A Horror a Day keeps the Horrors Away -- One a day 'til Hallowe'en

 
Carousel-o-saurus was written after a trip to Como Park (lovely place!) Minneapolis where I saw the lovely Cafesjian's Carousel which was built in 1914 and so is now 100 and still works.

 Happy Birthday horses :) 

and in the science museum I encountered this.

Put the two together in my mind and you get

THIS


Enjoy the read and come back tomorrow for another of Oonah's MicroHorrors.

MicroHorror Competition 2014

Food for Thought for Friday -- Trilogy of pet peeves

First of all let me direct you to AGNESENGA up today at PP&P.
Second let me tell you about two things I know are coming up next week. My Monday Blog at Parallel Oonahverse features a very special poet! And I will have a Horror Story for you every day at my Facebook Page and a rather longer than usual story at Bewildering Stories. Do send them a story!
Thirdly I hope some of you will buy a PRINT copy of The Linnet's Wings Autumn Issue out NOW. It really is a great issue!

Pet peeves? Well -- I HATE that we are being punished by the EU for being too well off. Anybody feeling that well off. btw???

I love supermarket wars, don't you? But I hate Loyalty Cards which are specifically designed to stop you from shopping around. And I hate the government's idea about loaded plastic for people who receive benefits so they have little or no choice about what to buy. -- HEY YOU! You'r poor! How dare you have a beer? Do you really need that skirt? Sweets? Dessert? Xmas presents? Sorry it's not allowed with this card! And I hate that pharmaceutical firms are more interested in MONEY than in health or research. Did you know that most of them pay researchers only find what they want found and that as a result a lot of PURE research is underfunded or ignored? And of course they do not provide drugs for "third world" diseases. Hence the pickle we are now in over Ebola which should have been dealt with years ago! And so because these topics have a short shelf life, I offer you my trilogy of pet peeves.

shop Shop SHOP

We launched our brand new loyalty card today

along with the promise -- You will never pay

more here than in a cheapest retail store

because we believe in customer power.

We will refund the difference between

what we thought last week and what our profits have seen

is going to happen next month if you don’t shop here.

Shop here and we will give you points. Yes points.

That’s right. Shiny big starry plastic points

you can only spend here.

So pointed and plastic you can almost smell the fear.

Doctor W H O?

We launched our brand new medical ship today

Along with the promise – you may not have to pay

what the pharmaceutical companies demand in terms of wealth.

Because we believe in world wide health

and we will pay for the difference between

years of indifference and this easily foreseen

totally predictable pandemic, endemic

to the third world. But the western world could disintegrate in panic.

That’s right. Big black spiky riots of manic

justified anger -- well beyond our power to control.

You can smell the collective political sweat as heads of state roll.

right Right RIGHT

We launched card credits for the poor today.

We didn’t mean anything we said yesterday

about people power or freedom. We’ve developed a vaccine you see

to protect the people who really matter So don’t flatter yourselves.

Because we believe in the trickle down effect and we don’t need

half of you, workers, old people, invalids and general shirkers.

We need to get on with the business of government greed;

save money on services. Make money on investments and expenses.

That’s right Far right. Operation can you credit it should run smooth as silk

When we makes sure the farmer gets nothing for milk

and the commonality of animals get exploited.

Food for Thought for Friday -- The Unessential Obscenity of POWER

Having spent last week contemplating my own back yard so to speak, I now turn my attention the Oonahverse as I would create it. I was thinking about Don Webb's article in BwS from a few weeks ago The Year Civilisation Collapsed -- a look back from the future at the potential devastation of today -- the fall of civilisation as we know it. And I was thinking how very avoidable all this was -- I do not say IS because I think it is slready too late.

At this stage in our development we could already have a world in which every person on this planet has a right to:

Sanitation -- it is not that difficult to bring clean water to even the most remote parts of the world these days and yet we prefer to bring fracking. We waste squillions of gallons of water every day and there are those  who even argue that water is not a basic human right and would prefer to SELL it to the poorest coutries in the world to make -- guess -- MONEY. It is the one thing none of us can do without. Doesn't that make it a basic right?? And toilet facilities do not even have to involve water -- waste can be composted and used to make ground productive.

Health Care -- we have medicines in the developed world and scientists who do vital research. If that was rolled out to all humanity, then we would not now be facing the spectre of Ebola. Everyone would have proper facilities on  hand, trained staff and hospitals and no volunteers would be needed to GO anywhere. This and many other situations are a result of negligence by world powers who are interested only in the welfare of the few. In addition our own government here in the UK is trying to undermine the NHS so thay can -- guess -- make MONEY out of PRIVATE health care which they can then invest in.( I know it is overstretched butwell thought out immegration rules could settle that. )

Nutrition -- an increasingly obese population (me included I have to admit) :( eats three times as much as we need and can't make up our minds between chicken kiev and roast beef whilst others starve or butcher monkeys/shoot down cuckoos -- whatever it takes -- to survive. You know everybody could eat -- today! Instead we destroy tons of food every year in order to keep prices atrificially high so that big corporates can make -- guess -- MONEY

Power  -- we can use waves, wind, solar panels, hydrogen. Do we? Not if the OWNERS of the power companies have anything to say about it -- they and their political puppets! Instead they want to make more £££££££££ $$$$$$$$$ maybe even by FRACKING and contaminating WATER.

Well you can't eat and drink ££££££££ and you can't take $$$$$$$$$ as a cure for ebola. Mind you, you could burn both as fuel -- but not if you want to go on breathing this thin envelope of air which is all we have to breathe!

Here is a FUN interactice map that lets you play about with climate change and simply
WATCH YOUR WORLD DISAPPEAR

Co-operation not competition.  We have the technology. 

Related links:  Bewildering stories

TRANPARENCY

PURE RESEARCH 

Food for Thought for Friday -- There's no place like home, There's no place like home...

Four years ago today 10/10/10 we were at the RenFest near Annapolis Maryland,with Nathan and Jenesta,eating giant turkey legs and steak on sticks.

That first inscription really took our eye ;)

It was very warm weather. But here we are in the cool of a Northumberland October and no immediate plans for travel.

Do I mind? No. There seems to be such mayhem in the world today that I am happy to sit in my quiet corner hoping it stays quiet!

Sometimes all you need in this world is the view from the windscreen of the car, after a walk in local woods, on the way 

                                    HOME.

clicks ruby shoes  

My thought for Friday 3rd October 2014

My lovely sister-in-law, Essie -- a wonderful wife and mother and that was always enough.


Rest in Peace






The Separation of Things

Albumen slips

between the fingers.

Yolk rests like a breast

in the hand.

Melted butter clarifies:

solids from oil.

Vinaigrette demulsifies:

gold on top of red.

Life slips

away.

The soul settles

in a parallel place.

© Oonah V Joslin -- September 2014

Food for Thought for Friday -- The Future belongs to...

The Future belongs to our Children's children

(of course)

but only if we adults can learn to listen in Sandish..

A two part story poem by Amanda Baker

A beautiful tale with lyrical notes, Casey and the Surfmen has an ageless appeal. It sifts through the sands of time and finds the child in all of us.

You could listen for FREE or DOWNLOAD for £1 -- c'mon! £1.00!Be a mensch!

Food for Thought for Friday -- Scotland the Brave

Mr Cameron, Mr Clegg, and yes-- Mr Milliband,

The real issue is that you are disenfranchising the majority of ordinary people in the UK.

You threaten to disnmantle a health care system we have all paid into all our lives and hand over the reigns to private companies who will literally KILL people who cannot pay. Most of us cannot pay.

You are allowing people into this country who have criminal records in their own country. America would not do this. Neither should we EU or no EU!

If I go abroad I have to wait in line with other EU citizens to have my passport checked. I want a UK passport. I was BORN HERE! Surely that should carry some weight?

If Scotland now gets a better deal than regions of England, Wales and N Ireland, that will create more inequality and resentment. We need the rich to pay more taxes not take advantage of the poor and we need a government that listens to our legitimate concerns over a whole range of issues.

Scotland went to the polls 89% of them! Scotland decided to stay in the UK and I for one, am very glad they did. Of course a lot of Scottish people are disappointed today but at least it's democratic disappointment. And they were right about one thing -- Westminster must change its attitude. Most people have modest wishes but make no mistake -- we are no longer consider ourselves born to support the vast wealth of the few nor to serve your petty ambitions.

Take a lesson Britain -- next MAY when we have a chance to vote, turn out and VOTE.

Scotland the brave!