Song Lyric Sunday — Walked Like a Woman and Talked Like a Man

Fandango14 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adam has asked us to find a song that has a girl’s or a boy’s name in the title, as suggested by Ange of Let’s Write.

The song I’ve chosen this week is “Lola,” by the Kinks.

“Lola” was a 1970 song by The Kinks, written and sung by Ray Davies and released on the album Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One, and as a standalone single. It became one of their best‑known tracks, charting at number 2 in the UK and number 9 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

The song is narrated in the first person by a young man who meets someone named Lola in a Soho club in London. As the night goes on, he notices Lola “walked like a woman but talked like a man,” and realizes this is a gender‑nonconforming or possibly trans character, yet he remains captivated.

Davies has said the idea for the song came from the band’s manager, Robert Wace, who reportedly spent a night dancing in Paris with someone he assumed was a woman until noticing stubble on “her” face. Davies then built a narrative song from that story, later saying he initially developed the catchy “Lola” hook almost like a nursery rhyme and added the more provocative gender themes afterward.

The lyrics play with sexual ambiguity and confusion while ultimately landing on a tone of acceptance and wry humor. But back in 1970, the song’s gender‑bending subject matter was unusual and risky for mainstream rock, leading to both pushback and praise.

Separately, the original lyric mentioning “Coca‑Cola” ran afoul of the BBC’s ban on brand names, so Davies re‑recorded the line as “cherry cola” for UK airplay.

Davies said that he knew the song would be successful when he heard his one-year-old daughter singing the chorus. He said, “She was crawling around singing ‘la la, la la Lola.’ I thought, ‘If she can join in and sing, Kinks fans can do it.’”

Here are the lyrics to “Lola.”

I met her in a club down in old Soho
Where you drink champagne and it tastes just like Coca-Cola 
C O L A cola
She walked up to me and she asked me to dance
I asked her her name and in a dark brown voice she said Lola
L O L A Lola la-la-la-la Lola

Well I'm not the world's most physical guy
But when she squeezed me tight she nearly broke my spine
Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola
Well I'm not dumb but I can't understand
Why she walked like a woman and talked like a man
Oh my Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola

Well we drank champagne and danced all night
Under electric candlelight
She picked me up and sat me on her knee
And said little boy won't you come home with me
Well I'm not the world's most passionate guy
But when I looked in her eyes well I almost fell for my Lola
La-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola
Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola
I pushed her away
I walked to the door
I fell to the floor
I got down on my knees
Then I looked at her and she at me

Well that's the way that I want it to stay
And I always want it to be that way for my Lola
La-la-la-la Lola
Girls will be boys and boys will be girls
It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola
La-la-la-la Lola

Well I left home just a week before
And I'd never ever kissed a woman before
But Lola smiled and took me by the hand
And said dear boy I'm gonna make you a man

Well I'm not the world's most masculine man
But I know what I am and I'm glad I'm a man
And so is Lola
La-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola
Lola la-la-la-la Lola la-la-la-la Lola

FOWC With Fandango — Convinced

Fandango14 Comments

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “convinced.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.

Trump Bombs Venezuela & Declares It the 51st State*

Fandango16 Comments

I woke up this morning to read about how Trump ordered the bombing of Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, and literally kidnapped that country’s president, Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Can a U.S. president lawfully and unilaterally bomb a sovereign country and kidnap its leader?

The definitive answer is no.

Under the U.S. Constitution, even though the president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces, only Congress holds the power to declare war. Trump did not have congressional authorization for a “large-scale strike” on Venezuela and this action violates Constitutional limits on presidential war powers.

Under international law, the operation is even harder to justify. The United Nations charter prohibits the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, except in self‑defense or with UN Security Council authorization.

Bombing Caracas and seizing the sitting president and first lady is a clear violation of those rules because Venezuela did not attack the U.S., there is no evident imminent armed attack, and there is no Security Council mandate.

And Trump is now saying that the U.S. is “going to run the country until such time as we can do a safe, proper, and judicious transition.” Or maybe until he can declare one of his sons or his son-in-law as president. Perhaps Elon Musk would like his own country.

Furthermore, Trump says that he is taking control of Venezuela’s oil industry, which he claimed had been stolen from the U.S.

Will Congress stand up to Trump for this illegal act? Well, a majority of Republican Congress members, including House Speaker Mike Johnson, lauded the president’s unilateral decision, characterizing the military action as “decisive” and “justified.”

WTF?

* Trump has not actually declared Venezuela to be the 51st state of the United States. Not yet, anyway.

FOWC With Fandango — Feed

Fandango17 Comments

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “feed.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.

Broken New Year’s Resolution

Fandango22 Comments

One of my New Year’s resolutions this year was to avoid posting about politics on my blog.

Then I saw this on Facebook this morning and it captured my sentiments about Donald Trump so perfectly that I had to share it with you.

When my wife saw this, she said, “I was giving you the benefit of the doubt and figured you might make it to the middle of the month. But the second day? Seriously?”

Friday Fictioneers — The Old Gatehouse

Fandango18 Comments

Marcus had guarded the trail entrance for thirty-seven years. Through every season, he sat in his brown booth, collecting fees and dispensing maps to hikers.

When the park system went digital, they said he wasn’t needed anymore. Payment kiosks replaced warm greetings.

Now the booth stands empty, windows cluttered with fading notices. Fallen leaves gather at its base like mourners at a wake.

As for Marcus, well these days he stays at home and hosts a popular blog offering park visitors information about the trails and insider’s tips on getting the most from their visits.

He couldn’t be happier.

(99 words)

Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers prompt. Photo credit: Lisa Fox

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — January 2nd

Fandango11 Comments

This was originally posted one year ago today.

Writer’s Workshop — Ain’t Nobody Got Time For That

For his Writer’s Workshop this week, John Holton gives us six writing prompts and we are tasked with choosing one of the prompts (or as many as we want) and writing a post that addresses that (or those) prompts. The prompts I chose this week are #1, write a post based on the word patience and #2, write a post in exactly 14 sentences.

  1. I remember back in the day when more than one person told me that I had the patience if a saint. 
  2. And that was true for much of my life.
  3. I was relatively easygoing and I put up with a lot of nonsense and foolishness in others.
  4. But as my life has gotten longer, my patience has gotten shorter and I no longer suffer fools gladly.
  5. I don’t know how many years I have left in my life, but however many I have, I don’t want to waste my time with ignorant people with stupid ideas or with those who are annoying or bothersome.
  6. When I was still working, I came across a number of ignorant, annoying, and/or bothersome people, but at least then I was being well-compensated to deal with them.
  7. Now I am retired and I just no longer am incline to deal with moronic people.
  8. Another area where my patience has worn thin is with my physical heath.
  9. When I fell hard on my tailbone in early November my doctor said I should expect it to take four to eight weeks for it to heal.
  10. Well, it’s been eight weeks this week and I’m still in almost as much pain today as I was when I fell on my ass.
  11. Now my doctor is saying, “Healing from an injury like this at your age can take twice as long as what it would take for a younger person to heal.”
  12. Great, doc, thanks for setting me up with false expectations.
  13. There’s one other thing I just don’t have the patience for any more.
  14. It’s reading blog posts from old farts who find things to whine about all the time.


Badge by Patty,  http://anothercookieplease.com

FOWC With Fandango — Event

Fandango9 Comments

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “event.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.

One-To-Three Photo Processing Challenge — January 2026

Fandango9 Comments

Happy New Year! 🎉🎊🪅

For this monthly prompt from Kate at XingfuMama, the idea is to pick a photo we want to play with and process it using three different methods.

Just FYI, all processed photos in this post were made using apps available for the iPhone at Apple’s App Store. Also, all images, including the original, were resized (shrunk) to make them quicker to load (and to take up less space in my WordPress media folder).

The photo I’m featuring today was originally about a week ago in my backyard. We had a lot of rain last month and some mushrooms have been peeking out from underneath the mulch. I thought this little mushroom with the yellow top was kind of photogenic, so I took this shot and then used three online apps to create some artistic variations.

Original photo taken with my iPhone 15 Pro Max

Processed using the Glaze app

Processed using the Wicked filter from the Waterbrush app

Processed using The Scream filter from the Prisma app

Which image do you like best?

FOWC With Fandango — Moderator

Fandango14 Comments

Welcome to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (U.S.).

Today’s word is “moderator.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Please check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please manually add your link in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. Show them some love.