Despite everything, Snoopy types another story

Despite everything, Snoopy decided he would do what he wanted to do: sit on top of his doghouse and write another story. First, he put a new ribbon in his typewriter and checked that all the keys worked. Then he started typeing: "It was a dark and stormy night." He liked the rhythm of the keys clacking out that sentence, so he typed it again: "It was a dark and stormy night." And again and again: "It was a dark and stormy night. It was a dark and stormy night. It was a dark and stormy night. It was a dark and stormy night. It was a dark and stormy night." (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 24 April 2025) 

Sarfaz Manzoor writes down a line from Bruce Springsteen that comes to seem like “the secret to the universe"

In class today, we discussed a line from Bruce Springsteen's song "Candy's Room" (on "Darkness on the Edge of Town", 1978): "In the darkness there’ll be hidden worlds that shine." Sarfaz Manzoor quotes it in his memoir "Greetings from Bury Park" (2007): "[...] after my father died that one line felt like a lifeline thrown to a drowning man." He writes it on a piece of paper: "I fixed it to my bedroom wall [...]. I stared at those words as if they might hold the secret to the universe." This led us to discuss how lines from songs, poems, or other texts can come to seem like keys to meaning. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 23 April 2025) 

Snoopy gets distracted from writing by another silly statement from Exit

Snoopy would prefer to sit on top of his doghouse and write another story: "It was a dark and stormy night." But whenever he looks up, his gaze is drawn across the ocean to Plunderland. Today he read that Exit had ranted again about the Six Flacks and the people who tell them their stories: "They take anonymous sources from disgruntled former employees, and then they try to slash and burn people and ruin their reputations." But Exit, Snoopy thought, who else do you expect criticism to come from than "disgruntled" people who might not even work for you anymore? Satisfied employees, after all, don't complain and don't exit their jobs. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 22 April 2025)

While Uneven and Don Q milled around Hush Money House, Vanza visited the Good Shepherd, who then died

While Uneven milled around Hush Money House and ranted about how anyone who disagreed with him was a "terrorist", Don Q stared at the window on the wall and wished even "the radical left lunatics" Happy Resurrection Day. But Vanza had left Plunderland to fly across the ocean to visit the Good Shepherd. Vanza and the Shepherd had disagreed about "the order of love", and the Shepherd had continued to contradict Vanza's understanding of shepherding, but Vanza still got to speak with the Shepherd on Resurrection Day. In the evening, Vanza flew to visit the homeland of his wife, and the next morning, the Shepherd died of shock from that meeting. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 21 April 2025)

Objections to Meta’s request for permission to use my public posts for their AI products

Meta sent me an email if I wanted "to object to the use of [my public] information" in order "to develop and improve AI at Meta." I objected. First, many of my posts are my own creative work, which I don’t want any company to use for AI. Secondly, AI for search is misleading at best and worthless at worst, with too much false information compared to non-AI approaches. Thirdly, the servers used to feed large language models (LLMs) have appalling environmental effects. Finally, LLMs are based on an understanding of language that is completely contradicted by linguistics. Human language is not statistically generated on the basis of a gigantic database. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 20 April 2025)

Don Q thinks about Paul Revere

Yesterday was the 250th anniversary of Paul Revere's midnight ride, which Henry Wadsworth Longfellow commemorated in his 1860 poem, "Paul Revere's Ride". When Don Q heard about that anniversary, he turned to look at the window on the wall and said, "We've all heard of Paul Revere. He's someone everybody is talking about." Remembering that Revere had been riding a horse, he began to weave: "I don't want to ride a horse, especially on the golf course. Their hooves would tear up the fairways and the greens. They might even eat all the grass off the greens! Vanza, write me an order to sign that gets rid of all the horses!" (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 19 April 2025) 

"Well, I’m not involved in it”: Don Q answers questions from the Six Flacks and laughs with Omen and Vanza

Don Q listened to the questions from the Six Flacks and looked at the window on the wall in Hush Money House. "Well, I’m not involved in it," he said. The Six Flacks followed his gaze and saw the painting of the window. He saw what the window told him to see, and he told the Six Flacks what he saw, so that the people in Plunderland who see what he tells them to see would see it. "We were inundated by criminals at the highest level, murderers on the loose. Nobody can believe the job we’ve done." He laughed and smiled at Omen and Vanza, who laughed and smiled back. (Andrew Shields, #111Words, 18 April 2025)