ODNT, Jr. and her PAL made it for me yesterday. They could have created it about absolutely anything … but they chose this subject.
It’s meaningful, it’s imaginative and it’s completely covered in Ketchup.
I can think of no better way to spread the word … or the ketchup …. about the offbeat writing link-up I co-host with Mel on the 1st and 15th of every month. Thanks to Viv and Alex for creating this great little video for us. And thanks to Trifecta for serving as a great mentor for fledgling link-ups like Ketchup With Us. Truly, we relish the fact that we mustered the courage to launch this saucy little experiment at all.
It’s a song by George Michael (the Wham guy, not Michael Cera). It’s also a Royal Caribbean ocean liner, an uncompleted NASA project and, apparently, the name of a U.S. city in 15 different states. It’s a lot of things to a lot of people. And that’s what we’re talking about here today. Freedom. As in FREEDOM fries with extra KETCHUP. (How much more on topic can I get?) The prompt? She is very flexible and loose. Some would even say FREE. As in you are FREE to interpret it however you like.
It brought us closer together. And introduced us to about 70 new people, too. It strengthened our singing and dancing skills. And enabled me to masquerade (convincingly?) as a teenager. It even provided us with physical exercise. Every night. And all for nothing.
I still can’t believe we did it all … for FREE!
Remember how Olivia Newton-John was 30 when she played a high school senior in Grease? Yeah, well this is exactly like that. (cough)
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For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
The rules are … THERE ARE NO RULES! Just guidelines. And we’d love it if you posted our button and followed us on Facebook (Michele /Mel) and Twitter (Michele/Mel).
Since Father’s Day is tomorrow, we’re ‘Ketching Up’ with dads this time around. I’m hoping that everyone has a good father figure in their lives somewhere. Even if he’s just a TV character. And we want to hear about him. The prompt is very loose. Interpret it however you like. I’m lucky. The choice for me was easy …
Dada, Daddy, Dad, Papa, PapaMan, PapaManSure (don’t ask) … he’s been called a lot of things over the years. And he answers to all of them. Because he’s always there, always willing and always able. “He’s the most patient human being on the planet,” says my mother.
Love you, Dad. Happy Father’s Day.
My dad & me
Taken 6/13/13 on opening night of Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
(Viv & I are having a blast, by the way.)
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For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
The rules are … THERE ARE NO RULES! Just guidelines. And we’d love it if you posted our button and followed us on Facebook (Michele /Mel) and Twitter (Michele/Mel).
Summer’s here. And you’re probably reading this post on a beach somewhere with a freezy drink in your hand. Or with your waterproof smartphone as you dive 100 feet below sea level to swim along an incandescent coral reef. Or maybe you’re just home, like me, planning your next big trip. In any event, that’s what Mel and I are talking about today. Vacations. We want to hear about a memorable one (notice I didn’t say it had to be a GOOD memory) from your lifetime.
Over the years, we’ve taken them to many of the big cities in this country. But it was when we brought them overseas that I saw some of their biggest reactions. London, England. July 2009. Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, The Eye, Tea at Harrod’s, Wimbledon, The Tube, The River Thames, Oxford (Harry Potter!) and so much more.
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For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
The rules are … THERE ARE NO RULES! Just guidelines. And we’d love it if you posted our button and followed us on Facebook (Michele /Mel) and Twitter (Michele/Mel).
Summer is coming! Summer is coming! And, for many of us, that means traveling more, chilling in flip flops with a freezy drink in hand and, most importantly, breaking from routine. For this reason, it’s the time of year that people (and by “people” you guys know I don’t mean ME) read more. They’re always looking for books they can grab to read at the beach, on the plane, by the pool or maybe just on the backyard hammock. So that’s what Mel and I are talking about this week. And we want your recommendations.
What do YOU like? … hate? … hear is the next big thing?
I was fifteen when I first discovered him. The assignment? Read three books by the same author. Back then, he had only five. (1) Garp and (2) Hotel New Hampshire. Both also movies. Done. But I needed three. I closed my eyes and pointed. (3) The Water-Method Man. The best of the three and still one of my all-time favorites.
My original copy, purchased at age 15. It’s still on my bookshelf.
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For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
The rules are … THERE ARE NO RULES! Just guidelines. And we’d love it if you posted our button and followed us on Facebook (Michele /Mel) and Twitter (Michele/Mel).
Blah, blah, blah. Ketchup With Us. Number seventeen. Yada, yada, yada. Hosting with Mel. Blah, blah, blah. Mother’s Day edition. Blah, blah, blah. And here’s mine. About a lady who needs NO INTRODUCTION.
Because right in the middle of breakneckedlypacking up THIRTY-SIX YEARS worth of clothing, kitchenware, bedding, electronics, furniture, tools, pictures, books, music and other cherished family artifacts, she stopped to make a practice test for my daughter who had an English quiz the next day.
Because she NEVER says no.
(Well, almost never.)
I love you, Mom.
Me, between the best moms in the world, future and present.
For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
Today’s KWU preamble will be short and sweet. Mel and I are talking about celebrity encounters. Have you ever met someone famous? I’ve racked up a few big names over the years … and I have a prized stack of pictures somewhere to prove it. Some of them (such as Donny & Marie, Siskel & Ebert and Kelsey Grammar) I’ve already written about here and others (such as Katie Couric, Hugh Jackman & Renee Zellweger) I have not.
But I decided to go with someone unconventional today.
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I met this charming actress years ago in New York after seeing her in a play entitled August: Osage County. (It won the Tony that year, by the way). As soon as she walked onto the stage, I recognized her (uncultured buffoon that I am). And I was giddy to have the opportunity to take this picture.
That’s me with Kimberly Guerrero.
Don’t remember her? Perhaps this clip will jog your memory.
For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
In 57 words or less, tell us about a “celebrity encounter.” (We’ll let you interpret those terms however you like.) And, if you can, include a picture.
Are you still here? Fine. Here’s a bonus picture from when I shed the costume. It looks like I had to pee pretty badly, but I didn’t. What a spaz.
Happy April Fool’s Day! I’m a real holiday person. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas … my family even has an annual tradition for Groundhog Day. (We’ll discuss that next February.) But when it came to April Fool’s Day, I was stumped. Ever since Mel informed me that she is married to the grand master of pranks and practical jokes, I began scrolling through the dusty card catalog that is my brain but my stories couldn’t even come close to hers. So I turned to my old friend, Television, for help. He’s always been there for me and I knew he’d pull me through. And, after sifting through old memories of everything from Johnny Carson to Ashton Kutcher, I finally remembered these four fools. (Thanks, Vanessa & Wayne, for introducing me to their show.)
The Impractical Jokers
They live to embarrass the snot out of each other. It’s a miracle that none of them has been flattened by one of their unsuspecting victims. From stealing food off people’s buffet plates to throwing a tantrum to get a stranger to buy them something to impersonating a blind opthamologist, there is nothing they won’t do.
For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
ME: Sure you do. It was a good one about how I looked just like another lady blogger.
YOU: (not even looking up from the book you’re reading, just shaking your head) Sorry. Don’t remember it.
ME: Aw, come on. The picture was in black and white? I even recreated it.
YOU: (sipping your coffee nonchalantly, you’ve actually taken another call at this point and are laughing at me with the person on the other end of the phone)
ME: (hysterically) ARE YOU FREAKIN’ KIDDING ME? DO YOU EVEN READ ODNT? (pulling out hair) Why do I try? Why, oh why, do I …
MEL/According to Mags: (ahem) Michele, you seem to have gotten off track, honey. Here. (smoothing hair) Why don’t you sit down and have a sip of your milk while I do the talking, okay? (turning away from the crazy) Hey, guys. This week’s prompt is pretty simple. Who’s your doppelgänger? Your twin? Your carbon copy? We want to know. To get you started, I’ve written one here for Michele. And she wrote one for me over at According to Mags. We’re interchangeable like that. (leaves room singing a familiar tune to herself) “But they’re bloggers, identical bloggers all the way … “
Michele’s Doppelgänger by Mel
The make-up applied just so. The hair braided, beaded and bedazzled to a tee. A signature hat that screams to a culture club. Of course, she added her own flair and style, but still unmistakable. This girl will tumble for ya and is a total chameleon. She has done Boy George proud. Her doppelganger he will be.
Her inspiration?
Uncanny, yes?
For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
Picture it. Two women loose in New York City. All family worries and concerns left back at home. And a whole day to soak in the culture, the museums, the live performances, the cuisine. What did they do? WHAT. DID. THEY. DO?
Remember the scene in Pretty Woman where Vivian (Julia) goes into the Rodeo Drive boutique and has her five-feet-off-the-ground butt served to her on a platter by a bunch of bitchy sales women? Yeah? Well, that’s pretty much what I expected when Mel and I walked into Prada on Fifth Avenue. Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention that Mel was wearing a giant ketchup costume?
Sure. I was a little puffed up when we walked in, waiting for them to call security as soon as they saw us. But instead … these people were AWESOME. It shocked the hell out of me. And it just goes to show that you don’t really know someone until you walk a mile in their shoes.
Which brings us to today’s prompt. Given the choice, whose shoes would you like to walk in for a day? Mine’s easy. I was going for sloth chic.
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I could sleep. All freakin’ day.
I could yell for food and get it. Immediately. No manners needed.
I could have people lined up to give me back rubs.
I could jump six times my height into the air.
If you piss me off, I could bite you. Viciously. And we’d be friends again in 15 minutes.
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For a quick explanation of this link-up, click here. In short, Mel and I will post a picture or video with a writing prompt on the 1st and 15th of every month. You can write your entry in any form. We love creativity. And, with each prompt, we’ll feature a writer from the previous link-up. Which reminds me …
Our esteemed Ketchup With Us Featured Writer for today is …
Just writing about the daily dumbassery of life. The good, the bad and the so-utterly-mundane-that-you'd-think-I-wouldn't-even-bother-to-write-about-it.
OldDogNewTits 