The Wrong Question The advent of photography in the 19th Century triggered visceral reactions from painters, especially portrait artists dependent on commission.

Jim Carpenter's magnificent take on generative #AI and #writing.

open.substack.com/pub/mamalujo...

#writingcommunity

When loud people warn that the things you say risk "diluting the message," especially "at a critical time," you're probably on to something both important and good.

Nuance is not an enemy.

Merry Christmas to all!

I used to pride myself on flying Spirit with no luggage, paying the bare minimum price at all times. I feel the same about hotels with resort fees. I'll go out of my way not to pay parking or any more than the published fee. It isn't about being cheap. It's about resentment being nickled and dimed.

I just read the President's statement about the death of Rob Reiner.

Am I allowed to make Charlie Kirk jokes now?

I just had my annual viewing. Amazon Prime.

ctliotta.medium.com/20-years-on-...

20 Years On, “What’s Cooking?” is the Greatest Thanksgiving Movie Ever Made How a 2000 movie about four diverse families celebrating Thanksgiving is at once dated, nostalgic… and timely

Hard to say this if you consider “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” a Thanksgiving movie but definitely the best one focused on all the different foods all these American families eat at Thanksgiving!

ctliotta.medium.com/20-years-on-...

There is a stray comma there, but whatever.

Thanksgiving is my favorite US Holiday. Enjoy the pie, today!

I have #prioritypass through my credit card, and I find it utterly depressing. Even when I get in, watching other members lining up like its the buffet at Caesars, getting disappointed when the wait exceeds their terminal time... Upset because their premium credit card sold them an illusion.

"Microdosing" GLP1s is nothing more than clever marketing. The minimum effective dose is still a dose.

Pretending you don't need a "full dose" and just a little to get you over the hump is vanity.

It's like saying I don't need 5mg of Cialis to get hard, just 2.5 to "take me the rest of the way."

Was i the only one who thought Stranger Things Season 4 wasn't very good?

As someone who writes #LGBT stories, here's an unpopular take: representation matters less than plot. If you don't have an engaging story driving your diverse characters, you'll hemorrhage readers no matter how perfectly they're represented. Diversity cannot be primary in good storytelling.

Just got word that #PanAm is a few steps closer to re-launching as an actual airline.

"We should be telling writers near the poverty line that AI is not the way to structure, edit or refine their writing, and that they should instead build community" is both a fine ideal and an oxygen-rich take. #writingcommunity

I hate to admit that anything by #TaylorSwift kicks me in the feels, but oh, man, "Ruin the Friendship" from her latest album.

The nice thing about being older is not caring who does the Super Bowl halftime show, or why that person upsets people.

I am now taking offers:

That old closed movie #theater with the signage chipped away? Lemme guess... That's where you saw "Lord of the Rings."

#Starbucks would rather close stores than remain open in areas accessible to people who smell like urine.

A huge problem I have with AI is the amount of content generated for social media of dubious origin and with dubious facts. The point is not to mislead people with fake stories, but to make everyone question if anything is accurate or real or really happened at all. The firehose of falsehood.

It's just insane to me that school #library book bans are still a thing, as if high numbers of kids read and get their ideas from books at a school library. Yes, I'm romantic about libraries and librarians and kids reading. Yes, some kids do. Most get their ideas from Tik Tok, not books.

"Bon Appetit, Your Majesty" is my favorite show on television right now.

Is there such a thing as a "marketplace of ideas" anymore, or are we so fractured and bubbled as a society such a concept is impossible?

#KPopDemonHunters is the most popular movie on Netflix EVER. It's also badly written. It's a lesson. What's popular does not have to be perfect or even, sometimes, polished. It just has to land with the right people at the right time and the right cultural moment.

As much as I like to be in the know about politics, I have to admit that I didn't even know who Charlie Kirk was until a few hours ago. When the news broke. I thought Charlie Rose had been shot and became very confused - like, maybe he interviewed Woody Allen and pissed someone off.

Life is really just a series of little people finding or inventing really cool ideas or music or things or places before bigger, wealthier, privileged people steal them and turn them into places or things or ideas for themselves. It may not be just, but it's life, & this is not an inflection point.

KPop Demon Hunters reminds me how much better 'The Greatest Showman" was as a musical, and I will fight the whole Internet on that.

My husband literally had all day while I was at work to watch K Pop Demon Hunters for his 8th or 9th time. Why, Jesus? Why did he wait until 7 PM? I can't!! I can't, anymore! I never wanted to watch Clint Eastwood until this period in our marriage!

I'm sort of convinced people don't read much anymore, especially fiction. I do like to write, though, and I know my way around a plot. Not many people will ever read what I write, and I've become content with that. Sometimes it's just nice to sit at Starbucks with some purpose.