Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Wonking Wednesday



If a thing is wonky, then it must perforce have been wrought by a wonker, am I right? It would perhaps behoove us to attempt to decrypt the actual meaning of wonky wonker wonkiness. Perhaps another day. Today, I'm just playing with stuff that seems shaded in wonkiness. Not, mind you, that I'm saying wonky is a bad thing. Not at all! It's just a trifle ... off. Wonks can (and should be) great fun.

We're going to wonk do a meme today -- not wonky -- in which you will be required to use your imagination to fill in the blanks. You may answer in the Comments section or port the meme to your own blog to play with.

Get ready, get set, go!

1. While driving through the Mississippi countryside, you spot a stately but rundown and seemingly abandoned plantation house sitting back off the road. Excited by the mystique of its tattered beauty, you decide to take a look. You pull off the macadam and onto the rutted dirt lane leading up to the house. You get out of the car, walk around the overgrown grounds full of huge old magnolia trees, camellia bushes untrimmed in decades, and what seems like acres of wild rose. It becomes clear that the house is uninhabited and has probably been abandoned for many years, so you climb the steps to the ornate and oversized front door and __________.

2. Entering the shabby, once grand house, you step into a foyer larger than your entire apartment back home, still furnished with moth-eaten settees, faded needlepoint chairs, and marble-topped tables. To your right are closed pocket doors barring access to the room behind them; to your left is another large room closed off by the same huge, antique pocket doors; and straight ahead of you is a sweeping staircase leading to the upper reaches of the home. You decide to __________.

3. Once you've made your decision and made your move, much to your surprise you find __________.

4. You end up staying in this gracious relic of a time long past for ___________.

5. When you leave, you are thinking ____________.

My answers:
1. Take a deep breath and turn the knob, promising myself I won't try and break in if the door is locked.
2. Take the stairs. The bedrooms are always upstairs, and they're always more revealing than parlors.
3. A lot of dust and a lot of mold in those upper rooms, but look! There are portraits on the walls. And diaries in the drawers.
4. Hours, until it starts getting dark.
5. Where did the people go? Who left this place to decay like this? How sad!

Also not wonky is the Best Blogging Buddies award bestowed upon me by Charles (sidebar, near the top). Thanks again, Charles! It is now incumbent upon me to pay it forward and bestow the award on five more fellow bloggers. It always chagrins me to have to choose only a few among so many vibrant and talented people, all of whom I adore and all of whom richly deserve every award there is. It was a hard task, and not so very different from simply sitting down Indian-style and chanting eenie-meenie-miney-mo, at the end of which it is to these ladies that the award is passed on:

ThatGreenyFlower - Because although she often doesn't realize it, she paints with words.
Roxan - Because she often provides an object lesson culled from her own life.
Pinks - Because her posts are always elegant and très thought provoking.
Leelee - Because she's such a sweetie -- and has such great taste in music.
Rubber Corn Dog - Because I adore her offbeat humor.

The recipients are to bestow the award on five more bloggers of their choice.

As always, Words Gone Wild are very wonky today. Some of them, TWISTED LINGUISTICS will attempt to defile define, and the rest will be left up to you to wonk.

earleir - The Earl of Leir, minor nobility.

befoer - I be your enemy. Rrrrrr.

listien - Chinese mouthwash.

particiapants - Colorful trousers worn to CIA office parties.

in the dairy isle at the gracery store - On the Isle of Cows is the store where grace and other indulgences can be purchased.

Agian - A tropical sea favored by geriatric cruise ships.

These are all yours. Have at 'em.

atuned
tevised programs
detialed
presious

26 comments:

rkfinnell said...

Thank you. Now I feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

leelee said...

oh me too...what a nice thing...I can glom the award .gif then right? Oh Yay!! Thanks SJ

HUGS!!

Serena said...

You're welcome, Roxan. I get worried, though, when the Queen of the Grue announces she's feeling warm and fuzzy.:-)

Yes, indeed, Leelee. Copy it, glom it, and stick it right up on your blog. Hugs back atcha.:)

rkfinnell said...

Don't worry I killed something (literature wise) right after.

I'd also like to glom the award, but do you think it's really me?

Serena said...

Go ahead and glom it, Roxan. And if it starts feeling too icky-sweet, just write another gory scene.:)

rkfinnell said...

Done and I put my own special touch to it.

Corn Dog said...

Thank you, SJ. I love that hippo, though it looks a tad like me...in the compact sense.

Serena said...

Yes, that's the perfect Roxan touch. LOL.:)

You're welcome, CD. I like Miss Hippo, too. In fact, I'm going to keep her around as a reminder every time I pop a piece of fudge in my mouth the next few weeks.:-)

G-Man said...

1)(creeeek, CRUNCH!!)
My foot goes right thru the third step. Taking me forever to extract it!
2)..Forget about the staircase! Leg is still smarting from the front steps!So I head for the kitchen..
3)There is an old 'Frigidaire' thats still running!
4)Several minutes because there is still some food in there that kinda looks edible!!!
5)Hmmmm. Green chicken, and 'chunky' milk ain't so bad when you are hungry!!

Sherry..did you compose this scenario?
If you did..WOW!!!
Am I a Wonker?..hehehe
xoxbgxoxox

Anonymous said...

Ok I have mine drafted and will post it in the a.m.:)

You are a Best Blogging Buddy for sure.:)
tc

Serena said...

Good answers, Galen. Hell, what am I saying? ONLY answers. Nobody else wanted to play. I'm glad you liked the scenario -- which, yes, I did create. I saw a meme on a meme site that had to do with a European castle, but I decided to do my own tale of decayed Southern grandeur.

EVERYBODY wonks, baby. Don't you know nothin'?:-)
xox

Anonymous said...

someone
called me
a wanker...

does this count?

/t.

Scary Monster said...

1. Me foot goes through the top step and me lets out a string of invective thet scres away the crows settin in the nearby trees.

2. light a cigarette and cop a squat on the stairs. To inspect me torn trousers.

3. a huge crystal chandelier with a birds nest settled in the center of it all.

4. the length of time it takes to finish off a second smoke.

5. Good a place as any to spend the night. And grab a sleeping bag out of the car.

STOMP.

puerileuwaite said...

1. start dancing to "Sweet Home Alabama" a la Forrest Gump.

2. dress up as mother and wait for unsuspecting visitors that mother is insanely jealous of.

3. that there is someone else is the house who got there first and is also dressed up as their mother.

4. at least 3-tedious sequels that become increasingly implausible.

5. that Blanche DuBois is a real nutcase.

Serena said...

Thanks, TC, and I'll look forward to seeing your scenario in the A.M.:)

I sort of think a wanker is something entirely else, /t., but that's okay. You can wank while I wonk.:-)

Scary, I'm not at all surprised that you'd choose to spend the night in the old mansion. What are you gonna do, though, if a big hairy monster shows up in the middle of the night?:)

Puggy Bates, is that you? I have always depended on the kindness of strangers, but I'm telling you, do NOT go into the cellar. There will be no sequels if you do.:)

Ed & Jeanne said...

1. Look left, look right, and fart before going in to explore

2. Come out of the closet

3. God

4. You set your car keys somewhere in this damn place and now you cannot find them.

5. Must have had one of those balloon payment mortagages and had to foreclose. Bummer.

Serena said...

You're a brave soul, VE -- which is a good thing in light of #4. Looks like you'll be stuck there for the night.:)

G-Man said...

See Sherry?
You have your faithful minions!! YAY!!!
This was too cool to pass up!!
You so talented!!
xoxbgxoxox

Serena said...

Why, thank you, dahling Galen. But -- what I WANT is a HAREM. I'm studying up on how to start one.:-)
xox

Hale McKay said...

I couldn't think of anything as serious and creative as your answers, Serena - so I stooped? climbed? to another level.

1)announced loudly that I was a Jehova's Witness.

2) looked for the elevator.

3) no elevator and assumed someone stole it.

4) long enough to realize it wasn't a five-star hotel.

5) where was the concierge anyway?

I trust you and the readers all had a great Thanksgiving.

Charles said...

1. Ring the bell; ask not for whom the bell tolls
2. issue the holodeck command, "Computer, open the doors to the right."
3. Data and a hologram of Yar are compromised in that room.
4. The holographic diversions it offers.
5. Hmmm, Rigel 7 is nice, I wonder what the weather was like?

Serena said...

I love your humorous slant on the answers, Mike.:)

Your take on it is great, too, Charles -- both literary and futuristic.:)

Mona said...

LOL! @ the beach Hippo! What is it doing in a bikini in winters!

Congratulations on being the recipient of the award. isn't it soooo Cute looking! & I love the green color!

1. Give it a kick, It falls of its hinges and a cloud of dust rises.

2.Strip all the settees of their cover, maybe they sewed some gold coins into them,[ using them as hiding place]

3.A whole box full of treasures.

4. searching more & more around & finding so many more treasure boxes...

5.Ah! The troubled times are over... everyones'....

Serena said...

Mona, yes, it really is a cute award. I love your idea for a treasure hunt in the old house.:)

ThatGreenyFlower said...

Aaaaawww! SJ! I'm honored and...and...and... stuff.

Just got back from a brief trip out of town. Between that and your meme, now I have something to write about! My L of A days are over!

xo

Serena said...

You're very welcome, darlin'. Hope you had a good trip.:)