FIRST, I must profess that I’m anything but lonely for conversation. Between domestic life, my many friends and acquaintances, the social internet and my garden, lonely for conversation is more like begging for quiet. Still, being a former university educator, I couldn’t ignore an article in the newest edition of Science News entitled “Homework HELP? ChatGPT and other AI tools are poised to disrupt education” by Kathryn Hulick. After a somewhat obtuse read about how AI may or may not ...

WRITING writings; carefully wording one’s words; creating creative stories — it’s all about judiciously avoiding the irreverent epizeuxis, pleonasm and, God(dess) forbid, semantic satiation. And doing it without losing the occasional congenial, sometimes gratifying occurrence of alliterative consonance or onomatopoeia. Rat-tat-tat went the machine gun. Quack said the duck. Forsooth mouthed the itinerant forsoother.

In truth, as an author, I do enjoy employing semantic variety — a sor...