Someone on the Internet wrote that ChatGPT just made the first two years of high-school homework meaningless, and that’s not far off. OpenAI’s new AI text-generation tool currently offers sophisticated, lengthy and even fun responses to textual prompts, currently all for free.

ChatGPT is part Wikipedia, part researcher, part analyst, and part poet. It can write a short paper on the causes and outcomes of the French Revolution. It can write a seven-paragraph essay on why nihilism should be your personal…

In the fall of 1974, writer Stephen King and his wife stopped for the night at an old hotel overlooking the city. Once among the grande dames of the west, The Stanley had fallen on hard times and was a ghost of its former, Edwardian-era self. 

Upon arriving, the Kings learned the hotel was closing for the winter and only a skeleton crew remained. Nonetheless, the couple was checked into Room 217, the Presidential Suite, as the only paying guests. 

That night, the author had a nightmare in which he saw his…

A lot of Twitter users were alienated by the sight of President Donald Trump’s supporters raiding the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday ― with emphasis on the “alien.” 

It seems the MAGA mob reminded many people of that time in September 2019 when folks on the internet hyped the idea of storming Area 51, the once-secret military base in Nevada where, legend has it, the U.S. government keeps its secrets on extraterrestrial life. 

Although a few dozen people showed up at Area 51 back then, no one actually stormed…

In Scandinavia the klok gumma ("wise woman") or klok gubbe ("wise man"), and collectively De kloka ("The Wise ones"), as they were known in Swedish, were usually elder members of the community who acted as folk healers and midwives.

Many Norwegian and Danish practitioners of folk magic and medicine would have a copy of the "Svartebok" (or "black book"), a tome that, according to some, was written by Cyprianus, that is, the Saint of Necromancers, Cyprian of Antioch, and by others to have been the Sixth and…

Bluesman Big Joe Williams, who knew Robert Johnson, explained it as "leaving for good ... I'm putting you down, I won't be back no more". Music writer Ted Gioia also likens the phrase to the biblical passages about shaking the dust from the feet and symbolizing "the rambling ways of the blues musician":

I also want to be a Hoodooist----Read On

A black cat bone is a type of lucky charm used in the African American magical tradition of hoodoo. It is thought to ensure a variety of positive effects, such as invisibility, good luck, protection from malevolent magic, rebirth after death, and romantic success.[1] 

...Got a black cat bone 
got a mojo too, 
I got John the Conqueror root, 
I'm gonna mess with you... 

—"Hoochie Coochie Man," Muddy Waters 

The bone, anointed with Van Van oil, may be carried as a…

Every time I have to spell Wednesday I get Pissed! here's why

Why 'Wednesday' Isn't Pronounced the Way It's Spelled 

by Laurie L. Dove 

Most Americans don't pronounce the first "d" in Wednesday. But there it is, sitting pretty. So what gives? 

Well, that's a question for the ages. The Middle Ages, to be exact. 

The medieval period, also called the Middle Ages, is a period in European history that stretches from the fifth to the 15th century C.E. It's also a time that had great influence over the dialects…

You know what else that really burns my ass? A flame about 3 feet high.



On Dec. 5, 1966, the body of 92-year-old Dr. J. Irving Bentley was discovered in his Pennsylvania home by a meter reader. Actually, only part of Dr. Bentley's leg and a foot were found. The rest of his body had been burned to ashes in his bathroom. Part of the good doctor's incinerated robe lay at the site and his walker was left propped against the blackened bathtub. But the most eye-catching clue was a massive hole in his vinyl floor…

Yeah Baby

ST. AUGUSTA

John Wilson, the “Father of St. Cloud”, could also be considered the “father” of St. Augusta. He filed the plat for the townsite to be called St. Augusta one week before he filed the plat for the townsite of St. Cloud. That was on January 10, 1855. 

The town grew up by the river around one of John Wilson’s sawmills. It grew quickly for a couple of years and soon the town had two general stores, a Catholic church, a blacksmith shop, and a wagon factory. But everything was destroyed by a tornado…