Synaptic Snaps, Crackles & Pops (Book) https://www.Writing.Com/main/books.php/item_id/2253743 [Link: 'Trespassing to Talk'] Door was open - sort of The broadcast television airwaves and any number of feature films are replete with examples of someone breaking into someone else's home or office in order to discuss some matter or other. Sometimes, a lighter side surfaces. For example, 007 breaks into M's apartment in Casino Royale. They have a frank discussion about Bond's lack of respect for international rela...[Read Full Post] Sat, 02 Jul 2022 19:20:01 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034611 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034611 [Link: 'Ripped from the Headlines'] Death and disaster - Take 1 "I'm tellin' ya, Ed, that episode may as well have been called "An airplane crashes in Brooklyn". They made up the name of the airline, but everything else was almost exactly like that horrible accident two years ago!" "Okay, there were some similarities, I'll give ya that, but–" "Similarities! The pilot was Jackson inste...[Read Full Post] Sat, 02 Jul 2022 14:46:35 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034567 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034567 [Link: 'Bad-guy Bar'] Bantha Milk, barkeep! This one seemed easy enough to figure out, since two examples came immediately to mind. First of all, any bar (or cantina) peopled by bounty hunters, guys with the death sentence on 12 systems, and scruffy-looking nerf herders just has to be a bad-guy bar, right? Various sentients sitting with their heads close together, conversing furtively and quietly, giving every newcomer the once-...[Read Full Post] Thu, 30 Jun 2022 19:54:31 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034485 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034485 [Link: 'Got Me Doing It'] Hey, Vern! While not as ubiquitous as Foghorn Leghorn's "ah, say", rare indeed is the appearance of Ernest P. Worrell in any commercial or film without the audience hearing at least one "KnowwhutImean?". One could take the position that whatever Ernest has just said should be taken with a couple of pounds of salt, except when the commercial is for a product of sterling and unblemished reputati...[Read Full Post] Wed, 29 Jun 2022 22:34:57 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034452 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034452 [Link: 'Funny Background Event'] Outta my way! There's a serial killer on the loose and uniformed officers are going door to door with flyers bearing a sketch artist's rendition of the malefactor. As luck would have it, an officer knocks on the door of a house that, unbeknownst to him, would be of great interest to detectives working a kidnapping. The husband-and-wife kidnapping team are discussing the victim's escape when ...[Read Full Post] Wed, 29 Jun 2022 22:36:58 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034407 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034407 [Link: 'The Bad Guy Wins'] Oh, snap! Although I'm sure there are plenty of examples that predate the one I'm about to bring up—and a few are mentioned below—this trope seems tailor-made for the ending of Avengers: Infinity War. I mean, half of all the living beings in the entire Universe are just...gone! That looks like a pretty big 'W' for the bad guy, if you ask me. Of course, the ending of t...[Read Full Post] Sun, 26 Jun 2022 23:11:30 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034323 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034323 [Link: 'The Mountains of Illinois'] Scaling Arlington Heights*#* This trope's description specifically mentioned British Columbia as stand-in for any number of places; I most heartily concur. For example, Stargate SG-1 may have cool establishing shots of the main entrance to the Cheyenne Mountain Complex, but I'd bet Canadian dollars to beavertails that most of the "local" scenes are shot nearly nineteen hundred kilomet...[Read Full Post] Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:03:44 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034296 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034296 [Link: 'Reasonable Authority Figure'] Pretty sure I'm in charge For whatever reason, TV father figures from back in the day crowded right to the front of my thoughts on this. Perfect? No, but pretty close when you consider the backdrop of their era. For example, you had Chuck Connors in The Rifleman and Fred MacMurray in My Three Sons. A little further from perfect were the likes of the long-suffering Herbert Anderson...[Read Full Post] Sun, 26 Jun 2022 00:00:08 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034235 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1034235 Okay, I've seen RW examples of this. While I'll admit I'm not the most frequent guest at any of our nation's hotels—okay - motels—I've certainly seen "Please reuse your towels" signs during my occasional stays. I've also sometimes wondered just how much of a given substance used to be in a particular edible item, before the item was "improved" by adding or subtracting the stated percentage of that substance. Doe...[Read Full Post] Fri, 29 Apr 2022 17:30:52 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031610 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031610 I don't shop for stuff online from stores known to almost anyone with an internet connection. In fact, every item I've ordered in the last few years has been shipped from that well-known (but secretly located) warehouse somewhere near Lehigh Valley, PA. Yeah, I'm talking about the WdC Shop available 24/7 from the left side of your logged-in screen. If platforms like Etsy, Home Shopping Network and the like depended on me for their business's survi...[Read Full Post] Fri, 29 Apr 2022 15:18:51 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031604 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031604 Who doesn't enjoy shrimp cocktail (assuming you occasionally frequent places that offer such fine fare)? I, for one, certainly enjoy a heaping helping of chilled shrimp, along with the tangy cocktail sauce that normally accompanies it. Perhaps you've wondered why the price of this tasty appetizer seems to fluctuate more than the meal to follow. There are various reasons, but a big one is the Gulf of Mexico Dead Zone, a region of bottom water off the Texas...[Read Full Post] Fri, 29 Apr 2022 01:22:06 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031575 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031575 2002 was a bad year for wildfires here in the U.S., with California alone suffering more than 8300 of them. According to a CNN report, there were twenty-nine wildfires of 500 acres or more scattered through eight states heading into the last week of July. With plenty of summer and all of fall yet to come, more than twice the number of acres had already burned than were lost during the same average period in the previous ten years. As of the date of the report,...[Read Full Post] Tue, 19 Apr 2022 19:07:40 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031020 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1031020 Maybe you remember these lines from old beer commercials: "From the Land of Sky Blue Waters..." or "...Rocky Mountain spring water...". Sadly, not all U.S. waters are as clean and pure now as was implied then, and there were times and places where it wasn't even close. When I think about water pollution in the U.S., Lake Erie and the Cuyahoga and Detroit Rivers come to mind. They aren't the only polluted waterways in America, but they'r...[Read Full Post] Wed, 06 Apr 2022 19:13:13 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030212 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030212 I've never seen 'the' Pacific Garbage Patch, but I've seen videos from National Geographic and other reputable sources. According to those sources, there are actually two patches: a Western one off the coast of Japan, and an Eastern one between Hawaii and California. While there are larger pieces of plastic in these patches—shoes, synthetic fishing nets, etc.—the majority of the pollutants consist of very small pieces as the larger pie...[Read Full Post] Wed, 06 Apr 2022 19:10:31 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030210 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030210 Why so much interest in planting a whole lot of trees, and who's doing it? Dozens of organizations around the world are either planning have already plunged head-first into doing something positive about deforestation. Their goals range from preserving an arboreal posterity for their children and grandchildren—nobody wants to have their child ask them, "What were trees like?"—to helping prevent erosion in areas susceptible to flooding and/...[Read Full Post] Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:05:13 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030031 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030031 Chat piles? What are those? Just mounds of dirt, right? Not even close. Chat piles are part of the toxic leftovers of lead and zinc mining. Mining in the American Midwest was—and still is—big business, with substantial amounts of lead and zinc still being mined in Missouri, although the Red Dog Mine in Alaska is the largest operation. Dry processing the mined ore creates a fine gravel-type waste commonly known as "chat", while wet washing o...[Read Full Post] Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:03:08 EDT https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030029 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1030029 Prompt: "It was worse than Detroit." The prompt's declaration notwithstanding, the goal here is to not actually denigrate either the fine city of Detroit or the Central Texas home to what was once called the largest armored training post in the Free World - Ft. Hood. My first two years of high school were spent at Harrison High School in Farmington Township—incorporated into the city of Farmington Hills in...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 21:50:26 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027663 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027663 Prompt: "If you can't handle me at my worst, imagine how I feel." This particular prompt put me in mind of my late mom and her employment in the Psychiatric Inpatient Unit at Denver's Veterans Hospital. She was a great respecter of rules and patient privacy, so she never told me any specifics about anyone. On occasion, though, she'd relate generalities about a situation that had taken place on the unit. ...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:08:17 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027581 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027581 Prompt: "I'll be right here just waiting underground." When I first read this prompt, my first thought was to extemporize expound explicate - dang, I really wanted to use one of those ex- words, but not one of them is actually correct here. Anyway, I thought I...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:07:58 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027574 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027574 Prompt: "Most of all, you feel unseen and unheard. The other person is demonstrating that there are two things more important than your pain: Their desire to avoid negative emotions Their need to offer unsolicited advice." I hope no one here feels unseen and/or unheard specifically because of me. While I'll admit I'm pretty nonconfrontational and, as a rule, try to avoid negative emotions, I've en...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:07:40 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027498 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027498 Prompt: "If I learned one lesson, count your blessings, look to the rising sun, and run run run." A wise philosopher once said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." *#* As a semiretired guy, I usually take advantage of the fact that I usually don't have to get up by a certain time; that's a blessing. I'll smack the snooze button a ti...[Read Full Post] Wed, 23 Feb 2022 17:32:46 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027306 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027306 Prompt: "That's a man's answer!" Let's start with one of the most obvious ones: asking for directions. As a group, it's rumoured that this is something we simply don't do. "I can find it, honey" is a popular response to the question, "You have no idea where we are, do you?", as the more truthful words, "NO, I DON'T!" are never getting past your lips. Running a close...[Read Full Post] Sat, 19 Feb 2022 00:12:03 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027002 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1027002 Prompt: "Oh would you just shut up? You're rats with wings!" Okay - some random thoughts here. First of all, the prompt is part of one of my favorite recurring themes in Finding Nemo: those goofy gulls. A little more on point, Nigel the pelican's reference to rats puts me in mind of Templeton, that overweight rascal from Charlotte's Web. Like Templeton, the gulls just want what they want: n...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:06:26 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1026782 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1026782 Prompt: "The process of racial triangulationâof which the MMM [model minority myth] is a prime exampleâessentially places Asian Americans in a racial bind between whites and other people of color." To be honest, I never even heard of this as a concept (although there's a bit in Blazing Saddles that just may apply). It's just not the way I think. A person is a person. Each has their own individual wort...[Read Full Post] Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:06:55 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1026765 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1026765 30DBC November 30 Prompt: Wow, it's the end of the month! With Thanksgiving behind us (here in the States), and Christmas on the horizon, what, if any, are your Christmas traditions? If you have no holiday traditions, do you have any plans for this month? I don't have any big plans, and my wife was the one who set things up just so, and some of the outdoor decorations took some hits and are no longer serviceable. I'm sure the tree I bought last year will proudly stand on the ta...[Read Full Post] Tue, 30 Nov 2021 23:38:10 EST https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1022593 https://www.Writing.Com/main/books/entry_id/1022593