Flash Fiction

     

Tucson Weather Today

____________________

177 pounds


I am not particularly satisfied with the quality of my little Flash Fiction story.

But here it is, anyway.

_____

Road Rage - Present Day

When he was about 15 miles from home after his first vacation in 12 years, Drago Scheidler quickly changed lanes, then braked and settled into the old familiar snail's pace of D.C.'s late afternoon traffic gridlock. It would be good to get back to work tomorrow, back in uniform and back in the patrol car.

A loud bang to his left caused Drago to swing his head to face the car's window. Outside, looking in, a huge gorilla of a man stood brandishing a dull black handgun.

Drago thumbed the window open, and then could hear the intruder who was ranting, "Ass hole! You cut me off."

"Calm down, sir," Drago said. His hand moved stealthily into the unzipped travel bag beside him on the seat, then reemerged holding his service pistol, which he held concealed by his side.

"Calm down, shit!" The man screamed. Who's gonna pay for the damage."

Just then another man appeared and he too was waving a gun in the air, a chrome-plated long-barreled six shooter. "Que pasa cabrones, what's happening?" he called out.

"This asshole cut me off," said the first man. "And he's not going to get away with it."

The second man swung his attention to Drago and said, "Hey! -- You insured, Man? You be paying for the damages to the brutha's ride, Man?"

"What damages?" Drago enquired softly.

The first man said, "Not to my car, Dude, damage to my nerves. And for downright disrespect. White mothuhfucka. Got no business..."

Drago, speaking clearly and slowly in a low register said, "The two of you need to calm down."

Both of the men standing amongst the lanes of stalled city traffic turned toward Drago, their weapons coming up to point directly at his face.

Whereupon Drago lifted his service pistol and squeezed its trigger twice, gently and without jerking, as he had been trained to do.

A small hole appeared between the eyes of the first man, who dropped his gun and sank to the street's surface.

The second man also released his grip on his weapon as he grabbed for his smashed nose through which the bullet had entered his brain. He too fell flat on his face.

"Oh Christ," Drago said. "Wouldn't you know it. Just back home and right away a ton of paperwork."


Copyright 2014
Gene Chambers
All Rights Reserved

_____

Did You Know . . .?

In Flash Fiction, both the story and the title should have meaning and pack a punch.

_____

HISTORICAL EVENT

On  this day in 1966, Venera 3, a Soviet probe launched from Kazakhstan on November 15, 1965, collided with Venus. Although Venera 3 failed in its mission to measure the Venusian atmosphere, it was the first unmanned spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet. Four years earlier, the U.S. probe Mariner 2 was the first spacecraft to pass close enough to Venus to take scientific measurements of the planet, discovering surface temperatures in excess of 800 degrees Fahrenheit on its surface.

In 1967, Venera 4 succeeded where Venera 3 failed, successfully ejecting several scientific instruments, including a thermometer, a barometer, an atmospheric density gauge, and gas analyzers, into Venus' atmosphere. Then, in 1970, Venera 7 became the first spacecraft created by humans to soft-land on Venus, successfully sending back images and data for 23 minutes before succumbing to the extremely high temperature and atmospheric pressure found on the planet's surface.

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

amenable  [uh-MEEN- uh-buhl or uh-MEHN- uh-buhl]
adjective
1. Responsive to advice, authority, or suggestion; willing.
2. Responsible to higher authority; accountable.
3. Susceptible or open, as to testing or criticism.

_____

CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Ronald William "Ron" Howard

(born March 1, 1954)

Ron Howard is an American film director, producer and actor. He came to prominence playing Opie Taylor in the sitcom The Andy Griffith Show for eight years, and later the teenaged Richie Cunningham in the sitcom Happy Days for six years. He appeared in the films The Music Man in 1962, American Graffiti in 1973, and The Shootist in 1976.

Catherine Bach

(born March 1, 1954)

Catherine Bach is an American actress. She is known for playing Daisy Duke in the television series The Dukes of Hazzard and Margo Dutton in African Skies. In 2012, she joined the cast of the CBS soap opera The Young and the Restless as Anita Lawson.

Alan Jeffery Thicke

(born March 1, 1947)

Alan Thicke is a Canadian actor, songwriter, and game and talk show host. He is best known for his role as Jason Seaver, the father on the ABC television series Growing Pains. He is the father of actor Brennan Thicke and singer Robin Thicke.

Lana Wood

(born March 1, 1946)

Lana Wood is an American actress and producer born to Russian parents, Nikolai and Maria Zakharenko. Her sister was the late actress Natalie Wood.

__________

"Old or new, fiction can be minimalist in any or all of several ways."
--John Barth

NASA TV

This Is Who I Am

   

Another Flash Fiction Story

     

Tucson Weather Today

_________________

Credible Career Choice

By Gene Chambers

"The marvelous thing is that it's painless," he said. "That's how you know when it starts."

"That's real nice, Baby," she said, as she unbuttoned and removed her blouse, then casually lit a cigarette.

He frowned as blue smoke drifted toward the motel room's ceiling. "Call me Jack. Like I told you back in the bar. Remember?"

"Sure, Jack," she said.

"The first time it hurt like hell," he said. "The second not so much. Now it's become almost a routine procedure."

Lottie coughed; said nothing. Why do they think they have to talk? Why can't they just do it, and keep their traps shut? Who needs a freakin' autobiography?

"Painless for me," Jack said, "Not so painless for them."   The pitch of his voice rose, "I'm lying when I tell them they won't feel a thing!"

"That's nice, Sweetie," Lottie repeated. Why was he getting so agitated?

"All my life I've been different, you know? Grow up, find a job, get married, raise a family, kiss everybody's ass. Not me. You go left; I go right. You say black; I say white. Every herd of cattle has its bull. I'm the big bull in this herd."

Lottie snubbed out her cigarette. Christ. Talk, talk, talk.

"Medical school?" he scoffed. "A joke. Treating patients? Not me. Cutting, yes. Healing, no. There is something special about a scalpel; you know? Shiny clean, polished, finely keen. One can do amazing things with a scalpel."

Scalpel? Lottie glanced at his face. What'd he say? Cutting? Why was he grinning like that? She looked across the room to where his little black bag lay on the floor beside the door. "You ain't no doctor, then? Huh?"

"No." He smiled. "I am definitely not a doctor."

That's not a friendly smile, Lottie thought. It's a secret smile. "So," she said, "what are you then?"

He bent down and opened his bag.

"What the freak ya' doin'," she said.

He reached inside and Lottie heard metallic clanking sounds. Finally, his hand emerged, carrying a business card, which he handed to her. She thought that smile of his was the scariest thing she had ever seen. She read the card:

Johnson's Funeral Salon
Expert Cosmetic Surgery
For The Dearly Departed

Good Lord. A freakin' undertaker. Well, I suppose I can handle that, she thought. Until a few seconds later when she suddenly realized why a guy would carry a bagful of surgical instruments along with him for a night on the town.

Copyright 2008 Gene Chambers

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

credible
Adjective
-  Able to be believed; convincing.
-  Capable of persuading people that something will happen or be successful.
Synonyms
believable - trustworthy - plausible - reliable

_____

BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Dean Jones

 Born Jan 25, 1931
Age:  81 years old

Dean Carroll Jones is an American actor. Jones is best known for his light-hearted leading roles in several Walt Disney movies between 1965 and 1977, most notably The Love Bug.

Jones started his film career by signing a contract at MGM, beginning with a small role as a soldier in Somebody Up There Likes Me and he later played disc jockey Teddy Talbot in the 1957 Elvis Presley smash hit, Jailhouse Rock. He portrayed a soldier in both Imitation General (1957) with Glenn Ford and Never So Few (1959) with Frank Sinatra.

Etta James

Born Jan. 25, 1938
Died Jan. 20, 2012

Etta James (born Jamesetta Hawkins) was an American singer. Her style spanned a variety of music genres including blues, rhythm and blues, rock and roll, soul, gospel and jazz. Starting her career in 1954, she gained fame with hits such as "Roll With Me, Henry", "At Last", "Tell Mama", "Something's Got a Hold on Me", and "I'd Rather Go Blind" for which she wrote the lyrics. She faced a number of personal problems, including drug addiction, before making a musical resurgence in the late 1980s with the album The Seven Year Itch.

Dinah Manoff

Born Jan 25, 1958
Age:  54 years old

Dinah Beth Manoff is an American stage, film and television actress and television director best known for her roles as Elaine Lefkowitz on Soap, Marty Maraschino in the film Grease, Libby Tucker in both the stage and film adaptations of I Ought to Be in Pictures, for which she won a Tony award, and Carol Weston on Empty Nest. Manoff has also starred in numerous television movies and guest starred on various television programs in this timespan. Her film career cooled down during the 1990s but has come back in the 2000s (decade) with movies such as The Amati Girls and Bart Got a Room and a co-starring role on State of Grace.

Manoff is daughter to actress Lee Grant and screenwriter Arnold Manoff.

Corazon Aquino

Born Jan. 25, 1933
Died  Aug. 1, 2009

Maria Corazon Sumulong "Cory" Cojuangco-Aquino was a Filipino politician who served as the 11th President of the Philippines, the first woman to hold that office, and the first female president in Asia. She led the 1986 People Power Revolution, which toppled Ferdinand Marcos and restored democracy in the Philippines. She was named "Woman of the Year" in 1986 by Time magazine.

__________

I don't have credibility, I'm a comedian.
--Dennis Miller
  

Why Do I Blog?

    
The main reason I continue to publish this daily blog is to force myself to write every day, even on those days when I would rather be doing something other than write.

Harlan Ellison once said, "People on the outside think there's something magical about writing, that you go up in the attic at midnight and cast the bones and come down in the morning with a story, but it isn't like that. You sit in back of the typewriter and you work, and that's all there is to it."

Anther reason for blogging is to challenge myself to keep on keepin' on, and to prove to myself that advancing age is not (or perhaps is) affecting my ability to think, and then to explain those thoughts by way of the written word.

Even though I am aware that the blog has few readers, that fact is of little import. I read it, each and every day, and I judge what is presented both subjectively and objectively.

Subjectively, I find that most of what I write is brilliant while I am writing it and then is mysteriously transformed overnight into disgusting crap.

Objectively, it's even worse than that.

At times I think that I should dig up some of my old unpublished stories that are rotting away in the depths of digital limbo, rewrite them, polish them until they gleam, and then post them to the blog. But I just never get around to doing so. And that might for the best. Or maybe not.

Why not give Flash Fiction a try?

Okay.

_____

Portents

By Gene Chambers

Richie," his mother asked, "why is Carol being such a stranger lately?"

Richie said nothing as he pushed some peas away from his mashed potatoes and trailed his fork through a congealing puddle of gravy.

His little sister said, "Carol dumped him."

"Oh no," Thelma said. "When, Richie? Why?"

Richie remained silent; stared down at the untasted food on his plate.

Thelma Richards addressed her daughter, "Why did she do that, Lily?"

Lily, munching a mouthful of fried chicken, said, "Carol's dating a Junior now, a big, mean football player; got no time for itty-bitty Freshmen like Richie."

Richie pushed his plate away and opened his battered notebook.

He turned to a page of doodles and scrawled phrases.

Richie vigorously erased the scribbled "wimp, nerd, wussie..." and drew in its place a bold, black swastika.

Thelma said, "Lily, don't talk with your mouth full."

"You asked me," Lily sputtered.

"Brat," Richie whispered.

"Zit-Face," Lily screeched.


Richie glared at her, bared his teeth,and growled.

"You kids stop," Thelma said.

Richie erased Sad Sack; drew a Skull and Crossbones.

"Mother," Lily said, "can we get a puppy?"

Richie drew a cartoon dog, thorn-crowned and crucified. He rapidly sketched hulking Roman soldiers clubbing the dog's corpse.

"We don't have much luck with pets, Lily," said Thelma. "Remember Dusty, and Stormy, and poor little Cootie?"

Richie smirked at Lily, his eyes squinted, nose wrinkled, and teeth still bared. He resumed creating graffiti.

Lily sniffed and said, "If Daddy was here..."

"Now Lily," Thelma said, "Don't start that again. Daddy's gone, and we're better off for that.

Richie ripped out the sheet, crumpled it, and threw it at the waste can.

Missed.

He stood up, retrieved the errant missile, dropped it into the can, and tromped it down five times.

Then he turned and stomped out of the room.



Copyright 2013 Gene Chambers

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

risible
Adjective
Such as to provoke laughter.
Synonyms
ludicrous - ridiculous - laughable - comical - funny

_____


Historical Clip

Elizabeth Blackwell

On January 23, 1849, Elizabeth Blackwell was granted a medical degree from Geneva College in New York, becoming the first female to be officially recognized as a physician in U.S. history.

_____


BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


Gail O'grady

Born Jan. 23, 1963
Age:  49 years old

Gail Ann O'Grady is an American television actress. She is best known for her roles as Donna Abandando on NYPD Blue and as Helen Pryor on American Dreams. She was a series regular on the The CW Comedy Drama series Hellcats, playing the mother of the Marti Perkins, called Wanda Perkins, before Hellcats was subsequently cancelled in May 2011.

Ernie Kovacs

Born Jan 23, 1919
Died Jan 13, 1962

Ernie Kovacs was an American comedian, actor, and writer, appearing on such iconic and diverse shows as Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In, Saturday Night Live, The Uncle Floyd Show, Captain Kangaroo, Sesame Street, and The Electric Company,

Some of his most well-known films were: Operation Mad Ball, Wake Me When It's Over, and Our Man in Havana. He garnered critical acclaim for roles such as the perennially inebriated writer in Bell, Book and Candle and as the cartoonishly evil head of a railroad company in It Happened to Jane, where he had his head shaved and his remaining hair dyed grey for the role.

In 1960, he played the off-center base commander Charlie Stark in the comedy Wake Me When It's Over. His own personal favorite was said to have been the offbeat Five Golden Hours (1961), in which he portrayed a larcenous professional mourner who meets his match in a professional widow played by Cyd Charisse. Kovacs' last film, In North to Alaska (1961), John Wayne's character's hair flies off with the first punch of a fight with Kovacs as a con artist.

Sail a Crooked Ship, was released shortly before his death.

Mariska Hargitay

Born Jan 23, 1964
Age:   48 years old

Mariska Hargitay, (born Mariska Magdolna Hargitay) is an American actress, best known for her role as New York City sex crimes Detective Olivia Benson on the NBC television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a role that has earned her multiple awards and nominations, including an Emmy and Golden Globe.

The daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, Hargitay is a former beauty queen who made her film debut in the 1985 horror-comedy film Ghoulies, and her major television debut in the 1986 adventure drama series Downtown. She appeared in numerous roles in film and television shows throughout the late 1980s and 1990s before being cast as Olivia Benson, a role that led to her founding the Joyful Heart Foundation, which provides support to women who have been sexually abused.

Randolph Scott

Born Jan. 23, 1898
Died: Mar. 2, 1987

Randolph Scott was an American film actor whose career spanned from 1928 to 1962. As a leading man for all but the first three years of his cinematic career, Scott appeared in a variety of genres, including social dramas, crime dramas, comedies, musicals, adventure tales, war films, and even a few horror and fantasy films. However, his most enduring image is that of the tall-in-the-saddle Western hero. Out of his more than 100 film appearances more than 60 were in Westerns; thus, "of all the major stars whose name was associated with the Western, Scott most closely identified with it."

Some of his films were: Seven Men from Now (1956)  The Tall T (1956)  Decision at Sundown (1957)  Buchanan Rides Alone (1958) Westbound (1958)  Ride Lonesome (1959) Comanche Station (1960)

In 1962 Scott made his final film appearance in Ride the High Country, a film now regarded as a classic.


__________

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the back yard and shot it.
--Truman Capote

A Mid-Week Effort

Tucson Weather Today

_________________

Tomorrow is the beginning of National Novel Writing Month and I will be participating again this year. Last year I did not complete a 50,000 word novel, but the year before last I did finish it. Not worth a revision or a rewrite, though.

 

Wish me good luck this time.

_____

* HALLOWEEN FLASH FICTION *

Below is a complete Flash Fiction story --

with a five word title, five words of text,
and only one single says-it-all illustration.

Meeting My New Facebook Friend

"Come in, the door's open."

_____

Would you believe that a person could have been given by his parents the unlikely name of Ferdinand Friendly Wachenheimer? Well, it's true. There was such a person with that name..

If you don't believe me, click HERE

_____

WORD FOR TODAY

vilify [vil-uh-fie]
Verb:
Speak or write about in an abusively disparaging manner.
Synonyms ;
slander - defame - traduce - malign - calumniate

_____


BORN ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY


John Candy

Born Oct 31, 1950
Died: Mar 4, 1994

John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle Buck. One of his most renowned onscreen performances was as Del Griffith, the loquacious, on-the-move shower-curtain ring salesman in the John Hughes comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles. On March 4, 1994, while filming the Western parody Wagons East!, Candy died of a heart attack in his sleep in Durango, Mexico at 43.

Dale Evans

Born Oct 31, 1912
Died: Feb 7, 2001

Dale Evans (born Lucille Wood Smith) was an American writer, movie star, and singer-songwriter. She was the third wife of singing cowboy Roy Rogers.

From 1951 to 1957, Dale Evans and her husband starred in the highly successful television series The Roy Rogers Show, in which they continued their cowboy and cowgirl roles, with her riding her trusty buckskin horse, Buttermilk. In addition to her successful TV shows, more than thirty films and some two hundred songs, Evans wrote the well-known song "Happy Trails."

Michael Landon

Born Oct 31, 1936
Died: July 1, 1991

Michael Landon was an American actor, writer, director, and producer. He is known for his popular roles as Little Joe Cartwright in Bonanza (1959–1973), Charles Ingalls in Little House on the Prairie (1974–1983), and Jonathan Smith in Highway to Heaven (1984–1989).

Landon appeared on the cover of TV Guide 22 times, second only to Lucille Ball (TV Guide, July 6, 1991).

Michael Collins

Born Oct 31, 1930
Age: 81 years old

Michael Collins is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, in which he and command pilot John Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was as the command module pilot for Apollo 11. While he orbited the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made the first manned landing on the lunar surface. He is one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon.



For me, good description usually consists of a few well-chosen details that will stand for everything else.
--Stephen King