Melting Snow

Fun Fact Friday: Responsed to three prompts

Friday, September 9, 2016

California was founded on this day in 1850.

The Fun Fact Friday prompt for "30-Day Blogging Challenge ON HIATUS" 
On this day in 1998, four tourists who had paid $32,500 each were taken in a submarine to view the wreckage of the Titanic (the ship is 2 miles below the Atlantic off Newfoundland). Assuming money is no object, what do you think would be a fair price to pay for something that maybe would've been considered at one time impossible to see?

I'm not sure that I'd pay over $32,000 to see something that was once considered impossible to see. I doubt that I would pay $1,000 or even $500 to see something like that. If I have $100 in my pocket or bank account, I'm too practical to pay that much for a pair of shoes. In the world today, with so many people in need I think I would rather use the money to purchase food for the hunger or give to a charity that helped third world women earn a living for themselves and their families. I will admit that if I was going to pay a lot of money to play tourist, I'd want to go to the moon or Mars. If it was on Earth then I'd want to go to Haifa, Israel.

The "Blog City ~ Every Blogger's Paradise"  prompt for DAY 915
While at Omi International Arts Center in Ghent, New York, artists Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley built a house that spins and tilts in agreement with the wind, and the shifting weight of its inhabitants. Then they resided in the structure for five days, and will spend another several days living there this fall. Write a poem or story inspired by the image or idea of living in a structure that is constantly spinning, and which tilts up or down as you walk through it. What kind of vocabulary or pacing might mimic or reflect the sensation of spinning? How can you play with emotional weight or levity to create shifting feelings throughout your work?

Topsy turvy,
I feel tipsy
walking through this house.

Every time the wind blows
I end up on my nose
reaching frantically for the furniture
dancing across the floor.

Topsy turvy,
I feel tipsy
living in the swaying house
I think I'll move out
and leave the house to a drunken mouse.

The "Blogging Circle of Friends "  prompt for DAY 1995
Americans spend more money per year on lottery tickets than on sports tickets, movie tickets, books, video games, and recorded music, with lottery players split between those who play for money or for fun. Write a short story with the focal point on a character buying a lottery ticket. How would she spend the prize money if she won? What does the lottery reveal about your character's perspectives on luck and money? Whether your character plays often or rarely, whether she wins or loses, what makes this specific lottery purchase remarkable in the context of your story?

My name is Jakob Ludwig Karl Grimm
I entered this lottery on a whim
without enough money to purchase a meal
not even a thin slice of medium rare veal.

I won the whole shebang
and was able to purchase a large platter trepang1
which fed myself and my brothers
plus at least two hundred others.

Footnotes
1  bêche-de-mer a large sea cucumber considered a delicacy in China