My first big choice

...a dispatch from bewilderness

collage and painting by Judith Hannah Weiss

I’ve only been up two minutes and I’m already faced with my first big choice.  Should I click: Cop on the Beat is a Bot or Catfish Finds Love or Seaweed that Tastes like Bacon and Is Healthier Than Kale.

We didn’t used to have choices like that.  Hell, you couldn’t even freeze your eggs and make a baby later. Welcome back to Brain Damaged News.

Today there was an earthquake or two, a flood or three, an ice storm, a dust storm, a red sea parting, and a global stock collapse. It feels like the Old Testament. Except for the market crash.

At a holiday celebration in southern Ukraine, some kids asked Saint Nick for iPhones and some asked for peace.

A poll found Ron DeSantis the Republican candidate that least resembles a human

Another poll found Ron DeSantis the candidate that tries hardest to imitate humans

Breaking now:  Lab-made mini-brains have grown their own sets of eyes.  Also grown in labs:  tiny beating hearts and tear ducts that can cry like humans do.

The leading candidate for president of the United States has 41 criminal indictments and is ahead by 40 points.  Nearly a point for each indictment.

Woops, now it’s 81 indictments.  About two indictments for each popularity point.

There are approximately eight billion humans on earth.  We communicate in seven thousand languages.  Chief among these are Mandarin Chinese, Spanish, English, Hindi and Arabic.  Each has an alphabet.

Those of us who use English arrange 26 shapes to tell every story ever told and create all the news on wars, culture, climate, gender, science and everything else. But for me, the alphabet explodes.  Pulverizes in a blizzard of particles, not once, but millions of times.

There was a philosopher named Nothing Doing. That is not true. I forget his name. He recommended doing nothing. Sometimes I take his advice. But mostly I keep keeping on.