Jim Flanigan Looks at the World

Although I have not recently been writing this blog per yesterday’s post, I was still writing little bits and pieces here and there. I recently received notification that one of my poems is being published in a book. Here’s proof. It really is no big deal. People put together these anthologies all the time. They need lots of authors to include so they will all buy the book upon publication.…

It’s been almost 3 months since my last post. You’re welcome. I hope you’ve enjoyed your time without my nonsense. Besides subjecting you to fewer bad jokes in your life, I feel I have other equally important reasons to not have blogged for quite a while. I was desperately trying to semi-retire, but it was more difficult and time-consuming to wrap up a career and clean up the loose ends of my…

After some recent writing disappointments, I was determined to right write more betterer better. My first baby step toward that goal was a micro-fiction story in the humor category. I was pleased with the story I crafted – funny throughout with a twist at the end. And … drumroll please … success! It was selected for publication. You can click here to read it. However, it was not awarded as the…

I went to my garden to pick some tomatoes and other vegetables to make some fresh pico de gallo. This is the abomination I discovered. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have planted the garden over the spot I used to dump lead paint, car batteries, and spent plutonium rods. But did I use it to make this pico de gallo? I’ll never tell, but I will share. Interested?

Yeah, I know I wrote about not finding any volunteer jobs available at the DNC this week befitting a man of my ilk. And then I did, thanks to friends who were diligently looking for similar volunteer opportunities rather than griping about it through some random humor blog. I somehow missed a great job that was described to me by a guy who traveled all the way from Philadelphia to volunteer. He…

Fellow Democrats are descending upon Chicago to formally nominate the Kamala Harris/Tim Walz ticket for the election in November. I hear that additionally, despite his service to our nation, Joe Biden will be ceremonially put on a Greyhound bus out of town. Democrats can be a tough bunch. I thought it would be fun and interesting to volunteer for the Democratic National Convention as long as…

I had one very interesting day last week. I braved the alleged most dangerous city in the USA per Fox News, Trump, MAGA, and assorted other clowns to attend a trade show in Chicago. Yes, the same Chicago that recently hosted Lollapalooza with 110,000 people per day packed into Grant Park with ZERO casualties over the 4 festival days. No shootings. No overdoses. No heat-related deaths, and it was…

I attended my first concert in a kayak last week. I swear the fluid pooling in the kayak is from the river and not the inevitable result of a long concert. I was part of a floatilla of freeloaders who watched John Fogerty play his hits from his Creedence Clearwater Revival days and his solo career, like this one. It was a beautiful night to see a concert for free and save 60 bucks, but it led…

Horray, I won free tickets to a concert given a hip band playing Lollapalooza. And that’s the end of the good news. This concert is definitely NSFO. What’s that? Continue reading A Concert NSFO

Politics aside, some say that Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the presidential race is hurting the economy. You say you want proof? Oh, I have proof for you. As a fellow small business owner, I can relate. It hurts when you’ve made a product investment and then see the market change drastically. But as a small business owner who has been in that predicament, I can offer this advice…

I don’t mind a good rejection. I think I got used to rejection many years ago while single and dating. As a writer who submits stories for contests, publications, etc., you have to be ready to accept rejection. And what do they always say? If you’re not failing, then you’re not trying. Or, maybe your stories just suck. All the more reason to keep writing to get better. This recent rejection left…

I don’t consider myself a good poet. Not at all. I even wrote a poem about how difficult it is for me to write a poem. But this one was different. It flowed organically onto my laptop. Sure, I pecked and poked at it after it was written, but the bones of it were easy and natural for me to write. The prompt was to write about an experience that changed me or my life for the better. I wrote about…

Did you know that Mark Hamill played one of the 8 Bradford kids in the TV show Eight is Enough? He left after the pilot to go play some obscure movie character called Luke Skywalker. But that’s not the 8 I’m writing about. My 8th out of 8 micro-fiction stories submitted to www.curatedmicrofiction.com was selected for publication. You can read it here. It’s not my favorite one I have written. I…

I golfed Monday, and I was asked numerous times by others in my foursome whether Joe Biden should be replaced as the Democrat candidate for the presidency. I didn’t have an answer, and quite frankly, no one from my golf foursome should care about my political opinion. Nor should anyone. But now I have clarity. I hopped on my bike yesterday after work and took off for some berry picking. The…

My summer concert season started last weekend with a fizzle instead of some sizzle. But it rebounded nicely the very next day as I caught a local group calling themselves Classical Blast for 2/3 of their show on my way to a hospital to see a family member who has since been released. Thanks for the cards and flowers you sent. They combine modern music with classical to create delightful versions…

I’ve continued my improbable writing winning streak on the curatedmicrofiction.com website. Sure, this latest one was not awarded (more money), but it was published which gets me 10 bucks. I kind of knew this one would not be awarded since I chose the Literary/Creative prompt. I think I provided a suitably creative comic twist at the end, but I don’t think it was literary which connotes serious…

Because of a family issue, I took the easiest of my 3 concert choices from my last post, and went to see Three Dog Night (hereafter known in this post as 3 Dog Night for brevity, although I realize that I wasted a lot of words explaing this) in concert this weekend. I purposely went late, but unfortunately, I still arrived too early and had to sit through Asia featuring John Payne. You remember…