Raven's Challenge 44

Today's Link
Merle's Third Try

Saying for the Day
See everything; overlook a great deal; correct a little.
~Pope John XXIII

Picture of the day
From the archives

It is Saturday and time to play with words supplied by Raven's Wordzzle

This Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: When pigs have wings, Moonlight, Mystery, Tower of Babel, Butterflies, Bread and butter, Beef barley soup, Charley horse, Novelty, Cold shoulder

Mini Challenge: Software, Lottery, Newspaper, Mailman, Ringo Starr’s drum

This week's vanity wordzzle uses the words: monastery, cyclone, corncob, tenacious, rat, be-bop, Marxist, tingle, fraction

The On Going Adventures of Agent 012
The Mega Challenge

Poor Agent 012 was taken to a little room in the back of the casino where it became obvious these were not part of Mute’s gang but Casino personal.
“ That wheel is our bread and butter and we want to know what you did to it”, the meanest looking guy said, slapping Agent 012 in the face.
“ I didn’t do anything” Agent 012 gasped. “ I just made a small bet”.
“ And won a million dollars”, the big guy said and slapped him again.
“Wow! I won a million dollars. All I ever won before was $2.00 in the lottery, must have been my lucky night.”
“ Luck had nothing to do with it. The wheel never hits the same number three times in a row”
“ It could you know, The little ball just landed there.”
“ Ya, it could when pigs have wings and fly with butterflies. So what did you do to fix the wheel? Some kind of software?” and he slapped him again.“ Look friend the take on the wheels is down in every casino from the Tower Of Babel to the Moonlight. We have suspected somebody was tampering but this is the first time you got greedy and took a lot instead of a little.”
The light came on in Agent 012’s head. It was like suddenly seeing something in a newspaper you had never seen before but should have. It was no longer a mystery what Mute was doing in the casino. He was controlling the wheel so his henchmen could take out small almost unnoticeable amounts of money. He was not the mailman bringing communications. He was the moneyman.
The novelty of the entire scheme set 012’s mind spinning. Mute had seen him and set him up. Now he had to convince these casino thugs it wasn’t him.
But just at that moment he got a terrible charley horse in his right leg causing him to fall to the floor and writhe in pain. “I need beef barley soup “ he murmured. He always ate beef barley soup to end his charley horses.
The two thugs gave him the cold shoulder and let him thrash around on the floor in pain.
“ Look buddy”, the big guy said, “ If you think your in pain now if you don’t tell us what we want to know we are going to beat you like Ringo Starr’s drum.”
This was definetly not his day

Fifteen Words in one Sentance

The bread and butter novelty software of the Tower of Babel Software Company had always been the “When Pigs have Wings” mystery program but now Charlie Horse and Butterflies McGoon had written “Ringo’s Stars’s Drum in the Moonlight“ and “The Mailman in the Beef Barley Soup” which according to the trade newspaper “ Software Lottery” would surpass everything that had gone before and yet the company was giving them a cold shoulder.

Ten Word Challenge-When Pigs Fly

Charley Horse was uneasy about his new position as head of the Tower of Babel Institute. He knew that the Institute had been funded by the mystery man Jacob Moonlight who was rumored to be the richest man in the world. He knew Jacob would be happy only when pigs have wings. He knew the task of Institute was to give pigs wings. But he didn’t have the slightest idea of when this would be accomplished.
Not that they hadn’t made progress because they had. As he had his quick lunch of bread and butter with beef barley soup he poured over the research reports. He knew that the best DNA for the wings came not from birds but butterflies. The novelty of that fact had worn off soon after he came to the Tower. The problem was the wings the pigs were growing were not strong enough to support them in flight. They were pretty though. But he didn’t feel this was what Jacob wanted.
Now he held in his hand the latest memo from the master. Jacob felt they were giving him a cold shoulder and was threatening to cut off funding.
Well a pig with bad wings was better than a pig with no wings so he called Jacob and invited him to come and see the progress they had made.
It would go well as long as he didn’t expect it to fly.
That had to be the time the pig started to spin a cocoon.

The Vanity Wordzzle

Thomas had been many things in life before coming to the monastery.
He had been part of that fraction of the Marxist party which had written Marxist be-bop trying to reach a younger element than the old fogies that made up the party. Those old fogies then kicked him out of the party and had the nerve to call him a rat.
So he got a camera and chased cyclones. Just seeing one of those things made his skin tingle and he was tenacious in his efforts to photograph them. But he soon tired of that.
After that it was corncob art that he displayed at the state fair. He even won some prizes.
But now he had found God. Just thinking about it made him tingle all over. He was ready to become a monk. He wanted to serve God.
He wondered if they would let him write a be-bop service for Matins.

News from Pigeon Falls

The little town in my basement where the trains still run, dragons fly, and life is back to normal.
Poor Herman hadn’t been this upset since he lost his bid on e-Bay for Ringo Star’s drum. His entire life had been one of losing. He only got losing tickets on the state lottery even though he had purchased that software on line that guaranteed he would win. Reading the Iron River Reporter, the local weakly newspaper, he saw that his Lions had lost again. The mailman brought him a notice that the value of his retirement funds was now $6000 less than a month ago Loss, loss, loss, one loss after another. . And now he was supposed to be the one to save the town. They had to be kidding. He was a loser, plain and simple. Losers didn’t save towns. They just didn’t.
But Tommy UK seemed so certain that he was the one. That as the town seer he was the only one that could fulfill the driblet. He was no longer sure he wanted to be the town seer. He just wanted to be left alone. He was sorry he ever had a vision and was beginning to think this whole shadow thing was his fault.
But then he thought all he had to do was go to his mother’s and do a little kids puzzle. That was it. Irt wasn’t asking very much so why was he so afraid. Why didn’t he just go and do it and they would know it wasn’t the answer. If it was he would be a hero. The Great Seer that saved Pigeon Falls. But deep inside his mind a little voice said. You can’t do the puzzle Herman. You never could do the puzzle Herman. Throw the puzzle and run.
What will Herman do ? Will he stand up and be the Great Seer.? Will he give in to the voice of his inner child? Will Pigeon Falls be saved?

Wrap Up

It started off as a good day. I blogged. I called my son Peter and we talked Christmas gifts. I ordered a gift for Peter. Then my wife and daughter decided we should go shopping. I , of course, went along. The snow was falling and I was nervous. But we drove to Oshkosh and a toy store going out of business. Now because only really strange people go out on a day like this there was no crowd. The place was not picked over. We got bargains. People were even friendly. Then we went to a store where Pennie and Betty shopped for clothes. I shot ahead of them on my electric scooter and then couldn't get the door open. I was really cold. A nice man saw my plight from half way up the block and ran to open the door for me. Who says there aren't nice people Christmas shopping. From there we went to Hobby Lobby and I got plaster cloth for the layout and some candy you can only get there and only at this season. Life is good. But the storm got worse and we had to drive home. Pennie drove slowly and we made it back. We stopped at Applebee's to eat. They don't shovel well there and my cart almost didn't make it in. Coming home I scanned over a hundred pictures for Pennie and then visited blogs. Now I need a breathing treatment.
GBYA

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