violence

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Question Of The Week 4-14 2021

What is the most unsettling film you have ever seen?

I don’t remember the name of the film, because I watched it over 30 years ago. It was a horror film. The Twins? No, that doesn’t sound right, but regardless, one scene stays with me to this day. The children are jumping from the hayloft in an old barn, onto a thick pile of hay below. One of the kids hid a pitchfork in the hay at the bottom, prongs up. You see this just before one kid jumps.

For some reason this scene has stayed with me for all these years. As I’ve grown older, I’ve learned to avoid films which might be unsettling much as I have learned to avoid those films filled with violence for the sake of violence.

Funny thing is, I am a huge fan of true crime.

What movie unsettled you?

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Word Of The Day 5-7-2017

cornobble

verb

Definition

smack somebody with a fish

Example

I cornobbled Jason with a trout.

I found little else about this word (except for mentions), but couldn’t toss it out because what language doesn’t need a word for smacking somebody with a fish?

I did find reference to cornnobble in “A glossary of dialect & archaic words used in the County of Gloucester. Edited by Lord Moreton” at https://archive.org/stream/glossaryofdialec25robeuoft/glossaryofdialec25robeuoft_djvu.txt

Anybody have any other information?

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Sunday Photo Fiction 1-22-2017

191-01-january-22nd-2017

They changed the name of the City Prison to the County Hotel as if the prisoners were there for the pool and free breakfast. There was a free breakfast, but he really didn’t want it. He didn’t want it at all.

The windows scared the shit out of him. Cells, one on top of another and another, each faced by unbreakable two-way glass, allowing those outside, the Freers, to watch the inmates inside. Every action, every secret, every fist-stroke or caress, exposed.

He dropped his head back. You got out of County Hotel one way – dead. Unless a rich Freer bought you; flesh on the market.

What the hell had he done? Why hadn’t he kept his hands to himself?

The policeman, at the wheel, glanced back. “How old are you, son?”

“Sixteen.”

“Stupid shit.”

The car stopped in the long line of vehicles taking prisoners to their new home. A lock clicked, loud in the silence.

He bolted up, wiping away tears.

The policeman met his eyes in the rear-view mirror. “Don’t let me ever see you again, son, you understand?”

A moment passed. A look. A nod.

Pushing the door open, he ran.

And ran and ran and ran…….

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Shhhhhush, Don’t Tell – My Secret Vice

Okay, I admit it. My secret vice is watching reality Cop Shows. I’m not sure why. It’s not quality entertainment by any means. Or pretty. Or quiet. Or most anything one might offer as a reason to watch these programs. Besides the improbable explanation that I was a police person in another life, the only logical reason I can give for sitting hours watching these shows is ‘I watch these shows because I am a writer.’

Most Cop Shows illuminate a life-style I don’t understand and don’t believe I will ever understand. How can people live like that? Drunk all the time. Drugs. Fighting. Blood. Just the general sense life is shit and they are moving towards destroying their lives as best and as quickly as possible.  Last night I watched the show Under Arrest. The ‘criminals’ screamed at the cops for the entire show. I don’t mean raised voices, I mean screaming at the top of their lungs, calling them all sorts of names, sure the cops were out to get them or just about anything rude, obscene or stupid that could come out of a human mouth.

These shows boggle me. People run and fight and struggle and lie as if it is the most normal behavior in the world. If the Police told me to lie down (which had never happened to me as one speeding ticket doesn’t account for pulling me out of the car at gunpoint – thank goodness ), I would be on the ground, not doing anything to make the Officers mad. I would be ‘Yes Siring ‘or ‘Yes Ma’aming’ every request or order. I might be crying, heck I would be crying, but that’s a far as I would go.

Back to that one speeding ticket in my life. I surprised the cop because all I said was, “No, I didn’t know how fast I was going, I was just hurrying to get the ice cream in the back home as soon as possible.” I was polite.  I didn’t argue. Hopefully, if nothing else, I gave him a nice break from arguing and cursing.

So, yes, those shows fascinate me. They are a peek into a life that I have never have, and hopefully never will, experience in real life. So if you happen to see me cuffed by the road, I hope you’ll know I was the politest arrestee ever. And it probably isn’t really me, rather one of the multitude of characters in my universe, born from watching my secret vice way to often for my own good.

pic-copinterrupted

Photo from IMDb website.

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Quote For The Day 10-23-2016

“War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn to live together in peace by killing each other’s children.”
― Jimmy Carter, The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture