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Week 515 – House Fog, Twenty Players No. 6 And Exercising The Grey Matter.

gwencron

Week 515 is my first posting of 2025.

Hope everyone had a brilliant New Year!!!

It was just after the bells when I thought on something. My mum had been a wee bit upset, understandably, she gets this way at this time of the year since my dad died. I think all of us who have lost folks do and let’s be honest, it gets worse each year, not better, cause there is always someone else to add to the list!

I did get a smile off her through the tears when I whispered to her, they can all have their positive toasts, but mine is always, ‘Thank Fuck that’s over!’ I don’t normally swear in-front of my mum and when I do, she doesn’t let me off with it!!!!

All of us being in my sister’s living room, for some reason, gave me a helluva back in time moment. I remembered us sitting, just like we were a few generations back, a few relations not yet born and a few grandparents still there in a living room filled with smoke!!

Weirdly, it was the memory of the smoke that made me smile. That was the thing, all the smokers made sure they had a hauf in their hands and a lit-fag at the ready as the Bells rang. And I should have mentioned that the coal fire could have melted metal!!

I’ve never smoked tobacco and only my mum and myself were the non-smokers of the family. I did have experience of it though from a very young age. It may only be a Scottish thing from the early seventies, but we learned our words that the teacher gave us and had put into empty tobacco tins. Some of them were even our dads!! At that young age you were sent out to The Van (A mobile sweet shop that sold some provisions but always cigarettes!) for your dad.

When we hit a certain age, you could buy a single and a single (Cig and match) from a paper shop. And then once you hit fourteen, you could smoke in the pubs!!

But it’s not like now with the non-smoking Nazis who scream about their kids’ lungs and the state of the planet, the non-smokers back then never even thought of it. Now the snowflakes, the wee Gretas and all those ‘Will somebody think of the children fuckwits’ will probably blame us historical non-smokers worse than the smokers for not being outraged.

Now here’s the thing, regarding the state of the planet – In Britain (Alone) there was an extra thirteen million or so folks in 2024 compared to 1975. That means that any of those thirteen million have got no right to moan as they have just added to the problem!!!!

…And they probably were conceived just before a post-coital cigarette!!

Okay, onto this week’s stories.

Two new writers, a greatly missed friend, a third timer and a writer who is in double figures.

We extend a warm welcome to our fledgling authors and hope that they continue to send us their work and most importantly, we hope that they have a lot of fun on the site.

As always, our initial comments follow.

First up was Brian Clark who graced the site for his first time with, ‘Helen’s Kitchen 3.30a.m’

‘I found myself caring about the characters.’

‘Very well written.’

‘The writer took you along with the story.’

On Tuesday we had the much missed Ed N. White. Out There was his third story for us.

‘There is a peculiar lilt to this that I really enjoyed.’

‘The ending in a sort of tragic way was rather funny!’

‘This certainly holds your attention.’

Our next new writer was Maiah Jezak with ‘A Familiar Conviction’

‘The writing is of book quality.’

‘The dialogue had a natural flow.’

‘Unlike so many of this type, there was nothing contrived.’

‘After Lloyd’ was the third story from Christopher J. Ananias.

‘This reminds me of ‘Carrie.’

‘Christopher writes superbly well.’

‘Isn’t Gil such a rotten name to give a kid!!’

And we finished with ‘Andytown’ from Dave Louden. This was his eleventh story and it as interesting as all the rest!!

‘Goddam weird this one…I loved it!!!’

‘Very different…Very, very different!!’

‘The delivery was first class.’

That’s us for another week.

The comments are doing very well, keep them coming. The views are going up, keep on reading. And the Sunday Spots are popular. Check them out. The only thing that I’d appeal would be any suggestions of a Re-Run. Just check out an older story that you’ve enjoyed, you can either write a spiel about it or throw in a few questions for the author – We’d keep our fingers crossed that they’d answer. But let’s be honest, when you give a writer a reason to write, it’s hard for them to resist.

I thought for a wee change, I’d give this a go. I don’t know where Gwen found this from but it was a bit of fun.

It’s one of those cryptic quizzes and all the answers are musical artists??

To be honest there were no answers but between us, we reckon that we got them all as every answer makes some sort of sense.

And using the intertwitterweb is cheating and remember what your granny told you, ‘If you cheat, you are only cheating yourself!!’

Let’s see who can get them all first!!

Butchers bread –

Enticements –

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter –

Uncivilised Eden –

They publicly announce-

Primitive shriek –

Emergency numerals –

Potter –

Back to normal –

Rain, hail, sunshine females –

Black, auburn, blonde, ginger –

Easily readable –

Warm Galaxy –

Crazy Kebab –

The Chairman went to make a film –

Toilet, toilet –

Initial man’s insect –

Ill looking serpent –

Insanity –

Lizzie, Vicky, Cleo –

Dot’s dog –

Parents –

Rain, shower, waterfall –

Swapping spit –

Metal airship –

Noisy lassies –

Down on knees with gemstone –

Guarding sub-zero rain –

Friendly Xmas plant –

Just before a piece of music, I heard my first stupid joke of the year.

– Why do divers fall backwards into the water?

If they fell forwards, they would still be in the boat!!

This song isn’t one that I’d heard before but when I did, I was blown away, it’s quite haunting in its own right.

Hugh

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Published by gwencron

35 thoughts on “Week 515 – House Fog, Twenty Players No. 6 And Exercising The Grey Matter.”

  1. Hi Hugh
    Excellent puzzle! Will work–Warm Galaxy, Mazzy Star?
    When smoking in bars was banned it killed the little hole in the wall taverns. Temperance people are bores. I refuse to call them well meaning because they are self righteous and the same people who think bans work. Which is always good news for organized crime.
    they announce–must be the backwards Proclaimers

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    1. Hi Leila,

      I find banning things interesting and infuriating.

      I watched a documentary years back about censorship. There was no rhyme or reason to why anything was censored, it all had to do with the opinions of those who were in charge.

      I think most banning is the governments at the time trying to manipulate votes under the guise of the ‘For the good of the people’.

      If they wanted to do anything for the good of the people they should all fall on their swords and let us start again.

      …A sort of re-boot of the fuckwits!!

      Hugh

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  3. Four Seasons and for noisy lassies I vote Violent Femmes–no, Siouxie and the Banshees a btter guess…maybe Whitesnake for ill serpent
    Bad joke
    Sarah Jessica Parker walks into a bar, bartender says “Hey hon, why the long face?”
    Oh, Temptations for enticements

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    2. Hi Leila,

      Two wrongs and a right!

      My follow on bad joke is a white horse walks into a bar and asks for a drink – The barman says, ‘We’ve a drink named after you.’ And the horse says, ‘What, Lionel??’

      Hugh

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  4. Hugh
    I can remember those days of smoking! Buying single cigarettes and smoking in the pubs at 14! Now those are the good ole days! Pretty cool view of smoking in Scotland. The first cig for me was a Kools coughing behind my Mom’s trailer. I remember that first drag and not too many after it. Not sure if that’s where everything took a turn or not, lol. Everyone smoked in my family. I’m sure I smelled like a regular smoke stack at school. But everyone else did too, so it probably didn’t matter.
    Christopher

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    1. Hi Christopher,

      The hysterical thing about smoking is 99.99% of the time, it goes against any other activity that can become addictive. If folks acted on their first impression of smoking, there may have been a few less smokers!!!

      I’ve never met anyone who enjoyed their first cigarette.

      Drugs, sex, booze, gambling, violence, shop-lifting, eating are more understandable!! (I will not commit myself to elaborate on my own !!)

      Hope all is well with you my fine friend.

      Hugh

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  5. I’ve never heard that Chuck Berry song. I’ve added it to a playlist. I see The Rolling Stones have a version, too. I enjoyed your reminiscence, Hugh. Four Seasons was the only one I got from the puzzle. Not surprising because my music tastes are stuck in the 60s and early 79s.

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      1. Thanks Dave,

        There are a few there from throughout the seventies.

        I’ll give the answers the next Saturday Post that I do.

        I only heard the Chuck Berry song a month or so back and it made me seek it out.

        I don’t know what it’s got, but its got something!!

        All my very best to you and yours.

        Hugh

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    2. So many good Chucks – Let It Rock went into space, Roll Over Bethoven, Oh Carol, Wee Wee Hours, Maybelline (the first hit I think), Promised Land (good cover by Elvis, Johnny B. Goode – cultural appropriation done right). Legal problems with a white woman slowed him down.

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      3. Hi Doug,

        When I added the song to the post, I thought of you!!

        Stay happy and healthy my interesting friend.

        Hugh

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  6. I see Leila is off and running with the quiz. It doesn’t surprise me, you two are streets ahead of my knowledge of the music world.

    I still have some of my dad’s Old Holborn tins. They were used for my mum to do her accounts! they still have the labels. Insurance, electric, gas etc. It reminds me of him sitting in his chair rubbing it between his hands with a newspaper spread across his lap to catch the dropped bits. The only thing I will say about the smoking ban in pubs is that at least you could work a night and not have to wash your hair before you went to bed.

    Another great post thanks, Hugh. dd

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    1. Hi Diane,

      Thanks as always for your interest and support.

      There is a pub in Ayr called ‘Billy Bridges’. When it needs decorated they still get it painted with tobacco coloured paint!!

      Now the washing your hair after a smokey shift. I wonder if you know anything about the old shampoo called ‘Sullio’ (Not sure on the spelling??’

      It was tar based and would give that just finished my work, hair smell. I’m quite sure it could be used for some sort of miss-direction!!!

      Hugh

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    1. Hi Maiah,

      You are more than welcome and your story deserved its day in the sunshine!!

      Hope you have more for us very soon.

      Hugh

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  8. Hi Hugh!
    Thanks for the Chuck Berry song! It shows another side of him that many/most probably don’t know about. That picture of him that goes with it is awesome too. He looks exactly like the precursor of Dylan and Hendrix in that photo which he of course most certainly was in real life. I agree with you, the song is haunting…it also reminds me of James Joyce’s short short story “Eveline.”
    I read an article yesterday that said Scotland’s education czars have decided to remove Robert Burns from the official advanced English curriculum – or not to remove him exactly, just drastically reduce him, so he can be put on a level with all other writers and replaced with topical, politically correct poets instead. In his honor then, as he goes down with the rest of us, I offer this brief quotation from “To Ruin”:
    “All hail! inexorable lord! / At whose destruction-breathing word / The mightiest empires fall! / Thy cruel, woe-delighted train, / The ministers of grief and pain, / A sullen welcome, all!”
    I add this quotation:
    “One night as I did wander / When corn begins to shoot, / I sat me down to ponder / upon an auld tree root. / Auld Ayr ran by before me, / And bickered to the seas, / A cushat crooded o’er me, / That echoed through the braes…”
    My problem with cigarettes or any kind of tobacco is like my problem with alcohol or sugar or certain other drugs: I can never have just one. After a certain point, the chains of addiction become nothing but chains. As difficult as breaking addictions is (and by my count I’ve broken at least half a dozen of them by now), the feeling of breaking free is profoundly greater than the feeling of remaining a slave in chains to whatever substance…but that’s just me. Like Nietzsche, I’m an “immoralist” on this as so much else, and I don’t believe in preaching or making laws against chemical consumption/s which is such a long and noble part of the writing life!…and necessary, too. If it were up to me, all would be legal, LSD, cocaine, heroin included (I would draw the line at fentanyl since a tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny undiluted drop is enough to kill an elephant)…
    As Nietzsche said in “Twighlight of the Idols”:
    “Formula of my happiness: a Yes, a No, a straight line, a GOAL…”
    I’ve bombed out on the quiz so far, don’t know why, but such is the way of life sometimes!
    THANKS AGAIN, Hugh!! Your sketches of family life at holiday time/s reminded me of my own!
    Dale

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    1. Hi Dale,

      I wrote you a spiel which I have lost – Don’t know why!!

      I’ll try and summarise.

      I didn’t know about the thinning down of Burns.

      I do know that some schools don’t teach long division, there is a discussion going on regarding the relevance of history, understanding is being replaced by finding and knowing is something that can be accessed when needed.

      At Primary we started each day by reciting the multiplication tables, been given ten mental arithmetic problems and ten words to spell. That doesn’t happen now. I take it it’s because the little darlings may get stressed or some form of PTSD if they don’t succeed.

      The best lessons to learn in life are 1. There is normally always someone better than you. 2. Be able to embrace your failings!

      Unlike addictions such as booze, eating, drugs, sex, violence, gambling etc, smoking is an interesting one. I reckon that if 99.99% of first time smokers acted on their first impression of smoking, the numbers would have been cut dramatically!

      Addiction starts with a reason. But the reason, even though always there becomes lost and as you say, folks are left more with the chains of addiction.

      Some Pringle Jumper do-gooders believe that every addict acts the way that they do due to whatever is in them. That’s fair up to a point. What they don’t understand is that human nature is still in the mix. In other-words, the addicts who have done some of the scariest things, can, in general be good guys.

      Some of the attention seeking wee bell-ends would always be that no matter if they were clean or not!

      With that in mind, have a look at this clip.

      All the very best my fine friend.

      Hugh

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  9. Hugh
    None of the men in my family smoked regularly. All the women did. It was the movies. The 30s and the 40s. And they looked the part. Cool and smokey. Cigarettes were created for women. The languid wrist. The subtle smile in the rising cloud.
    My father and my uncles. Silly buffoons. It was too small in their hand, to begin with. Then the coughing. It was like watching Billy The Kid clip his nails. — gerry

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    1. Hi Gerry,

      Now that you say that, I’ve just remembered. When I was at Secondary School, there were more girls that smoked than boys. That carried on when we started going into pubs. When I think on Gwen and her friends, four smoked, two didn’t. With us only one out of six smoked.

      …We saved our money for booze!!!

      All the very best my fine friend.

      Hugh

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      1. Hi Leila,

        Ah, when artists collide!!

        I suppose an odd punch here or there is better than any gun totting rappers!!

        I’ll post the answers to the quiz on Week 517.

        Hugh

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      2. Hugh
        You have reminded me of the worst joke I have ever heard. Forty years ago at a party, some drunk guy told me the following (which still makes little sense when regrettably sober):
        A Bear walks into a bar and asks for a drink. Bartender says he can’t serve Bears. The Bear gets mad, and says ‘Serve me or I will devour this drunk chick passed out on the bar.’
        Bartender still says No.
        So the Bear eats the woman and asks the Bartender if he has changed his mind.
        Bartender says he can’t serve Bears on drugs in his bar.
        ‘On drugs?’ the Bear bellowed.
        ‘Yeah,’ said the Bartender. ‘That was the bar bitch you ate.’

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  11. Hugh, Enormously impressed that you and Gwen got all the hidden musicians. Very entertaining (particularly liked ‘Toilet, Toilet’). Gonna contribute:
    Publicly Announce – The Proclaimers
    & ‘Rain, Shower, Waterfall’ – Wet, Wet, Wet.
    Mick

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    1. Cheers Mick,

      That’s one of those quizzes that draws you back in and you stare at it for a while.

      The answers make you kick yourself.

      I’ll post them a week on Saturday.

      Hope all is well with you my fine friend.

      Hugh

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  12. A very belated Happy New Year to you Hugh! 13 million increase since 1975? That’s a kind of startling figure and I feel like there’s a story in that somewhere.

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