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tonyburton

Apr 28, 2009, 1:16 PM

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50-word story challenge.

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How about a 50-word story challenge? In keeping with the original rules for the UK Telegraph Sunday Magazine Competition, the word count does not include the title. The themes must have some connection to Mexico, even though this example, one of the prize winners from 1988 does not:
The Critic (by Margaret Bacon):
I took it all down
exactly as He said
and no copy-editing.
I was carrying it back for
distribution when He called
after me, 'Any comments?'
"Maybe it's a bit negative,'
I suggested.
'Come back here,' He
thundered. 'And take down
another one: "Number Eleven:
Thou Shalt Not quibble." '
- - -
So, have at it, and here's hoping we get some entertaining submissions, Tony.

sioux4noff

Apr 28, 2009, 1:27 PM

Post #2 of 54 (5202 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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Our move to Mexico

We vacationed in Puerto Vallarta. We fell in love with the area and met many interesting people.
We planned -bought a house, sold a house, and downsized. Retired, and said good bye to Waco.
We began our big adventure, moved to Bucerias and we love it.

tonyburton

Apr 28, 2009, 1:35 PM

Post #3 of 54 (5200 views)

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Re: [sioux4noff] 50-word story challenge.

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WoW! That was spectacularly quick! And (by my count) you could have used 4 extra words in the story, assuming that "Our move to Mexico" is the title. Good start - who's next?

Rolly

Apr 28, 2009, 2:09 PM

Post #4 of 54 (5187 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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My LA landlady said I had to move. My friend, Enrique, said come to Lerdo and live with me and my family. So my dog, Jason, and I packed up and headed south. We built a little house and lived happily ever after, even with drug wars and hot summers.

Rolly Pirate

tashby

Apr 28, 2009, 2:18 PM

Post #5 of 54 (5182 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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The Sandal with the Notch in it

A year of living in Mexico and still I had no proof.

Complacency began to settle in. Why bother to check the bedding?, I thought. I began to walk the house barefoot. And then, there he was.

“¡Alacrán! ¡Alacrán!,” I squealed, almost in relief.

Operation Death by Sandal successful.

Rolly

Apr 28, 2009, 2:25 PM

Post #6 of 54 (5178 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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My greatest put down

While working in the campus newspaper office, I was angered by something. My potty mouth went into overdrive. When I paused for a breath, one of the girls said, rather loudly, “Just think, he has to eat with that same mouth.” I laughed hard and have told the story often.
.
.
.
OOPS, I forgot it was supposed to be México-related. Sorry about that.

Rolly Pirate

(This post was edited by Rolly on Apr 28, 2009, 2:48 PM)

La Isla

Apr 28, 2009, 2:43 PM

Post #7 of 54 (5166 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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From Philly to Chilangolandia

Unemployed in Philadelphia, no job prospects. But if I retired early, I could live on my pension in Mexico, land of perfect weather and fabulous fruit, not to mention the home of a good friend. So I flew to Mexico City in the fall of 2007, and here I am!

Hound Dog

Apr 28, 2009, 2:50 PM

Post #8 of 54 (5158 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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This is totally unfair. I gave my precise 50 word response on the Southern Mexico Forum at exactly 2:02PM. OK - I suppose I should have read the rules first. Damn! That matters not since I can do this a thousand times in exact 50 word sequences without even a hint of punctuation without breathing in even once.

Maybelle was sick of the innuendo surrounding her move to Juarez from Yazoo and that was understandable since she and Huey split but here is what is important. Huey was a losing sumbitch who was the key maker down at Western Auto and he was fired for simply existing.

Hound Dog

Apr 28, 2009, 3:34 PM

Post #9 of 54 (5143 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] 50-word story challenge.

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You are an Algerian and the place you are living is a "bidonville" in some depressing Paris suburb coming from a proud African Arab family and here you are in Paris without hope and the town in which you were raised was a department of France but is now desert redoubt for Islamic terrorists and tell me where you go from there.

tonyburton

Apr 28, 2009, 4:41 PM

Post #10 of 54 (5123 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] 50-word story challenge.

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Please note that, as with Rolly's second entry, this story is disallowed as
having no reference to Mexico. Please stay on track and make sure that you
don't forget where the boundaries are, both metaphorically and geographically.
And, before you count them, yes there are fifty words in this response.

(This post was edited by tonyburton on Apr 28, 2009, 4:41 PM)

tashby

Apr 28, 2009, 5:01 PM

Post #11 of 54 (5116 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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Ahhh, hell. It's supposed to be exactly fifty words? I need to learn how to read directions....I just thought it had to be no more than 50. I actually did a word count and it was exactly fifty....but then I tightened it up!

Brevity, people! Brevity!

morgaine7

Apr 28, 2009, 6:33 PM

Post #12 of 54 (5093 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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Lola told me earlier this afternoon that the reason Mexico City has the swine flu and we don't is that it's cold there. I tried to convince her that it’s more likely because we have lower population density and are practically an island, but she wasn’t buying. I didn’t insist.

Kate <-- not a word

sergiogomez

Apr 28, 2009, 7:46 PM

Post #13 of 54 (5077 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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Far from Home

In an 804-square foot house near the train tracks, the phone rings. We just got a puppy, and it smells good because Mama is making tamales today. –Someone answer the phone! –It’s Aunt Rosi from Mexico. –The Zetas are back again. Gabriela’s son Alonso got shot in the spine.

Gringal

Apr 29, 2009, 10:27 AM

Post #14 of 54 (5022 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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TITLE: MOVING TO mEXICO

2500 plus miles of dry, hot August later, they were near the casa, rented sight unseen. They passed the prison. On to the seedy barrio. Her back hurt, and the stomach knot clamped.
She said "honey, I think we've made a terrible mistake". He grinned. "Welcome to Mexico".
Years ago.

sandykayak

Apr 29, 2009, 10:37 AM

Post #15 of 54 (5018 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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SHE SLINKETH

It’s sitting there…waiting for me. Thinking of my May 23 reservations, I drag myself into the office every day, tongue hanging out, drooling for the day when I can walk out of my El Parque house and around the corner to soak in the spa….AAAHHH.
Ooops…NOT! La Gripa slinks everywhere.

(50 exactly! :)
Sandy Kramer
Miami, Fla & El Parque

Oscar2

Apr 29, 2009, 3:37 PM

Post #16 of 54 (4974 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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Siempre Mexico

Aahh, Mexico, a place in my dreams which sings to me of tomorrow. I arrived! Here I am feeling esta terra, savoring tácitos and thanking the angel that brought me. My tomorrows are now here in the land of my dreams, where my tomorrows now exist en mi patio.

(This post was edited by Oscar2 on Apr 29, 2009, 6:00 PM)

NinaNina

Apr 29, 2009, 5:46 PM

Post #17 of 54 (4953 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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How many tamales?

Sitting on the street corner in Zihuatanejo, waiting for the bus to come on by. A woman pushes her tamale cart toward me, telling me, "I'm going to sell enough tamales to buy myself a bus ticket to Los Angeles and see my son." How many tamales will it take?

bfwpdx

Apr 29, 2009, 5:57 PM

Post #18 of 54 (4949 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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The sun rose high over the ejido. Jose Luis beamed as he came through the gate: "My cow, she had a calf last night". Last year, he had to sell almost all of his herd to pay for Don Manuel's funeral. Terse words, profound meaning. We smiled, conspirators in celebration.

tashby

Apr 29, 2009, 8:38 PM

Post #19 of 54 (4916 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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These are getting really good. Great idea, Tony!

Yes.

tonyburton

Apr 29, 2009, 9:05 PM

Post #20 of 54 (4912 views)

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Re: [tashby] 50-word story challenge.

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Indeed! The quality of responses is most impressive. Anyone else going to try?

gbatrucks

May 1, 2009, 7:56 AM

Post #21 of 54 (4867 views)

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Re: [tonyburton] 50-word story challenge.

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SONNY & CHER

Out the car window I see 2 puppies sucking sauce off a discarded taco plate. They give me that “Bout time you showed up sucker-gringo!” look. Scoop ‘em up, head for home, and as of now it’s 4 rescue dogs and 5 rescue cats. Great fun at our zoo.
"The trouble with life is there's no background music."

(This post was edited by gbatrucks on May 1, 2009, 8:00 AM)

Hound Dog

May 1, 2009, 9:16 AM

Post #22 of 54 (4848 views)

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Re: [gbatrucks] 50-word story challenge.

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Foreigners spend hours constructing language rules meant to ensure property enfranchisement while those disinclined to such behavior spend their time devising ways to remove property from imbeciles who belch nonsense about rules and regulations meant solely to protect the moneyed class from the anarchic swine waiting to steal them dry.

There you go. Precisely 50 words, no more no less, and a serious message. While we spend hours playing word games and feeling clever they steal our underwear right from under our butts and we don´t even miss it until it´s too late.

Now for a good story about accomplished thievery and naive victims, look to another thread if you care.

Bethie

May 1, 2009, 10:26 AM

Post #23 of 54 (4830 views)

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The Mistress

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She calls to him, whispering in his ear, yet he knows I hear. It is time. He will be with her soon, as will I, for today we get married. We will go to her together, Mexico, she calls. Only to return north of the boarder, never more, never more.

Bethie
(and in a few hours - Elizabeth M. de Cervantes)!

gbatrucks

May 1, 2009, 12:54 PM

Post #24 of 54 (4806 views)

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Re: [Hound Dog] 50-word story challenge.

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Bubba....What the hell you talkin about? You been into that fantasy tonic again? And is uncle Jack still up in the frozen north?

Trucks
"The trouble with life is there's no background music."

Hound Dog

May 1, 2009, 2:57 PM

Post #25 of 54 (4788 views)

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Re: [gbatrucks] 50-word story challenge.

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Bubba....What the hell you talkin about? You been into that fantasy tonic again? And is uncle Jack still up in the frozen north?

Trucks:

Whatever you may think of my overwrought prose it is good to know that I have an audience of at least one no-good redneck and you will note that all of my submissions contain exactly 50 words, neither less nor more, as best I can count them while absorbing fantasy tonic and, while this submission does not pass Tony´s acid test since no reference is made to Mexico except for the obvious fact that the writer is on his way there as fast as The Midnight Flyer from Memphis to San Antonio will take him, I just made this up:

From Natchez to Mobile, from Memphis to St. Joe, wherever the four winds blow, I´ve been in some big towns, heard me some big talk and here is one thing I know, a woman´s a two face, a worrisome thing ´who´ll leave you to sing the blues in the night.

I should set that to music. I think it has legs.

BTW, I haven´t heard from Uncle Jack in quite some time but presume if he is still on the planet it is in one of those forlorn places with copious winter snows and certainly he wishes he were back here with the brothers and sisters.

(This post was edited by Hound Dog on May 1, 2009, 3:05 PM)

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