Category Word List

We are given a list of words (which we frequently generate as a group) and then we each write a story, article, or poem using those words.

Tourism of the Rich and Famous

rmunch55

by Randy Munch Oct/21

A Word List storey utilizing the following 15 words:

                 space               kitchen              function           dinner              far-reaching

                 window           power              radiant             match              natural

                 camaraderie        replace          synthetic          choice              hydrate                          

For many days during the year 2238, in Riverside, Iowa a small boy named Jimmy sits at the dinner table gazing out the kitchen window.  He is fixated not on the sky, but the vast far-reaching space beyond. He dreams of one day commanding a star ship and going boldly where no man has gone before. He dreams of discovering new worlds and new civilizations. He dreams that unlike Icarus his wings will not falter in the intense heat of the radiant rays of the sun because his star ship will have the power to function in the most hostile of environments. He dreams all of this because he is James Tiberius Kirk and one day he will graduate from Starfleet Academy and soon after be given the command of the USS Enterprise.

What Jimmy doesn’t know is that some 270 years earlier a fictitious Captain Kirk would portray many of Jimmy’s yet-to-be adventures in an entertainment medium of a long antiquated media technology. Due to years of success of that portrayal this impersonator would be able to afford a tourist flight to space which would match only the shortest and the most inconsequential flights of the USS Enterprise.

In order to make such a flight it is only natural that the aspiring Captain would have to train as a modern day astronaut. During his training he would develop a camaraderie with his fellow astronauts who simply replace Scotty, McCoy, Spock, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov. Driven by the explosions of synthetic jet fuels the “wanna-be” Captain would experience the violent G forces of a launch into space. While he would have no choice in setting the course, the path of the flight would allow him to watch the blue of the sky instantly flash into the blackness of space and he would wonder if that’s what it’s like to die. Upon re-entry his ship’s capsule would parachute safely onto the desert of West Texas where on that arid spot on Earth he and his crew would hydrate with a bottle of champagne. Then they would pontificate on their voyage.

Little Jimmy would eventually learn that more than two centuries earlier his impersonator, at 90 years of age, would be the oldest human to ever experience the voyages of the tour ship Blue Origin and to “boldly go” to the edge of space.

BLIND DATE

Henry Dumas

By Henry Dumas March 14,2022

EXCITED HAPPY  POETRY  BELL LOGIC   FASCINATIN DANCING 

HEART   TREE   LUDICROUS   THUNDER DEPRESSING   NATURE   TAXES

The assignment: Write a story using the above list of the words.

Steven was a good-looking, hard-working, taxpaying conservative meat-eater.  His friends were worried about him hanging out alone, so they set him up on a blind date. He thought it was ludicrous going on a date with a stranger. If that wasn’t bad enough, to add insult to injury, they sent him on a date with a nature loving, tree hugging vegetarian.  

Continue reading “BLIND DATE” →

CALENDAR ALERT

larrymeath1

By Larry Meath

Complete                          subscribe                          dictate

Pumpkin                           ocean                                calendar

Karaoke                            instrument                        railroad

Scissors                            sunset                               society

Barrel                                bicycle                              field

Freddy stared at the calendar alert on the computer screen.  He had not forgotten about the date, but in order to take his mind off of the isolation he had endured for so long, he occupied himself with various mind-numbing activities:  riding a stationary bicycle in grueling Tour de France simulations, subscribing to impossible NY Times puzzle sites, even completing a karaoke singing course guaranteed to improve his tone-deaf past attempts.  Still, his voice recordings reminded him of an instrument of pain and not pleasure.  

He stared out the small window of his quarantine module and watched another sunset as the familiar orange pumpkin dipped once again into the distant Pacific Ocean.  Early in his quarantine, he had imagined the sun being extinguished as it dipped below the horizon—a huge cloud of steam rising noisily from the wake.  Originally, the news had been all bad; the predictions dire.  Society seemed to come to a stop.  But now the reports seemed hopeful.  

The silence was suddenly broken by the distant sound of railroad cars crossing a field on tracks that had previously been quiet.  “That’s a good sign,” he thought to himself.  The world is coming alive again.  He knew that despite the calendar alert, his ordeal was not complete.  His life in a barrel might improve, but the leveling of the death toll only dictated continued commonsense protocol.   Freddy took a deep breath as he walked toward the front door.  He grabbed a pair of scissors from the kitchen counter on the way and timidly turned the knob.  Slowly, as if he feared something to be lurking outside, he opened the door wide.  The yellow quarantine ribbon across the doorway was dispatched with a swift cut.  Freddy took a deep breath of unfiltered air for the first time in months and stepped into a world he had nearly forgotten.   He closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.  It was a new day.