Third Sunday “Write” Groceries De-Listed

This is one way it’s been touted in the past:  Stretch your writing muscles with prompts, exercises, and activities.  Open to all Writers Guild members, this drop-in, generative workshop is led by local writers on the third Sunday of every month.  It’s the Bloomington Writers Guild’s “Third Sunday Write” (cf. February 16, November 18, et al.), transformed like other Writers Guild features by COVID-19.  In this case gone to Facebook at a private site where, with prompts posted a few days before, we can pick a favorite, post the result of what we made from it (hint:  in my case, not only essays about cats), and garner “comments” from other members.

So it’s working out kinks and, as in the past, won’t be reported here as a regular thing.  Exercises, for instance, may have only benefited me, or, in the best cases, may have resulted in micro stories, or ideas for stories, to be kept by me in the hope they will sell.  But then there are a few times like this week (the second I’ve participated in in its new electronic manifestation) where what’s resulted is an essay which might provide some fun in its own right — or, in this case, a list to answer the prompt:  “Wander the aisles of your favorite store in your imagination.  Create a grocery list describing each item and what you will use it for.”

Thus for, technically, tomorrow’s serving:  There’s the pet food aisle, the 60-pound bags of Octopus Chow for those of us who have aquariums, its variant Squid Chow with a selection of dyes when a change of ink color might be desired, and the ever more popular Giant Clam Chow with its “skin diver” flavor an obvious favorite.  These are often in kibble form for an addition of water and mixing at home, but beware the mistake new pet owners make of just sprinkling the food into the home tank as if it were just an oversized bowl of ordinary goldfish.  No, for mollusks one must premix their food into a sort of slurry, seasoning it perhaps with a quart or two of mammalian blood for the aggressive pet — human is nice, but antelope blood from the Big Cat shelf will do in a pinch.  The thing is, especially for bivalves that feed through a filter, chunks alone won’t pass completely through. And of course, for your larger octopus, you’ll want a sort of semi-solid still thick enough to give tentacles something to grasp on.