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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.
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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.
This month, the prompts are being provided by Margaret Adamson and her friend Sue Fulton, with some pictures by her friend Bill Dodds, and are posted by Elephant's Child.
This weeks prompts are:
- Sully
- Chagrin
- Funambulist
- Heavy
- Lowering
- Sand
And/or
- Ablutions
- Wasting
- Saucy
- Perpetual
- Moonstruck
- Cigar
“Will you stop WASTING so much water on that elephant! You bunch would do better to up the quality of your own ABLUTIONS!”
He didn’t notice one of the workers giving him a SAUCY face, but he didn’t have to. He knew they would be making fun, and much to his CHAGRIN he knew he deserved it for taking his ire out on them when none of the current trouble was their fault. As he stalked angrily into his tent, LOWERING the flap that served as a door with a hard yank was not nearly as satisfactory as slamming a real one closed, but it would have to do.
Being the owner and ringmaster of a small tent circus was what he loved, but on days like this it was a HEAVY load. His wife, who had been MOONSTRUCK in her tender years and run away with the circus for real, knew his moods and loved him, whether because of or in spite of those PERPETUAL mood swings no one could fathom.
She silently brought him a fresh CIGAR, a match, and the plate of SAND he used as an ashtray. Without a word, he sat at the table and lit the cigar, taking a puff or two before turning to the woman he knew held him and this outfit together in more ways than anyone ever admitted.
“Why did you ever SULLY yourself and get mixed up in this life?” he asked her, and as she always did she answered, “Because I love you and you love this circus life, and I wouldn’t have you any other way.”
“Where in the world am I going to find a new FUNAMBULIST? The tightrope act and the elephant are our two biggest draws, and the new touring season starts in a month. A month! I’ll never be able to replace that vagabond so quickly. I should have known he’d bolt to a competitor at the first opportunity.
“Lilly, what in the world am I going to do?”
Rubbing his shoulders to ease his tension, she said, “You are going to have some supper, then you are going to get a good night’s sleep, and starting tomorrow, you are going to use the great talent you have to either train someone here in tightrope walking, or you will come up with another big draw act from the people you have, or you will find some other solution. You’ve done it before, you can do it again, I have faith in you!”
Looking up at her, he tried to hide the mist in his eyes by asking, “Want to learn to walk a tightrope?” and they both laughed as she pretended to threaten to choke him. He knew they’d pull through this, too.
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Today is:
Admission Day -- Nevada, US
Allantide -- Cornwall, England
All Hallows Eve -- Christian
Apple and Candle Night -- Wales
Books for Treats Day -- San Jose, CA, US (give gently used books to kids, not candy -- feed their brains, not their cavities!)
Chiang Kai-Shek Day -- Taiwan
Day of the Seven Billion -- day in 2011 the UN declared the world population to have reached 7,000,000,000
Dias de los Muertos -- Mexico, esp. Michoacan and Oaxaca (through Nov. 2; ceremonies, sand sculptures, decorated altars, and parties through the nights in the cemetaries)
Dookie Apple Night -- Newcastle, England
Duck Apple Night -- Liverpool, England
Feast of Sekhmet Bast Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)
Festival of Inner Worlds -- Pagan (fight between the old and new year)
Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show -- Ft. Lauderdale, FL, US (hosted at the "Yachting Capital of the World"; through Sunday)
Founder's Day -- Girl Scouts of the USA (Juliette Gordon Low's birth anniversary)
Ghostwriter's Day
Hallowe'en or Beggar's Night
Hawaiki Nui Va'a Race -- French Polynesia (spectacular three-day open water outrigger canoe race from Huahine to Raiatea to Tahaa to Bora Bora; through Friday)
Increase Your Psychic Powers Day -- originated in England in the 19th century, some celebrated on the 30th
King Father Nordom Sihanouk's Birthday -- Cambodia
National Candy Apple Day
National Knock-Knock Joke Day
Knock, Knock
Who's There?
Police.
Police who?
Police stop telling knock-knock jokes!
National Magic Day -- Society of American Magicians (in honor of Harry Houdini, who died on this day in 1926, and who was president of the SoAM)
National UNICEF Day — US
Nut-Crack Night -- England; Scotland
Old Celtic New Year's Eve
Out of the Broom Closet Day -- Pagan, Heathen, and all earth-based and ethnic religions
Reformation Day -- Protestant Christian (trad.)
Official Holiday -- Germany; Slovenia
Samhain (northern hemisphere) / Beltane (southern hemisphere) -- Druids, Gaels, Welsh peoples, Neopagans, Wiccans (begins at sunset)
Scare a Friend Day -- just not so much that he/she isn't a friend any more
Senior Absurdity Day -- Horace Mann School, Bronx, NY, US (a day the kids look forward to each year)
Sneak Some of the Candy Yourself Before the Kids Start Knocking Day
St. Quentin's Day (Patron against coughs)
St. Wolfgang of Ratisbon's Day (Patron of apoplexics, carpenters, paralysed people, stroke victims; Regensburg, Germany; against apoplexy, paralysis, stomach diseases, strokes)
Thump-the-Door Night -- Isle of Mann
Trick or Treat Night
Vetmaetr -- Norse Calendar (Winter Nights; beginning of winter, the New Year, and the start of Odin leading the Wild Hunt)
Youth Honor Day -- Iowa, US
Anniversaries Today:
Mt. Rushmore is completed, 1941
Nevada becomes the 36th US State, 1864
Birthdays Today:
Robert "Vanilla Ice" Van Winkle, 1967
Adam Horovitz, 1966
Dermot Mulroney, 1963
Rob Schneider, 1963
Peter Jackson, 1961
Larry Mullen, Jr., 1961
John Candy, 1950
Jane Pauley, 1950
Deidre Hall, 1947
Stephen Rea, 1943
David Ogden Stiers, 1942
Ron Rifkin, 1939
Michael Landon, 1936
Dan Rather, 1931
Michael Collins, 1930
Barbara Bel Geddes, 1922
Dale Evans, 1912
Ethel Waters, 1896
Chaing Kai-shek, 1887
Juliette Gordon Low, 1860
John Keats, 1795
William Paca, 1740
Jan Vermeer, 1632
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Car Talk"(Radio), 1987 (national debut, ten years after their start as a local show in Boston)
"Jamaica"(Musical), 1957
"Capricio Espagnol"(Rimsky-Korsakov Op. 34), 1887
"Tamerlano"(Handel opera, HWV 18), 1724
Today in History:
Ezra reads the Book of the Law to the Israelites after their return to Jerusalem from exile, BC445
First All Hallows Eve observed to honor all the saints, 834
Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses on the Wittenberg church door, marks the beginning of the Protestant Reformation, 1517
Georg Ludwig van Hannover is crowned as the English King George I, 1714
Execution of Girondins at Paris during the Reign of Terror, 1793
Sir Humphrey Davy of London patents the miner's safety lamp, 1815
A standard uniform is approved for US Postal workers, 1868
A tropical cyclone hits Bengal, about 200,000 die, 1876
John Boyd Dunlop patents the pneumatic bicycle tire, 1888
Arthur Conan Doyle publishes "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", 1892
Dedication of the Lincoln Highway, the first automobile road across United States, 1913
The Battle of Beersheba of WWI marks the last successful cavalry charge in history, 1917
The first of 160 consecutive days of 100°F + temps at Marble Bar, Australia, 1923
World Savings Day is announced in Milan, Italy by the Members of the Association at the 1st International Savings Bank Congress, 1924
Mt. Rushmore sculptures are completed, 1941
The United Kingdom and France begin bombing Egypt to force the reopening of the Suez Canal, 1956
Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is assassinated by two security guards, 1984
EgyptAir Flight 990 traveling from New York City to Cairo crashes off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts, killing all 217 on-board, 1999
Yachtsman Jesse Martin returns to Melbourne after 11 months of circumnavigating the world, solo, non-stop and unassisted, 1999
Soyuz TM-31 launches, carrying the first resident crew to the International Space Station, which has been continually crewed since, 2000
Surfer Bethany Hamilton loses her left arm and 3 liters of blood in a tiger shark attack; within a month she would be back on her board, and competing again within the year, 2003
The NYSE reopens after its first weather related shut down since the late 19th century; the two-day closure was due to Hurricane Sandy, 2012
The NYSE reopens after its first weather related shut down since the late 19th century; the two-day closure was due to Hurricane Sandy, 2012
