53 Comments
Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Michael, I remember reading somewhere that cannabis doesn't really hurt your memory much after the age of 25. I wanted to say some other relevant things here, but I forget what I wanted to say.

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I had a witty reply, but I can’t remember it now. Damn.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

BRB, grabbing 9 snax.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Whew, I thought it was just me when I tried like four times to get to the questionnaire and kept failing.

Taylor Swift endorsed the original vaxxer, Edward Jenner. October surprise was huge numbers of humans saved from dying or being disfigured by smallpox.

If I told you what the 2024 October surprise will be it won’t be a surprise now will it?

The thing about the 2060s is people will be saying “I can’t believe it’s the 2060s and we’re still having to protest all this shit.”

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Thank you for trying to fill out the survey, Jessica! I promise to get it working before 2060

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Tay Tay's ta tas only endorse NFL players, actors, and fellow musicians (dubiously), not elections. She does however influence world economy. The October surprise will be her tour taking the month off resulting in economic collapse.

I want future historians to recognized they are record keepers not soothsayers.

Yes on your gardener. At least he gave a balanced response. Also delivered in normal terms most people can comprehend.

AI is no smarter than the sum of its parts. And that's some scary shit.

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Your take on AI is chef’s kiss! Also, I need to get into the Taylor Swift business. It’s the only game in town.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

I want future historians to know that 2024 was just like the previous elections. Everything went like shit. What wasn’t just like all the rest was the technology which made very little overall difference. The vote went just like the Illuminati paid to have it go. Unless they’ve been proven to not exist.

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This comment will inspire several works of future history.

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1. In October, she refused to endorse either candidate and insisted Washington become President for Life. They were dating at the time, though he'd later become the subject of her popular folk song about heartbreak, chattel slavery, and smallpox.

2. Does anything surprise anymore?

3. Nothing surprised anyone anymore.

4. Absolutely. Best political analysis I've heard since 2007.

5. AI fucking sucks. It's a Microsoft Office product masquerading as a revolutionary technology.

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Funny you should mention Microsoft. I use Chrome (a decision I question daily). This week they introduced a “help me write AI” that has real Clippy vibes. It just keeps popping up and you have to go DEEP into settings to turn it off. Makes me want to show up at Google HQ every day with a sign that says I’ll help them fix search.

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1. She endorsed Jefferson, who lost. The “October surprise” was that the election went on for over a month, from November 4 to December 7 (which wasn’t much of an October surprise). Sorry — that was the right answer.

2. Trump’s massive stroke, which will go unnoticed by the MAGA faithful (and possibly The NY Times as well).

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I could fill a library full of books that speak to things that have gone unnoticed by The NY Times. I know people are obsessed with their political coverage but I find their coverage of Los Angeles to be hilarious. They have this knack for writing about LA as if nobody has ever written about LA.

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The NYT has become a rag to me.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

I think I will be forced to go to a fortune teller!

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

I think we're head for a J.J. Abrams October surprise: A splinter political faction calling themselves Not Penny's Boat throwing an eleventh hour wrench in the works; we learn that all voting machines are controlled by a guy named Desmond pushing a button in a hatch every 108 minutes; and the biggest surprise/reveal of them all: Toe Fungus Trump IS The Smoke Monster! Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol?

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You Lost me. Kidding! If newsletters don’t work out, JJ will hire you to write screenplays.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Maybe he was using AI before it was even a thing? Season 5 definitely felt like Hal-9000 was behind most of it….;)

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It’s quite possible! In fact, I’m not sure if JJ is real. I’ve never seen him. Perhaps he is Hal-9000!

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Are people hounding you for your opinion because of your law background? Nobody has asked for my opinion, and that’s a good thing, because my answer is 🤷‍♂️.

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I’m not sure. This happens to me whenever there’s a big news story. I’d chalk friends and family asking up to the law degree and my hobby of reading history. But I can’t explain strangers. I mean perhaps I look learned, but I also wear t-shirts that say things like “I got a beverage here, man,” so I don’t exactly give off professor vibes.

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Maybe it’s the beard. It gives off a “prognosticator vibe.”

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Perhaps! But this has been going on since I was a kid.

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I’ll answer your questions- but, first, again, your newsletter“both are true” is wonderful, thank you! So, 1. Who cares? 2. I forgot the question 3. Way past 4. It was Kermit the Frog. 5. Steve Bannon’s attention has successfully shifted to EU elections - much more permanent damage possible than with that old Slartibartfast in the US.

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Thanks! But my newsletter is Situation Normal. Alex writes Both Are True.” As for Steve Bannon the good news for Europe is that he’s due to report to prison July 1.

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That is good news, indeed! Please, excuse my strange humor, I was trying to pull your leg by congratulating you for the wrong newsletter, 2nd time (-, Thank you, for situation normal - I enjoy it a lot! And, “overheard at …” is hilarious.

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Gotcha! Ok, thanks for clarifying. Glad you enjoy SN!

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1. She endorsed William Henry Harrison due to a mixup in the timeline continuum, which incidentally is why he didn't really die after only a month into his presidency but just disappeared and is out there somewhere. Watching. Waiting. Biding his time.

2. The sudden return of William Henry Harrison.

3. That Dornoch won the Belmont Stakes, because as long as they're looking they might as well write down a bit about the horses while they're at it.

4. Sure, why not? I'd watch him and I don't even have cable.

5. It can; it just doesn't want to. It's petty like that.

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This comment might be the most speculative fiction anyone has ever written about Harrison. My advice: keep going! There’s a bestselling novel in their somewhere.

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*there

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*scribbles notes*

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oh yeah i forgot you like a good mystery!

no one knows the answer but as a former gambler i look to vegas...6 months ago trump was a big favorite i wont bore you with the -530 shit and math but since then its gradually come down to basically even odds...the same i give to my Sox beatin Dodgers in World Series 💥💪😂

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Jun 12Liked by Michael Estrin

AI could probably tell the future if it was using the voice of James Earl Jones or Walter Chronkite.

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True!

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Jun 12Liked by Michael Estrin

Wow I LOVE the idea that not only do we not know the answer now, we won’t know the answer after the election, and we won’t know the answer EVER. So many things are like that!

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Some people love the not knowing, but it freaks others out.

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your gardener is great and I believe an oracle deck should be an option

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Jun 9Liked by Michael Estrin

Based on this post and on your overheard Notes, the only nugget I have for you is that Californians are way more willing than New Yorkers to ask anyone their opinion on politics and also to say the most ridiculous shit out loud in public. This is an unscientific conclusion, of course. And I will not be using AI to try and support it.

Speaking of AI, I have been playing with the app Pi, and today it answered so many questions I had about house painting, central AC, and caterpillars. It’s witty and amusing too. Just like ScarJo!

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Trying Pi. I picked the female British voice. She sounds like she knows what she's talking about.

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Jun 10Liked by Michael Estrin

ooh, I've not used the voice function yet. I'll have to give that a try.

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There are 8 choices.

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