It is Saturday Stream of Consciousness time again. This weeks prompt is an unusual one. Linda Hill says we should choose our favorite word and then write a post about it. I think the challenge here is selecting a word that is a favorite and appropriate to share on a family blog. That eliminates my first selection immediately. By the way, if you would like to partake in this happiness go to Linda’s blog and read all about it. Here is the link.
Peaceful by John W. Howell © 2108
“This is your favorite word?”
“Yeah, so what’s wrong with it?”
“Of all the damn words in this world you have to wander into mine.”
“What does that suppose to mean?”
“Peaceful. You could have picked any other word. But no, you pick peaceful.”
“I’m still not getting it. What’s the problem?”
“That is my word.”
“Okay, you need to explain that one. How can peaceful be your word?”
“When I was born, my parents said I was a peaceful child. When my teachers talked about me, they used the word peaceful to describe my behavior. My spouse counts on me to be peaceful in times of stress.”
“Anything else?”
“My dog appreciates the fact that I’m peaceful.”
“Okay I get all that but why can’t we share the word?”
“Share? You want to share? You who wouldn’t even let me borrow a hammer. You now want to share?”
“For heaven’s sake. I’ll just pick another word.”
“Oh no, you don’t. You can just pick another word and deny me the right of granting you a license to use ‘peaceful.'”
“A license? You don’t sound like someone described as peaceful.”
“You want to use the word or not?”
“I think I’m almost out of time here. It may be a moot point.”
“You can’t use ‘moot’ either.”
“Huh? Where is that coming from?”
“I have the copyright on the word ‘moot’ as well as ‘peaceful.”‘
“You are kidding me.”
“A ton of others too.”
“Who issued these copyrights?”
“The copyright office. I sent a manuscript to them with 100,000 words and they issued me a copyright.”
“You didn’t get the words in the manuscript copyrighted. You got the manuscript that has the words in it copyrighted.”
“Looks like splitting hairs to me. I can let you use ‘moot’ for a nominal fee.”
“I think you have slipped a gear or two.”
“‘Slipped’ and ‘gear’ are both copyrighted.”
“This is ridiculous.”
“Copyrighted.”
“Okay, how much to use peaceful?”
“You have to use it with another word so there will be no confusion with mine.”
“What other word?”
“Tomato.”
“Tomato?”
“Yes either before or after but in no case are the words ‘tomato’ and ‘peaceful’ to be used separately.”
“This is silly. Peaceful tomato or tomato peaceful? Who is going to understand that combination.”
“Not my problem.”
“Apparently.”
“Copyrighted.”
“Bite me.”
“You owe me for those two as well.”
