CRIMINALITY

Theme Thursday – Booking Through Thursday
ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
With Thursday Thirteen items of news and views
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

Welcome to my weekly magazine post. I’m trying a couple of new
prompts – Theme Thursday, and going back to Booking Through
Thursday (will appear Thurs). For new readers, this is the magazine
post that grows through the week. You can opt to read the essay,
current affairs, my mini mag with fiction & poetry, or enjoy the lot.

WORDS ON RED

Red has an identity crisis. It is the colour of danger. We see red when
we’re angry and as the Red Planet it’s the god of war. Yet,
vulnerability is the red of a blush; love is symbolized by a red heart,
and what can we say of those ruby-red lips? Red is life, the blood
that flows thru our veins, so maybe it’s right that it’s all shades of us.

WINTER READ

The wind howls, the snow hems you in. The cold bites and the lights
go out. You sit by a blazing fire, shadows flitting with the candle’s
glow. So what to read? An anthology of horror, me thinks, taking me
back to Gothic times; to Poe, to Lovecraft, to Bierce and James; for
as you reach the fearful sweat, nothing warms like a cold chill inside.

CRIMINALITY

I’ve written a lot on crime and over the years a general theory has
grown. It arose by realizing that the conman and serial killer had
similar mind-sets. Both seem to use personas to express themselves
and have self-esteem issues, using their crime to be someone.
These two polarities of crime seem to have similarities.
If so, could all types of criminal fit into the pattern? In the main, crime
requires a lack of conscience. Such a lacking can be seen in both
animal and child, as if they run on instinct. Could what I call the ‘thin
veneer of morality’ be required through moral education to deter such
instinct? If so, then the liberal ethic that in our natural state we are
good is wrong. Studies of criminals suggest they can suffer from
negative blocking, in that compassionate concepts such as ‘love’ or
‘responsibility’ are not understood. This can lead to psychological
distancing which dehumanizes a target, allowing them to commit crime
so easily. This can be reinforced by transferring their own failings onto
the target – hence it is the target’s fault, not theirs. These are, of
course, fantasized realities. And with fantasies uppermost in their
mind-set, we can also see the reason for many of them being failures.
A sense of invulnerability can grow, leading to them becoming
careless. This kind of instinctual mind-set suggests the central
element of crime is a desire to satisfy needs as quickly as possible,
negating the usual processes of civilized society. And only in this way
can they feel fulfilled and successful.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Two recent
euthanasia cases. One jailed for
murder, one free. We need a court to
safeguard intent, no matter how harrowing.

BRIT NEWS: Could be cuts in affordable homes over
next 10 yrs. A society that raises price of house above
what can be afforded is wrong.

BRIT NEWS: Children living in severe poverty increased in last
4 yrs. Seems to come in line with measures to beat it. Obviously wrong.

BRIT NEWS: Amid placards saying ‘Bliar’, Blair has been to the Iraq
Inquiry. Any regrets? No. Anything new? No. Glad he’s gone? Oh, yes!

BRIT NEWS: Britain is out of Recession – just. With growth just 0.1%
its going to be a hard recovery – if such a flawed system can.

BRIT NEWS: Gap between average income & richest 10% still
increasing. So try to help the poor & create a new super
-rich. Is always thus.

BRIT NEWS: Report hints our roads are failing. Well,
when you have pretend affluence by not
servicing infrastructure what do
you expect?

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday
Sunday Scribblings

SINGLE AGAIN

Her grief was plain for all to see,
She even cried at the funeral tea,
Single life was hers once more,
With plenty of money in the bottom drawer,
But as so often is her way,
She met another – began to play,
Spinning her web until sucked dry,
And then the poison she would apply

THE WALLET

Fiction: He stole the man’s wallet just before he was shot. He just
stood there, stupidly, watching him fall. Once he realized the man was
dead, another revelation came to him. He’d seen the gunman, which
made HIM a witness. Consequently, he began to run – something he
was used to doing in his line of business. Looking back, he realized the
precarious situation he was in. The gunman was on his tail. He was
obviously after the wallet, he decided, and stopped, offering the
gunman his prize. If only he’d realized that he’d missed first time; or
the irony of him paying his own killer.

CRIME SCENE

Murderer’s footprint in the blood,
Tells so much of how he could,
Thoughts translate to actions true,
Leaving the police with all those clues;
A crime scene is a story intact,
Of how he came here, all the facts,
Read it correctly, you’re half way there,
To understanding a killer’s stare

FLASH 55 – END GAME

Fiction: Life just isn’t worth living – not with what I’ve done. I guess
I’m a coward. I invite four them to the meeting. Four people I learnt a
lot about. When I sit with them I smile. One of them is a murderer, I’m
sure. As I begin the blackmailing, he just doesn’t know it yet.

TARGET

I’m a mugger – I’m watching you,
Judging as you pass on through,
I’m looking for the weakest in the crowd,
Get it right! Never caught! I’m very proud;
That odor of fear is what I need,
Then I’ll strike! You’ll lurch and cede;
Frantic, people will pass you by,
I’ve got them spooked – don’t hear your cry

THE MESSAGE

Got a message in a bottle, over my head,
Poured over my hair, my scalp it bled,
I guess it’s my fault – I went astray,
Career of crime without delay,
I’m now in the circle, can’t get out,
At least, for a time, there was no doubt,
Until now, when I know I’ll soon be dead,
But I gave HIM a message – made of lead

A THOUGHT: It took the west
100s of years to develop democracy,
yet we expect Iraq & Afghanistan to do it
overnight. What fools we are.

TECH NEWS: Apple launch iPad to challenge Kindle.
Okay, very nice. Now, where’s my book? They’ll never
capture its aesthetic value.

TV WATCH: The Soap conundrum: Drama needs extreme situations
to work. So does a daily dose make normal social interaction extreme?

HEALTH NEWS: Dr Andrew Wakefield who fuelled MMR scare with his
research failed in his duties says GMC. Contrary research no
longer allowed?

MOVIE WATCH: Watched 2 films back to back – Sands
of Iwo Jima, about fighting for freedom, & Thelma
& Louise, where they get it. What irony.

MAD BRITS: A company advertising for a
reliable worker was pulled up for
discriminating against
unreliable workers.
Unbelievable.

© Anthony North, February 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

YOU

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

What is ‘you’? I say this as opposed to ‘who are you’ because as a
personality it may not be down to you. It is all to do with what an
‘individual’ is and is not. The idea of individuality is quite recent for
most of us.

It is most likely a spin-off of social
evolutionary processes.

It requires the time to think that you ARE individual. Hence, it will arise
at such time that you are no longer preoccupied with survival. In this
sense it came down the classes. The old God-Kings can be said to be
first to not have to worry about survival, so were the first to
appreciate their individuality. As technology advanced, so, too, the
numbers able to be individuals, descending down the aristocracy, the
middleclass, and finally the working class. Of course, in a mass
consumer society this is important. You need to express yourself
individually to be a good consumer. Indeed, throughout history trade
has occurred to expand the numbers of individuals. In this sense,
individuality is a consumer device. This does, of course, suggest that
individuality is a concept rather than an absolute. We don’t like to
think in this way, but it could be true. We’re back to what is ‘you’?
Well, ‘you’ is shaped by many things outside of you. Ancestry,
culture, environment and society all shape who you are. Then there
are instinctual drives. Now, we’re said not to be controlled by these
any more. We’re no longer just animals. But is this really the case, or
have such drives merely adapted to our evolving species? We all
express emotions of various kinds, but whilst the reason for such
expression may be personal, the emotion itself is universal throughout
the species. Jung identified universal archetypal character types
which we all express. So these, too, seem to be of the species. As I
see it, individuality is really an amalgam of outside influences, shaped
into ‘you’ by your experiences, certainly, but a cauldron of outside
impulses nonetheless. Don’t get me wrong. Individuality is good, but
maybe not as absolute as we think. We should bear this in mind when
we say individuality is everything. It may give us a new understanding
of community and togetherness.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

WORLD NEWS: There is anger
here after China executed a Brit with
mental health problems for drug running. I
don’t usually comment on another country’s affairs
other than America. I do this as nearly everything America
does impacts directly on my life, so I will speak. And I think China is
becoming the same. Supposedly set to be a major world power, we
MUST speak about their human rights, otherwise their influence may
become the norm.

CELEB NEWS: It’s been a good week for Yorkshire and Trekkies alike.
Following the New Year Honours, arise Sir Patrick Stewart. Picard
would be proud. Significantly, there’s hardly anything for
politicians this year. They wouldn’t dare after the
expenses scandal. Unlike many, I like the
British honours system. Yes, it can
be manipulated, but overall I
think it good to have a
non-financial reward
for excellence.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

INDURATE BOY

Born into crime, no way to resist,
Didn’t want to do it, but couldn’t desist,
Peers and family and one and all,
Culture of violence, answer the call,
And then you’ve got to be harder than them,
If not, they’ll surely try to condemn,
Finish you off, take you out of the game,
So be hard – confirm your malicious fame

THE MORTICIAN

Fiction: I’ve always considered my work an artform. As a mortician, to
prepare a body for the everlasting is such a joy. Of course, so often it
is an impossible challenge. The very aged, those of a terminal illness –
so much degraded; so difficult to make it right – yet to find before me
such a beautiful woman – and my hope to make her more beautiful,
now, than she had been in life. Yet, such a rush – so little time to
work my magic before they come for me – and the sadness that in
producing such eternal art, I had to kill her.

WHAT A CRIME

Habitual I am in how I commit,
Giddy the feeling when I score a hit,
Fritter control in having my fun,
Love the essence of what I’ve done,
Disloyal to any form of control,
Yet such a debacle makes me whole,
Converting words to poetic form,
Whodunit? They!! Celebration the norm

FLASH 55 – STALKED

Fiction: I’d never seen a corpse before, but there it was, and I
thought: this is my worst experience. But it wasn’t. You can’t have
such an experience without an effect – for days following it was as if
it was there behind me. And thus it stayed until the day I stopped the
policeman and confessed.

RATS

Nibble and gnaw, scurry around,
Can’t believe what they’ve found,
Epic numbers, causing pain,
Let’s face it, it’s quite a drain,
Never far away from them,
Often it feels like we’re hemmed;
Infestation of society,
Pickpockets, muggers, burglary

© Anthony North, January 2010

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

TECHNOLOGY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

POLLY TICKS

Technology is good but we don’t understand it. We need a philosophy
of tech, taking into account its psycho-socio-political implications.
Tech made us human, in that it required an opposable thumb for
manipulation, also freeing our forelimbs for erect walking. But I think
its effect was deeper than this. Tech required us to concentrate on
the task in hand, freeing us from instinctual drives.

This required a repository for
thoughts not of relevance.

Hence, could tech have caused the split between conscious and
unconscious mind? If so, then a specifically shortsighted conscious
would have been the result, with the possibility that the more
information we have, the smaller and more individualistic our
conscious becomes. History bears out this possibility, with moves
against spirituality and community as tech information increased. If
this process continues, the time could come when tech shrinks our
mind so much that we are no longer human. We can see this in moral
behaviour. We seem to be far more benevolent to each other
nowadays, but could this only be because tech provides services and
order which cancel out our need to survive? It could be that we have
simply sidelined morality instead of being moral. Modern info-tech
holds problems. Information and surveillance has now come to the
point that the private is disappearing. As this trend continues, we are
increasingly monitored, and this is allowing authority unprecedented
control over us. Tech is taking away our freedoms. It is also taking
away our ability to think. Computer tech is rigid, with tasks now
following strict patterns taking away our ability to use our initiative.
This is transferring to society, where rules are becoming increasingly
fundamental. We are becoming cogs in a social machine. Forget The
Terminator. The machine world is already here, and it’s subtle! All
these problems can be overcome if we realize that they exist. Do so
and tech can be what it should be. Our servant, and not our
master.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: So the police
have passed 4 cases of possible
law-breaking MPs involved in the expenses
scandal to the Crown Prosecution Service. The rest
may not be suspected of breaking the law, but they did break
the spirit of decency and trust. Once upon a time certain institutions
had a culture of decency, which people offended at their peril. Once
trust goes, those institutions are tarnished for decades.

BRIT NEWS: The long awaited Iraq War Inquiry has begun. We’re told
its range will go far and wide. I’m always suspicious of such affairs,
as they cannot be independent as they are always headed by
an establishment figure, with certain endemic biases built
into the system. But we will see how ‘open’ this
inquiry becomes when Tony Blair stands
before it, most likely in January. But
sadly the very idea that this will
bring confidence back to
govt is laughable.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – Friday Flash 55
Three Word Wednesday

THE LIGHTHOUSE

Banish disaster from the rocks,
Shine a beam, mental blocks
Conscience alert, fend off the crash,
Mind is safe with neuron flash;
The lighthouse there, within the mind,
Makes those dark thoughts hard to find,
Plain sailing through the ocean of life,
No wrecks here – avoiding strife

LITTLE MAN BIG

Fiction: I guess some people crawl through life happy. Ambition is
nowhere to be seen and the daily grind becomes somehow comforting,
adding security, belonging, meaning. My wife was like that, but I was
not. So often I’d dream of breaking out of the grind, making it big. But
always she’d laugh, remind me I’m just a little man – a little cog in a
big machine – and I should be happy with my lot. The world, she
advised, will never hear of me. And of course, when my promotion
came, she had plenty to say – taking too much on; trying to fill shoes
too big for my feet. Well, I did become big – eventually – and
everyone knew my name. Wife killers become big like that.

POMMY GRANITE

Not fruit but a Brit as hard as stone,
A Pom, as in Oz we’re known,
Masters of cricket and rugby, too,
Excellent sports, I’m telling you;
Ideas we have like seeds in a fruit,
From democracy to gravity we recruit;
But named after juices all the time?
Please don’t get me onto lime

FLASH 55 – VENETIAN OUTCOME

Fiction: It was an unreasonable demand. These merchants make lambs
of lions with their deals. But this lamb will not be silenced. This is one
merchant who has ripped me off once too often, and I was
determined to get justice. So I got my pound of flesh. It went down
well with a nice claret.

MANUFACTURED PLEASURE

Plastic taste, sumptuous cherries,
So soft inside, pleasure buried,
Fondle long before the kick,
Often it’s impossible not to lick;
Melting into delight so strong,
Even alone you CAN belong,
Satisfying that overpowering ache,
For another slice of that cream cake

© Anthony North, December 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

POLITICS

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

POLLY TICKS

Democracy is the best political system but has yet to be understood.
Born out of individual empowerment, it can only thrive in an ideology
which shares this value. Hence, democracy is actually the political
arm of capitalism, and can only work in a capitalist system.

This said, single systems
are always wrong.

They lead to tunnel vision and totalitarianism. Hence, a true
democracy should always have differing systems below the political
ideal, be they religious, philanthropic or socialistic. Similarly,
democracy provides no meaning or moral ethic against excess, so
underlying systems are required to define these influences. There is
always a danger of such influences becoming fanatical. This is always
wrong. Indeed, there could well be a ‘law of opposite effect’ which
states: the more fanatical a person or system, the greater the
chance of it achieving the opposite effect. Hence, essential to all
systems is the requirement of moderation and tolerance to other
systems. Any system should be seen as nothing more than a guide.
However, balanced debate requires such systems to be vocal.
Non-vocal debate – as seen in centre ground politics – does not
achieve this, resulting in extreme law. Vocal debate irons out all
issues and actually leads to moderate law. Counter to true democracy
is the political party. Parties infiltrate underlying systems into the
legislature where they do not belong. Further, parties offer careers to
members and inhibit members’ freedom of speech. These influences
take away their loyalty to electorate and conscience, and lead to a
system having overall power in society. Parties should be degraded by
the instigation of a system that encourages independent
parliamentarians. Such representatives would guarantee greater
debate and whittle away the power of all parties. Another important
factor is the ratio between representative, electorate and legislature.
If a parliamentarian represents too many people to allow adequate
access, he is divorced from the people and a single system will be his
primary concern. Similarly, if a legislature has too many
parliamentarians, it becomes nothing more than a rubber stamp for an
over bearing executive. As I see it, the very maximum of people per
representative is 100,000, and the maximum number of
parliamentarians per legislature is 600. If either of these numbers is
higher, the balance shifts from the people to the system, and
democracy moves towards totalitarianism.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science
to religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: There is a covenant
between govt and forces concerning
responsibility of the former to the safety of
the latter. In 2006 a Nimrod plane blew up in flight
over Afghanistan, killing 14 personnel. The inquiry has now
directly blamed the govt for penny pinching above safety. This govt
should hang its head in shame. It is unworthy of leadership.

WORLD NEWS: Tony Blair never said he wanted to be the first
President of Europe, but we all know. But now it seems
the other leaders may not want him … err, excuse
me?!!! A political President decided by leaders?
No democracy, then. What a totalitarian
mess Europe is. Indeed, I won’t
cooperate on anything in
Europe until it is about
cooperation, and
not integration.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
ReadWritePoem – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55 – 3 Word Wednesday

DEPARTED

He’s departed – I know, I put him there,
Lying before me; those eyes, they stare,
Everything within him has now gone,
How can I ever belong?
It departed a little earlier for me,
Any sense of morality,
Reason, too – it took a bow,
And I killed him – I’ve departed now

UNWILLFUL DEATH

Fiction: They thought it was complete intellectual pigritude. After all,
what was the point? The psychologist thought it utible, if for nothing
more than finding out if hypnosis CAN overcome a subject’s moral
responsibility for action. And even though his words were tristifical,
the small gathering looked on. The subject had been hypnotized and
stood in the street, a shotgun in his hands. The instruction had been
given: to kill the first person to walk up the street. Of course, the
person selected was wearing body armour, but unbeknown to the
subject. As if on cue, the target rounded the corner and began to
approach the subject. Those gathered could see the increasing
anxiety on the subject’s face as he fought his moral values. But then,
decision made, he fired … There was shocked silence for many
seconds, and then they rushed to observe the body on the floor. Who
had won the argument was irrelevant now. The subject had shot the
sign – which had duly dropped on the head of the target.

tristifical – causing to be gloomy
pigritude – laziness
utible – useful

THE OTHER PERSON

Two people sit, shards on the floor,
One a woman, the other a bore,
He’s going now, his purpose done,
She’s regretting what she did – so much fun,
Driving her on to depravity and vice,
Never even thinking twice,
Until he appeared – her conscience, alas,
He’s going – she smashed the looking glass

FLASH 55 – THE SONG MAN

Fiction: Memories impact upon behaviour. And often it is through
music. He remembered many songs of love, and whenever he found a
new woman he would sing them in his head. His ways never failed and
she was his. It is then that the song that makes him kill comes into
his head. It’s playing now.

WHEEL OF CRIME

So Many lives you’ve ended up here,
Karma seems to offer no fear,
No progression up the Wheel of Life,
Cannot obey, always strife,
So down you go from human to critter,
Arachnid, insect, plants that wither,
Always you end up criminally insane,
And now as a virus, so much pain

© Anthony North, November 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

MATRIMONY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

BLOGGER BARD

What does marriage mean? Well, to many it means living together until
irreconcilable differences decree otherwise. Indeed, many don’t bother
getting married at all, happy in serial monogamy with commitment only
to a partner until decided otherwise.

Now, far be it from me to
condemn any lifestyle.

To me, people are free to live how they want. But this always needs
to be done in full knowledge. And commitment to another person is
only part of what being married means. Marriage was also intended as
a commitment by a couple to their society in order to receive
privileged status. The modern idea of marriage is another example of
the throwing away of the social forces that used to keep us all
together.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: Ex-Army Chief Gen
Dannatt joins the Tories. Good. You
need senior military in govt to know how to
do best for forces.

BRIT NEWS: Royal Mail loses Amazon contract as strike
threat looms. If this trend continues, will strikes guarantee loss
of jobs?

BRIT NEWS: Cameron vows to pull down Labour’s big govt. Deserves
to be next Prime Minister for this alone. But then he
must deliver.

WORLD NEWS: Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize.
Why? What has he done? A great
symbol, yes, but is this all
you need to be to
win it?

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

Carry On Tuesday – Poetry Train
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem
Three Word Wednesday

THE CAUSE

It’s not my fault, there is a cause,
I may have robbed but take a pause,
Society hasn’t been good to me,
Things always go wrong, don’t you see?

No I don’t, you miserable cad,
When I think of the troubles I’ve had,
But they didn’t turn me towards crime,
There’s no cause for crossing the line

I KILLED IT

Fiction: It was Victor Hugo who wrote: ‘Life is a flower of which love is
the honey.’ Ha! Not in my world. It was so obviously fictitious. At first
I liked her – gave her so much happiness. But it was not long before I
used her, tormented her, became contemptuous of her – her ways,
her ideosyncracies, her very existence. And that’s why I did what I
did. That’s why I killed her. Yet it was soon so obvious I had been
wrong. The last four chapters without her were terrible. And they
didn’t even buy the film rights.

THE SPAMINATOR

Vowelised chelations, capricious progeny,
Vehement reprobates, irresistible infamy,
Cosmoramic investment, insolent language,
Exploded on my blog, exulting their baggage …
A literary thrasher I’ll use ’til they croak,
Freedom from spam I will invoke,
No more, then, will they steal my blog,
Eradicated, expunged, no more comments they’ll hog

IT’S INDECENT

It’s indecent, it is! They told me so,
Got to look, but they’re moving so slow,
Why do they frustrate people like this?
They don’t understand – we simply can’t miss …
At last I’m here, do you want to see?
Ohhh my! It was worth the fee,
In decent shape, I’m telling you,
Frustrated yet? Well join the queue

© Anthony North, October 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

SAD BOOKS

Booking Through Thursday & more prompts below
Try my Paranormal Flash now!

GURU TONY

What’s the saddest book I’ve read recently? Well, it won’t be a
personal disclosure book. I don’t read them. You see, very few people
go through life unscathed, and when so many write about the bad
things, we can all relate. The result is a victim culture, and this is
socially unhealthy for us all. No, the saddest book I’ve read recently
would undoubtedly be any one of the general world histories I have.
They are full of good intentioned ideas being turned into disastrous
movements. Rather like those disclosure books.

Eye On the World
Essays on everything from science to
religion, politics to crime

BRIT NEWS: So the rumours and
leaks gather pace. Massive hikes in taxes
and up to 30% cut in services. A national postal
strike looms with many others brewing. Are we about
to face another Winter of Discontent? Meanwhile, industry
mouthpiece the CBI say we’ll return to growth by end of year. So
it’ll all be over by Christmas. I remember that was said in 1914.

SOCIAL NEWS: A psychologist has blamed lack of parental
authority for the growing spoilt generation of today’s
youth. I agree – to a point. But alongside this
must come State intrusion into family life,
leaving young parents confused as to
just what there role is. Families
seem to be stuck in a
vicious circle here.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday
Friday Flash 55

FLASH 55 – THE FILMING

Fiction: He was in search of the perfect scene. The camera was
soon set up and rolling. The story progressed quickly, and as the
denouement approached he put his hands to her throat and
strangled her. Later, watching the film, he was dissatisfied –
again. The bodies were mounting up as he went talent
scouting once more.

COLOUR CRIME

Seeing red – violent crime,
Life to him ain’t worth a dime;
Seeing blue – vice is the thing,
Sex, debauchery, in a ring;
Seeing yellow – cowardly thief,
Show contempt; he’s way beneath;
Seeing black – cell door slammed,
Where they belong, we demand

RELUCTANT GROOM

Fiction: She was mariturient; he not so much. There were, of course,
reasons. He had tried to obstrigillate his fate, but once her father had
found out about the depth of their relationship he knew refusal would
result in an ossifragant outcome. So he married her. But he could not
help worrying about his other wife.

obstrigillate – oppose or resist
ossifragant – bone-breaking
mariturient – eager to marry

CHEESE
(Updated 25 Sep 09)

What a cheek, you’re a thief,
It’s no good smiling, showing your teeth,
You’re a disgrace to what you are,
Behave like this, you won’t go far,
Now listen, I’m a mouse, if you please,
You’re a cat, you eat me, not the cheese

© Anthony North, September 2009

Try my Pictures of Life, a novel

MORE CHANGES

Friday Flash 55 and 3 Word Wednesday
More prompts below

BLOGGER BARD

I knew it would happen – it always does. In the last couple of days
I’ve got so much into my Paranormal Flash series that I’ve finished it.
Representing the latest statement of where I’m at in my research, I
read it and thought: here comes another book.

And that’s what I have
to do right now.

I’m devoting a lot more time to further research, in-depth writing and
chasing publishers. That means I’m going to have to cut some of the
time I spend blogging. Don’t panic! I’m not going anywhere. I’ll still be
visiting all my friends and doing most of the prompts, but I’ll be
cutting back on essays and current affairs, and, from next week
doing just two bumper posts on Monday and Thursday. I could never
stop blogging, and this should leave me the time I want for my new
project. As for Paranormal Flash, I’m going to give it a page of its
own, complete with links to deeper essays on each aspect of the
narrative. I hope to complete this, and link to it in my posts, from
next week also. I repeat, I’m not giving up blogging – no way! I could
never do that. Hope to see you Monday.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

FAITH NEWS: More evidence
that we’re hard-wired to believe in
God. Researchers from Bristol University
say it offers a better chance of survival through
making us work in groups. I’ve often said prevalent non-
belief in a society can fragment that society, so this makes total
sense to me.

BRIT NEWS: A survey of teachers shows they’d rather teach
‘universal brotherhood’ than patriotism. There’s a new
age adage that to love others you must love
yourself. I think it works with a nation. If
you don’t find meaning in what you
are, you become nothing and
eventually treat all with
disdain. Those
teachers are
wrong.

READ WITH MUMMY

The Magazine Post with a gentle hint of horror

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings – 3 Word Thursday

THE FOG

It descends, restricting view,
Swirling outside and inside you,
People disjointed, partially there,
Shocks come so easily – beware!
How do you grasp reality from this putrid mess?
Start with your failings – admit it! Confess;
When the fog descends confusion reigns,
Your mind so easily wrapped in chains

WHO AM I?
(Quilly’s word meanings below)

Fiction: The nature spirit was acting destructively. There was no
quibbleism – he literally beat the bush to pulp. Why? Well, people had
ignored him too long and he was attention seeking – overflowing with
an obrumpent personality. Indeed, they couldn’t even get his name
right. Over the eons they had referred to him as a god, a demon, a
fairy, a vampire, a werewolf, ghost, discarnate entity and now they’d
even given him bug eyes and called him an alien! Such temeration!!
And he was not having it!!! It was as if HE didn’t know who he was
any more. And are they afraid of him nowadays? No. But as he
continued beating the bush, swirling around the air, deforesting the
forests and generally having a climactic time, he knew they’d soon
need him once more. THEN he’d teach them for ignoring his ways.

quibbleism – beating around the bush
obrumpent – breaking
temeration – temerity

FLASH 55 – POISON

Fiction: He was convinced his wife was
poisoning him. She didn’t even seem to
hide the fact. Why, he didn’t know. Maybe
an affair. But he decided not to eat at
home. Rather, he frequented the café up
the road. In the kitchen, chef prepared his
special meals. He was better at it than
his lover.

HANKY

I’m a hanky; I’m feeling sad,
Too many tissues can be bad,
To a throw away society we drift a lot,
Is it funny? It snot!
Don’t be thick – think of my woes,
Don’t reject me ‘cos I get up your nose

HUNGRY
(Updated 18 Sep)

Hungry for people all the time,
Chop them up, make them slime,
Crawling in an insipid pit,
Watching, always – scored a hit,
Doesn’t matter whether man or dame,
It can get you – fame

© Anthony North, September 2009

HYPOCRISY

ABC Wednesday & more prompts below
Have you had a go?

BLOGGER BARD

I used to think that one of the greatest wrongs was to be a hypocrite.
In most cases I still think this is true, but experience has taught me
that life is so varied that sometimes hypocrisy is inevitable. For
instance, I believe it is wrong to kill, but I would hope that if no
alternative existed, I would do so to protect a loved one.

As a teenager I rebelled
quite a lot.

I now realize this is essential – it is part of growing your own
character for adulthood. But as a parent I do all in my power to stop
rebellion. Parents do. Yet on one level this is hypocrisy, but it is the
way it should be. Hence, it is impossible to not be a hypocrite at
times. So how do we deal with it being wrong, but also, at times,
right? I suppose we should realize that life must always be a balance,
and balance is best achieved through moderation in all things. In this
way, the hypocrite in us all is reduced.

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

CRIME NEWS: Official figures
show British police detected just
47% of reported violent crimes in the
year to March 2009, leaving half a million
unsolved. Add the vast majority of crimes that
go unreported and this is a deplorable outcome. They
need to look at themselves and realise their organisation is
too big and they’ve become divorced from society. Modern policing
is becoming part of the problem.

GREEN NEWS: The 10:10 Campaign is gathering steam in the UK,
asking people to sign up to 10% cuts in carbon emissions by
2010. Of course, it will fail. True green will not come until
a new breed of entrepreneur pairs with a new breed of
engineer to begin new smaller firms to produce the
new green tech that Big Biz and Govt won’t
touch. Big is bad. Think small.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

Carry On Tuesday
Heads or Tails – ReadWritePoem

FATAL DECISION

He wasn’t bad, just confused,
A young life so often abused,
Turned to crime, inevitable, deemed,
It certainly fuelled his self esteem,
Career grew from theft to killing,
On wanted lists he got top billing,
Cornered, he couldn’t get out through stealth,
So he took the decision – shot himself

SHOULDN’T SAY

Fiction: ‘Don’t speak, words will only steal the moment.’ I should
have heeded those words. After all, I’m a fanatic where security is
concerned. I told him so in the bar. He was an amiable chap – got
me speaking on the subject of identity fraud – and surely there was
nothing wrong with telling him. It wasn’t as if I gave away any
secrets. I’d never do that. It was as I returned home that my wife
pointed out how remiss I’d been, forgetting my account details and
phoning her. Yes, I should have kept my mouth shut. The fiend had
stolen my voice.

THOUGHTS ON ME

Unconscious mind like branching tree,
Sun illuminating, enlightens me;
Conscious mind, bricked in thought,
Jailed and limited, amounts to nought;
Let memories stream up without duress,
Of courtship, of my kids, of great success;
But what of thoughts of failures, of pain?
Without their lessons, we live in vain

© Anthony North, September 2009

HITCHCOCK & CO

Booking Through Thursday
More prompts below

BLOGGER BARD

The beauty of buying books en masse in bargain offers is that you
build up a library so big you don’t really know what’s there. So when
you have a search for what you’ve got, you can pull out some gems.

One such recent gem was a
novel by Robert Bloch.

I don’t know how many know who he is in America, but in the UK,
not many have heard of him. Yet that novel was Psycho, perhaps
the most famous horror thriller ever; from, of course, the best
director. But sadly, the original writers are lost behind his fame.
So here’s three cheers for a few more Hitchcock victims: Cornell
Woolrich (Rear Window), Winston Graham (Marnie) and Daphne Du
Maurier (The Birds).

Eye On the World
The ‘Y’ Files

HEALTH NEWS: It seems healthy
eating can be an illness. Thirty-something
middle class infatuation is leading to health problems.
Come on, they’re intelligent. Why is it so difficult? The only way to
eat healthily is a BALANCED diet!

BRIT NEWS: Students starting university this year can expect
a £23,000 debt when they leave. This is the result of
turning education into a business, taking too many
students they can’t afford, and redesignating
a degree as a personal need rather than a
societal necessity.

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

One Single Impression
Sunday Scribblings

TO ALLOW

Maybe we allowed you to get away with too much,
A kid too sallow, fallowed as such,
Hallowed, you were, and you wallowed in all,
Growing up callow – you were bound for a fall,
Lit the wick in the tallow – as you burned them you sang,
And now from the gallows, we watch you hang

THE ALLOWANCE

Fiction: I always knew he’d amount to nothing – which did, of course,
mean the amount would rise for me. I tried to bring him up right, but
with his mother gone, and me busy all the time … well, it’s a typical
story. Falling in with that gang didn’t help – taught him how to get
what he wanted the easy way. Maybe when he first went to prison I
should have left him there – teach him a lesson. But money talks and
I got him out. And that’s when the future pattern settled in – what
he’d learnt in there – from the gangsters. So I pay him the allowance
– and he allows me to live.

ADULTHOOD

Being adult can be such a boring affair,
Always having to be aware,
Of manners and standards and what’s right and wrong,
No catapults or pea shooters or stink bombs that pong,
But I’ve got a theory about adulthood true,
At times you’ve got to remember the child in you

© Anthony North, August 2009

CONCENTRATION

Including ABC Wednesday, Carry On Tuesday and Heads or Tails.
Have you had a go yet?

GURU TONY

I’m always in search of things that make us human. One candidate is
concentration. This ability is essential to technology, allowing us to
clear our minds to concentrate on what we’re doing. Arguably, before
we were human, we took directions from instinct, like other animals.
To break out of instinct and concentrate, we would need somewhere
for non-required thoughts to go. Could this have been the birth of the
unconscious – a repository for things we don’t need to think about?
Without it, we’d hardly be human, would we?

Eye On the World
Writers’ Tips
The ‘Y’ Files

TECH NEWS: Talking on phone
declining in UK as we opt for text or
Tweet. Well, I guess this is ‘cos we can
now control the talking back.

BRIT NEWS: Study shows 1 in 3 men under 40 still living
with parents. In this cut and thrust world the cut and thrust
only goes so far, it seems.

BRIT NEWS: MPs say plans for bank reforms are just cosmetic.
Well, well, what a surprise. Did we really expect anything
different?

TECH NEWS: Brit govt guidelines for using Twitter
are 259 Tweets long. Wonder how many
Twits it needed to write that?

THE CRIME POST

It would be criminal not to read it

True Crime – Crime Fiction

SIZE MATTERS?

As kids we resolve it without delay,
‘My Dad’s bigger than your Dad,’ we say,
As teenagers we often begin to stray,
‘My gang’s bigger than your gang,’ we say,
As adults, Ego we tend to display,
‘My way’s bigger than your way,’ we say,
And resolve it in such a pathetic way,
‘My tank’s bigger than your tank’ – we lay

OUTCOME DENIED

Fiction: The story – well, the moral at least – is in the journey. A good
job really, ‘cos I cannot reach the destination. She was dead, you see
– the love of my life, taken from me. Murdered. And the night I found
her body, I vowed I would laugh over her killer’s grave. Of course, I
had a good idea who had killed her – or at least had ordered her
death. She’d worked for him in the past and he, being a gangster, had
reason to silence her now. Well, I killed, too. I was, of course, soon
caught by the police. After all, I’m not a pro at this. And I was
incarcerated in the local high security prison. I felt sorry for the guy,
really. After all, he WAS innocent. But how else was I to get to a
gangster on remand awaiting trial? Well, I’m a double killer now, and
my journey down the years begins, as I await the day when I can
laugh over his grave.

TONY’S POETRY CHAIN

IT’S ELECTRIC

Electric is an infernal thing,
Before it we all used to sing,
At night surrounded by communal glee,
Straining eyes ‘cos we couldn’t see,
The mystery of the dark, dark night,
Now shut off by electric light

NEWS?

Read the paper; where’s the news?
Plenty there to entertain and amuse,
But where’s the news within the treats?
Plenty on celebrities between the sheets;
Where’s the news? Plenty of blues,
Raising our emotion; get us confused;
But where’s the news, I do entreat,
I’ve looked and looked and faced defeat

© Anthony North, August 2009

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