Letter 178 - OH NO

OH NO - SAY IT AIN’T SO FLO!

Everyone knows Flo, right? Flo, played by Stephanie Courtney, debuted in 2008, the same year that Rosie, my faithful jalopy

was born. So maybe that’s why I feel a bit of a soft spot for old Flo:

Certainly enough of a soft spot to be utterly gob smacked by the mockery that I just saw online. This abomination:

Now I get that Progressive may have decided Flo has had her run and that it’s time to move on to fresher advertising shills. But … an AI Flo?!!! Progressive couldn’t find the cash to pay an actual artist to create a cartoon for them? Something that would at least have had a chance of being memorable? Instead of that generic, nausea inducing horror shown above?

What’s the subtext I glean from it? This: What once was human, will now be AI. The human Flo was terminated in favor of the no-cost virtual version.

Does this have any implications for YOUR future? Wellll, just read Progressive’s message: “Now it’s your turn”. Seems pretty clear what they mean …

But before that happens, some insights into what it’s like around Chez Satz these days. Spring came and summer is underway and that means it’s good old Satz against his relentless foe - weeds.

And for clarity, in the Book of Satz a weed is defined thusly: “A plant that wasn’t planted on purpose on my property.” I don’t care what it is; if it planted itself, it’s a weed. And the only good weed is … well, you know.

They’re tricky devils, these weeds. Some manage to grow next to or within the boundaries of another plant. And they’ll be the exact same shade of green, so spotting them can be an issue. But others AREN’T the same color and yet, somehow, they can get surprisingly far along before falling afoul of my steely gaze. Take this mini iris, for instance.

Seems fine on first glance. However today I noted a total of four distinct invaders, overlaid in red:

On the left, a broadleaf weed known as wild violet that’s made a habit of growing in similar plants. To its right, a vine of some sort. And at the bottom (small but it’s there) a clump of oxalis.

Also present but hidden too well for easy viewing were two grasses that were just getting a foothold and another small oxalis plant.

And then there’s our stump mound. I know I gave it a thorough going over a few days ago yet only days later what did I see?

Its downfall was in being bright and light enough of a green to catch my eye this morning. Shown in red below:

And this afternoon while looking at the other side of the stump mound what did I see?":

I won’t even bother doing a red overlay, the weed in this case is just too obvious. But I need to look up how fast that thing grows because for sure I hadn’t seen it just a day ago.

Is it truly that hard to monitor all the lawn and plantings and keep them weed free? Well, Sophie thinks so:

Just look at that pooped cat, tired out after a hard day of lawn maintenance.

Oh, wait, you say she’s just lazing around having done not a jot to improve the property? Awww, that’s all right. Who can criticize such a cuddle kitty, especially when she strikes such a goofy pose?

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And what else takes up my time besides yoinking weeds and cuddling cute little kitties? Trying to make sense of stuff like this:

This is a screenshot of an unsolicited contact I received via email. It’s both weird and not-weird, believable and yet fully in No-Way Town. At first glance it’s a request to license one of my cartoons. That’s not bizarre. However they send me a link to the cartoon on cartoonstock and even include the cartoonstock image.

Okay, now just hold on. Cartoonstock is DESIGNED for licensing. It’s all over the platform. It’s the sole purpose. And all the various levels of licensing for my cartoons are there in full display. So … they went to the licensing portal to get a picture of what they want to license and then contact me directly to license it? That’s weird.

My immediate thought was that it’s likely a spam of some sort. But just to be polite, I wrote back and explained that licensing is done through cartoonstock - easy peasy. And since that moment I’ve heard nothing more from them AND nothing from cartoonstock to imply that they’d gone ahead and taken out a license.

So I guess it was indeed a spam of some sort. Pretty involved and I can’t fathom in what way they were hoping to profit but that’s today’s world.