor, Mars, MAVEN, NASA, Poetry
16 comments
Milka (Perfecting Motherhood) shared a link to an “Out of this World” poetry contest with me yesterday:
Send Your Haiku To Mars! NASA Seeks Poets
This stellar contest is open to everyone on Planet Earth. All submitted haiku must be in English, with three lines following the 5-7-5 syllable format.
An example from newscast anchor Dave Mattingly:
Mars, you planet red
No life, just craters and ice
Dark, dark, dark, dark, goose
He’s got my vote!
Three winning poets will be invited to send their haiku into outer space with NASA in November.
Everyone who enters will have their name included on the DVD.
The submission deadline is July 1. Starting July 15, the public will vote to select three winning poems to travel on the spacecraft’s DVD. Winners will be announced Aug. 8.
The poems will be accompanied on the MAVEN by student artwork, selected by popular vote in a separate contest.
What a great way to rocket to stardom, to launch your poetry career, to take your writing to the next level, and to boldly go where no haiku has gone before!
I can see your resume now . . . “partnered with NASA on the MAVEN mission.”
Illustrations: Wikipedia ~ MARS
For more details: Send Your Name and Message to MARS! and Contest Rules.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Terza Rima April 27, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Life Balance, Poetry, Word Play.Tags: Divine Comedy, Poetry, Rhyme, Rhyme scheme, Tercet, Terza Rima
46 comments
Have you ever written a Terza Rima?
A poem of three-line stanzas in which the end-word of the second line in the first tercet establishes the rhyme for the first and third lines in the following tercet and so on?
No? Me neither . . . until now.
Domenico di Michelino, La Divina Commedia di Dante (Dante and the Divine Comedy). 1465 fresco, in the dome of the church of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence (Florence’s cathedral). Dante Alighieri is shown holding a copy of his epic poem The Divine Comedy. He is pointing to a procession of sin. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
From Amazon:
The first known use of terza rima is in Dante’s Divina Commedia. In creating the form, Dante may have been influenced by the sirventes, a lyric form used by the Provençal troubadours. The three-line pattern may have been intended to suggest the Holy Trinity.
Inspired by Dante, other Italian poets, including Petrarch and Boccaccio, began using the form.
* * * * *
Here’s my first (and likely my last) Terza Rima:
Full Circle
Is reality a given?
How, now, did we arrive here?
To what heights have we striven?
Does clarity conquer fear?
Or leave us quaking in our boots
As we wander far and near?
Letting go and pulling up roots
To explore adventures ahead
We pursue our pursuits
Until we’re buried and dead
Pausing only to fall in love
To fall in love, heels over head
Distracted by heavens, above
Aah . . . that’s better!
So . . . you want to give it a go?
The poem can have as many stanzas as you’d like. The rhyme scheme (aba, bcb, cdc, ded, etc.) continues through the final stanza.
And if you’ve written a Terza Rima . . . share a link below.
The Power of Words April 25, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Life Lessons, Meditation, Mindfulness, Word Play.Tags: Meditation, Mindfulness, Words, Zen Wisdom
41 comments
A meditation master was asked to heal a sick child by saying a few prayers.
A skeptic scoffed at the idea that words could have such power.
The master replied, “What do you know? You’re an ignorant fool.”
Enraged, the skeptic shook with anger, “How dare you call me an ignorant fool!”
The master nodded and smiled, “If so few words have the power to anger you, why should they not have the power to heal as well?”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Paraphrased from The Zen of Eating, p. 113
Related post: Hidden Messages in Water
The Not-So-Great Gatsby April 24, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Characters, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, High school
63 comments
High School English mandated that “all” students read The Great Gatsby.
I didn’t care for it.
Fitzgerald’s characters left me cold.
Each of them seemed devoid of redeeming virtue.
This week, I read The Great Gatsby a second time because I wondered if I’d “missed the point” in high school.
I still didn’t care for it.
Fitzgerald’s characters didn’t make me care for them or their story.
Maybe I’m still “missing the point.”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Did you read it? What did you think?
