I was rarely a read-more-than-one-book-at-a-time guy but I seem to be now. I generally have something I'm listening to, and something I'm reading in bed at night. In the last week I finished Andrew Ross Sorkin's 1929. Fantastic book. It takes you through the crash and its aftermath in narrative form, telling the story through a handful of principals. It is not an in-depth study of the depression, more about the crash and the legal aftermath and congressional action culminating in Glass Steagel. Its a pretty short book, shorter than it seemed on kindle since over half is endnotes. I was surprised when the book ended and kindle said I was only 43% of the way through. [image: 71ojtb1VxuL._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg] I also finished listening to Chernow's new bio of Mark Twain. I enjoyed the book, and never considered putting it down, but I'm going to be honest and say it was a bit of an endurance test. (in fact I think that phrase made it into the NYT review of it). It is 1200+ pages, and the narration was 44+ hours. It could use editing down to maybe 60% of its current length. Having said all that, he was a fascinating man with a fascinating life and I'm glad I read it. I didn't know all that much about him. There are two Mark Twin houses in Connecticut that operate as museums, I may go see them at some point. [image: Mark_Twain_by_Ron_Chernow.jpg]

[image: output.jpg] (I tried three times for a three cornered biretta but this freebie image generator must not be religiously inclined)

"he is seen and heard talking to a woman he had met for a date...." We know what he was thinking!

Coincidentally, I just mentioned the AI hallucination issue on the other post.

Will believe it when it happens.

Here's Gemini's description of an AI hallucination. They're real, and not rare. An AI hallucination occurs when a Large Language Model (LLM)—like the one I am—generates information that is factually incorrect, nonsensical, or entirely fabricated, yet presents it with high confidence. Because these models are designed to be fluent and helpful, they often "fill in the blanks" when they lack specific data, creating responses that sound plausible but have no basis in reality.

Love that show!

Well, the Saturday Night Massacre didn’t do Nixon any good….

@Piano-Dad I'm waiting for the letters of concern to start flowing

Good plan. I think it's a poor person who does not enjoy their own company when alone. I know I do.

I saw this clip. Wow.

@wtg said in Ein Volk, Ein Reich: Just a salute [image: 23elon-salute-1-fbvg-videoSixteenByNineJumbo1600-v2.jpg] This is a true expression of the nature of his apartied South African fascism.

I learned a few days ago my sister-in-law, a public school librarian, has taken on an after school assignment teaching students English in preparation for college. She told me her assignment is difficult because the district is poor and the students she's teaching aren't starting at expectable grade level English skills. I also learned she has her PhD and one of her specialties is designing course instruction. I have no doubt she'll do an excellent job. My guess would be, generally, even without having been a teacher, that the more a teacher expects, and the more rigorous a teacher is, at any grade level, the better the result will be. For my part, I told her about my experiences in grades 11- 16, she kindly compared me to my sister (not quite warranted in all humility) and of course I said thank you. Teaching, tutoring, and mentoring are essential. I myself would probably sound like and have the communication skills of a caveman it hadn't been for my luck in having a mother who taught me how to read and write and great teachers who had the resourses to do their jobs.

I recently purchased a carbon steel pan hoping for natural nonstick properties and light weight. I mostly use it for the boy’s scrambled eggs. I like it but it has a ways to go to become as nonstick as I’d like.