I dunno, I like 'em both, Sox. I think I tend to go a little for the melodramatic, so levity of any form is always a welcome thing for me.

Speaking of, I had another two hour meeting. Guess what you guys get out of it--two drabbles on a continuing theme.

Matched Set

He lifted another newspaper-wrapped parcel out of the box. Everything in the box was wrapped in it. The drinking glasses had already been pulled out, unwrapped, and placed in the dishwasher. Wrapping with newspaper left behind black smudges on hands and dishes, but it was cheap.

This particular lumpy package held two parts of a larger matching set: a sugar bowl and coffee creamer. The cookie jar was missing. She must have taken the penguin shaped jar with her since they'd said she was too young to start drinking coffee yet.

He wondered if his hands would ever be clean.

Home Decorating

Dingy grey tile in the hallway led to worn burgundy carpeting in the living area. A double bed, single dresser and one shabby chair crowded the room. The kitchen, one wall of the hallway, faced the door leading into the bathroom.

She set her purse down on the dresser and emptied the pockets of her apron. They held a little over forty dollars in crumpled bills and loose change.

Taking the money into the kitchen, she opened the penguin shaped cookie jar and stuffed her tips into it.

She'd buy a toaster, or maybe a coffee maker; she'd earned it.

These are good, Sail, but they are making the penguin-shaped cookie jar in my kitchen a little nervous.

Hee. So sorry. I just picked an image and stuck with it. That way, you can either look at all three as a connected triptych or you can hold each one individually with a, just happens to be a penguin shaped, cookie jar. I promise, no penguin shaped cookie jars were harmed in the making of these drabbles.

Sail, you're on fire! More meetings, I say!

And now for something completely different...

"Cookie jar"

Her therapist claims she has impulse control issues. She doesn’t argue the point, same way she wouldn’t argue where the sun rises or the utility of a little black dress.

Once she wants, she doesn’t like to wait to have. Life’s too short, she thinks, admiring the view as the new guy walks out of her office, cheap suit too loose, trousers too long. He’s young; it’s probably his first.

When O’Brien catches them, she just smiles, tucks the kid back into his pants. It won’t be the last time she gets caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

Oh, I like that Amy. I'm always so literal, my cookie jars are never anything but cookie jars. Yours sound like so much more fun.

I like your two Sail Aweigh, and Amy's as well. I appreciate Sox's compliment, but comparisons in a context like this make me nervous - especially since I did the single sentence joke drabble cause I have been blocked on real drabbles for months. (Probably because I'm in a heavy round of self-editing right now. You may notice that the drabble was really just an exaggeration of a personal writing flaw I have to really watch out for.) I'd be flattered if a teacher wanted to use it to teach about run on sentences.

You may notice that the drabble was really just an exaggeration of a personal writing flaw I have to really watch out for

some call it a flaw. Faulkner called it money in the bank.

I love all of these. And drabbles are great for getting the lead out... no matter how you approach them.

Amy - I read yours the second time as an internal narrator ... not sure why - but it's a great voice.

I'm getting some feedback on my writing. Most of it is great, but one piece of advice really sounds wrong to my ear - involving dangling objects. But maybe my adviser is right. Here is an example, the first two sentences of a paragraph:

Such subsidies must be managed carefully. For example, they should only be paid if the job is done for a reasonable price.

Her response is "They who?". She wants me to say "subsidies" again. "For example, subsidies should..."

My feeling is:

1) "subsidies" is the only object that "they" could refer to. Therefore, not a dangling object - and clear to the reader.

2) Saying "subsidies" again in a sentence immediately following its use is repetitious. It makes what is already not the most exciting paragraph excruciatingly dull. A "dangling object" is the better choice.

So, am I right on this? Or is the use of objects in this way a bad habit I need to get over? (I tend to do stuff like this as paragraph transitions too.)

I kind of agree with her, though I think the construction of the whole thing could be streamlined.

I agree the whole thing needs streamlining. But having two opinions from people I respect convinces me she is right.

Oh well, having too high an opinion of my dangling objects is probably a natural male tendency.