The trite, over conceived, obviously manipulated, pabulum like, Christmas themed purple prose just pisses me off. (1042 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 0.42 on 17 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by loki (View user info) at 2007-12-23 10:38:50 EST
This stuff just KILLS me. It would be bad enough if there were some thin modicum of truth but this so clearly didn't happen that the sheer bsity of it actually pisses me off.
Some questions I would like to ask the "anonymous author":
1. What exactly did the shop owner have to do to earn this $10 he got from that man when he was a kid and is he going to require the same form of payment from the kid now?
2. What was a 6-year-old boy doing running loose on the streets especially at the hour when stores were closing? I do not care if he was in a single parent family someone is supposed to know where 6-year-old kids are.
3. Why didn't the shop owner seek counseling for his obvious schizophrenia?
4. Why exactly does a 6-year-old kid need to talk to a MAN about his inability to buy a present for his mom? Oh sure no mere WOMAN would ever understand something as complex as being poor and wanting to do something nice for someone.
5. If his sisters were doing such a bang up job of taking care of the family why didn't one of them make sure the kid made something for their mom for Christmas? Clearly she's never around so it's not like they would have had to sneak to do it. Oh yea because they are ONLY girls and don't understand these complex issues that only a MAN can grasp.
6. What exactly is he going to tell his mom about where the expensive roses came from? Maybe in a family where 6-year-old kids are allowed to run the streets no questions are asked but I can promise you if I showed up at the house with something in my possession that my mom knew good and damn well I didn't have the money for she would have freaked out especially when I explained to her that I had earned them doing favors for some schizo who ran a flower shop.
I'm feeling hostile and angry right now.
Subject: Thought for the Day - The Dime
The Dime
Author: Unknown
Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his back yard in the snow. Bobby didn't wear boots; he didn't like them and anyway he didn't own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold. Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already. And, try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother's Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought,
"This is useless, even if I do come up with an idea, I don't have any money to spend."
Ever since his father had passed away three years ago, the family of five had struggled. It wasn't because his mother didn't care, or try, there just never seemed to be enough. She worked nights at the hospital, but the small wage that she was earning could only be stretched so far.
What the family lacked in money and material things, they more than made up for in love and family unity. Bobby had two older and one younger sister, who ran the house hold in their mother's absence. All three of his sisters had already made beautiful gifts for their mother. Somehow it just wasn't fair. Here it was Christmas Eve already, and he had nothing.
Wiping a tear from his eye, Bobby kicked the snow and started to walk down to the street where the shops and stores were. It wasn't easy being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to. Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.
It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer of the setting sun's rays reflecting off of something along the curb. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime. Never before has anyone felt so wealthy as Bobby felt at that moment. As he held his new found treasure, warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store he saw. His excitement quickly turned cold when the salesperson told him that he couldn't buy anything with only a dime.
He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at Bobby and his ten cent offering. Then he put his hand on Bobby's shoulder and said to him, "You just wait here and I'll see what I can do for you." As Bobby waited he looked at the beautiful flowers and even though he was a boy, he could see why mothers and girls liked flowers. The sound of the door closing as the last customer left jolted Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid.
Suddenly the shop owner came out and moved to the counter. There, before Bobby's eyes, lay twelve long stem, red roses, with leaves of green and tiny white flowers all tied together with a big silver bow. Bobby's heart sank as the owner picked them up and placed them gently into a long white box. "That will be ten cents young man." the shop owner said reaching out his hand for the dime.
Slowly, Bobby moved his hand to give the man his dime. Could this be true? No one else would give him a thing for his dime! Sensing the boy's reluctance, the shop owner added, "I just happened to have some roses on sale for ten cents a dozen. Would you like them?" This time Bobby did not hesitate, and when the man placed the long box into his hands, he knew it was true. Walking out the door that the owner was holding for Bobby, he heard the shop keeper say, "Merry Christmas, son."
As he returned inside, the shop keeper's wife walked out. "Who were you talking to back there and where are the roses you were fixing?"
Staring out the window, and blinking the tears from his own eyes, he replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning. While I was setting up things to open the shop, I thought I heard a voice telling me to set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift. I wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what, but I set them aside anyway. Then just a few minutes ago, a little boy came into the shop and wanted to buy a flower for his mother with one small dime. When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago. I too, was a poor boy with nothing to buy my mother a Christmas gift. A bearded man, whom I never knew, stopped me on the street and told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars. When I saw that little boy tonight, I knew who that voice was, and I put together a dozen of my very best roses."
The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly, and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air, they somehow didn't feel cold at all
User Reviews
Submitted by YELLOW-MAN (user info) at 2007-12-25 15:24:46 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
ehh, Merry Christmas all the same.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2007-12-24 10:46:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
There was a story in the paper today about how completely shit faced our friends across the pond get at office parties. It sounded like fun but I don't think that was what the story was going for.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2007-12-24 10:21:25 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I couldn't keep up with this. My brain is stuck in neutral for the holiday.
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-12-23 21:48:04 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
its like when theres another story in the news about some little fuckup ghetto black kid kills another fuckup ghetto black kid and black people get all up in arms about the news portraying ghetto black kids as violent.
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-12-23 21:46:18 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
actually i lied. i just happened to start reading at that line and it was the only thing i read, at all. after that i can only assume the whole thing is written in the same cynical vein and i therefore think its a piece of shit post. if you want to know my opinion. i just really really really hate it when people say things like that.
Submitted by AsshOly (user info) at 2007-12-23 21:39:48 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
4. Why exactly does a 6-year-old kid need to talk to a MAN about his inability to buy a present for his mom? Oh sure no mere WOMAN would ever understand something as complex as being poor and wanting to do something nice for someone.
stopped reading there.
Submitted by Jack_McCallum (user info) at 2007-12-23 20:33:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-12-23 11:36:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i just washed my junk and i have to tell ya man, i feel fresh!
--
Leave it to Wildman to give me the first uberlaugh I've had in 3 or 4 weeks...
Submitted by scourge (user info) at 2007-12-23 19:02:50 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
MERRY CHRISTMAS, LOKI!
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-12-23 18:44:23 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Give it a fucking rest, already.
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2007-12-23 17:56:53 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2007-12-23 16:50:10 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
+2 because this pisses me off, too
Submitted by HadToBeDone (user info) at 2007-12-23 16:41:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Shut the fuck up Bubba. You confused, transgendered piece of geriatric shit.
Submitted by sadie73 (user info) at 2007-12-23 13:01:53 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Grow a heart. It's Christmas.
Submitted by heyzues (user info) at 2007-12-23 12:28:33 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
1. What exactly did the shop owner have to do to earn this $10 he got from that man when he was a kid and is he going to require the same form of payment from the kid now?
It was obviously santa clause.
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2. What was a 6-year-old boy doing running loose on the streets especially at the hour when stores were closing? I do not care if he was in a single parent family someone is supposed to know where 6-year-old kids are.
he comes from a family of ninjas...duh.
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3. Why didn't the shop owner seek counseling for his obvious schizophrenia?
who the fuck can afford counseling...I'll tell you who can't, small business owners.
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4. Why exactly does a 6-year-old kid need to talk to a MAN about his inability to buy a present for his mom? Oh sure no mere WOMAN would ever understand something as complex as being poor and wanting to do something nice for someone.
why do you ask questions you already know the answer to.
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5. If his sisters were doing such a bang up job of taking care of the family why didn't one of them make sure the kid made something for their mom for Christmas? Clearly she's never around so it's not like they would have had to sneak to do it. Oh yea because they are ONLY girls and don't understand these complex issues that only a MAN can grasp.
no they're only TEENAGE girls and teenage girls can't grasp complex issues. all they care about is Hannah Montana.
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6. What exactly is he going to tell his mom about where the expensive roses came from? Maybe in a family where 6-year-old kids are allowed to run the streets no questions are asked but I can promise you if I showed up at the house with something in my possession that my mom knew good and damn well I didn't have the money for she would have freaked out especially when I explained to her that I had earned them doing favors for some schizo who ran a flower shop.
only a woman would look a gift horse in the mouth. a man would never do that.
Submitted by moneyshotforyou (user info) at 2007-12-23 11:44:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
loki=auto+2
Submitted by Wildman (user info) at 2007-12-23 11:36:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i just washed my junk and i have to tell ya man, i feel fresh!
Submitted by HellRazer (user info) at 2007-12-23 11:10:37 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
You spend far too much time meditating on your junk e-mail.