Six Words: Quarter, Forum, Nonremittal, Proportion, Position, Discreet
The Six Words Writers Forum expected its members to make a contribution to the organization at least once each quarter. Although the Rules Committee was discreet, it was their position that nonremittal results in penalties. Penalties that are in proportion to lack of participation — up to and including forgetting their name!
Six Words: Rally, Disturbance, Coverage, Citizen, Crossing, Cooperation
As usual, there was a disturbance at the rally. Knowing there would be TV coverage ensured that there would be citizens crossing paths, some supporting and some opposing, the reason for the rally. Some don’t even know what the rally is about. The organizers arranged for security and enlisted the cooperation of the police. Who would have believed that a rally opposing “junk fees” would attract people who support them? They should have made tickets to the rally free, but included a voluntary ticketing fee of $15 to see who volunteered to pay it. That could prove that, sadly, there are some troublemakers that show up just to create a disturbance.
Six Words: Fascinate, Morsel, Body, Witness, Leader, Linger
I’ve never been fascinated by horror stories or movies. Well, except for The Exorcist and except for The Devil in Miss Jones and except for The Blair Witch Project and except for The Birds and except for Silence of the Lambs, but other than those I’ve never been fascinated by horror stories or movies. There’s almost always a body. There may be a witness who is reluctant to get involved. When the police get involved, their leader may be competent, but not always. If there is a cannibal in the story, or a shark, than there will be morsels of flesh consumed or stored in the freezer.
Most of us remember a movie where a woman’s body is stored in a freezer, though, and that movie is comedy. Or another, where a body is propped up during a party and lingers that way over an entire weekend and no one notices that it is a dead body. Of course one of them is simply titled Bernie, and the other Weekend at Bernie’s. Those are horror movies I can identify with.
Six Words: Final, Concentrate, Ambiguity, Enhance, Advertise, Depend
The juice companies advertise “not from concentrate”, just pure orange juice. Not even any enhancements. There is no ambiguity in the labeling or the advertising. You should be able to depend on their juice to taste like fresh-squeezed orange juice. But something happens between the time when the orange leaves the tree and when it finally arrives in the grocery store cooler. Somewhere along the line there is a taste distorter. So every two weeks or so I go to HEB where they do sell fresh squeezed orange juice. I know I’m not the only one, because on many days, if you get there after about 1:00 they’re sold out.
Here’s some pro tips. The orange juice sold at HEB is squeezed in San Antonio and delivered daily. The juice at Central Market is squeezed on-site, but they squeeze it too hard so it is too bitter, and the bottles from HEB are easier to handle. But, if you don’t want pulp in your juice you’re going to have to strain it yourself.
Six Words: Deficit, Leadership, Similar, Affinity, Creation, Redeem
Everyone recognized that the company had a deficit of good leadership. The question, though, is whether the deficit was only among the corporate executives, or whether it was because of the Board of Directors. Investors were concerned that the Board would select a new CEO who was similar to the one being replaced. They were likely to have an affinity for that kind of person. In an effort to redeem themselves, the Board created an unusual search committee, one comprised not only of Board members, but also with a number of employees. At the next annual meeting, we’ll see whether share holders reelect the Board, or whether the Board gets replaced too.
Six Words: Axis, Recover, Favor, Bracket, Detector, Leader
I’ve heard the term “axis powers” and I knew it was a World War 2 term, but I didn’t know the origins of the term, or exactly who those powers were. Then, in 2002, George W. Bush, the younger Bush, used a new term, or perhaps recovered a term, in his State of the Union address – “axis of evil”.
Because of this week’s words, I put on my phrase detector hat to figure out which countries qualified to fall within each of those terms. What were the brackets around each term?
I learned that the original axis powers were Germany and Italy, whose leaders proclaimed, on October 25, 1936, that henceforth the world would rotate on the Rome – Berlin axis. That line runs north and south and I suppose was meant to displace the line that runs through Greenwich, England that is the customary axis for measuring time and distance around the world. By November 25 of that year, Japan had found favor with the leaders of those countries, or at least common enemies, so it was added to the axis – which meant extending the straight line over the top of the world, or perhaps cleaving the world apart.
Six Words: Apology, Equation, Circulation, Content, Fixture, Manner
The newspaper business has always had its challenges, but the most fundamental challenge is simply remaining in business. That means subscribers. There are various revenue models and subscribers are an essential part of the equation in every revenue model. Occasionally subscription revenue is a significant source of revenue, but usually not the main source. Sometimes newsstand revenue helps, but it’s usually not a significant source either. It’s advertising that almost always has to provide the lion’s share of the income.
Advertisers care about the size of their audience, especially the qualified buyers or the key demographic for their products. They want to know the circulation numbers for the newspaper. Newspapers run fixtures like comics and crosswords in addition to news to attract and retain subscribers.
Advertisers may or may not care about the content of the newspaper, but usually they are content to let the publisher decide the manner in which he or she wants to run the newspaper. Advertisers do, though, want to be sure that they never have to apologize for the places they’re running their ads. Whether it’s Bud Light, M&Ms, Nike, Disney World or others, brands may not intend to be controversial or they may intend to take a principled stand – but they don’t want the place they’re advertising to be the reason for the controversy.
Who ever thought that “woke” would be a four letter word.
Six Words: Dairy, Courage, Routine, Prevalence, Officer, Weakness
It took courage for Officer Friendly to enter the dairy. This was not a routine call that he was responding to, and he was the right man for the situation. No weakness in the knees for him, nor the other signs of weakness that were prevalent among so many of his fellow officers. He had experience with this kind of thing from previous years. This was the day that the dairy provided free, all you can eat ice cream to everyone in the department, but he alone knew that he had the willpower to not eat himself sick. Would you?
Six Words: Cello, Diver, Chisel, Pain, Character, Trapped
This is a tale of tragedy, of heroism and of absurdity. It’s the kind of thing that is so absurd it’s hard to believe it could ever happen at all. And yet, there have been things like the ice bucket challenge, the Tide Pod challenge, and who knows what else. So might we have predicted the cellophane challenge?
What you say, is the cellophane challenge. It is when a group of young people wrap someone in cellophane and see if they can get out. That person is trapped. And you know how strong a single layer of cellophane can be. Just think about unwrapping almost anything that has been shrink wrapped, or how you’ve turned over a bowl that you’d covered in cellophane.
Depending on how they’re wrapped, the poor young character may have trouble breathing. Unless one of their friends is a scuba diver, no one may realize that they’re not able to breathe and are in pain. The wrappee may panic. By now it’s time for someone to grab a scissors, or even a chisel, to break through the cellophane. So now we have someone panicky, in pain, immobilized and who sees their friends coming at them with a sharp object.
By now I know you’re thinking what every young person would be thinking. Who’s recording this and how soon can we put it on Tik Tok?
Six Words: Target, Wick, Puzzle, Signal, Connection, Moth
We all know that moths and butterflies are both members of the Lepidoptera species, but when you bring that connection up in conversation at the dinner table, your companions may be puzzled about how you know that and about why they should care. One signal that you’ve missed the target in maintaining their interest may be when their heads hit the table because they’ve fallen asleep out of boredom.
Never-the-less, having raised the question of how to tell the difference between moths and butterflies, it would be wicked to not answer the question. One obvious difference is that butterflies have bulbs at the end of their antennas and moths do not.
Now a question that I’ll leave you with is this: why are there mothballs but no butterfly balls? Try discussing that at dinner!