Author: Monda

Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge, and last week’s winner…

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Last week’s scribble challenge asked you to write a “Dear John” letter in fifty words or less – much like poor Carrie’s infamous Sex in the City post-it note break-up. The entries just poured in. Four in all. The momentum is building.

While all of the entries were heartbreakingly sweet, Candace is the winner with her delicate “Stick a Fork in Me, I’m Done” break-up note. If you haven’t checked out her blog Crazy Texas Mommy, you must do so immediately before the Feds shut her down. Congratulations, Candace! Copy/paste the coveted No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge Winner blog badge over at your place so the Feds will know you’re no flower to be trampled underfoot!

I’m a day late posting results and a new scribble challenge. Forgive me. The dreadful tornadic weather and too much rain did something funky to my buried DSL line. Communication with anything but the neighbors has been spotty at best. The AT&T repairmen are cute though, and they can come on over any time they want to.

This week’s scribble challenge is a retrospective sort of shindig. There’s a special place in my heart for angsty, finger-snapping Beat Poetry, man. Dig? That’s the form, cats, and the subjects to choose from are the political race and Dolly Parton. You can even combine the two – sort of a country-music-meets-Wolf-Blitzer. With a goatee, man. To inspire you, I’ve got a little beat poetry from High School Confidential below. So go write something and post it in the comments or give us a link so we can find the poem on yours. Groovy.

The Taxman Cometh

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Break out the bubbly, folks. For the first time in six years I’m actually getting a tax refund from the State of Arkansas. This is quite an accomplishment and I couldn’t be more pleased. Those revenue guys have been raking this gal over the coals for some time now. In six to eight weeks I’m assure that there will be a check in the mail. For five dollars. That the refund. Five bucks.

And I don’t care that the check won’t even buy lunch at McDonalds. At least not if I want something to drink.

But wait. There’s even more good news. The Federal Taxman has ALSO given me a break. Sure I owe money, but this time it’s just double-digits. I have enough mathematical acumen to understand that still puts me in the hole overall, but this year it’s more like a divot. I can replace a divot. It’s the cavernous, echoing Yellowstone-like holes that make me quit breathing, and you can bet I’ve been to the precipice and looked over the edge.

I’m going to cash that five-dollar check and spend it all in one place. Shouldn’t be hard to do. My head is spinning so with the thought of such a windfall that I scarcely know how to spend it. I’ve got six to eight weeks to think about it, though. If you have any suggestions just let me know.

Typewriter Art and Glubdrubdrib

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A little typewriter installation art from Simon Patterson and there’s quite a bit going on here. I’ll let him tell you –
“I constructed an enormous wall mounted ‘typewriter’ sculpture: Consisting of a giant keyboard on one wall and painted in the United Nations colours of blue and white were keys spaced out in a line on the other three walls spelling out the typing exercise,‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’, that contains all the letters of the alphabet and therefore, potentially, all meanings expressable in the English language. Above some of the keys, placed apparently randomly, were the names of the permanent members of the Security Council, the present and former Secretary-Generals of the UN and some of the places visited by Captain Lemuel Gulliver – the protagonist of Jonathan Swift’s Gullivers Travels.With General Assembly, the juxtapositions of Jonathan Swift, nationhood and nonesense was a way of playing with the various meanings of the word ‘assembly’. It refers to the General Assembly of the United Nations, assemblage sculpture of the 1960’s and 1970’s, assembling people together in an auditorium/arena or gallery. I wanted to show how side by side with place names such as Lugnagg or Glubdubdrib from Gulivers Travels, UN Secretary-Generals’ names such as Boutros Boutros Ghali or Dag Hammarsköld might also seem like a nonesensical language. You are allowed to laugh.”
Oh my. I believe that’s a politically resonant Olivetti Lettera 32. I could be wrong.
I’m fascinated with the idea that “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” contains the potential for the whole of the English language. I hope no one used his comma key as a coaster at the opening.

Fresh Ribbon for my Typewriter-Jones

Fresh Ribbon

This is what happens when I get a little spring break time on my hands. I started a new blog, Fresh Ribbon. It’s a full-blown typewriter-obssession site and I’ve had a blast getting it started. There are a lot of Very Serious typewriter collecting sites out there in the electronic void – this isn’t one of them. Too girly. Who cares.

That doesn’t mean I won’t let my typewriter-jones creep in over here, though. I just like to put things in piles sometimes, and the No Telling pile was getting a tad unwieldy. Besides, nothing is more fun than designing a new site and it makes me write. Self-imposed deadlining and such. We all play these little headgames to get the words moving from our heads to something more substantial. This blogging thing seems to work for me.

The writer-poet-English major-thing creeps in over there, too. If for no other reason, you have to visit Fresh Ribbon just to see the smoking-and-typing poetry video I’ve implanted on there. It’s not mine, but it should have been.

Obviously, I’m finding excuses not to prepare for the post-spring-break-week ahead. Enough of that. I’m hyphenating too much anyway.

Go write a “Dear John” letter for the weekly challenge. I’ll need a little entertainment this afternoon when I’m taking breaks.

Weekly No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge, and last week’s winner

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Stand back, ladies and gentlemen. We had three – count ’em three – entries in this week’s challenge! This is a real contest now. While the Viagra-ku entries were all equally stunning and sexually empowering, there can only be one winner.

Last week’s No Tellin’ Scribble Challenge winner is Tim author of the three-part Viagra-ku, ” A 70-year-old Man Attempts a Seduction.” Completely enchanting, Tim, and only a little disgusting. Congratulations! Copy/paste the award badge to your blog and let everyone know you’ve arrived.

This week’s challenge should be interesting because it has narrow parameters. This week, I challenge all of you to write a “Dear John” letter in fifty words or less. These can be cold or impassioned, handwritten or text-messaged, post-it noted or slung through a window tied around a rock. Give us a little scenario if it helps – the letter itself should not be over fifty words, but the scenario can be as long as you want.
Post your entry in the comments section or post a link to it from your own site. After last week’s 300% increase in entries, I’m understandably excited about this one.
Ready? Break!