Weekly Short Stories Contest and Company! discussion

That was quite a blast, M! All of us got addicted to playing poker and we watched a series of horror movies.

UK was a mixed bag, I had my brushes with bad luck as well. I survived inclement weather, a dangerous case of food poisoning and a pretty bad racial attack.

The best times of course were when I stayed in London for a period of six months. The night life was amazing and I celebrated the new year in the tower bridge, dancing in the freezing cold with total strangers as we enjoyed the fire works near the Big Ben and the House of Parliaments. Basically, it threw me out of my comfort zone and that was the best thing that happened to me.

That sounds like a fun college, M. The college I'm going to is a church college: BYU-I. It's still in Idaho, but it's got snow, and it's far away from where I live now. Thanks :D I'll be sure to try and have fun :D

I understand how you feel Al ;D

Follow up to M's post #1995:

water is the quintessential
elixir of life, but
rum is the magic potion.

they clink and wage a war,
on the rocks, but they
kiss each other goodnight.

To kiss each other
goodnight, first they must half wreck
the house in a fight.

After they’re red-faced
with rum, they like a tussel
before what’s to come.

Nice, M! Tough to follow that.

Thank you, Ajay! Yours (like your stories and poems) have a wonderful sophistication I thoroughly enjoy.

Thanks, M!

Alex found Frank a
tad too smug. Miffed but smirking,
she turned with a shrug.

What would get under
his skin she had hidden in
the potato bin.

God, yes! It’s always the legs.

Ajay, Al, M, what an absolutely delightful thread! Al, popcorn in Haiku!? Yikes, what will we do with that Frank?

He's an average guy,
against all her hopes and dreams,
just not what he seems.

Professor: And here is what can be easily described as a typical case of transference hysteria.
Pandora: Ridiculous! You have obviously been reading too much Freud.
Professor: Not possible.
Pandora: Delusion, my half-educated moron, is always the other guy's problem. And Freud's theories were made to delude by putting all of human experience into tiny boxes. We like simple answers, especially if they absolve us from taking personal responsibility for our behaviours.
Professor: For someone without proper schooling, you really do sound like a liberal patsy.

Thank you Al. Transposed words. Fixed now. Typing on iPad sucks.

I'm writing popcorn on the Pad. I swear that it takes me ten times as long to write it than on a proper keyboard.

Alex (Al) wrote: “Frank: And the sun bronzed melons! . . .”

I’m shocked, simply shocked.

I can’t laugh and be shocked at the same time.

“Neithre can I!” she
started yelling, although with
the British spelling.

LoL! And I wasn't at all shocked by Al's golden melons. But I am Canadian, and so all I thought was 'How gaudy'. LoL.

"Neithre can I" said
the comment telling me that
it was rather like

American spel-
ling, I tried to defend her
said, "me to." well oops.

LoL! Al, it would seem you have become destructively addicted to popcorn. How? What? Why? There are no answers, but some very bad Haiku.

Her melons of gold
were such a sight to behold
that they stopped Frank cold.

'Why are you so bold,
only after you've been told
you won't reach the gold?'

CJ, I laughed at yours! Too funny.

Guy, you’re the first to rhyme every line of two stanzas!

Alex, after such
banter of bronze melons, watched
Frank go for the gold!

Rolling her eyes, she
picked up a decanter, and
knocked the doctor cold.

Al, this is so funny and on point! And a big WOW to your rhyming scheme here: can/man & me/key. It was so natural it almost went unnoticed. Excellent!

LoL! And, yes, that includes laughing at Frank, but mostly not. Mostly. LoL!

My wife keeps interrupting me this morning, and so I haven't had a chance to respond to M's (and your) stories. But maybe I'll actually sit down, now, and finish the story I started — four topics ago! Yikes.

She’d locked him in the
cedar closet, where his clothes
smelled ever more rank.

He’d had something planned--
what was it?--but now the
situation stank.

Thank you, Alex!

So it came to pass
that from cedar and urine,
Frank left the closet.

The burley P.I.
who fell into the rank case
witnessed the rebirth.

I think this is one of the best ones posted so far! It sounds like something that might be read at the beginning of one of those melodramatic 1940’s movies or a serialized radio show. It will be hard to follow!

Though not exactly
the birth of Venus, Frank leapt
from that reeking hell,

but Alex slammed the
door on his *bleep*, and what he
screamed, I mustn’t tell.

Really? M, that is funny! And also the effect I was going for. LoL.
But not as funny as yours! Great follow-up. I'm thinking Frank is going to be even more unhappy.

Boss and I just got back from the city, where I bought some dark-chocolate-covered espresso beans at a specialty shop.

Alex, I’m sorry you lost your message. What a nuisance! I lost so many things I tried to post on GR that I long ago gave up writing even the shortest messages in the comment box. I write them in a Word file I named “E-mail drafts” then paste them into the comment box. I’ve been doing it so long now, it’s almost automatic.

Alison: Do I get under your skin as much as Frank does Alex’s?
M: (Looks at the camera.) Do many people in world speak Chinese?

I just realized what thread I posted #2064 in. I thought I was in the Pandora thread.

Poor Frank! He’ll never feel the same again about closets.

I can’t remember why Frank loathes his father.

Nikara: You kinda hafta feel sorry for Frank after that.
Sara: Unless you go back and read all the other comments.
Nikara: Even then.
Sara: Hey. Like father like son.
Kyra: (gasping) SARA WELCSH, YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT THIS SECOND, MISSY, OR SO HELP ME, I WILL NEVER GIVE YOU YOUR NAIAD POWERS BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sara: (wincing) Yes, ma'am. My only point is, Frank likes cheating on Al...
Nikara: Sara!
Sara: And then he wanted the whiskey right then...
Nikara: SARA!!! That's different.
Kyra: Go apologize NOW, Sara.
Sara: (pouting) Oh, fine. (disappears)
Nikara: I'm worried about that one.
Kyra: Yeah. I think I'm giving her a little too much free reign in her stories.

O how Alison
does abuse the poor sap for
whom she is a muse.

O how I’d chortle,
applaud with glee, except that
the poor sap is me!

Sara: I'm back.
Kyra: And you apologized to Frank.
Sara: Yup. Gave him some whiskey. Cleared him right up.
Nikara: (headdesk)
Kyra: (groaning) Now, go apologize to poor Al.
Sara: God, you people!!! (disappeared again)

Alex (Al) wrote: "Frank: I'll show you what I think of you people...! In haiku form of course.

(Clears throat.)

M, the "innocent"
poetical pastor went
to see Guy the "dear"

fushigi master,
but I could see that t..."

RotFL! Brilliant!
Guy: [Bows low, in a gesture of deep respect, to Al. Completely ignores Frank.]

At one time the 'double' post post was quite common. One time I saw a rare quadruple post.

And, you are welcome. Soooooooo funny! And really excellent Haiku, too!

Good night. Have fun @ school tomorrow. And learn something! LoL.

M wrote: "O how Alison
does abuse the poor sap for
whom she is a muse.

O how I’d chortle,
applaud with glee, except that
the poor sap is me!"

LoL! Brilliant M.

Al, M, Kyra, nice popcorn with the Haiku! LoL. What a great way to end my day before going to bed.

Okay, M. Here is my lily livered effort!


Whether tis nobler
to be a big sap or
to hire a P.I.

is the big question.
To be dead, perchance to dream
of quiet freedom

Far from her harsh eyes;
To be chased in a film noir
by Katherine Hepburn.

Alex (Al) wrote: "
M, the "innocent"
poetical pastor went
to see Guy the "dear"

fushigi master,
but I could see that t..."

I re-read that, again, and again I burst out in laughter. It is soooooo funny!

Don't feel awful! It was perfect, and perfectly in Frank's character. I, in fact, take it as a bit of compliment that he would find me of that ilk! LoL.

I keep itching to get to popcorn to respond, but keep getting distracted. I've got another weird fushigi thing to add to my latest book blog — see my next post for a taste. And I want to blog my recent web publication and... well. On my positive side, I don't have any stats homework to do. Nor am I limited to writing on a kindle!

I see I have some catching up to do on the haiku thread! But some of us old bastards have to press clothes early in the morning . . .

He languished into
dreams of sin, of scenes in films
noirish and tawdry,

unbuttoning a
cool Katharine, then a faint-
ly smiling Audrey.

Thanks, Alex!

Swagger wasn’t his
style, the smug lines driveled by
cool macho phonies.

He hid behind cards
while his courage shriveled like a
mummy’s cajones.*

*Thank you to Guy for this marvelous phrase!