Sunday, February 21, 2016

NOTHING BEATS A GOOD PASTRAMI ON RYE WITH TWO DILLS

To celebrate the spiffy new spread sheet of all the writing contest winners, it's a writing contest!   (Of course!)


The usual rules apply:
1. Write a story using 100 words or fewer.
2. Use these words in the story:  tank  chest  tray  sure  smith
3. You must use the whole word, but that whole word can be part of a larger word. The letters for the prompt must appear in consecutive order. They cannot be backwards.
Thus: tank/stank is ok but smith/smiteth is not.
5. One entry per person. If you need a mulligan (a do-over) erase your entry and post again. It helps to work out your entry first, then post.
7. Titles count as part of the word count (you don't need a title)
11. You agree that your contest entry can remain posted on the blog for the life of the blog. In other words, you can't ask me to delete the entry and any comments about the entry at a later date. 
12. The stories must be self-contained. That is: do not include links or footnotes to explain any part of the story. Those extras will not be considered part of the story. 

       
Contest opens: Saturday 2/20/16 at 10am & Contest closes: Sunday 2/21/16 at 10am



Old Mrs. Mandelbaum was sitting at the register in her Manhattan kosher deli chain-smoking Chesterfields, ashtray poised for the fallout, while training a new busboy.
“Mayor’s coming,” the busboy said.
“Nanny Bloomers? That pinstripe schmuck doesn’t bother me.”

“Sylvia.”
“Michael.”
“You know smoking will kill you.”
“I'm blowing that theory to smithereens.” {laugh, cough, hack}
“It’s against the law to smoke in here.”
“So you keep telling me.”
“Is my order ready?”
“Pastrami on rye, two dills.”
“Just put it on my tab.” He smiled.  “See you tomorrow, Sylvia.”
“Always a pleasure, Michael.”

“Where’s the mayor’s tab?”
“I’m smoking it.”



And these were her comments:"This just cracked me up.  You need to know that Mayor Michael Bloomberg was derided as "Nanny Bloomers" for his efforts to pass legislation about health stuff (like banning smoking in bars.)   And "chain smoking Chesterfields" is a great use of brand names to convey characters.   If she'd been chain smoking Virginia Slims you'd have a whole different idea of her, right?   And it took me three passes to find the prompt word tank! "

And the winner is.... Sara Halle. 


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