Sterling's Weekly

This may carbon date me as some fossilized, one hundred-million-year-old dinosaur, and may likewise doom me to a similar fate, but I gotta get it off my chest: technology is the worst .   Now look, I know that’s not the most original take, and I assure you I’m not some hapless, ancient geezer yelling at the sky.   I drive a car, when mine’s not out of commission; I have a smart phone, though sometimes I wish I had the fortitude to go back to the simple brick; I use multiple streaming services, when I can remember my passwords. So, as you can see, it’s not like I live a completely cloistered life, actively shunning and railing against the obvious perks afforded to us by technology.   I just think it—technology, or artificial intelligence—has gotten a little too big for its britches lately.   But whose fault is that, technology’s, or the humans’ whose mission in life is to continuously advance it, the suckers like me who can’t not use it?   Like, if a mother ...

I figure I may as well stay on theme here.  All this talk of dogs and pets in general, and what with Labor Day just in the rearview, it’s all reminded me of the time I found this stray and collarless pooch on the side of the highway a year ago, last Labor Day weekend.  A beautiful pup, some sort of shepherd mix, but oh was she a pitiful sight, covered in fleas and ticks, all skin and bones, and when she’d moved or shake, voluminous brown clouds of dirt would explode from her fur, as if you were smacking your grandmother’s rug.  Well, I gave her some water and then, a bit impulsively, loaded her into my car and took her home, where I tried my best to nurse her back to at least a semblance of health.  But, it being a holiday weekend, I had to hold onto her for a couple extra days before I could take her into the vet for a legitimate checkup, for something a little more thorough than the oatmeal baths and the once- and twice- and thrice-overs with the flea comb that I...