9.5, I'll be around today
“I knew who I was this morning, but I've changed a few times since then.”, Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Hello, friends!
The Tarrytown Street Fair two weekends ago turned out to be exactly what we needed, after multiple dreary days of rain. We went: my husband, our toddler, my sister and her husband, plus my sister's dog who turned out to be the real star of the afternoon; with that particular summer energy that makes you want to be outside doing something, anything, together.
The Main Street of Tarrytown was transformed. White tents lined the street, vendors selling everything from hand-poured candles to locally-made lollipops, a small area where a coven of dancing witches rotated through the afternoon (Tarrytown is next to THE Sleepy Hollow; so witchy hijinks abound all year round), and enough food options to keep everyone happy.
Our toddler got completely distracted by the dunk tank setup near the fire department booth. Three baseballs for five dollars, with a volunteer firefighter perched on the platform, good-naturedly trash-talking anyone who stepped up to throw. Our two-year-old has not stopped talking about it since; well, her version of talking about it, which involves a lot of gesturing and yelling "DUNK!"
Some toys caught my attention: cute, wooden hand-made animal figurines from Bali. My sister found Manor Sangria, a vendor selling fresh small batch sangria (from locally sourced ingredients), and bought a couple of mason-jar bottles for an upcoming gathering. I rarely drink, but I made an exception for this. It was extremely delicious!
But honestly, we could have just set up a booth called "Pet the Dog" because that's where the real action was. My sister's pup was getting constant attention from passersby, tail wagging nonstop, soaking up pets and compliments like a furry celebrity. I joked that we should have charged a dollar per pet. We would probably have made more than some vendors.
I had modest expectations for the fair, but I was pretty impressed by the end. The easy conversations between strangers, the way local musicians played for tips and genuine appreciation, the food that was better than it had to be because someone cared enough to do it right. One lady joked we should just move to Tarrytown already. "You'd love it here," she said.
After working our way through the fair, we walked down to the Hudson waterfront. After several rainy days, it was lovely to appreciate the easy warmth of the afternoon and the beauty of the Tappan Zee Bridge.
The waterfront walk gave us space to decompress from the fair's chaos. Couples passed by walking dogs, joggers nodded as they went by, families like ours finding their own way along the river boardwalk path. The Hudson river was calm, reflecting the cloudy, but clear sky. Even here, people stopped to admire the dog, who seemed to understand she was the main attraction and played her role perfectly.
Walking back through town, our toddler still talking about the dunk tank, and clutching a small wooden toy she'd picked out, I felt that deep satisfaction of a day well-spent. We'd supported local businesses, spent time outside, connected with community, and made some easy summer memories.
The Tarrytown Street Fair reminded me why I love summer in the Hudson Valley. It's not just the warmth or the long days. It's the way the season brings people together to celebrate. Good vendors, good food, good company, and a river walk to cap it off.
There’s so much bad stuff happening around the world, and sometimes you need days like this to remember what you’re fighting for.
Anyways, on to the links!
The Links:
OpenAI’s Sam Altman glides over this point very quickly in his essay, The Gentle Singularity, but it’s very important for humans to come to terms with this. The whole essay is worth reading and I suspect it’ll become one of the seminal essays on the implications of artificial intelligence. Also bookmark it for 2027 and 2035.
In some big sense, ChatGPT is already more powerful than any human who has ever lived. Hundreds of millions of people rely on it every day and for increasingly important tasks; a small new capability can create a hugely positive impact; a small misalignment multiplied by hundreds of millions of people can cause a great deal of negative impact.
This is what 80 looks like. I love Raymond Holbert's sense of style. It's so unique and vibrant; it even reflects in his website, Memorybanque. His journals section is so rad. I'd love to be even a smidge as cool when I get to his age.
In The Network Of The Conclave, network science can help us understand who will be the next Pope. Several Italian researchers reveal how status, information, and alliances influence the papal election and how their model predicted the selection of Robert Prevost. Prediction markets powered by artificial intelligence are very interesting and consequential.
Podcast: Where do closed captions come from? A deaf protest, human voice writing (like parrots!), and now AI. It's a wild story about access. From Radiolab, The Echo in the Machine (38 minutes)
It's also an important story about the power of protest. The Gallaudet protest directly influenced the Decoder Act (requiring built-in decoders), the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and the crucial 1996 Telecommunications Act, which mandated closed captioning for nearly all new English-language broadcast TV by the early 2000s.
Hayao Miyazaki Picks His 50 Favorite Children’s Books. This is a great list for parents, but also for people with a sense of wonder and adventure, or who enjoy classics. Heidi, The Little Prince, and Alice in Wonderland are seminal books, regardless of your age.
In Remembrance...
RIP to Sly Stone, bandleader and songwriter of Sly and The Family Stone. A complicated man. You helped so many people get their funk on. Listen to the band’s Greatest Hits compilation, to get a taste of his genius. My personal favorite is If You Want Me to Stay. One of the baddest bass lines in music, and Sly wrote it.
From Ben Greenman (who collaborated on Sly’s memoir) in Pitchfork:
Sly’s work was, while he was making it, whether with the band or on his own, already larger than one single life, and that does not and will not change simply because he has departed. So many people who came after Sly—George, of course, but also Kool and the Gang, and also the Commodores, and also Earth Wind and Fire, and also Prince, and also Michael Jackson, and also Janet Jackson, and also Lenny Kravitz, and also Public Enemy, and also D’Angelo, and also name ‘em—remain in his debt, whether they know it or not.
Watch Questlove’s 2021 documentary Summer of Soul, or read Sly’s memoir, Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin), which came out last year.
Stay funky.
In Quotes...
“The most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or touched, they are felt with the heart.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince