B. F. Skinner had it right…
Friday Fictioneers – Rochelle Wisoff-Fields posts a pic to write a 100 word story about.
This week it’s: humor
Copyright-Claire Fuller
Operant Conditioning: Libraries, Levers, and Men
You don’t even read books.
I know. That’s what’s great about it.
Huh?
See this hidden lever?
Yeah?
Watch what happens.
Wait, I’m going to the other side of the room.
Why?
I know you. A trap door in the floor will open and I’ll fall through it.
Naw. But close.
Then what?
This fake library wall swings away and we’ve got this great sequestered Man Cave for us to hang out in with all the beer we can drink, 100 inch screen projector, super plush chairs, pool table…
Okay. Okay. Shut up already and pull the damn lever.
Randy Mazie
The Writer's Village 
That’s pretty funny. Talk about a difference in values. Personally, I’d take both the books and the man-cave. 🙂
Didn’t realized that it had to be one over the over.
But my preference is reading actually. I don’t drink, watch sports or hang out all day in man caves.
i do hang out a lot in front of computers though.
Randy
actually, I would my man-cave mostly for reading and writing. Also role-playing.
Hmmm. Role playing?
Yeah, I love role-playing games. It’s like writing in a group. 🙂 I play one called GURPS these days.
Well I had to look that up because I don’t play role playing games.
I role play as I was trained in role playing in my educational training, and I role play as I play in my at attempts at humorous responses to people.
I don’t play GURPS, but when I eat too much garlic, I do play BURPS a lot (okay, you can stop role-playing shaking your head from side-to-side. It was a cute response and you-know-it)
Lots of kinds of role-playing out there. 🙂 I do some role-play in my classes, although my students are usually too low a level to do much.
SPED kids or regular ed?
I teach EFL in Korea out in the countryside, where not many people know much English at all.
wow. I am awestruck. Sounds wonderful. I have to assume you like the country and countryside.
Yeah, it’s beautiful there. The school I taught at today is up in a small valley with mountains all around it.
nice. hats off to you!
Those poor men (or at least the one who doesn’t read.) Whether you meant it or not, it’s a sad commentary on one slice of our culture. And I like watching sports and having a Guinness.
janet
I didn’t mean it to be a commentary, just kind of an Abbott and Costello routine with a little high brow reference to Skinner – but it is a sad commentary on that part of our society -but the “men” I know wouldn’t see it that way.
I know you didn’t mean it in a serious way, but nevertheless, it made me think of the many people who no longer read. The ones I feel most sorry for are those who can’t read. I hope that sometime I’ll be able to help tutor in reading because not to be able to read not only keeps you from a good job and other things but deprives you of one of life’s greatest joys.
janet
Very noble of you..
BTW eating chocolate cake is a close second to reading 😉
Tea and chocolate cake. Or Guinness. 🙂
Very amusing, if somewhat out of place on a site for writers and readers!
Really?
Too low brow for you? Don’t like Operant Conditioning?
This is great! That is my Bill’s kind of “library”!
There you go. That’s what makes the world go ’round. (see other previous comments on the piece). 😉 Randy
Now that IS a different take on the prompt. Well done.
I take my small bow now, Sandra.
or maybe a bow-wow.
thanks. Randy
I think there is a sub-culture (almost ) that has arisen.There are readers and watchers. Avid readers take little time for movies and TV (that doesnt mean they dont watch some stuff) Avid watchers jump on the couch pretty regularly to watch the long list of their regular shows and then have to plan in the extra stuff (and they do have a book or two they read)
Thanks for commenting 😉
Makes you wonder who they are hiding from that would beleive they liked books so much.
Hmm. Never thought about that.
They could never put that passed their wives, I’m sure.
Such a different ending than I was imagining as I read! Very fun.
what was you imagining?
Tell us your hidden wall secrets….
And I bet that they had tweed suits and was smoking a pipe just to cover up… Ha,
Ha. That would be a stretch, I think. But I like how far you took that.
Somehow I picture these guys with ball caps and Yankee sweatshirts.
there you go – but then would they be practicing ballet behind the faux library wall?
GASP! Sacrilege!! There is nothing more awesome than hanging out with a room full of books 😉
or hanging out in the New York City Public Library (Main Branch).
Tawk about AWE-sum…
haha interesting. loved the twist. this could very well be the solution for relationships or marriages where one prefers to read and the other prefers to drink beer , watch some tv and just chill. not a bad idea at all.
There you go. Many married couples would agree with you.
Reminds me of the show I watched about Penn (of Penn and Teller’s) home. Really a magicians home – almost as good as living in a building that was once a library, but that was a different house show. Enjoy your man cave!!
And what tricks might abound in a Penn magician’s house?
Poke a nose? Pit’s berg? Blue balls? Bird in hand?
Cute! I think he did have some hidden rooms, secret stairways. There was a whole series on magicians homes. In one place magnates under metal statuary moved the release on secret door.
man cave vs the library .. the ending had a twist.. i did expect a trap door !
It’s not vs. It’s in addition to.
Or better still, it’s what’s behind the books – another world.
Oh hell, who am i kidding – it was a vertical trap door. 😉
Dear Randy,
I’m thinking about remodeling with a bookcase for a door. My woman cave would have a computer, wine and lots more bookshelves. I could read and write to my heart’s content without being found. 😉
Fun story. Setting my comments on the shelf now.
shalom,
Rochelle
There you go. Men caves are not just for men. Women have their own, too!!!
Of course we do. You get one room and we get the rest of the house. 😉 And we’re certainly too genteel to call our garrets “caves.” How gauche.
Ha. Ha. Love your comments. Very funny
BTW -You have a garret cave? Wait, that has to be an oxymoron. How can a cave be overhead? By definition, a cave has to be underground.
But, oh, that’s right, you women are always correct. Stupid me. I’m just a grouch. No, I see that you wrote gauche. Ouch, I’m a gauche, on my man cave couch.
Hi Randy
What a unique take on the prompt. I think you can rest assured that no one else is going to write anything remotely similar! I’d like a man-cave too (or a non-gender-specific-cave) but I’d probably just fill it with more books (ok, maybe some beer too).
I had to google operant conditioning, so I’ve had a lesson in behaviour modification too!
All this for the price of 100 words. Great value 🙂
No one will write anything remotely similar? Most old comedy duo’s had sketches like with revolving doors. It is a sort of comedic staple.
Glad you learned about about operant conditioning. Here’s a treat for looking it up – so when i write something else that you may not know about, you’ll look it up again knowing that you’ll get another treat.
What a treat this site is!!!!!!
Your take is much better (and more fun) than some dystopian projections where the library is the hidden room.
Tawk about reversals. G’wan. Dey do that in dis place that you wrote about?
Where exactly is topian?
I did some library projects, though I failed miserably – as I sure you ken tell.
(tanks for commenting… 😉
“Where exactly is topian?” Perhaps if you drink enough beer and stare hard enough at your 100-inch TV screen, you’ll find it’s behind your fake wall : |).
Thanks. I knew it was somewhere, pal.
LOL. This is such fun. A great take on the prompt!
Thanks. Pull the lever some time.
Wait, no women allowed.
Score, Randy! Hey, no fair…I want a man cave!! Where’s my man cave. I would so go in there and sit.
Sorry. See response to Sarah Ann below.
Hey, no fair. I totally get the man cave thing, Randy, actually. I just want my own woman cave!
Ok. Go for it.
In the tool shed. there’s an old saw on the hanging peg on the left side of the peg board. Pull it out, and a staircase will lower from the loft above you, and the Woman Cliff will be yours. Happy daze.
Really? For me??? Wowz! But, why is it a Cliff? That sounds dangerous, Randy.
Invite me to drop over sometime…
Haha..man fantasies..always amusing. 😉
Do women have fantasies?
I’ll get the pretzels! Nice job, Randy!
Pretzels are good.
Lever’s on the right. Pull hard.
If that were real I bet it would be awesome lol nice one.
Ha.
Thanks for not believing. Makes man caves easier for us guys to have.
I hate to say it, but I would have pulled that lever a lot earlier than I would like everyone to know. But at least I’d feel guilty about it! Well done, funny read
Ha. Ha. Ha.
I like your response of honesty.
Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis.*
* Not bad for a boy who is Jewis(h).
No worry. Be guilt-free.
That’s our philosphy.
Sounds so familiar – exactly why I left all the men in my life and prefer living on my own.
Sorry to hear that your relationships didn’t work out. As I wrote in you in your blog… there is a comfort or solace in organization and words.
So just how big is this man cave, where does he keep it squirreled away, and does he need a roommate?
Pull lever…get reward…find answers 😉
Hahaha!
Who doesn’t want a hidden cave like that? Wonderful idea.
It seems, if you read some of the responses below, that some people may frown upon the idea.
A bachelor “man cave” huh? I bet there’s some colorful porn hidden there as well, plus a special corner for the pole dancer and stripper. Great place for a bachelor party.
I like the way you think.
but I also think you’re friends with my wife, so let me just say thi:s we would never consider porn or sexual parties in the man cave. No drugs, nothing illicit or illegal. We’re good boys, ma’am, just minding our own business, spending the day with other guys, just hanging out, doing manly stuff. Unnerstand>
Thanks fer yer suggestions, but no thanks.
Clem. Look up pole dancers on the ‘net, would ya?
I would have liked the story but for some reason my like button is not loading. Please consider yourself “liked”!
“thanks”
Randy