From the Archives (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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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 to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, i am providing the prompts.  You can write your story on your blog and leave a link here, or write your story in the comments, your choice.

Pick words from one list, or both, use them all, or use none.  The whole point is to get us writing, so please have fun with it!

This week's prompts are:

implicit

grass

spring

accident

ankle

start

and/or the following somewhat archaic words

God’s acre—a churchyard

Larcener—thief

Weed—garment or outfit worn during mourning

Frank stood at the edge of what his grandmother had always called GOD'S ACRE, waiting for the graveside funeral to START.  Watching funerals always reminded him of the older members of his family, his grandmother especially.  She'd worn a widows' WEED from the day grandfather died, and had instilled respect for all things church related into him from a young age.

The deceased was an odd jobs worker and petty LARCENER, given to gambling in fits and starts and losing whatever he earned, well known to Frank and the rest down at the precinct.  They wouldn't have thought anything much of his death if it hadn't been for the coroner.

According to the report, his wife, now his widow, had called screaming that she couldn't wake him up, and emergency services responded.  He was lying in his bed, looking peaceful, and had apparently died in his sleep.

The question was why.  The guy was only mid-fifties, typical health for that age.  When questioned, his wife said he'd had a slight ACCIDENT the day before, turned his ANKLE and fallen from the front steps of the apartment building, hitting his head and giving himself a goose-egg and a headache.  She said she told him to go to the ER, but he refused, came back in the house, put ice on the bump and sat around watching TV the rest of the day, then went to bed at his usual time.

The coroner said the bump to the head did some damage, and he probably should have been treated for a mild concussion, but it shouldn't have killed him.  There was something not quite right, but he couldn't put his finger on it.

So today Frank stood in the still dew-damp SPRING GRASS where he could see without being seen.  He'd been watching the wife for a couple of days, and while she'd seemed very broken up about the whole thing at first, she'd become less and less so over time.  Now she was acting like she couldn't wait to get this part over, IMPLICIT in her attitude the idea that something else was coming.

Frank didn't know what was up, but something obviously was.  He'd never liked this guy, but that didn't mean he wouldn't do his professional best to make sure there wasn't more to the story.

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Today is:

Be Bald and Be Free Day -- Wellcat Holidays wants everyone who is "shiny" to be proud of it! 

Bring Your Teddy Bear to Work Day -- at your own risk! sponsored by Susan E. Schwartz of "Teddies Are The Answer"

Chisinau Day -- Chisinau, Moldova

Day of National Concern About Young People and Gun Violence -- US (students around the nation are asked to sign the Pledge Against Gun Violence)   

Day of the Defenders of the Ukraine -- Ukraine

Emergency Nurses Day

Festival for the Penates -- Ancient Roman Calendar (gods of the storeroom)

First Fiddle of the Month -- Fairy Calendar

Flag Day/Jour de la Proclamation de la Premiere Republique -- Madagascar (flag adopted this day in 1958)

International Top Spinning Day -- sponsored by the Spinning Top and Yo-Yo Museum, to recognize the Earth as a large spinning top; add your spins to the total and e-mail results to the sponsor 

Liberation Day -- Yemen

Mother's Day -- Belarus

National Chocolate Covered Insect Day -- i'll pass, sorry

National Dessert Day

National Education Day -- Poland

National Fossil Day -- US (National Park Service information) 

National Frump Day -- National FRUMPS of America (to honor the frugal, responsible, unpretentious, and mature people everywhere)

national lower case day -- birth anniversary of e.e. cummings

National Pet Obesity Awareness Day -- because about half of pets in the US are overweight or obese 

National Stop Bullying Day -- use #NationalStopBullyingDay to post on social media (begun in 2009 by eighteen 6th grade students at St. Stanislaus Kostka School, now a nationwide movement)

National Take Your Parents To Lunch Day -- US (sponsored by Kiwi Magazine, encouraging parents to go to school and have lunch with the children, learning what goes into a healthy lunch) 

Republic Day / October Revolution Day -- Yemen

SAVE Today -- US (Stop America's Violence Everywhere, a day created in 1995 by the American Medical Association Alliance) 

St. Callistus' Day (Patron of cemetary workers)

St. Donatian of Rheims's Day (Patron of Bruges, Belgium; Rheims, France; West Flanders, Belgium)

St. Petca Paraskeva's Day (Patron of embroiderers, needle workers, spinners, weavers, and all who do needlework of any kind)related observance

     Petkouden -- Bulgaria

Svetitskovloba/Living Pillar Cathedral -- Georgia (celebration of the first Christian church in Georgia)

Vinternatsblot, a/k/a Haustblót -- Asatru (to bid Winter welcome; at the approximate date of the start of winter in the Old European Calendar of the Norse

World Standards Day -- International

Birthdays Today:

Usher, 1978

Natalie Maines, 1974

Greg Evigan, 1958

Harry Anderson, 1952

Sir Cliff Richard, 1940

Ralph Lauren, 1939

John Dean, 1938

Gary Graffman, 1928

Roger Moore, 1927

Charles Everett Koop, 1916

John Wooden, 1910

Eugene FRodor, 1905

e.e. cummings, 1894

Lillian Gish, 1893

Dwight Eisenhower, 1890

Eamon De Valera, 1882

Francis Lightfoot Lee, 1734

William Penn, 1644

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Rescue from Gilligan's Island(TV film), 1978 (the first TV film follow up of a TV series)

Winnie-The-Pooh(publication date), 1926

Today in History:

William the Conqueror wins England in the Battle of Hastings, 1066

Robert the Bruce of Scotland defeats King Edward II of England at Byland, forcing Edward to accept Scotland's independence, 1322

Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial for conspiracy against Elizabeth I of England, 1586

Massachusetts enacts the first punitive legislation against the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), 1656

Rabbi Judah Hasid & Chayim Molocho arrive in Jerusalem, 1700

Henry Blair receives a patent for a corn planter, becoming the first black to obtain a US patent, 1834

The 15th and the last military Shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate resigns in Japan, returning his power to the Emperor of Japan and thence to the re-established civil government of Japan, 1867

George Eastman patents paper-strip photographic film, 1884

Theodore Roosevelt is shot while campaigning in Milwaukee on the "Bull Moose" ticket, 1912

The children's book Winnie-the-Pooh, by A.A. Milne, is first published, 1926

Ethel Merman makes her Broadway debut in "Girl Crazy", 1930

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, the Indian Untouchable caste leader, converts to Buddhism along with 385,000 of his followers, 1956

Queen Elizabeth II becomes the first Canadian Monarch to open up an annual session of the Canadian Parliament, presenting her Speech from the Throne in Ottawa, Canada, 1957

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins when a U.S. Air Force U2 Reconnaissance pilot takes pictures of Soviet missiles being installed in Cuba, 1962

The city of Montreal, Quebec, begins the operation of its underground Montreal Metro rapid-transit system, 1966

The first live telecast from any manned spacecraft, the Apollo 7, 1968

The Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, The Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Rabin, and the Foreign Minister of Israel, Shimon Peres, receive the Nobel Peace Prize for their role in the establishment of the Oslo Accords , 1994 

Indonesian rights groups applaud the end of a Suharto-era law that bans books deemed 'offensive' or a 'threat to public order,' 2010

A colony of stromatolites is discovered at the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland, 2011

The Spanish government says it will impose direct rule on Catalonia after the region voted for independence in a referendum, 2017