Assuming the flashback episode is - independently, on its own merits - a good episode, then I would say that right after a major event in the main plot is the perfect place for it. It allows the audience to take a breather and reflect on the impact of the big event on the characters. It works. I suppose that's how the pattern became a trope.

Your "strategy" to get through Don Quixote reminds me of mine, to get through War and Peace. I read it piecemeal, in the bathtub, over two years (nearly).

Chatbots like ChatGPT are instructive prototypes with some impressive capabilities - but also some obvious areas for improvement.

They are good at originating content - but they don't know where to stop. If you tell them to write an original essay with citations, they will make up the citations. That's obviously not where we want originality!

I couldn't believe the colossal missteps that Microsoft and Google recently made in revealing versions of their search engines integrated with chatbots. The chatbots are not ready for primetime - a fact that was quickly and garishly illustrated, to the embarrassment of all.

Scared the crap out of me! I spent half the movie hiding behind the seat of the patron in front of me. (Was probably 13 or so. Went with a couple of friends.)

I think you've got one more "don't" in there than you intended. You believe people Do recognize the exceptional quality of the singing - but still don't appreciate or enjoy it.

The reason I put quotes around "don't care for" is that I think those who don't appreciate opera, don't "get" opera. It is the highest form of performing art; it isn't for anyone to dismiss, wholesale. A person who will open their ears and their heart will learn to appreciate opera.

Anyway, my main point is that good and not-so-good singing is an objectively determinable thing - to someone who knows how to listen.

Ludicrous. (And, no, I am not plugging Ludacris and misspelling his name.)

People who "don't care for" opera have no idea what good singing is. A trained opera singer is a good singer by any standard. I am not saying great singers only sing opera; k.d. lang, Sarah Vaughan, and Bobby McFerrin are all great singers. Just stop mistaking weak-ass, breathy crooners and autotuned pretenders for singers.

I devoured it. Impossible to believe a group of musicians has ever had a more productive month than the Beatles in January 1968. Also, I challenge anyone to name a better B-side than "Don't Let Me Down". That song was funkadelic before "funkadelic" was coined.

I always thought Baby was catchy, and I still do.