I just came to my computer after a busy day to comment on a blog post for #blogging28, but I saw this tweet and conversation by Sheri and Wendy regarding Wendy’s playful post for the #MoDigiWri challenge and Sheri’s response.

Wendy’s Word Work https://t.co/hyPHCWdmHo #modigiwri #blogging28 for @wentale Thanks for the reminder @anna_phd

— Sheri Edwards (@grammasheri) January 15, 2019

(Click Sheri’s tweet to read their poetic conversation.)

I hadn’t met Wendy, but I do know Sheri, and so it was a sweet moment to see Sheri conversing with a wordsmith soulmate, off on a lexical lark.

I was curious and had to try.

Opening my favorite online dictionary for English learners–Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English–(for I too have no paper dictionary), I pointed to a random letter on Sheri’s post and then chose a random page from the N’s. (I used the second column on my PC, starting with neonatal. I didn’t want to use the first six words, all forms of neighbor.)

So many proper nouns! Oh, well. I took the challenge, so I’ll write a story.

The neophyte neonatal nurse from Nepal was on WhatsApp conversing in Nepali with his nephew, when the supervisor barged in shouting,“Nepotism!” Since the nurse’s mother was director of Neptune Hospital, perhaps it was true. Suddenly embarrassed, the nerdy supervisor sheepishly went back to his break researching Nero and Neruda.

OK. That’s not as easy as they make it look!

That’s all for now, but there is something strangely satisfying about creative constraints.