Friday, September 14, 2012

A Word with Laurie: Bottleneck



Southern-style Trees, Photo by L. Kolp


Today's word was borrowed from Peggy Goetz of On a Day Like Today. In her poem, Close of Summer, the word bottleneck just seemed to jump out at me. We are toads, you know. Anyway I thought there would be lots of possibilities with this word; literally, figuratively, and even visually.

Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Here's the definition of bottleneck, according to Webster's New World College Dictionary (© 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio)-

(noun)
  1. the neck of a bottle
  2. any place, as a narrow road, where traffic is slowed up or halted
  3. any point at which movement or progress is slowed up because much must be funneled through it: a bottleneck in production

(adjective)

designating or of a style of playing blues guitar in which notes and chords are formed by stopping a string or strings with a broken-off glass bottleneck, knife blade, etc. (read the interesting history behind this instrument/music here)

(transitive verb)

to act as a bottleneck in

~~
 
Variations might include bottlenecking, bottlenecked, bottlenecks.

Synonyms- constriction, narrowing, impasse

Bottlenecks in carpool lines~ L. Kolp
 
 
Here's a video of bottleneck, or slide, guitar. You will notice the bottleneck device on the musician's left hand.


~~

Other types of bottlenecks-
Bottleneck gourds



Bottle palm, courtesy Wikimedia commons

Bottle tree, courtesy Wikimedia commons

So please write a poem using bottleneck in whatever creative way you can, post it to Mr. Linky, and visit others who have participated. Have a great weekend!
 

23 comments:

Ella said...

Wow Laurie you gave us some great photos and lots of jumping off points! Thank you~ :D

Janine Bollée said...

Such fun, Laurie.
I couldn't stop laughing when I wrote this post, but do feel just a trifle silly because it is all true.
Thank you.

Herotomost said...

Happy Friday Toads...good prompt Laurie....lots of things bottleneck...

Unknown said...

This was a fun challenge, Laurie.
The varied views of sunlight and moonlight in these bottles work well to keep the negatives from getting bottled-up inside!!!

Laurie Kolp said...

Thank you... I'm really enjoying everyone's unique offering so far.

Scriptor Senex said...

I decided I had to write mine before looking at everyone else's because I bet someone else had the same thought...

Margaret said...

How fun. I'll be back (and the guitar player looks like a woman, not a man as indicated)

Laurie Kolp said...

Thanks, Margaret! I viewed sooo many videos looking for the right one and all were men... except this one. Will change!

Janine Bollée said...

For Laurie and the IG blog: often I get so tangled up in the blogspot verification that I give up after six or more attempts.As today with Patricia Anne's blog.
I wonder if you could mention the possibility of swapping verif for moderation?

Mary B. Mansfield said...

Great word, Laurie! I think most of us here can relate to what I came up with...

steveroni said...

We've no trees
like Lorie sees in
her back yard.


I did plant and own
a "Bottle Tree"
(bottle, neck-and-all!)
Used to be 'bout knee-high
now 20 feet tall!

On topic of bottlenecks
(and bottles!) I
could write
all night!

PEACE!

PS. Wonder what is name of those trees in Laurie Kolp's pasture?

gregory urbano said...

interesting blog and post!

Ella said...

I did like John. I didn't read any other poems! I found this intriguing~ Thanks Laurie :D

my heart's love songs said...

this fit right in with something i was working on. {smile} thanks, Laurie!

Marian said...

wow, that was fun, Laurie! it just came rushing out, as if released :)
i've had a crazy week and am off to babysit my little nephews, but will be back around to read everyone's sketches.
xoxo toads!

Mary said...

I enjoyed your prompt, Laurie. An idea finally appeared this morning....thank you.

Unknown said...

Getting back into the swing. Thanks, Laurie. Terrific prompt. Check out my photo... http://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2012/09/15/constricted/

Hannah said...

Laurie...thank you...the word fit perfectly with a topic I've been pondering. Smiles to Toads...apologies too, for being so absent.

Peggy said...

Laurie you really took off on my innocent little word "bottleneck." Excellent prompt here with many ideas for places to go. I will work on this! And I enjoyed seeing where others went.

Peggy said...

Laurie you really took off on my innocent little word "bottleneck." Excellent prompt here with many ideas for places to go. I will work on this! And I enjoyed seeing where others went.

Sherry Blue Sky said...

Hi kids, I am behind - as always - and visiting your links but am not feeling well after two days of heavy work. Trying to at least catch up. I'm enjoying all of your selections.

Susan said...

Laurie, This was taking so long! I finally realized what was going wrong and turned the dilemma into the poem!

Laurie Kolp said...

Glad you did... and thanks again everyone. This was fun!