Z: Zounds, Zzzzzz, and Zebrafish

#atozchallenge - Z: Zounds is an awesome word indicating surprise or vexation. This book also lists - zoinks! which was used on Scooby Doo by Shaggy (awesome!). Then there's Zut Alors - an exclamation of disgust, scorn, or disappointment in French (when you say it, you should probably wave around an unfiltered cigarette - ha)
Z words deserve large font and exclamation points. Zebra - ha - too easy.
Zeal - Zeal without knowledge is Fire without Light - Thomas Fuller
Zen - yeah, find your own.

Final poison of the month - Zebrafish - Beautiful with vivid colors and elegant fins, this farflung fish (Pacific, Indian Ocean, and Red Sea) can cause respiratory distress and intense pain. Look but don't touch.

We've learned a lot this month about avoiding death by poisonous means. Basically you don't want to go to sleep - ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ - and not wake up. Good goal. Keep it in mind. Fortunately writing tends to keep us at our desks and away from deadly situation. Keep up the good work my friends.

Y: Yes, Young, Yertle the Turtle, Yard Sale, and Yellow Jasmine

#atozchallenge      Y: Yes   Let's cheer yes to acceptances. Let's play our Yes Greatest Hits Album. C'mon all you old rockers - Roundabout and I've Seen All Good People. Jon Andersen's voice could soar through an arena and Rick Wakeman could astound.  

Neil Young never does look happy. But that's fine because he's sending us messages and we need to listen to him. Ohio, Like a Hurricane, Heart of Gold. Whether he was with Crosby, Stills, and/or Nash or solo, Neil Young's voice was/is singular and poignant.

Youth is a perpetual intoxication, a fever of the brain - La Rochefoucauld

Yertle the Turtle - classic Dr.Seuss

Yard Sale - as applied to the world of skiiing, it's an oops. I heard the term at Jackson Hole Wyoming ( I was a tourist, not a skier), but was inspired to write a poem -
Teton Yard Sale
aerial tram glides
snowcaps beckon
moose tread below
eager laughter
diminishes
mutes
majestic silence
eyes survey ski slopes
sharp narrow paths
pinball forested run
sit, stand, jostle
ski pants swoosh
nervous preparation
buckle clink, velcro scratch
frankenstein boot step
cable car lurches upwards
downhill gondola passes
next level flows
steeper
peer down, plot course
spot crevasse chute
a body hurtles
poised
sharp
leaning
flails
poles javelin
skis askew
black gloved tree branch
goggles glitter
enclosed above
we point
yard sale below


skier retrieves a purple scarf

Finally - Yellow Jasmine - so pretty, so deadly. Then again, don't chew on pretty flowers. I know I've learned that lesson this month. Oh, and Yellow Jackets - try to not aggravate them or you'll be stung.

X: Xanadu, X-Rated, and Xanax

#atozchallenge -                        X

Xanadu by Olivia Newton John and Jeff Lynne

A place where nobody dared to go
The love that we came to know

They call it Xanadu

(It takes your breath and it'll leave you blind)

Cheesy movie, but at least it gives us an X word. And yes, there's Xerox, X-ray, and Xylophone

X-Rated
from Roget's Thesaurus - racy, lewd, salacious, erotic, pornographic, adult, impure, obscene, smut, bawdy, filthy, blue.    What constitutes an x-rating? Justice Potter Stewart in an obscenity case said hard-core pornography is hard to define, but "I know it when I see it". He did go on in that case to defend the movie in question against further censorship. 

 Lolita and Lady Chatterly's Lover were considered pretty darn racy for their time and are still subject to censorship issues.

Like many drugs, Xanax, can be poisonous if overused and abused. Prescribed to relieve short term anxiety, it can be quite addictive

W: Wyeths, Wrigley, Whimsy, and Wasps

 #atozchallenge   W: Wyeths - I grew up near Brandywine, PA and the art of the Wyeths is in my soul.  The grandfather Nathaniel Wyeth illustrated tomes. Andrew Wyeth painted Christina's World, windows, fields, and barns. We always joke that my family loves bleak and gray. Yep, the Wyeth palette seeped into our blood.

 Jamie Wyeth continued in his father's path with landscapes, pigs, and he also did portraits such as Warhol. The Brandywine area is gorgeous. Visit the battlefield and also the Wyeth museum and grounds. The area reeks of history, nature, and art.

Wrigley Field is part of the Holy Grail for baseball fans. Ray and I visited Chicago and attended an afternoon game. Wow!!!! The ivy wall, the buzz of Cubs fans, and the intimate baseball field is awesome. This is baseball at its best.

Whimsy -  by Joanne Faries
The Bright Spot

Black shoes, blue jeans, gray sky
polka dots a conscious choice
pajama soft, the socks’
white and yellow spots
dance under cuff
touch of whimsy perk
this dreary afternoon


Wasps - Ray's allergic, so we always have Raid Wasp Killer at the ready. Wasps are incredibly lethal with their vicious stinger. Quite scary because reaction time is within an hour.

V: Vice, Virtue, Vin, and Valium

#atozchallenge   V: Vice and Virtue lend themselves to great writing. Any scene involving gambling and alcohol can lead to the downfall of a character, and ultimately redemption. We can only hope the setting is exotic - Miami, Monte Carlo, or there's always Vegas.

Vices are sometimes only virtues carried to excess - Charles Dickens/Dombey &  Sons

I prefer an accommodating vice to an obstinate virtue - Moliere

I am stealing from author Roni Loren. She features Boyfriends of the Week and used Vin yesterday. Well, here's my V salute to Vin. Oh, he's SO not my type, BUT there's just something about him that conjures up vice and could lead to lack of virtue. His growl of a voice calls to my inner vixen. (And yes, the Fast & Furious movies annoy Ray to no end. I do not personally care about their lack of plot or inane car crashes. Paul Walker and Vin Diesel are fast and furious).
 
Valium - Think Valley of the Dolls, this popular antianxiety drug is a muscle relaxer and can be quickly abused due to fast tolerance development. Valium is often fatal when combined with alcohol and other drugs like barbiturates.

U: Un-it-all

#atozchallenge

U

U is a rather sad letter. I don't have any great U pictures. Umbrella is too obvious. I shall check out other blogs and no doubt be amazed at others' creativity. Then again, maybe they've visited Uganda or Uzbekistan. I take it back - I've visited Utah and it's a lovely state. But my pictures are labeled Bryce or Zion - that's how I think of them, by the national parks we visited.

Unconscious - By undertanding the unconscious we free ourselves from its domination - Carl Jung

Understanding - You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it - Harper Lee/ To Kill a Mockingbird

University - I was dropped by New York University because of bad marks. I was a film major - Woody Allen

My deadly poisons handbook has no listing for U. We are all safe today.

T: Talking, Timing, Typewriter, and Turpentine

#atozchallenge another week. We're on the downhill slide of April   

T: Talking      The less said the better - Jane Austen/ Sense & Sensibility  Indeed, as a writer, it's often better to listen. You can pick up so much good material.

Timing - There is a time for departure even when there's no certain place to go - Tennessee Williams
That's true of some characters - best to write the loud obnoxious sidekick in small doses. Television series on cable have made it a bloodsport - favorite characters are killed with abandon. It surprises the audiences and keeps us intrigued. I'm still not over Adrianna being executed on The Sopranos.

Typewriter - We got this IBM from Ray's folks - grimy & filthy from sitting in their garage. It's now in my office looming above my head, filled with noir tales of old.

Finally, I chose Turpentine. There are far more lethal T poisons, however everyone has turpentine in the garage. It rarely kills because it's painful to breathe or swallow. But, it's a great red herring - make a life appear to be threatened.