I liked you better when you weren't cool

Does anyone know how to remove the floating Copilot button from a version of Microsoft Word on which I disabled all so-called connected experiences the day I bought the new license more than two years ago and which has nonetheless just sneakily updated itself so that I have an AI-inducing rainbow-colored heartworm constantly keeping pace in the down right corner of the document, blocking out text which I am trying to write? I have looked for suggestions online and most of them seem to require preference options not available in my Mac. But what I need in a Word document is words and nothing else and I cannot deal with a planet-killing visual fault in the middle of them, on top of which the fact that this obscenity can be intruded into my software makes me want to headline the news for the disappearance of the Roko's basilisk boys who put it there. If a program is on my computer, the only person who should be able to tinker with it is me. I am not even eloquent, I am so furious. Any actionable suggestions would be appreciated.

[ETA 2025-11-12 22:23] JESUS CHRIST AFTER AN EVENING ON THE PHONE WITH APPLE SUPPORT WHICH WAS FLABBERGASTED BY THE PROBLEM AND NO SUPPORT WHATSOEVER FROM MICROSOFT I FIXED THE PROBLEM MYSELF WITH A CLEAN INSTALL OF PRE-COPILOT MICROSOFT WORD BECAUSE I NEVER THREW AWAY THE ORIGINAL INSTALL PACKAGE FROM 2023 IT WAS STILL IN MY TRASH I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO REINSTALL FROM MY LITERAL TRASH WELCOME TO 2025

I wish I grew Annapolis apples up above Fundy Bay

In news of the day that was not technological balls, spatch let me know that despite the best efforts of the American federal government, the tradition of the Christmas tree gifted by the province of Nova Scotia to the city of Boston in recognition of its aid after the Halifax Explosion continues. We had worried. Apparently so had Mayor Wu, who made a point of traveling for the first time in the tradition's history to the tree-cutting ceremony and taking part in it herself. Fingers crossed for the tree-lighting, whose centenary we wandered into in 2017 and wandered out again wondering why no one was singing Stan Rogers. Today was also the fifty-fifth anniversary of the exploding whale.