Visit the text generator at You.com and ask it to explain why A Way with Words is “a rip-roaring good time,” and within seconds, it’ll produce a whole paragraph on that topic. Seeing text generated this way — and so quickly — can be an unnerving experience for a writer. At the same time, however, a large language model like this has the potential to free up a writer’s’ creative energy for other tasks. What is lost and what is gained as such technology improves? This is part of a complete episode.
What makes a great first line of a book? How do the best authors put together an initial sentence that draws you in and makes you want to read more? We’re talking about the openings of such novels as George Orwell’s 1984...
To slip someone a mickey means to doctor a drink and give it to an unwitting recipient. The phrase goes back to Mickey Finn of the Lone Star Saloon in Chicago, who in the late 19th century was notorious for drugging certain customers and relieving...
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