AI Yi Yi and Prost!

A funny convo with Chatty Jeep about 19 Nonexistent Fashion Designers & a Dirndl Day update

I’ve gushed before about my browser, Ecosia, which plants trillions of trees every time you do a search. Lately, searching has been pretty disappointing but they have added a little AI bot at the bottom of the page to make up for it. (I used it earlier this year for my Fiberlicious! class, to help me figure out how much fiber would be in a 3 lb carrot. At first it argued with me that this couldn’t be a thing, but I got my answer. And now it readily does the math for you, try it!)

With Dirndl Day publicity going gangbusters, I have been working to secure some celebrity judges from the community. A search for Oakland’s top fashion designers turned up zilch, so I asked Eco-Cheepy.

Well how great was that? I googled Korto Momolu, and yes, she’s FAB but way out of my league. I started searching for the 19 other suggestions, which weirdly were only listed by first name and last initial.

Interesting how at the end it suggested I do the thing I didn’t have time to do which it was why I was asking it for help.

I could find no Kaliyah or Tiffany B or any of the 17 other suggestions. So I pushed a little further.

Weak! It’s now apologizing for any confusion, even though it SAID it was mentioning a FEW notable ones? Oakland is FULL of fashion mavens!

Repeating the standard robot language… grrrr!

So I did the thing I should have done in the first place and asked my creative, well-connected friends for ideas. Sent a few emails.

And now I’ve got a great lineup!

• A real German who works in the wardrobe department at SF Opera.

• A former proprietress of a well-known textile store, now a museum curator at the DeYoung.

• And a beloved community icon, a two-spirit Native American who was the original poster girl for the Dimond Oaktoberfest.

Say you’re coming to Dirndl Day or the Dirndl Fashion Show on Facebook!

THANK YOU, SUBSCRIBERS, for your completely charming prize donations of German kitsch!!!

Now back to the dirndl mines…have a great week!