Shallow Be My Name

It’s true. Time really does fly when you’re having fun. It’s almost astonishing (it would “actually” be astonishing if I weren’t so prone to procrastination) to look back and realize that the last time I posted on the blog was over a year ago. And I’m guessing you’re wondering what the heck I’ve been doing that’s been more fun than writing this blog. The answer is fairly simple really. I’ve been reading. Quite a lot. (Baking a bit too, but that’s a story for another day and another blog.) But not just reading anything. It’s been a rather focused reading binge. You see, I’ve pretty much been exclusively reading mysteries for the past year or so. Also detective stories which, because I find them in the “Mystery” section of the library, seem to fit the bill. If I’ve learned nothing else in all of this time, it’s that those mystery (detective) writers churn out the volumes faster than you can say “elementary, my dear Watson”. (You know he never actually said that.) Which means that because prior to my relatively recent foray into the land of intrigue and chicanery, I was not a mystery reader, I have plenty to catch up on.

So that’s it. That’s what I’ve been doing. Just reading. Nothing mysterious about that. The funny thing is that reading all of those books has got me thinking about the mysteries in my own life, and I’m thinking, maybe yours too. It seems to me that each day we are faced with some conundrums, both big and small, that we can’t make heads or tails of. Like how is it that we put 12 socks into the wash and only 11 come out. Or why, when we get back from the grocery store, do we discover we have everything except the item we went to buy. Or what about the enigma of the forever looping song. You wake up with a song stuck in your head, and no matter how hard you try, you can’t shake it off. It follows you everywhere, looping endlessly like a catchy but slightly annoying soundtrack to your day. I won’t name one of the most frequent offenders as I suspect the damage is already done. And most importantly, why can’t we eat just one chip? Small mysteries, but mysteries nonetheless.

Then there are the bigger, perhaps more perplexing mysteries we face. Like Trump. Now you know as a shallow person I try not to dip my toes too deeply into the kerfuffle we think of as politics. It’s just not what I do. This year though, it’s pretty hard to keep my head in the sand. Let’s face it. In one country you have two young(ish) men who seem to prefer to take pot shots at one another rather than talking about policies, while our neighbour to the south is faced with choosing between a couple of guys who, and I might be somewhat kind here, are a little long in the tooth. But here’s the mystery. These latter two fellas are currently running neck in neck. Now whatever your politics might be, it seems to me to be reasonable to think that a man who is accused of a plethora of charges in umpteen criminal cases should not be quite as popular as one who, while admittedly not perfect, is at least not facing incarceration. What are these supporters of Mr. T thinking? Did they forget that this genius thought injecting bleach to prevent COVID was a good idea? Or that his denial of a fair election resulted in his supporters storming the capital and attempting to hang his VP? Or maybe they really do think there are “good people on both sides”. Do we truly never learn from the past and are forever doomed to repeat it? I can’t begin to speculate on how this story will end but honestly, sometimes the human race is one big mystery to me. 

Then, just when we thought we had this whole internet, online stuff figured out, along comes Artificial Intelligence to add a little suspense into our lives. I gotta tell ya. While some of the mysteries I have read make it hard to fall asleep at night, this AI thing will raise more than a few hairs on the back of your neck. Remember Hal? For some time we have known that AI is capable of displacing people in a variety of occupations but things are getting out of hand fast. Last night while watching the real news, delivered by what I can only presume to be real people, I learned that in the not very distant future we will be watching the news brought to you by some “not so real” people. That’s right. Not real people who look quite a lot like real people will be reporting on what’s happened in the world on any given day. And you and I won’t be able to tell the difference. Before you know it, those not real people will be writing all of the mysteries I’ve been reading. Or maybe even this blog. Truth be told. A tiny bit of of this post was written by Chat GPT. Let me know if you can figure out which part. Sorry, after all of this time, I just couldn’t resist leaving you with a little mystery of my own. 

BTW…If you, like me, are looking for a good mystery, you might want to pick up the Lane Winslow series by Iona Whishaw or the Rowland Sinclair series by Sulari Gentill. You’ll want to start each of them with the first book in the series. I believe they are still being written by real people. And, if you have any other suggestions for a good mystery series please add them in the comments. After all, I never know when I’ll be writing the blog again.