In the New Yorker...

[Front-Ranger]

Tonight I was reading aloud to EDelMar about how the house in the Hitchcock movie Psycho echoes Edward Hopper's painting "House by the Railroad". He googled the painting on his phone and agreed with me that they had similarities. Later, when I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed the photo almost at the top was of "House by the Railroad"! 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Tonight I was reading aloud to EDelMar about how the house in the Hitchcock movie Psycho echoes Edward Hopper's painting "House by the Railroad". He googled the painting on his phone and agreed with me that they had similarities. Later, when I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed the photo almost at the top was of "House by the Railroad"! 

Facebook knows all. That's why some people are concerned.

[serious crayons]

Tonight I was reading aloud to EDelMar about how the house in the Hitchcock movie Psycho echoes Edward Hopper's painting "House by the Railroad". He googled the painting on his phone and agreed with me that they had similarities. Later, when I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed the photo almost at the top was of "House by the Railroad"! 

You mean it was in your FB newsfeed as an ad? (As opposed to EDelMar or someone else posting it?)

Facebook knows all. That's why some people are concerned.

Lots of people are concerned. Hasn't Zuckerberg testified before Congress about that? Or is that about Russian interference and fake news in FB posts?

I've seen ads pop up on FB after I mention the item in a post. Or when I do something online elsewhere -- buy a pair of shoes, make a hotel reservation -- and up comes an ad for those exact shoes or that exact hotel. Which strikes me as less than perfectly targeted; if you just bought those shoes, why would you want to buy them again? But I guess they figure it's more effective to remind you of the store or hotel than to randomly guess some other similar thing and hope for the best.

But rarest of all is what must have happened between you and EDelMar, where your phone "hears" a conversation and then FB posts an ad. A friend said she had that experience when she and her son were discussing a particular brand of breakfast cereal while the phone was sitting in the room, and right after that it was in an ad on FB.

To me, the scariest one is the fake news, though. It seems pretty undeniable that, collusion or not, those foreign-made fake news items -- Hillary Clinton is running a child sex ring out of a NYC pizza shop!! -- influenced the election.

[Front-Ranger]

Yes, it was an ad for a gallery and the first painting shown was of "House by the Railroad".

But, get this. Adam and I were having a conversation and I was reading out loud to him from the NY article. He googled the painting on his phone, and he is not on Facebook. My computer was closed and my phone was in another room. I don't have Alexa. I can only conclude that a lot of people I'm Facebook friends with also googled that painting.

The whole part about the connections between Hitchcock and Hopper was fascinating. We have plans to see "North by Northwest" which I've never seen. It seems like they captured the Zeitgeist of that era.

[Front-Ranger]

Wait! I just realized how this strange coincidence might have happened. A couple of days ago, under a photo of downtown Shoshoni, Wyoming, I wrote "this is my Hopper painting." So, cue the Hopper paintings! But that particular one? It's not one of his most famous. But, maybe because of the NY article, it might be gaining traction.

Now I've been looking all over for a hi-res version of this photo. I know I've got one somewhere on a hard disk or a phone, but I can't put my hands on it!

[Jeff Wrangler]

I wouldn't call this "a strange coincidence." I'm not particularly prone to conspiracy theories (except when it comes to social media  ), but I've written before that it's creeped me out when I've been looking at, say, the JCPenny website on my PC in my office, and then I come home and get ads for JCPenney on my home PC. The office and home are roughly 26 blocks apart, and there is no connection between my office PC and my home PC. I can't explain it, but I'm sure that's not a coincidence.

(Hillary was operating that child sex ring out of a pizza parlor in Washington, not New York.  )

[serious crayons]

What browser do you use? I used to use Firefox. At one time you could get a profile of yourself based on your Google searches.

At work, I was a 70-year-old man; at home I was a 19-year-old girl. So the two computers were not in communication. As for why they were so different, the older man is easy: I covered aging at the time so was often looking up terms like alzheimer's and home care. At home ... well, apparently my googing choices aren't as sophisticated as I would have thought. 

Anyway, now I use Chrome, which automatically syncs on all your computers. So if I looked myself up now, I guess I would be a 45-year-old nonbirary person.

Buf of course Google Chrome could easily track my browsing. Have fun looking through my searches for various models of push-reel lawnmowers, Putin.

[Front-Ranger]

Buf of course Google Chrome could easily track my browsing. Have fun looking through my searches for various models of push-reel lawnmowers, Putin.

I have one of those and would gladly let you have it, if you were local. It works well for light duty, but you have to get the blades resharpened after a year or so.

[serious crayons]

I have one of those and would gladly let you have it, if you were local. It works well for light duty, but you have to get the blades resharpened after a year or so.

Thanks! I had one for about 12 years, did not always remember to get the blades sharpened annually, and eventually it just wore out -- you'd have to go over everything twice. So I bought a rechargeable electric mower, but now the batteries need replacing for the second time in the 8-9 years I've owned it. Apparently if you keep it in your garage over the winter you're supposed to either bring the batteries indoors or charge them every month or two, which I had heard years ago, forgot immediately and never did, including this past winter.

New batteries would cost >$100. My yard is small, I'm moving at some point and the mower is bulky and heavy, so I decided to get another push reel mower. I talked to a hardware store guy who said they've been redesigned, work much better now and only have to be sharpened every 10 years or so. The one I have in mind is small and weighs 25 pounds.

[Front-Ranger]

An interesting comment, to me, anyway. But one that will never appear in The New Yorker! Perhaps we should submit something and widen their horizons!

After finishing the fiction issue, I'm struck by how the different articles and works of fiction seem to tie in, balance, and riff off each other. It seems like this issue was given a lot of thought.