Week in Seven Words #525

This covers the week of 2/9/20 - 2/15/20.

fever

His face is beaded with sweat. On his nightstand, a thermos is perched on a short stack of books, and beside it a bottle of over-the-counter fever reducer.

frigidly

Our fingers are numb and chilly from handling wet bags of celery in a stiff wind.

gritting

Wounded, she staggers back to her feet, her jaw set.

outlet

Their backyard is a narrow rectangle, just big enough for the kids to take their noise outside for a while.

pausing

Some of my most peaceful moments that day are on an elevated subway platform, waiting for the train. It's a lull in my schedule. The day is cold, but the sun is steady, and I can stamp some warmth into my feet.

retrieved

A bit of biology knowledge – on meiosis – floats up to consciousness at a critical moment. Sometimes you don't know when you'll need to know something.

scavenging

The leftover fruit, soft with rot, is tempting. They shuffle closer to snatch up the firmer specimens, while ignoring every barked order to leave.

Week in Seven Words #239

cartoonish
The aquarium looks like an animated TV show; the water is ink, the fish cartoons lazily cutting their way past wavering plants and glittering castles.

flight
His finer side emerges in art. A sketch of leaves coaxed away by an autumn wind.

grim
Banshee music on the TV and moans from the people scribbling round the table.

nonchalant
Now that she's old and alone, she'll give people the finger with a smile, because she doesn't care anymore, and no one expects better of her.

precious
Her ankles are ribboned in Lord of the Rings tattoos.

pulsing
I identify the building by the ambulance lights flashing outside.

straitjacket
They think there's nothing new to learn beyond what they already know. Stepping outside the bounds of that knowledge is craziness and self-indulgence.

Whimsical Pursuit #2

Imagine what's going on in the heads of Jeopardy contestants.

The neuronal machinery sparking and firing away, currents racing through networks of facts, associations, minute details (now worth hundreds of dollars apiece).

Also whatever crosses their mind as their focus slips, as they choose their wagers, scribble down their Final Jeopardy answer, or recount some personal anecdote that will elicit an indulgent chuckle from Trebek (and maybe only from Trebek).

Show's wrapped up. Now I know that the premiere of the Flintstones was sponsored by one-a-day vitamins and Winston cigarettes.
(Weren't cigarettes once considered a form of one-a-day vitamins?)