Six words

As seen on: pretty much my whole link list over there --->

Originally started by the ultra cool Smith Magazine. The history: Legend has it that Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in only six words. His response? “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Last year, SMITH Magazine re-ignited the recountre by asking our readers for their own six-word memoirs. They sent in short life stories in droves, from the bittersweet (“Cursed with cancer, blessed with friends”) and poignant (“I still make coffee for two”) to the inspirational (“Business school? Bah! Pop music? Hurrah”) and hilarious (“I like big butts, can’t lie”).

Here are the rules: 1) Write your own six word memoir; 2) Post it on your blog and include a visual illustration if you’d like; 3) Link to the person that tagged you in your post, and to the original post if possible so we can track it as it travels across the blogosphere; 4) Tag at least five more blogs with links; and 5) Don’t forget to leave a comment on the tagged blogs with an invitation to play.

OK, here's mine:

Often above average but never remarkable

Umph... urph... fighting the urge to write a bazillion-word explanation of that because I think it makes me sound conceited, which I'm really really not... grrrph... blergh.


How about:

Desiring controlled life, must give up

Many choices available, blessing and burden

If you haven't done this already and want to do it, consider yourself tagged.



Mine are more like headlines than sentences, but that's not a surprise since succinctness is not my strong suit. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever met succinctness. Is it even a word?

You are fortunate that I have never left a message on your answering machine. I am so ridiculous leaving messages. Here's a real recap of one I left last week:

"Hi, Helen, it's Barbra. I was just calling because I was thinking about that sauteed shrimp and mushroom dish you made when we were at your house for dinner last week? I think you said it was pretty simple and I was wondering if you could give me the recipe. My brother and his wife are here and we are going to ... oh, blah blah blah you don't need to know all the details but basically I am making a lot of dinners and need a new idea and I do have some shrimp and mushrooms in the refrigerator. So, what do you do? Do you sautee them with some wine or just some olive oil? Do you use any seasoning? I'm here at home and I should be here all afternoon since Mrs. Wagner is bringing Big Girl home from school today. Sometimes she can't because her daughter has Brownies but it turns out that they're not meeting today so she'll be dropping her off and I don't have to go anywhere this afternoon. So give me a call when you can and let me know just what I need to put in the pan with the shrimp and mushrooms. Uh, is that everything? Was there anything else I needed to talk to you about as well? Hmmmmm... let me think.... No, I can't thing of anything else right now but I'm sure something will come to me as soon as I hang up the phone. Maybe when you call back with the recipe I'll have remembered it. Okay, talk to you later bye."

(I always say the goodbye sentence really fast because I am so embarrassed that the message is so long and somehow I think this will redeem me.)

Ugh. I am not exaggerating about that message! I really do leave messages just like that. I need to take a class or something. The worst thing of all about that message is that it turns out that her husband was the one who listened to it! {{Mortified}} Because when she called back, she said, "Chris told me you needed a recipe from me?"