What I Heard This Week 12-14-2023
Last week, on one single day, I received three separate invoices from our electric company in three separate envelopes. Each invoice had the same amount due but different billing cycles, different due dates, and different invoice numbers. So, I picked up the phone and called. After being on hold for twenty minutes, I finally got through to a real person and explained the situation. Now this is where you need to pay attention… the person helping me said in a very sweet voice, “I am so sorry about the multiple billings, but AI sent them out wrong.” Bingo!! Artificial intelligence (AI), the intelligence of machines or software, as opposed to the intelligence of humans or animals. We can now legitimately blame EVERYTHING on AI, which is probably right. IT WILL BE artificial intelligence running our lives as we struggle to save ourselves from the complications and disadvantages associated with our new world of hands-off human beings.
UPDATE: Today as I finished up this column for print tomorrow, I opened some mail and what to my wondering eyes should appear… (do you like the way I slipped that in there at Christmas time?) another invoice from my electric company for the same identical amount – so that’s four total. I made another phone call and received another apology, but AI wasn’t mentioned this time. I sure hope AI gets a little time-off during the holidays along with well needed rest. But wait, there is more! The next envelope in my stack that I opened was information about my expiring contract with the energy company along with information explaining that they will automatically transfer my current electricity plan to their variable rate plan… I wonder how AI will be able to figure out how to do that? Hmmm. Might be time to shop energy companies again.
Insanity doesn’t run in my family, it STROLLS through, taking time to get to know each one of us personally.
RodeoHouston released its lineup calendar and wants YOU to fill in the specifics. Take a guess at who the performers will be when they are announced on January 11th, 2024, and the person who gets closest to the actual lineup will win an all-inclusive suite for 18 guests for one rodeo performance. Entries must be received by December 15th, 2023. Rodeohouston.com/guess-the-lineup/
The nurse came in and said, “Doc, there’s a man in the waiting room who thinks he’s invisible, what should I tell him? The doctor said, “Tell him I can’t see him today.”
Taco Bell is bringing back the double decker taco for a limited time nationwide comeback. Hmmm. This might be most important just to the people who struggle when having to choose between two options…like a crunchy taco or a soft taco. Such a dilemma. Luckily for them, the double decker is a hard shell wrapped in a soft tortilla stuck together with a layer of refried beans. The fillings are normal lettuce, cheese, and seasoned ground beef. I guess it’s just an experience you have to try… like putting potato chips on your sandwich.
Freud: If it’s not one thing, it’s your mother. – Robin Williams
More chaos this year in The House of Representatives who voted 214-191, to censure Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman for pulling a fire alarm in a Capitol office building. Bowman apologized and said that at the time he was trying to get through a door that was usually open but was closed that day because it was the weekend. Bowman is now the 27th person to be censured by the chamber — and the third just this year. There has been so much childish misbehavior in the House, by both parties. I find it hard to believe a person that is smart enough to be a congressperson isn’t smart enough to know a fire alarm will NOT open a locked door. But then my thoughts drift to Marjorie Taylor Greene… hmmm.
RECENT BIRTHDAYS: TV anchor Diane Sawyer is 78. Actor Barry Livingston of My Three Sons is 70. Guitarist Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones is 80. Director Steven Spielberg is 77. Movie critic Leonard Maltin is 73. Guitarist Elliot Easton of The Cars is 70. Actor Brad Pitt is 60. Musician John McEuen of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band is 78. Country singer Janie Fricke is 76. Actor Jennifer Beals is 60. Actor Tommy Cole of The Mickey Mouse Club is 82. Drummer Bobby Colomby of Blood, Sweat and Tears is 79. Former Kiss drummer Peter Criss is 78. Musician Alan Parsons is 75. Talk show host Phil Donahue is 88. Actor Jane Fonda is 86. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 75. Actor Ronnie Schell of Gomer Pyle, USMC is 92. Guitarist Jorma Kaukonen of Jefferson Airplane & Hot Tuna is 83. Actor Susan Lucci of All My Children is 77. Musician Adrian Belew of King Crimson is 74.
Ryan O’Neal of Love Story, Peyton Place, What’s Up, Doc? and Paper Moon fame, died at 82. Norman Lear, writer, director and producer, who redefined family sitcoms to be more like real life, died at 101. All in the Family, The Jeffersons, Maude, The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Good Times, Sanford & Son and One Day at a Time.
One small change you can make to help Mother Earth is to change your dog’s poop bags to COMPOSTABLE (NOT biodegradable) plant-based materials like vegetable starch and resin. Think, ‘compostable’ is something you can put in the garden that will eventually become dirt. Some bags are labeled biodegradable which means they will break down, BUT just to smaller pieces of the same plastic. Plastic pieces are here forever. They never go away. Read the fine print. Try The Original Poop Bag. Always choose COMPOSTABLE everything.
The HOLLYWOOD sign that overlooks Los Angeles officially turned 100 years old. On December 8, 1923, the sign, which then read Hollywoodland, was first illuminated to advertise an upscale residential real estate development in the Hollywood hills. It was basically a billboard that cost $21,000. In 1932 a British actress died by suicide at the sign after struggling to find success in Hollywood. In 1944, the sign became the property of LA after the development went bust during the Great Depression. In 1949, after years of neglect, the Chamber of Commerce repaired and rebuilt the H which had fallen down and removed the word LAND. In 1978 Hugh Hefner hosted a Playboy Mansion fundraiser to rebuild the sign, which was at that time rusted, dilapidated, and crumbling, losing letters falling down the hill and an arsonist had set fire to the bottom of the second L. Hugh Hefner auctioned off letters of the sign to other celebrities for $27,700 each in order to raise money for a brand new sign. The nine white block letters were rebuilt to 45 feet high. In 1997 Michelle Yeoh dangled from a helicopter for a photoshoot in front of the sign for a National Geographic cover. In 2017 pranksters altered the sign to read HOLLYWEED for the second time (1976). The sign has been altered to read HOLYWOOD in honor of Pope John Paul II’s visit to LA, OLLYWOOD in reference to Oliver North’s testimony in the Iran-Contra scandal, and in 2021 six people were arrested after altering the sign to read HOLLYBOOB. The iconic landmark now has a new paint job to celebrate 100 years.
Kevin McCarthy will be leaving Congress at the end of 2023. A one-inch tomato, the first to be grown on the International Space Station and missing since March, has been found. There were no details about where it was found or what condition it was in. Because of the weightlessness of space, any object that is unsecured is likely to float off. The new Candy Cane Lane movie with Eddie Murphy is being described as less than Eddie Murphy deserves. It is rated PG but has mild language and suggestive references. On Prime **1/2 stars. Wisconsin Republicans who posed as fake electors for Donald Trump have settled a civil lawsuit for their actions. As part of the settlement, they acknowledged Biden’s win and admitted they were “part of an attempt to improperly overturn the 2020 presidential election results”
U.S. toy giant Hasbro is cutting 1,100 or 20% of its global workforce after back-to-back quarters of weak toy sales. I recently donated toys and made sure the sack was full of Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head. Hasbro owns the trademarks and products of Kenner, Milton Bradley, Parker Brothers, and Wizards of the Coast, among others. Cabbage Patch, Easy-Bake Oven, Furby, G.I. Joe, Glo Worm, The Incredibles, Lincoln Logs, Marvel Universe, My Little Pony, Power Rangers, Rubik’s Cube, Star Wars, Spirograph, Super Soaker, Teletubbies, Toy Story, Transformers, and so much more.
Martha Stewart told Drew Barrymore that when she is ready for a dinner party at her home to be over, she simply says four words, “I’m going to bed.” If that doesn’t work, then she starts turning out the lights.
The North Pole must be a pretty perfect place to invest in real estate. Over the past six years the 25-acre, 200-year-old rustic log cabin property that belongs to Santa, increased in value from $650,000 to $1,154,137. You can see pictures on Zillow. Lots of pictures and it’s an amazing home. There is also a link to the official NORAD Santa Tracker where kids can track Santa’s precise location on the big night. Make it a family tradition. Go to: www.zillow.com/house/santas-house
Have a great week! Thanks for reading and shopping with us. Please sell something.
LISA
Send comments to Lisa Baker at lisa@thesourceweekly.com
