I randomly opened Detour on the Eternal Road to page 175. With eyes closed, A finger pointed to the page, causing my finger to fall close to the word”cash.” That will be the prompt. As a reminder I will be offline March 12th through the 19th. Tempeste and Twiggy return on March 20.
The coffee machine leaves a message to watch the time after pressing my order. The 10 oz coffee order is pressed and the cup is filled in ten seconds. A message comes back that the machine will try for a new record tomorrow. With a shoulder shrug and a sip, the clock is the next item of concern. The setting is for Chicago on March 8th, 1925. The duration is an hour. The plunger is pulled and we find ourselves at the Chicago Department of Public Health.
Dr. Herman N. Bundesen, Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health announced in an article in the Department’s weekly bulletin that the ongoing crossword puzzle fad caused no ill health effects from headaches or eye strain, as had previously been feared, and was beneficial to health in general. The Commissioner reads from the bulletin to the employees gathered in the cafeteria. In a feature titled “Cross-Worditis”, Bundesen humorously noted, “The savage little cross-word microbe may be largely explained by the fact that part of our lives and much energy must be put into amusement, to satisfy the play instinct within us. Therefore, any game with a mental ‘kick’ in it is quickly accepted and eagerly pursued. A collective sigh went up from the crowd, and all continued drinking coffee and working on their crossword puzzles.
The alarm goes off and we end up on the couch. A text has come in from Linda Hill. It reads: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “open book, close eyes, point, write.” When you’re ready to sit down and write your SoCS post, open the closest printed matter, close your eyes, point to a word, and use it as your prompt. Use it any way you’d like. Have fun! Following directions, I open and point at a page of GQ Magazine. My finger lands on the word “watch” in a Cartier Timepiece Advertisement.
I randomly opened Detour on the Eternal Road to page 205. With my eyes closed I pointed to the page. The word closest to my finger was “face.” That is the prompt today.
An explanation is in order. Last week, there may have been some confusion around the fact that the coffee machine communicated with me. To be clear, the machine does not talk. She sends messages through a mounted menu screen. The screen also has a touch pad, so no external mouse is needed. It wouldn’t be right to think that the machine has the human ability to speak. She has reasoning ability through her AI construct, which leads to her being able to ask questions. For example, today, she wondered if she should make coffee to go.
Declining the to-go cup and ordering the standard was the prelude to grabbing the clock. The time was set to March 1, 1925. The location is New York City and the duration is one hour. A pull of the plunger and we land in New York City. We are just in time to witness the founding of Viking Press.
The publisher Viking Press was founded in New York by Harold K. Guinzburg (formerly of Simon and Schuster) and George S. Oppenheimer, advertising manager for Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. The Viking Press is an American publishing company that specializes in bringing books to a wide audience. It was formerly known as Viking Penguin and Viking Books. The Penguin Group acquired the Viking Press in 1975. Today, Penguin Random House owns the Viking Press.
After one glass of champagne, the alarm goes off and we find ourselves on the couch. There is a text from Linda Hill. It reads:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “mouse.” Use it any way you’d like. Enjoy!
Today, I randomly opened Detour on the Eternal Road to page 147. I closed my eyes and pointed to the page. The word readable nearest my finger was “complicated,” which became our prompt.
Finally back to a normal schedule, it was good to see the coffee machine in person. She wanted to know where I had been. Rather than go through a long story, the simple answer was,”Out.” Never to be left in the dark the machine asked,”Where?” My response stopped the discussion right then and there, “Reproductive problems.”
Of course the reproduction mentioned was a book tour but the machine decided not to pursue the subject. My coffee was delivered hot and fragrant. One sip and my mind went to the clock. The setting is for February 21, 1925. The location is New York city, and the duration is one hour. A pull of the plunger and we find ourselves in the offices of the New Yorker at 25 West 45th Street in Manhattan. The staff is celebrating the first issue.
The New Yorker was founded by Harold Ross (1892–1951) and his wife Jane Grant (1892–1972), a New York Times reporter, and debuted on February 21, 1925. Ross wanted to create a sophisticated humor magazine that would be different from perceivably “corny” humor publications such as Judge, where he had worked, or the old Life. Ross partnered with entrepreneur Raoul H. Fleischmann (who founded the General Baking Company) to establish the F-R Publishing Company. Ross edited the magazine until his death in 1951. During the early, occasionally precarious years of its existence, the magazine prided itself on its cosmopolitan sophistication. Ross declared in a 1925 prospectus for the magazine: “It has announced that it is not edited for the old lady in Dubuque.”
Just as the Champaign was openede the alarm too me back to the couch. A text from Linda Hill has come in. It reads: Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “in person.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!
Today, I randomly opened Detour on the Eternal Road to page 45. With my eyes closed, I pointed to the page. The word closest to my finger was “Steps,” which became the prompt.
“Lists help with organization by detailing steps in a process.”
“Organization? Whatever do you mean?”
“I mean, we run through life without a purpose.”
“Without a purpose? What about living each day?”
“You know if this dialogue lasts too much longer, you will have come up with twenty questions.”
“Very funny. I’m just trying to understand why we need lists.”
“Let me explain it with an example. Tell me about the day so far.”
“Okay, I’ll play along. I got up. I had breakfast, and now I’m talking to you.”
“What did you accomplish?”
“Huh?”
“If you had a list of your steps to the day, you would have had plenty of time to cross something off that you completed. As it is, you are sitting there looking pretty useless.”
“I beg your pardon. You better watch it, Bud.”
“I’m just saying. By knowingly keeping track of the day’s steps, you will feel more fulfilled knowing how you made a mark.”
“Okay, let’s start with you. What was on your list today?”
“Fine. Here it is. Rise, check. Wait for breakfast, check. Eat breakfast, check. Introduce the concept of listing steps and check. That brings us to now. Four things accomplished already.”
“Who went out to get the breakfast?”
“Well, you.”
“Who served it?”
“You.”
“Who lays around like a fat dumbass?”
“Now, hold on. I am the king of beasts. That’s what we do.”
“Yeah, and you go to listen to that stupid chimpanzee blabber about organization and steps to the day. Then you come back here with some goofy idea about lists.”
“I’m just trying to improve.”
“If you want to improve, go out and get a zebra or something. Better yet, why not take on a rhino. You’re the king of beasts, after all.”
“Gee, I was just thinking —”
“Dangerous pastime for you.”
“Okay, let’s forget it.”
“No, I think you are on to something. I’m going to join the ladies at the waterhole. Here’s a list of things that need doing around the den. Try to feel accomplished today by taking steps to get them done.”
One of the more difficult tasks here at the house is keeping the coffee machine in line. Although it is not alive there are suspicions that deep within it’s bowls rests an alien being. It coud be simply AI instaled at the Swiss facory but knowing the Swiss there would be a warning displayed somewhere on the machine.
Keeping it in line is a simple operation. A yank of the plug sets everything to rights again should the little devil decide some nafarious activity.Now that my cup is ready it is time to take a little trip. The clock is set for January 24, 1925. The location is Chicago and duration one hour. A pull of the plunger lands us on State street in time to hear the news.
Chicago Outfit gangster Johnny Torrio survived an assassination attempt when Hymie Weiss and Bugs Moran jumped him as he and his wife were returning to their apartment from a shopping trip. Torrio was shot multiple times, but Moran’s gun clicked empty when he tried to deliver a coup de grâce to Torrio’s head. Johnny did survive but turned ober control of the Chicago Outfit to Al Capone. He moved to New York and then to Italy.
Trying to stay warm in the freezing cold the alarm goes off and the cozy couch saves the day. My text tone let’s me know a text has arrived. It is from Linda Hill. It reads:
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 25th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “in line.” Use it any way you’d like! Enjoy!
To see what others have done with the prompt, visit Linda Hill’s post. Here is the link
“The way gangsters kept each other in line was pretty brutal.”
“So that was the end of Johnny Torrio?”
“Nope he returned from Italy to eventually establish the National Crime Syndicate with Lucky Luciano, Longy Zwillman, Joe Adonis, Frank Costello, and Meyer Lansky. He stayed active until he was jailed for tax evasion. He lived quietly after his release in 1941 until his death in 1957.”
“I can’t believe he lived that long.”
“He was in charge of activities that netted over a billion dollars a year in today’s money. I’m sure he saved a little for his old age.”
“Just a shock that in his case crime paid.”
“You just never know. Maybe he wasn’t very happy.”
“I know what would make me happy.”
“Did you order an Uber?”
“Right over there.”
Photo by Dan Antion
“That looks like a Ford Taurus from the 80s.”
“A classis.”
“Don’t vclassic me. Does it run?”
“Of course. How else did it get here?”
“A tow truck maye. Well at least there is a back seat.”
“Uh.”
“Uh what?”
“Two milk crates back there.”
“Of course there are two milk crates. Why am I not surprosed.”
“Shall we go?”
“I’ll bet five bucks he won’t be able to start it.”
Today, I randomly opened my latest Detour on the Eternal Road (Now available on Amazon) to page 205. With my eyes closed, I pointed to the page, and the word closest to my finger was “Thinking.”
Waking up to WordPress’s elimination of the Classic editor made a cup of coffee more vital than ever. The machine didn’t disappoint, and the first cup was thrown back like a shot of cheap whiskey. The second cup brought to mind a workaround.
I found that clicking on the notification bell before opening a blank post still gave me the choice of which editor to use. Being sure this situation won’t last long, it is to be enjoyed while still here. This post was done in the Classic editor.
Now that the editor problem is solved, for the time being, the coffee gave me a brain teaser. “Peter Puck and Paul Peck used a pick on a mountain pock and found only a used hockey puck.”
My text notification goes off, and it is Linda Hill. It reads:
Your prompt for #JusJoJan the 18th and Stream of Consciousness Saturday is: “pack/peck/pick/pock/puck.” Use one or use ’em all for bonus points—it’s up to you! Enjoy!
