Editor’s Desk

If You Don’t Know, Shut Up

Editorial

Today, the Interwebz are full of people calling out the Olympic boxer who won by tap-out. They’re saying a transgender male has no business competing in a women-only category.

Which is, by and large, a fair statement. After all, equality only goes just so far. If we have a special protected competition for women only due to the muscle-producing effects of testosterone on the human physique, it makes perfect sense to disallow biological males. There are those who disagree with this statement, and I’m willing to discuss it.

But it does not apply here.

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Happy Birthday, Earl Scruggs.

EDITORIAL

Dates have different meanings to different people. The sixth of January 2024 is the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Earl Scruggs, the man who reinvented the banjo and, with help from his musical friends, created modern bluegrass music.

But most of us are, perhaps strangely, more concerned with the riot at the Capitol in 2021, an event that actually changed nothing whatsoever. In a hundred years, any importance we now attach to it will be considered inexplicable. Much sooner, a generation will graduate from college that neither remembers it nor cares.

But was it important? What’s the actual truth of the matter?

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On The Use Of AI Assist

Aside from spellchecks, grammar checks, and automatic wordcounters, I don’t use AI tools.

Computerized assistance has a great deal of potential for helping writers. The ability to backspace alone— and no longer having to type with four carbons—!!! We’ve come a long way from those old upright Remingtons.

But more advanced writing tools are, at best, a crutch. They’re great if you’ve got a bum leg, sure, but if you overuse them, your other muscles will atrophy. Come to rely on them and, when you really need your writing ability, it won’t be there anymore.

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Bad Orange Man Indicted

I’d thought avoiding Trump stories would help avoid giving him free press, but that ship has sailed. At this point, I think most of us have become resigned to the upcoming Biden-Trump II presidential contest. If I had any hope remaining for the Republican Party, I’d be strongly advising everyone I can think of to register R so they could vote against him twice. But I don’t. The only strong contenders are either insane, hopelessly mired in Trump’s muck, or have declared war on Mickey Mouse.

It’s been observed that this will be treading on blessedly new legal ground. Former presidents are never indicted, and it’s not because they’ve failed to engage in criminal activity. Most were a bit more discreet about it, mind you, but not all.

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Blue Checks: To Pay, Or Not To Pay

Well. That is the question, is it not?

Let’s start by clearing the underbrush. There are dozens of subordinate questions, such as the ethics of the thing and whether people should be expected to pay when the site’s making money from their presence anyway, all that. So let’s get that out of the way first and move on.

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Donation-Based Media: How It Works

Or: I’m a Republican. Why the hell should I buy you a coffee, ya freeloader? Go get a job and buy your own damn coffee! I do my donating at church!

That’s what you’re thinking. I know because that’s the way I thought about it for a lot of years. Why should I pay for news when I get it for free? Why pay for a newspaper when I can just read it on their website? After all, I pay enormous sums for cable T.V., not to mention two different streaming services; CNN gives me news for free so everyone should!

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Blacksmiths, A.I., and Artists

My people were blacksmiths.

My grandfather’s forge was a working concern through the 1980s. His neighbors would bring him holed pots, and when he was finished they’d be better than new.

Granted, this wasn’t his job in the 1980s; he’d retired long since. He was a machinist, trained to repair bombers in the Second World War. He worked in the family garage, and later on construction equipment. And he kept and used hammer and anvil from time to time.

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Six Impossible Things

“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the Queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. There goes the shawl again!”

(from “Through the Looking Glass”, by Lewis Carroll)
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