Recently Andy brought home my traditional birthday present, a balloon:
I was surprised at his choice, but I thanked him and said,
My favorite action figures.
He said he hadn’t looked at the pictures. It said Happy Birthday and had bright colors.
I thought it was sweet, but I had to satisfy my curiosity about the figures. I had heard of Hulk, the green one. And I figured the fellow above him with the hammer had to be named Thor, but I hadn’t a clue about the other two. It said on the balloon they were Marvel Avengers, so I tried searching for a list of names and pictures of them but didn’t have any luck. So I asked Perplexity AI. It suggested I try to find the name of the company that made the balloon. I found something better: a couple of sites that sold ones exactly like mine. And this site told me the names of the other two figures:
So, the other two are Captain America and Iron Man. How cool is that?
Later Andy told me about his experience buying it. Usually he uses a cashier, but it was only one item so he went through the self serve line. Except he didn’t know how to scan the balloon. He asked an employee who said he didn’t know either but would go off and find out. Then the fellow behind Andy said he could help…Andy didn’t have to wait. He scanned the balloon, and paid for it himself. A reminder that there are still a lot of helpful, caring people in this world.
December 20, 2025
