Spreading your wings in a perplexing world
April, 2024                                                    James P. Hurd

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Contents

• Writer’s Corner
• Blessed Unbeliever now available
• New story
• This month’s puzzler
• Wingspread Ezine subscription information
• Wisdom

Writer’s Corner

Tip for writers: You can spin a tale that exists only in your head. But if you’re talking about a historic, known place, character or event, you’d better research it and get your facts right. Most of your readers won’t notice or care, but there’s that one that will find the error, then publish your mistake far and wide on Facebook.

Word of the month: PROP BET. Short for “proposition.” Propping is making a bet on something the bookmakers usually don’t take bets on. For instance, betting on the number of free throws in a basketball game.  

Question for you:  Writing a novel takes writing skill and great research. But it also takes imagination. You must seduce your reader into believing in locations, events or situations that are unusual, spun out of thin air. A favorite example: Charles Dickens tries to convince us that the evil groveler, Uriah Heep, is a believable character. How do you fire up your imagination when you write?

BLESSED UNBELIEVER novel

Blessed Unbeliever (paper or Kindle version) can be found at Wipf and Stock Publishers, Amazon https://a.co/d/9su5F3o or wherever good books are sold.

New story: “Evangelical: What’s in a Word?”

I can’t control what people mean by “evangelical” any more than I can demand that non-English speakers understand my English. A word means what the hearer thinks it means. Meanings of words change. For instance, “gay” used to mean bright and happy, as in “a gay party.” “Cool” used to refer to air temperature. No more. Thus, I can never guarantee other people will accept my parochial definition of “evangelical.” It used to be that people thought a fundamentalist was an evangelical on steroids and an evangelical was a fundamentalist on Prozac No more.. Today, “evangelical” means something quite different. . . .

To read more, click here:  https://jimhurd.com/2024/04/08/evangelicalism-whats-in-a-word/

Leave a comment on the website and share with others. Thanks.

This month’s puzzler

(Thanks to Car Talk archives) Many years ago, one of our producers lived in New York. And he was a two-timing guy; he had two girlfriends.. 

One of the girlfriends lived in Brooklyn and the other lived in the Bronx. 

He could never decide which one to visit. He liked both of them equally and decided that he would just leave it to fate. He knew that when he went down to get the train, he would descend the stairs into the subway and pretty soon a train would come. And if it was the Bronx train, he’d get on the train and go visit the girl in the Bronx. If it was the Brooklyn train, he’d get on and visit the girlfriend in Brooklyn. And what made it great was that the trains ran equally often, every 10 minutes.

So he decided that he would go down to the train at random times during the day or night. He didn’t know the schedules of these trains, but he did know that every 10 minutes there would be a Brooklyn train, and every 10 minutes there would be a Bronx train. He figured his chances are 50/50, either way. 

However, he finds himself going to Brooklyn 9 out of 10 times. Even though the trains run equally, every 10 minutes to each location, and he chooses random times to go down to the train, he ends up 9 out of 10 times going to Brooklyn. 

Why was this happening?

(Answer will appear in next month’s WINGSPREAD newsletter.)

Answer to last month’s puzzler: 

What word has three sets of double letters? And what word has two H’s back to back? There might be a bunch of answers to this one. 

The first one is the word ‘bookkeeper’! b.o.o.k.k.e.e.p.e.r! Love that word. There may be others out there, but this one is the one we were looking for. 

And for the second word, the answer is, ‘withhold’. Two H’s in that word. And I’m sure there are many more out there, especially if people use Google. But these two were the ones we were looking for.

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Wisdom

Strategies of an avid reader

Will Rogers on aging:

First ~ Eventually you will reach a point when you stop lying about your age and start bragging about it.

Second ~ The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for.

Third ~ Some people try to turn back their odometers. Not me; I want people to know why I look this way. I’ve traveled a long way, and some of the roads weren’t paved.

Fourth ~ When you are dissatisfied and would like to go back to your youth, think of Algebra.

Fifth ~ You know you are getting old when everything either dries up or leaks.

Sixth ~ I don’t know how I got over the hill without getting to the top.

Seventh ~ One of the many things no one tells you about aging is that it’s such a nice change from being young.

Eighth ~ One must wait until evening to see how splendid the day has been.

Ninth ~ Being young is beautiful, but being old is comfortable and relaxed.

Tenth ~ Long ago, when men cursed and beat the ground with sticks, it was called witchcraft , , , Today it’s called golf.

 Will Rogers, who died in a 1935 plane crash in Alaska with bush pilot Wiley Post, was one of the greatest political country/cowboy sages this country has ever known. Some of his sayings:

1. Never slap a man who’s chewing tobacco.

2. Never kick a cow chip on a hot day.

3. There are two theories to arguing with a woman. Neither works.

4. Never miss a good chance to shut up.

5. Always drink upstream from the herd.

6. If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging.

7. The quickest way to double your money is to fold it and put it back into your pocket.

8. There are three kinds of men:

The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation.

The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence and find out for themselves.

9. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment.

10. If you’re riding’ ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.

11. Lettin’ the cat outta the bag is a whole lot easier’n puttin’ it back.

12. After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring.

He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.

The moral: When you’re full of bull, keep your mouth shut.

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