DISCUSSION THREAD -- August 2024 -- 75 Word Writing Challenge

[mosaix]

Congratulations TJ!

 

[Far Stranger]

Big congratulations @mosaix and @The Judge!!

 

[The Judge]

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the tie-break -- most particularly Pyan, who could have short-circuited everything if he'd remembered to vote on the 28th!

Congrats to my fellow victor, mosaix, and commiserations to the other tie-breakees -- it's been a while since we had so many going through to the second round.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Congratulations to The Judge and mosaix!

And many thanks to those who shortlisted and voted for me in both of the polls.

My story was inspired by something the Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley is meant to have said: that Napoleon's bicorne was worth forty thousand men on the battlefield. Napoleon's tactical genius (as well as the boost of confidence knowing their Emperor was present) could help even the odds when outnumbered. I would say it was more like 20,000 than 40,000 but the principle is the same. Of course it all came unstuck at Waterloo, when a number of tactical misjudgements led to his defeat and downfall against Arthur the Duke of Wellington (which is where my wellies come in at the end).

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Congratulations, The Judge and mosaix! Terrific stories both.
Two winners from five vote-off Challengers seems just right. (TJ, congrats too on repeating!)
Commiserations paranoid marvin and Ursa major... me. It was a fun Challenge - looking forward to TJ's choices for September.

Huge thanks to everyone who listed my entry, and to everyone who voted for me in the two rounds of voting.

I have family from America visiting me and my partner in Europe, so must get going. Just quickly with my story - early on in the Great Depression, a big flour manufacturing company in the States became aware that poorer families were using the coarse fabric from the giant sacks of flour they were selling to make dresses for their female family members. So they started using gingham, in prints and plaids (maybe other types of fabric too, don't have time to research it) to ship their flour in, so families could have nicer clothing during the difficult years. At least one company continued this practice through to the end of WW 2. I've always thought this was a fascinating, and maybe little-known moment from a very pivotal few years in US history. I thought it was such a decent thing for a huge company to do, to help their customers (a rare thing, nowadays). Small moments from history, but interesting/important ones, to many people of the era.



There's an article on this at Wikipedia, and here is a photo to show what this would have looked like:

 

[The Judge]

It was a fun Challenge - looking forward to TJ's choices for September.

It'll be a joint choice -- I've just PM'd mosaix, asking for his ideas!

 

[nixie]

Congratulations @mosaix and @The Judge. I hope you come up with something diabolical

 

[THX1138]

As for mine, it is based on a real person that might have, or did have a hand in...
His son is my good friend, and when asked, his father would shut down for a few days, then come back full of praise of life...
Granted, I should have written more about his coat: that's where his notes were kept. Oh, poop. Well, I'll try again soon.

 

[Daysman]

Congrats @mosaix and @The Judge !!!

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Many congratulations to all five winners!

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for the mentions / short lists: @Victoria Silverwolf, @paranoid marvin, @Astro Pen, @Hugh & @Cat's Cradle.

A special thanks to @The Judge, @Phyrebrat, @johnnyjet, @BigJ, @Daysman, @AnRoinnUltra, @Yozh & @Qaraq1001 for the votes.

Commiserations to Paranoid Marvin, Ursa & Cat's Cradle for losing out in the tie-breaker. Up until the last hour or so of voting I would have been in that list!

Regarding my own story, I wasn't sure if the historical fiction genre was meant to refer to a specific event or character in history but thought that an unknown soldier in WWI would cover both. My original title was a reference to 'The Unknown Soldier' but I couldn't come up with anything that didn't sound a bit glib.

 

[The Judge]

Just quickly with my story - early on in the Great Depression, a big flour manufacturing company in the States became aware that poorer families were using the coarse fabric from the giant sacks of flour they were selling to make dresses for their female family members. So they started using gingham, in prints and plaids (maybe other types of fabric too, don't have time to research it) to ship their flour in, so families could have nicer clothing during the difficult years. At least one company continued this practice through to the end of WW 2. I've always thought this was a fascinating, and maybe little-known moment from a very pivotal few years in US history. I thought it was such a decent thing for a huge company to do, to help their customers (a rare thing, nowadays). Small moments from history, but interesting/important ones, to many people of the era.

I was in a rush this morning, so couldn't respond to this bit then. I'd not heard of this before, but I guessed that it was a real thing and I'd pinpointed it as somewhere soon after WWI, so not far out. The only thing that really confused me was the reference to Sharpesville, as I could only think of the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa, so I was trying to work out if that was part of it and I was missing something!


As for my story, in case anyone was puzzled, John Dee was Elizabeth I's court astronomer/astrologer who was fixated with the occult and alchemy, and is perhaps now mostly thought of as a magus/magician with uncanny abilities rather than just the highly intelligent man with a very large bee in his bonnet that he probably was. His most famous work, explaining a symbol he created, is apparently difficult to interpret because of his eccentricities in writing it, which made me think that if he "wrote" in occult symbols via embroidery on the gloves, it might be capable of different translations. Like all alchemists he firmly believed in the transmutation of base metal into gold, which would come in useful if it could be done easily. (If anyone was puzzled by Provincial's review of my story, with modern scientific advances it is in fact possible to turn lead into gold. Unfortunately, the cost of the process doesn't justify the amount produced!)

The other aspect of my story relates to the late 19th/early 20th centuries, when a number of British aristocrats married US heiresses -- the nobility getting an infusion of money to maintain their estates while the Americans, whose wealth came from (*gasps, clutching one's pearls*) trade, moved into high society with their new rank and social standing, though women like Jennie Churchill and Mary Curzon (and the Countess in Downton Abbey) actually had late Victorian marriages rather than Edwardian ones.

 

[Ursa major]

There's an article on this at Wikipedia

I assume you mean the article called Feed sack dress.

 

[Parson]

Congratulations @mosaix and @The Judge! And well done to @Cat's Cradle and @paranoid marvin.

-----

The only thing that really confused me was the reference to Sharpesville, as I could only think of the Sharpeville Massacre in South Africa,

Being a total colonial I immediately thought of Sharpsville, Pennsylvania. And as an old American History teacher I knew about the feed sack dresses. IIRC my mother said that she had one as a girl or perhaps it was her mother who had one.

Countess in Downton Abbey

And this is how I knew about the heiress part. --- I eventually burned out on this show about the fourth season or so.

----

As for my own story it grew out of my study of church history. For more than millenium it was not unusual and sometimes common for local priests to have their own personal "housekeeper" who had children by an (wink, wink) "unknown" father, who treated the local "Father" as their father. The rules about clergy celibacy were only really important to those who wanted an advanced post in the curia. It is also possible that watching "The Borgias" from ShowTime at the same time played some role in it. Especially how Jeremy Irons played the Pope, a man of very depraved desires and actions, while still believing that he deserved to be the arbitrator of God's grace, played into the change between the cleric and the man. (I finally quit watching near the end of the third season when it just got to be too much to stand.)

 

[BigJ]

Congratulations to @mosaix and @The Judge on a well-deserved joint victory!

A laurel and a hearty handshake to the runners-up who gave us the initial five-way tie, @paranoid marvin, @Cat's Cradle and @Ursa major, and commiserations especially to the bear who somehow managed to get one less vote in the tie-breaker than the initial vote.

For my own story, for anyone who doesn't know, Adolf Hitler tried to make a go of it as a professional painter before he got into politics ( Paintings by Adolf Hitler - Wikipedia ). That wiki article is actually an interesting read (I'm browsing it as I type this); I didn't know Hitler was rejected from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, twice, and someone there actually recommended he go into architecture because while they felt he had talent there was just something missing from his paintings. He also carried fine paper and canvas with him to the front when he was serving in WW1 and spent much of his leave time drawing and painting.

Anyways. I took that and tried to make a funny out of it, and it got really dark. Dark enough that when I read it back before submitting I thought to myself "geez, I'm going to lose some votes posting this" and then I had a laugh at myself and said "What votes? I never win anything here" and smashed that post reply button.

It was actually more successful than I'd expected; thanks for mentions/listings/thoughts/whatnot to @Provincial, @Astro Pen (I think I had read that once about Hugo Boss and the SS uniforms, but had forgotten), @Hugh, @johnnyjet, @AnRoinnUltra, and @The Judge, and massive gratitude to @Ashleyne for the vote.

For anyone who read my story and felt guilty about finding it any level of humorous, I would like to remind:

@BigJ .... Run it again! (or, the struggle against one man’s nature) .... This is a story that is the very definition of a dark comedy. You feel like you shouldn't laugh but the chuckle won't stay down.

If Parson of all people can't keep a chuckle down the rest of us should feel absolved of a little giggle. Well, maybe not me for writing it, but the rest of you, absolved!

As for my votes, there's always a few stories I just don't get (my fault, never yours), though I saw a few comments about Ashleyne's and oddly enough I got that one first try (and felt the meat suit concept very on brand for her), but the first time I read @Culhwch's story it tugged at my feels and never let go. I think I actually paused reading the rest of the stories at that point and put on the song Cliffs of Gallipoli by Sabaton, and I'm sorry, but the rest of you never had a chance. In the tiebreaker, paranoid marvin was a near miss (I'm always impressed when somebody submits poetry in 75 words and it works so well), but I was seduced by mosaix's story of a life that doesn't need a lack of government to be nasty, brutish, and short.

And thanks, as always, to the selfless reviewers, Provincial, Parson, and @Victoria Silverwolf. I always look forward to reading your thoughts on whatever I manage to come up with, and not infrequently look to your reviews to help me with others' stories that I'm lacking background or context with.

 

[Astro Pen]

Sorry I was away for the tie breakers.
Well done everyone, this was really great and slightly unusual challenge and brought much excitement with tie breaker tensions.
Congrats to @mosaix and @The Judge
Thanks to @Parson and @The Judge for the votes.

 

[Provincial]

All the finalists were winners to my mind, so congrats and big slaps on the back to you all!

 

[Parson]

Congratulations @mosaix and @The Judge! And well done to @Cat's Cradle and @paranoid marvin.

How did I miss @Ursa major? I'm sorry about that. Congrats on your story as well.

 

[THX1138]

Yes, the same here too, @Ursa major.

 

[Culhwch]

As for my votes, there's always a few stories I just don't get (my fault, never yours), though I saw a few comments about Ashleyne's and oddly enough I got that one first try (and felt the meat suit concept very on brand for her), but the first time I read @Culhwch's story it tugged at my feels and never let go. I think I actually paused reading the rest of the stories at that point and put on the song Cliffs of Gallipoli by Sabaton, and I'm sorry, but the rest of you never had a chance. In the tiebreaker, paranoid marvin was a near miss (I'm always impressed when somebody submits poetry in 75 words and it works so well), but I was seduced by mosaix's story of a life that doesn't need a lack of government to be nasty, brutish, and short.

Ah, thanks! So glad it struck a chord with you. I was quite pleased with it, too - one of those times when inspiration struck and it just flowed out really nicely and didn't need much finessing.