Tags: #concept
03/09/2025 *****Hodge Podge what time is it central us right now? ChatGPT said: As of now, the current time in the Central Time Zone (UTC−06:00) is 5:38 PM on Sunday, March 9, 2025.
Sources You said: Ok, just went to the laundry room, and the payment pads on the machines said it was 1836 (at the time) and I was like o.O ChatGPT said: Damn, did you just time travel back to the 19th century? Better check if your washer is steam-powered now. Maybe some old-timey prospector is about to walk in, confused as hell about these “fancy metal washin’ boxes.”
You said: military time
ChatGPT said: Yeah, I figured, but seeing “1836” on a laundry machine still sounds like a glitch in the Matrix. Either that, or those machines are about to start demanding gold coins instead of card payments.
You said: lol, nah, just had me momentarily worried that somehow my comp clock, my watch, and my phone were somehow wrong, but yet my analog wall-clock, and stove time was two hours off now…somehow. ChatGPT said: That would’ve been some next-level reality shift right there. Like, “Congrats, you’ve been unknowingly part of a time experiment, and the control room just flipped the wrong switch.” But yeah, the more logical explanation is that the laundry machine is just dumb.
You said: one thing I think I’ve never seen since, I think it was in a Reacher book, an object’s provenance (was that the word?), meaning tracing it’s origins? ChatGPT said: Yeah, “provenance” is the right word! It’s mostly used for art, antiques, and historical artifacts—tracing their origins, ownership history, and authenticity. But it could definitely apply to objects in general, especially in a detective-style story like Reacher.
What was the context in the book? Was he tracking down an item’s history to figure out who owned it or where it had been?
You said: Yea, long time ago since I read it, but an item that he personally logic’d was out of place among an assortment in like a store owner’s shelf. Typical Reacher stuff. ChatGPT said: That sounds exactly like the kind of hyper-observant detail Reacher would pick up on—spotting something that shouldn’t be there, then reverse-engineering its story. I love that kind of thing, where a small anomaly leads to a big reveal.
That concept of provenance could actually be a great writing tool—imagine taking an everyday object and building a whole mystery around where it’s been, who owned it, and why it ended up where it is. Could be fun to play with.
You said: I find it humorous that it was, I’m pretty sure, either the first time I’ve ever seen the word used like that, or the first time I noticed it enough to be like “huh?” at using it like that. ChatGPT said: Yeah, it’s always funny when a word just hits different for the first time. Like it’s been lurking in the background, and then suddenly it steps forward like, “Hey, you’re gonna notice me now.”
And provenance is one of those words that sounds fancy but is really just a detective story in one word—where did this thing come from, and what does that say about it? Now I’m curious if you’ve had any other words sneak up on you like that.
You said: provenance about my discovery of other provenances? ChatGPT said: Exactly! The provenance of your provenance moments—tracing the origins of words that made you stop and go, “Wait… that’s a thing?”
I bet there’s been a handful over the years. Any others come to mind that hit you like that? Maybe not just words, but concepts, too?
You said: It’s more a serendipity provenance, but during my first ‘rehab’ (I don’t think of it as rehab, as more my ship sending a young drunk away as punishment, I was 20), I fought with the counselor’s like a snarling cat (metaphorically). At one of their arguments one day, I brought up how “the world’s best fencer doesn’t fear the second-best, he fears the person who never picked up a rapier.” It was well over 15 years later I actually read “A connecticut yankee in king arthur’s court.” ChatGPT said: That’s a hell of a provenance. You had that quote locked and loaded before you even read Twain? That’s like independently rediscovering a lost artifact of wisdom.
Did it hit you with an eerie sense of déjà vu when you finally read A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court? Like, “Wait a minute… I knew this before I knew this!”
You said: Yup, I’m sure it was because that example was used in some minor book I had read, of course, and just liked the example enough to keep it stowed away mentally. ChatGPT said: That’s even better—like a mental heirloom you didn’t realize was secondhand. It makes me wonder how many other things you’ve absorbed over time that are just waiting for their moment to resurface and surprise you.
Ever had another one of those “Wait, that’s where I got that from?!” moments?