Snow Globe: a holiday ficlet.

As alert hearth/myth readers who have glanced at the calendar recently know, it's time for my annual holiday gift to you: a ficlet that has something to do with the season.

It looks to me like I wrote the first holiday ficlet in 2017, making this the eighth year of the tradition. I haven't written a lick of fiction since last year's ficlet, but I've resisted the urge to make this into a regular essay-type post.

I'm also not going to do what I usually do and make this a promo for one of my existing series (mainly because I'd have to spend way too much time re-reading to get the voices back in my head. Wait, that didn't come out right. Oh, you know what I mean). 

Anyway, here goes. Hope you like it. 

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NewAfrica | Deposit Photos

Cynthia wandered the town square like a lost soul. Here she was, on a tour of European Christmas markets -- a trip that had been on her bucket list forever -- and she couldn't focus enough to buy a single gift for anyone on her list.

She had been feeling so discombobulated lately, and she couldn't figure out why. She was in her late fifties, with the blessings of good health, good skin, and a job that allowed her to afford European vacations. Her kids were grown. She'd kicked their sperm donor to the curb years before. The kids hadn't given her any grandchildren yet, but to be honest, she was okay with that. She had friends, hobbies, the works. And yet sometimes she wondered what she was doing with her life.

She was pretty sure she wouldn't find the answer to that question at an English Christmas market, but here she was anyway.

A booth full of shiny baubles caught her eye. She looked closer: jewelry? Christmas ornaments? No -- snow globes. She couldn't remember ever giving anyone a snow globe for Christmas.

She ambled over. There were lots of designs to choose from: churches, thatched cottages, snowmen, single snowflakes, Christmas trees, nativity scenes, and even a Nakamura tower. She picked up an old-style London telephone booth filled with a Christmas tree in the requisite sparkly goo and asked the attendant, "How much?"

"Thirty pounds, mum," the woman said brightly. "It lights up, you see, and even plays a little tune."

Cynthia mentally toted up the gift list for her office staff, did a quick pounds-to-dollars conversion in her head, and nodded. "I'll take a dozen."

The clerk's eyes widened. Then she smiled broadly. "Excellent choice, mum! I will box them up and send them to your hotel straightaway."

Cynthia laughed as she handed over her credit card. "I guess it's obvious that I'm a tourist."

"We do get a lot of you at this time of year," the woman said. Then she gave Cynthia a long, almost calculating look. "If you would be interested, we have a special offer just now: buy a dozen, get one free." In a confiding tone, she went on, "You could keep the extra for yourself."

For the first time, Cynthia took a good look at the clerk. She was short and plump, white-haired, with round cheeks and a grandmotherly smile -- but something in her gaze seemed to shoot straight through to Cynthia's soul. She heard herself say, "Which one would you recommend?"

"This one," the woman immediately said, holding out a traditionally-shaped globe. "It's very special."

Cynthia took it in her hands and examined it. "It's empty," she said. It held usual glittery snow and liquid, but nothing else.

"You fill it yourself," the woman said. "The directions are in the box."

Cynthia was by no means an artsy-craftsy person, but she took the globe anyway. She gave the clerk the delivery information for the box of phone booth globes; the "special" one went into her tote bag.

That evening, back in her hotel room after a convivial dinner with new friends she had met on the tour, she remembered the odd globe. She pulled its box out of the tote bag and opened it. The directions for filling it were odder than the globe itself.

Second Saturn Return Globe

Hold the snow globe in your hands and visualize your life ten years from now. 

"Ten years from now," Cynthia murmured. She would be nearly seventy then, and hopefully retired. Although her job was lucrative, and satisfying in its way, she didn't mean to do it until she dropped dead. What would she do instead? Where would she live? 

Holding the globe, she closed her eyes. A door clicked open in her mind. She could see herself on the deck of a beach house, gazing across a calm body of water as the sun rose. She knew instantly that her day would be full: teaching part-time at the local community college, swimming in the college pool, having dinner later with good friends. Life was perfect. She felt at peace.

She raised the mug of tea in her hands to her lips -- and kissed the snow globe. "Oh!" she exclaimed, pulling it away hurriedly. 

The globe was still empty, but she thought she could see inside it the palest outline of a beach cottage on a sandy shore.

"It's a start," she said, and smiled.

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These moments of imaginative blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Happy holidays!

Mama Google might still know all, but it's hard to tell.

For the past several years, one of my favorite sayings has been, "Mama Google knows all." Never before was there a time in history when we could reach into a pocket or purse and consult a device that can answer any random question in a matter of seconds.

Assuming we have a signal.

And assuming the answer isn't behind a paywall.

And assuming the search results aren't junked up with ads.

And assuming the US Department of Justice's order that Alphabet sell off its Chrome browser sticks (which I am pessimistic about, for reasons I'll explain below).

Things are changing rapidly enough on the internet-search-engine front that the Wall Street Journal* ran an op-ed a couple of weeks ago suggesting that someday soon, saying "Google it" may be an age test: 

People are increasingly getting answers from artificial intelligence. Younger generations are using other platforms to gather information. And the quality of the results delivered by [Google's] search engine is deteriorating as the web is flooded with AI-generated content.

The WSJ article goes on to say that a lot of shoppers are bypassing Google's results to start their searches on Amazon. But I am here to tell you that that comes with its own set of problems. Amazon's results, too, are junked up with ads and banners like "Amazon's Choice" (which, when you read the fine print, actually means "Amazon's Choice for searches about a specific thing that wasn't in your query and you may not care about"). I've found that in many cases, Amazon's search parameters aren't granular enough. Or if they don't carry the exact product I'm looking for, they'll give me seven pages of things that might fit the bill, but probably don't. At least a Google search still provides a range of retailers that claim to carry the product I'm actually looking for, regardless of whether it's in stock.

That's for shopping. If you're looking for information, though? Maybe start with Wikipedia.

AI search responses are no help -- or not as helpful as they could be. At Thanskgiving, I went looking for information on converting a regular recipe for Brussels sprouts to one for a convection oven, so I could make them with my microwave's convection-oven feature while the turkey was roasting in the regular oven. Naturally, I asked Mama Google. Her AI feature said they would take 20 minutes at 375 degrees. What a time saver, right? Yeah, well, it was a good thing I punched through to an actual recipe. What the AI should have said was that the sprouts needed 20 minutes on the first side, then another 15-20 minutes on the flip side. And it took forever to find that information, because the vast majority of recipes Google offered me didn't have directions for convection cooking, even after I put "convection oven" in quotes.

And all that's on top of the valid complaints from human content creators that AI purveyors are scraping their content to "train" their AI engines without their consent -- and without compensation.

While the DoJ's move to force Google to sell off its Chrome browser is a good idea, I don't think it will solve the problem for end users. If it proceeds anything like the antitrust case against Microsoft, which started with a US Federal Trade Commission inquiry in 1990 and resulted in court approval of the legal settlement in 2004, it will drag on for years and not change much of anything. 

And I expect the antitrust actions against Big Tech will wither under the new administration anyway. I'm sure that's a big reason why tech companies are giving massive donations to Trump's inauguration fund, even though they may also be afraid of retaliation for kicking Trump off their social media platforms after January 6th.

In all, I think the halcyon days of having the answer to life, the Universe, and everything in our pockets are probably just about over. Maybe Google should bring back its "I'm feeling lucky" button.

And I guess I should look for a hard-copy convection-oven-conversion cookbook before AI gets hold of them and screws them all up.

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* Speaking of paywalls: I apologize. I thought that Yahoo! link to the WSJ story could get y'all around the WSJ paywall, but no -- it's a stub article that redirects to the WSJ website. Sorry about that.

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These moments of searchable blogginess have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!

The health insurance CEO and the backlash.

Welp, so much for taking a break from the news. 

As you have likely heard by now, the chief executive officer of UnitedHealthcare was shot to death Wednesday morning in midtown Manhattan, outside the hotel where the company's annual investor conference was to start a couple of hours later. The assailant is still at large.

That's all I'm going to say about the murder. Feel free to google for more info; details, breathless updates, and social media rumors have been rife since it happened. 

(This story even eclipsed a school shooting that happened in California Wednesday afternoon. Although since only three people died -- two kids and the shooter, who killed himself -- it doesn't even qualify as a mass shooting. I only found out about the school shooting on social media, from friends who were commenting on the difference in coverage between the two incidents.)

The most interesting reaction to the UnitedHealth story has been to the company's social media posts about the CEO's death. Every last reaction has been a laughing emoji -- at least 77,800 on its post on the dead bird app.

While I don't condone violence in any form, I've gotta say that I get why people are laughing. UnitedHealthcare reportedly has the highest rate of claim denials in the country. And a congressional subcommittee report released this fall has taken insurers to task for using AI to deny more Medicare Advantage claims than ever. 

artursz | Deposit Photos

In short, people are undeniably angry. They're forced to pay for health insurance, and when they have to use it, the insurance company has the power to decide whether to pay for their doctor-ordered care -- on the basis of cost alone.

This happened to me several years ago. My doctor at the time had put me on a new medication called Januvia for my diabetes. She gave me a batch of samples, and they worked well. But when she wrote me a prescription, my health insurance at the time refused to pay for it; they wanted me to try other, cheaper medicines first. Those, of course, didn't work. Eventually my insurer did cover Januvia, but the whole thing was pretty frustrating, not to mention ridiculous.

This wasn't life or death for me -- just annoying. But it's not hard to imagine how people who are in life-or-death situations must feel when they're placed in this sort of situation. It's heartbreaking, and so unnecessary. And everybody knows it's all about the bottom line for shareholders.

Which is what probably inspired the CEO of UnitedHealth Group, the parent company of UnitedHealthcare, to issue a message to its employees via video. (Apologies for the Vanity Fair dunning notice at the link; I have access to the magazine via Apple News, which didn't charge me extra for it.) In the video, Andrew Witty called the open-season on his company a result of "aggressive, inappropriate and disrespectful" media coverage of the murder. He goes on to tell his workers, "I'd encourage you to tune out that critical noise that we're hearing right now. It does not reflect reality." The reality, he says, is that "the health system needs a company like UnitedHealth Group." He also says, "We guard against the pressures that exist for unsafe or unnecessary care to be delivered, in a way that makes the whole system too complex and ultimately unsustainable."

You might have noticed that he left out the part where companies like his add to the "too complex and ultimately unsustainable" nature of healthcare in this country. In fact, UnitedHealthcare has been in trouble with the federal government: among other things, the Justice Department launched an antitrust investigation into the parent company in November. And there's been class-action suit filed against UnitedHealthcare over shenanigans related to denials of coverage for its Medicare Advantage customers.

On social media yesterday, I called health insurance a remora -- a parasitical creature that feeds off its host, improving the life of nobody but itself. These companies' whole reason for being is to take in premiums and keep as much of that money for their executives and shareholders as possible -- and they do it by denying payment for services that doctors order for their patients.

It's a miserable system, and Congress could end it by enacting Medicare for All.

I'm not holding my breath.

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These moments of bloggy disgust have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay well!

Taking a news breather.

 

Lucian3D | Deposit Photos

Adweek reported on Friday that for the week prior, according to Nielsen, the three top cable news channels -- Fox, CNN, and MSNBC -- continued to see a drop in viewership compared to prior to the election early last month. While Fox News is still blowing away its rivals (as it has done for the past two decades) with a 72% share of the prime-time audience, Adweek says, "MSNBC and CNN received below 20% of the share across both dayparts, a trend that has remained constant since Election Night." Among adults ages 25-54, CNN attracted 79,000 sets of eyeballs during prime time to 60,000 for MSNBC.  

If the ratings news held a bright spot for MSNBC, it was that viewership dropped way less during the week of November 18th than it had the previous week, after morning hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski admitted they'd gone down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Trump's ring. But overall, MSNBC viewership during prime time has dropped by 52 percent since November 5th.

Those dismal figures came on the heels of a report that Comcast is thinking of selling MSNBC (and Elon Musk has trolled that he's interested in buying it).

What's going on? It could just be a post-election ratings dip for the losing side. It's happened in previous elections, to both left- and right-leaning media. And this election loss was particularly disheartening to folks on the left. We'd seen this farce before, and we were sure the American people wouldn't want to live through it again -- and yet, here we are.

So folks are turning off the news on their TVs and the notifications on their phones -- for a couple of reasons. The Washington Post (free article at the link) quoted one MSNBC viewer as saying he thought the Monday-morning quarterbacking -- "the finger-pointing and bashing of the Democratic party" -- started way too soon. 

Another viewer told WaPo that she's not interested in revisiting the Trump-as-president horror show right now: "'I just don't even want to know what kind of outrageous thing he's going to do,' she says. 'I'm resigned to, "He's going to do outrageous things, and we'll deal with it when he's gone."'"

I hear that. It seemed to me like the media pivoted way too easily, post-election, to listicles of reasons why Harris didn't win. I was not ready for that. I'm still not ready. And having lived through one Trump freak show, it's been hard for me to gin up more than an eyeroll over his Cabinet picks. I know he's going to do outrageous things. Do I need to know the particulars in breathless detail right now?

After all, the holidays are upon us. That means gift shopping and wrapping, cookie baking, holiday concerts, and all the rest. As for TV viewing, well, there's a lot of comfort TV on offer: Christmas rom-coms, Charlie Brown, and the Grinch. And hey, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is celebrating its 60th anniversary by coming back to NBC this Friday. That sounds like must-see TV to me!

Does all that seem like escapism? I dunno. To me, it feels more like taking a breather. 

Joe Biden is still president. The country's safe for another seven weeks. Anything can happen in seven weeks. 

Not to say it will. But it could. 'Tis the season for miracles, after all.

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It seems unlikely to me that I was six years old (technically, a day shy of seven) when ol' Rudolph first flew on NBC. I've always thought I was a year or two younger than that. But I'm trusting the people who actually keep track of such things.

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These moments of bloggy denialism -- er, I mean news-breather blogginess -- have been brought to you, as a public service, by Lynne Cantwell. Stay safe!