Recipe For A Smile, A Saturday Centus

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Saturday is finally here and time to abandon the tribulations of the work week and indulge in a little creative wordsmithing!

What better way to do this than to participate in week 157 of Saturday Centus, that award-winning literary meme that has the whole blogosphere raving with fervent delight.  Thanks to Jenny Matlock of her blog, “off on my tangent” for providing this wonderful creative outlet for writers of micro-fiction. 

The rules of this meme are to use the supplied prompt as written and no more than 100 extra words of your choosing to create a short story or poem.  Then post your work to Jenny’s Saturday Centus page so that the rest of us Centusians and ardent followers can read and enjoy your take on the week’s prompt.  

This week’s prompt is "Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat."  Yes, really!   So get your F. Scott Fitzgerald on and start writing!   I have dedicated this week's post to our wonderful host, Ms. Jenny, and entitled my effort for this week:

Recipe For A Smile

A warm and charming little place with an offbeat and colorful vibe, Jenny’s Café is a favorite indulgence of mine.  The walls are adorned with beautiful signs with uplifting quotes hand-painted by Jenny herself. 

The café’s specialty is delicious classic comfort food with a fun twist, always served with a smile and a side of humor.

One morning I asked Jenny how she made the “blackened pancakes” on the menu. 

“First melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat and ladle pancake batter in small circles.  Then respond to a text message from your friend and forget to flip the pancakes.”

“Works every time.” she quipped.

As a child my family's menu consisted of two choices: take it or leave it.

                                              -  Buddy Hackett

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Together We Can't Lose - A Saturday Centus

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This is my entry for week 156 of Saturday Centus, the literary brain-child of Ms. Jenny Matlock, bloggess extraordinaire and scintillating host of her blog off on my tangent.

The instructions for this week’s challenging meme are simply to take the supplied prompt, in this case, “Dear John,” plus an additional 100 words maximum of your own choosing (that’s 102 words total for those of you that were keeping score) and use them together to create a letter beginning with the prompt.

What can I say?  I couldn’t resist the chance to ply these waters once again.  I’m just a romantic at heart I guess.  I have entitled this week’s effort:

Together We Can't Lose

Dear John,

I know it’s been years since we were together, but the past doesn’t matter.

I need you by my side again. 

Even though no other self-respecting conservatives were willing to align themselves with me for fear of destroying what little credibility they may still have (I know, because I asked them all) I know that you, John, are not concerned about such silliness. 

We have a winning chemistry that can’t be denied. 

Well, not this time.

So what do you say, John?  Let’s do it again!  Palin/McCain in 2016! 

It’s our destiny, John. 

                                                

                                       Sarah

Together We Are Unstoppable

"The tea party nation announced last week that Sarah Palin will headline what is being called the first national tea party convention in February. It is expected to be the nation's largest ever gathering of misspelled signs."

–Seth Meyers

"Federal taxes last year went down for 98 percent of people, but when asked about this, only 12 percent of the Teabaggers thought this was the case. 88 percent of them had it wrong. And a spokesman for the Teabaggers said, 'We don’t want to just be taxed less. We want to be taxed less by a white guy."

–Bill Maher 

War Is Hell, A Saturday Centus

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It’s week 154 of Saturday Centus and time once again to write some mini-fiction as part of this fun and challenging literary meme by the incomparable Jenny Matlock.  So if you have a little time and one hundred words you aren’t using at the moment, you need to write them down along with this week’s prompt “It was the summer of 1974.”  Then post them to Jenny’s blog, off on my tangent, and share them with your fellow Centusians.  I have entitled this week’s post:

War Is Hell

It was the summer of 1974. 

The sun blazed overhead as Stevens and I slogged through the tall grass.

Our mission:  find Charlie and take him out.

The rat-a-tat-a-tat sounds of machine guns echoed through the trees.

Charlie was nearby. 

Smoke wafted by carrying the unmistakable whiff of burnt flesh.

We took positions behind a big rock beside the trail and waited.

Minutes passed like hours.

Finally our waiting was rewarded. 

Adrenaline kicked in.

Leaping from our position we caught Charlie by surprise.

“Rat-a-tat-a-tat-a-tat!  We got you Charlie!!”

“You win.  My mom wants me home now anyway.  Dad’s barbecuing chicken.”

“Okay, same time tomorrow, Charlie!”

In the summer of 1974 I was a mere 12 years of age, playing army, building forts, riding bikes, and having fun like all kids did back then.  I was generally oblivious to the madness surrounding the pointless and inane war in Vietnam and the corrupt abuses of power surrounding Watergate.  Wow, I am sure glad we learned our lessons from that genuinely absurd time in our history!   Who would want to live through that again, eh? 

Hmmmmm.

“Some parents say it is toy guns that make boys warlike. But give a boy a rubber duck and he will seize its neck like the butt of a pistol and shout "Bang!"”

George F. Will

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