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.

The W.O.A.T.*

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Enough is enough.

How many times has someone said this, in reference to the Trump administration, in particular Trump himself? The latest WTF moment can only be another distraction served up to take our eyes off the security episode in Turkey, or the Epstein files, and whatever they have up their sleeve that they hope will mess with election results in November.

I had a visceral reaction to the ongoing effort to mess with the Kennedy Center and the laser focus on somehow shoe-horning a reference to Trump. The subservient, brown-nosing Kennedy Center Board is recommending an addendum to the name on the outside of the building that simply boggles the mind and confirms that Trump is a true lost boy, a needy man-child wasting our time, much more concerned with image and legacy and misdirection than actual governance.

The collective blood should be boiling by now. There is no room for such negligence, no place for such blatant disregard and flippant treatment of matters more serious than making sure one’s name finds its way to the side of another building.

Trump is a diseased appendix, a useless simpleton, drunk on power, well-versed in the ways of subterfuge and excuse-making. He possesses no gifts useful to society, yet he still commands respect from many who apparently either can’t or won’t make a distinction between the office and the office holder.

And to think this guy doesn’t want to leave! It’s the grossest of disservices to all of us. We shouldn’t stand for it any longer.

*Yup. The Worst Of All Time.

Get Ready

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Daily writing prompt
If you had a time machine and could send just one message to your past self, what would it say?
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To my past self of high school age: as much as it is in your control, find a job that you like and that pays well. Retirement will come and you’ll be glad to have an adequate nest egg.

Don’t concern yourself with perfection. In some ways, it is a pursuit of vanity, it might consume you, and it will take up too much of your time. Mistakes will be made, and competence is a fine attribute.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not “all about you.” Before you’ve done anything, you’re already the only person in the world like you. Work on being less self-interested. There will be lots of need to tend to.