Poetry Challenge #249-Go For the Os
Fries or Rings? I go for onion rings every time. If like me, you go for the Os, then this is your lucky day! Happy National Onion Ring Day (June 22nd)!
Folks go round and round and round about who came up with the delish idea to batter-dip and deep fry rings of onion.
According to Spirit of the Holiday website:
Texas-based restaurant chain Kirby’s Pig Stand claims it played a big part in onion rings’ craze. Give me an O! Oh yum!
Ohhhh No Mooooooo! Kirby’s Pig Stand is long gone.
Give me an O! Oh yum, I want some!
Want Crunch? Watch and Listen!
Poetry Challenge #249
Go For the Os!
Write a circular poem.
Because the best onion rings are crunchy, use words with lots of hard C & K sounds so they really crunch.
Because the best onion rings—whether we like it or not—are fatty, add extra descriptive words to make your poem extra fatty. For, as everyone knows, when it comes to onion rings—and some poems too—flavor wise, fat’s where it’s at!
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just CRUNCH! OHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Who Inspires Me? Opal Lee
A one-year new holiday commemorating Juneteenth, sort for June 19th, an event many outside of Texas didn’t know about before last year. A momentous event we might still not know about—and definitely wouldn’t be celebrating if it were not for the actions of one determined then 94-year-old woman: Opal Lee
Opal Lee walked from Fort Worth Texas to Washington DC— “a little old lady in tennis shoes”—2 1/2 miles at a stretch, to commemorate the 2 1/2 years it took for word of the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring all enslaved people free, to finally reached Texas.
When Opal arrived at the Capitol on September 23, 2020, she delivered to Congress a petition to declare Juneteenth a holiday with 1.5 million signatures. Watch a Video About Opal Lee’s Walk here!
“ None of us are free until we’re all free.”
Juneteenth marks the day in 1865 that word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached enslaved Texans—two years and six months after President Abraham Lincoln issued it—making Texas one of the last states to legally abolish slavery. In 1980, thanks to activist Opal Lee and others, Texas declared Juneteenth a statewide holiday.
In 2021, when President Biden declared Juneteenth a federal holiday, Opal Lee, called “The Grandmother of Juneteenth” was there!
For more about how Juneteenth came to be—and why—read/share Opal’s picture book, The Real Opal Lee
And for more about Opal enjoy Alice Fay Duncan and Keturah A Bobo’s picture book biography, Opal Lee and What it Means to be Free.
Even more: Maya Smart has curated an excellent list of Juneteenth Picture Books!
Happy Happy Juneteenth!
Fin Pal asks Norman: "What About Harry?"
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
But first a Finny!
Q: What do you call a goldfish with no eye?
Q: What do you call a goldfish with no eye?
A: GOLDFSHHHHH
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish- about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Don’t forget to order your copy of NOT NORMAN: A GOLDFISH STORY and NORMAN: ONE AMAZING GOLDFISH!!
Poetry Challenge #248-Say Cheese!
I’ve got a Nikon Camera/I’d love to take a photograph…
If you remember that song, then you probably recall cameras as something other than an app on your smartphone. You might even, like me, have one tucked into a drawer somewhere… Nikon, Cannon, Polaroid, Camera Obscura!
Well dang, pull out your old box camera—or your big lens—and give it a good dusting for today is National Photography Day. That’s right, every June 15 the North American Nature Photography Association, otherwise known as NANPA, along with millions of photographers go snap happy!
Poetry Challenge #248
Say Cheese!
Find a photo from at least ten years ago (more is better). Study the photo.
If there are people in it, who are they?
What are they doing?
What might they be thinking?
Where is the photo taken? Are there buildings? Trees? Plants? Who was the photographer? Who wasn’t in the picture?
Write a free verse poem telling the story of this photograph.
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
Still baffled? The song is Kodacrome by Paul Simon. Here’s a snappy version sung by the Muppets!
Click to the Muppets singing Kodachrome
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
Fin Pal asks Norman: "Do You Have a Friend?"
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
Glug
Glug
Glug . . .
But first a finny:
“Q: Why are goldfish so easy to weigh?”
“Q: Why are goldfish so easy to weigh?
A: Because they have their own scales!”
Do you have a question for Norman the Goldfish- about friends, school, pets, family, life in and outside the fishbowl? Send him a letter!
Don’t forget to order your copy of NOT NORMAN: A GOLDFISH STORY and NORMAN: ONE AMAZING GOLDFISH!!
Poetry Challenge #247-Upsie-Daisy
Forget your troubles, come on, get happy…*
National Upsy Daisy Day (June 8)** is “set aside to encourage you to face the day positively and to get up gloriously, gratefully and gleefully each morning.”
Upsidaisy
Ups-a-daisy
Upsie-daisy
Upsy-daisy
Oops-a-daisy
Oopsy-daisy
Hoops-a-daisy
However you spell it, the term “upsy-daisy” dates back to the mid 1800s. (Maybe some nursemaid sometime said it to a child named “Daisy” while lifting her after a fall, and it stuck.) It just sounds happy. Try it “Upsie-Daisy!”
“You’ll find the life is more worthwhile if you just smile.”
Poetry Challenge #247
Upside Down and Right Side UP
In honor of Upsie-Daisy Day write a five-line poem beginning and ending with the same line.
And, in honor of the day, try to include the word “daisy” in your poem.
When your finished read your poem from the top down and then from the bottom up. Which view do you prefer?
Set Your Timer for 7 Minutes
Start Writing!
Don’t Think About it, just do it!
If you need a boost, watch the Upsy Daisy Day video featuring “Bring You a Daisy a Day” song by Hank Snow.
*Judy Garland sang in Summer Stock (1950, Saul Chaplin), Forget your troubles, come on, get happy….
**Stephanie West Allen created National Upsy Daisy Day in 2003. Her desire in creating the celebration was to “make humor, laughter, and a positive attitude part of the Upsy Daisy Day way.”
Cindy Faughnan and I began this 7-Minute Poetry Challenge 2000+ days ago. Now we take turns creating prompts to share with you. Our hope is that creatives—children & adults—will use our prompts as springboards to word play time. If you join us in the Challenge, let us know by posting the title, a note, or if you want, the whole poem in the comments.
Click on Fishbowl link and sign up to receive email notifications from Kelly's blog (aka The Fishbowl):
All who subscribe, comment or share a poem will be entered in . . .
What Inspires Me? #18 Batter UP!
I watched a lot of baseball this weekend, including 5-year-old Jack’s T-Ball and Ben’s 8-10 Little League. Each time those pint-sized players stepped up to the plate—regardless of which team—I willed them a hit.
And as the spindly scowling pitchers went into their windup, I willed them strikes. Baseball is hard work. At one at bat, our pitcher, Jameson had to throw 11 pitches before the batter took a base. Eleven times that batter squared up, eleven times that pitcher wound up, eleven tense trys.
The MLB record for the most pitches at a single at-bat is 21. It was set in 2018 by LA Angels’ pitcher Jaime Barria who used up 21 pitches to finally strike-out San Francisco Giants’ Brandon Belt.
Later, my son Max, who coaches Ben’s team, mentioned during pre-game prep, how pitcher and catcher aside, players might only have a couple of chances to get hands on a ball, so they had to be ready, and they had to make it good. Which got me thinking about all of us…
In 1923, arguably Babe Ruth’s best season—the only season he was named the American League’s MVP—his batting average was .349.
Not only is that the NY Yankees highest single-season batting average it’s also the Yankee’s all-time highest batting average. (The Babe’s MLB career batting average is .342.)
In baseball, the batting average (BA), is defined as the number of hits divided by at bats. Which means that out of ten times at bat, Babe Ruth got a hit less than 3 1/2 times—which means about 7 times he was OUT!
There is only one player in the history of Major League Baseball with a BA of 1000—One Thousand! His name is John Paciorek.
Drafted by the Houston Colts, Paciorek played in the minors until 1963 when he was promoted to the Colt 45’s active roster. In his one and only MLB game—Colt 45’s vs NY Mets—right-fielder Paciorek went to the plate five times. He hit 3 singles, walked twice and scored 4 runs. That day Houston beat the NY Mets with a score of 13-4.
Paciorek aside, the highest all-time single-season Batting Average record was set by Tetelo Vargas, an outfielder on the Negro League’s NY Cubans.
In 1943, at the age of 38, in his final recorded season, Vargas posted a batting average of .471. That means he got a hit almost 1 or of every 2 at bats. But not ever player is a heavy hitter. The MLB’s average Batting Average is about .250.
Which means every time an MLB batter—the best of the best—takes the mounds chances are about 4 to 1 they’ll make an out. But they keep taking that plate. They keep swinging. That’s what inspires me!
So I’ll end with the advice Coach Max gave his players this weekend:
Square up before every pitch.
Keep your eye on the ball.
Want to hit!
Fin Pal asks Norman "Wanna Play?"
Ready to read Norman’s answer? Scroll down . . .
