Rainy-Laundry Day Post

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I can See Clearly Now that the Lake is Winning

When the going gets tough, the tough do laundry. We have to do something, because it’s not a beach day. Last night, I wanted to watch the Knicks game, but only the part where the orange dumpling got booed. We missed that part and ended up watching another New York story, the Disney movie Miracle. I got my happy ending, cried, and all the red hat baddies went to the gulag. USA! After last night’s NYC basketball extravaganza, I found the following online:

You are only a real New Yorker if you grew up in the city sewers with your Italian-named brothers and were raised by a mutant Japanese rat and martial arts trained.

I messaged this to Dan, our Real New Yorker, who responded, “There’s so much ‘What makes you a Real New Yorker’ discourse because of that J Lo interview.” He followed it up with, my favorite version is still: “You have to find a spot, a bar, a restaurant, a café. Fall in love with that spot. Then it needs to close, you’re heartbroken and sad. A new place opens in the same location.  At first, you’re upset about it. It just reminds you of the place you lost.  Begrudgingly you decide to try it, eventually find you kinda like it. Finally, you love it. It becomes your new spot. And then it closes. And that is when you’re a real New Yorker.”

I later found the J Lo interview, part of Kareem Rahma’s Subway Takes series, where J Lo contends that you have to be born in NYC to be a Real New Yorker. Rahma even argues that much like Dan has that he was told that if you live in the city for ten years then you can call yourself a Real New Yorker, but J Lo was adamant. What does Native New Yorker Britt think?

Amish Traffic Jam on 6 Mile

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Amish Buggy

I was returning from the grocery store today, when on 6 Mile I ran into an Amish traffic jam. I encountered not one, not two, but three buggies that had all converged simultaneously near their farmer’s market along 6 Mile. The buggy pictured had been heading westbound, as had I. I saw it first and slowed. Another buggy was eastbound and the third turned right out of the market’s driveway. I had to wait for the other two horsedrawn wagons to pass and then wait further for this one to turn left into the market’s parking lot.

The Amish along with the Ojibway are two minority communities that have flourished as of late in Chippawa County, while the majority white populace has languished. Chippawa County has one of the lowest average income levels in the State of Michigan. That being said, both minority communities are somewhat insular.

Seeking Peace through AI Slop

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Standing Buddha – The poise, benign expression and gracefully draped robe with delicate floral trim attest to the high quality of this Buddha sculpture.
WordPress AI Generated Standing Buddha

Unlike our regular home in the Lou, here at the cabin, it is quiet and still at night. No skittering of rodents here like in years past, just the occasional cycling of the fridge. Lying awake, trying to fall asleep there is nothing to prevent me from doing so except for the hamster wheel whirling in my brain. It is often tempting to reach out and seek help outside oneself, when as often the problem lies within. Still peace and enlightenment are often elusive and false gods abound.

One such duplicitous deity is AI. I must admit that I myself have been AI-curious. This post exhibits several instances of its use. The original photo above and on the left was first taken at the Royal Ontario Museum. Processing through Photoshop added the blue rays emanating from the statue. WordPress used this picture as a prompt and generated the associated video that for some reason paired Asian art with ancient Egyptian. A friend recently directed me to a new arrival to the ever-expanding AI pantheon, Halupedia is an interactive, satirical online encyclopedia where every article is generated on the spot by artificial intelligence. Instead of hosting a database of real knowledge, the website creates fake facts, fabricated scholars, and imaginary places, all written in a highly convincing, scholarly tone. The following is an example.

The Chauvinist Doctrine of Unnecessary Gesticulation emerged in the late 18th century, primarily within the hushed halls of academia and the increasingly formal salons of the era. Its foundational tenets proposed that any movement of the hands, arms, or torso beyond the absolute minimum required for subsistence constituted an affront to reason and a deliberate attempt to mislead the observer. Proponents argued that clear thought manifested in a still frame, and that any deviation was a sign of internal chaos or worse, a perfidious attempt to mask a lack of genuine intellect with performative dynamism.