Credits and Additional Information
It’s June…
Leave a reply
Tag Archives: #gmg1968
Four Line Fiction (2322)
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
This week’s image is a POV shot with the viewer standing in the basket looking up into a brightly coloured orange and yellow hot air balloon. A propane-fueled flame burns along the left edge of the image creating lift while the blue sky background fills the right third of the image.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
Click here for full rules and guidelines2321 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
2321 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
Baseball (and soccer) season is here. Not the pros, I mean for my kids.
Last weekend was spent following my daughter’s ‘Queens of the Diamond, tournament in Brantford. Man has she gotten good. Stellar defence and a beast (I’m sure she’d love the description) at the plate with four homers and a bunch of hits.
She makes me proud as both Team Ontario and Team Canada are scouting her to play for them. I don’t know how she does it. The time she spends practicing while maintaining grades in the high 90s.
Then there is my little guy. He is seven and plays t-ball and soccer. With my excellent guidance, he has the hardest and most accurate throw on the Cubs. Sometimes scarily so, it’s house league t-ball so there are a bunch of kids who have never played, can’t throw and can’t catch. When they are warming up or he’s making a throw to first I’m afraid he might maim one of them. Now if I could just get him to pay attention playing in the field. The dirt and gravel are like a magnet to little boys and girls and at any given moment 4 or 5 of the rugrats are playing in the dirt.
Between various kids sports, I managed to get my herbs planted and take a pile of garbage to the dump. The vegetable garden will have to wait until next week. The damned bushy-tailed rats a.k.a. squirrels have already dug up the parsley to bury nuts or something. They are a menace!
Another podcast listing week but I did find a great relaxation album to play at bed time. It includes the natural sounds of the great Dan Gibson. Gibson was a Canadian Environment Sound Recordist. His Solitudes series of recordings have sold over 20 million copies worldwide. Some contain the pure sounds of nature and others include relaxation music with the sounds of the natural world. A naturalist who turned his passion into a very successful business.
The week in review…
Fine and Dandy
Susan at Sillyfrog’s Blog gives us a tale of a grandson who unwittingly ends up in the middle of a row between his grandparents.
How I Almost Skidded Off the Path of Dreams
A reflection on how life has an uncanny knack of putting us right where we need to be written by Rockstar Girl at Is It Real or Fantasy.
Elixer
A fantastical trip into the world of wolves and magic and wolf by Paula at Light Motifs II.
By the Beach
Sadje at Keep It Alive gives us a poem that is a beautiful manual for life.
Was It You?
Fandango at This, That and The Other passing gas for our reading amusement!
More highlights from Greg’s Blog…
T-Shirt Wisdom Wednesday | The bi-weekly feature poking fun at selective hearing this week.
Green Mountain Gold | Written for Chel Owens Terrible Poetry Contest for May 2023. Still one of my favourite WordPress challenges.
Around the Blogosphere…
Winner of the Terrible Poetry Contest | Lots of cheesy, and I mean that literally as this month’s theme was Vermont Cheddar, poetry hosted by Chel Owens.
Next week…
Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction are on tap plus the launch of a new monthly feature. Have a great week everyone,
Credits and Additional Information
Green Mountain Gold
Green Mountain Gold
Vermont Cheddar, how could anything be terrible about that? The terroir and tang of regional cheeses with a great bottle of wine sound delightful. I’m in, who knows maybe too much wine will help with this month’s Terrible Poetry Contest! About that, Chel asks us to write a terrible limerick about this regional cheese. Two months ago I said let them eat cake, now I say let them eat cheese!!! on to the terribleness again…
From Vermont came a cheddar, behold
Legend has it, one heck of a mold
Big cheese curd not forstall
The coming Woodchuck brawl.
For a chance to taste Green Mountain gold.
And I’m off to make some nachos with melted cheese (and maybe chili!)
Credits and Additional Information
Four Line Fiction (2321)
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
This week’s Image comes from King Charles III’s coronation. It is a sea of military officers marching from top left to bottom right all wearing the red tunic and bearskin helmets best known in popular culture as the uniform worn by the Royal (or alternatively King’s) Guard outside Buckingham Palace.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
Click here for full rules and guidelines2320 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
2320 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
As a Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I have been watching the drama at Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (MLSE) unfold. Kyle Dubas the General Manager is out it what appears to be an ill-advised and poorly executed grab at power gone awry.
If you believe the story as masterfully woven by team President and former player Brendan Shanahan it might have been the worst play, much like the team’s feeble on-ice powerplay during the playoffs. With a newly negotiated contract all but done, except for the signatures, Dubas held his year-end press conference against Shanny’s better advice. During that presser, Dubas whose contract was set to expire July 1st revealed that he might not be interested in returning to Toronto (or anywhere else) for family reasons. It was a real tear-jerker where he outlined how it had been a difficult year and the pressures of the Leaf’s GM job were weighing heavily on his family’s shoulders. That would turn out to be his first mistake, publicly sowing the seed of doubt as to his commitment to the job and organization. It certainly had Shanny raising a Spockian eyebrow from his perch in the President’s office.
Strike two came after two days of radio silence when Dubas’ agent delivered a new proposal that significantly altered the all-but-finalized deal Shanny and the Leaf brass believed was in place. More power, more money, or both – nothing has been fully confirmed but there is no doubt it was some combination of the two that clearly made the Monday press conference look like a powerplay where Dubas used his family as pawns in his high-stakes plan. Shanny and the MLSE board of directors would certainly have some decisions to make.
In the mids of that process, Dubas once again reached out to the Leafs, presumably realizing the gaff he and his agent had made and sent Shanahan an email saying he was ready to sign the original deal and get back to work as the Leafs GM. Later that morning Shanny drove out to Dubas’ office at the Leafs training center in Etobicoke and informed Dubas the MLSE had decided to move in a different direction.
And just like that the Dubas era was over in Toronto. Shanahan feeling as though the unknown guy from the Soo Greyhounds he took a flyer on nine years earlier had knifed him in the back. The fans who wanted blood were partially appeased after an embarrassing second-round exit from the quest for Lord Stanley’s Cup. Still, the structural problem Dubas leaves behind because of the dollars being spent on the “Core 4” (Matthews, Marner, Tavares and Nylander) will be an albatross for anyone new stepping into the position.
My week has been spent in training at work. It has left me sore and aching all over. This out-of-shape guy is getting too old for that kind of physical stuff. I did certify for another three years so that part is good. And I did get a couple of new posts up as well. Woohoo!
This week wasn’t a music week. I spent most of my listening credits catching up on my favourite podcasts including Ologies, Startalk, The Bob McCown Podcast, The Gibby Show and Hidden Brain. As for music, I heard Louis and Ella singing Dream A Little Dream at Starbucks the other day. What a dynamic duo they made.
The week in review…
A Mother’s Fortune
A touching story of the joy our children bring us by Susan at Sillyfrog’s Blog.
Simply
A poem of reflection written by ve poem written by Rebecca at Is It Real or Fantasy.
Took Us Long Enough
A continued exploration of love in Rockstar Girl’s Love Part 2 series posted at Where Stories Can Spark Their Magic.
He’s My Brother
The family you are stuck with as demonstrated by Fandango at This, That and the Other
Buzzkill
The silence of missing bees creates quite a buzz in Paula at Light Motifs II story.
Unveiling the Power of Simplicity
A reminder of how effective simplicity can be in our lives by Pankaj Kumar at The Inkwell.
Good News
Sadje at Keep It Alive captures the anxiety of an old techie looking for work in a young person’s game.
William the Ant
A bad day for William and his fellow colonists written by Echoes of the Soul at My Tales Within.
The Big Swim
Paula at Light Motifs reminds us of what it was like to swim across the pool on our own for the very first time.
They Ignored the Warnings
Fandango gives us a dose of reality if we don’t act to stop or even reverse the warming trend we’ve brought upon our world.
More highlights from Greg’s Blog…
Contextus Indignus | Written for Girlie On the Edge’s Six Sentence Stories and Fandango’s One Word Challenge.
Bowdlerizing-Is-Censorship | Written for Fandango’s Provocative Question.
Around the Blogosphere…
Ummm…
Next week…
Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and T-Shirt Wisdom are on tap plus hopefully some new original content.
In other news, I am considering launching a new monthly challenge in June or July. Something to allow the writer freedom to explore and develop longer stories. Stay tuned.
Have a great week everyone,
Credits and Additional Information
Bowdlerizing is Censorship
Bowdlerizing is Censorship
Every week Fandango over at This, That and the Other posts a provocative question. This week’s question is…
“Do you think that the metrics the Academy Awards will start applying in 2024 regarding the composition of at least 30% of the cast and crew by under-represented groups in order for a film to even qualify for the Best Picture Oscar nomination is appropriate? Or, do you share Richard Dreyfuss’ opinion that because filmmaking is an art form, imposing such criteria in order for a film to even be considered for an Oscar is inappropriate?“
It is as ridiculous as the publishing world rewriting books to conform to today’s politically correct woke-driven standards. It is a form of censorship that we cannot allow to happen. I believe the best people applying for the position should be employed. I’m not naive, I fully understand that there are bigoted factions in society and sometimes affirmative action initiatives are appropriate. There are other ways to ensure a representative workforce. Stifling art is not the place it should be applied.
Art must be judged on its merit, not on a headcount of arbitrarily delineated categories of people. Salman Rushdie said it best of the literary world at the 2023 British Book Awards when he was talking about publishers re-writing works by authors such as Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl. “Books have to come to us from their time and be of their time, and if that’s difficult to take, don’t read them. Read another book, but don’t try and remake yesterday’s work in the light of today’s attitudes.”
While Hollywood may not be re-editing or updating older works there is a push to rewrite the screenplays of the stories Rushdie talks about to conform to today’s rules. I point to the example of The Aeronauts, a fictional film based on the true history of scientists James Glaisher and Henry Tracy Coxwell. When the screenplay was being written and the cast chosen there was a conscious effort to replace Henry Tracy Coxwell with the fictional Amelia Wren (the name of the character, no doubt chosen to mimic that of female heroine Amelia Earheart, only serving to further muddle the true history) to make the film more inclusive. Essentially rewriting the past for public consumption and to an audience that will take it as a fact and never consider looking up the real history.
While I believe that all people who are qualified should be able to apply and work in the film industry (or any industry) I suspect the new rules the Academy will impose only encourage more bowdlerizing of art and history and that is a form of censorship that cannot be tolerated.
Credits and Additional Information
Four Line Fiction (2320)
Welcome to Four Line Fiction, a pix-to-prose challenge. Each Tuesday, at 9:00am Eastern Time (Canada/United States) I will post an image I have captured myself, featured from another blog or plucked from one of the Interweb’s many royalty-free image sites. You as the writer are to use that image as a point of inspiration to craft a masterpiece of fiction in four lines.
This week’s Image is of the Statue of Liberty washing away on the crest of a large wave rolling across a swollen Hudson River/Atlantic Ocean while a flooded New York City looms in the background.
Be creative and have fun. I look forward to reading the tales you spin. Don’t forget to show your fellow bloggers some love -❤️- take some time to read, like, and comment on their masterpieces.
Click here for full rules and guidelines2319 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
2319 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
Driving into work on this Sunday, Mother’s Day I find myself listening to Levar Burton, yes that LeVar Burton of Star Trek and Roots fame. I have dipped into the show’s archive and found “The Paper Menagerie”, one of my favourite short stories from the LeVar Burton Reads podcast.
The Paper Menagerie is a gut-wrenching story of a boy born to an American father and his mail-order bride from Hong Kong. Although I can not relate to the struggles of being a “half-breed” in white America and all the negative connotations that come with that in late 20th-century America, I can understand the struggle between generations. The animosity between a child and a parent. Ken Liu crafts an emotionally charged world of sorrow and struggle offset by the magic of his Mother’s origami animals. This Nebula, Hugo and World Fantasy Awards winner seemed a perfect fit for Mother’s Day.
Speaking of Mother’s Day, in one of the more politically correct, woke, NO – just plain moronic twists one of the local school boards has ordered the removal of a Mother’s Day sign that Grade Six students had come up with.
Some including Gad Saad a Canadian professor and author who suggested “Mother’s Day is too exclusionary. Please be sensitive for community cohesion.”
To appease the few at the expense of the many, the sign was replaced with a less offensive message.
Make this month count.
Accomplish your goals.
You can do this.
The school’s first attempt at posting the new message contained a blatantly misspelled Acomplish / Accommplish / Acommplish. Perhaps more time on reading and writing and less time on social engineering should be the order of the day!
Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident.
School boards across this country have cancelled Mother’s and Father’s Day over concerns of inclusivity. Corporations have opted to forgo advertising campaigns or allow subscribers to opt out of receiving such materials and governmental agencies, universities, and mainstream publications now frequently refer to “pregnant people” or even “birthing people” instead of mothers.
“As we continue to learn and recognize the importance of celebrating all people in our community, we have moved away from isolated observances of specific traditions like Mother’s and Father’s Day,” the vice principal of Kildonan East Collegiate, a public high school in Winnipeg, Manitoba, wrote in a memo.
Of course, this is all ridiculous. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom. I am sorry that the generations since yours have messed this world up so bad that we can’t even show our appreciation for the person who brought us into this world.
:format(webp)/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/sports/leafs/2019/09/11/the-leafs-arent-looking-for-rock-star-treatment-when-camp-opens-in-st-johns/leafs_matthews_golf.jpg)
I won’t trouble you with any Maple Leafs talk this week although I heard that Auston and Mitch (Marner) scored a combined three-under at Glen Abbey. That’s three more birdies than goals scored by Matthews against the Florida Panthers.
The Sam Roberts Band out of Montreal released some new music recently that I heard for the first time this week. The new single Picture of Love is a great listen.
The week in review…
Doing An Investigative
A naughty romance story penned by Paula at Light Motifs II
Splashdown
The perils of one of the most dangerous times for an astronaut, re-entry and recovery written by Fandango at This, That and the Other.
Better Sorry Than Safe
A stream-of-consciousness piece about love written by Rockstar Girl at Where Stories Can Spark Their Magic
Sol
Rebecca at Is It Real or Fantasy gives us a poem with some powerful imagery
Weightlessness
Experience the emotion of a Mother’s worst nightmare with Susan at Sillyfrog’s Blog.
Childhood Magic
A skillful juxtaposition of time and our youth by Sadje at Keep It Alive.
More highlights from Greg’s Blog…
Around the Blogosphere…
Ummm…
Next week…
Five Word Weekly, Four Line Fiction and at least one original piece. Consider that last one a challenge to myself since it’s been pretty barren at the blog lately.
In other news, I am considering launching a new monthly challenge in June or July. Something to allow the writer freedom to explore and develop longer stories. Stay tuned.
Have a great week everyone,
Credits and Additional Information
2318 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
2318 – Sunday Digest: The Week in Review
I attempted to respond to Fandango’s provocative question last week but as has become the norm of late, life and all its twists left the piece uncompleted. Even Sunday Digest got left behind and so I will combine the two into this week’s “Tuesday Digest”.
How do you feel about this topic? Do you believe that gender has a biological basis defined exclusively by chromosomes, genitalia, and internal plumbing? Or do you believe that “male” and “female” are merely socially conditioned behaviors and that gender is purely a subjective experience of identity? What are your thoughts?
Fandango’s Provocative Question #212
Many will not like my view on the gender dilemma sweeping the planet…
We can quibble over sex and gender and their meanings, origins and entwined evolution in the English language ad nauseam. It changes nothing.
Everyone is born as we are into this world just as our God, Mother Nature or the alien race that seeded the galaxy intended. Evolution is a messy convoluted process with unlimited variation. It is a science experiment and we are the subjects. Our double helix, right-hand twisting DNA strands are forever being manipulated and re-sequenced in the petri dish of life.
Nature’s overarching mission is to genetically engineer changes to benefit the species over millennia and with a singular goal – SURVIVAL. As with any experiment, some adaptations will make the species stronger, some will yield no evolutionary advantage, while others may prove detrimental. It is the scientific method at its purist yet most brutal extremes. None of it is relevant on an individual level. I carry one of those detrimental mutations in my DNA. It fuels a relatively benign auto-immune disorder with a possible small role in determining when I depart from this world. Who are we to determine which adaptations nature renders desirable or abhorrent. Especially based on the definition of a few words in the English language. Humans love to catalogue, categorize and assign value but in reality, we are not very well suited to judge the Universe’s grand design.
I believe people should be allowed to live as they are. Accepted the way they were created. For there is beauty in all our forms. Take the idea of transitioning, the entire process is predicated on preconceived notions of biological sex and gender norms. Just because we can alter biological sex (at least on the surface) doesn’t mean we should rewrite the book. The more viable path to physical and psychological well-being would be to accept who you are, as you are. More importantly, society needs to embrace everyone as they are and accept the gifts each and every one of us contributes to the human experience.
I am not a fool, I understand the need for limits, laws, and established societal norms to maintain order. We can’t allow murders, pedophiles, and the various monsters that haunt our nightmares to roam free but that is not what we are discussing. As long as people are loving, accepting, and mutual in heart and mind why do we care what the definition of gender, biological sex, sexual orientation or any other term is. The fact remains those identifying as transgender comprise a relatively small number of individuals. Why we have allowed this topic to dominate the news is mind-boggling. It seems blatantly obvious that if we just love and accept everyone as they are there is no issue.
A couple of updates. Last week’s Digest covered my binge-watch of “The Last Kingdom.” After some of your comments, I broke down and watched the movie “Seven Kings Must Die” and was pleasantly surprised. It was entertaining and also held to the history better than I’d expected. It did a great job of wrapping up the series and I’d recommend watching it.
After exorcising their first-round demons my (no I don’t own them) Toronto Maple Leafs have managed to fall flat on their faces. With Boston’s early departure the Leafs, who haven’t won a cup since 1967 (the year before I was born) have dropped three straight to the Florida Panthers and have look gawd awful doing it. This team has the talent but clearly lacks something – heart, intestinal fortitude, desire – because they have not only lost all three games, they have failed to even show up. Nothing short of a miracle will prevent their exit from Lord Stanley’s tournament, I predict it will be golf season as soon as tomorrow night.
This week was a Death Cab for Cutie kinda week musically. In particular, the Dan Gibbard fronted Seattle outfit’s Plans album which included the classics Crooked Teeth and Soul Meets Body.
The week in review…
Echos of the Past
A poem of reflection on the past by Piper at Piper’s Adventures
A View Through the Window
A story of regret and courage written by Sadje at Keep It Alive.
Sunrise Surprise
A beautiful poem by Sadje at Keep It Alive.
More highlights from Greg’s Blog…
Zip, Zilch, Zero although it was a good week statistically. Lots of views and likes for older posts. Was it new fans or bots? I haven’t investigated so I am not sure.
Around the Blogosphere…
Ummm…
Next week…
Due to the tardiness of Sunday Digest, the new Five Word Weekly and Four Line Fiction have already posted. T-Shirt Wisdom will drop tomorrow…
Have a great week,
Credits and Additional Information
Greg's Blog 