Tag: dailyprompt

Of course it is Donald Trump! But why argue with a manipulator. Instead here’s a political parable. ‘…, dost thou know / Wherein our true strength lies? Not in the army? / Nor yet in Polish aid, but in opinion – /Yes, popular opinion’.

May 1, 2025

Of course it is Donald Trump! But why argue with a manipulator. Instead here’s a political parable. Pushkin’s namesake in his play ‘Boris Godunov’ threatens the Russian state with a fundamental question about the true nature of political power, as Pushkin saw it in the early nineteenth century: ‘…, dost thou know / Wherein our true … More Of course it is Donald Trump! But why argue with a manipulator. Instead here’s a political parable. ‘…, dost thou know / Wherein our true strength lies? Not in the army? / Nor yet in Polish aid, but in opinion – /Yes, popular opinion’.

Maybe the performance of difference need not involve ‘camping’!

April 29, 2025

This WordPress prompt ought to have been a gift to me – with a long history in LGBTQI+ politics, the word ‘camp’ has always had a history to reclaim. But to say ‘word’ in description of the term ‘camp’ here is not enough. I got stopped in my tracks from answering this question as I … More Maybe the performance of difference need not involve ‘camping’!

‘I began doing away not only with quotation marks to distinguish dialogue but any means at all of distinguishing dialogue from narrative’. No words that matter in the way the question suggests can really be called a ‘quote’.

April 27, 2025

The prompt I chose today asks this: ‘Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?’ If I am live my life with anything like significant assistance of a few linked words, then those words can not really be described as a ‘quote’, for whatever the specificity of their individuality … More ‘I began doing away not only with quotation marks to distinguish dialogue but any means at all of distinguishing dialogue from narrative’. No words that matter in the way the question suggests can really be called a ‘quote’.

Voting may not often change anything, but we have to hope it might.

April 25, 2025

The answer is YES. but neither person nor party can give any guarantee of fulfilling any intentions you had in voting for them, even if you had any intentions. Indirect democratic politics is a blunt tool that is barely even a record of popular opinion and few ruling parties receive a majority of votes in … More Voting may not often change anything, but we have to hope it might.

To My Husband Geoff: on his 84th Birthday today with LOVE ever and always.

April 24, 2025

Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you. To find one thing amongst the many giftsThat you bring to me is like parsing poems:What did Wordsworth simply mean when he said:’There is a blessing in this gentle breeze’.Whatever he meant, you are to me thatWind of change that charges up the emptyBattery … More To My Husband Geoff: on his 84th Birthday today with LOVE ever and always.

Putting my head above the parapet again, if only for a gesture: ‘a GREEN thought in a GREEN shade’.

April 15, 2025

Describe one positive change you have made in your life I suppose a large part of my life previously has been committed to politics, having joined the Labour Party for the first time in my teens but I suppose that my politics may have faded in my life after I left the Party. I did … More Putting my head above the parapet again, if only for a gesture: ‘a GREEN thought in a GREEN shade’.

I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s short stories in ‘The American No’. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season.

April 14, 2025

I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s (2025) short stories in The American No London, Abacus Books. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season The American No is a new set of short stories by … More I decided never to rely on my very first impressions of what is likable or not. Why I persevered then with Rupert Everett’s short stories in ‘The American No’. This blog is mainly on his Oscar for A Last Season.

When did I last feel nervous? Literally, when I read that poem.

April 13, 2025

The question today is full of Unstated assumptions about the word ‘nervous’, even if we grant that it is older meaning in thr history of the usage of this Latin-derived word in English is obsolete which I can’t quite admit. Here is the point about the word in etymonline. com: late 14c., “containing nerves; affecting … More When did I last feel nervous? Literally, when I read that poem.

Happiness can only be a fleeting accident of life, not a permanent keepsake.

April 12, 2025

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness? Today at Bishop Auckland festival market, I looked for five things that gave me happiness. They don’t endure. They can’t.  Happiness can only be a fleeting accident of life, not a permanent keepsake. I have tried to unpack my issues with the expectation of ‘happiness’ already … More Happiness can only be a fleeting accident of life, not a permanent keepsake.

‘When Paul and Peter wake up in the same bed, and recognize that they have been asleep, each one of them mentally reaches back and makes connection with but one of the two streams of thought which were broken by the sleeping hours’. My first thought is: “that explanatory parables open up a can of worms”.

April 10, 2025

‘When Paul and Peter wake up in the same bed, and recognize that they have been asleep, each one of them mentally reaches back and makes connection with but one of the two streams of thought which were broken by the sleeping hours’. [1] My first thought is: “that explanatory parables open up a can of worms”. … More ‘When Paul and Peter wake up in the same bed, and recognize that they have been asleep, each one of them mentally reaches back and makes connection with but one of the two streams of thought which were broken by the sleeping hours’. My first thought is: “that explanatory parables open up a can of worms”.

Sea Sepent Dancing! Well, you asked!

April 9, 2025

What’s the most fun way to exercise? Laocoön (/leɪˈɒkoʊˌɒn, -kəˌwɒn/; Ancient Greek: Λαοκόων, romanized: Laokóōn, IPA: [laokóɔːn], gen.: Λαοκόοντος) is a figure in Greek and Roman mythology and the Epic Cycle. For that perfect mix of fun and pain, without which latter there is no gain and no grace, spend time Dancing with Sea Serpents. … More Sea Sepent Dancing! Well, you asked!