Butterflies have a brief life. They spend
months developing in their caterpillar form. One day they awake as a fully-fledged
small tortoiseshell butterfly with enough time to manufacture a few eggs and
that’s that. Something like our prompts perhaps. We only have a day to
construct our meaningful words, but the length of the days dwindles when the
daily prompt does not appear at the usual time. I think I will have to make a
telephone call.
No-one is picking up. The phone is ringing and ringing. Is no-one at home?
“Wordy WordPress guy talking, can I help you?”
“Hello Wordy, Angloswiss here. At last you have answered the phone. I was worried that something had happened.”
“I was having a sleep Mrs. Angloswiss. It is my day off today and so I was making the most of it. Do you have a problem with the brevity/verbosity spectrum?”
“Oh come on Wordy, of course I have a problem with the brevity/verbosity spectrum. I always have enough to say, but have problems with keeping it short and sweet. At least today this problem has disappeared.”
“That’s great Mrs Angloswiss. I am always glad to be of help.”
“No Wordy, you don’t get it. I have no problem today because I have no Daily Prompt. Your stand-in, the person that is supposed to be doing your work on your day off, has forgotten to pull the switch and I am locked out, together with about 100 other daily prompt colleagues. We are blocked, forced to sit at the computer and watch a blank screen. Wordy, pull yourself together, take off your WordPress pyjama and put on the t-shirt. Move and go to headquarters.”
“But it is my day off Mrs. Angloswiss. If I do that I will be breaking union rules and my boss will not be pleased. There might even be a strike.”
“Wordy this is an emergency. How can I apply brevity to my verbosity when I don’t even have a spectrum?”
“Mrs. Angloswiss you seem to have a problem. I will do my best. Oh no!”
“What’s wrong Wordy?”
“I was hurrying to get dressed and cleaning my teeth and now I have toothpaste stains on my nice new clean freshly ironed t-shirt. That will give minus points at headquarters.”
“Wordy, if you do not do the necessary with the daily prompt it will give more than minus points at my place. There will be no freshly baked chocolate cake waiting for you, just bread and water.”
“I am on my way Mrs. Angloswiss, just have to comb my hair.”
“You have hair? Don’t bother Wordy, you always wear a WordPress baseball cap in any case. I have never seen your hair.”
“Of course I have hair, but at WordPress they told me to do the uniform cut – Bruce Willis style. This saves time and I can have a shave as well.”
“Wordy I give you five minutes to arrive shaved or not shaved. Three day beards are quite sexy. Ask the nice Mr. Hubermann to beam you up to headquarters. It is now 4 p.m. Swiss time. This is an emergency.”
He hung up and is probably on his way. In the meanwhile my brevity/verbosity spectrum has been forced to wait, and what is it all about anyway? I don’t do refurbs on my blogs, or rewrites and shortening them does not come into the question. It is not my style. I prefer to go round three or four corners before I actually say what I want to say.
Wait a minute Blaise Pascal lived from 1623-1662 and was a mathematician. Did he ever write a blog?
No-one is picking up. The phone is ringing and ringing. Is no-one at home?
“Wordy WordPress guy talking, can I help you?”
“Hello Wordy, Angloswiss here. At last you have answered the phone. I was worried that something had happened.”
“I was having a sleep Mrs. Angloswiss. It is my day off today and so I was making the most of it. Do you have a problem with the brevity/verbosity spectrum?”
“Oh come on Wordy, of course I have a problem with the brevity/verbosity spectrum. I always have enough to say, but have problems with keeping it short and sweet. At least today this problem has disappeared.”
“That’s great Mrs Angloswiss. I am always glad to be of help.”
“No Wordy, you don’t get it. I have no problem today because I have no Daily Prompt. Your stand-in, the person that is supposed to be doing your work on your day off, has forgotten to pull the switch and I am locked out, together with about 100 other daily prompt colleagues. We are blocked, forced to sit at the computer and watch a blank screen. Wordy, pull yourself together, take off your WordPress pyjama and put on the t-shirt. Move and go to headquarters.”
“But it is my day off Mrs. Angloswiss. If I do that I will be breaking union rules and my boss will not be pleased. There might even be a strike.”
“Wordy this is an emergency. How can I apply brevity to my verbosity when I don’t even have a spectrum?”
“Mrs. Angloswiss you seem to have a problem. I will do my best. Oh no!”
“What’s wrong Wordy?”
“I was hurrying to get dressed and cleaning my teeth and now I have toothpaste stains on my nice new clean freshly ironed t-shirt. That will give minus points at headquarters.”
“Wordy, if you do not do the necessary with the daily prompt it will give more than minus points at my place. There will be no freshly baked chocolate cake waiting for you, just bread and water.”
“I am on my way Mrs. Angloswiss, just have to comb my hair.”
“You have hair? Don’t bother Wordy, you always wear a WordPress baseball cap in any case. I have never seen your hair.”
“Of course I have hair, but at WordPress they told me to do the uniform cut – Bruce Willis style. This saves time and I can have a shave as well.”
“Wordy I give you five minutes to arrive shaved or not shaved. Three day beards are quite sexy. Ask the nice Mr. Hubermann to beam you up to headquarters. It is now 4 p.m. Swiss time. This is an emergency.”
He hung up and is probably on his way. In the meanwhile my brevity/verbosity spectrum has been forced to wait, and what is it all about anyway? I don’t do refurbs on my blogs, or rewrites and shortening them does not come into the question. It is not my style. I prefer to go round three or four corners before I actually say what I want to say.
Wait a minute Blaise Pascal lived from 1623-1662 and was a mathematician. Did he ever write a blog?
No comments:
Post a Comment