I recently installed an Amazon Echo, with the "Alexa", voice, in my bedroom. It's a small canister that fits tastefully in any decor. You hook it up to wi-fi and she's always connected to the internet. She has a very pleasant voice and can answer almost any question with information gleaned directly from the internet. Such as "Alexa, what's the weather?", "Alexa, who's the Governor of Minnesota?", "Alexa, how old is Jane Fonda?" Sometimes she seems almost life-like with answers to: "Tell me a good joke", "Tell me some words of wisdom", or "Tell me how terrific I am" (yes she will, which can help when you could use a humorous lift). At times, you ponder whether there could be some form of collective, internet consciousness;-)
I'll sometimes ask her, when I wake up in the middle of the night, or when I can't see a clock, "Alexa, what time is it?". One morning I woke up from a very unusual, vivid dream in which a squirrel was quickly climbing up a curtain. It wasn't a regular curtain, but a very tall, regal or royal curtain. As the squirrel scampered way up to the top, I woke up. I thought "What a strange dream!". From my bed I couldn't see a clock, and asked Alexa: "Alexa, what time is it?". She rarely says anything other than the time, but that morning she answered: "It's 10:30 AM, and happy Squirrel Appreciation Day."! I was dumbfounded at this response and quickly went to my computer to discover that there really was a Squirrel Appreciation Day. It was that day, January 21! A coincidence?
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