Author: Mellow Curmudgeon

My blog touches on many things in life and language, often with humor and haiku. I have been a scientist; an engineer; an Alzheimer’s caregiver.
fiction, humor

Wondrous Weirdness — Prerelease Discount

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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The first volume in a new Writers’ Co-op anthology series will be released on 2018-11-01:

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An e-book version can be preordered now by clicking on the image and then clicking on the button for your platform.  On the release date, the e-price will rise from $1.99 to $2.99.  There will be good news then also: oldsters like me will be able to buy the physical ink-on-paper version from Amazon.

For 3 of the 4 platforms reached from the link to The Rabbit Hole, the platform’s page has a nice summary of the contents and spirit of the anthology:

How do you like your weirdness?  A subtle nudge towards the untoward?  A quick zap of zany?  Or a full-on assault of aberration?  Whatever your taste, you’ll find it here, and many more strains of strange that you didn’t suspect existed.  From magic rain to a talking (severed) head, extraordinary eggs to belligerent birds, the stories in this collection enter the rabbit hole to explore its hidden corners and winding ways.  Through all the variety, what they have in common is originality, creativity and fine writing.

While I will wait for hard copy before reading the whole thing, I really have read several of the stories (not just the one I contributed).  I solemnly swear (or affirm) that the following paragraph is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

The Rabbit Hole‘s first edition has 35 diverse selections by 35 authors.  Anybody with a taste for weirdness has a good chance of finding some things they like.  Moods are as varied as lengths, which run from 1 to 17 pages (with 7.6 as the average).  There is humanity and humor as well as some darkness and much weirdness.

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(reblog), haiku, photography

Pastel Synergy

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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This post ends with 2 haiku, each inspired by a photo of clouds imitating clams.  I took the calm photo; Sue Ranscht took the dramatic one.

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Pastel Colors

Tho I usually prefer deeply saturated colors, I love the pastel pink and green sometimes seen in a cloud, when the angles are just right in the triangle formed by the cloud and the sun and the viewer.  At my latitude, it is a rare sight.  I have had just one chance to photograph the elusive synergy of pastel pink and green:

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Dramatic photos of pink and green in clouds can be seen by searching online for

[mother-of-pearl clouds] or [nacreous clouds].

There is also the marvel by Sue Ranscht that appears below.  Fair warning: the image credit links to a post in a series, with a striking image for each episode in a fantasy epic.  The series is so addictive that it hooked me despite my aversion to fantasies and impatience with epics.

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© Sue Ranscht | Space, Time, and Raspberries

Pastel Synergy #1
|Serene clouds
|give mother-of-pearl
|to old eyes.
Pastel Synergy #2
|Molten pewter clouds:
|some are tinted pink or green.
|Abalone shell.

 

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flowers, humor, photography

Vibrant Synergy

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Vibrant Colors

I like the synergy when a few good things up their game by working together, as with peanuts and chocolate.  When they do not clash, bright colors can work together in vibrant synergy.

Pink and Green:

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Magenta and Yellow (with a bee):

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With help from blue and green, the pink and yellow flowers in the following photo team up to illustrate a deep truth about statistics.  Really.

Outside of CFFC, I posted the photo along with a beautiful image found on the web that espresses the same deep truth in another way.  Both ways have no equations, no jargon, and no saturated fat.  Click on the photo to see the details.

daff_pink-rebel._Yellow-10_840x960

 

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(reblog), flowers, haiku, photography

Calm, Cool, and CollectING

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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Carpe Diem’s Quest For A (New) Masterpiece
#3 the quest continues

My latest haiku came quickly when I saw a superb photo by Cee Neuner.  While I gave the haiku a title to make it intelligible w/o the photo, I also requested and received permission to share the photo in a post.

red-yellow-dahlia_bee

© Cee Neuner

Red and Yellow Dahlia
|Amid swirling flames,
|pollen and nectar beckon.
|Bee stays calm and cool.
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flowers, photography

Red Trillium

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Red

I often look at things from an odd angle.  Red trillium plants like shade, grow low, and have flowers that face downward.  Now is your chance to get a from-below view of a red trillium flower, in a mix of reflected and transmitted sunlight:

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Figuratively, I sometimes “look” at a neat little thing from an odd angle to shine some light on a messy big thing with a subtle similarity to the little thing.  For example, there is a parallel between the history of a little word puzzle’s instructions and the history of a big idea in economics.

Some of my photos with prominent reds were used outside of CFFC.  The following images link to posts that use them in ways that may be surprizing.  Can U guess what ideas they illustrate before following the links?

fruit-bowl_404x400

anzac

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food, humor, language, photography

Lime Time

Posted on by Mellow Curmudgeon
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The color word lime is used for many light or yellowish kinds of green.


Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Lime or Light Green

New leaves often display a version of lime.

lime-leaves_fix_840x1214

 
Actual limes display several versions of lime on the outside and …

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… yet another version on the inside.

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Got tequila?

Dry Margarita

A bottle of premixed margaritas is convenient, but the contents are too sweet for me.  To get a drier margarita with minimal mixological effort, I use roughly equal amounts of premixed margarita and dry white wine.  Tho admittedly not a world-class margarita, the result is a good no-fuss drink.

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