Deepfake Deepcake: By the time I get SD to MN

For February we're watching the deepfake factories piling it higher and deeper. Today, a geographical question which I have definitely heard from many real human people:

. . . how far is SD to MN?

Now obviously the correct answer is: "uhhhh . . ." But those numbers are odd. 236 miles is downtown Sioux Falls to downtown Minneapolis— urban-elitist but not crazy. And you gotta love the point-seven. Confident dummies have long been a staple of comedy.

But 270? Huh? A 270-mile arc from Minneapolis, St. Paul, Sioux Falls or Pierre reaches . . . Stickney? Plankinton? Ipswitch? Ypsilanti? Are they just going for funny names?

Last week Google randomly brought up Glen Campbell. All right— By the Time I Get to . . . Woonsocket? She'll be . . . confused?

The Minnesota names were not nearly as funny. That song has an interesting backstory. Jimmy Webb, “By the Time I get to Phoenix,” recorded by Glen Campbell, Capitol Records, 1967, YouTube and Wikipedia. Robert Wellman Campbell, RSS Longa, 4 September 2025 and 5 February 2026. Robert Wellman Campbell, "Deepfake Deepcake: By the time I get SD to MN," RSS Longa, 5 February 2026, public domain via CC0 1.0.