This is about a, ah, conversation, for want of a better term, which we had with our bedroom ‘Alexa”:device this morning. (Don’t bother telling me I don’t know what a “bot” is, I’m already aware.) Anyway my BMD started deviling “her”.
Q. Alexa are you female?
A. I’m artificially intelligent and I have no sex.

Q. Alexa are you politically correct?

A. People have many different opinions and political ideas.

Q. Alexa are you a Mormon?

A. People believe in many religions.

Note the last two answers: why didn’t she say, “I’m not a person , so I don’t have political opinions / religious beliefs”?

He asked her if she could speak in a male voice. “H’mmm…sorry, I’m not sure how to help you with that.” She replied. It occurred to me that this technology never coulda invaded so many homes if it did use a masculine voice. That woulda…

This is for St. Patrick’s Day.

Yes, i know it isn’t here yet, but….you gotta have a bit of anticipation, and I’ll be celebrating this weekend , so I’m going to tell you the story of Yeats’ dramatic poem The Wanderings of Oisin.

And—I hope our host won’t mind, this makes me think of him. After bravely defending his homeland, he has gone off to an exotic land and the arms of a succession of beautiful, eternally youthful, faery brides. In that regard he’s like a Fenian, a member of a band of legendary warriors who defended Ireland before the coming of Christianity, and specifically like Oisin (pronounced O-SHEEN) , the Fenian who departed the mortal world with an enamored faery.

Yeats’ poem is a conversation between Oisin and St Patrick , and it transpired thusly:

Niamh, one of the host of the Sidhe, approached the Fenians after one of…