By MONTE DUTTON

I use Artificial Intelligence. Often I illustrate these blogs with images created by WordPress as part of the deal for providing this site.

Also, it’s easier to ask AI the derivation of “lead-pipe cinch.” The standard Internet search now offers lead pipes I can purchase in the first 20 items.

I look up a lot. Once I had the bad guy in a novel (Cowboys Come Home) steal a certain make of car that was likely to have a radio. This was right after the end of World War II. I wasn’t alive then.

It speeds up the research, but if the rise of the robots is inevitably going to exterminate the human race, I’ll stop.

I’m not going to use AI to write. That would defeat the purpose of me.

By the way, couldn’t we call it A/I or A-I? Surely I’m not the only one who wonders what’s the big deal about this guy named Al? He must be a regular Zelig, or a Forrest Gump, even.

(Which reminds me how much I enjoy it when the Furman band plays Paul Simon’s “Call Me Al.’)

Phrases I’ve heard enough times:

“It’s been a minute.”

“Full stop.”

I don’t mind “6/7” because I haven’t a clue what it means and haven’t heard of anyone who does.

It’s the same with bitcoin. The world has already left me in the dust. I’m not going to buy something that is profitable because it’s nonexistent.

The site is supported by reader contributions. If you’re interested, you can make modest monthly payments on my Patreon page or a one-time contribution via Venmo (@DHKSports).

Or, if you’d like to make a contribution by check or cash, my mailing address is: Monte Dutton, P.O. 221, Clinton, S.C.  29325 (hutdut@outlook.com).

It means a lot to me that you enjoy what I write.

Most of my books are available at Amazon. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions.