Succinctly Yours Week 161: Bizarre Backyard Buildings

Hooray for Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the picture to tell a story in 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word was “keel.” I think my cluelessness this week actually helped. Because I have no idea what the man is building, I came up with four.

When Ed said he wanted to move to a high-rise, Winnie said sure, as long as it was in their nice, wooded backyard. She keeled over when she saw how Ed planned to get his way. (139 words.)

Angry Ed thought of the perfect way to prank the phone company. They’d keel over when he called and told them their telephone poles were growing along with his bill. (136 words.)

Winnie was happy her Ed had a hobby. But she thought she’d keel over when she saw what he meant by “building a bigger backyard birdhouse.”  (130 words.)

The people of Maple Street said Ed wasn’t walking an even keel when he built that gigantic bird feeder. The people of Sesame Street begged to differ. (123 words.)

Don't stand too close to a squirrel, Billy. You'll catch its stupid.~Billy's Mom in Spongebob Squarepants

A Message in Coconut Sorbet

I smiled, standing there in the frozen food case, with a cloud of cold fogging the glass freezer doors and a flush of warmth rising up in my heart. Someone had oh-so-carefully taped a little message to the lid of a carton of coconut sorbet that I was getting ready to put into my grocery cart.

Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.

I had heard the saying before, and now I liked it all over again. It seemed serendipitous that I had picked it, like a bright flower in a cold winter. It’s not that I was depressed or even upset in any way, but I love, love, love little messages from strangers. They remind me that there is kindness in the world that exists for the sake of kindness alone. They remind me that even small things can spread in a big way. They remind me we are all connected somehow.

But why the sorbet? Did this person think that anyone desperate enough to buy it must be depressed? And why the coconut?

I’ll never know. What I do know is that someone out there is sending inspirational messages to others. And that is always a treat.

Luminous beings are we…not this crude matter. ~Yoda

Succinctly Yours Week 160: Drawn In

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the picture to tell a story in 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word was “subsist.” Mine this week has 135 characters.

In order to get their corsets laced, Amelia and Fanny resolved to subsist on Dr. Snakoyl’s Magic Reducing Pills. Eventually the potion would be known as Tic Tacs. 

I usually use quotes I've collected, but this time I went out searching for an appropriate quote since nothing came to mind. And how glad I am that I found this gem. Hope you have a great week!

A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience. Dieting is the most potent political sedative in women’s history; a quietly mad population is a tractable one. ~Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty are Used Against Women

Succinctly Yours Week 159: A Picture is Worth...140 Words

Thank you to Grandma’s Goulash for hosting Succinctly Yours! The idea of this meme is to use the picture to tell a story in 140 words or 140 characters. The bonus word was “yearn.” I cheated and changed the bonus word's tense. I have two this week, at 118 and 96 characters.

Ever the narcissist, Joey liked to point out his picture for tourists. He yearned for them to say his good looks knew no bounds. 

Ever the ham, Joanne liked to pose next to her picture for tourists. She yearned to have that audience in her pocket. 

He had an opinion of himself, I think, that was too high for his own good.  Or maybe it was the reverse.  Maybe it was a low opinion that he kept trying to erase.  ~Tim O’Brien, The Things They Carried