Discussion thread -- January 2016 75-word Writing Challenge

[crystal haven]

Congratulations, LittleStar!

 

[Mr Orange]

Congratulations @LittleStar!!! as i said, i thought it was a great story and worthy of the sherrif's badge this month.

thanks for the mentions @HareBrain and @Mad Alice. i am very happy to get 3 votes this month - it's the most i've garnered in a fair while and i wasn't sure if my story would appeal. plus i did that thing where i went back to it the day after posting and saw so many things i should have done differently.

i had the basic idea of trying to get as many different meanings of the word hair (here, hare etc) in as possible and that kind of morphed into the frayed knot gag

 

[Droflet]

Best last line in the comp, Mr O.

 

[Zoe Mackay]

Congratulations LittleStar! And a valiant performance by Venusian Broon.

Thanks to The Judge and Ihe for the votes for my subtle (*cough*) reworking of Samson and Delilah, and to everyone who mentioned, shortlisted or longlisted it.

 

[Mr Orange]

why thank you @Droflet

 

[HazelRah]

Congratulations LittleStar

Big thankyous to anyone who shortlisted my story, and especially to Victoria and Ashleyne B Watts for the very unexpected votes

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for the mentions / short lists to Shyrka, VB, Bowler, Phyrebrat, Hex, HazelRah, Chris, TDZ and TJ.

A special thanks to Jo and Chrystal Haven for the votes.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Mega, mega, mega congrats!

 

[LittleStar]

Well, I am truly humbled that so may of you thought my little old story was the best of the bunch, so a very big thank you to all who voted for me, and for the menitons and shortlists that came close behind. It really is an honour to have won my first challenge, and for a story that I think might manage to capture the emotion and spirit of the kind of things I like and strive to write.

Comiserations to VB for a great story, a well fought and very nervous race at the close there.

A little bit of background on my story. Really the only reason I have a mobile phone (a very old nokia) is to use it as a clock when I'm at work, and this particular day I had no battery left and was just leaving. So my partner offered me an old timey pocket watch to use, chain and everything (though maybe it's not so old timey if it looks like an owl...). I needed to think of a story, and thats where it all stemmed from, time travel with a pocket watch, and then i just needed to figure out how to fit both hair and western into it.

I had intended to include so much extra detail, about him getting older and more ragged as years went on, and there was to be more 'western' elements mentioned, but I didn't have words enough in the end. Which is another reason I was so surprised to have garnered so many votes, when half the stuff I wantd in there couldn't fit... Maybe there's a lesson in there somewhere

And a sneaky Time travel/western reference in there as well with Doc Emmet Brown making an appearance


Thanks again to the voters, and I hope I choose a good theme and genre for everyone for Feb

 

[Bowler1]

Well done LittleStar and enjoy the glory of victory.

Hard luck VB, that's the way them cookies crumble sometimes.

 

[Starbeast]

My story: I was inspired by an old Starsky & Hutch tv episode, where they were undercover, and had to pretend they were gay hair stylists. Actor David Soul was hilarious acting the part. So, I thought......"Tonto?"

"Howdy Starbeast. I mean, yeah man."

"What's with the mohawk hair cut?"

"I was inspired by this month's hair challenge."

"You look like a trojan horse."

"Nahhhhh, man. I'm a punk rocker bro. I even got, rad tattoos. Check em' out dude."

"Down with humanity. Humans suck. Wait a minute...these were drawn on with a felt marker."

"Yeah, I mean, no! They're real, cause I'm a tough stallion. Human don't scare me."

"Ok, my palomino buddy. Let me add a vicious skull tattoo on you." (bzzzzzz) Hold still while I tattoo you."

(eyes bulge) "YIPES!!!" (gallops away)

"Heh heh. I knew he doesn't like needles." (puts tattoo pen in pocket) (bzzzzzzzzz) "EEEE-YAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

 

[johnnyjet]

Congratulations, LittleStar, for a well-deserved win! Glad my vote had a part in your victory.

Thanks to all the great & unexpected listings by Ihe, Starbeast, Cat's Cradle, Venusian Broon, Phyrebrat (super-duper favorite! nice!), Hex, HazelRah, J5V, TheDustyZebra, Juliana, crystal haven, The Judge, Ashleyne and Ursa major. Might be the most mentions I ever got! I'm honored.

 

[ratsy]

Congrats Littlestar! Well done

 

[Dan Jones]

My story: I was inspired by an old Starsky & Hutch tv episode, where they were undercover, and had to pretend they were gay hair stylists. Actor David Soul was hilarious acting the part. So, I thought......"Tonto?"

"Howdy Starbeast. I mean, yeah man."

"What's with the mohawk hair cut?"

"I was inspired by this month's hair challenge."

"You look like a trojan horse."

"Nahhhhh, man. I'm a punk rocker bro. I even got, rad tattoos. Check em' out dude."

"Down with humanity. Humans suck. Wait a minute...these were drawn on with a felt marker."

"Yeah, I mean, no! They're real, cause I'm a tough stallion. Human don't scare me."

"Ok, my palomino buddy. Let me add a vicious skull tattoo on you." (bzzzzzz) Hold still while I tattoo you."

(eyes bulge) "YIPES!!!" (gallops away)

"Heh heh. I knew he doesn't like needles." (puts tattoo pen in pocket) (bzzzzzzzzz) "EEEE-YAAAAHHHHHHH!!!"

You, sir, are a bampot.

Keep it up.

 

[Parson]

And it's Littlestar by a nose. Great ride pardner! And may the Force be with you. (What did I just say?)

Congratulations on the win and the nice story.

It's not hard to imagine where my story came from. I think I failed on the Fantasy part, I thought maybe speaking of a sword from the mouth might put it into that category. My fondest hope is that my tale is prophetic and Donald Grump gets dumped.

 

[Starbeast]

Congratulations, LittleStar, for a well-deserved win! Glad my vote had a part in your victory.

Thanks to all the great & unexpected listings by Ihe, Starbeast, Cat's Cradle, Venusian Broon, Phyrebrat (super-duper favorite! nice!), Hex, HazelRah, J5V, TheDustyZebra, Juliana, crystal haven, The Judge, Ashleyne and Ursa major. Might be the most mentions I ever got! I'm honored.

You're immensely welcome Johnnyjet.

You, sir, are a bampot.

Keep it up.

Hi DG Jones. I couldn't find the word "bampot" in my 1977 Collegiate Dictionary. What does it mean?

I think he's saying you're a "weed-head". That, or you have, some sort of dain bramage.

It's, "brain damage", Tonto.

Oh. Sorry to hear that.

Silence horse. Anyway. Would you enlighten me Mr Jones? If it's slang, I'm keen to learn (helps when I watch movies - etc.).

 

[Vaz]

A BIG congratulations to LittleStar Well done

And thank you very much @Mad Alice for the short-list and shoot-out listings!

Nice stories everyone! Can't wait for next month's challenge

 

[The Judge]

Hi DG Jones. I couldn't find the word "bampot" in my 1977 Collegiate Dictionary. What does it mean?

I've only ever seen it as barmpot, with the "r" and Collins online defines it as "(Northern England, slang) a foolish or deranged person". I suspect it comes from "barm" which is the froth on fermenting malt liquor (originally, also yeast or leaven), so a barmpot is a pot full of beer froth. That also probably gives us "barmy" another slang English word meaning daft or very foolish.

NB It's usually an affectionate term, rather than an unpleasant/aggressive one, in case you were thinking of using it elsewhere!

 

[Dan Jones]

TJ I've never seen it spelled with a "r" and a quick check reveals that it indeed could be spelled either way.

But in general, Beasty, Her honour is correct. It generally means someone who's one cannon short of an Arsenal, but in the nicest possible way

 

[TheDustyZebra]

And in the most-hair-puns/references-per-tale, I stake my claim at 14 -- though I regret I didn't have the sheer idiotic brilliance of TDZ's mullets! -- since the following were all hair styles or connected with hair in some way (omitting "hair" itself): 'rows (short for cornrows), curly, bouffant, bob, trimmed, permanent, blond, quiff, roll (usually French, fittingly enough), brunette, crop, dreads (ie dreadlocks), bangs (US for fringes) and beehives. I'd have liked a few more, but I was running out of time and word count! Anyone got more than 14?

I make mine 17, but some may be up for debate, so I'll leave the final decision to Your Honor.

My title, "OK, Sally On", is a double, as Sally's is a chain of beauty supply stores, and of course "Sally on", meaning "get on with you, move along" or such, is for "salon". The closest I wanted to come to my OK Salon after VB got there first. (1,2)

Van Dyke (3) is a beard, then there's "this hair town" (4) and "fur both of us". (5)

Marcel (6) for Marshal is the one that set me off on this wild hair... Ok, I'll stop. Anyway, it was the first one I thought of and the rest snowballed into place. Then the "new comber" (7) or newcomer "finger-waves" (8) and wants to be called Bob. (9) (Originally, the second one that set me off was Bob for Dillon --Dylan -- but it seemed to fit better the other way around.)

There's the admittedly awful Dirty Hairy (could be another one but I didn't even think of it till HB said it that way) bit with the crew cutting (10) out, mullets (11) and punk (12).

Rainbow coxcomb (13) is a colorful Mohawk, weaves (14) toward cornrows (15) de-parting (16), and the last line, "you ain't seen the last of me" is another, probably poor, reference to the last of the Mohawk group, or Mohicans. (17)

As I say, though, some are debatable and may be disqualified.