Bradley Andrews

💬 Frank Sinatra giving George Michael a dose of reality:

“I don’t understand a guy who lives “in hopes of reducing the strain of his celebrity status.” Here’s a kid who “wanted to be a pop star since I was about 7 years old.” And now that he’s a smash performer and songwriter at 27 he wants to quit doing what tons of gifted youngsters all over the world would shoot grandma for - just one crack at what he’s complaining about. Come on, George. Loosen up.”

As seen in a bar in Brooklyn.

💬 Edna St. Vincent Millay:

Childhood is the kingdom where nobody dies.

From her ostensibly famous poem of the same title. I had somehow never heard it before. Beautiful and sorrowful piece on grief.

💬 Some fantastic bits for creativity in Stephen ESPO’s Rules For Graffiti:

• “You suck until further notice. At this stage you can bite all you want with no remorse. All your elders will say is, “Awww isn’t that cute, kootchie kootchie koo.” So steal that dope connection, rob that color scheme, and loot whole letterforms. Dont worry about giving any credit, we’ll pat ourselves on the back and brag how we’re influencing the next generation.”
• “Jealousy is a disease for the weak. Pretty soon somebody will steal your secret sauce and the cycle will be renewed. If this happens to you, don’t b_tch about not getting your due. Graffiti is the language of the ignored. If your style is stolen, someone heard you speaking. You got what you wanted from the beginning, some attention, you big baby.”
• “Your heart is your greatest possession, dont let it get taken from you. There’s nothing wrong with knowing your the sh_t as long as you are. But once you reach that conclusion, your one foot over the edge of falling off. Watch your step fathead, there’s no shortage of people chanting, “JUMP JUMP JUMP!” There are plenty of writers that have been painting well for the better part of 20 years, and your posing and fronting looks r_tarded next to them. Get back to work, you “never was” slouch.”
• “Graffiti is free, impresses the girls, is heroic in our couch potato culture, will provide you with a million stories to tell at parties, and a sure cure for the inner-city blues. If it’s not fun, you’re doing it wrong or have been doing it too long.”
• “Give soul claps, firm handshakes, and throw smooth bolo punches.”

🤖 Can you tell human writing from AI? by Dr Maria Panagiotidi:

These findings paint a slightly uncomfortable picture. We are not as good at detecting AI-generated writing as our confidence suggests. Our instincts about which features to trust are often unreliable, and the discomfort we feel about AI-generated creative work exists somewhat independently of whether we can actually identify it… If accurate identification matters for your use case, training people on what current AI systems actually tend to produce will do more than trusting general literacy or subject-matter expertise.

⌨️ Last weekend, in a bar on New York City’s Lower East Side, I was talking to some strangers when one of them revealed the most peculiar but intriguing quirk. I asked them what their favorite word is, to which one of them replied, stewardesses.

“Because I am left-handed, and it is the longest word on a traditional keyboard that can be typed using only the left hand."

Organizing words into left hand/right hand divisibility was a passion of his, he explained. Not quite a compulsion, but definitely outside the so-called “normal” range of interest. Everyone in his family had a different version of their own quirk. His father, for instance, would automatically convert letters on license plates into numbers and divide the entire string of numbers by 3 or 9.

Enthralled, I tested more of my new acquaintance’s knowledge. He explained that there are more left-hand only words than right-hand only words because the left hand position contain A and E. He told me that the longest non-scientific word on the right hand is lollipop. He knew the longest sentence that could be strung together using only the left or right, but it was so nonsensical I can’t recall what it was.

He then asked me what my favorite word is. I told him it was glizzy (because it’s impossible for me to say without laughing), and he immediately told me that it’s a balanced word with an equal distribution of right-hand and left-hand letters, although it’s imperfect because the hands don’t alternate, unlike skepticisms, which is the longest word that can be typed in perfect alternation.

Naturally, I tested my new rain man with a few more words, and sure enough, his ability to divide or count them was practically instantaneous. My mind was blown from the interaction and I have thought about it everyday since.

I am now thoroughly convinced that there should be words for left-hand and right-hand typable words, as well as for the words that are equally typed by right and left. I wonder what implications the design of the keyboard has had regarding the language used on the internet— I mean, is the keyboard one of the only products that actually favors lefties? And more importantly… why is there not a space on the web to catalog these words, track them, and explore this hobby? It feels exactly like the type of niche that should exist somewhere online. If you’re aware of it, please let me know. If not, I may need to take action…

💬

Turn and face the strange. — David Bowie

💬 From my current read, Pere Goriot:

“My life, my own life, is all in my daughters. I don’t feel cold if they are warm. I never feel sad if they are laughing. My only sorrows are theirs. When you become a father and say to yourself, as you hear your children babbling: “Thats my doing!”, when you feel these little creatures attached to you by every drop of your blood (for they were its finest flower, and thats the truth!) you will think that their skin is an inseparable part of you, your body will seem to respond to their movements. There voice speaks to me wherever I am.”

Beautiful so far.