This page lists fun exercises and our responses. . Send to Jackie Penticost to post (in Word or email format)
Here’s a fun exercise for 9th June
SECOND LINE WORD GAME
After the successful entries produced by the Alphabrett challenge, I’ve remembered another little word game you might like to have a go at. Many years ago, the New Statesman competitions set one about adding a second line to a famous first line of poetry. Four I can remember are:
When lovely woman stoops to folly,
The evening can be awfully jolly.
and
When I consider how my light is spent
I just don’t get what dear old Milton meant.
and
Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
No, actually you’re more like Hogmanay.
and
Full fathom five thy father lies.
His aqualung was the wrong size.
From Jackie:
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky
But it’s a long drive during lockdown and the fuzz will ask me why.
from Peter:
Is there anybody there?” said the traveller knocking on the moonlit door,
But those inside stayed quiet, for he was such a crushing bore.
So far, we have sentences/stories in alphabetical order, and limericks.
This week’s (30th March) fun exercise from Simon is to write a compete short story in 6 words. Just six. Here are a few good examples from this link https://www.theodysseyonline.com/emotional-six-word-stories
Six word stories from Rhona:
Now I make coffee for one
Booze cruise, fell over, landed Dover
The last train left without her
Limericks
from Rhona:
There was a young lady called Rhona
Who suffered the virus Corona
Now she’s hunkered in
With a bottle of gin, some loo rolls
And the two gents from Verona.
From Lizzie Noon:
There was a young PM called Bo-Jo
Who declared going out was a no no
“Just stay in you fools
Because they are the rules
I didn’t listen, now my own health is so so”
Here is Simon’s
For the writers who met in the George, as
If a poison devised by the Borgias
Took the form of a virus.
They said, ‘Let it inspire us
To see that we write something gorgeous!’
Here is Jackie’s limerick.
There was an old hack on the Downs
Who struggled with gerunds and nouns
He said with a shrug
My excuse is the bug
My drinking now knows no bounds.
24th March: Our fun exercise is to write a 26 word piece where the words are in alphabetical order
Here’s an ultimate example courtesy of Simon:
The Siege of Belgrade (1789)
AN Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
Cossack commanders cannonading come,
Dealing destruction’s devastating doom.
Every endeavor engineers essay,
For fame, for fortune fighting – furious fray!
Generals ‘gainst generals grapple – gracious God!
How honors Heaven heroic hardihood!
Infuriate, indiscrminate in ill,
Kindred kill kinsmen, kinsmen kindred kill.
Labor low levels longest, lofiest lines;
Men march ‘mid mounds, ‘mid moles, ‘ mid murderous mines;
Now noxious, noisey numbers nothing, naught
Of outward obstacles, opposing ought;
Poor patriots, partly purchased, partly pressed,
Quite quaking, quickly “Quarter! Quarter!” quest.
Reason returns, religious right redounds,
Suwarrow stops such sanguinary sounds.
Truce to thee, Turkey! Triumph to thy train,
Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine!
Vanish vain victory! vanish, victory vain!
Why wish we warfare? Wherefore welcome were
Xerxes, Ximenes, Xanthus, Xavier?
Yield, yield, ye youths! ye yeomen, yield your yell!
Zeus’, Zarpater’s, Zoroaster’s zeal,
Attracting all, arms against acts appeal!
Alaric Alexander Watts (1797-1864)
From Peter Fuller: Absolute bugger! Covid19 disease effectively forces gadabout householders indoors. Justified? Knowing like-minded neurotics overcame past queasiness, respiratory symptoms, typhoid, universal vexations without xenophobia, yields zeal.
Lucy Deedes: Alternatively bring camera – don’t enjoy fearsome guns. Holiday in jolly Kuala Lumpur may not obviously please – quite reverse. Shooting tigers? Utterly vile. Wilfully xtending your zoo
From Talitha Brewer: “Away boy” clearly defined everyone’s fun. Going home in jodhpurs, kicking llama mohair neatly out, passed queenie’s room. Sitting tight, upright, very weird x-rays yellowing zoned!
From Simon Brett: Apologies. Bad Call. Desperate Excuses For Going Home In Jeremy’s Kia Last Monday. Not Only Perfidious – Questionable Result. Sorry. Try Understanding Voluptuous Wife’s X-Rated Yearnings – Zoe
From Lizzie Noon:Apparently Boris Can Detain Everyone. Flaming’ Groceries Hardly Ideal. Just Kit Kat, Lime, Marzipan, Nectarine, Onion Pie. Queasy! Really Should Tackle Understairs. Verily Watching X-rated You-tube. Zany
From Jackie Penticost: Acerbic Bob came down emphatically, forcefully, gathering his intellectual judgement. Kathy loitered mindfully. New obviously painful quarrels reminded slowly that unerring vengeance would X-ray yawning zombies.
From Lucy Deedes:Alternatively bring camera – don’t enjoy fearsome guns. Holiday in jolly Kuala Lumpur may not obviously please – quite reverse. Shooting tigers? Utterly vile. Wilfully xtending your zoo