My Cousin Elmo says, “I walked into the bar and ordered a Corona and two Hurricanes. The bartender replied, ‘That’ll be 20.20.’”

The moment I laid eyes on her, I was smitten. She became my patroness, my Moon-child, my Diana. I ebbed and flowed at her sight, her will. She directed my every movement from her silver chariot and I knew her as my goddess of light. My earthly symbol of purity, I wanted nothing else, save to breathe where she passed both night and day. She never made me chase, but instead asked me join her in life’s race and soon I became the key to her heart.

she drove me wild
stick in hand, foot on pedal
in her Corolla

Due to some unforeseen boredom on my part, I decided to make up a new writing game for myself and for you to participate in.

On WordPress, go to your reader and open it. Right under the search bar you’ll find a set of three random words, labeled as suggestions.

The challenge is to use those three words in a story or a sentence. The three random words I received are: Philosophy, Parenting, Iceland.

So in response to my own challenge: ‘My parenting philosophy is to leave the children in Iceland.’

Jus’ some simple fun to while away time as you wait for whatever it is that you are waiting for.

My Cousin Elmo says, “Thinkpol rectifies unperson Trumpcrimethinkers unbellyfeel Demsoc speakwrite malquoted election doubleplus unfree. Whoa, I’m thinker than I drunk I am.”

My Cousin Elmo says, “Examine everything on social media with a stoic eye, but don’t forget to blink.”

Following up on, ‘Nightmare at the Alternative Care Site,’ about Renown Medical Center’s COVID overflow center.

A medical doctor working there, took a selfie. It was high-jacked and used without his permission.

President Trump retweeted it, Governor Sisolak took offense. Feelings got hurt.

Hopefully, that’s the end of the story, but probably not.

My friend H.H.R. Gorman posted an entry to her blog, ‘5 Tests You Should Put Your Story (or Characters) Through,’ that has knocked the writing socks off my feet, especially when it comes to the readability. Much of my work it seems, is hard to read and comes out at the eleventh and twelfth grade level.

To be honest, I’ve never thought about reading levels, much less the difficulty in reading what I’ve written. For me it has always been to start with a premise and continue from there.

Of the ten stories I submitted to the aggregator she provided in her posting, only one was in the seventh grade level. And I’m certain that I should be writing further below that, should I want to create any sort of popularity for myself online.

Flesch Reading Ease score: 77.4, fairly easy to read
Gunning Fog: 5.9, fairly easy to read
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level: 4.9, fifth grade
The Coleman-Liau Index: 6, sixth grade
The SMOG Index: 5.4, fifth grade
Automated Readability Index: 2.9, grade level: 8-9 yrs. old
Linsear Write Formula: 4.7, fifth Grade

And don’t even let me get started on the Bechdel, Mako Mori, Mary Sue/Gary Stu, and the Coldsteel the Hedgeheg tests. In fact, I think I heard my computer’s hard drive laughing at me for even considering these.

Of course, the included scores verses the second sentence of this post, makes me into a liar. HA!

As I wrote H. — I have some work to do…

Reverend Greene was on fire with the word of God that Sunday morning. He preached hell-fire, brimstone, equating current happenings on Earth with the Book of Revelation.

“I was reading the newspaper last Tuesday morning,” he thundered, “And I saw where large earthquakes are striking the outer rim of the Pacific Ocean. They call this area ‘The Ring of Fire.’ And it has scientist wondering if the ‘big one’ is on its way.”

“And the way I see this in my mind is a sudden movement and the ground opens up and it will look like the Earth has suddenly developed a glowing halo, a crown of radiating light being tossed into the dark universe,” he commented, trying to describe what his vision of such an event might look like.

He added later in his commentary, “And should this happen, COVID will be the lesser concern.”

For half-an hour Reverend Greene worked the all scientific implications over, and until he saw the heads of his now-bored church members begin to bobble with sleepiness. It was the moment he wanted, needed, in order to bring his deeper message to life.

He paused for effect and strode from his pulpit across the raised floor and back again. The good reverend looked, to his many church members, as a man possessed of the word of God.

Gathering himself in front of his pulpit he began: “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.” (Rev 19:11)

His voice boomed through the meeting hall and those that were near sleep jumped at the echo and reverberation. It was exactly how Reverend Greene saw it, part-theater and all God Almighty.

He slapped his open palm on the pulpit, making a snapping noise and again the body of Christ jumped in unison, then he added as he scanned his notes, “His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but himself.” (Rev 19:12)

Churchgoers were standing, others waved their arms, hands high above their heads and some said ‘Amen,’ others gave small prayers. As this occurred, Reverend Greene looked into the faces of those before him, certain that his message, that God’s message, was touching the very souls of these Christians.

“And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God,” (Rev 19:13) Reverend Green began with a boom in his voice, but a sudden switch happened and it sounded as if he had run out of steam.

At first congregants braced themselves for another surprise from the minister, but after ten seconds, when nothing came, they began to whisper among themselves. The preacher seemed transfix, stuck where he had halted in his sermon.

After half a minute, the woman who played the organ every Sunday morning got up, walked over to Reverend Greene and touching his elbow, asked, “Is everything okay?”

He jumped with a start, “Yes, Miss Gladys. Everything’s good.”

Looking up, he smiled at those gathered before him. He could see their puzzlement and concern in their faces.

“It’s okay,” he said. “I jus’ realized something…some might even say I had a revelation from God.”

The murmurs began to increase. One woman asked her husband, “Is he losing his mind?” He shushed her.

“And it was such a fine sermon, too” Reverend Greene sighed, “But evidently it isn’t the right sermon for this Sunday.”

He smiled and lifted his arms and with palms outward, said, “Peace be with you. And they said…”

Some of the members muttered ‘amen,’ as they stood to leave.

“Peace be with you,” Reverend Greene fairly shouted, “And they all said…”

“Amen!” rose the voice of the attendees in unison.

As he watch the last person pass through the doors, he returned to the pulpit and examined his notes. He hadn’t seen that short sentence until a few minutes ago, and it left him stunned when he first read it.

They were words that hadn’t been there when he printed his notes up for that Sunday. Reverend Greene reread it, “The Spanish word for today is corona which means crown.”

He folded the paper up neatly, slipping it into his shirt pocket, while saying “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.” (Matt 24:36)

Bu the Reverend however, was certain about how that day would arrive.

This subject got me booted from FB for three-days after I defended myself from pretty mean attack, including the wish that I ‘would die…,’ so needless to say, I have heard it all. Guess my media credentials are not as good as the other media credentials, you know the ones that toe-the-line and fall in where they’re told…

Yesterday morning, I went down to the northwest corner of Renown Medical Center’s parking structure and took a quick look inside the Alternative Care Site (ACS) they’ve set up. Not a single patient insight, though plenty of empty beds were established.

When I got home, my online news feed was blowing up and off the charts about how Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak is condemning President Trump for calling Renown ACS ‘fake’ in a retweet on Twitter.

“For nearly nine months, the State of Nevada has not only had to battle this pandemic, we have had to fight the President’s nonstop attempts to politicize a virus that has led to over 260,000 American deaths,” said Sisolak.

Of course, now a hospital spokeswoman has claimed that 42 people are being treated in the ACS, but none of the local news agencies have identified this spokeswoman or shown video or photographs of these patients. And of course by now, they probably have transferred patients into the facility.

“Come on, man,” I can hear Sisolak’s buddy, Joe Biden saying, “It’s only P.R.”

Sisolak went on to say, about the hospital’s staff, “They aren’t liars, as the President implied — they are heroes.”

To that I’d like to point out: No one said the hospital staff were the liars. They set up the ACS on Sisolak’s insistence and it is now incumbent on Sisolak to fill those beds and as of yet, he can’t, thus the label ‘fake,’ like it or not.

Meanwhile, the local media, lap-dogs really, are not reporting what they could clearly see with their own two eyes, should they want too. What makes me shake my head is that you can go online and see from Washoe County Health District’s own data, Renown’s ICU occupancy rate is at 59% — and that a small fraction of those are COVID cases — and even worse, according to 35 year’s worth of CDC data, Nevada’s normal ICU occupancy rate is 69% — meaning that even with COVID-19, they’re 10 points below normal.

President Trump is a liar. He had help from the Russian’s in order to defeat Hillary Clinton.

Dominion Voting machines are secure and therefore President-elect Joe Biden won the recent election with 80-million votes. Trump is simply a sore loser.

COVID-19 did not originate in China. It was a disease developed by one of the many pharmaceutical companies that is owned by Trump, because he did not divest of all his corporate ties prior to becoming President.

He has killed more people because of his illiterate tweets than all who died during the Dark Ages. And he has selected a rapist and religious zealot to sit on the Supreme Court.

As for the Trump-virus, it is set to wipe out human kind by 2031, however this can be averted if we reduce our carbon emission’s back to pre-historical standards. This is further evidenced by the overflow of local hospitals all across the U.S., and the spillage of excess patients suffering from COVID.

More proof that COVID-19 is going to destroy all we hold so dear, is the fact that ICU’s across this nation are now solely used for the purpose of treating COVID patients, as no other illness or injury is accounted for. In fact, many major hospitals in several regions of the country have developed Alternative Care Sites to handle all over-flow and it appears that even these will overflow within a day or two.

But there is good news: a vaccine is currently being developed to combat and possibly cure COVID-19. It is said to be 99% effective with the continued wearing of a face-mask, social distancing, self-isolation and vigorous washing of the hands.