Six Word Stories

by Ina B Sentia, on or about 7.13.25

Just a reminder to please credit my work (stories and photos – any format that is available on earth) if you use it in any normal, legal (or illegal), of-this-earth kind of way.

-pelotasdad at yahoo.com

Fish didn’t belong on the moon.

The number one can be large.

The sandwich did not feed enough.

The worm lost its favorite segment.

Coffee is the cause and cure.

One last time before the road.

The truth had one fly inside.

The mountain river had no master.

Each note ached to be heard.

The effort nearly killed her desire.

The waves rose like a dragon.

The love of fate killed him.

We avoided the chocolate fur balls.

The wind rippled through tall grass.

My life is a washing machine.

Audrey’s in the kitchen wasting thyme.

The grimalkin freaked out the parrots.

No matter what, you’re doing something.

My toothbrush has lived too long.

You just can’t beat the goalpost.

The armistice between winter and spring.

Their repeated path of most resistance.

She carried pain like a light.

The sound of one hand clapping.

Hands can never be tongue tied.

Violins give our pain a voice.

Violins is a big problem today.

His dog never learned to sigh.

What I’m writing is not real.

She said “I love you more.”

The wind is the enemy tonight.

I listened but could not see.

They thought the conversation meant something.

On the bottom was another top.

One heart can beat for two.

Be good at least once daily.

Do crime from time to time.

In for pennies, out for life.

In for pennies, in for life.

In for a penny, without thought.

Up and down, caught and thrown.

Slip and slide, didn’t fall down.

Go away each and every day.

Everything looks perfect from far away (Fe & Wine – Such great heights)

Tom Thumb was burgled when young.

Tom Thumb has burgled when young.

Tom Thumb has burgled the young.

Ah. He sure burgled that one.

The rain couldn’t change its force.

The reign couldn’t change their course.

Hammer on. Pull off. Your turn.

Testify in a court of law?

Trains go by every day now.

I am hers most every day.

I am his every other day.

Emojis we need : Brevity-free in the age of terse texting

Laughter lines emoji

Take my waif, please emoji

Sorry I burned down your family tree emoji

To be fair emoji

Death by hangnail emoji

Limited ads emoji

Bread man walking emoji

Pineapple with a pirate fedora emoji

Potato with a balaclava emoji

Vomiting beaver emoji

Vomiting Santa emoji (from Randall Munroe of xkcd.com)

Vomiting Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer emoji

Santa eating a reindeer burger emoji

Rudolph eating a vegan elf burger emoji

Disgruntled elk emoji

Jaded Alpaca emoji

Incontinent giraffe emoji

Condescending hedgehog emoji

Benevolent porcupine emoji

OMGod! emoji

Beer league hockey emoji

Unemotional eggplant emoji

Life’s a roller coaster, keep your arms inside emoji (Conor Oberst)

New York I love you but you’re freaking me out emoji {LCD Soundsystem}

Running late for tea emoji

Jazz makes me angry emoji

Her eyes were sanguine, like a total lunar eclipse emoji

Impenetrable flan emoji

“Electrons Gone Wild” Spring Break Video emoji 

Blame the dog emoji

Let sleeping dogs fly emoji

My dog barks at air emoji

Fingerless air quotes emoji

Them and us emoji

Unexamined beliefs emoji

Subtherapeutic coffee relief emoji

Drinking coffee at night makes you dream faster emoji (Jim Jarmusch)

You’re killing me, Smalls emoji (Sandlot movie)

I make promises I can not keep emoji

Entropy my ass emoji

Unencumbered attosecond emoji

Let’s get a body tattoo of all the lyrics from the album ‘Goats Head Soup” by the Rolling Stones emoji

Featureless cult emoji

Find a penny, pick it up, all the day you’ll have good luck emoji

(photo from rollingstones.com)

He runs like The Simpson’s intro sofa emoji

He runs like he is being chased by The Simpson’s intro sofa emoji

It’s an architectural turducken emoji {Bob’s Burgers}

Cruelty-free stationers emoji (Simpsons)

Cruelty-free missionary visit emoji

Cruelty-free timeshare presentation emoji

Cruelty-free accordion emoji

Photo by Raoul Croes

It’s right to the left emoji

It’s alright to be left emoji

It’s alright to be left behind emoji

It is right to the left, where I left it…… right? emoji

African American hole emoji

Event horizon emoji

Event horizontal bars emoji

Waning gibbous emoji

The moon shall rise again emoji (Futurama)

Orion’s Belt is loose emoji

Dark matter can’t be detected… yet emoji

Darkness invades the light emoji

Stars give us stability emoji

Stars teach us distance emoji

(Photo of Rosette Nebula from NASA…. Thank you, NASA!)

Potato in the tailpipe emoji

Potato salad in the Chinaman’s pipe emoji

Butterflies don’t smell like butter emoji

Lucy in the skies with broken glass emoji

(Photo by NASA of blue supermoon, including ISS space station tracking across the moon)

Too old to drive sober emoji

Too old to die young emoji {Scott Dooley, John Hadley, Kevin Welch}

Too young to snore emoji

 “I’m too old to be wearing these clown socks, and they aren’t even mine!”… emoji.

A day without an umbrella emoji

A day without a kiss emoji

A day without a solution emoji

At the end of the day, it’s night emoji (Nick Kroll)

Up the proverbial creek without proper means of locomotion emoji

Up shit creek without a paddle emoji

When life gives you poop emojis, make poop juice emojis.

Turning diamonds back into coal emoji (Gregory Alan Isakov)

Turning gold back into stars emoji

Quantum popular mechanics emoji

Fermi’s paradox emoji

Pinocchio’s paradox emoji

Liar’s paradox emoji

Friendship paradox emoji

Birthday paradox emoji

Tea leaf paradox emoji

Schrödinger’s cat paradox emoji

Supporter of local team emoji

Supporter of team from an unpopular part of the country emoji

Supporter of team that moved to another city emoji

Supporter of an icon from the wrong side of history emoji

Desire for acceptance by a group you hate emoji

Photographer unknown, from FIFA.com

Tattooed babies emoji

Pigeon too fat to fly emoji

Otis is my dog emoji

“Otis-don’t-eat-that!” is my dog emoji

My dog, Otis, x 9

Fairy tale with vague moral to the story emoji

The light is burning brightly for the masses emoji {Lock Stock and 2 Smoking Barrels movie}

A man tells himself many things emoji {Noah Hawley-Fargo tv show}

Addicted to odd numbers emoji

Addicted to prime numbers emoji

Addicted to odd prime numbers emoji

Addicted to the odd emoji

She said “moist” emoji

He said “slightly wet or damp” emoji

A disheartening lack of sarcasm emoji

No further questions emoji

Computer c0de emoji

Print(“\U0001F600”) emoji

:Insolubility: emoji

Infinite do loop emoji

Python was named for Monty emoji

Image from wallpapercave.com

If it keeps on rainin’, levee’s goin’ to break emoji {Memphis Minnie}

Like a paper airplane in the rain emoji (Noah Hawley)

Rain, please wash my sins away emoji

Gravedigger, when you dig my grave, could you make it shallow so that I can feel the rain emoji {Dave Matthews}

And it rained, like a slow divorce emoji {Robyn Hitchcock}

I can’t stand the rain emoji (Ann Peebles, Don Bryant, Bernie Miller)

I love the rain the most; when it stops emoji {Joe Purdy}

Gravity pulls emoji

Desire draws emoji

Opposites attract emoji

Similarities repel emoji

The world changes when I change emoji

Symphony of one emoji

Symphony of two emoji

Symphony for the devil emoji

Madness of one emoji

Folie à deux emoji

Hot potato emoji

Hot half-baked idea potato emoji

Only you can prevent sad pumpkins emoji (Matt Kasson)

Dark end of the chip bag emoji

Light moves at 186,000 miles per second (in a vacuum cleaner) emoji

Sarah Cynthia Stout, would not take the garbage out emoji (Shel Silverstein)

The piano doesn’t play, and it never did emoji (Caamp)

I threw stones at the sky, but the whole sky fell emoji (Gregory Alan Isakov)

Don’t eat an apple while washing dishes emoji

The train has left the station emoji

Inexperienced tree surgeon emoji

Monochromatic painting emoji

Gauche gouache emoji

Nature, nurture, or chance emoji [Professor Robert Sapolsky]

No visible means emoji

Killing two stones with one bird emoji

Killing two stones with one bird: The aftermath emoji

Until the end of this sentence emoji

This may take up to a minute emoji

Questionable muffin flavor emoji

Unfortunate body odor emoji

Perpetual emotion emoji

Destination unknown emoji

Regarding irregardless emoji

We warned you emoji

Pin their ears back emoji

Oh, for Pete’s sake emoji

Deductible met emoji

Neurochemical directive emoji

Wind at my side and god on my back emoji

God’s away on business emoji (Tom Waits)

All my fingers are on my hands emoji

Enter softly, touching nothing, slip away, without a sound emoji [Trampled by Turtles]

A friend of the devil is a friend of mine emoji [Robert Hunter]

Tin roof….. rusted emoji {B-52’s}

No was her name; No was the lion that no one could tame emoji [Wolf Larsen]

She sells sanctuary emoji [Ian Astbury, Billy Duffy]

And I choose the rooms that I live in with care, The windows are small and the walls almost bare, There’s only one bed and there’s only one prayer, I listen all night for your step on the stair emoji (Leonard Cohen)

.and the circus boy dances like a monkey on barbed wire emoji {Springsteen}

There before the grace of you go I emoji (Paul Simon)

Water in the fuel emoji (Fred Eaglesmith)

In without knocking emoji (Mission Mountain Wood Band)

Dumb smelly girls emoji
Salty two-headed boys emoji
Flunked Biology emoji
Flunked Biology again emoji
Changed majors emoji

Are you bragging or complaining emoji

Strong moral compassion emoji

My squalor is your squalor, but better emoji

Be strange, but don’t be a stranger emoji

Let the good times roll emoji (Rick Ocasek)

Is it enough? emoji

Emoji? I hardly knew ya! emoji

She can make nothing out of something emoji

Let’s get small emoji {Steve Martin}

Let’s go do some crime emoji {Repo Man}

Facial expression waiting to happen emoji

No capes emoji {Incredibles movie}

Precisely the wrong size emoji

Centripetal force much? emoji

She could lose an eye…. or gain one emoji

Pass me the ring, Bilbo emoji

Pass me the frankincense, Senator emoji

Yo, son of god, pass me the myrrh emoji

He should have passed the ball emoji

Where would we be if we didn’t try? emoji

Just be nice; unless they have a gun, then be really nice emoji

Only short haired people do crime emoji

Johnny Rotten emoji

Sadness doppelgänger emoji

Perpendicular to nothing emoji

Cookie hangover emoji

Posthumously watched emoji

The dude abode emoji

I need a good defense emoji

Beautimus emoji

Hi my little beastie emoji

Leaf me alone emoji

When you fight gravity, you lose emoji

Mercury in retrograde emoji

Man uses spork as knife emoji [The Onion]

Great balls of fireflies emoji

Settle a tied score emoji

Broken spoke emoji

Broken stoke emoji

Brooding cactus emoji

Enigmatic 2Pac emoji

Adult popup book emoji

Why don’t dogs tip? emoji

Ban prenatal spanking emoji [Zach Galifianakis]

Epigenetic Jane emoji

Rods and cones emoji

When it rains, it pours emoji

(Grand Canyon photo by Keegan Pelton)

I am my mother’s child emoji (Conor Oberst)

I am my mother’s father emoji

Slug Bug emoji

Slug Pug emoji

All my money is tied up in cash emoji

My fingers and toes are parallel; mostly emoji

Don’t pull that thread emoji

Hellbound hippy aura puncher emoji

Owned by my phone emoji

Owned by your phone emoji

Shake the tree emoji

Free breakroom food emoji

Death by cubicle emoji

Death by hangnail emoji

mural painting by Ben Rogers (@Wolfies_Grin)

I see” said the blind man as he walked into the wall emoji

Houses in Venice don’t have basements emoji

They played for a long time and there weren’t even any lyrics emoji

I’d like a Schweppe’s, please emoji

Mindful chatter emoji

Whispered intent emoji

Wistful smile emoji

88 lines about 44 women emoji [John Hall]

Detachable penis emoji [John Hall, Roger Murdock, Dave Rick, Chris Xefos]

Love is the drug emoji [Bryan Ferry, Andy Mackay]

On Planet Claire, no one has a head emoji [Henry Mancini, Fred Schneider, Keith Strickland]

When I hurt, you feel the pain emoji [Robyn Hitchcock]

Let’s get normal at the luau emoji [David Lindley]

New snowfall emoji

First snowfall of winter emoji

First avalanche of emotion emoji

Unexpected trainwreck emoji

Private Idaho emoji [The B52’s]

Private joke emoji

Silhouette of love emoji

Lingering No Doubt emoji

Billy “My” Idol emoji

Jeepers creepers emoji

Faltering resilience emoji

The loneliness that coffee shops treat emoji

What fresh hell is this? emoji [Dorothy Parker]

Try to make it seem like you wrote it that way on purpose emoji [French Dispatch movie]

The world is a hellish place, and bad writing is destroying the quality of our suffering emoji [Tom Waits]

This wasn’t just plain terrible; this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it emoji [Dorothy Parker]

Ask for permission instead of forgiveness emoji

Losing my religion emoji (Michael Stipe)

Losing my identity emoji

Losing my wishes emoji

Belly button lint emoji

Pencil thin pencil emoji

Headlights on the highway emoji

I couldn’t do that emoji

When you’re cold, I’ll be there, and hold you tight to me emoji [Sade]

Where am I, and who are you? emoji

Gravity is my favorite law of physics emoji (“Asteroid City” movie)

Gravitational waves are badass emoji

Stop before you fall into the hole I have dug here emoji [Pete Yorn]

I don’t need a better thing, I’ll settle  for less emoji [Pete Yorn]

Hanami happens a femtosecond after the mountain rain ends emoji

Chindogu for the brilliantly impractical solution emoji

Kintsugi for repair of the shattered soul emoji

Derelict carb-uncles emoji

When a mind startles us emoji [Unknown]

One hand rapping emoji

Hands can’t be tongue tied emoji

Not on my watch emoji

Undefined hand gesture emoji

Undefined constant emoji

Concussion protocol emoji

Contrast governs resolution emoji

Dead battery emoji

“Bubbles” is a great name for a pet fish emoji

Pajama day emoji

Based on a true story emoji

A forgotten grace emoji

Dreams enough for half of us emoji

Never forget: Pluto 1930-2006 emoji

Your pants are on fire emoji

Your nose hair is on fire emoji

Your life is on fire emoji

Unencumbered cucumber emoji

Free the Glutens emoji [Tom Waits]

All hat and no cattle emoji [Osage tribe]

Check out the big brain on Spartacus emoji

Get that cat a beer emoji

Makeup for cats emoji

Chamber pot emoji

The razor’s edge emoji

Call and response emoji

Invisible costume emoji

Invisible friend emoji

Invisible friend that steals emoji {Bob’s Burger}

I am my dog’s emotional support animal emoji

Puppy running in her sleep emoji

Leaf me alone emoji

Mother’s little helper emoji

But there is a flag on the play emoji

My secret dimensionless box emoji

Right wing wrong beak emoji

May your children have children emoji

But here we are emoji

Perseus and Caput Medusæ emoji

They’re eating the dogs emoji

(photographer unknown, costume designer unknown)

Take this time to get right with your god(s) emoji

Light up the darkness emoji [Bob Marley]

White guilt catering emoji [Shrinking TV show]

Bored of the rings emoji [Doug Kenney, Henry Beard]

Helplessly hoping emoji (Steven Stills)

Helplessly homeless emoji

Up the proverbial creek without proper means of locomotion emoji (Unknown)

(painting by Mark Tansey, Title unknown)

Pilgrimage to nowhere emoji

Let us be normal on the dark end of the street emoji

Drunken cowboy hat emoji

Everyone hurts emoji {Michael Stipe}

Sometime emoji {Michael Stipe}

Nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada emoji (Nothing and then nothing and nothing and then nothing) [Ernest Hemingway]

¡Llama ya! emoji (Call now!)

Amargo como la vita emoji (Bitter as life)

¡Dios mio! emoji (My god!)

Te amo, mijo emoji (I love you, my son)

Pogue mahone emoji (Kiss my arse)

Bonne nuit emoji (Good night)

Wolf Larsen emoji

Sturgill Simpson emoji

Molly Tuttle emoji

Molly Tutelage emoji

Molly Tutankhamen emoji

Molly Turmeric XI hexafluorophosphate emoji

The no good very bad rotten metaphor emoji

When god wishes to punish us, he answers our prayers emoji (Oscar Wilde)

There is nothing without shadows except the light itself emoji (Pramoedya Ananta Toer)

Time isn’t holding us, time isn’t after us emoji (David Byrne)

The way you do anything is the way you do everything emoji (Tom Waits)

A gentleman is someone who can play the accordion, but doesn’t emoji (Tom Waits)

Expensive bicycle emoji

Expensive bicycle part emoji

Expensive bicycle race fee emoji

Too wild, never mild emoji [Margaretta Page]

Sounds crazy, tastes great emoji

Put him up against the wall, shoot him full of pentothal emoji (Bruce Cockburn)

We just couldn’t do the math emoji (Fred Eaglesmith)

You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant (exceptin’ Alice) emoji [Arlo Guthrie]

Goofin’ wid da bees emoji {Harry Nilsson}

Take me to the river emoji {David Byrne}

Dancing with Mr. D emoji (Stones)

11.15.24 Christmas bazaar emoji

Christmas. Bizarre story emoji

Don’t judge a book by its movie emoji (Unknown)

That’s always been my problem: people think I’m being vulgar when I’m being serious, and they think I’m being serious when I’m being vulgar emoji (John Byrum and Bill Murray)

The name of the town was “Sign Here” emoji

You know nothing, John Stark emoji (Game of Thrones)

I don’t need a better thing; I’ll settle for less emoji (Pete Yorn)

Welcome to my neurochemical directives…..

4.16.2024 Hi there. This website is devoted to the means of informing everyone about the progress of my upcoming book, “Short Stories with Long Titles.” I hope you all enjoy my daily feature of “First Sentences,” “Emojis We Need,”and my frequently updated feature devoted to the brilliant utterings of the many talented writers of stories and songs (The Brilliance of Others). As we all know the value of anyone’s creative efforts, all writing, as well as all photos (unless as noted otherwise) are owned exclusively by me, and reproduction is prohibited without written permission. Peace to you all.

First sentences without a home…..

4.12.24 Lacuna entered the top of the circular staircase just as she had hoped; vertically.

4.16.24 “I completely agree,” offered the tour guide, “animals are hard to see in the dark, but I actually asked you ‘Is this your first visit to the zoo since the accident?’”

4.17.24 My favorite device to speak to is my printer, and I think it really gets me…… at least that is what the desk lamp tells me.

4.18.24 Allegedly, on this dark and stormy night, the leaves stayed, the aspirin ached, the mire pleased, the song bird lisped, the fences beckoned with illusions of unencumbered passage, the hard boiled eggs were freed from their prison shells, the sirens sang their murder ballads (in a bouncy key of C), the piano “claimed” it had not been drinking, and the luncheon specials stopped precisely at ten (for it was in a Tom Waits’ song that this story lies), all while the flickering flame-lit streets were agitated doubly by the combined outgassing of kombucha and chicken farm “leavings.” (an ode to author Bulwer Lytton)

4.20.24 With the impractical invention out of the way, Mr. Chindogu moved on to solving the actual problem: driving safely with a microscope attached to the steering wheel.

4.22.24 Inspired by the work of Balzac (and his two headed brother, Balsamic), Monty Python, and Eddie Van Halen (from the Eddie Van Halen band), the artist formerly known as “Blank Canvas” was 56% complete in his recreation of the initial meeting between Genghis Khan and the modern English alphabet. (an ode to singer/songwriter Todd Snyder)

4.23.24 The road sign said it was “Highway 250-La Bamba County,” but we all knew that we were, in fact, in hell.

4.24.24 With the wind in his right hand and the rain in his left, he bent the trees and washed a land that had grown weary of the immeasurable cycles of growth and loss.

4.25.24 She had a bone through her nose, tats on her kneecaps, and fireworks in her eyes, which made it easier to pass through the metal detector. (an ode to musician Richard Thompson)

4.26.24 On a midnight eve both dark AND stormy, a symphony of natural electrical disturbances played its tune, wowing, and later, killing the audience that had gathered after the “Neurochemical Directives” finished their benefit concert to aid cruelty-free stationers. (an ode to author Bulwer-Lytton)

4.29.24 The trailer bathroom was already filled with the four of us, but that didn’t stop Airball from trying to make an entrance to see “What’s up?”

4.30.24 Stir the memories, grill the past, braise the future, and sear the desire to be young again.

5.1.24 With the small talk out of the way, the two returned to their virtual outhouse of spam emails and dwarf porn.

5.2.24 Pelota walked slowly with her human along the carefully trimmed hedge until she thrust her head into the middle of the shrubbery long enough to pull out the (previously) uneaten pastry.

5.3.24  The newspaper snapped back and forth to create the beat, covering and uncovering the vacuum hose opening provided the background vocals, and the whiskey bottle xylophone kicked in with a plucky salsa number: it was BYOI (bring your own instrument) night at the Rattle and Hum Bistro.

5.6.24 Hombre Sucre had all the skills for the job but one: a less than fanatical devotion to sugar coating every natural disaster report using words beginning with the letter “P.”

5.7.24 The shadow fell upon the buildings like a sledge hammer, crushing each ray of light.

5.8.24  The majestic cliffs of cinnamon red and forests of deep kale green could only stand and watch as the bear attempted to enter the concert venue without her mobile device: silly bear.

5.9.24 It was at this point that the forest rangers all realized the only way to determine the woman’s age was to core her midsection and count the rings.

5.10.24 A wind blew from the hot desert floor, swirled up through the river valley, embraced the cool mountain peaks, and returned, with nothing to declare.

5.13.24 He lived his life like the Escher drawing of hands drawing each other, but didn’t know how to hold a pencil. (Drawing my M.C. Escher)

5.14.24 Despite being brobdingnagian in size, emotional IQ, and musical chops, Doorknob was unwise in the ways of the city and quickly lost all his folding money playing Chutes and Ladders.

5.15.24 She used her plaid shirttail to klean the blood off her kamping koffee kup before learning they were out of koffee.

5.16.24 As the bird’s wings slice through the wind, Bernoulli’s will to climb higher is in competition with Gravity’s desire to hold fast, and it is this same force of desire that prevents dead birds from staying up in the sky.

5.17.24 The man was bent over, crying from a pain that could not be defined by a doctor’s pen or captured by a photographer’s lens. (Photograph by Dorothea Lange)

5.20.24 My first wish is to have a circular staircase as high as Godzilla was tall on his 20th birthday.

5.21.24 Her camera’s autofocus ignored the creases from decades of laughter and tried to bring the subject’s soul in alignment with life’s focal plane.

5.22.24 It was not until Exit saw his reflection in the mirrored cigarette machine that he noticed that his feet weren’t touching the ground.

5.23.24 The zebra-shit white exterior of the station wagon was not sweetening the appeal of a long road trip through the bible belt for the (currently) stoned soccer moms.

5.24.24 I was in a tight spot: some would say I was up the proverbial creek without proper means of locomotion, and they would be correct.

5.28.24  The slide skims over the strings to make the guitar sing; it sings not for the lonely, not for the hungry, and not for the lost, but for the chance for anyone to feel carried by a waterfall of notes for just a little while.

5.29.24 She clutched her water bottle like it was a baby wallaby, and it was really creeping out the rest of the passengers on the cruise ship. (Photo by James Wainscoat)

5.30.24 As he stepped up to the podium to receive his prize, it was still unclear why his shoes were loosely tied to a second pair of shoes.

5.31.24 Our Aunt Phillis would say things like “Pop Tarts are legit!” and we hated her for that.

6.3.24 Want checked his emails on his phone, set his phone down, picked up his phone, used a new app that searched his 6,324 photos for cowboys or firetrucks, set his phone down, then swallowed his room key.

6.4.24 Why do you think Ai can fix my bumper, since it didn’t prevent the accident in the first place?

6.5.24 Boot Strap enjoyed the free hotel breakfast of subcutaneous coffee injections, toasted and buttered regret, and steel cut oatmeal, while his dog dined from a bowl of unrealistic expectations (disguised as kibble).

6.6.24 As Freeze Dried rounded the corner and headed towards the Finish Line, he shifted up and exploded into a frenzied rhythm of pedaling cadence, labored breathing, and ear splitting screams from his parole officer.

6.7.24 The Python computer programming language is named after Monty Python, and that’s all I have to say about that.

6.11.24 The only thing more shallow than her personality was the grave she found herself buried in.

6.13.24  Each quarter clinked as it dropped onto the other quarters below the clothes dryer coin slot, knowing that it was no longer likely to attend the pot luck scheduled for later that evening.

6.14.24  She hoped to be able to read the note by moonlight, but the clown’s handwriting was atrocious and an improved light source (like the sun) was required.

6.17.24  The highly sexual and peaceful nature of the Bonobo ape community, coupled with the fact they share 98.7% of their DNA with humans, may explain the origin of the saying “Make love, not war”…. or not. (photographer unknown, photo from Radio New Zealand)


6.18.24  One of the lies we tell ourselves is that we don’t lie to ourselves; we merely negotiate a settlement with details to be discussed at a later date.

6.19.24 The ant walked along the dirty black and white checkered floor like a detective investigating the scene of the grime.

6.20.24  Gravitational waves born from a black hole colliding with its black hole neighbor can be detected over a billion light-years after the event, but I still can’t find my car keys….. yet. (illustration by Mark Garlick, from ScienceNews.org)

6.21.24  As the drone was lowered closer to the ground, the torn piece of toilet paper that was stuck to the landing gear revealed itself.

6.24.24 Can you feel the sun’s warmth, hear the Northern Cardinal’s song, and see the windswept fields of grain, over by yon Dairy Queen?

6.25.24 A cool breeze visits on this hot night; a night too hot for sleeping blankets or drinking espresso from a straw while sitting naked in a sauna.

6.26.24 I need a chair, I need a window, I need a home. (painting Van Gogh: The Bedroom)

6.27.24  A small white plate held the remaining crumbs from the afternoon’s snack of espresso and raspberry-chocolate indignation.  

6.28.24 The music whispered from the coffee shop speakers and placed a quiet hush over the argument currently raging about the merits of putting ketchup on ketchup.

7.1.24 Generalizations fill the interstitial space in our sentences, our thoughts, and our world; although this claim may be considered too general.

7.2.24 One of the minor character’s major flaws was her insistence in converting all units of measurement into the equivalent of furlongs/fortnight. (Acknowledgements to Professor David B. Williams)

7.3.24 The black ant (Lasius niger) checked her mandibles at the front desk, which was quite inconvenient since it was “All-You-Can-Eat Wednesdays” at the “Lapin Agile.”

7.4.24  Her message called out for the hopeful, the strong, and the bright, to lift up those struggling to carry a burden. (Photo by Serena Repice Lentini)

7.5.24 Mysterioso, the long-limbed levitating lexicon, wrapped up the evening by making the letter F disappear…. silly buck.

7.9.24 My daddy was a miner since before I was born, although data storage was always an issue.

7.10.24 This was no moronic misnomer like “Brat Pack” or “disruptive technology”; the name of the town really was “Sign Here.”

7.11.24 And next on our broadcast is the riveting docudrama, “The Evolution of Boxed Wine.”

7.12.24 I’ll never see heaven like others do, but I do see how eating five chocolate croissants before a long, fast, mountain bike race can become “problematic.”

The brilliance of others…..

  • Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies. – Edna St. Vincent Millay
  • Kids like kites. Also, kids are like kites. – Robin Strong Elton
  • You really don’t need musical notation for rock and roll. I always said it was all hand signals and threats. – Elvis Costello
  • Brevity is the soul of lingerie. – Dorothy Parker
  • Remember: being a defendant gets you out of jury duty. – Homer Simpson
  • Now, I will do nothing but listen… – Walt Whitman
  • Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy which sustained him through temporary periods of joy. – Unknown
  • I am a fugitive from a daisy chain gang. – Dorothy Parker
  • You can blow out a match, but you can’t blow out a fire. – Peter Gabriel
  • “Life is once, forever.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson
  • I turn negatives into positives. – Bill Groethe, photographer
  • Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. – Banksy
  • Only losers don’t feel like losers. – Diane Furstenberg
  • Quiet people have the loudest minds. – Stephen Hawking
  • I only dread one day at a time. – Art Spiegelman
  • What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger….. except bears. – Unknown
  • When a man digs a grave, he has to fill it. Otherwise, it is just a hole. – Noah Hawley, from Fargo (TV show)
  • Future, he don’t try to find me. – Townes Van Zandt
  • Enjoy every sandwich. – Warren Zevon
  • Life is endless, until you die. – Edith Piat
  • What doesn’t kill you only makes you hurt more. – Unknown
  • We are never prepared for what we want. – James Michener
  • If your hair is too long, there’s sin in your heart. – Billy Strings
  • There is nothing without shadows except the light itself. – Pramoedya Ananta Toer
  • She cried when she should, and laughed when she could…. – Lyrics by Damien Rice
  • Try to make it seem like you wrote it that way on purpose. – Wes Anderson, in the movie “French Dispatch”