PROMPT: Lottery

Daily writing prompt
What would you do if you won the lottery?

Be fearful. Since I don’t play the usual lottery, the only kind I could win is the kind that they use to draft people for fighting alien invaders.

PROMPT: Books

Daily writing prompt
What books do you want to read?

I’ve always gotten bogged down in Joyce’s Ulysses. There are some books you need to be in the right headspace to attack.

I should probably read the Bible and the Koran, speaking of literature I’ve never had the mental energy to take up.

PROMPT: Family Traditions

Daily writing prompt
Write about a few of your favorite family traditions.

1.) The Feast of St. Nicholas of Myra: It’s like Secret Santa, but each family member draws a name from a hat, and they then abscond with a prized position of the person whose name they drew and pawn it at a local pawn shop. They then hide the receipt in the house. Family members each have 15 minutes to find the receipt. If they find it, they get their shit back. If they do not, the “Secret Santa” gets to keep the cash.

2.) Hide the weasel: You hide a hungry weasel in someone’s room without telling them, and they have to find it before they get a toe bit off.

3.) Candle lighting roulette: candles are set in a revolving candelabra, which is given a spin. Family members take turns stepping forward to light the candle that is closest to them. One candle hides an M-80 firecracker which explodes to spatter the unlucky family member with hot wax.

PROMPT: Leisure Time

Daily writing prompt
What do you enjoy doing most in your leisure time?

Nothing that involves wearing a leisure suit, or a suit of any kind. Except, perhaps, a swimsuit or my birthday suit, or playing a suit in a game of cards… What were we talking about?

PROMPT: Close to Home

Daily writing prompt
Name an attraction or town close to home that you still haven’t got around to visiting.

Exhibition: Bigfoot! (a.k.a. The Sasquatch Museum.) It’s not very close, but it is by far the closest of this nation’s many Bigfoot and Sasquatch related collections.

PROMPT: For Fun

Daily writing prompt
List five things you do for fun.

1.) When getting on an elevator with strangers, I like to look at the little inspection placard with consternation and say, “Oh no… oh no, oh no!” When someone asks what’s the problem, I point to the inspector’s name and say, [for example] “John Smith is a hack. He wouldn’t know a frayed cable from a firehose. WE’RE DOOMED!”

2.) Sometimes I’ll stare at the grates on a city sidewalk. When someone asks whether I lost my keys, I’ll say, “No I saw a Leprechaun run down there with a pot of gold. I’m waiting for it to come back out so that I can murder and rob it.”

3.) Alternatively, I stare up at the sky, and when someone stops to see what I’m looking at, I say, “It’s a lovely day to be hurtling through space at two million kilometers per hour, isn’t it?”

5.) I like to skip the number four, and when someone asks why I say because it’s bad luck in China and Japan because the number four is pronounced the same as death. When the person points out that I’m not in China or Japan, I confidently bark, “That’s your opinion!” and rapidly walk off as their consternation and / or infuriation grows.

PROMPT: Understand One Thing

Daily writing prompt
If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

How Buddhists reconcile the Doctrine of Anatta (the belief that there is no permanent self) with a belief in reincarnation.

PROMPT: First Name

Daily writing prompt
Write about your first name: its meaning, significance, etymology, etc.

I think it means “naked bear,” which is quite apropos because (while – for a human being – I’m quite hairy) as a bear I would definitely need Hair Club for Bears. (Adopted into English over time from the German Bär + nackt.)

PROMPT: Dream Job

Daily writing prompt
What’s your dream job?

I’m afraid I’d be damn near unemployable in the world of dreams. If I’m not running from something or falling down, my teeth are falling out. (I certainly couldn’t get anyone to provide decent dental coverage in dream world, and I’d be suspected of Meth addiction.) Unlike the real world, in which I’m hyper-punctual, in dreams I’m always late and I often go out of doors to find myself on the other side of the world. Besides, in dreams I’m usually not lucid more than once a month, at best.

PROMPT: Leader

Daily writing prompt
What makes a good leader?

If people follow you of their own free volition, you are a good leader. You could also be horrible cult guru or self-serving dictator, but people have multiple facets.