What We’d Do with a Day at Home, in 6 Words

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I was thisclose.

I had it all mapped out for today. Ferris Bueller-esque. Minus the crumpled sports car and parade-float karaoke. Today, Nov. 30, is Stay Home Because You’re Well Day. Disc golf and a library trip would’ve filled mine. So, too, frozen pizza and Elizabeth Banks.

Elizabeth Banks movies, anyway.

Then I got the email notification, at 8:10 p.m.: A 10:30 a.m. work meeting. Required. Holy hell. Oh well. I can still get in a round of disc golf,  toss a Totino’s pizza in the oven, and Liz will wait for me. Right?

Tooting Our Own Horns, in 6 Words

You don’t have to be a star, baby, to be in my show. (Snowtrooper jubilation at Mill Mountain Park, Roanoke, Va.

Sometimes, you just have to represent.

Yourself, that is. None of this ‘aw shucks’ stuff. No, “no one reads my blog. I just mess around with words” business. It’s not usual fare for a blogger to boast (or is it?), so this month’s challenge proved … challenging to most.

I compile a post called 6 Words. Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he said any story can be told in six words. I ask bloggers, friends, strangers, and a few strange blogger friends to respond to a prompt every month.

October is National Self-Promotion Month. In six words, tell us something good about your blog. 

🧳 Travel Light. Wear Simple Clothes. Just Watch.

“Travel the world and the seven seas/ Everybody’s looking for something.” – Annie Lennox

Eloquent people seem to travel lots. Or maybe travel breeds eloquence. What do you think?

I don’t travel much. Unless you count drives to Mooresville or the trips I’ll take to the mountains for Elise’s games. There’s my annual work trip to someplace tropical every winter. When you travel, you pick up stories, whether it’s in Madrid or Marshville.

My friend Brittany tells stories of travel abroad and also to the junkyard in the blog Girl Interrupted, and its superb reading. The clarity of the scenes she sets? Downright Hemmingwayesque in its delivery.

My friend Britta writes It’s a Britta Bottle. She undertook a life shift to teach in Thailand. Her stories began when she made the choice and influence her writing today. Her adventures inspired this post.

What We’d Say to the World, in 6 Words

Stormtrooper takes a ride on Triceratops at the Smithsonian

I know, I know.

I heard about Pippa. Another one bites the dust. It’s why I keep extras in the Crush Bin. You never know when one’ll haul off and get engaged on you. Everyone from Summer Sanders to Paula Creamer to Cher Lloyd to Lizzy O’Leary to Elizabeth Davis to … well, you see what I’m dealing with.

I mentioned Pippa – she of royalty and extraordinary physical gifts – in my email to y’all about this month’s six words prompt.

Every month, I compile a post called 6 words. Ernest Hemingway inspired it. He claimed any story can be told in six words. No more, no less. I turn to bloggers, friends, strangers, and a few strange blogger friends with a prompt, to respond to in six words.

Guest post: Diana Tierney of Creating Herstory, on Women We Wish Could Have Blogged

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Somewhere between A and Z, I found Diana Tierney.

In the random road map of discovering new blogs through the A to Z Challenge, I clicked on Diana’s blog, Creating Herstory. Diana discusses and celebrates women who make history. As father to three who might someday, I have an interest.

With a book in the works, Diana writes a blog about women you don’t know and a few you do. Diana reviews books and also connects to any of us who write with a section called My Writing Journal.

Diana’s here today to highlight five women in history she wish had blogs. Can you imagine? I also picked the lead art today of Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia. For me, she was the first kick-ass diva I’d encountered. And then there’s Rey (below).

Our Unsafe Histories, in 6 Words

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We operate on CD time around here.

You know – Coach Daddy time. A to Z Challenge? Few days behind. Photo a Day Challenge? Hell, June’s almost over, and it feels like I have a week of photos to take. So it stands to reason we’d recognize National Safety Month – June – On June 29.

Every month, I compile a post called 6 Words. Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he said any story can be told in six words. I ask bloggers, friends, strangers, and a few strange blogger friends to respond to a prompt.

June is National Safety Month. Tell us about something you did decidedly unsafe – in six words. It could be from any time in your life. Think “Rode Big Wheel off garage roof,” or “Wore Georgia gear in Florida section.”

Naming Our Next Creative Endeavors, in 6 Words

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I have an unfinished book. Or two.

Raise your hand if you can say the same. I’m not talking that Danielle Steele paperback collecting dust on your nightstand. I’m talking, fingers to the keyboard, creative endeavor, this’ll be so cool writing that gets left behind like the Dallas Cowboys in the playoffs.

One of mine is a book about the NFL in the 1970s.

Every month, I compile a post called 6 Words. Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he said any story can be told in six words. I ask bloggers, friends, strangers, and a few strange blogger friends to respond to a prompt.

#AtoZChallenge: U is for Unanswered Questions for Go Ask Daddy

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Each draft pick in pro sports has such an impact on the franchise that picks the player, the player, of course, and also the players picked before and after.

Take the 1988 NFL Draft, for instance. The Indianapolis Colts selected Tennessee quarterback Peyton Manning. He gave the franchise quick cred, won a Super Bowl, and helped the Denver Broncos to a title at the end of his career. They couldn’t make their mind up until … draft day.

The other choice? Washington State quarterback Ryan Leaf, who went No. 2 to the San Diego Chargers.

They were considered an even match, Manning and Leaf, before the draft. Manning went on to win 186 games, pass for 71,940 yards, and garnered 14 pro-bowl selections. Leaf? He started 21 games, won four, passed for 3,666 yards (yikes) and never made a pro bowl.

What We Control, in Six Words

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One of my life lessons – certainly the biggest of my life lessons – is to learn that I have control over way more than I suspect in life.

This doesn’t mean I’ve perfected it. I’ve sharpened and polished my sense of place, and acknowledged there’s still plenty to do. There are plenty of paths I’ve not yet discovered. But lest I get too new-age Zenny on my crew …

Every month, I compile a post called “6 Words.” Ernest Hemingway inspired it when he said any story can be told in a six-word sentence. I ask bloggers, friends, strangers, and a few strange blogger friends to respond to a prompt.

March 30 is I Am in Control Day. Clearly, most of us are not. Tell us a lie about something you’re in control of right now. Think, “I don’t NEED Girl Scout cookies” or “No calendar: It’s all up here.”

Behold, That Gem from American Blogging Ancestry: The Liebster Award

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Today, I’m going old-school.

No, not a mullet or acid-washed jeans. Today, in place of a guest post, I’ll tackle something most of you blogging types will remember from the early days: The Liebster Award.

It’s a little known fact that the Liebster originated in 1901, the brainchild of one American philosopher Anna Brackett, inspired by a lost text from the Book of Matthew, recently found buried in a time capsule found in Haverhill, N.H., during the Chowder Festival.

I think.