{"id":22879,"date":"2020-06-06T16:55:26","date_gmt":"2020-06-06T20:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/?p=22879"},"modified":"2020-06-06T16:55:29","modified_gmt":"2020-06-06T20:55:29","slug":"microfiction-practice-9-the-old-ball-and-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/microfiction-practice-9-the-old-ball-and-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"Microfiction Practice #9: The Old Ball and Chain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"smalltext highlight\"><em>[Don&#8217;t know what this is? See <a href=\"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/2020\/06\/revisiting-the-tiny\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this post<\/a> for the most recent background.]<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prompt #570:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Genre: comedy<\/li><li>Word: <em>stir<\/em><\/li><li>Action: yanking my chain<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Story<em> (87 words, per Microsoft Word)<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>Lucille could always get my goat. &#8220;Don&#8217;t do it <em>that <\/em>way,&#8221; she&#8217;d say. &#8220;Do it <em>this <\/em>way&#8221; &#8212; the <em>it, that, <\/em>and <em>this<\/em> always changed, of course. Sometimes my wardrobe, or the way I drove, or what I ate. But what never changed: really, she was just yanking my chain. Trying, hell &#8212; she <em>did <\/em>yank my chain. Until the day she stopped, abruptly. <\/p><p>Still, a hell of a woman Lucille. I&#8217;ll miss her until I get out of stir, which by my count will be sometime this century.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"highlight\">(Okay, I know: it&#8217;s <em>dark<\/em> comedy. I don&#8217;t think that breaks any rules.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Don&#8217;t know what this is? See this post for the most recent background.] Prompt #570: Genre: comedy Word: stir Action: yanking my chain Story (87 words, per Microsoft Word): Lucille could always get my goat. &#8220;Don&#8217;t do it that way,&#8221; she&#8217;d say. &#8220;Do it this way&#8221; &#8212; the it, that, and this always changed, of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","h5ap_radio_sources":[],"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5128,4878,105,372],"tags":[1197,1417,4752],"class_list":{"0":"post-22879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-flash-and-microfiction","7":"category-fiction","8":"category-short-fiction","9":"category-style-and-craft","10":"tag-comedy","11":"tag-writing-contests","12":"tag-nyc-midnight","13":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6kZSG-5X1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22879"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22930,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22879\/revisions\/22930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnesimpson.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}