Evans’ Rag

Vol 8 Issue 2

Layla is still out there, but the snow’s mostly gone - family photo

Last winter, D bought a feather-weight blue parka for me. Something about the yellow Gore-Tex jacket layered over a wool sweater I’ve had for while was bothering her—when it was just getting broken in. Yellow so the drivers see Layla and I on our walks. But this blue one is from Scandinavia, and when I pull the hood over my head my ears don’t turn into popsicles.

A newbie signed up for my Medium stories, and per usual I checked him out. He’s all about social media merchandising, with dozens of how-to articles. All well and good, right? But checking his posts, what jumped out at me were the publication dates – one following the next in a daily stream. I may not be the fastest typist—though I should thank the art teacher Mr Singeltary who was an amateur taxidermist and also taught 9th grade typing. It was a required course, which I felt sure was totally unnecessary. Whatever I was going to do—I declared I would be studying architecture though I could barely spell it—everyone knows you don’t need typing for that… Thanks, Mr. Singeltary.

But I don’t plan on reading the newbie’s articles He wrote one article per day? ChatGBT just doesn’t charm me. If regurgitating (i.e. upchucking) ten billion previous declarations of how to make millions from the internet were actually true, then maybe, but writing the ten-billion-and-first article doesn’t make it truer.

Stay warm.

Sally in Paris, the book’s out, and I’m doing my best to promote it. Though not being a marketing kinda guy, it’s not likely to hit the Times’ best seller list. Having said that, this month’s Medium story finally got written.

I still need readers, so if your email works, let me know.