TEN
Ten: The cardinal number equal to 9 plus 1. –Webster’s New College Dictionary
Well, I must say Webster’s definition of ten seems simple enough. Obviously, if you have nine cardinals and add one, you should end up with ten cardinals….unless you left the cage door open when you went to get one more, in which case, an empty birdcage plus one cardinal equal one cardinal plus an empty birdcage, which is what you deserve, because you’re not supposed to cage wild birds. It’s a cardinal sin.
Of course, everyone is susceptible to cardinal sin except Catholic cardinals, who rose from their flock to become cardinals by attending the College of Cardinals….after having been grounded for years in Catholic tenets and the Ten Commandments, which you may be surprised to learn were originally Fifteen Commandments — before this happened:
Why all this bird seed about the number ten, you ask….you are asking, aren’t you? Again, the answer is simple: this is the tenth day of the tenth month of November, which used to be the eleventh month until I — yes, I dropped one. Hey, if Moses can drop five commandments, what’s the big deal if one of the Muses drops one lousy month? Mistermuse says good riddance — who needs a month like February anyway?
All of which leads us to the day’s feature presentation, dedicated to all you lovebirds out there:
TEN, DEAR, IS THE NIGHT
Sexual ‘traction is
a driving force —
it leads
down the road
to intercourse….
better, of course,
if intimate when
our love
lines seem like
a perfect ten.
ladysighs 6:45 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
Glad you only post every five days or so. Gives me time to recover from laughing. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:08 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
I wish you could’ve had as speedy a recovery from what ailed you several months ago as I’m sure you’ll have from laughing! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
ladysighs 9:20 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink
Thank you for being observant. Posting in WP, forums, FB etc etc plus reality, reminds me of the old show I Led Three Lives. Things get mixed up and confused and sometimes traumatic. Does take time to recover. 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michaeline Montezinos 2:39 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink |
In my unsolicitated opinion, ladysighs has connected with so many websites, etc, that she sounds like she needs a vacation. Or like me sometimes when I become overwhelmed and try to do too much. I would like to invite her over to my home for a nice weekend break. Of course you have to pay your own air fair but meals and laughter and trips to see dolphins and quiet moments by the beautiful Tampa Bay are provided. Oh! I forgot to mention I am supposed to be “and I now live in St. Petersburg, Florida.retired”
LikeLike
Midwestern Plant Girl 8:55 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
I agree. February has to go. .. and take your weather too!
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 11:46 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
I think that, by the end of January, most of us in the northern half of the Northern Hemisphere have had it with winter, so I’m all for just skipping right to the first of March. 😦
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michaeline Montezinos 2:32 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink |
Leave February alone! It is the one month devoted to lovers. Have you forgotten Valentine’s Day? My husband and I always observe this day no matter the weather. You are from the Midwest? I guess I am stronger than you and know how to survive in the cold of Detroit where I was born and raised.
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 8:42 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink
Judging by what the website CATHOLIC ONLINE has to say about St. Valentine and Valentine’s Day, the day could just as easily be ‘celebrated’ in the month of Fictionary:
“In 1969, the Roman Catholic Church removed St. Valentine from the General Roman Calendar, because so little is known about him. However, the Church still recognizes him as a saint, listing him in the February 14 spot of Roman Martyrolgy.”
“The legends attributed to the mysterious saint are as inconsistent as the actual identification of the man.”
The Church holds that he was martyred on Feb. 14, 269, however (again quoting CATHOLIC ONLINE), “other tales of St. Valentine’s life claim he was executed in the year 270, 273 or 280.” Such is the stuff that romantic dreams are made of!
As for surviving in the Midwest cold, I’m still here after 75+ years — where did you say you’re writing from? 🙂 (Sorry, I couldn’t resist – I really don’t begrudge you your retiring to Florida!)
LikeLike
arekhill1 9:09 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
Never have I seen a work of literature that combined insights into religion, sex, mathematics and ornithology into such an admirably few pithy paragraphs. Congratulations, Sr. Muse.
LikeLike
mistermuse 11:54 am on November 10, 2015 Permalink |
Muchas gracias, Ricardo. There’s no money in such work, but my reward shall be great in heaven?
LikeLike
Michaeline Montezinos 2:28 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink
Why this obsession with the number 10? It is my mother’s birthday and my father’s death day which I choose to ignore.. I know a Catholic who has a memory like an elephant. She knows every birthday and the dates of each death day in all her family and her husband’s too, Unfortunately she chose or had six children, good little catholic that she was. How she accomplished this makes me wonder because she worked and her husband worked at three different jobs. Passing like ships in the night,she claims. Yet there must have been some connection for all those kids. Unless her belief in the Virgin Mary some how rubbed off on her. All I can say we live one day/night at a time and who can foresee what number will pop up from the bingo wheel? Nice poem, mistermuse and I have discovered that the shorter the poem the better the audience. Not every one can multiply by 12 but most know what 1 + 1 equals.
LikeLike
Michaeline Montezinos 2:44 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink |
I know a brown nose when I see their uncompromising flattery. What do you expect of mistermuse? And you must tneed som compliments yourself since you had to use the dictionary to come up with that vocabulary, arekhill 1. Correct me if I am wrong. I just will say I liked his poem. Amen, Sir Richard the Knight of Satire.
LikeLike
mistermuse 8:54 am on November 11, 2015 Permalink |
Thanks, Michaeline, for the kind words about my poem, and thanks to F. Scott Fitzgerald for inspiring my take on the title of his novel TENDER IS THE NIGHT.
P.S. Although it may seem self-serving, I think you’re wrong in calling arekhill1’s “uncompromising flattery” “brownnosing.” If I know him (and I think I do), he calls ’em as he sees ’em, and he wouldn’t have said what he said if he didn’t think so.
LikeLike
Mél@nie 6:41 am on November 12, 2015 Permalink |
Monsieur Muse, Sir… you’re really too much!!! 🙂 I’ve already learned “TEN, DEAR, IS THE NIGHT” – by heart=par coeur… ❤ MERCI!!! you've made my day serene and happier… 🙂
@"Catholic tenets and the Ten Commandments" – with due respect, they're just "theory" to me… 😉 for about 2 decades, I've adopted and I've been more into the 10 Commandments of the Native Americans:
1. The Earth is our Mother, care for Her.
2. Honor all your relations with your fellows.
3. Open your heart and soul to the Universal Spirit.
4. All life is sacred, treat all beings with respect and tolerance.
5. Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more.
6. Do what needs to be done for the good of all.
7. Speak the truth but only for the good in others.
8. Follow the rhythm of Nature: rise and retire with the sun.
9. Take full responsibility for your actions.
10. Enjoy life’s journey, but leave no tracks; look after the well-being of Mind and Body…
may the Universal Spirit be with you, now and always! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 7:41 am on November 12, 2015 Permalink |
May the Universal Spirit be with you as well, beautiful lady….and beautiful, too, are the 10 Commandments of the Native Americans (although #8 seems more than a bit impractical for modern civilization!). 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Mél@nie 4:45 am on November 13, 2015 Permalink |
mille merci, Mr Muse! 🙂
yep, you’re right @ n°8… in France, we’d say:”you go to bed at the same time as birds…” 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
mistermuse 6:23 am on November 14, 2015 Permalink |
I’m a night owl, myself 🙂
LikeLike