Strong by Lisbeth Darsh

Unplugging is now kind of impossible in our society. And maybe that’s okay. No need for anybody to get their panties in an uproar. (I’m never really sure what that expression means but wow is it fun to say — and maybe we’d even like it?) We’ve reached the point with the internet where electricity was in the U.S. in the 1930s or so — it’s everywhere but there are rural pockets that remain untouched.

“The people that I look up to — there’s nothing about fear in their content.” — E.C. Synkowski She’s right — good people don’t dish out a diet of fear nor do they thrive on it. Good people need and give more. And they know that you can gain eyeballs by scaring people, but you rarely inspire, educate, or lead that way. But there’s more — because any algor…

All over the place, you see "real" as an adjective glued to nouns - seemingly plastered with the enthusiasm of a rambunctious toddler grasping a large bag of stickers: much velocity, little vectoring. We even have an app called BeReal where people have learned to stage their photos that are supposed to show how real they are.

So close. AI just forgot a foot and some toes. When everything seems serious or sad, it’s time to run in the other direction. So today I offer you several pieces that made me laugh yesterday (besides the news of the impending arrest of a certain former president in the United States). Dad-o-saur! This stupid joke: A gastroenterologist walks into a bar. The …

Here we are again. AI merged the bullets and pencils in the first image. 😟 Kids got murdered at school AGAIN. And then we heard one elected weakling in Tennessee say out loud what no one should ever say about this uniquely American Circle of Hell: “We’re not going to fix it.” And (sadly) there are more like him. People throwing up their hands and saying thi…

“Get Better at Hard Things” That was the message I saw in white letters on a black hoodie worn by a woman with a severe countenance at the NCAA Women’s Basketball Sweet 16 this weekend. I wanted to step up and say to her, “Hey, why don’t you get better at hard things?” Because I knew that what she was telling other people (“Get better at hard things”) was likely what she wanted to tell herself.

Not me! More from AI: “men drinking coffee at the circus” I’m back to hanging inside coffee shops and wow I’m realizing how much I missed it. Being around people — even slightly annoying people — is so important to us as social animals. Like right now, Annoying Man Who Takes Work Call at Quiet Coffee Shop is here. But then the quiet guy at the next table w…

I saw a post about the weirdness that can be AI showing women eating salad and I thought, “It can’t be that bad.” Surprise! It is! Why are their eyes so crazy? Perhaps pesticides have ruined their hands?

"Welcome and Entertain Them All" strongstartsinthemind.substack.com

I was 13 years old and riding on a Greyhound bus the first time I made out with a boy. (Anyone else been there? Raise your hand!) There on I-95, somewhere between puberty and Maryland, in the beginning of a St. John the Evangelist school trip to Washington D.C., I was mashing my lips against red-headed Tom’s. It was just like I had seen everywhere in our society since I was a baby. Boy and girl. This is how you do it. Here was my chance! I was ready for it all. Kiss.