Columns

We discussed cutting the cord last year. Well, unsurprisingly, there have been a few changes since then so this week we’ll discuss alternatives to cable and paid TV.

First off, let’s get this out of the way — I don’t like pumpkin pie. Never will, and you can’t make me. For this I am resolute and unapologetic.

It’s almost illusional. It feels like we are wanderers in a tech-heavy, sci-fi world where reality is seemingly out of reach. We are relentlessly haunted by and hunted by misinformation and disinformation. Fake news consigns us to a never-ending search for news and information we can trust. In the midst of our meanderings, we had an election that was supposed to shed some light on what to expect in the 2024 national elections. Well, I’m still lost but, heh, anything can happen in 12 months of politics in America. So maybe clarity will come my way.

Everything you know about Thanksgiving is wrong. Well, maybe not everything, but a hell of a lot.

What’s happening in Ukraine and the Middle East may well be the test of our times. “It is the strategic decisions countries make that matter most… U.S. alliances are a source of American strength, rather than a liability.” These words were taken from the November to December edition of Foreign Affairs, written by Jake Sullivan, U.S. National Security advisor to the president. They apply both to Ukraine and Israel, if not more broadly to the Middle East and the rest of our interconnected and authoritarian-challenged world.

I just spent a wonderful long weekend with my sister and her son, Beau, “up north” at my parents’ cabin.

How can we get more useful results from our interactions with AIs/LLMs? Better prompts.

Have you ever had something happen to you that was just completely unexplainable? I’ve a had a few, but usually they’ve been sort of silly, innocuous events that simply made me shake my head. For instance, I once returned home from school on a bright spring day, got out of my car, and walked to my front door carrying my backpack and stuff. When I got to the door I reached in my pocket to get my keys and they weren’t there.

My Auntie Jo gave me a beautiful pair of gloves yesterday. They are elegant, with embroidery on the top, and I immediately did what I usually do — I put them away for safekeeping.

It happened back in the late ’70s, and I’ve never been able to explain it. The strangeness, the surrealness of it all, I can still feel it today. Because it’s such an odd story I’ve only told a few people about it. I didn’t want folks to think I was, you know, cuckoo or something. Bottom line it happened, and I’m sure there was a reasonable explanation for it. Still, it haunts me.