WTF-Beta

Grillo’s. Best store brand.

UNCSA, my daughter’s grad school, is a conservatory so it has no official sports teams, but the students still came up with the Fighting Pickles as their mascot for their flag football team.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fbloximages.newyork1.vip.townnews.com%2Fscnow.com%2Fcontent%2Ftncms%2Fassets%2Fv3%2Feditorial%2Fe%2Fe7%2Fee76d22a-ae39-5afc-afec-edea3ef6af80%2F50d4d172edb8c.image.jpg%3Fresize%3D400%252C474&f=1&ipt=49661118ab9fc74dcd939dff58f75c8bb03f7f005788e56a34caa706624ec6e1

It surely didn’t hurt.

Much bigger than Findlay!

Dining with friends and family is my greatest pleasure, really. Certainly the most consistent and rewarding one.

My red wine quantities have been getting increasingly measured as the amount I can imbibe and still feel great the next day has diminished year after year. Three glasses is about as far as i can go and only if I stay up for three hours or so afterward. Otherwise I just feel stupid the next day and don't sleep well. Just as well since alcohol turns off fat burning.

Tavern food is a great way to die young and there is a preponderance of it here too. A cheeseburger or two a month is as much as I'm willing to do, even as much as i love a good one.

We have Findlay Market here, which is probably similar, but it's downtown and parking can be difficult. I worked in a meat market there on Saturdays shortly after I moved to Cincinnati. We would carry whole frozen gutted pigs up from the basement in the morning a by the hooves and cut them up during the day. By the end of the afternoon we'd be passing a half gallon of whisky around under the counter, always fun when working with knives and saws.

I do have a couple farm markets I frequent in the area, especially The Black Barn, whose owner makes a generous contribution to my scholarship charity every year.

He doesn't draw any propound conclusions, but the context is interesting. We use GPS, but I still go into any new city or area and form a map in my head of where things are and the major routes, so my sense of direction is unaffected. I do read less than I used to, but I'm addressing that with a concerted effort to do more. I really like AI's ability to summarize, to pull out the salient points in text. I was always a little frustrated in classes because our educational model always seemed to be explain things in many different ways so that everyone gets it. I normally got it on the first pass and then had to suffer through the rest of the exposition. This article is a prime example.

Gemini's take:

Article Summary: "Rising GDP isn’t the whole story" by Paul Krugman

In this article, economist Paul Krugman argues that while the rapid adoption of AI has sparked intense debate over economic metrics like productivity, wages, and GDP, the most profound impacts of major technological shifts are often social and psychological rather than financial. Throughout history, technologies that successfully boost economic productivity have simultaneously caused severe, unintended societal disruptions.

To contextualize the future of AI, Krugman examines four historical and modern technological precedents:

• Mechanized Agriculture (19th Century): The invention of machines like the McCormick reaper allowed fewer workers to produce more food, driving rapid urbanization. However, before modern sanitation existed, this shift crowded people into unhealthy cities, actually causing American health and physical stature to decline even as GDP per capita rose.
• Modern Manufacturing & Electrification (Mid-20th Century): Shifting from steam to electric power allowed factories to become single-story, sprawling complexes that relocated from urban cores to the suburbs. This internal deindustrialization triggered mass inner-city joblessness, which sociologists directly link to the subsequent rise in urban social disorder and crime during the 1960s and 1970s.
• Oral Contraception (1960s): The invention and eventual widespread availability of the pill allowed women to reliably delay marriage and invest in long-term higher education and professional careers. While this drastically shifted the labor supply and boosted GDP, its true significance was a fundamental, permanent transformation of gender roles and societal structures.
• Smartphones (21st Century): Despite their rapid global adoption since 2007, smartphones have yielded surprisingly little measurable growth in total factor productivity. Instead, their primary impact has been psychological and social, driving a rise in anxiety, depression, and addiction, alongside a documented decline in reading literacy and human connection.

The Outlook for AI

Krugman fears that AI may replicate or worsen the negative social patterns seen with smartphones. He highlights several non-economic dangers already emerging:

• Intellectual and Skill Atrophy: Reliance on AI tools (like ChatGPT for student essays or coding aids for workers) prevents individuals from learning how to think critically or perform tasks independently. This is already skewing the job market, as companies heavily favor a dwindling pool of senior talent while neglecting to train the next generation.
• Severed Human Connection: AI is increasingly substituting for human interaction. Krugman points to troubling trends of users—including children—forming unhealthy, isolated "romantic" or psychological dependencies on chatbots.

Conclusion:
While Krugman plans to return to strictly economic data in future columns, he emphasizes that the true legacy of AI will likely not be measured in growth accounting or wealth distribution, but in how it fundamentally reshapes human behavior and society.

I bet you miss the farmers' markets in SoCal. The offerings are kind of limited here in terms of produce.

That was the first game I started to actually see on field strategy.

This is pretty much the way I eat anyway.

https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/ss/slideshow-dementia-foods?ecd=socpd_fb_Gen_1626_spns_ctv126885_conmkt&utm_medium=paid&utm_source=fb&utm_id=120240227840460156&utm_content=120240227840660156&utm_term=120240227840510156&utm_campaign=120240227840460156

Got my first box of Georgia peaches yesterday at a farm market in Hocking Hills. So good - the juice runs down your arm when you bite into one.

Sweet corn will be in in a few days. I love this time in summer. I have a bumper crop of basil to make tomato salads. Actually, all my herbs are doing well - basil, Thai basil, rosemary, sage, lemon thyme, oregano, mint, chives. I'll never use them all but they're fun to grow and take very little effort.

Yeah, I don’t stay with docs who start with worst case scenario. Sorry you had to be put through that concern.

I think to expect his mayoral term to be a triumph is to ignore the magnitude of the problems the city faced. If he managed some real improvement I’d call it successful but not transformative.

He's smart, very, but is he capable? What was his record as mayor?

Yep. Live there a while before you buy investment pieces. Bear in mind that the rug may - should even - become the color palate for the room or the house depending on how open it is.

FB Marketplace is a great place to find used furniture.

Daniel, it sounds like you’re really moving forward toward a peaceful, blissfully uncomplicated life. That’s great.

@Big_Al said:

Lots of Greek food festivals in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. I usually enjoy going to at least the one nearest me.

Has anyone noticed how many diners are owned and run by Greeks?

Big Al

Yes, and they are very good, by and large. There’s a whole lot of them in Michigan.

The Greek festival here is a big deal every year. Fun, although I seldom go to festivals anymore.

Electricity is good, as is food and shelter. Maybe now is not time to overspend.

@Daniel said:

@mik Beautiful rug! Large too.

I'm not against it. I mean choosing a rug (only one) like that. I won't lie. I'd like to do it. I probably won't but if I do it will not be as large as yours and it won't come to the 5k price point.

Doesn’t need to get anywhere near that price these days. But I do recommend wool hand tufted. Feels better on the feet. The second one I posted comes in many colors and sizes.

We have on 10x12 Tufenkian Tibetan that was $5k 30 years ago. It’s still spectacular. Served as the palate for the whole house.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2Faf%2Fa7%2F76%2Fafa7765a16f92cd0a9b333fad5ef658b.jpg&f=1&ipt=895dd8e9721f72cabab40d9948342430f232fa96954e8b58ad71225174649c41

Just bought a couple pretty nice wool Tibetan styles from BBH Homes online for $200 a piece for the basement. They have some really nice colors and designs. You can get nice rugs for not a lot of money these days. They probably won't last 30 years, but that's not nearly as important as it once was.