Week 590 – ‘A Scottish Soldier Is Worse’, ‘Perfect Skin’ Is As Good And A Happy Century!!!

Week 590 has crept up on us.

I am writing this before Scotland’s last group game at The World Cup. They began well with a win over Haiti. Let’s just say that the game with Morocco didn’t go so well. After seventy seconds, the whole of Scotland screamed ‘Awwwwwww FUCK!!!!!’

At the time of writing this, we need a result against Brazil. We always leave ourselves with a tiny wee bit to do!!!!

I would like to share a song that The Tartan Army were singing.

‘Let the wind blow high,

Let the wind blow low,

O’er the streets

In my kilt I’ll go,

All the lassies shout ‘Hello’,

Donald, where’s your boozers!!!’

I could show you a clip of Andy Stewart singing the original but all that ‘White Heather Club’ shite should be left in a shortbread tin for New Year!! (And only if you are from Brigadoon!)

There are probably a few folks out there who have no idea on what I was writing about. Be glad!!! Be very glad!!!!

Shit! I had a brilliant link there, as I was going to say, ‘Now, here’s a cracking Scottish singer.’ but I’ve just found out, he isn’t Scottish!! I wonder why I thought that?? What the hell, I’m here now. (Rattlesnake is an excellent album!)

Back to a shite link, I’ve had a few of these in my time and a few more that I can’t remember!

I’d like to mention a few thoughts on story plot.

We’ve had a few that explore the idea that hunting is a right of passage into manhood. These folks are barking up the wrong tree with us. Hunting for food is fair but we still don’t want to read about it. But hunting for sport or passage is an automatic refusal.

I’ve never understood the killing of a wee beastie which then transports you into manhood! (Unless you have a four inch knife and are up against a T-Rex – Fair play to you then!)

We are a simpler and more basic nation – No need for death. Two things make you a man. 1. First time you can drink a bottle of spirit without being sick. 2. Lets just say, when you learn to appreciate a woman and she appreciates you.

The two can be done on the same night but it’s normally the woman who has had to drink the booze!!!!

Don’t get me started on becoming a father – Have you seen some of the mutants out there who can reproduce?

And also, crying. That doesn’t happen with us. (Probably with the exception of The Brazil result!)

We don’t cry. We push all our emotions deep, deep down into our stomachs, ignore them until our fatal heart-attack that kills us around fifty-five. We go to our deaths young but happy knowing that we never cried!

We also receive a few stories that rely on Coincidence. Don’t do that folks. A reader never accepts this, they will always question at the best, but more commonly, come to the conclusion that ‘This is pish.’

Strangely enough, I’ve just finished watching the Drama Series ‘I Will Find You’ based on Harlan Coben’s book. It relied on a huge coincidence and even though, that overall, I enjoyed this, I still can’t get that part out of my mind.

Last one is Assumption. Please see the first seventeen lines of this posting and that will explain what I mean!

At least I addressed it!

Most enthusiasts of whatever assume that the reader has as much knowledge and love for a subject that they do. They probably don’t. You can only specialise if it’s something generic like breathing. Other than that, think on something that you hate and wonder if you’d enjoy reading about it. I suppose that’s why emotion and revenge are two very popular topics as we can all relate to them.

Okay onto this week’s stories.

We had a new writer, a thirty-thirder a fifth timer and me.

As always, our initial comments follow.

First up was Matias Travieso-Diaz with, ‘Spared By A Sign.’ This was story number five for Matias.

‘I can feel the positive intent.’

‘This held me.’

‘This was an example of the trust people should show.’

Mick Bloor has now amassed a very impressive thirty-three stories. ‘The Poem That Changed His Life’ was his latest.

‘Like a lot of Mick’s work, this could either be an ‘Auld Author’ or a normal story. That shows some skill.

‘I’ll need to look up that poem.’

‘Mick picks out the little known but interesting.’

Robert Reece returned for the second time. His story, ‘Lunalae’, was published on Wednesday.

‘A very strange piece.’

‘This won me over.’

‘I’m slightly confused but in a good way.’

I was next on Thursday with ‘Dirty Glass.’ This was the second story that I based on a house that I had to visit through work. This has happened a few times. There is a graveyard in Ayr where, I think, four of my stories have been set.

I just wish I was able to write a few due to my multiple lottery wins!!!!

And we finished off with ‘Indian Summer’ by Mike Lee. This was Mike’s first story for us. We welcome him and hope that he has fun on the site. We also look forward to receiving more of his work.

‘He got the ‘tuff’ girl very right!’

‘It’s great to see Mike get this one through.’

‘The real hard cases don’t need to advertise.’

That’s us for another week folks.

Keep on reading, submitting, commenting and saying thanks – Not to the fellow up the stairs, that’s between you and him, more the folks who comment on your stories!

Leila let me know that it would be Mel Brooks 100^th birthday on Sunday. I had a look at his work and didn’t know that he had something to do with both ‘The Elephant Man’ and ‘The Fly’. I don’t know why those surprised me but they did.

I need to thank the man for fifty two years of ‘Young Frankenstein.’ I’ve seen that film, fuck knows how many times and it creases me up every single time.

Instead of a piece of music, in honour of the great man, I thought I’d pick a scene. That caused me a bit of a quandary as I could have chosen any section from throughout the film. However, after much changing back and forth, I decided on this.

Gene Hackman showed what a truly great actor he was – He did ‘Glint in the eye’ ironically!!!!

Hugh

Image – The Saltire flyinng proud against a blue sky from Pixabay.com