Oracle

A little scene

“Here’s a little quote from Einstein. He said, ‘Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.’”

They looked at the quote flashing across the screen intently, as I read it out loud for them again. It was a small writer’s workshop at high school. I ran it on Friday afternoons with a group of young volunteer writers. They were learning well, and a couple of the younglings showed some talent already.

One of the boys, around thirteen, said seriously, “Why did they name that big green monster after him, then?”

“Ah,” I replied, frowning. “What?”

“You know the big green monster. Einstein.”

My frown deepens. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“How can you not know this!” he wailed at me, appalled by my ignorance. “Einstein!”

“What’s it out of?”

A deep sigh. “I don’t know. It’s old.” The unsaid implication of this, and his disapproval, told me he wanted to add, “Just like you,” to his statement, but he restrained himself.

“A big green monster named ‘Einstein’?”

“Yeah,” he replied. “He’s got those things, y’know, in his neck.”

I shook my head. I turned to my laptop and addressed my question to the receptacle of all human knowledge, the oracle that is named “Google”.

In 0.40 seconds, 460,000,000 responses were at my fingertips. I ducked over to images. Always easier.

“Ah,” I said, as clarity settled over me. “No. Not Einstein.

It’s Frankenstein.”

Frank Einstein…

I let out a deep sigh, and with it, my hopes for the future died.

Thanks for reading. This one is actually based on a true story!

The pic was made with Bing AI Image Generator: https://www.bing.com/images/create