Unpublished, undaunted, still trying

Working on character development. Hoping for the big breakthrough.

---------

The job interview.

He was a pig-like man in a business suit. Blood dripped from his horns.

"Yes," the young man said timidly. "I will be your slave."

"Slave? We have no slaves. We are enlightened."

The young man sighed inwardly with relief. Perhaps this ordeal would not be so bad after all.

"Are you dynamic?"

"Yes! Yes! I am dynamic!" the young applicant blubbered.

"Beg me! Beg me for the job! Debase yourself!"

"Oh, please. Please." The young man dropped to his knees.

"Are you a team player? Are you a self-starter?"

"I am! I am! Let me be on your team!"

"Give me enthusiasm!"

"I want to be on y..."

"More! More enthusiasm!"

The recent college graduate was utterly overwhelmed with humiliation now.

"I am a determined self-starting team-playing over-achiever!"

Blood was dripping from the interviewer's lips now. He sensed the kill.

"God but I need a job! Oh, lalala nanana blablabla!" he gushed, unable to form real words any longer.

---------

In row upon row of tiny cell-like cubicles, sad-eyed humanoids strained in tight polyester uniforms which clung to their chests and butts as they strained with their various appointed labors. The boy, half-crazed with weeks of unemployed-induced starvation, stumbled into the first cell.

Terror gripped the applicant. What am I to do here?

The mind of Max begins to lose interest, begins to think about horse-racing. He will never get the hang of this fiction stuff. Heads for the refrigerator.

lotar

The lotar is another gunbri-like lute from the Rwais tribe in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

This type has 2, 3 or 4 nylon strings, with large round tuning pegs. The neck is turned on a lathe and usually painted with rings in bright colours - green, yellow, red and black. The body is made from a piece of wood, or a coconut, or any other bowl shaped object.

The lotar is usually played by a duo, which also includes a rebab, a one string spike fiddle.

Where are you and what are you doing there?

What is this obviously Photoshopped but interesting building?

The importance of being Ernest concise

I like clarity. Well, duh.

Anyway, why use more words than you need to be clear? I sometimes rewrite to see if I can be more brief. Believe it or not. Imagine how long my posts would be if I didn't try to summarize.

Let's practice. If someone asked you a simple question, such as "What is Titanic?", (capital T) how would you answer, the shortest possible way, but an answer which still explained?

Maybe I would say something like, "Titanic was the name of a large passenger ship that hit an iceberg and sank on its first voyage across the Atlantic ocean."

And yet, even that might be too much. Heh. How about, even more directly, "Titanic was the name of a ship."? I don't think a shorter answer is possible.

Maybe the questioner only cared that Titanic wasn't the name of a planet or a mountain range. So that was cleared up for him with the second answer, without going into unwanted info like icebergs and loss of life.

Let them ask questions if they want more info, eh?

A slow day today. No horse races or Cinco de Mayo celebrations. Happy Mother's day.

Suicide by spike-hammer, uncontrollable Chinamen, and so much more.

I love reading really old newspapers, especially small town newspapers which cram in news from all over the world and run serial romance novels. I love the old adverts too. The following are from the May 11, 1883 edition of the "Three Rivers (Michigan) Tribune". There is SO much more good stuff that I haven't pulled for examples, you could spend an afternoon reading it. I did.

Note: Should you choose to follow the link at the top and read more of this interesting old newspaper, the navagation is at the top right when you get there. Just pull the dark rectangle around like a map. Use your browser's zoom to make it readable. Enjoy!