• Richard


• Lizzie


• Tom


• Serendipidy


• Norval Joe


• Planet Z

The next topic is Listed

RICHARD

— Star quality —

We started rating the kids’ chores around the house: one to five stars.

It’s gives them an incentive to do things well, and the number of stars they get is reflected in their pocket money.

It’s working well. Dishes are always washed, bedrooms are kept remarkably clean and tidy and any time there’s an errand to be run, there’s no shortage of volunteers.

In fact, it’s worked so well, I suggested using the system for the wife.

Meals, cleaning, shopping and so on, all rated, and rewarded with… sex.

“Can’t see the point” she responded, “You’re two stars, at best!”

LIZZIE

Five stars for what, crappy food?

The food was not bad, said the receptionist.

No? What about that horrid thing on the wall?

The receptionist looked up at the bull head skull. It was a sculpture, not the real deal. Besides, continued the receptionist, we are not in the business of eating the decor.

Insolent! The client’s always right!

Not here. You see, sir, here we rate the clients, not the other way around, and you are a 0.

What?!

Would you like the bull head skull wrapped to take, so you remember us, since we won’t allow you back?

SERENDIPIDY

Five stars, shining brightly in the night sky, never seen before, not part of any known constellation.

They gleam and twinkle more brightly than any other. What could they be?

Meteors? Asteroids? Comets, perhaps?

Or maybe they aren’t natural at all.

They could be satellites or space debris, burning up in the atmosphere as they fall to earth.

They aren’t satellites, although they are man-made.

But who made them? That’s the big question

Was it the Russians? Are they Chinese? Could they be American or from distant North Korea?

We’ll find out, soon enough.

Once they hit their targets.

TOM

The Game

The rules were simple. Five cities. Five riddles. Five Stars. You could have five members on your team. And most importantly was the Five hundred thousand dollars. Linda was the first to figure out New York was the first city to explore. Better she had narrowed it do to a particular area in what was once Five Points. An old map showed that once there was a body of water in the city. “We find the center of the Collection Pond we will find the star.” Said Linda. Bill asked “Any idea what it will look like?” Not a Clue.

NORVAL JOE

“You’re going to do us a favor,” a gruff voice said from behind Patrick.

“You’re the shooter from the meadow,” Billbert said when the man stepped into view. “You should be in prison.”

He just sniffed. “Your friend is going to help us obliterate the Five Star Sisters and their coven. They’ve interfered with the Black Knights for the last time. We know your girlfriend is most powerful when you’re touching each other, so, you’re going to put your hand on Sabrina’s neck, and I’m going to tell Sabrina what to do.”

Billbert hesitated. “And what if I don’t cooperate?”

PLANET Z

Normally, when you see a movie with five stars, it’s probably some Hollywood woke garbage that ticks all the diversity boxes and hates Republicans, conservatives, Trump, religion. everything the left preaches. So when I saw a well-known conservative reviewer give one of those leftist propaganda movies five stars I was completely flabbergasted. I wrote him asking why, and he said, he thought the movie was a parody of leftism in a comedy and not actually trying to be serious and he laughed all through it at how ham-fistedly stupid the writer and director and actor all had been.