Seven years ago we wrote about an interaction with the JustAnswer web site and its conversing ability when one side (me) is being illogical. Surprisingly, not much has changed. The AI algorithm is as dumb as ever.

I want some information about a piece of silver or is it silverplate. So I turn to the google and plug in a search with the keywords. The first site I am directed to is JustAnswer.com, with antique specialists available.

This is not what I wanted. I just need to know what the two letter hallmark after the International Silver name stood for. A live person would answer my questions I was told.

But of course that is not what happens when you click on “ask a question.”

The site is geared to extract money from your wallet by answering your extremely simple or complex question from the expert about the item.

But, before the (supposed) human will help you, you interact first with a “chatbot” which apparently is incapable of shutting down a conversation that from the get-go is ridiculous.

I was not going to use the service. So what happens if you enter something irrelevant?

Here is the brief conversation.

So I did not enter my credit card card information in the pop-up window. And while living here in the mental institution on Neptune, I will figure out what the “CC” hallmark stands for on the silver tray without JustAnswer’s help.

The post AI Chatbots Can Be Very Stupid appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

FELLER NAMED SPORTS FATHER OF THE YEAR
New York, NY –  Bob Feller kisses his wife, who ought to know, after he is awarded medal as 1948’s “Sports Father Of The Year” at the Yankee Stadium here today. In addition to the kiss, Mrs. Feller got orchids from her husband too. The medal was awarded to the Cleveland star pitcher by an ice cream company in behalf of the youngsters of America who look upon Bob as quite a guy. Photo: Herb Scharfman / International News,  June 12, 1948

The award to Feller was first announced on May 26, 1948 by the National Father’s Day Committee. The previous year’s sports award winner was Babe Ruth. The award was given to Feller between games of a double-header at Yankee Stadium.

68,586 fans attended the twin-bill on June 12 and saw the Indians sweep the Yankees 7-5 and 9-4.

The Indians would go on to win the World Series in 1948.

In 1948, the 29-year-old Feller had two sons Steven and Martin. A third son, Winthrop Bruce Feller was born 1950.

But Feller had issues with his wife Virginia Winther, who he married on January 16, 1943.

According to the Society for American Baseball Research,  “Virginia, had become addicted to barbiturates and amphetamines shortly after the war ended. For the last 10 years of his playing career, Virginia was a constant worry and distraction for Feller. The couple had three sons and Feller had to hire a live-in maid to take care of them. Virginia had several stays in the Mayo Clinic, but couldn’t stem her addiction, which caused insomnia and other behavioral problems as well as stretching the family’s finances. Finally, in 1971 the couple divorced.”

Bob Feller married Anne Gilliland Thorpe in 1974. They remained married until Bob Feller’s death at age 92 in 2010.  Virginia WInther Feller died in 1981 at the age of 65 and Anne Feller died in 2021 at age 91.

The post Bob Feller Wins Father Of The Year appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

Jayne Mansfield was always a willing publicity participant, especially if it was for charity.

The news slug below begins by calling Jayne “buxom.” That probably would not fly today.

LOS ANGELES, CA – Buxom Jayne Mansfield relaxes on her time off by helping to kick off a series of national bowling tournaments being held in support of the 1957 March of Dimes. Here at a Los Angeles bowling alley, the blonde glamour girl gets things “rolling” with the aid of some top California bowlers, (left to right) Foy Belcher, Hank Lauman and Bob Prince. photo United Press International 1-25-1957

1957 would be a good year for Jayne Mansfield with the release of her most successful film, Will Success Spoil Hunter?

The post Classic Hollywood #194 – Jayne Mansfield Bowling appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

What Would Marilyn Look Like Today?

Marilyn Monroe in New York City sitting by a fountain. c 1955 photo Sam Shaw

The odds that any female movie legend reaches the age of 100 are extremely slim.

Currently Eva Marie Saint (On The Waterfront; North By Northwest) is 101. Lee Grant (In The Heat of the Night; Shampoo) is 100. Olivia de Havilland lived to 104. Gloria Stuart (Titanic, The Invisible Man) was 100 when she died. If movie stars do reach the magic age of 100 they generally stay out of the spotlight and will not allow photographs to be taken of them.

Had Marilyn Monroe not died at age 36 on August 4, 1962, it is unlikely she would have lived to be 100-years-old. Life expectancy actuarial tables bear this out. Marilyn’s documented medical issues, both physical and mental, would be another longevity barrier, Speculating what Marilyn would look like at 100 is preposterous.

But why should that stop Artificial Intelligence programs from creating an image of what Marilyn would look like at age 100?

Marilyn Monroe 2026 AI photo edited

If Marilyn Had Aged

Marilyn Monroe’s mother- Gladys Pearl Monroe Baker Mortensen Eley c 1970s.

Gladys Baker Eley July 6 , 1963 photo: AP

Marilyn’s mother Gladys Monroe Baker lived until 1984, dying at  the age of 81.

These two photographs of Gladys, one at the age of 60 as she is  being accompanied back to a sanitarium and another when she was in her seventies, gives you some idea of what Marilyn’s genetics were like and how Marilyn might have looked as she aged.

We loaded vintage Marilyn Monroe source photographs from our collection and asked a few AI photo editing  programs to create images of Marilyn at age 100.

How realistic is this experiment?

The results range from semi-realistic to flattering to optimistic to no resemblance and ridiculous.

Most of  the photo editing programs tend to age Marilyn with an overall healthy look and no weight gain. Considering Marilyn’s dependency on alcohol and drugs, the graceful ageing and health trajectory are not in line with that lifestyle.

Of course Marilyn who was always a fitness buff, may have broken those habits had she lived.

The AI photo editing software also generate a Marilyn who appears to have undergone plastic surgery and does not look like a typical 100-year-old woman. That may be realistic, as you look at recent photographs of movie stars currently in their nineties. i.e. Joan Collins; Kim Novak; Ursula Andress; Carroll Baker etc.

Here are 12 results of Marilyn Monroe at 100 (the fourth photograph is probably the most accurate.)

The post Marilyn Monroe’s 100th Birthday – What She Would Look Like In 2026 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

MONTREAL: Montreal Expos’ Rusty Staub (10) collides with Pittsburgh Pirates’ catcher Jerry May (12) after scoring Montreal’s second R.B.I. on a single by Coco Laboy, which also scored Don Hahn in the first inning here. August 4, 1970 photo: UPI Telephoto

Even though Rusty Staub scored, the Expos lost the game 4-2.

Baseball players have always played hard. It’s just that they played a little harder when winning was paramount at any cost and players were not on friendly terms like they are today. Players shift teams constantly and everyone is buddy-buddy, not “the enemy” as it once was.

So a player thought little of taking out the catcher to score a run at any point during the game, even the first inning.

After catcher Buster Posey’s serious injury in a collision with the Marlins Scot Cousins in 2011, MLB would implement rule 7.13 in 2014 to eliminate egregious collisions at home plate.

Rule 7.13 states the catcher has a right to make a play on the ball if the throw carries him into the runners path.

There is no violation “if the catcher blocks the pathway of the runner in order to field a throw, and the umpire determines that the catcher could not have fielded the ball without blocking the pathway of the runner and that contact with the runner was unavoidable.”

The runner can still run through the catcher, if the catcher is in the path of home plate as long as the runner does not deviate his direct path to home plate. But only if the catcher is in the base path or blocking home plate and does not have possession of the ball.

But you’ll rarely see a catcher trampled today. And surely not like Rusty Staub took out Jerry May.

The post A Play At The Plate You’ll No Longer See appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

A Family Of Five –  $2,263

Moving and searching for a new apartment illustration Eldon Kelley, New York Herald

For several weeks The New York Times has been running a column on the weekend “Affording New York.’

The headlines show there is a wide range of what is considered affordable in order to live in New York City.

Some of the recent articles hidden behind the Times paywall are :”How a Geologist Lives on $200,000 in Bushwick, Brooklyn.”  “How a Florist Lives on $23,000 a Year in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.” And “How an Artist Lives on $36,000 a Year on the Upper West Side” These articles elaborate on how people cope with the cost of living.

105 years ago in 1921 Dr. William Mosher of the New York Bureau of Municipal Research, conducted an exhaustive study of the cost of living in New York.

What Dr. Mosher found was that a male clerk could subsist well on $1,093 Year, while a single woman would need $1,118.

The study of minimum quantity and cost budgets made by Dr. Mosher was primarily dealing with clerical workers in government service. But it also covered the field for office workers throughout the city.

The survey was undertaken as a means of examining municipal salary standardization.

The survey looked into every detail of expenditure, including the amount which is spent for rent, food, and clothing. By a careful study of prices at department stores, restaurants, chain stores and markets, the Bureau of Municipal Research discovered what these necessities cost in New York.

The  numbers below are to live comfortably and is higher than the “poverty” or the “subsistence” level. Dr. Mosher noted that the amounts listed provide not only for the material needs of food, shelter and ‘bodily covering, but for education, sickness and recreation.

For families, the average annual rental was $470.

For a single man the costs of $1,093 were as follows:

Rent – $260.
Food – $359.
Clothing – $156.
other costs laundry, health, carfare, recreation, gifts – $318.

A single woman, $1,118:

The cost for a single woman was only $25 more than a man. There were small increases in food, laundry and doctors’ bills for a woman.

A couple with three children needed $2,263.55 a year:

Food- $655.35
Clothing – $440.05
Housing – $536.
Miscellaneous items. – $632.15
Health requirements-  $80.
Insurance premiums $120.
Carfare – $45.
Recreation $20,
Reading matter  – $12.
Organization – $13.
Incidentals – $52.

So what does this prove?

That getting by in New York has always been a challenge for the majority of New Yorkers who live on a tight budget.

Baltimore Sun columnist M.F. Murphy wrote in a 1925 column:

“Why do people live in New York? Why does anyone of moderate means and of intelligence and sensibility expose himself to the indignities and indecencies that are inescapable in this dirty, noisy, overcrowded city? Do persons live here because they want to or they have to?”

The answer, then and now, is a combination of both; people want to and/or have to.

Back in the 1920s there was no social safety net. If you could not work or did not have savings, you would be dependent upon another person or an institution to provide for you.

The main difference between then and now is that costs were slightly more in line with working people’s salaries.

More New Yorkers in the 1920s would fall into what would be classified as middle class,  lower middle class or working poor. Their neighbors were all in a similar financial bucket. So while a family was lacking any luxuries, so was practically everyone else they knew. As my grandparents who grew up in tenements in the 1920s said, “We lived in the ghetto, but we did not think of ourselves as poor.”

To put this in perspective, two thirds of New York’s 6,000,000 residents lived in apartments in 1920. And while Dr. Mosher’s report says the average annual rental for a working family of five is $470, what you got for that money was far from opulent.

When available, a  brownstone on a side street possessing a three room apartment would go for $1,000 and up, not $470.

Families of moderate means were forced to take what they could get and would actually be paying rents out of proportion to their income. A post-war (World War I) housing shortage, would mean few vacancies and high prices for “nice apartments.”

Were “the good old days” really better?

The post The Cost Of Living In New York City In 1921 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

ALL THE COMFORTS OF HOME
The best of friends are Bette Davis and Richard Nichols. Bette doesn’t make a practice of serving as a cushion for young men on her movie sets but Richard is an exception.

He’s 4-years-old and his friendship with the distinguished actress dates from the first days shooting on All This, And Heaven Too, the Warner filmization of the Rachel Field novel, starring Miss Davis and Charles Boyer. Master Nichols plays the important role of the Duc de Praslin’s youngest child. The youngster completely captivated everyone concerned with the production; no one “fell” harder for him than Bette. photo Warner Bros. Studio, Burbank, CA 1940

Bette Davis has her ever-present cigarette while relaxing between takes with her young co-star Richard Nichols.

Smoking was very acceptable for most of the twentieth century.  So there is nothing amiss in having a child sit on your lap while having a smoke.

Richard Nichols, born in Los Angeles, CA on December 14, 1935 appeared in a dozen films. His brothers also were motion picture actors. But Richard Nichols did not experience the frustration of transitioning from child to adult actor.  By the time Nichols was nine, he was out of films and would have a relatively normal childhood for a Hollywood High graduate and some great stories to tell later in life.

In 1941, the precocious five-year-old complained to his Blossoms In the Dust co-star Greer Garson, about the heavy suit he was wearing in the film.  “It makes me sweat,” he said. “Oh dear,” Garson corrected him, “only horses sweat. It makes you perspire.”

Nichols nodded in agreement.

A few minutes later Nichols returned and said, “Miss Garson. I’m still so warm, I’m just,…just…” as he struggled to recall the word, after a pause he shouted, “Miss Garson I’m just evaporating!”

Nichols later married, had two daughters and for 44 years served  as a minister. Richard Nichols died October 1, 2023 at the age of 87.

The post Classic Hollywood #193 – Bette Davis Off Camera With 4-Year-Old Co-Star appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

This undated, circa 1910 Detroit Publishing Co. photograph of Harlem’s main stem of 125th Street shows a flurry of activity. We are looking west from Seventh Avenue, today renamed Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard. This area of Harlem looks like a small village with most buildings being four stories or less.

It’s obviously a chilly day, and every pedestrian is well dressed and wearing a hat.

Most don a modern hat.  Except for this retro, bearded man in a nineteenth century top hat. Both top hats and beards had fallen completely out of fashion in the early 20th century. He stands under the old lamppost street sign locator near an unusual type of fire hydrant.

On the northwest corner (right) is a United Cigar store. Above the store is a billiards parlor and dancing school.

Pulling further away from our top hat man, across the street on the southwest corner is the six story Hotel Winthrop possessing a Hegemen & Co. Pharmacy on the ground floor. A bit further down the block, Schulte’s Cigars competes with United Cigars across the street. The Hotel Winthrop would soon give way for the construction of Harlem’s famous Hotel Theresa in 1913.

On the southwest corner a man pauses to look at the window display at Regal Shoes. At first it appears the man is with his pet dog. Pets are something you do not usually see in many turn-of- the-century city street photographs. Though  the dog has a collar, there is no leash, so perhaps the dog is just a stray and does not belong to the man.

Advertising the Regal store is a phenomenal light up sign in the shape of a boot.

There are few African American’s visible in the photo such as these two men crossing the street. During the twentieth century people tend to associate Harlem as the capital of African American culture. But it wasn’t until after 1910 that African Americans began settling into the area in large numbers. Before that, the area was overwhelmingly populated by Irish, Italians, Germans and Jews.

Trolleys traverse 125th Street and in the background is the station of the Ninth Avenue El, with trains running along Eighth Avenue.

If we could read the writing on the lighted marquee, or the signs in front of Keith & Proctor’s Theater, we would know who was appearing and accurately date the photo. Unfortunately we cannot. Although we do know a theater patron could dine next door at the Riverside Restaurant and play a game of billiards or bowl before or after the show.

The post Old New York In Photos #195 – 125th St. West From 7th Ave. c. 1910 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

In the 1970s practically every apartment building had an incinerator to burn its trash. New York City’s sky had a constant haze of air pollution from a variety of smog producing outlets.

So it may be surprising to realize that New York did have concerns about air pollution in the 1930s. This photograph with the news slug explains:

An Electric Locomotive Draws The Record-Breaking Coast To Coast Train
New York – A scene on the Park Avenue elevated tracks in New York, showing the Union Pacific “Bullet Train” being drawn by an electric locomotive into Grand Central Terminal at the end of the 56-hour, 57-minute record breaking journey from Los Angeles. The locomotive was attached at Harmon, New York to conform with the law which prohibits a coal or oil burning engine o go through New York. The stream line train is an oil burner. photo: International News 10-25-1934

Union Pacific’s Bullet Train official name was the M-10001.  The train also had the nickname “The Zip”. It shattered the previous cross country record set in 1924 by 13 hours and twenty nine minutes.  At one point during the journey, the train hit a speed of 120 miles per hour.

Postcard showing Union Pacific Bullet Train (L) Burlington Route Zephyr (r) 1934

For Union Pacific the six car train was extremely economical. The Bullet Train ran 1.4 miles on a gallon of diesel fuel oil costing four cents. The total cost of fuel for the 3,334 mile trip was about $95.

More than a thousand train enthusiasts met the Bullet Train at Grand Central when it arrived on track 17. Over the next couple of days 55,570 visitors would wait at Grand Central in long queues, three abreast, to inspect the Bullet Train, both inside and out.

The $500,000 streamline train won over the public even if few visitors could ever afford to travel on it.

The Bullet Train was rebuilt in 1935 when it was found the engine was overtaxed and the cars had unstable oscillations at high speeds. The Bullet Train was sold for scrap in 1941.

Pollution

There was recognition that dust, soot and smoke of industry in New York was not healthy, but it was  an accepted part of life. Smoke pouring from chimneys was a sign of prosperity. New York’s Smoke Abatement Commission could make little headway in battling noxious emissions polluting the air.

With factories producing all sorts of products, the industrial sections of New York City and the surrounding areas gave no thought to what they were spewing into the air.

Across the Hudson River in Bayonne NJ, one factory was disposing into its smoke stacks ten tons of sulfur dioxide gas per day. Wind would carry that air over New York. When the sulfur dioxide gas met with moisture in the air, the rain it would produce was essentially sulfuric acid.

As far as the railways were concerned, once electrification of the rails began around 1900, rules about pollution would evolve. After some cajoling, the railroad companies agreed not to bring coal and oil burning locomotives within the city limits. It wasn’t as hard as you might believe to convince the rail owners. There was an economic benefit for the railroads to switch to electric.

But similar to the current power situation: just how do you generate the electricity necessary to run an electric vehicle? The smoke problem was transferred from the railroads to the public utility companies to supply electric power. And railroads that did not buy their power had to generate their own electricity through private power plants.

The quandary remains the same today.

We deceive ourselves we are solving one problem by creating another.

The post Bullet Train Arrives & New York City Cares About Pollution – 1934 appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.

The 12th National Bicycle Show
New York: Photo shows Agnes O’Loughlin riding the ivory and gold motorcycle which was one of the principle exhibits at the 12th National Bicycle Show at the new Madison Square Garden. photo; King Features Syndicate 1-12-1926

Some things have not changed much in one hundred years. Companies still hire pretty women to demonstrate their products at conventions.

Admission to The National Bicycle Show in 1926 was fifty cents. The show was held at the third and newest building named “Madison Square Garden” which opened on November 29, 1925 at  Eighth Avenue between 49th and 50th Street.

Madison Square Garden is a misnomer considering the distance from the building’s two predecessors which were adjacent to Madison Square.

The Excelsior Super X began production in 1925 and was the first mass-produced American 740cc (45ci) V-twin.  The developer of the Super X was Harley-Davidson’s Assistant Chief Engineer, Arthur Constantine, who brought the design to Excelsior after Harley’s chief, Walter Davidson turned it down.

The retail price for the 1926 Excelsior Super X motorcycle was $325. Today one of these motorcycles in good condition can sell between $32,000 – $65,000.

Screen legend Steve McQueen owned a 1926 Excelsior Super X which was sold by  Julien’s auctions on November 6, 2025 for $160,000.

Agnes O’Loughlin

Regarding the model, Agnes O’Loughlin (alternately O’Laughlin), was a dancer and Broadway ensemble show girl. Agnes was at one time a dancing partner of Rudolph Valentino.

The day before this photo was published, there are other news photos of Agnes working at the Beauty Shop Owners Convention demonstrating a match-box sized lipstick holder.

Among Agnes’ stage credits are Earl Carroll’s Vanities (1925); The Ziegfeld Follies of 1927; and  Eddie Cantor’s hit musical Whoopee! (1928- 1929).

In July, 1929 Agnes announced her engagement to lightweight boxer Joe Benjamin and that they would marry by November. That apparently never happened. Because a few months later in December, Agnes was on page one of The New York Daily News in filing a breach of promise suit against singer Rudy Vallee seeking $200,000 in damages.

Agnes said Vallee began dating her in July and promised a November wedding. Vallee said he considered Agnes nothing more than “a good friend.”

Of course Agnes did not collect any money from Vallee, and by the mid-1930s her name vanishes from the press.

The post A Valuable Motorcycle At The 1926 Bicycle Show appeared first on Stuff Nobody Cares About.