CELEB MEMOIRS

Find current affairs & prompts below.

GURU TONY

Celeb Memoirs

Should celebrities write memoirs? Of course they should.
The problem comes with people who want to read them. Now,
let’s separate celebrities first. There are two types – those
who have achieved something of genius, and the trivia-based
celebrity for celebrity’s sake.

The first can often be rewarding reads;
the latter is indulgence from both them
and us.

But then again, Big Biz does need something for us all to aspire
to – to become the ultimate consumer. For in reading about how
seemingly ordinary people can have it all, we are entranced
and seduced to follow.

My Columnists
The ‘Y’ Files

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Privatisation of Post Office
scrapped. ID cards scaled back. What U-turn
today, folks? Govt is on the run – and dizzy.

BRIT NEWS: Brown’s measures to sort out economy are clearly
a Labour Party manifesto. Doesn’t he realise govt and Party are
different? Utter contempt.

BRIT NEWS: Recession deeper than expected.
2.4% slump in output in 1st quarter of
2009. Worst show for 50 yrs. It
ain’t getting better yet.

RATTLER’S TALE
A Voyage of the Imagination

Booking Through Thursday
Friday Flash 55

FLASH 55 – THE CRASH

Fiction: It seemed a normal night. There was nothing to prepare them
for what would happen. They had gathered as they normally did, and,
UFO geeks they may be, but when the flying saucer crashed they
were shocked. Slowly they gathered around it in awe. ‘Gee,’ one of
them said, ‘your girlfriend sure has a temper.’

BRIT SPEAK

Lovely day – what a bore,
Things to do – work galore,
Yes I’m well – you’re feeling sick,
An excellent fellow – what a pr***!
All is fine – nervous stress
It’s raining again – bless

© Anthony North, July 2009

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IDENTITY

Find current affairs & prompts below.

PAPPA RAZZI

Identity

Who are you? Well, we can answer the question in many ways
– what you do for work, for hobby, your class, your status – so
many definitions of you. Most people think that the defining thing
about you is that you are an individual. In this way your identity
is made. But I don’t think this is true. Always, ‘you’ are defined
in terms of your society. It seems to me that your culture says
as much about you as you do.

My Columnists
The ‘Y’ Files

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Govt sent out 1000s of
fake job applications to see if they could
catch racist employers. With such tactics, no
wonder we don’t trust govt.

CRIME NEWS: Madoff gets 150 yrs for his huge con, but a thought:
he only got away with it because too many people in positions to
realise were too greedy.

BRIT NEWS: Queen needs pay rise – first since
1990 – ‘cos she can’t afford upkeep of
palaces. We should’ve increased it
before. £42m a yr for a head
of state is cheap.

READ WITH MUMMY
The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

Totally Optional Prompts
Three Word Wednesday
Thursday Thirteen
ReadWritePoem

THRILLER

The zombies dance, they want your soul,
Heroes no good, nothing to console,
Riotous as they walk the night,
Intrigue – what a nasty sight,
Lurking behind every shade,
Lurid thoughts do pervade,
Everything – you cannot resist,
Run! Get away! If you want to exist

SEDUCTION

Fiction: To yearn for one so sweet. He took in the prettiness of
her; the innocence, the decency – the delicateness – wrapped in
a perfect figure of womanhood. Her long blonde hair, the flowing
white dress – all accentuates the feeling deep inside him. The
seduction is subtle and when they meet in an embrace, passion
grows to fever pitch. Soon they collapse to the floor and the
conquest is complete … Afterwards, they open their eyes – look
out into the street. Watch the people. He knows what he must
do, even though the blood lust is new to him. But she holds
his hand … sweetly …

THIRTEEN LINES FOR THURSDAY THIRTEEN

WEATHERING SOUL

Climate cool, feeling fine
Life goes on, you walk the line,
Storms approaching, run indoors,
Stop! Take stock – mental pause
Winds are going, life goes on
Survived the maelstrom,
Going strong

DONKEY DREAM

Donkey sitting in a field,
Rather silly, so surreal,
Umbrella shading its form,
Definitely not the norm,
Holding it must be a pain,
Especially as it doesn’t rain

© Anthony North, July 2009

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HELL BOUND – THREE

Find current affairs & prompts below. If you came from Heads or Tails, this is wrong link. Click Glastonbury Rocks, above.

She was, of course, correct. When Rose had raced to her
daughter for help, it had not been the whim of a twenty year
old Amanda had thought. She had known Bradley to be a
smoothie, but that didn’t matter a damn, at the time.

He took her on a roller-coaster of ecstasy, and that was all that mattered. But now, several months down the line …
‘I’m getting bored, Rose,’ he had said. ‘I don’t how much longer we can go on. ‘
And to stop boredom, Rose Fidelity sold her soul to the devil. And she rung every ounce of desirability out of herself that she could.
Roger was having problems of a different kind. Jessie was demanding, and despite the doctor squeezing his testicles and advising a truss lay in the future, he knew what he had to do to keep her. And even the Viagra only worked for a while.
The lies had come out on the afternoon they had bumped into each other and decided to have a quick drink. ‘How’s life,’ Rose had said to Roger.
‘Brilliant,’ he replied.
And vice versa, the lies continuing as Roger limped away and Rose hid her face to sniff back the tear.

But to every sad tale there must be redemption.
The sounds of Amanda’s screams filtered into the waiting room as Roger and Rose sat expectantly. Rose said: ‘It’s going to be a girl, you know.’
Roger wasn’t having that. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said, ‘it’s so obviously a boy. Listen to those screams.’
They both laughed at that, and both were touched by a familiarity of old. Somehow it seemed so right. But how could it be other than a stupid, temporary feeling? After all, they had been through so much of late.
Within hours they were stood by Amanda’s bed, greedily passing the new born amongst themselves. Finally, the midwife came in. Said: ‘Time for mother and baby to have some rest now.’
Roger and Rose Fidelity walked out of the room awkwardly. Outside the hospital, they stood, not knowing, really, what to do. Finally, Roger said: ‘Your car or mine?’
Rose smiled, and said his. Gran and Grandad drove home, the vacuum filled by their grandson; and another new life to begin.

Previously

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Loyalist paramilitaries
in Northern Ireland pledge to disarm. I hope
this is the end, though it’s too early to tell. Another
50 yrs yet.

WORLD NEWS: Relations between Iran & UK hit bottom as tit-for-tat
measures increase. At least it’s a milder form of gunboat diplomacy.

BRIT NEWS: MP’s report on G20 tactics tell police
‘herding’ is wrong. About time. This was
mass false imprisonment by
the State.

Weekend Wordsmith
ABC Wednesday

X is for … XTREME SPORTS

Jump into the void, climb that rock,
Adrenalin flows, loving shock,
Putting life on the line,
Hoping that after, you’ll be fine,
But why do they do it, these xtreme twits,
Similar to masochism seems to fit

FLAG

Beginning to flag, must go on,
No longer many, they’ve all gone,
The battle rages in body and soul,
Keep going, reach my goal,
All is weary, my body drags,
Finally, light! I see the flag

© Anthony North, June 2009

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GLASTONBURY ROCKS

Find current affairs & prompts below.

TONY’S MUSE DIARY

Glastonbury Rocks

Yes!!! I’m headlining. At last, I’m first. Reason? Him Outside’s too
tired to argue. It’s been Glastonbury weekend, and that meant 3
late nights watching TV. There were some average performances
this year, especially from the headliners. Blur’s comeback
performance closed the festival, and whilst the place
seemed to rock, Him Outside had seen better.

Another average performance seemed to
come from The Boss.

But then again, Him Outside had never been a great fan of
Springsteen. Tom Jones did okay in the old fogey slot, but man
that shirt was dripping! Most of the best performances came from
the lesser bands. Particularly enjoyed Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Nick
Cave, and good old Quo rocked nicely, if not with genius. But the
performance of the festival this year was Friday night’s headliner.
A true force straight out of the 70s. Yep, Neil Young rocked!!

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: New New Labour: We
will free Bank of England from govt control.
Old New Labour after bank disagrees with them:
Curb it!!!

CELEB NEWS: So all the bits are beginning to fit together for
the first conspiracy theories. Sadly, with icons like Jackson,
’tis always thus.

BRIT NEWS: Govt releases central control over
teaching in huge U-turn. At last they’ve
realised – central control is
BAD. Always.

RATTLER’S TALE
A Voyage of the Imagination

Manic Monday – Heads or Tails
Carry On Tuesday – Poetry Train
Unconscious Mutterings

THE TOOL

The tool is coming to save our way,
Got to prepare without delay,
Instructions provided of what we must do,
Everyone busy, not just a few

We’re ready, so, when will it come?
Did as you asked – everything done;
But hold! Haven’t we sorted it out?
That tool was intention, took away doubt

LOVERS

Fiction: The red rose whispers of passion, and the white rose
breathes of love. They were sat in the garden in a lovers’ embrace.
Birds serenaded, adding to the mood, and a pleasant sun bathed
them. He touched her face, delicately, and when their lips met,
passion burst out upon the scene and they were fulfilled. He watched
them, his heart full of joy, and a tear came to his eye. It was all just
so perfect, and he knew he did good. Finally, he pulled himself away
and to his front took in the hundreds of other monitors. The candid
microphones and cameras guarded us from harm and protected our
freedoms, he was sure.

UNWELCOME GUEST
(Another free association poem)

Guest unwelcome
Impact profound
Unplanned foray
Tactic sound
Delayed my life
Bombastic thought
Comfort denied
Trumpet taut
Joe doesn’t stay long, that’s a fact
Budget covers – entertain with tact

© Anthony North, June 2009

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THEY’VE GOTCHA

Find current affairs & prompt below.

Anyone who has survived a cult can testify to the
power a guru holds over them. Families have temporarily
lost a member, and cult de-programmers are aware of
the difficulties of banishing cultish thoughts from the
person being recovered.

How does the guru do it? What power does he exert over the person? Is it really ‘brain-washing’? Perhaps one way is for the guru to show the future disciple he has authority. Stanley Milgram showed how easy this is in the 1960s.
In Milgram’s infamous experiment an actor was rigged to a fake electric chair. Students were told to turn up the power as part of an experiment, the actor squealing in kind. Some would have delivered enough power to kill him.
It is accepted that these otherwise non-violent students did as they were told because they accepted the authority of the experimenter. Their moral objections were therefore overcome and they became obedient.
Another obvious power a guru exerts is an over-powering charisma – an ability to ‘seduce’ the person into compliance. We can actually see such a process in action quite often. It is achieved by stage hypnotists in their act.
Some people can become natural hypnotists. They are usually those who are so sure of themselves that a similar authority to Milgram is achieved; especially when the person to be hooked is searching for something to believe in.
In one way, we can say that a person’s individuality is transferred to a higher authority in such instances. The social processes involved were described by the sociologist Elias Canetti, who studied crowds and the power people and symbols can have over them.
Calling such focal points ‘crowd crystals’, Canetti studied all forms of crowd, including riots, where individuality seems to be submerged below a ‘group’ entity. With such powers over the person, it is hardly surprising we use the term ‘brain-washing.’

First posted: Dec 08

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Survey: two thirds of
teenagers don’t believe in God and think
reality TV is important. Whatever main media
says, kids will believe.

BRIT NEWS: 13.5 million working days lost due to stress. When
will govt/Big Biz wake up to the fact the system in inhuman.
We’re not cogs.

BRIT NEWS: Govt survey says 3 out of 4 Brits
think police have let them down. Time to
forget social engineering and get
back to policing.

FUTURE ZONE

What’s ahead … and Beyond!!!

One Single Impression

BLUE RAIN
(Take 1)

The music played, electronic haze,
The festival buzzed, crowd amazed,
The rain, it came, it was blue,
Pixies danced, all so true,
Demons arrived and swallowed the crowd,
None of them were now so proud,
Narcotics police arrived in vain,
They’d all taken that damned Blue Rain

BLUE RAIN
(Take 2 – a rewrite)

Sci Fi: It was the first Earth-like planet they had found. At least,
how Earth had once been. Nature proliferated here. It was a jewel,
and the crew were ecstatic. They had really found paradise. Yet, as
one crewman found out, paradise held dangers. The branch just fell
from nowhere. He was rushed to sickbay, leaving a pool of blood on
the ground. Later, clouds gathered, and when the rain came it was
fierce. But when it turned blue, they began to fear the rain. And as it
became acidic and burnt their skin, they raced back to the ship. It
took just an hour to realise the rain was only over them – and it was
burning through their hull. They took off after that, never to return,
and on the planet the ants removed all trace of the blood.

BLUE RAIN
(Take 3)

The rain comes down, an ozone hue,
Death ray, bombardment, all is blue,
Wiping them out, they stand no chance,
Nowhere to go, can’t enhance

He smiles as he fires again,
His rays causing them much, much pain,
No mercy here, he’s the big player,
Radiotherapist, cancer slayer

© Anthony North, June 2009

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TOYS & STARS

Sunday Scribblings and Saturday 9

TECHIE WITHOUT A CLUE

Toys

Toys tell us a lot about society. The important thing about them
is not what they are, or what they do, but who plays with them.
Identify a toy in history and you’ll identify children of families who
have become relatively free of struggle – ‘cos before this, they
were too busy surviving to have time for fun.

Mankind’s toys on display,
The museum of games they play,
Things been thrown from Dick to Tom,
From primitive spear to atom bomb

Toys have a philosophy all their own. This may not be immediately
apparent, but consider the kinds of toys that were popular when
community still existed. Toys were mainly about shared playing. As
individuality grew, toys became more personal, ending up with the
video game, isolating the child in his room. There was an electronic
comeback of community with toys such as Wii, but this developed
a philosophy of its own. Out it comes and kids banished to their
rooms while the parents have fun.
Toys show up our social stupidity, too.

Hello mate, shall we play a game,
Lots of toys to raise a flame,
Help us in our passionate embrace,
From videos to gossamer lace

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: Experts warn energy bills
could soar to £5000 a year in a decade. Utter
nonsense. Profiteering on a grand scale.

HEALTH NEWS: Sales of vitamins slump as people buy fruit
& veg during Recession. Looks like poverty = commonsense.

MEDIA NEWS: Salaries and perks queries now go
to BBC. Under fire for excess. And why not?
It’s paid for by compulsory licence fee.

TONY’S MUSE does … SATURDAY 9

Writers’ Tips

Him Outside has decided I’m allowed to play a
few memes now – as long as I don’t say anything
about him I shouldn’t. Yeah, right!

1. Where were you when you heard that Michael Jackson died?

It was late at night in the UK so Him Outside was winding down
for sleep.

2. How do you think that he will be remembered?

Jackson will never be remembered for what he really was. A
sensational person in life, his death will have to end up as sensational.
This is the fate of all icons. He will be, to the future, whatever
conspiracy theory sticks.

3. What was your favorite Jackson tune?

Singing Ben could be a Thriller,
Heal the World, never Bad,
Remembered as a Rockin’ Robin,
He’s HIStory, but let’s not be sad

4. Did you watch the original Charlie’s Angels?

Yes, he did.

5. Did someone you know have that poster of Farrah?

Him Outside’s Dearest hated THAT poster. She was a hairdresser and
everyone wanted THAT hair. Unfortunately, few of them had the hair
to allow THAT hair. In the UK it was soon replaced by the Purdy look.
Much more manageable.

6. Did you consider her battle with cancer heroic?

Is it heroic to face something that you can do nothing about?
Heroism is facing something you have a choice in – to do it or
not. If the question was: did she face it with grace and
humanity, yes, certainly.

7. Were you a fan of The Tonight Show Starring Johnnie Carson?

He watched it occasionally. Him Outside’s a Brit.

8. Did you like Ed McMahon on the show?

Don’t really remember him.

9. What else will you remember McMahon for?

Ditto. But …

Three stars fall, a saddening time,
Music, laughter, acting divine,
For us it may be a blow,
But they’re together on the celestial Tonight Show

© Anthony North, June 2009

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MICHAEL JACKSON

Find current affairs & prompts below.

PAPPA RAZZI

Michael Jackson

Michael Jackson is dead. There is genuine shock in many places
today. He was a man who was always in the background of my
cultural life. Not a great fan, you couldn’t help but be aware of
his musical and cultural power. From the sweet tones of Ben to
Thriller, he enchanted generations. A fashion and lifestyle icon,
he was also to court much controversy.

I’ve said before that Jackson was a modern-day
alchemist, in search of the cultural Philosophers’
Stone and Elixir of Life.

His plastic surgery was the transmutation to something more perfect
– ageless, androgynous, raceless. And in this, he led the march of
physical fixes for our ageing, a generation who thought the soul was
skin deep. In typical icon-fashion we could well see a touch of
cult-like behaviour in the coming days, and who knows what
conspiracy theories may arise in the future. But for now, Rest In
Peace, Michael Jackson – you finally made it to Neverland.

My Columnists

Inde-Pol

BRIT NEWS: As final salary pensions
collapse, pension crisis intensifies. Yet we
had it sorted with a State pension. But they had
to meddle.

GREEN NEWS: Plastic bags to replace boxes for breakfast
cereals? Really will be crunch time. And surely more polluting.

BRIT NEWS: David Cameron vows to make govt more
open to the people. Trying to think of measured
response but can’t stop laughing.

Friday Flash 55

FLASH 55 – FAST FOOD

Fiction: Her weight had become a problem of late, but she
chose a novel way to lose it. And who’d have thought it could
be conquered by fast food. Yes, she ate fast food every day
– lots of it – literally gobbled it down. Indeed, often it was so
fast she had to run to catch it.

MATCHSTICK MEN

Stripped to nothing but their form,
Matchstick Men becoming the norm,
Trapped in the material, corporate jog,
Life without meaning, just a cog,
Expressing individuality by being the same,
Modern life – so insane

© Anthony North, June 2009

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HELL BOUND – TWO

Find current affairs & prompts below.

Roger was approaching work now. He was a successful
office manager, and had a boring, normal life to go with
it. Until now, of course. But then again, could it be that
Rose was right?

‘Morning, Mr Fidelity,’ said Jessie, his secretary, as he walked into his office.
Roger returned the greeting, aware of the look she always gave him; aware of what this not unattractive woman thought of him. After all, she had played up to him enough. And it was to his eternal shame, he thought, that he often fantasized of actually having her.
But that was ridiculous, wasn’t it? He was getting on; the body was beginning to fail … he couldn’t. He was happily married. But suddenly he remembered that he wasn’t. And because he had had these fantasies, perhaps he hadn’t been happily married for some time …
‘Jessie,’ he called, ‘can you come in here, please, I’ve got something for you.’

Roger and Rose fidelity packed at the same time that night. What the future held for them both, neither of them really knew. Perhaps they were both too old to begin again, but it was clear to them that neither could continue as they were. There was a huge vacuum in both their lives, and even Roger, as he made love to a girl twenty years younger than him, realised this in the end. Indeed, he had never performed so long, and so frantically, in his life. As the slowly developing pain in his groin testified.
Of course, Roger and Rose kept in touch over the following months – they were still good friends – but they had new lives now; lives which they were determined to enjoy. But to every dream of happiness, there is a cloud …
‘Well I think it’s disgusting,’ a heavily pregnant Amanda said as she slumped in her father’s new flat. Jessie was hovering about, picking up the hostile glares from her lover’s daughter.
Roger limped over to his daughter. ‘But our marriage is over, dear, please understand. And try to be happy for us.’
Amanda snarled. ‘Happy? You must be joking. Look at you?
You’re not a young man, and you’re wasting away in front of my eyes.’
‘That’s ridiculous, Amanda, and you know it.’
‘Don’t come that tone with me,’ Amanda retorted. ‘Your life is pathetic, and no way do you get the respect for a father from me.’
‘And do you speak to your mother like that?’
‘Mother?’ queried Amanda. ‘Some mother, rushing over to see me to check that her make-up is alright. For God’s sake, you’re both nearly fifty. Start acting like it, and not a bunch of twenty year olds.’

© Anthony North, June 2009

Chapter One – Final Chapter.

Inde-Pol

CRME NEWS: Top UK cop says drivers
not to leave car keys in house. Encourages
burglars. Excuse me? Wii? Hi-fi? Jewellery …?

BRIT NEWS: Tories align themselves with 7 right wing parties
in Europe. This is a mistake and could lose them votes here.

BRIT NEWS: Pictures released of female climate
protester grabbed round throat by police.
Their violence is getting too common.
Who are the bully boys now?

Booking Through Thursday
Totally Optional Prompts
Thursday Thirteen

TONY’S MUSE – SEASONAL READS

I sometimes think I know Him Outside better than he knows himself.
Just take his reading patterns. We don’t often see this in seasonal
terms, but I think it is. For instance, during winter he is more likely
to descend into a Dickens or other 19th century classic. Either that,
or a nice scary horror such as King or Herbert. There’s something
about dark, cold nights that adds to the tingle. Alternatively, summer
is more likely to find him reading the more modern book – not modern
lit, you understand; he prefers a story to an angst-fest. The
adventure thriller doesn’t take as much commitment, I suppose, so
a Smith or Higgins is just the job. Of course, in terms of classics,
there’s Hardy – he’s a good summer read, even though the place he
set his summers didn’t exist. Oh, and a good old whodunit such as
Christie. There’s something about a literary murder that brings the
sun out.

HORROR SCOPE
(13 lines for Thursday 13)

Look in the scan, see what will be,
Electronic astrology;
Any path you follow is always sad,
Everything going so very bad,
No matter how the programs align,
Nothing, ever, turns out fine,
Conflict and crime wherever you go,
The ‘me’ society delivers a blow,
To any hope of sorting it out,
Whether you’re atheist or rather devout …
Look to the past, why is it so?
Way, way back, we have to go,
To where it arises – Ego

© Anthony North, June 2009

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MOANING MEN

Find current affairs & prompts below.

Okay, I’m a man and I’m going to moan. I’m going to
moan about a lot of other men. It isn’t that I’ve put
a skirt on or anything like that, but some men just
… well, you know …

I’ve thought about it often, but it came back to mind with a survey from the British Market Research Bureau, who’ve advised that men between the late 30s, right up to 65, are miserable, with life being a bitch and the ‘mid-life crisis’ in full swing.
Did men have them before it was invented? I don’t think they did – which suggests we tend to be infected by any social or psychological term that comes along. But could it be that the mid-life crisis IS a reality, due to forces within society we have created ourselves?
Perhaps the most important thinker behind the term was Carl Jung. He looked at men closely and realized there was something missing in their lives from about the late 30s. But whereas the term caught on, Jung’s reasoning did not.
To Jung, we had become entrapped in material living. What did he mean by this suggestion? Basically, to be fulfilled, a man has to be a success in a material way, but this is only half of living. There is also the spiritual side, the bonds, the intuitions – basically, the meanings of life.
To be fully mature, a person has to be aware of both these influences. Indeed, only can we be whole by appreciating both. Hence, in tying ourselves too much to a material world, life becomes unfulfilling once success has been achieved.
He was a clever fellow was Jung. Unfortunately, though, it was only the ‘sound bite’ that took off, the ‘reason’ being forgotten in an angst-ridden material half-world.

First posted: Aug 07

Inde-Pol

CELEB NEWS: Am I alone in being
fed up of Jordan & Peter Andre’s marital
woes? Media, please let them get on with it
in private, like everyone else.

BRIT NEWS: John Bercow, a moderniser, elected Speaker.
I don’t want modernisation. I want morals and an ethic of
service.

WORLD NEWS: Brit troops start their biggest airborne
op in Afghanistan yet. At times like these, we
must remember to tell them they’re
appreciated.

Three Word Wednesday
ReadWritePoem

ASSIGNATION POSTPONED

Fiction: Some would call him fickle. After all, he just couldn’t
resist the right type of woman. It was the sparkle he looked
for – that sign that this woman was just right. He sat in the
bar – his latest hunting ground – when he spied her. Okay, she
was a little older than him, a touch wrinkled, but that appeal
shone out from her. Soon he introduced himself, and small talk
over, it was time for business. And in no time at all they were
in the hotel suite. She laid, naked, in bed; waited for him to
return with the condom – and waited – and waited … Eventually
she called the police. It was when she checked her jewellery
that she noticed her sparkle was gone.

DEAR MOTHER

I did alright, had lots of fun,
Plenty of work to do and done,
Been various things throughout my life,
Found a girl, became my wife,
Had kids galore and brought them up,
Learnt to write, a creative cup,
I cherish this time I try and save,
To come along and visit your grave

© Anthony North, June 2009

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HELL BOUND ONE

Find current affairs & prompts below.

When Rose Fidelity returned home she felt guilty, but, in a
way, ecstatic. She had never done anything like that before,
and being nearly midnight, she couldn’t even remember a night
when she had been home so late. Approaching forty eight
years of age, Rose suddenly realised a new woman was
emerging from over twenty five years of marriage.

As she entered her living room, Roger, her husband, said: ‘You’re late,’ a hint of worry in his voice. And his alarm was heightened when Rose took off her coat, revealing her, and Roger’s, favourite plunging neckline.
Roger was taken aback by this. Rose had kept her youth well, and was still a desirable woman. ‘What on earth have you been doing, dear?’ he asked, puzzled.
Rose thought of an easy way to say it, but was suddenly lost for ideas. Holding her head up, she said: ‘I’ve been with Bradley. ‘
‘Oh, I see,’ said Roger. ‘And what do you mean by with?’
‘Having sex, husband, dear,’ said Rose. ‘I’ve been having the most exciting lay of my life.’
It took several seconds for the news to sink in; and perhaps a couple more for Roger’s first-tear to flow.

In a way, he’d been expecting it. Things hadn’t gone right for some time now. It was the next morning and Roger Fidelity tried to think it all out as he walked to work. He even knew what the final straw was …
‘I’m moving out,’ Jonny, their youngest, had said a fortnight ago.
Roger had been rather pleased by this declaration. Their daughter, Amanda, had already gone, and was happily married and heavily pregnant. Now that Jonny had felt the need to fly the nest, he and Rose could finally get on with their lives.
Rose had felt different, of course. ‘But all the bills, the responsibility. You’re so young.’
When Jonny had finally left, he’d kissed his mother on the cheek. ‘Don’t worry mum. You’ll still see me a lot; and I love you. ‘
But no matter how much Roger tried to instill a feeling of new life, Rose simply looked around an empty house and thought: ‘What now … ‘
Well, thought Roger, we know what, now, don’t we? Bradley, that so called family friend ….
‘How could you?’ he had asked the previous night, as the news sank in.
Rose stroked her husband’s face. ‘I never wanted to hurt you,’ she said, ‘but I have needs.’ She walked to the cupboard; took out the family photo album. ‘Look through it, Roger. Tell me what you see.’
Roger flicked through the album. ‘I see a loving family; a family happy with itself, and with life.’
‘And that’s true,’ said Rose. ‘But the family’s gone now. And take that away and what’s left?’
‘I don’t understand,’ Roger objected.
‘There is not one single picture in that album that says we are a couple. That went when we had kids. And I’m not sure, after all these years, we can recreate it.’

Chapter Two

© Anthony North, June 2009

Inde-Pol

GREEN NEWS: There are plans for
laser-guided cars, allowing you to sleep
and eat in 70mph convoys. Already done. They
call them trains.

HEALTH NEWS: Research shows men 40% more likely to die
of cancer due to fear of doctors. It’s not fear, but the
macho culture.

WORLD NEWS: World Bank needs trillion dollars to
help developing countries in Recession. Or do
they mean to prop up failing Big Biz there?

ABC Wednesday – Acrostic Only
American Sandwich – Naisaiku Challenge

W is for … WEIRD

Once upon a time things were strange,
Unusual forces were arranged,
To colour and frighten a person’s life,
Superstition could cause such strife;
Now we’ve condemned such things as wrong,
We sing a more rational, reasoned song,
Yet have we lost a part of our soul?
Those stories and traditions made us whole

TONY’S MUSE DIARY

A few words on how Him Outside got cfs, I think. After all, it’s a big
part of his life. Now, there are many suggested ‘reasons’ for the
condition, but Him Outside tops the lot. How about stress? Well, he
always played hard in those days and he also had a stressful job for
the two years leading up to it, so we can tick that box. Then there’s
the aftermath of viral infection. Well, he’d caught three viruses in the
6 months beforehand. How about chemical concoctions? In the RAF,
he was jabbed up with everything, ready for any overseas
emergency. Injury? A couple of weeks before he’d cracked two ribs.
And in this state, he’d just finished a 3 day military exercise with
minimal sleep, arrived home and packed the family into the car to
drive 200 miles for a holiday. He never made it, passing out at the
wheel. He doesn’t remember stopping, but somehow he managed it;
and he hasn’t felt well since. So I suppose we can add stupidity
to it, too.

ELVIS PRESLEY
(Acrostic American Club Sandwich)

Elvis still lives on
Life is more than flesh and bone
VIRTUE IN CULTURE
Icon’s more than flesh and bone
Singing still lives on

Preened in blue swede shoes, audience all shook up, Jailhouse rocked to his great songs.
Return to sender, his burning love, we remain moody blue still.
End suspicious minds, love me tender, ‘cos I just can’t help believin …

Serene is Gracelands
Living still on noble throne
ELVIS WAS THE KING
Yes he’s still on noble throne
… Elvis IS Gracelands

© Anthony North, June 2009

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