Tag Archives: alien

Photo finish Friday: “Eating”

Eating

Aliens ate light. /

Time travels to the missing. /

Flowers in the sun.

.

.

#haiku #poem #poetry #sun #flower #sunflower #timetravel #aliens #light #ate #oldnorthknoxville #davidebooker #august #friday #2021

Leave a comment

Filed under 2021, photo by David E. Booker, Photo Finish Friday, Poetry by David E. Booker

Haiku to you Thursday (and photo): “Invasion”

Aliens arrived, /
bringing their wall with them. /
“KEEP OUT” their plaques charged.

Keep Out 100dp_7x6_4c_6214 copy

Leave a comment

Filed under 2018, Haiku to You Thursday, photo by David E. Booker, poetry by author

cARtOONSdAY: “sELECT oNLY oNE”

Some questions were boldly stated.

Some questions were boldly stated.

1 Comment

Filed under 2015, cartoon by author, CarToonsday

Monday morning writing joke: “Grammar gremlin”

An alien crash lands on earth, wanders into a small town, finds the only house with a novelist in it and knocks on the door.

The novelist answers and after the initial shock of seeing such a strange creature, the creature hands him a note. It reads: “In your language, I have come to invade and conquer.”

The novelist scribbles something on a piece of notebook paper, tears it out, and hands it to the alien: “Why?”

The alien types in something on his keyboard and out prints his response: “Because you are weak and we are strong and this world has many things to offer us.”

“Does that include the asteroid on a collision course toward earth?” the novelist asks.

The alien thinks about that. After a moment, the alien turns and leaves.

The novelist turns back to his writing, knowing nobody would believe him if he put this incident in his novel: an alien with good grammar. Unbelievable. After all, fiction had to be believable.

1 Comment

Filed under Monday morning writing joke

The Devil’s Dictionary: “Alien, Alliance, Ambidextrous, Ambition, Amnesty”

A young Ambrose Bierce

A young Ambrose Bierce


In our continuing quest to revisit a classic, or even a curiosity from the past and see how relevant it is, we continue with The Devil’s Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce. Originally published in newspaper installments from 1881 until 1906. You might be surprised how current many of the entries are.

For example, here are definitions for Alien, Alliance, Ambidextrous, Ambition, and Amnesty. The Old definitions are Bierce’s. The New definitions are mine or somebody else contemporary. The new definitions can also be simply examples of The Devil’s Dictionary definitions. From time to time, just as it was originally published, we will come back to The Devil’s Dictionary, for a look at it then and how it applies today. Click on Devil’s Dictionary in the tags below to bring up the other entries.

OLD DEFINITION:

ALIEN, n. An American sovereign in his probationary state.

ALLIANCE, n. In international politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other’s pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third.

AMBIDEXTROUS, adj. Able to pick with equal skill a right-hand pocket or a left.

AMBITION, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead.

AMNESTY, n. The state’s magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish.

NEW DEFINITIONS:

(ILLEGAL) ALIEN, n. An un-American scofflaw unable to achieve a probationary state of any sort, at least as seen by some radical conservative elements. For them ALIEN is always preceded by ILLEGAL. This distinguishes him from the American scofflaw, who with enough money and AMBITION can form at least one ALLIANCE in which he can pick the pockets of friends and foes alike.

ALLIANCE, n. In National and International politics, the union of two thieves who have their hands so deeply inserted in each other’s pockets that they cannot separately plunder a third. However, as a grouped entity they often find a way to plunder others. The NRA plus the GOP being one fine example of how two groups manage to plunder a third, even to the point of death.

AMBITION, n. An overmastering desire to be vilified by enemies while living and made ridiculous by friends when dead. (Nothing much new need be added to this.)

AMNESTY, n. The state’s magnanimity to those offenders whom it would be too expensive to punish or who have enough money to acquire amnesty as one acquires a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card in Monopoly. In other words, it would be too “expensive” to ignore the offer.

Leave a comment

Filed under Devil's Dictionary