diff --git a/checkAndPublish.mjs b/checkAndPublish.mjs
index b21d980..94bb400 100644
--- a/checkAndPublish.mjs
+++ b/checkAndPublish.mjs
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ import createNote from "./firefish-calls/createNote.mjs"
 import makeText from "./makeText.mjs"
 import insertPublished from "./database-calls/insertPublished.mjs"
 import logger from "./logger.mjs"
-import todaysPromptAlreadyPublished from "./database-calls/todaysPromptAlreadyPublished.mjs"
+import {todaysPromptAlreadyPublished} from "./database-calls/db.mjs"
 
 
 export default  async function checkAndPublish () {
diff --git a/database-calls/db.mjs b/database-calls/db.mjs
index 3dc8bb3..7e7ea0a 100644
--- a/database-calls/db.mjs
+++ b/database-calls/db.mjs
@@ -1,19 +1,36 @@
 import Knex from 'knex'
 import logger from '../logger.mjs'
+import { isoDate } from "../utilities.mjs"
 
 export const db = Knex({
-    client: 'sqlite3', // or 'better-sqlite3'
-    connection: {
-      filename: "data/database"
-    },
-    useNullAsDefault: true
-  })
+  client: 'sqlite3', // or 'better-sqlite3'
+  connection: {
+    filename: "data/database"
+  },
+  useNullAsDefault: true
+})
 
- export const getWords = async (db) => {
-  const childLogger = logger.child({db})
+export const getWords = async () => {
+  const childLogger = logger.child({ db })
   childLogger.trace("getWords called")
-    return db
+  return db
     .select("word")
     .from("dictionary")
 }
 
+export const valueExistsInTable = async (table,column,value) =>{
+  const number = await db(table)
+    .count('* as count')
+    .where(column, value)
+    .catch(error => { throw error })
+  return number[0].count > 0
+}
+
+
+export const todaysPromptAlreadyPublished = async () => {
+  return valueExistsInTable('published','date',isoDate())
+}
+
+export const wordIsAlreadyInBuffer = async (word) => {
+  return valueExistsInTable('buffer','word',word)
+}
\ No newline at end of file