The Anal & The Banal

I've been writing a good bit and when that happens this blog tends to suffer. Bear with me, I'm bound to hit a rocky patch where the words cease to flow as freely. Unfortunately, these smooth stretches never last long enough.

But in the meantime let me share a few things that have recently occurred to me in my frantic state to get the plethora of thoughts in my head down on paper.

The word hustle is used fairly often. He hustled to catch the bus. But have you ever seen the word bustle used on its own and not paired with hustle? The hustle and bustle of another frantic day forced him to stop at the liquor store and buy a bottle of rum.

SOB, or S.O.B? Has the acronym been used long and widely enough to now be a word all of it's own or do you need the periods to set it off so as not to think it is simply sob (as in to cry) in caps? The me the punctuation in it seems out of place in dialogue it looks awkward. Here is the context from Plundered Booty in which I use it. Which do y'all think is clearer and looks better

After a bit Frank said, “He sure is a brazen SOB.”

After a bit Frank said, “He sure is a brazen S.O.B.”

I realize this is not the type of thing that would keep the work from being accepted, but it is the ind of thing that slows my writing down while I ponder the best way to do it. Yes, I can get anal about my writing. I am extremely disorganized and haphazard about most things but not my writing, or the arraignment of my fishing tackle box. Guess we all have to be anal about something.

While the posts are in stink mode I'll try to add at least one picture to keep things interesting.


This is a shot of the Amarillo skyline as viewed a couple of miles southeast of town. Okay, so that's not all that exciting either, but this is my view every morning on the way to work so I thought I'd share it. Guess it beats the exhaust smudged window of a dirty bus or the unending string of taillights that many people are forced to look at during their trek to work.