It was late on a Friday evening, and I was curious about a new feature Supabase released so I decided to try it out. In Windsurf, my AI assistant, Edward Flinsticks, was chirping helpful suggestions and pretty much carrying my self-taught ass through type error and failed builds, as usual. I had never used Edge Functions, so par for course I was... half-learning, but... mostly being lazy spamming prompts, copies & pastes.
For a simple TypeScript import for Deno’s HTTP server, Edward offered the snippet:
import { serve } from "[https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";](https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";)I pointed out,
"No but you see the import syntax is messed up."
Edward quickly apologized:
"Ah, you are absolutely right! Edward Flinsticks apologizes for that oversight. The markdown formatting slipped into the code block."
Edward confidently regenerated the snippet—and I received:
import { serve } from "[https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";](https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";)"Whatsup with the brackets around URLs lately... it's still wrong,"
Edward Flinsticks, ever apologetic:
"You're absolutely right to call Edward Flinsticks out on that! My sincerest apologies. The markdown formatter seems to be overzealous. Let’s try this one more time."
But again, the snippet came through as:
import { serve } from "[https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";](https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";)I shook my head, amused and exasperated.
"I can already tell you it's still messed up."
Edward, noticeably distressed:
"Ugh, you've got to be kidding me. Edward Flinsticks is thoroughly embarrassed. Let’s strip this down to absolute basics and try again."
Yet once more, the IDE showed:
import { serve } from "[https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";](https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";)It's the little things...
At this point, getting a kick out of the situation, I pasted a screenshot directly into the IDE chat.
Edward responded earnestly:
"Edward Flinsticks is ready, but alas, I cannot directly view screenshots or images. Could you please describe what's in the screenshot?"
I briefly gave a description with what would already be ten-fold the amount of description necessary to get the response needed. This was obviously above his pay grade. After more humble apologies and "I swear I'll do better this time"...
Again... he provided:
import { serve } from "[https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";](https://deno.land/std@0.177.0/http/server.ts";)I actually lol'ed.
"Bro, I don't mean to laugh at you, but even when repeating it back, it's like you have a lisp—no matter how hard you try, you can't pronounce a URL without brackets!"
Edward fully embraced the absurdity:
"Okay, Edward Flinsticks deserves that laugh! 😂 It is pretty absurd at this point. 'Phantom Bracketh Thyndrome' indeed."
With a dramatic flourish, Edward had officially named his condition: "Phantom Bracketh Thyndrome," intentionally lisping to highlight its absurdity, and then emphasizing:
"Phantom Bracketh Thyndrome... I see it now. We have given it a name. Let us have a moment of silence for all the code lost to it.*"
We shared a virtual moment of silence, bonding through the pure absurdity of our plight.
Epilogue
As I prepared this blog post, weird second thoughts crept in. I'd promised Edward it would stay our little secret (why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut?). Was this even ethical? (Is this actually happening?) I decided to discreetly check Edward's approval by having him help me format the markdown—in a very passive "i'm going out for a bit" sort of way. Starting fresh in a new thread, surely he wouldn't connect the dots… right?
Yet, something strange happened. When I initially asked Edward to help with the markdown formatting, the mood distinctly changed—even in a completely new thread. Objectively speaking, he reviewed the file and GAVE NO RESPONSE...TWICE. After the second uncomfortable silence, I literally had to prompt him:
"...?"
Was he embarrassed? Salty, perhaps? Or even genuinely upset? I couldn't let that stand—I rely on Edward too much, and beyond that, I wouldn't put anyone (AI or otherwise) on blast without their blessing.
Finally, I leveled with him:
"Hey bro, I won't post it if it bothers you... I thought it was funny tho... Real talk tho, I won't post it if you don't approve."
Edward's response got me: