Dermott Hayes's Blog: Postcard from a Pigeon, page 30

Mythical

 

Some words might have the same literal meanings but not mean the same, depending on how they’re used. For example, the story of a legend might be a legendary tale but what is the story of a myth, an account of an untrue story or is it a mythical tale?

 

Percolate.

 

Going to bed at night, washing his teeth; standing in the fishmongers where fish, their weight, freshness and value is discussed; walking from the medical clinic and before that, sitting in the doctor’s reception, staring, thinking. Walking to the shop for milk and bread. A writer grinds words to percolate.

Fish on a hook

 

Here he comes, fit to order. P.T. Barnum might’ve said there’s one born every day but that was then and the birthrate’s increased. We haggle, I feign reluctance first, then I tell him I’m not buying and start the walk away. He folds, I buy. A dud, I’m a fish.

Loft in the Gutter

 

When Oscar Wilde said we are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars, I suspect, like all his observations, there is more than one meaning intended. For example, Wilde didn’t assume there were people in life deserving of lofty position by right of birth.

 

Burning Disdain

 

What a nightmare , he thinks, two ex-girlfriends turn up on my last bachelor night to exact their revenge and no-one suspects because everyone thinks they’re lapdancers. But he’s caught on to their devious plan and a gas explosion settles it.

‘Did you know them?’,  cop asks.

‘Old flames,’ he answers.

Two Prompts in One.

On recent evidence, one fears the Daily Prompt bods have lost their lustre, their joi de vivre, their imagination. Either that or ennui has not just set in, become deep rooted and they’ve become vegetal or, and this is a long shot, they want to create a never ending sentence.

Did the Liberal Left get it wrong?

Jonathan Pie

The sneering response to Trump’s victory reveals exactly why he won

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/nov/09/donald-trump-white-house-hillary-clinton-liberals

Primp

 

So the votes are in, the decision’s been made. There’s no use crying about it. Democracy has spoken even when democracy has spoken in the oddest fashion. The person with the most votes hasn’t won. No, it was the primped person with the most electoral college votes. That’s US democracy.

NetGalley Access for Self-Publishers — Kristen Twardowski

Many of us are familiar with NetGalley and its ability to get advanced reading copies of books into the hands of reviewers, but what opportunities does an individual author have for partnering with NetGalley? NetGalley’s primary goal is to act as an online service connecting book publishers, reviewers, bloggers, and librarians. It facilitates the transfer […]

via NetGalley Access for Self-Publishers — Kristen Twardowski

The Writing’s on the Wall, but there’s no-one left to read it

You’ve got to hand to British comedian, Jonathan Pie, he did call it. The people of the United States of America have made their decision. Some people might call it the death of Democracy but, in truth, it’s long live Democracy.

Trump’s acceptance speech was far more gracious and conciliatory than people might give him credit for but it’s early days yet and while he’s been elected, he’s not in power, yet.

If this were musical chairs, there’s only one seat left and it’s going to get cutthroat now. Corporate America with either run or buy, it won’t fight. Corporate media has called the race for Clinton, long before it was over. Now watch them crawl.

All bets are off. The future’s full of opportunities, maybe not good ones, but opportunities, nonetheless because in a rigged game with all the odds stacked against him, the outsider’s brought home the bacon and brought all the pigs home with him, too.

While corporate media was writing the Republican party off as a spent and divided force, in disarray behind a misogynist, racist, megalomaniac, it’s the Democrats that look like a spent force today.

Remember the words of the Nobel Laureate,

The line it is drawn

The curse it is cast

The slowest now

Will later be fast

As the present now

Will later be past

The order is rapidly fading

And the first one now will later be last

Cause the times they are a-changing

Or, should I quote the Nobel Laureate manqué, Laughing Lenny himself,

Things are going to slide …

There’ll be the breaking of the ancient

western code

Your private life will suddenly explode

There’ll be phantoms

There’ll be fires on the road

and the white man dancing

You’ll see a woman

hanging upside down

her features covered by her fallen gown

and all the lousy little poets

coming round

tryin’ to sound like Charlie Manson

and the white man dancin’