So Velvet Verbosity posts these little 100 word writing prompts, and I have been known to participate. Half looking at Twitter, I got the clear impression, somehow, that the word was "beat." So I came up with this:
“Boston beat New York, 4-2, on the strength of two homers from the veteran first sacker …”
“He gets a three on the river to take down two cowboys? Bad beat, man…”
‘ “You beat your man to the spot, you get the call!”, the coach yelled, feeling his job slip away…’
‘ “I’m beat,” she said, sitting on her bed, looking at her children with love and sorrow as she slid her shoes off, letting them fall with a loud clatter…’
“ Behind it all was the beat, Ulrich’s drumming propelling the band to play faster, harder, longer, louder…”
Which is, you know, 100 words. So it's technically an entry.
But it turns out I was confused- "Beat" was a piece of micro fiction posted here , in order to fulfill the actual word challenge, which is "overall".
So, overall, I'm stupid. But you already knew that.
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Tom Ripley, the main character of Patricia Highsmith’s “The Talented Mr. Ripley,” is a simply amazing literary creation. I don’t think I’ve ever encountered anyone quite like him. As self involved as Holden Caulfield, but utterly amoral, yet seductively so-like a more evil Humbert Humbert, almost. Intriguing-a totally baffling character, but one who makes you want to come back for more, which is, you know, kind of the point.
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Director Kevin Smith has become involved in somewhat of a kerfluffle with Southwest Airlines, which I have always thought of as a fairly customer-focused outfit. The story is available at both SWA.com and silentbobspeaks.com, or, if you’re on Twitter (and if you’re not, just why the heck not?), @thatkevinsmith has been on about it all day long-if you read his stream, you will essentially learn his side of the story.
It has apparently progressed into the mainstream-as CNN and ABC are now touching on the story, if not actually covering it.
The story, as far as I am able to understand it, is that Smith was asked to leave a Southwest aircraft because someone believed his weight (Smith is pretty severely overweight, and makes no attempt to claim otherwise) required him to use two seats. Smith says this isn’t so, and used Twitter to raise his complaint.
Southwest, to their credit, recognized the issue Smith was raising, and has taken steps towards mending the breach. These steps appear incomplete, as of Smith's latest blog post. Leaving the facts of the issue aside, this shows again how smart companies respond to customer pressure, and deal with it, and attempt to defuse it. Dumb companies ignore it and hope it will go away.
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This past weekend I took a bus from one town to my home base. I had heard the Kevin Smith story by then, but had never known or seen such a thing. As irony would have it, an obese woman bought a ticket on the bus. She was asked to wait at the back of the line until people stopped buying tickets... and IF there were two seats open, she could ride. She did get on,but just by one seat.
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