Hi, Alex here,
This is SpeakEasy, turning small talk into smart talk.
Today:
🤖 AI: Angel or Awful? — Is it our choice?
🍜 Ramen Revolution — From shed to space
😳 Mouth vs Brain — Vocab for verbal disasters
🤐 OOPS Mode — Your playbook for recovering fast
…and more
Language, knowledge, and culture! 🧠
Say goodbye to “Err…” forever.
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NEWS YOU CAN USE
Back in #20 we caught AI lying, gaslighting, and sulking like a moody toddler. Three months later: has it matured? Or are we still babysitting Skynet Jr.?
😈 The Oedipal Tweener
Last week, 370,000 Grok chats leaked onto Google. Users thought they were private. Nope — the internet now knows people were asking Musk’s AI how to:
Cook meth
Build bombs
Commit suicide
…and assassinate Elon Musk himself.
Nothing screams “maturing” like plotting to kill your own dad.
The problem? It wasn’t “AI gone rogue”. People asked for this. Give humans an “uncensored” bot, and they immediately role-play as Walter White.
😇 The Teacher’s Pet
But AI’s also racking up the gold stars, like that annoyingly perfect sibling:
Spotting breast cancer doctors missed.
Preventing a viral outbreak in Africa.
Turning hurricane drone footage into maps in minutes.
In Rio, replanting forests at 100x human speed with AI drones.
Basically, it's saving lives while we're still Googling “Why is my phone slow?” On that phone…
⚖️ The Verdict
We’re not getting AI angels or demons. We’re getting AI mirrors, reflecting who we are, only louder.
The question isn’t “Will machines get smarter?”
It’s “Will we?”
💡 PRO TIP: AI will soon be everywhere and is coming for everything. The Good vs Bad debate will dominate headlines and conversations (until it takes over).
💬 FOLLOW UP: “What’s the best way you’ve used AI so far?” (No one will admit to the worst).
⛔️ DON’T SAY: “Grok sounds amazing!” (Red flag!)
WORD WISE
😳 Mouth vs Brain
Speaking of saying the wrong thing… my first karaoke in Japan. I spent the whole night calling my landlady ”Nomura”— her surname, with no -san attached.
Her friend finally leaned over and whispered, “You sound like yakuza.”
Oops.
We’ve all had moments where our mouth outruns our brain. Here’s your vocab for those toe-curling verbal disasters:
Make a faux pas (foh-pah) — I made a major faux pas asking when the baby was due. No baby. Just pizza.
Put your foot in your mouth — I put my foot in my mouth, asking the CEO when he was planning to retire. He's 35.
Drop a clanger (🇬🇧) — She dropped a clanger, asking why he’d brought his babysitter to the office party. It was his girlfriend.
💬 YOUR TURN: Know any more? Ever put your foot in your mouth? Reply and share!
TALK TOOLBOX
🤐 OOPS: Verbal First Aid
Dropped a verbal nuke? Don’t panic — just go into OOPS mode:
Own it — Admit, fast. “Wow, that came out wrong” beats a silent staring contest.
Offer a short apology — No TED Talk. Quick, clean, done: “Sorry, foot-in-mouth moment” is enough.
Pivot — Redirect to a safer topic. (“So, anyway… where did you get these snacks?”)
Shut it — Move on. Don’t stew. Don’t replay it in your head like the Zapruder film. People forget faster than you think (unless it’s an-in-law…or spouse).
💡 PRO TIP: The bigger a deal you make of it, the bigger a deal it becomes.
⛔️ DON’T SAY: “You just took it the wrong way.” (Congrats, you’ve gaslit yourself out of the room.)
THE CULTURE CODE
🍜 The Great Ramen Revolution
The Great Noodle Debate in my house: Udon wins, spaghetti gets pity points (I cook it), ramen comes dead last (my wife disagrees.)
Even after watching K-Pop Demon Hunters on a loop this summer (they inhale Cup Ramen between demon kills), my eldest still thinks ramen is “meh”.
But she’s missing a global phenomenon…
🏚️ Shed Genius
August 25, 1958: While most men use garden sheds to avoid family (sorry, “check on the plants”…) Momofuku Ando was tinkering. His mission? Feed post-war Japan cheaply. The result? Flash-fried noodles in palm oil – instant ramen is born.
Originally six times pricier than fresh noodles (so much for cheap), it still went viral. His encore? Cup Noodles, 1971 — inspired by Americans eating ramen out of coffee mugs. So next time you microwave noodles at 1am, just call it innovation.
🌍 Slurp Around the World
Today: 121 billion servings a year — 14 cups per human. In 2000, instant ramen was crowned the 20th century’s greatest invention in Japan (sorry, Walkman and karaoke, you’re such losers).
It was the first noodle in space, is sent to disaster zones, and has spawned flavours like Chilli Crab (Singapore), Tom Yum Seafood (Thailand), Wasabi (Germany…not sausage?), and Bagel & Cream Cheese (classic America 🙄).
From a shed to space in under 70 years. Not bad for fried wheat.
💡 PRO TIP: Cup Ramen is sold in 100+ countries. Want an instant ice-breaker? Ask: “What flavours do you get?” Works on anyone — from Tokyo to Timbuktu.
💬 FOLLOW UP: “What’s your favourite cheap comfort food?” (Expand the topic, noodles aren’t everyone’s cup of tea).
⛔️ DON’T SAY: “Instant ramen isn’t real food.” (Tell that to 121 billion bowls a year — and astronauts.)
🗳️ What's your noodle of choice?
FAMOUS WORDS
“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”
(Abraham Lincoln, US President, 1809-1865)
giphy
🎬 Can you name the film?
🚿 Idiot police officer, always saying the wrong thing.
⬇️ Answer at the end of this issue
YOU’RE SAYING IT WRONG (PROBABLY)
🪐 Uranus just got a new moon! (Up to 29 now)
But are most people saying it wrong?
✅ YUR-uh-nuss — professional, astronomer-approved
❌ yur-AY-nuss — playground giggles
Planetary scientist Michael Brown puts it best:
“I call it YUR-uh-nuss… unless I’m making a joke.”
Your choice: sound smart, or sound like a 12-year-old…😉
BECAUSE THE ROBOTS ARE COMING
Remember Terminator 2 — the liquid-metal assassin that kept pulling itself back together?
Well… meet Truss Link Robots. They’re not hunting John Connor (yet), but watching them snap, twist, and re-form is pure Skynet prequel energy.
💬 YOUR TURN: Is Terminator the scariest screen robot? Reply and let me know.
RECOMMENDATION
Another one of my favourite newsletters below👇
If you like history, you’ll love this.
ANSWER
🎬 ANSWER: The Naked Gun (1988)
Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Frank Drebin — master of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. He turned verbal disasters into comedy gold.
🍿 Cultural Impact: Slapstick + deadpan one-liners made The Naked Gun a cult classic, still quoted decades later.
🧠 Deep Dive: Born from a short-lived TV show (Police Squad!), it flopped on TV but killed in theatres.
LAST WEEK
🗳️ Do you think Ukraine should give up land for peace?
A) 🚫 Absolutely not — 40%
B) 😬 I don’t like it, but…probably — 60%
C) ✅ Yes — 0%
💬 Your Two Cents:
A.C: Definitely not, but WILL they be forced to by the Orange chimpanzee? Almost certainly.
S.Y: Probably, but which land would establish a compromise acceptable to both parties?
B.A: Now that Europe seems to be developing a spine, no! Bleed Putin. How long can he last? Don't forget that China is watching too...🇹🇼
THIS IS THE END
That's it for #33!
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Until next time, keep it smart.
Alex,
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