tasseography – Memphis Flyer

Trouble Brewing

ChatGPT can perform many impressive tasks — sometimes with amusing results — but it may need to stay out of tasseography. Greek City Times reported on April 26 that a Greek woman recently filed for divorce from her husband after the OpenAI chatbot asserted that the man was having an affair and that his mistress was intent on destroying their home, a conclusion the bot came to upon “reading” the coffee grounds in the couple’s mugs in a photo the woman uploaded to the app. “I laughed it off as nonsense,” the husband said, “but she took it seriously. She asked me to leave, told our kids we were getting divorced, and then I got a call from a lawyer. That’s when I realized this wasn’t just a phase.” The husband’s lawyer maintains that ChatGPT’s claims have no legal standing.

[Greek City Times, 4/26/25]

Wait, What?

Turkmenistan’s top tourist attraction is the Gateway to Hell, a huge gas leak that has been burning since 1971 in the Karakum Desert, Yahoo! News reported on June 5. The fire started when Soviet scientists accidentally drilled into an underground pocket of gas and then ignited it, starting a blaze that could be seen from several kilometers away. Officials announced this week that the fire has been reduced three-fold. “Today only a faint source of combustion remains,” said Irina Luryeva, a director at the state-owned energy company Türkmengaz. Wells have been drilled around the site to capture the methane from the leak, she said.

[Yahoo! News, 6/5/2025]

Great Art

Amsterdam has out-Amsterdammed itself with a new exhibit at the Rijksmuseum, the Associated Press reported on June 3. As part of an exhibition called “Safe Sex?” the museum is displaying a condom from 1830 that is enhanced with erotic art. The prophylactic is made from a sheep’s appendix and, the museum says, “depicts both the playful and the serious side of sexual health” with its image of a nun and three clergymen. The phrase “This is my choice” is written in French along its length, which may refer to the Renoir painting The Judgment of Paris. Historians believe the condom might be a souvenir from a brothel. You can see it until the end of November.

[AP, 6/2/2025]

Saw That Coming

After performers debuted Westphalia Side Story on Paterborn Cathedral’s altar in Berlin, Germany, on May 15, more than 22,000 people signed a petition demanding that the archbishop apologize and reconsecrate the cathedral. The Associated Press reported that the production included a song and dance which featured two shirtless men and one woman displaying raw, plucked chickens wearing diapers while singing “Fleish ist Fleish” (“Meat is Meat”). The song was part of a larger production celebrating the 1,250th anniversary of Westphalia, Germany, a region in the country’s northwest. The finished show will premiere in September.

[AP, 5/30/2025]

Least Competent Criminal

Richard Pruneda, 42, of Edinburg, Texas, managed to get himself arrested twice over the Memorial Day holiday in Eddyville, Kentucky, the West Kentucky Star reported. The Lyon County Sheriff was called on May 25 to a business where Pruneda was allegedly intoxicated and making “alarming” statements to an employee. The next day, after bonding out of jail, Pruneda called the sheriff’s office to ask about retrieving personal items from his impounded car. When the officer picked up and inventoried the items, he found cocaine in the trunk. Eddyville Police assisted as they went to Pruneda’s motel and arrested him for a second time.

[West Kentucky Star, 6/3/2025]

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