Artificial Travel I saw an interesting article in the New York Times this morning. I suspect that its the sort of article we are going to read more and more often as the applications of artificial intelligence start to shine through and change our lives at the day-to-day level. This particular piece was about a reporter who was planning a vacation to Scandinavia and used some combination of three AI bots to plan her trip…
Get Up, Joe I have not been in the habit of blogging continuously, but I feel that today has been a very interesting day and that it’s worthy of a bit more attention from me, whether anyone wants to hear it or not. After last night’s difficult debate performance, I struggled with the conversation on Morning Joe where I estimate that ⅔ to ¾ of the Democratic ratio pundits were talking about calling for Biden…
Why So Serious? I have a friend that is one of four of us on a text chain. We are all more or less the same age, ranging from 65 to 80, averaging at about 73. The youngest and the oldest are Republicans and voted for Trump each of the last two presidential elections, obviously successfully the first time and unsuccessfully in 2020, The other guy and I are both liberals, but I cannot say…
Doing the Right Thing I spent all day yesterday getting ready for and anticipating the presidential debate. I cancelled going to the airport here in Norfolk to pick up my youngest son and his wife in order to not miss a moment of that debate. From the first moment of the 90-minute debate, it was a jaw-dropping and heart-palpitating experience to watch as Joe Biden fulfilled all of our worst nightmares of looking every bit…
Mid-Atlantic Madness Neither Kim nor I are big Social media users any more though I do watch Instagram to keep up white the next generation and we all tend to use Snapchat for a family chat group and photo vehicle. We call it Marin Madness and its pretty much restricted to the kids, their spouses and us. I’ve gone so far as to steal that sentiment and call my games area on the property Moonstruck…
Existential Debate Kim and I are getting on a 6:30am flight to Philadelphia tomorrow morning. That means our day will start at about 3:30am and roll into an Uber pickup at 4:00. I’m sure we will get to the airport with time to spare, but one thing I have learned post-COVID is not to underestimate the resurgence of the American travelers once you’ve kept them down for a while on the COVID farm. I think…
And Then It Was Summer I have always liked the weather here in San Diego. What’s not to like, right? Well, that may be even more so now in the era a Climate Change. As I watch the news of heat domes and derechos, tornados and tsunamis, early hurricane seasons and rising coastal surges, I am liking my hilltop more and more. While we have lived here (basically 5 years now), we have never had…
The Popeye in Me Why the hell did Popeye ever become so famous? Why did the depression era audiences of the comic strips of King Features become so drawn to a one-eyed sailor during the interregnum of two world wars? I have a far easier time grasping the appeal of Bettle Bailey or Blondie, the other King Features favorites, than I do Popeye. He seems, with his Steamboat Willy-like ensemble of Brutus, Wimpy and Olive…
Digital Anthropology It used to be that our attics or basements or garages were the places where we piled up the junk that we couldn’t part with but yet knew that we would sooner or later throw out. Plenty of that still goes on, but several phenomenon of modern life have given us respite from having to face our inner hoarders in a self-deprecating manner every day. The most obvious of these litter the roadsides…
Pop Tarts Where do old comedians go to die? Well, they find a comedian who managed to make it big thirty-five years ago and made so much money in syndication form his decade-long serial run on TV that he’s become a household name and people who have never even been to New York City think his New York CIty humor about nothing is hilarious. Then that guy, who’s worth somewhere around $1 billion from that…