Ms. RW Loves Her New Chair (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, the prompts are being provided by David M. Gasciogne and posted by Elephant's Child.           

This week's prompts are:

1. Formidable
2. Reticent
3. Naturalist
4. Hoity-toity
5. Ego
6. Combination

 

And/or

 

1. Exude
2. Strident
3. Copious
4. Salient
5. Temerity
6. Euphemism

When he came home and went straight to the basement, she knew something had happened and he was RETICENT to discuss it.

She'd had her own problems at work that day, and she thought about how to use discussing what went on there as a way to draw him out.  By the time he came upstairs to help with supper (it was his night to make the salad), she'd decided what to do.

"We have a new NATURALIST on staff," she said while he was tearing up the leaf lettuce with more vigor than was absolutely essential.

"Um-hum," he said, as if he'd hardly heard.

"She's got great qualifications, but she had the TEMERITY to disagree with Angelique on the first day.  You know that never starts anyone off on the right foot at this place."

"True," he answers.  "Sounds like she's an EGO."

"No, not really, she just hasn't learned the ropes yet."

"Some people are too HOITY-TOITY to learn anything," he said with vehemence, while he began to savagely slice into the tomatoes.

She thought about taking the knife from him before he sliced the tomatoes into mush, then thought better of it.  Mushy tomatoes weren't the end of the world, after all.

They worked on in silence, he sliced and chopped a COPIOUS amount of zucchini and broccoli, and again, she just let him.  When he started to make the salad dressing, she had to speak up.

"That's a FORMIDABLE amount of garlic you're using, honey.  I'm going to EXUDE the stuff for days," she laughed softly.

"What?  Oh, sorry, you're right," he said, and scooped about half of the garlic back out of the bowl.

"How was work for you today?" she finally ventured, as he tasted the COMBINATION of ingredients in the bowl and actually almost smiled in appreciation.

"Shall I use the EUPHEMISM or do you want me to tell you what I really think?" he  asked, giving her a wink, and she knew he would talk about it now and get it out.

"Please, I want to be able to eat," she said, laughing.

"That...whatever he is that you want to call him, and I want to call him several things but won't...Dixon is at it again.  He's always yelling in that STRIDENT voice of his, he has no clue about the SALIENT points of what we're doing, and he is constantly wanting to take credit for others' work.  I've about had it, I'm seriously considering looking for another job then telling the bosses he goes or I do."

"Do it," she said.

"What!?!"

"Go ahead.  Look around, it won't hurt.  If you find something, you have a choice.  Even if you never tell the bosses 'it's him or me,' you look.  If you find an equally good job, or an even better one, give notice and go.  On your way out, tell them why you left.  Or stay and deal with Dixon because you've decided this is the best place to use your talents.  Just don't sit and stew on it all of the time."

He looked at her and slowly nodded.

"Remember," she added, "there are Dixons at every workplace.  There's always that one person.  After all, somebody has to be the irritant so the rest of you can produce pearls!"

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Today is

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday 

Birthday of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Day of Songun -- North Korea

Discovery of the Runes/Odin's Ordeal ends -- Ancient Norse Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Uruguay(1825)

Kiss and Make Up Day -- a day begun by Jacqueline V. Milgate to encourage people to make amends and repair relationships if they need to

La Tomatina -- Buñol, Valencia, Spain (annual citywide food fight festival in which around 30,000 people take to the streets to pelt each other with tomatoes)

National Banana Split Day -- some sites have it as Aug. 10

National Park Service Day -- US (legislation creating the National Park Service was signed this day in 1916 by President Wilson)

National Second-Hand Wardrobe Day -- pull out the hand-me-downs or thrift store purchases and wear them with pride!

Opiconsivia -- Ancient Roman Calendar, Vestal Virgin Festival in honor of Ops

Rumpleskunkskin's Bride Escapes to Heewigoland Anniversary -- Fairy Calendar (Fairy celebration, Goblins get grumpy)

Soldier's Day -- Brazil

St. Genesius of Arles' Day (Patron of notaries, secretaries; against chilblains, scurf)

St. Genesius of Rome's Day (Patron of actors, attorneys, barristers, clowns, comedians, comediennes, comics, converts, dancers, epileptics, lawyers, musicians, printers, stenographers and torture victims)

St. Louis, King of France's Day (King Louis IX; Patron of barbers, bridegrooms, builders, button makers, construction workers, Crusaders, difficult marriages, distillers, embroiderers, French monarchs, grooms, haberdashers, hairdressers, hair stylists, kings, masons, needle workers, parenthood, parents of large families, passementiers, prisoners, sculptors, sick people, soldiers, stone masons, stonecutters, tertiaries, trimming makers; Québec, Québec; Saint Louis, Missouri; Blois, France; Carthage, Tunisia; La Rochelle, France; New Orleans, Louisiana; Oran, Algeria; Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France; Saint Louis, Missouri;`Versailles, France; Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Louis; against the death of children)

Whiskey Sour Day

Birthdays Today

Blake Lively, 1987

Rachel Bilson, 1981

Alexander Skarsgard, 1976

Claudia Schiffer, 1970

Rachael Ray, 1968

Albert Belle, 1966

Cornelius O’Landa Bennett, 1966

Blair Underwood, 1964

Joanne Whalley, 1964

Ally Walker, 1961

Billy Ray Cyrus, 1961

Tim Burton, 1958

Elvis Costello, 1954

Gene Simmons, 1949

John Savage, 1949

Martin Amis, 1949

Anne Archer, 1947

Anthony Heald, 1944

Frederick Forsyth, 1938

Regis Philbin, 1933

Tom Skerritt, 1933

Wayne Shorter, 1933

Sean Connery, 1930

Althea Gibson, 1927

Monty Hall, 1923

Leonard Bernstein, 1918

Walt Kelly, 1913

Ruby Keeler, 1909

Clara Bow, 1905

Hans Adolf Krebs, 1900

Ludwig II, "Mad King" of Bavaria, 1845

Francis Bret Harte, 1836

Allan Pinkerton, 1819

Ivan the Terrible, 1530

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"42nd Street"(Musical), 1980

The Wizard of Oz(Film), 1939

Today in History

The Council of Nicaea ends with the adoption of the Nicene Creed, 325

The Children's Crusaders under Nicholas reach Genoa, 1212

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed, 1537

Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, 1609

Hundreds of French settlers arrive in New Orleans, which had been founded only a few months before, marking its true beginnings as a city, not just an outpost, 1718

James Cook begins his first voyage, 1768

Alice Meynell becomes the first female jockey, in England, 1804

British forces destroy the Library of Congress, which then contained about 3,000 books, 1814

The New York Times perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax, 1835

Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel unassisted, 1875

Kitasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet, 1894

The United States National Park Service is created, 1916

Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly nonstop across the US, 1932

US Army officer and missionary John Birch is killed by the armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, considered by some as the first victim of the Cold War, 1945

Zimbabwe joins the United Nations, 1980

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn, 1981

Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe, 1989

Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary, 1989

The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko), 2003

Acting as a private citizen, former President Jimmy Carter travels to North Korea to negotiate the release of Aijalon Gomes, a U.S. citizen, 2010

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is assumed to have reached interstellar space, 2012

Double Dave, a rare two-headed timber rattlesnake, is found in Pine Barrens, New Jersey, 2019

Astronaut Anne McClain is investigated for what is possibly the first crime committed in space; she is accused of illegally using the ISS computer to access her soon-to-be-ex spouse's bank account, 2019