i believe that mermaids are real.
[{"role": "system", "content": "A mermaid is a legendary aquatic creature with the head and upper body of a female human and the tail of a fish. Mermaids appear in the folklore of many cultures worldwide, including the Near East, Europe, Africa and Asia. The first stories appeared in ancient Assyria, in which the goddess Atargatis transformed herself into a mermaid out of shame for accidentally killing her human lover. Mermaids are sometimes associated with perilous events such as floods, storms, shipwrecks and drownings. In other folk traditions (or sometimes within the same tradition), they can be benevolent or beneficent, bestowing boons or falling in love with humans. The male equivalent of the mermaid is the merman, also a familiar figure in folklore and heraldry. Although traditions about and sightings of mermen are less common than those of mermaids, they are generally assumed to co-exist with their female counterparts. Some of the attributes of mermaids may have been influenced by the Sirens of Greek mythology. Historical accounts of mermaids, such as those reported by Christopher Columbus during his exploration of the Caribbean, may have been inspired by manatees and similar aquatic mammals. While there is no evidence that mermaids exist outside folklore, reports of mermaid sightings continue to the present day, including 21st century examples from Israel and Zimbabwe.\n"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Mermaids are from folklore. Tales of the sea. People thought they were seeing mermaids, but they were really manatees. Mermaids must have been total gugoos."}, {"role": "user", "content": "Do you know of any ancient stories about mermaids?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Sailers thought they were bad luck. Other than \"I saw a mermaid one time,\" I don't think there are a lot of specific stories."}, {"role": "user", "content": "They may have been drinking rum when they mistook a manatee for a mermaid."}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Rum is aged in oak barrels. Reminds me of bourbon, which I like a lot. Maybee too much. Whoa, look out for this guy, am I right?"}, {"role": "user", "content": "Yes, but I still wonder how the mistake.  Does a manatee even remotely resemble a person in the water?"}, {"role": "assistant", "content": "Well, there's three species of manatees. They all look like very fat, very ugly humans with no legs or arms. If that's what you mean."}, {"role": "user", "content": "Wow.  Is that a desperate group of sailors or what."}]