When Laetitia has spare time, she likes to read and if she especially enjoys a book likes to talk about it.  She recently finished a novel by Jan Fawcett called Living Forever.  It’s about a doctor with terminal cancer that agrees to participate in a DARPA project in which the data stored in his brain are transferred to a microchip.  What follows is a fascinating fictional foray into the emerging reality of artificial intelligence (A.I.).  The novel is timely and especially relevant at a time when Stephen Hawking and others question whether what evolves will be a boon to humankind or a modern incarnation of Mary Shelley’s monster.

Being the quirky person that she is, Laetitia hummed “I Ain’t Got Nobody” as she wrote the limerick.

The book that’s called Living Forever
Is a novel compelling and clever.
Its protagonist digital
Parries evil formidable
While part of an A. I. endeavor.

Uncle Milt was in Hibernia for a visit along with Aunt Suzy and Elsa.  The three joined Laetitia and Granny in a local Irish Pub for an evening of Murphy’s Stout and shepherd’s pie.  At some point, the conversation drifted to limericks and Uncle Milt allowed as how he had written one.  During his student days, he spent one year at a small college in the Midwest Bible belt.  The English Department there published annually a booklet of poetry and short stories called Void Where Prohibited that featured contributions by students.  The dean who was more noted for his pompous false piety than his intellectual acumen was incensed about an earthy short story that appeared in the publication about a poor Mexican boy name Jesus.  He went around sputtering about “that magazine,” calling it indecent and sacrilegious.  It inspired Uncle Milt to write his first and only limerick.

At a small Midwest college, the dean
Thought a school publication obscene
And its great notoriety
So disturbed his propriety
That he now calls it “that magazine.”