Aroma

the aroma of

brewing coffee makes mornings

almost bearable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcXiXDQAqak

Daily Haiku Prompt: aroma

Calendar

a calendar page

noting my father's birthday

and the earth rotates

he took two-year-old me to

High Park to see the duckies

no ducks!

"duckies don't work

on Sunday"

he knew the exact wall

where Humpty Dumpty sat

(HD took lots of, um, breaks)

and the earth rotates

but memories remain

Daily Haiku Prompt: calendar

How AI Use Might Be Ruining Good Newspapers

I suspect The Toronto Star, an award-winning newspaper, is highly dependent upon AI for proofreading, copy editing, and fact checking.

Lately I've noticed a lot more spelling errors. Sometimes they're even in big bold type: headlines. 

Also I've seen homonyms misused. These are real words that sound the same as what should be there, but spelled incorrectly in that context.

Sometimes words are missing in a sentence.

 All of these errors cause me to slow down, reread, and fill in the blanks correctly.

But worst of all is the lack of fact checking, which I only noticed in a recent travel article which referenced the movie, Roman Holiday. The article was delightfully written, but contained a mistake about the stars of the movie. Gregory Peck, not Robert Mitchum, starred with Audrey Hepburn. 

A correctly spelled but wrong actor's name was printed. 

And that means that no human was proofreading or fact checking! 

It seems likely that the newspaper has replaced its copy editors and fact checkers with some equivalent of spell check. That is unacceptable for a good newspaper. 

Because it's not very serious to misremember an actor in a film. But what about the facts that I don't notice because I don't know the subject?

Another First

Another First

first anniversary

without him makes me

pine for what is gone

years of happy memories

sunlight dispels sadness

(Daily Haiku Prompt: pine)

Stream-of-Consciousness Saturday Prompt: "May your..."

Trying this Stream-of-Consciousness Prompt

Begin to write without editing, using the prompt, "May your..."

https://lindaghill.com/2026/05/22/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-may-23-2026/

Like Debbie D., from whom I borrowed this prompt (which originated with Linda G. Hill), I find it hard not to edit as I go along. Maybe doing this will encourage the freewheelin' side of the brain. (Yes, I'm tempted to Google whether that is the right or the left side, but that's a no-no. Ha!)

What I came up with is

May your long-term memory store lots of good stuff, so if you get dementia sometime in the future, all the bad stuff will disappear and be replaced by the good stuff.

Which makes me think about the various people I've known with Alzheimer's and dementia.

Especially my mother-in-law, Deborah, who got Alzheimer's after a bout of flu with a high fever, during which she spoke a lot of nonsense. That went away after a day, but eventually bad signs started to appear: poor judgment, moodiness, forgetfulness about grooming, inability to do buttons and to cut meat. 

Eventually, we thought it best to have her doctor tell her it was time to stop driving. She didn't take it well. She had been a doctor herself and was brilliant and very independent. She also had a phenomenal memory. She did all the right things they tell you to do: read a lot, do crossword puzzles, exercise (she walked to work in the good weather).  But none of that prevented her from getting the unlucky number.

But getting back to the prompt. Deborah had always been a super-serious person. She just didn't get jokes. Which was quite difficult for M and me, who loved joking. Also Deborah's great memory meant she could indulge her grudge-keeping habit. 

Well, once she got Alzheimer's two good things happened: 

She got a sense of humour. 

And she forgot who she was supposed to be mad at.

Alzheimer's was a tragedy in many ways for her and for those who knew her. But it actually improved her personality!

Happy birthday to

 Stevie Wonder!

Original digital painting, "Apple of My Eye,"  (c) by Kevin Slattery.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbenaOqv4yQ

Mother's Day and My Two Mothers

Here's a double haiku for my mother.

although we sometimes

saw her optimism as

unrealistic

a glimpse of light

when no one else can see it

brings hope, not deception

Besides remembering my own mother, I want to honour my unofficial second mom, Frances C., a good friend of my mother. When I needed dating advice or a good easy recipe, I knew I could call her. She was a Virgo, and had common sense and objectivity. She also had the cooking and baking skills that my mother and I lacked. What a great lady!