382:1 "whiplash switcheroo"

[David Nicol]

Round 382 begins with some tentative discussions regarding what Round 382 is going to become. So far we know that we are collaborating on a private investigator story plot in which the apparent angles are not what they appear to be; big natural resource harvesting is logging and strip-mining in unethically non-sustainable ways, and everything seems to go not-as-planned when Mercury is in retrograde. The committee has been tasked with transforming two words -- "whiplash switcheroo" -- into a compelling plot for an independent full-length feature film chock full of self-aware cliches. The cinematographer is not subject to replacement and has a thing for shadows of venetian blinds. Leading to accidents involving gondoliers with cataracts.

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"The profit motive is often in conflict with the aims of art." -- Ursula K. Le Guin

[David Nicol]

Speaking of LLM-style writing, Gemini took it upon itself to suggest this as a reply, which I find a tad intrusive:

"Fair enough. I'll take the -0.1 as a reminder to turn down the internal temperature of the AI.
Regarding the tie-breaking procedure, let's hash out a proposal for the Regular Ordinances. Do you have a preference for how we should handle that?"

I feel a need to defend against the allegation of "ChatGPT-style writing" by relating that I've been participating in lots of mailing lists for forty years and the appearance is due to ChatGPT modeling itself after me! Since I try to publicly think things out and stuff, and have for a long time, in public where I'm available as a model of best practices.

Anyone else here get that? People thinking your natural writing style sounds like a robot?

I mean, I did run the draft by Chatto for copy-editing advice, but 382:1 is mine not its.

Nobody else here wants to play eco-terrorist noir movie plot?  Casablanca but all the Buzby Berkeleys happen high up in giant redwoods?

On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 2:55 PM Edward Murphy <murphy...@gmail.com> wrote:

David Nicol wrote:

> Round 382 begins with some tentative discussions regarding what Round
> 382 is going to become. So far we know that we are collaborating on a
> private investigator story plot in which the apparent angles are not
> what they appear to be; big natural resource harvesting is logging and
> strip-mining in unethically non-sustainable ways, and everything seems
> to go not-as-planned when Mercury is in retrograde. The committee has
> been tasked with transforming two words -- "whiplash switcheroo" -- into
> a compelling plot for an independent full-length feature film chock full
> of self-aware cliches. The cinematographer is not subject to replacement
> and has a thing for shadows of venetian blinds. Leading to accidents
> involving gondoliers with cataracts.

VALID.

Style:
   +1.0 incorporating all three theme suggestions
   -1.0 ChatGPT-style writing
   -0.1 spelling/grammar errors
   ----
   -0.1 overall

0x44 is the Wizard (+4 Style last round, others had at most +2). We may
also want to update the Regular Ordinances to clarify what happens if
there's a tie on this front.

[David Nicol]

On Sun, Aug 30, 2026 at 2:55 PM Edward Murphy <murphy...@gmail.com> wrote:

0x44 is the Wizard (+4 Style last round, others had at most +2). We may
also want to update the Regular Ordinances to clarify what happens if
there's a tie on this front.

I think it has happened at least once, and it wasn't a problem. I don't remember what happened exactly but "the judge decides how to interpret the rules, subject to override by referendum" applied and worked. Which means, I therefore understand we have a precedent in place: dealing with ties for wizard is the problem of the two wizards and the judge of the round with the two wizards, and in case of conflict the normal conflict resolution procedure applies.

dln

[Christopher MacGown]

I didn’t realize that I was the Wizard, but I award this two style points.

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