Stories

Six Words: Apple, Activity, Expenditure, Stadium, Obese, Century

We have lots of ways to describe body types. Body types that are considered attractive vary by location, by culture and by time. Some people are hourglass shaped and for a woman in our society in the current century, an hourglass shape is usually considered attractive. Some people are shaped like an inverted pyramid and for a man in our society, that is often considered attractive. But people come in, or grow into, a wider variety of shapes. A pear shape is common. If that pear shape, shall we say ‘ripens’ too much, the person might be considered obese.

People who try to come close to one of today’s idealized body types may spend a lot of time in exercise activities, such as running around the track in a high school stadium, or doing other things that involve a significant expenditure of energy. They forget that they can get hurt doing those things.

We’ve all heard: “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.” I think that’s good advice. It is much safer to just stay home and eat an apple, especially one that is mounted on a stick and covered in caramel and nuts!

Six Words: Reveal, Replace, Prosecute, Continuous, Coma, Stimulation

When looking through a telescope, not many things can replace the stimulation you feel if a comet reveals itself to you as it prosecutes its way across the night sky, the round coma always pointing toward the sun and the tail streaming away on its continuous journey.

Six Words: Navy, Tolerate, Wonder, Jelly, Hypothesize, Minute

A true tale of American survival

Hypothesize for a minute, that you are in charge of a small, rented motor boat with seven passengers on the Intercoastal Waterway near where it meets the Atlantic Ocean in south Florida. Docked just in from the ocean is a very large ship belonging to the US Navy. The ship appears to be an aircraft carrier or something with a flight deck. The ship rises several stories higher than anything nearby.

Looking on in wonder at its size and thrilled to get so close to a ship like this, you approach closer and closer. You and your passengers hear the indistinct sound of a voice through some kind of public address system, possibly coming from the ship several stories above you, but it might as well be speaking through a bowl of jelly, not a word can be understood – at least not by, you, the skipper of your small, rented motor boat with six young children and three other adults aboard. The voice repeats itself, louder, and more urgently. It still cannot be understood, but your passengers all insist that it is warning you to back off, and that approaching any closer will not be tolerated.

What would you do?

Since I’m here sharing this adventure with you, you can tell that I did turn around, and that led almost immediately to another misadventure that maybe I’ll share another day, when we’re challenged with the right six words.

Six Words: Nature, Equal, Nursery, Photography, Decorative, Volunteer

Photography clubs are common all over the country, and probably all over the world. They are usually run by volunteers. The clubs that I have been a member of encourage participation by all levels of photographer and all levels of equipment.

Sometimes photographs are critiqued, to help everyone become a better photographer. Sometimes there is a specific category of photographs at a meeting, such as nature photography or holiday decorations. One time here in Austin, a photography club went to a large nursery to take photographs and I took a lot of photos of dragon flies and damsel flies.

Sometimes photographs are judged. When judging is involved, photographers may be grouped so that you are being judged in comparison to people of equal skills. In my Connecticut photography club, you started in the lower skilled group – I’m sure there was a polite name for it, and if you got enough points during a year, you moved up to the higher skilled group. I never made it to the higher skilled group, but I did earn a few blue ribbons in the group that I was in. It still makes me feel good to have those ribbons displayed in my apartment, but if I had ever moved up I might never have received another one.

Six Words: Tension, Duty, Desert, Carrot, Tolerate, Exhibition

In August of 2010 my wife and I visited “The World of Peter Rabbit” exhibition in Bowness-on-Windermere which, as you probably all know, is in the lakes district in the northwest of England. It is on the east side of Lake Windermere. In case you still can’t place it, on the opposite side of Lake Windermere are the villages of Near Sawrey and Far Sawrey. Far Sawrey is the village that is the one that is closer to Bowness-on-Windermere. Bowness-on-Windermere is northwest of Mitchelland. It is very close to the intersection of Ray Rigg Road and Lake Road, but Lake Road becomes Crag Brow for a bit in that area. While you’re visiting, you may enjoy a stay nearby at The Angel Inn where you will have views of Lake Windemere and the fells of Claife Heights and Latterbarrow beyond.

It becomes almost your duty to walk around the area and explore places like the White House and the Magic Circle and The Hole in the Wall. You’ll have a harder time finding a high rise building here than you would finding a waterfall in the desert. Within the exhibit, smoking and other crude behavior is not tolerated.

The exhibit features a life-size Peter Rabbit dressed in his blue jacket and with a carrot in each hand, carrots which would undoubtedly have been stolen from Mr. McGregor’s garden. And here, dear reader, is where the tale takes an unexpected turn. Noticing that we were the only ones in the room at the time, Denise tried to take one of Peter’s carrots! The tension in the room was palpable and, as we felt Mr. McGregor’s presence, the photo was captured!

Six Words: Blade, Soldier, Interface, Top, Study, Laboratory

No one knew who the knight was, or how he came to be in the field where he was found covered under centuries of detritus. It is exceedingly rare to find a complete skeleton still encased in a full suit of armor. Once found though, arguments could commence about what to do with the knight, and about who had the right to make those decisions.

Eventually the decision about what to do with the knight had been made, although the arguments about who had the right to make the decision would never end. A name was now assigned to the knight. Hence forth, until some prior evidence is discovered, the knight is Sir Dung Beetle.

The archaeological forensics laboratory was excited about their new opportunity. They were one of the top archaeological laboratories in the world, although truth be known, there were only a handful of archaeological laboratories, so they were all one of the top archaeological laboratories. More than one PhD thesis has emerged from this study.

The examiners quickly determined that a blade pierced the soldier’s body at the interface between his breastplate and his arm. If the arm had been severed just a little bit more, this poor guy could have given himself a pat on the back.

Six Words: Carbon, Competition, Tropical, Favor, Panel, Sunshine

This week the 28th UN Climate Change Conference, or Conference of the Parties, is meeting in Dubai, a city in the United Arab Emirates. The meeting is being referred to as COP28. Of course, a focus is on carbon and how to reduce its harmful effects in our atmosphere. Although technically Dubai is located in the tropics, it is far from what I think of as a tropical climate. Since it is becoming winter, the temperature in Dubai this week is a high only around 80 and a low around 67. It is a desert and that means that it does have a lot of sunshine, so it is a favorable environment for solar panels. Dubai also has a lot of oil, so as long as the oil lasts, it will compete with solar panels as a source of power. All that oil makes a slippery road into the future.

Six Words: Value, Tactic, Frighten, Accessible, Echo, Designer

For a semester or two, sometime during the 1980’s, I taught a Junior Achievement course at our local high school. I met with an Economics class and the teacher had to want Junior Achievement to participate. I think I met with the class once a week for a couple of months. I’m pretty sure the students learned something, but I know that I did.

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Six Words: Museum, Prison, Aloof, Birthday, Supply, Sequence

As her birthday neared, she contemplated the sequence of events that brought her to this environment. Was she like a muse, in one of the temples that would later be called museums? What, really, is the difference between a museum and a prison. Both are places that contain things that are unusual and that most people will never be near outside of these edifices.

Museums, she decided, are places that people cherish, because of what they preserve and what they teach. Prisons are places that are mostly ignored, as people remain aloof, simply not caring.

I wonder, do they supply birthday cakes in prison?

Six Words: Blackmail, Marketing, Dictate, Window, Retain, Minimum

You may have seen at least one movie that involved someone seeing something through a window that they thought they could use for blackmail. Among the first things that is usually done is to take pictures. Then informing the victims and threatening to market or reveal the pictures or videos. The blackmailer will determine a minimum price or conditions for destroying the pictures. They’ll dictate the terms for the exchange. But we know that they will always retain the original files.

One famous movie along those lines was Rear Window. It was released in 1954 starring Jimmy Stewart, Grace Kelly, and Raymond Burr. There are many others. ChatGPT can give you a list of titles, but it will keep the endings a secret.