The beginning of a new year is a fine time to look back at the year that just passed. Lists* are great ways to mark points in time. Below is a handful of highlights by way of popular posts** from 2024. Do you remember these***? Kaplowitz Media. remembers. Enjoy!
*not a list
**post (singular)
***this
I spun a sum total of one(1) yarn in 2024. Publicly, anyway. Truth is it was a busy year. It was also a year of study, and not creativity, at least of that ilk. I'll shoot for four (4) this year, but that, as with all other plans at KM., is subject to change. Instead of supplying a link to its original appearance (within a Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding Special Reserve Review) I'll just go ahead and share said yarn in full below.
TWO GRANDFATHERS
(A Kaplowitz Media. Original Work of Fiction)
Two grandfathers. One thick, one thin. The thick one older and the thin one younger, but by no means young. It's early Fall and they find themselves on a short hike back to camp. They had walked off far enough to enjoy a smoke away from the grand-kids and the mothers both regular and grand.
The thick one became very tired and the thin one chided him by loping ahead and loping is most likely a gross overstatement but here we weave in comparisons. The smell of campfires and grills swirls in the crisp air. "Hold your horses," huffs older Clyde to which younger Earl comments back behind him, "Keep up, Clyde."
And they reach the little clearing with the fifth-wheel parked and the grand-kids and the mothers both grand and otherwise. A 17-year-old member of the clan in Air-pods looks at a smart device on a tree stump under a beanie. A tuft of reddish-auburn hair shows from out-under. Clyde tiredly rocks back his own cap and caresses his own bald head. "He could barely keep up," Earl tells Clyde's wife and there is nowhere to sit but that stump, and Clyde needs a sit.
An old green cooler, a metal-looking thing with a sturdy top is alongside the cooling-down grill. Clyde has a sit. "Hey!" yells Earl, "Not on my damned cooler, Clyde." A crack sounds like the breaking of a tree limb but is not. "Dammit," sounds Earl. "I needed a sit," puffs Clyde. He's pale and sweaty. His wife comes over, kisses his forehead. "Clammy," she mutters and hands him a can of cold cola. "He okay?" asks Earl. "Oh, he's fine," says Clyde's wife. "He's fine," says Earl's wife (in a less enthused echo). "I'm fine," says Clyde.
"You scared me." Says Earl to Clyde.
"I'm not getting younger." Says Clyde to Earl.
"Neither of us is." Says Earl to Clyde.
"Ain't that the truth."
Clyde smacks Earl's thigh and slowly stands.
"My damned cooler is busted. My favorite old Coleman."
"I needed a sit real quick."
"You old fool!"
"At least I ain't an old prancing fool!"
And they bicker back and forth until Clyde needs a sit again and by then the stump is vacant.
[The Plum Pudding was graded an A-]
Thanks for spending a bit of your 2024 with me. See ya in 2025 (now, for instance).
::: very :::