Author: tallthinman72

One Big Rink

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Daily writing prompt
If you could relive one day from your past, which day would it be and why?
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It’s really difficult to narrow it down to one. I guess I’ll go with a day during winter when the whole pond near our house was like glass, totally skateable across its entire length and width. Those conditions were rare, but when they happened, it was a day like no other. My brother and I both called out from work the last time it happened while we were still living at home.

We’d lace up, grab a stick and a puck, and skate until we could hardly stand. There was nothing quite like that. It was exhilarating. Such freedom of movement, total joy.

Project 2025

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Imagine how much attention is paid to making sure the distractions keep on coming. I’m surprised there isn’t a DOGE-like effort to refresh the daily list of ways Trump and the rest can lead us down the next rabbit hole while they burn another bridge or sabotage the next agency that’s been doing necessary work but suddenly finds itself somehow irrelevant and too costly to fund.

Silly me. There’s already a blueprint for that.

Tearjerkers

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Daily writing prompt
What’s the last movie that made you cry?
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I haven’t watched a current movie in a while, so I guess it would be a couple of scenes in The Help, which we happened to come across on TNT or some such place.

The splashdown scene in Apollo 13 always gets me, maybe because Ed Harris’s Gene Krantz sinks into a chair and lets the tears flow knowing he and the crew were successful on their watch, turning potential disaster into a major triumph.

And though I haven’t seen it in a while, the concert scene at the end of Mr. Holland’s Opus always opens the flood gates.

Loss Leader

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He’s filthy rich, allegedly. He’s 80 years old, and appears to want to remain in the Oval Office for the rest of his life.

Why?

It’s obviously not because he loves his job and loves America and is such a fan of playing by the rules. So maybe it has something to do with what awaits him when he can’t play President and utter decrees from behind the Resolute Desk any longer.

One would think that much in the way of litigation and criminal prosecution await him, for starters. Of course, he has a knack for stringing things out, tying things up in court, so he’ll probably engage in that for a good part of whatever life he has left after shitting on just about everything and everybody since 2015.

Something that may keep him up at night is a fear of all the chickens coming home to roost. He hasn’t exactly been careful when it comes to burning bridges. I wonder if his “human printer” has to accompany him to the bathroom for his late-night tweet storms.

It’s a shame he’ll continue to get Secret Service protection, unless someone turns the table and withdraws it just to spite. Sorry, Donald, you evoke next to no sympathy.

You’re a true rotter, because unlike the Grinch, you are unrepentant, maybe even unredeemable.

… in its tracks

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The ridiculousness will continue unabated, and we will continue turning up our noses and shaking our heads and at some level putting up with it, because it feels like no amount of disgust and revilement ever truly matters.

This is the way it’s been since 2015, since those halcyon days when we might have held out the slimmest hope that Donald Trump would surprise us and actually rise to the occasion. It didn’t take long to realize this wasn’t going to happen, or that it was already too late.

It didn’t stop people from raising red flags, trying to warn the general public of the folly of believing the guy. It hasn’t stopped certain networks and an army of pundits and stand-up comics from daily ragging on him and belittling him for bad hair and cankles and ugly hands and too much bronzer—the kind of stuff we resorted to when we were in 3rd grade.

More substantive critique has been plentiful, but it hasn’t really moved the needle toward Congressional disgust and a visceral resolve to rid us of the source of so much pain and pestilence.

Trump is getting worse by the day, so the slightest whiff of malfeasance should set off alarms that lead to denying him, his “human printer” and the rest of the misfits any more traction.

Sometimes A Sad Lot

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Daily writing prompt
If you could erase one event from history, what would it be?
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The Holocaust, slavery. There’s no shortage of candidates. Since I have to choose one, it would be the nuclear bomb.

I realize it might have led to consequences regarding the ceasing of hostilities with Japan in WWII, but we’d be better off without the leverage and threat, without the specter of annihilation hanging over our heads every day, not to mention the waste of trillion$ on its development and essentially worldwide procurement.

Doubt and Mistrust Have Crept In

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a conspiracy theory you actually find believable?
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As time passes, I feel as though the assassination of John F. Kennedy has earned its place as an unsettled case. Early on, I took the Warren Commission report as gospel, but I’ve since come to realize that cover-up in general is not beyond the purview of most any government, especially in the case of an earth-shattering event such as this. And though 95% of the documentation from the time is now public, it’s that other 5% that still has me and many others wondering.

Logic keeps asking the question, “How could anyone keep a secret for this long, given the gravity and ubiquitous attention paid to the events of November 22, 1963?” Oswald may very well have acted alone, but the suspicion may lie with the extent of involvement of foreign players and our own domestic agencies in putting him up to it.

I don’t consider myself a conspiracy theory junkie, but this case, now almost 63 years old, still feels like an open wound, for some reason.

A Moment In Time

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Daily writing prompt
What’s a moment when you realized you were officially an adult?
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I was adulting before I moved out of the house I grew up in, but I don’t think it really hit me until I left for the last time as a single person. I still remember walking out the door on my way to our wedding and thinking something like, “This is it. Life is changing now, and from here on out, I’ll just be coming back here to visit.”

That was a kairos moment.

Options

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Daily writing prompt
Which is the best restaurant in your city?
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A place called The Forge gets my vote. I guess one would classify it as pub food. Great atmosphere, friendly staff, a decently varied menu, good beers on tap. Their specialty is a French cut pork chop that’s out of this world– big, tender, and flavorful.

There is also a food truck that spends a lot of time in this neck of the woods– El Puerto de las Empanadas. Exceptional! We occasionally frequent that when they’re around, often order a rice bowl topped with garlic aioli that really hits the spot.