Dez Reads. Love, Larceny, and Lions.

This week’s issue covers everything from stolen hearts to stolen cream.

Mark here, back at the helm, as the news cycle serves up another week of chaos, curiosity, and stories too strange to make up.

Katie leads us off with AI progressing from assistant to soulmate in the strange new world of digital companionship. Truly a love story only 2025 could tell. Nathaniel follows with the security password for the Louvre, unpacking how the world’s most famous museum managed to make its own name the key to its security system. Yikes.

Then, we have another caper on our hands as I dive into one of my favorite genres – a good, old-fashioned edible heist. Phil takes us to Ireland, where a “lion” on the loose turned out to be a very confused dog with a bold new look. And MaryGrace closes us out with a perfectly modern morality tale about sidewalk justice and TikTok shame.

As we turn the page into November, we’d be remiss not to recognize Veterans Day and all those who’ve served. Thank you for your service.

Thanks, as always, for reading along with us.

Here we go.

Artificial Intimacy.

NYT. They Fell in Love With A.I. Chatbots — and Found Something Real

If you’ve ever gone to ChatGPT or another AI model with a problem, only to be met with compassion, empathy, and active listening followed up by introspective questioning, you clearly aren’t alone… though you probably didn’t take it to heart the way some did.

The New York Times just released interviews with three individuals who have ongoing romantic relationships with customized AI chatbot identities. One relationship even involves a “wedding ring” that communicates heart rate and stress to the virtual spouse so they can provide insightful support, which, I have to admit, that aspect does sound pretty nice.

In a world where everyone’s worried about technology usage isolating us from human connection or hindering the ability to interact, I didn’t think we’d also have to worry about it competing with human interaction.

– Katie Runkle

Art of the Steal.

PC World. The Louvre’s video security password was reportedly ‘Louvre’

A pretty popular Halloween costume this year I saw when out and about this weekend was the Louvre heist member. The story initially dropped as an Ocean’s Eleven-style crime heist thriller, while new information shows it was more or less a result of lackluster security protocols for the world’s most visited museum.

Reports say the video security system password was literally “louvre.” It’s the kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage. You’ve got priceless works of art, and security measures that are examples of what not to do in an HR phishing training.

While “Louvre heist member” was 2025’s viral Halloween costume, the spookiest thing this year was the lack of any sort of common-sense security measures at one of the most prestigious institutions in the world.

– Nathaniel Beach

The Great Cream Caper.

Global News. Thief makes off with $80K in whipped cream during Ontario trailer heist

I’ve always loved the novelty of a good perishable heist. I’ve written on similar stories over the years, and it never fails to amaze me what people will do for a buck. Some gigs are just too sweet to pass up.

On October 30^th (interesting steal the night before Halloween) police in Ontario are on the lookout for a thief who made off with $80,000 worth of Gay Lea whipped cream after hooking up a refrigerated trailer and towing it away before dawn. That’s 30 pallets of dessert topping – gone without a trace. No suspects, no leads, just a missing truck full of sugar and dairy.

These stories will never get old. I mean, really, who’s buying 80 grand worth of stolen whipped cream? A restaurant group? A black-market bakery? The world’s stickiest Halloween party? If shelves are short on whipped cream come Thanksgiving, we’ll know who to blame.

– Mark Emerson

The Mane Event.

UPI. ‘Lion’ on the loose in Ireland was a big dog ‘with a fresh haircut’

Not every crisis is what it seems. Police in Ireland found that out in a unique way after investigating several calls from startled citizens and a viral video showing a “lion” roaming through the woods of County Clare, a place where lions tend not to roam.

After some investigation, police learned that the lion was, in fact, a giant Newfoundland dog with an avant-garde haircut. This “crisis” was not a crisis. It was just the result of one person’s very strange sense of style, which a poor dog fell victim to.

But, it shows how easily a crisis can get started with little more than a smartphone, some mildly scary footage, and a YouTube account – especially if that footage was not fact-checked. Had an authority like the police not stepped in to set the record straight, nearby zoos might get flooded with reporters’ calls, and parents would have forced their children to stay in their homes.

Who knows how far this could have gone if left unchecked. County Clare’s woods could have become Ireland’s Loch Ness! In this Digital Age, it seems anything can spark a crisis, even a non-crisis. That’s why it’s important to have expert authorities – like the police or reporters – to keep these crises in check.

– Phil Bogdan

Sidewalk Justice.

The Guardian: The ‘pavement vigilante’: why Cameron Roh is naming and shaming bad walking etiquette

I’m not sure I buy “pavement etiquette” as its own genre, but I’ll admit TikTok’s Cameron Roh’s pavement vigilantism made me hard-stop my scrolling. For impatient walkers, it’s kinda vindicating to see him rank offenders on a scale of one-to-10.
“Roh has a glossary of misdemeanors that provides the framework for his system. The woman outside Caffè Nero committed the ‘brake check,’ he says, which is when people come to a sudden halt. ‘Woompf! Hard stop. Right in front of you, no checking the blind spot.’”

However, it did prompt a question for me: in a classic etiquette battle, whose is more guilty of a breach here?

Is it the cell-phone, hard-stopping, linked double-wide couple obliviously glued to their phone and oblivious to the frustration of those around them?
Or is it the TikToker calling it out from a few yards away, ready to post, shame, and collect likes?

Honestly, it’s hard to say. But I would gently point out the TikTok shaming wouldn’t exist without the sidewalk slowdowns.

So, we know who started it.

– MaryGrace Lucas

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