Category Archives: apocarteresis

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.


I couldn’t stand it any more. The more I invested myself in it, the worse it got. I wanted one thing, and one thing only: somebody to love and be loved by.

I met Felicia at the local bar. She was half drunk, sipping what looked like a whiskey sour. Well, actually, she was slurping it. Three guys were hovering around her like some kind of predatory flies. They kept asking her “Now?” like they were waiting for something. She left and the three guys left one by one at 5-minute intervals and didn’t come back. Eventually, she came back looking a little worse for wear. I asked her what she was doing out there. She said, “Looking at the stars.” I thought that was pretty cool. We talked about a lot of things until the bar closed. I got the feeling that a romance had budded. I asked her to come home with me and spend the night.

We had a wild time, most of it in bed. I felt like I was with a naughty angel—everything was good and bad at the same time. She was gone when I got up, but she had made coffee—so strong when I drank it, it felt like my ears were flapping. I went back to the bar that night to find her. She wasn’t there, but one of the guys from last night was. He asked me: “Did you nail Felicia? She’s always ready for fun.” My heart sunk. I had thought she might’ve been the one, not a time share condo. The guy asked me: “Have you been checked?” “Checked for what?” I asked. He grabbed his crotch and quietly said: “Clap.” Now, I wanted to cry. I had heard rumors about clap, and how it could kill you if it went untreated, and along way to death, every time you peed it was like a bonfire in your urinary tract.

I went to the doctor. I was examined. I was prescribed pills to take three times a day for two weeks. At that moment, I decided I did not want to have sex with potential disease spreaders any more. Condoms we’re out of the question for me: I couldn’t wear a balloon on my hooter, no matter what. So, I bought an inflatable sex doll. I named her Roxanne, bought her the optional blonde wig and a foot pump to bring her to life. I started pumping. Her legs rolled out and plumped up, then her shapely torso, and finally her head. I lit some candles, put on Barry White and took off me clothes. Roxanne blew out when I got on top of her. A whoosh of perfumed air came out of a leak in her head as she deflated with a squeaky-farty sound, and her optional wig fell off. I was mad and deeply disappointed. I decided celibacy was the only way out for me.

I joined the “Brothers of the Flaccid Way.” We are a group of men devoted to achieving impotency through reading Lao Tzu and eating salad. Each day, we watch an adult movie to gauge our progress. It is ok if your desire remains, as long as you can’t do anything about it. Judging by the grunting and how the monks’ robes bounce up and down during the daily movie, “Brothers of the Flaccid Way” is failing in its mission. Maybe the monks need to eat more salad. I became flaccid two years ago, achieving the status of “Limp Pilgrim.” Lately, I’ve been thinking about leaving the Brothers and overcoming my “condom phobia” at a camp in the Catskills called “Coksock Mountain.” It offers a series of “on & off” condom exercises that are fun and easy, poetry writing workshops about personal struggles with venereal diseases, and condom-mandatory orgies with local women.

I decided to give “Coksock Mountain” a try. I got off the bus and registered. After two weeks of “on&off” and poetry writing, I qualified for my first orgy. I grabbed a fist full of condoms and headed out. I could hear Barry White’s “It’s Ecstasy When You Lay Down With Me” drifting through the warm night air. It reminded me of Roxanne.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title The Book of Tropes.

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.


I tried Viagra but it did not work. I swallowed the blue pill. I crushed it and snorted it. I stuck it up my ass. I dumped the bottle in the tub and took a bath in it. I am ashamed to say, I made a 3% solution and injected it in my leg. I powdered it, mixed it with hot black coffee and dunked my pecker in it. I’m still wearing the bandage from the burn. I have tried the generic stuff: Boing!, Undy Tent, Throb, Straight Up, and Redwood Root. It is all crap, at least for me. Oh, I tried a pump and it just made me numb and turned my hooter purple.

There’s new product for limpness that just came onto the market, and that’s being advertised on all the porn sites with favorable reviews: “I went from limp noodle to crispy carrot,” “I have a crowbar in my pants,” “At the nude beach, I am a human sundial, “It’s like a compass pointing to my favorite destination.” With these kind’s of endorsements, I would be a fool not to try the “Erectorator.” It uses the latest digital technology to “coax your penis to its pinnacle.” I ordered a Erectorator as soon as I fished my wife’s credit card out of her purse—she had destroyed mine after the motorcycle purchase “incident.” But now, I am sure she will love the Erectorator.

It arrived today! I ran upstairs and plugged it in. It made a whooping sound and flashed blue, red, green and yellow. A voice like Siri’s said “Stick it in big boy” and all the lights started flashing in unison. So, I stuck it in. The Siri voice said “Too small” “Too small” over and over again. I threw the Erectorator on the floor, but it wouldn’t shut up. It started crawling across the floor toward me repeating “Stick it in big boy” in a garbled Siri voice. I threw it out my bedroom window. It landed in the driveway and slowly squirmed it’s way across the street. I could barely hear it still saying “Stick it in big boy.” Suddenly, my neighbor came out his front door with a shotgun. “It’s the only way to shut these damn things up,” he yelled, “It’s what I had to do with mine!” BLAM! BLAM! BLAM!

I will never get my money back, but I didn’t care. I had learned a valuable lesson: If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I just ordered a pound of Chinese Dickweed Tea. It promises to “Align the emperor’s root with heaven.” No more electric gizmos for me. I can’t wait.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title The Book of Tropes.

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.


Rubik’s Cube. Its popularity took off like a jumbo jet from a golden runway. Everybody had one. Twisting. Twisting. Twisting. People couldn’t stop—it was like they were on a treadmill set somehow beyond the speed of sound, plastic almost melting, twisting colored segments in a blur. People started getting wrist injuries, having marital problems, becoming agoraphobes, and losing their jobs for lack of attendance and playing with their Rubik’s Cubes on the job, either blatantly at their work stations, or in the restroom. One bus driver drove off a bridge. Thank God his bus was empty! Too bad for the driver.

All this and more led to the Rubik’s cube’s declining popularity. They sat on the shelves, unpurchased. They were selling for pennies on the dollar at wholesale venues. I had just taken a course in entrepreneurism at Trump University and was ready to make some fast cash according to what I had learned. Buy cheap, sell high. I invested everything I had in discounted Rubik’s Cubes, believing they would make a quick comeback.

My garage was filled to the rafters with them. I rented a warehouse that was filled too. I sat on them for years while I continued work at CVS and hope. But the Cubes were going nowhere: I couldn’t unload them for my cost. I just didn’t see the handwriting on the wall when I cornered the market. All I could see was “buy cheap, sell high.” Finally, after weeks of anguishing, I decided to do something: to stop waiting for something that would never happen. But what would I do?

It was time to turn my pain into gain—to break from past, sitting on the cubes like they were going to hatch. Staying up late, hardly eating, working like a dog, I determined by experimenting that if you Superglue Rubik’s Cubes together in just the right way, you can make them into lamps, footstools, picture frames, bars, headboards, dining room tables, and even couches.

My attempt at making my first couch ended in disaster. I spilled an entire jumbo-sized tube of Superglue all over my hand and then went to pick up the sofa I was finishing. My entire hand bonded to the couch’s underside. Me and the couch had to go to the emergency room together in a panel truck. They joked about amputating my hand. That made me mad. Anyway, they got my hand unglued with solvent. I told them I would give them the Rubik’s Couch—my first couch—for all of their help. All the staff laughed at me, and the chief nurse told me to “get that ridiculous piece of crap out of here.” I took a cab to U-Haul, drove back to the hospital, and paid a couple of orderlies to help me load my Rubik’s Couch. When I got home, I pulled the couch out of the back of the U-Haul and dragged it into the garage.

Then it happened!

Lady Gaga and Jimmy Carter endorsed my Rubik’s Furniture. Sales went crazy. I have hired 10 glue-men to assemble the furniture. I own most of the world’s Rubik’s Cubes, so I’m set. “Ruby-Cubey-Doo” is one of the most successful furniture businesses in the word, selling 500,000 Rubik units per year. I am rich.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title The Book of Tropes.

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.


Lotto, Lotto, Lotto. All these years, and I have never won a penny. My “Dollar and a dream” is about a thousand bucks and a nightmare. I am sick of losing. I don’t know why I haven’t quit already. You guessed it—no more running to the convenience store on Fridays. No more angrily tearing up those losing tickets.

I quit!

I have got a new 21st-century modern-day plan: on-line slots! Instead of playing once a week, I can play all the time on my laptop! It is clear to me: the more often I play, the greater the chances I’ll win! I don’t know why I didn’t come up with this plan sooner. It’s like having Las Vegas everywhere in my house, except the basement, where I don’t have wi-fi reception.


Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Paperback and Kindle editions of The Daily Trope are available at Amazon under the title The Book of Tropes.

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

I’ve been a vegetarian for the past 10 years. I am tired of drooling over hamburgers, lamb chops, pepperoni, roast beef, liver, kidneys, bacon, ham, steak of all kinds, goat, turkey, chicken, and all the rest of the bleeding protein that I see inhabiting dinner plates everywhere but the vegetarian diner.

I’m tired of feeling like a frustrated rabbit, a groundhog in a field, a cow in a barn, a deer in the woods, a pig in a sty, a sheep on a hillside, a goose on a pond, a rabbit in a hole.

I WANT MEAT: juicy, steaming slabs of animal flesh. Goodbye kale! Hello barbecued ribs! Goodbye Fakin’ Bacon! Hello New York Strip! Goodbye tofu!  Hello Big Mac.

That’s it! I’m changing my life from meatless to meatfull.

See you at the steakhouse.  I hope to be sitting behind a platter of meat!

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

YOU: Do you remember the dollar bill? It used to be as good as gold, but that’s not the case any more. I’m putting everything I have in cash into gold. Gold will never let me down. Paper money is increasingly questionable. If inflation doesn’t get you, the Apocalypse will.

Given my faith and convictions I will survive the Apocalypse. I will walk out of my bunker a little thinner and a little wiser, and in my hands I’ll have my war chest filled with bright shiny golden planchets ready to be minted into survivors’ currency!

ME: How are you going to protect your gold from the marauding hordes that will surely be ravaging the world?

YOU: Machine gun and lots of ammo. That’s the other thing I’m in the process of taking care of: how to most efficiently dispatch  the Godless marauders. I’m stocking up on automatic weapons. Most of them have seen action in Syria! Can’t go wrong there. So, although I’ve just got this one machine gun now, I’m hoping to have at least five in the next six months–then I’ll be ready for anything! I’m currently in the market for a rocket launcher. I don’t know exactly what I’ll do with it, but it sounds impressive: R-O-C-K-E-T  L-A-U-N-C-H-E-R.  Woo hoo!

Given our new President’s predilections, you better consider stocking up on gold and guns too.

ME: That’s a bunch of BS. I’m sticking with paper money and my credit card, and possibly, Bitcoins. As far as weapons go, that’s just inviting trouble. You should expect a visit from ATF.

Bottom line: I think you’ve gone way around the bend.

YOU: Go away! Get out! You poor fool. You’ll see! And make sure to keep your mouth shut, or else. Got it? We are no longer friends.

ME: When were we friends in the first place?

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

There was always love, and I took it, and I twisted it, and I tore it; I crumpled it, lit it on fire and threw it over the abyss between knowing and hoping–burning, sparking, smoking, falling, drowning in the bitter sloe pool; lukewarm and slithering–churning and grey, thick with the ashes of extinguished love–a perfect sump for hell.

Now, as I awaken frigid in the dim cramped closet where I hang, smelling camphor, and mothballs, and the left-over odors of long-departed clothes, I think of the bodies that wore them as they tore through life’s fashion arcade, wanting to look good, wanting to wear the latest, wanting to be admired and loved.

Now gone forever, only their empty hangers remain–some are plastic, some are wire, some are cedar, but they all hang quietly with eternally perfect spaces between them, keeping them perfectly apart.

How do I get down from here and touch the floor, and feel its wooden smoothness underneath my feet?

If I could only unbutton the clothes that hold me, I could slide off my hanger, leave my pants, and sandals, and shirt, and softly walk away.

To feel the wood, and then the earth, under my bare wiggly toes! To feel the sun and brush my teeth!

Back on the surface, back on my feet, I shall walk naked to Paradise (a famous shopping mall). There, I shall be refashioned; and looking good, and being admired, I shall be loved, and being loved, like a permanent-press shirt I shall tumble dry on low and feel the warmth of the cycle as my wrinkles smooth. I will I find love, and give love, and be loved, and that’s all there is.

Back to the ground! Back to the dirt! Back to the pleasures and all the things that hurt.

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

When I was young beauty was in the eye of the beholder–I was the beholder and I was delighted  to be in the presence of beauty–of beautiful bodies and beautiful things.

Now that my sight has faded and my other senses are failing, I have found that being in the presence of beauty and beholding its glory can no longer be a source of delight: there is no beholding, just a dull awareness of the material world–of light and darkness and moving shadows and the garble of human speech.

Yet, as I drift into old age’s oblivion it is the persistance of the idea of beauty that lingers and embraces me and excites me and delights me! For this, I am grateful. For this, I am not fearful of what will come next.

When I was young, I thought Plato was an idiot. Now, I can ‘see’ the Truth of what he was telling me and why you should take him seriously.

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

Once upon a time I trusted my honesty, sincerity, and goodwill to find me friends. I learned quickly that this spelled “sucker” to most of the strangers I met, and I was ripped off more times than I care to say. Now, I trust a private detective to run background checks on everybody I meet.   So far, I haven’t found any friends, but I haven’t been ripped off either!

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

I thought hard work, intelligence, and honesty counted the most around here! I work hard. I’m smart. I’m honest, and I’m still the lowest paid employee! I can’t stop being smart, but maybe if I stop working so hard and cheat a little things will go better for me. Whoops–that’s not very smart. I think I’ll just quit and go to work where intelligence, hard work, and honesty are actually appreciated.

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

Ok, so much for the stock market–it’s killing me. I’m cutting my losses once and for all. I’m investing every dollar I’ve got left in–yup–you guessed it: gold! I’m buying shiny-yellow-never-let-you-down gold!

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)

Apocarteresis

Apocarteresis (a-po-car-ter’-e-sis): Casting of all hope away from one thing and placing it on another source altogether.

All my life I thought that wealth and fame were the two keys to ultimate happiness. Now, after all, I realize that there is no key to ultimate happiness, rather, happiness is the key.

  • Post your own apocarteresis on the “Comments” page.

Definition courtesy of “Silva Rhetoricae” (rhetoric.byu.edu)