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“We are all just curious little humans with dreams in our hearts and stardust in our souls.”
― grace gegenheimer, The Way She Blooms

“The sky is yours, Pixie-Girl.â€� - Peter”
― Kara Swanson, Dust

“It's a labyrinth. Do you know where the idea of a labyrinth first came from? It was the ancient Mesotopians. They pulled out animal intestines - sometimes human intestines, I expect - and used the shape to predict the future. They admired the complex shape of intestines. So the prototype for labyrinths is, in a word, guts. Which means that the principle for the labyrinth is inside you. And that correlates to the labyrinth outside. That's right. A reciprocal metaphor. Things outside you are projections of what's inside you, and what's inside you is a projection of what's out. So when you step into the labyrinth outside you, at the same time you're stepping into the labyrinth inside. Most definitely a risky business.”
― Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

“He threw caution to the wind. Caution was not too fond of the wind and would later seek revenge on him for this treacherous debauchery.”
― J.S. Mason, The Stork Ate My Brother...And Other Totally Believable Stories

“The pieces didn't really coordinate and could be described in no other way than 'eclectic', but once labeled 'eclectic', valuable mismatches generally become fantastically stylish. Very similar to the way adding cash value to 'crazy' results in a whimsical 'eccentric'; you have to buy more flattering adjectives.”
― Mandy Ashcraft, Small Orange Fruit

“... or else we contemplated the stars beyond the Moon, big as pieces of fruit, made of light, ripened on the curved branches of the sky, and everything exceeded my most luminous hopes ...”
― Italo Calvino, Cosmicomics

“She leaned back in her chair, and a sunbeam got entangled in her hair.”
― Nicolas Barreau, Love Letters from Montmartre

“Then she lifted her face and smiled gallantly at the empty sky. ‘There will be other rainbows.â€� she said.
Emily was a chaser of rainbows.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily's Quest

“The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea
In a beautiful pea-green boat,
They took some honey, and plenty of money,
Wrapped up in a five-pound note.
The Owl looked up to the stars above,
And sang to a small guitar,
"O lovely Pussy! O Pussy, my love,
What a beautiful Pussy you are,
You are,
You are!
What a beautiful Pussy you are!"

II
Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl!
How charmingly sweet you sing!
O let us be married! too long we have tarried:
But what shall we do for a ring?"
They sailed away, for a year and a day,
To the land where the Bong-Tree grows
And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood
With a ring at the end of his nose,
His nose,
His nose,
With a ring at the end of his nose.

III
"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling
Your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will."
So they took it away, and were married next day
By the Turkey who lives on the hill.
They dined on mince, and slices of quince,
Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,
They danced by the light of the moon,
The moon,
The moon,
They danced by the light of the moon.”
― Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussycat

“Maimie said aghast, ‘I can’t believe it. You see, when you went away your mother had none, but my mother has Tony, and surely they are satisfied when they have one.â€�
Peter replied bitterly, ‘You should see the letters Solomon gets from ladies who have six.”
― J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens

“She wanted summer; fields of daisies; seas misty with moonrise or purple with sunset; companionship; Teddy. In such moments she always knew she wanted Teddy.”
― Lucy Maud Montgomery, Emily's Quest

“The Sniper Bird by Stewart Stafford

"Look out!" the crowd shouted to me,
"There's a Sniper Bird in those trees!"
A whooshing sound shot past my ears,
Making me duck down to my knees.

He must have gone rogue, I reckoned,
Someone cheated him over birdseed,
Then he took a squirrel as his hostage,
Get a negotiator quickly up those trees.

He threw up his wings and surrendered,
They brought him down in a gilded cage,
Never again sniping at innocent people,
He studies elocution with a parrot sage.

© Stewart Stafford, 2022. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“He told how the light moved, he told of shadows, he told how the air was white and bright and pale; he told how for a little while Earth began to grow like Elfland, with a kinder light and the beginning of colours, and then just as one thought of home the light would blink away and the colours be gone. He told of stars. He told of cows and goats and the moon, three horned creatures that he found curious. He had found more wonder in Earth than we remember, though we also saw these things once for the first time; and out of the wonder he felt at the ways of the fields we know, he made many a tale that held the inquisitive trolls and gripped them silent upon the floor of the forest, as though they were indeed a fall of brown leaves in October that a frost had suddenly bound. They heard of chimneys and carts for the first time: with a thrill they heard of windmills. They listened spell-bound to the ways of men; and every now and then, as when he told of hats, there ran through the forest a wave of little yelps of laughter.

Then he said that they should see hats and spades and dog-kennels, and look through casements and get to know the windmill; and a curiosity arose in the forest amongst that brown mass of trolls, for their race is profoundly inquisitive.”
― Lord Dunsany, The King of Elfland's Daughter

“How could I not believe in magic when I'm around you?”
― Moses Yuriyvich Mikheyev, Olivia & the Gentleman from Outer Space

“Claudette looked to the ground like an embarrassed sheep who had been informed that it was frequently used as a description for timidity.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“To spend a day inside her mind and roam throughout the fields, practice rooms, and ball pits of her imagination would be one of my exclusive Genie wishes.”
― B.A. McRae, The World Ends Christmas Day

“Genevieve was familiar with one of the duke's properties- Rosemont- as she'd gone to tour it once when he was away at one of his other vast tracts of lands. It was surprisingly modest by duke terms, a redbrick manor in West Sussex presiding over a collection of softly swelling hills, which surrounded a lake populated by enormous, irritable swans and overhung with willows. The garden had been brilliant with its namesake blooms and the fountain in the courtyard featured a lasciviously grinning stone satyr performing an arabesque and spitting water high into the air.
She'd found it delightful. Its pocket-sized, whimsical beauty hardly seemed to suit him, but then he normally spent his time in London and likely had all but forgotten he owned it.”
― Julie Anne Long, What I Did for a Duke

“dlaurent
The Ballad of Johnny Jihad (Down Desert Storm Way). ©
c. 2001

During the Gulf War (1990-1991), American Pro-Taliban Jihadist John Philip Walker Lindh was captured while serving with the enemy forces. Here is his tale in song and legend. My nowex at the time did not want me to run to the radio station with this, thought I’d look singularly ridiculii.
The following, 'The Ballad of Johnny Jihad' is sung to the tune of 'The Ballad of Jed Clampett' (1962), commonly known as 'The Beverly Hillbillies' song, the theme tune for the TV show series starring Buddy Ebsen. (Lyrics, Paul Henning, vocals Jerry Scoggins, Lester Flatt; master musicians of the art of the ballad and bluegrass ways, Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs).

The Ballad of Johnny Jihad

(Sung) Come and listen to the story of Johnny Jihad,
Who left home and country to study his Islam,
And then one day he was shooting at our troops,
So down through the camp did the government swoop.

(Voice Over): ‘Al Que-da that is, Af-ghani Tali-ban, Terror-ist . . .�

(Sung) Well, the first thing you know ol� John from ’Frisco roamed,
The lawman said ‘he’s a lad misunderstood very far from home.�
Said, ‘Californee is the place he oughta be,�
So they request his trial be moved to Berkeley . . .

(Voice Over): ‘Liberals that is, group-ies, peace-activists . . .�

Announcer: The Johnny Jihad Show! (Intense bluegrass banjo pickin� music) . . .

(Sung) Now its time to say goodbye to John and all his kin,
Hope ya don’t think of him as a fightin� Taliban,
You’re all invited back again to this insanity,
To get yourself a heapin� helpin� of this travesty . . .
Johnny Jihad, that’s what they call ’im now
Nice guy; don’t get fooled now, y’hear?

(Voice Over): ‘Lawyerin� that is, O.J.ism, media-circus . . .� (Music) . . .

end”
― Douglas M. Laurent

“1/11/2020

X Marks the Spot Sound Tangler Riddle-Puzzle
The X:

The idea of this puzzle is like trying to say something awkward 10 times, but here each X entry has its own subtle pronunciation, which would limber up any tongue in the X-ese language. Another approach is to write them out in whatever order you want pronunciation as you go. You will find both confusingly challenging.

X (chi/ki, now YZ indeed?
eks, plural exes):

eks __ ks gz kzh k/sh h z gzh kh
kh eks __ ks gz kzh k/sh h z gzh
gzh kh eks __ ks gz kzh ks/h h z
z gzh kh eks __ ks gz kzh k/sh h
h z gzh kh eks __ ks gz kzh k/sh
k/sh h z gzh kh eks __ ks gz kzh
kzh k/sh h z gzh kh eks __ ks gz
gz kzh k/sh h z gzh kh eks __
xxxxxxxx8
marks the spot

Sound Key:
-X (own name; X-ray) not listed
-(k)/eks (excite, extra, intellectual)
-__ (silent: Sioux Falls, faux)
-ks (exit, ox, xion, ction)
-gz (exert, exaltation, auxillary, exhaust)
-kzh (luxury, Tupuxuara-flying dinosaur)
-k/sh (complexion, obnoxious, textual)
-h (Don Quixote, Xavier)
-z (xylophone, Xerox, Xanadu)
-gzh (luxurious, luxuriate)
-kh (chi, ki)

(Overlapping is subtle)

*Zenzizenzizenic8 –“the eighth power of a number.� See the archaic word site The Phrontistery online, a great collection of rare, obsolete and extinct words of all sorts.

exit....

dlaurent

2 of 2 end”
― Douglas M. Laurent

“was in everyday attire with sand-colored jeans and a denim-blue buttoned-down shirt with his lean muscles defined underneath and exposed with his rolled-up sleeves. His tannish skin was peppered with freckles and he was bestowed with a natural rouge on his face; matched with his dry wavy dirty blonde hair he looked like a scarecrow that had given up the farm in favor of greener racing pastures.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“There was an excitability about him that seemed it could dissipate at any moment as though he were Christmas in July but rather than sporting holiday cheer and sparkling fireworks, he offered the showing of amateur eggnog hangover and explanations about the lack of permits to the fire department.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“He’s short, but his cheekbones are so high he can barely reach them.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“But her words may have physically reached Todd’s ears, but psychologically they could not stick the landing and fairly soon the local police tore after the suspected criminal in a pointed arrow manner, the latter of whom performed all sorts of leaps and spins to escape arrest, but it was no use, being bowled over and struck down by the pursuers, and he wound up in a gutter and his clumsy gymnastics came to a halt in a 0-10 split.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“The room made her feel like an experiment had gone wrong where error had overtaken trial which didn’t even bother anymore because there was no room for an additional hypothesis, plus or minus one clinical test.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“He scrambled up the ladder and was back down in a time that would have impressed a cat being bathed in a tub of water on a hot tin roof.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“which when compounded with the straw he was using to take intermittent sips with from his drink, conjured up an image of him as a real-life toy heat engine drinking bird that appears in science classes.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“Herve held a sigh and let out a breath of relief.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“The pair of them were both sans socks so beneath their footwear they were matching and going toe-to-toe.”
― J.S. Mason, Whisky Hernandez

“Tobias was actually grinning, but thats Tobias for you. He's never scared of weird stuff. It's the normal stuff he can't stand.”
― K.A. Applegate, The Invasion

“I hear in the chamber above me
The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
And voices soft and sweet.

From my study I see in the lamplight,
Descending the broad hall stair,
Grave Alice, and laughing Allegra,
And Edith with golden hair.”
― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Children's Hour and Other Poems Paul Revere's Ride and Other Poems 1894 [Leather Bound]