Editor’s Note

Iunderstand why my colleague and friend, Aspasia Karras, wanted to start a column in this newspaper called WTF! No-one would deny that we live in strange times — even with our human propensity to privilege our own moment as worse (or weirder) than any other. Even encountering demogorgons living in the “upside down” (see Netflix’s Stranger Things) wouldn’t surprise me … much!

Discounting the pandemic, the likes of which we thought we’d seen the last of when we beat the Spanish flu over 100 years ago, and the Storming of the Capitol with those bizarre Visigoths, and “Onion Elizabeth” getting maced and then starring in a mini musical by Brandon Ethridge (YouTube it!), crazy things are happening on a daily basis.

Last Saturday night I was having dinner with a friend in a restaurant when the restaurateur revealed that a patron had called to book out the entire restaurant the next day for a twoperson lunch date and that he’d paid over six figures for the privilege of having no other Valentining couples in their vicinity. Personally, I can think of much finer ways for my Valentine to spend his money on me.

Speaking of spending money, my son recently informed me that there’s no longer any need for us to spend money on his education. He’s 12 years old and essay writing — among maths exams and public speaking and all the rest of the things you’re required to do in a school day — has been added to his curriculum. This might rattle some kids, but it didn’t phase my boy. He pulled out his dad’s computer, logged onto Google and typed essaytyper.com into the search window. A page popped up, saying: “Oh no! It’s finals week and I have to finish my … essay immediately.” Type the subject of your essay into the space and voila! As you dance your fingers randomly across the keyboard a university-style essay magically appears on the page. I recommend you try it, just for fun. It’s incredibly satisfying, though I don’t think it’s going to fool any of his teachers.