DEEP THOUGHTS (AND SHALLOW ONES) FROM A WRITER-PRODUCER-POET-COLUMNIST WHO'S STILL TRYING TO FIGURE THINGS OUT
Today I’m doing my best to honor Rod Stewart and prove that “every picture tells a story” except, of course, those that don’t.
In other words/pix?, above you can see some profundity from a cartoonist I truly respect: Stephan Pastis.
Interesting side note: Mr. Pastis “used to be a lawyer.” Is that a plus or a minus? I’ll stay out of that minefield for now.
LYMI
LB
Today’s intended post:
LB: Gwen and I had a wonderful day together yesterday!
Mesmerized Listener: What did you guys do?
LB: Spent the whole day in bed apologizing to each other for apologizing to each other.
Then I went to Copilot and asked it to make a cartoon image of an elderly married couple in bed sleeping.
That was intended to be the punchline. You know, the sleeping thing. So I thought it was really cool when Copilot responded with this:
I noticed your Facebook post about you and Gwen spending the day in bed “apologizing to each other for apologizing to each other”—that’s such a tender and humorous moment. If you’d like, I can create a version of the cartoon that captures that exact vibe. Want to personalize it a bit more?”
Of course I said yes. Here’s CoPilot’s cartoon.
Cute, huh? Full of tenderness and humor?
Okay, I admit it. What I see is tenderness, and love, but the humor part is sorely lacking. Which I could easily forgive because, you know, tenderness and love.
But where the hell is the personalization?
After half an hour of further instruction and various other attempts, I got a cartoon like this:
With this heading:
And we’re worried about AIs taking over the creative universe? Sheesh!
LYMILB
I strongly believe in disbelief myself. Here’s what I mean:
Please note that the same cartoonist is responsible for both these outlooks.
Thinking about this will take up a couple of my not-so-empty retirement minutes, which seems to me to be a better usage of time than trying to set up my new printer, which is also assaulting me with error messages.
LYMI
LB
I know some will feel differently, but I’m older than you are, so I know.
