Friday, October 16, 2020

Teeth of a Shark: Use Your Words

Use Your Words, a multiblogger writing challenge | developed and run by www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics


Today’s post is a monthly writing challenge. If you’re new here, this is how it works: participating bloggers picked 4 – 6 words or short phrases for someone else to craft into a post. All words must be used at least once. All of the posts will be unique as each writer has received their own set of words. That’s the challenge, here’s a fun twist; no one who’s participating knows who got their words and in what direction the recipient will take them. Until now.




At the end of this post you’ll find links to the other blogs featuring this challenge. Check them all out, see what words they got and how they used them.
I'm using: bowl ~ polecat ~ mixed vegetables ~ dune ~ frost ~ weeds
They were submitted by Jenniy of Climaxed.
                      

Sometimes the words I'm assigned just speak to me, send me in a direction in which I feel almost compelled to go. Other times . . . not so much. This was a not so much group of words. Nothing wrong with that, it's just more of a challenge. What I had a hard time with was making the words gel together. Mixed vegetables and bowl, yup, easy peasy, but how to add polecat to that? No idea. Even dune, frost and weeds I could make work, but with mixed vegetables?
 
So I was going to have to think outside the box, not a real stretch as far as how my brain works. Or, I'd have to divulge something a bit . . . ahem . . . abnormal. Again, not a real stretch as far as how my brain works. 
 
So let me ask you this, have you ever thought of what it might be like to have the arsenal of another creature at your disposal?
 
Not benign, like "float like a butterfly," more aggressive, like "sting like a bee." 
 
Now I'm gonna have to admit here that I had to do a little research into the polecat. I'd heard the saying "angry as a polecat," but never really knew what it meant. Turns out they're similar to skunks, they eject a foul liquid when they feel threatened. I can work with that. So, for instance, when the boys would whine and complain when I'd steamed mixed vegetables for dinner, saying they smelled disgusting (especially when cauliflower was involved), I could say "you think that smells disgusting? How about this (insert noxious odor here)? 

Of course, given how their rooms sometimes smelled, I'm not sure they weren't immune to noxious odors. {{sigh}}.

Or how about when Hubs would steal candy from the Halloween bowl (yeah, I saw you) or the kids would sneak snacks for breakfast? Ah, to be a giant spider jumping out. Spiders don't even have to do anything really, just be their silent creepy selves. Stealth mode, quite the fear evoking superpower they have there.

Apple Pumpkin S’more Bars, favorite fall flavors mixed with marshmallows, baked onto a shortbread crust. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #Halloween

Apple Pumpkin S'more Bars
Apple Pumpkin S’more Bars, favorite fall flavors mixed with marshmallows, baked onto a shortbread crust. | Recipe developed by www.BakingInATornado.com | #recipe #Halloween
 
 
How many prickly situations do you think you might avoid if everyone knew you had the quills of a porcupine? 
 
Or how often do you think you'd hear "bite me" if you had the teeth of a shark? Bite you? I'll bite you. Hiding up there on the dunes? No problem, I'll be living in this ocean for a good long time and I have quite the memory, as well as a damn good appetite. (Btw, I googled it, some species of sharks can remember for up to a year, so hope you're going swimming sometime soon).
 
But most of all, you know what really frosts my ass cookies? All of those snake in the grass politicians, promising one thing and doing the opposite. How I would love to slither out of the weeds, eyes locked on them, fangs out and tail rattling. Tell me that wouldn't be eminently gratifying.
 
So have you? Ever thought of what it might be like to have the arsenal of another creature at your disposal?
 
Yeah, me neither. 
 

Here are links to all the other Use Your Words posts:

Wandering Web Designer
On the Border 


Baking In A Tornado signature | www.BakingInATornado.com | #MyGraphics






Apple Pumpkin S'more Bars
                                               ©www.BakingInATornado.com

Ingredients:
  7TBSP canola oil
3 TBSP Apple Bourbon or apple juice
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1 1/4 cups flour
1 apple, cored, peeled and chopped
3/4 cup pepitas
1/2 cup toffee baking bits
1 bag (8 oz) Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows (can use regular marshmallows and add 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice to the apple mixture)

Directions:
*Grease an 8 X 11 baking pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
*Whisk together the oil, vodka or apple juice and pumpkin pie spice, then mix in the powdered sugar and flour to form a dough. Press into the bottom of the prepared pan.
*Cut the marshmallows into quarters.
*Mix together the chopped apple, pepitas, toffee bits, and marshmallow quarters. Spread evenly onto the crust in the pan.
*Bake for 35 minutes. Gently run a knife around the edges and cool completely. Slice with a wet or greased knife to serve.

20 comments:

  1. When I was young, I was big into superhero comics, and got together with a friend to create our own. She was talented in art so she drew and I wrote the action and dialogue. If I had drawn a comic, it would have been populated with stick figures. Even now. (Moving on...) My superheroine was Cold Girl, who could make anything cold, or freeze anything. (Note to Disney, this was over 50 years before Frozen!) When I think about it, no, I never imagined a hero or heroine with animal powers, but if I could..... Hey, what about that fly that landed during the VP debate? Could it be....a superhero? Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com

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    1. LOL, yes! That fly is getting way more than his 15 minutes of fame.

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  2. Well I'm thinking about it now. Heh. Heh. Heh.

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  3. If they were immune to noxious odors, how did they know the veggie stank? It's a shame you can't still ask them that. Although maybe someday you can, that is, if they still complain about eating their vegetables.

    As for the arsenal of another creature, i hadn't thought of it, but maybe it would be nice to have the kick of a donkey or burro. Somebody does something they shouldn't, and bam next thing they know, flying through the air from a kick that knocks the wind totally out of them. That could work.

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  4. Good to hear things from the shark's perspective. I like it.

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    Replies
    1. Thought you might like the use of thoughts from the view of someone with a different skill set.

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  5. I want to be a pigeon. Not just any pigeon mind you one with terrific aim! Here I come Washington!

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  6. I'd never heard skunks called "polecats". We called them "Po Cats"...or maybe I was hearing wrong. Who knows. lol
    Either way, Washington is FULL of them!

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    Replies
    1. You got that one right. I'd like to send most of them back to their original homes.

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  7. now I'm going to have to get my kiddo to draw me with shark teeth because I need to feel that badass going into this election haha

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  8. For what it's worth - with English not being my first language - I had to look up polecat.

    I resent teenage boys complaining about the smell of cauliflower. They should take a hard look in the mirror, or catch a whiff of their hockey bag in our case ;-)

    When we were kids we had a broad jumping pit at the school's track and field stadium. The sand contained shark teeth. At least that's what we were convinced of. We would sit there for hours, digging for the teeth which we would collect in our tiny boxes. Great memories.

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    Replies
    1. I have to admit I've never heard of shark teeth in a broad jumping pit, sounds like that could be painful, but an interesting way to spend an afternoon.

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    2. The teeth were tiny, and the sand was quite gritty. You kind of needed to be there to appreciate it ;-)

      Delete

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