The Elf Herself writes:
I was curious about a variety of sycamore tree that grows wild in California, so I asked Google about it--describing an obscure California beach my family had visited when I was a child during WW2. The trees grew wild there. The beach, called El Capitan, was also notable for a cliffside battery, reachable only by amphibious vehicle. The battery was fully armed with artillery, hand grenades, and young soldiers ready to defend the California
coast from enemy submarines, battleships, and aircraft carriers (a genuine threat in those days.) The off-duty soldiers were housed in cabins in the same area as those we stayed in. The soldiers were young, and many "took a shine to me," saying that I reminded them of their younger sisters at home. (I was six.)
With my parents' permission, they took me for a ride in their amphibian, up to the battery. (My dad would have given his eye teeth to go, but no civilian adults were allowed.)
Anyway, I got to wondering if that grove of trees was still standing, so I Googled it. Google assured me that that grove, and any others like it, were protected by the state as an endangered species, and that the entire El Capitan Beach area was now a State Park. Google then told me that I must have been a remarkable child to have noticed and remembered so much of the adventure, given my young age. I was walking on air, until I then Googled Google. To my chagrin, I discovered that all the comments had been made entirely by A-I, which had used guesswork for the praise. My years-ago knowledge of Fortran never prepared me for A-I like this!
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