I’m loathe to give a single penny to tax prep software because some significant percentage of money they take in gets redistributed in a lobbying effort to make sure that Congress keeps our tax code complicated and does absolutely nothing to simplify tax preparation for Americans. But I’m way too lazy to actually prepare my…
Berck got us robot floor cleaners for Christmas, one for upstairs and one for downstairs. They’re apparently smart enough not to fall downstairs (at least the upstairs one is; the downstairs one might well be an idiot). They can vacuum and mop. They’re surprisingly fairly good at all-terraining it over doorway thresholds. They don’t do…
The prophet stared at the bird bones. They were a bit more charred than usual. He blinked. Crossed his eyes. Blinked again. The visions used to come unbidden, sometimes unwelcome, but lately they hadn’t been coming at all. He rubbed his right thumb knuckles with his left hand. Behind him, the elders inhaled sharply, then whispered among…
I wrote the previous piece, and it was good, but then I asked the free version of ChatGPT to improve it, and it sure did. It really likes colons and likes em-dashes even more. Here is my original version and its suggested rewrites, including, amusingly, headings. You said: Would you improve this piece of writing?…
Jack asked me what my motivation for racing was. “I’m just here to drink,” I answered. He wasn’t buying it. We were back from a track walk at High Plains, sitting on askew picnic benches in the pavilion, waiting out the rain that had cut our walk short. “Track walk after dinner?” I had asked…