Caption Winner--Gratz Warrior Sister!

Spock: "I--I'm sorry, Leonard. I really thought this was how a mint julep was supposed to look."

Caption Contest! (Yeah--Finally!)

Ok--I've been neglecting this blog for over a week. I do have an excuse! A good one! But I won't bore you with it now, lol. Instead, I'll present this classic picture. We've captioned The Tholian Web before, but not, if memory serves, this shot:

Caption Winner~Gratz Womanwarrior!

Great entries all around--every single one got me giggling! But this one clinched it for me:

A portable nutcracker? Are you sure that's what Harry Mudd said, Spock?

Dealing with our faults and frailities . . .

. . . That spirit of resilience and good humor would see Teddy through more pain and tragedy than most of us will ever know. He lost two siblings by the age of sixteen. He saw two more taken violently from a country that loved them. He said goodbye to his beloved sister, Eunice, in the final days of his life. He narrowly survived a plane crash, watched two children struggle with cancer, buried three nephews, and experienced personal failings and setbacks in the most public way possible.

It is a string of events that would have broken a lesser man. And it would have been easy for Ted to let himself become bitter and hardened; to surrender to self-pity and regret; to retreat from public life and live out his years in peaceful quiet. No one would have blamed him for that.

But that was not Ted Kennedy. As he told us, "…Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves." Indeed, Ted was the "Happy Warrior" that the poet William Wordsworth spoke of when he wrote:

As tempted more; more able to endure,
As more exposed to suffering and distress;
Thence, also, more alive to tenderness.

Through his own suffering, Ted Kennedy became more alive to the plight and suffering of others - the sick child who could not see a doctor; the young soldier sent to battle without armor; the citizen denied her rights because of what she looks like or who she loves or where she comes from. The landmark laws that he championed - the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, immigration reform, children's health care, the Family and Medical Leave Act - all have a running thread. Ted Kennedy's life's work was not to champion the causes of those with wealth or power or special connections. It was to give a voice to those who were not heard; to add a rung to the ladder of opportunity; to make real the dream of our founding. He was given the gift of time that his brothers were not, and he used that gift to touch as many lives and right as many wrongs as the years would allow. . .

~President Obama on Ted Kennedy

These words struck me--President Obama didn't disect Ted Kennedy's failings, but he didn't ignore them either. Instead, he used them to show Kennedy's resilience. Ted Kennedy could have slunk off in shame into a private life after Chappaquiddick, but he chose to do what he could to redeem himself. He went on to become a champion for universal healthcare, for ending the death penalty, for civil rights (including gay rights) . . . for so many other worthy causes.

There are times when I look at my life and think it's a disaster. No, I have nothing equivalent to Chappaquiddick in my history; my weaknesses are of a different sort. Nonetheless, I think most of us, at one time or another, have looked back and boggled at all the wrong choices we've made.

Ted Kennedy's life was an eloquent statement on what it is to continue on, to march forward and do our parts to repair the world--even if we helped screw up our little part of it.

I'm going to hang Ted Kennedy's words on my wall, right near my desk where I'll see them day in and day out: "Individual faults and frailties are no excuse to give in - and no exemption from the common obligation to give of ourselves."

Caption Contest!

Hehe . . . this should be fun!

Challenge from Julianna!

Quote: "Okay, here's a challenge. Write a AOSxLotR story explaining this scene. [See caption contest below.]"

What a great idea! I am definitely taking her up on this challenge. Anyone else?

Caption Winner~Gratz Julianna!

McCoy: Spock, get your skinny green ass out here. You can't look any worse than the rest of us. ...Legolas?

Update!

Thanks, all for the great captions for the LOTR pic of Karl Urban. I'll have the winner up tomorrow.

Meanwhile, I've been neglecting my blog. I'm ok with that, however, because I've gotten tons of writing done this week. I've been working primarily on an original fantasy tale. It's a story I've been working on forever, actually--there's an early incarnation of it on this blog. But I've torn it apart, rewritten the plot and reworked some of the character relationships. I've been putting it up for critiques on Scribophile, where I've gotten some good advice. So all's well.

I've found it hard to refocus on my fanfiction. I really want to write the new Kirk/McCoy story I started . . . ever since seeing the new film, I've been in love with that pairing. But the energy's been there for the other story, so I've gone with that. (For once, I'm ignoring all the irons in the fire but one!)

Nonetheless, I want to get back to that Kirk/McCoy story soon . . .

Caption Contest!

Ok, I had to do this at some point. And, since I spent part of my vacation watching a Lord of the Rings marathon, now is as good a time as any. For this week's caption, I present to you Bones--er, that is, Karl Urban--as Éomer:
So what inspired Dr. McCoy's costume? (And that's just one direction you can take . . .)

Caption Winner--Gratz Liederlady!

McCoy: Hey Jim boy! Is that a tribble in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Spock: Dreamer! He's been in that condition ever since I dumped T'Pring.