Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 27

This is week 27 of Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. If you want to go to the begining to see how it works, go here. If you intend to participate, use the words for this week's challenge on your blog, and go over to Raven's and click on Mr. Linky to add your name. It's fun! Give it a try.

This week's ten-word challenge uses: tiramisu, transfixed, evacuation, Queen of the Nile, pillowcase, grammatical, voice inflection, pacified, microclimate, swami

Swami Ruptagupta sat cross-legged on a wooden crate at the head of the table. His face was the definition of serenity. The Swami was the guest of honor for the Pacified Nation Yoga Group who were having their annual dinner at the Queen of the Nile Restaurant in Not-Quite-Adjacent-To Beverly Hills. Actually, the restaurant was in Hawthorne which is quite far from Beverly Hills, but the group likes to think of itself as up-and-coming. But still, he sat on the crate which was there at his request. He stared, transfixed, at his tiramisu. What would he tell them that their inner souls did not know? He poked his desert with his finger for a moment and began.

Swami Ruptagupta's speech patterns were a grammatical nightmare. He split infinitives, he made up words, but he was a peaceful man and it was never more clear than when he achieved the voice inflection of almost song. He looked up at his group, his disciples, and said "Your souls in a microclimate are which makes them grow like grapes for a fine wine. They don't get too muches cold, they don't get to muches rain, but only if you tend your soul careful love which makes you sound." The group nodded as one. Souls in a microclimate, of course! Away from the hustle and bustle of the world.

Sarah, the owner of the Yoga studio they all went to, looked at Swami with reverence. He wore little more than a pillowcase, but he could command more respect with a flick of his beard than a Wall-Street Broker in a 3-piece suit. She sighed slightly. Just then, the entire restaurant began to shake, and roll, like a ship at sea. She screamed "Earthquake! We have to evacuate!" and shoved the Swami out of her way as she ran to the door. She'll get serene some other day.

And for the Mini Challenge: maggots, thermal pocket, industrial, bovine, feminized

Sally loved her behind-the-scenes tour of the zoo. This was more interesting than she had imagined. As they walked into the industrial-sized kitchens, the guide told her "Some of this food is still living," and pointed to a squirming plate of maggots. "Please don't touch things, as we don't want to introduce disease by accident," the guide continued. "Over here, we keep the bovine food - it's amazing how much Yaks and Water Buffalo eat!" Sally asked a question about the water tanks, and he said "We have to be careful of how we supply water - there is so much estrogen dumped into the natural water supply that we worry about the males getting feminized."

Sally was just delighted! She scrubbed her hands at the sink while the guide said "We're going into a special area, it's the nocturnal house. You'll feel like you've walked into a thermal pocket, you will notice a temperature change. You'll adjust quickly, though," and he waved Sally ahead.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 26

This is week 26 of Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. If you want to go to the begining to see how it works, go here. If you intend to participate, use the words for this week's challenge on your blog, and go over to Raven's and click on Mr. Linky to add your name. It's fun! Give it a try.

This Week's Ten Word Challenge include: exponentially, Nightshade, braces, impossibility, the beginning of time, barracuda, playful banter, delve, automatic, bewildered

Steven had a knee-jerk reaction to any form of playful banter. His life was completely compartmentalized, and always would be. Just look in his closet: he has 30 identical navy-blue suits. All his dress shirts are identical, pale blue, crisp cotton. It was a complete impossibility to think he might enjoy the sort of romantic exchange that Julia was attempting. Steven's sarcasm grew exponentially the longer she flirted.

Julia was completely bewildered by his rudeness. He'd been completely different on the phone. On the phone, he was kind, he was thoughtful, he was even funny. But now, face-to-face, she finds that she braces for each nasty remark. She thinks "It's like he's been set on automatic pilot: be mean, even if it's easier to be nice." Steven is explaining how he treats his patients - he's a psychiatrist - and says "I never show them compassion. It invites them to indulge in repeating their bad behavior." His voice droned, making her drowsy. She suddenly felt like she was being poisoned by Deadly Nightshade and ticked off the symptoms: she felt like she was losing her voice, and she kept clenching and unclenching her fists under the table. She made a mental note to delve into the oddity of her reaction later.

She jerked her head up suddenly, realizing he's moved on to scuba diving. He was talking about an encounter with barracuda, and then telling her that she had to learn to dive if they were going to have any sort of relationship. Julia sighed. This was a dance that has been around since the beginning of time, and she didn't want to participate. She smiled sweetly at Steven before she extended her hand. "Steven, you are an absolute jackass. I know how to scuba dive already, which you'd know if you'd bothered to ask. Relationship? There's only room for one person in a relationship with you, and you're it. G'night." She stood up from the table and flounced out of the restaurant, quite pleased with herself.


And for the Mini Challenge: fragment, hemoglobin, insipid, flourish, juxtapose

Dr. Ferguson walked into his classrom with a flourish of his rain poncho. His students loved him, called him Fergie, which made him giggle. He was a big man, so listening to him giggle made everyone around him laugh as well. Fergie had an easy smile, and an Oklahoma Cowboy swagger. But he was a brilliant scientist, who taught doctors how to be doctors. His lextures were never insipid, and he would always juxtapose conflicting ideas; sometimes a mere fragment of a thought would get his students to explore new directions. Yes, they loved him, and he loved teaching. Fergie was just a big bear of a man, with a big heart, and a really big brain.

He began his lecture: "Today, we're going to investigate hemoglobin variants which lead to hereditary diseases. Mebbe one of you will find the cure for sickle cell anemia after I get done with y'all."

Yes, Fergie loved his job.

Raven's Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 25

Raven's Ten Word Challenge is a weekly challenge to test your creative writing chops. It's just a fun little exercise designed to shake the cobwebs from your brain. Take the words, write little stories using them on your blog. Don't forget to go to Raven's blog and let her know you're participating - Mr. Linky is there.


This Week's Ten Word Challenge uses these dandy words: middle finger, text message. the letter “Q,” Shangri-La, melodramatic, compensate, elixir, band of brothers, quadruped, explicit

Dr. Hughes studied the text message from his collegue before he deleted it from his Blackberry. He raised his middle finger in salute. "Arrogant asshole," he thought. "Just because you are not even close to figuring out the solution does not give you the right to act like a melodramatic, pedantic twit."

He sighed deeply and returned to the elixer of life in his glass. The ice was melting, so he splashed a little more single malt into the glass. He knew he would have to call Dr. Stendahl and give him explicit instructions on how to proceed. He dialed. Stendahl answered, "John Stendahl". Dr. Hughes thought again "asshole," and said, "John, I got your text. You've forgotten to compensate for the quotidian factor."

Stendahl said, "The what? What factor?"

Hughes said "Quotidian. Begins with the letter "Q", as in quadruped, as in walking on all fours, which clearly you still do." Single malt whiskey did bring out the nastier side of Hughes's personality. "The more mundane aspects, you twit. The filtration process is mundane, boring, and you've screwed it up."

Stendahl said, "Oh, so you want me to slow it down?"

Hughes, pissed, snapped "Yes, idiot." and slammed the phone into the cradle.

Hughes longed for a trip to some kind of Shangri-La, some utopian ideal where he would be a god among his band of brothers, like-minded scientists who could appreciate his abilities. Instead, he was stuck with this donkey, Stendhal. He poured himself another glass of single malt - he decided he'd drink himself there.


And for the Mini Challenge: deposition, monosyllabic, better off dead, dubious, posh

Marion was the old-fashioned kind of court stenographer. When she took a deposition, she was diligent and careful. She never had opinions about what she typed, and prefered monosyllabic tales over anything more complex. Today, though, she was listening to a divorce proceeding from a posh socialite of dubious lineage. Marion listened to the woman whine, and the thought crossed her mind that "this broad would be better off dead rather than cross-examined by her husband's lawyer." But, forever diligent, Marion let her opinion disappear with the next comma.

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 24

Raven's Ten Word Challenge is a weekly challenge to test your creative writing chops. It's just a fun little exercise designed to make you be inventive. Take the words, write little stories using them on your blog. Don't forget to go to Raven's blog and let her know you're participating - Mr. Linky is there.

This week's ten-words are lovely: ghastly, excrement, bill of sale, vague, thicket, precarious, life long ambition, gunnery sergeant, posthumous, bellowed

Gunnery Sargeant John Doe was red in the face from screaming at his charges. "You ghastly pile of excrement. How many times have I told you that blowing up the enemy is not some vague romp in the park?" He threw his helmut on the ground and pulled at the thicket of hair on his head, and bellowed again. "You are all idiots. I can just see you pinned down, in a precarious position, inviting that bill of sale from your enemies in the form of a hand grenade tossed into your fox hole. I do not want to bring your mamas some kind of posthumous medal that belies your bravery. You WILL shape up."

Sargeant Doe turned away from his men, walked to where his helmut landed and picked it up. He was normally a quiet man, not prone to these kinds of outbursts, but he'd just gotten fed up. Besides, he'd had his life long ambition squelched that very morning, when he received the rejection notice from the New York Metropolitan Opera Company. He thought about the letter: thank you for taking the time to audition with us, however, you sound more like a cat in heat than a tenor, and therefore we must decline to include you in our company. No wonder he took it out on the men.

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And for the Mini Challenge: lap of luxury, yellow-bellied sapsucker, quinine, generalization, abnormality

Hans was an exceptional guide. His birding trips were highly sought-after, allowing him to live in the lap of luxury. He was not going to let a little abnormality like a second head on his shoulder prevent him from finding the elusive yellow-bellied sapsucker. He stared at the room of potential travelers - it was not a gross generalization to say his trips attacted the most well-heeled birders and he could pick and choose who would travel with him. Two heads or not, he was considered to be something of a god. He sipped at his gin and tonic, savoring the tart taste of the quinine-rich tonic. He thought "another day without malaria," before addressing his audience.

Saturday Wordzzl Challenge

This should be fun. Raven's Ten Word Challenge is a weekly challenge to test your creative writing chops. It's just a fun little exercise designed to make you be inventive.


This Week's Ten Word Challenge Is: follow-up, buffalo wings, silversmith, furniture, as the crow flies, little red roadster, photograph, pencil pusher, argument, streaking

And here is my entry:

"For the sake of argument, could we just assume that the furniture won't fit in the car?" Jerry kicked the side of his little red roadster and frowned. "Besides, I'm hungry and want some kick-ass buffalo wings."

Mary sighed. She held onto the photograph of the sofa. She thought to herself, "Why the fuck did I marry this pencil pusher?" She smiled sweetly and said, "Jerry, I thought you did the follow-up to find out the size of the sofa?"

He shook his head, still pouting. He was sweating, beads of perspiration streaking through his spray-on tan. Mary patted Jerry's arm. She walked over to the silversmith and said, "Where can we go for some really spicy wings?"

The man scratched his head, and then pointed south. "About 39 miles as the crow flies my sister's got a chicken shack. It'll take about an hour on these roads, though."

And for the Mini Challenge: Ireland, mashed potatoes, book worm, fog horn, T.S. Eliot

Martha sat in her overly bright kitchen, listening to the mournful fog horn and playing with her mashed potatoes. She hated T.S. Eliot a lot, quite frankly, and could not understand why he was such a hero in Ireland, or anywhere else, for that matter. But Martha was as far from a book worm as you could be - her favorite book was the Yellow Pages.