Merriam-Webster (@merriam-webster.com) reposted
We used to post etymologies. We still do, but we used to, too.
Editor and writer at Salon since Al Gore invented the internet.
363 followers 257 following 161 posts
view profile on Bluesky Merriam-Webster (@merriam-webster.com) reposted
We used to post etymologies. We still do, but we used to, too.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Trust me on this: You can bring this up like 16 years from now, and even if she rolls her eyes about hearing it all over again, it will be almost as good
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Great piece, Sam. Hope you're well!
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
jeepers, Writers Room folks, that's terrible. Come back with something at least vaguely real-world plausible, please.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
ooh I know they're gonna write a pretty hot letter to somebody for sure, expressing dismay and concern, along with an earnest desire for bipartisan compromise and regular-order democracy
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
It's awful, but as I'm sure you agree the writing has been on the wall for years. This wasn't the only reason I made a career shift (within journalism) around 7-8 years ago, but realizing I was in a field where maybe five dozen people were being paid a salary was pretty harsh.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Undervalued point! I was bored one day, decades ago, in a rented summer house. I was about 12. I had read most of the mysteries and "sexy" '70s bestsellers, so I picked up a paperback with an oddly dark cover and small type but an intriguing title: Crime and Punishment. I was up literally all night.
The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) (@themerl.bsky.social) reposted
those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow NFL legend huh? I get why people were into him, honestly. But the jump from sub-mediocre QB with considerable pluck and spirit, but not enough athletic skill to play any other position to "legend" doesn't work for me.
derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) reposted
the lack of crispness in the detailing of this is so funny to me. truly Temu level shit Pic 1: Oval Office Pics 2, 3, and 4: Hôtel de la Marine
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
There is no single fact about American society that is more poorly understood — and not exclusively by right-wingers — than the dramatic overall decline in crime.
Mike Madrid (@mikemadrid.bsky.social) reposted
This is a real article. No, really. www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/female-...
The Onion (@theonion.com) reposted
Watchdog Group Downgrades U.S. From Democracy To Whatever Political System Lobsters Have theonion.com/watchdo...
Salon.com (@salon.com) reposted
While the content moderation wars have focused on social and broadcast media for years, the recent rise in popularity of podcasts has left the medium a free-for-all that operates with virtually no scrutiny.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
That entire article reads like an extended, almost-successful parody of a feature story in the "I'm smarter than you" mode perfected by the New Yorker and the Atlantic, and falls short only because of its numerous "both sides" soft-MAGA tells. Oh, and the rampant, psychotic level of Islamophobia.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
Yes. Very succinct.
Laura Miller (@lauramille.bsky.social) reposted
slate.com/life/2025/07...
NY Times Pitchbot (@nytpitchbot.bsky.social) reposted
t’s not true that American foreign policy is entirely made by foreign leaders. Some of it is made by disgraced former foreign leaders. by Jair Bolsonaro
Lindsey Boylan (@lindseyboylan.bsky.social) reposted
Yes. I think of Jaime Lee Curtis in Halloween but same difference. Importantly he will fail. Again.
omerbartov.bsky.social (@omerbartov.bsky.social) reposted
My NYT op-ed this morning I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/15/o...
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Has a slight odor of "we value a wide range of opinions and open discussion but seditious lies designed to damage the Party and spread counterrevolution must not be tolerated"
Ian Boudreau (@ianboudreau.com) reposted
Lighting cigarettes in the car with the part of the car specifically made for lighting cigarettes
The Onion (@theonion.com) reposted
DOJ Removes All Mentions Of Justice From Website
Benjamin McKean (@blmckean.bsky.social) reposted
“…he presented his Texas ID, Social Security card and a wallet-sized birth certificate. The agents refused to believe he was a citizen and took him into custody. “I told them we had rights and asked to make a phone call. But they told us, 'You don't have rights to anything'," Galicia told the paper”
Douglas Moran (@dougom.bsky.social) reposted
Even if you’re not Jewish I *promise* you will like the Elder Millennials of Zion hotline.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
There's no good reason why the not-slow death of WaPo should shock me at this point, but it does. Might just be sentimentality. My work for the Post amounted to a few book reviews, more than a decade ago. My mother dropped that fact in conversation in lunches at her senior residence for years
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Part of me actually hopes Rahm runs for president, as threatened -- partly for the Joe Lieberman Waterloo energy, partly for the self-torment mainstream political reporters will inflict, and partly just out of nihilism: Oh so you think it can't get worse, do you?
Kevin M. Kruse (@kevinmkruse.bsky.social) reposted
Watch this to the end.
Salon.com (@salon.com) reposted
"A country that serves Lunchables to its kids and heat-and-eat pasta to its sick isn’t trying to make anyone healthy," @ashliedstevens.bsky.social writes. "It’s just trying to look like it cares."
George Takei (@georgetakei.bsky.social) reposted
I hoped never to see concentration camps like the ones I grew up in appear again in this country. Reading this breaks my heart.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
"Alligator Alcatraz ... channels our history of paranoia, xenophobia and exclusion through the 20th-century innovation of the concentration camp, repackaged as an aggressively stupid meme complete with AI-slop images ... and an almost lifelike salesbot in Kristi Noem." www.salon.com/2025/07/06/a...
Sherry Pagoto, PhD (@drsherrypagoto.bsky.social) reposted
"If we are to have another contest in the near future of our national existence, I predict that the dividing line will not be Mason and Dixon, but between patriotism and intelligence on one side, and superstition, ambition, and ignorance on the other." Ulysses S. Grant, 1875
The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) reposted
SENATOR @warnock.senate.gov : “Are we reading the same Book? The Book I know says ‘I was hungry, and you fed me… I was a stranger, and you welcomed me… insomuch as you’ve done it to the least of these, you’ve done it also unto me.’” #TrumpsTrillionsTransfer
Mark Harris (@markharris.bsky.social) reposted
The New York Times might want to read up on when it's appropriate to use anonymous sources, according to (checks notes) The New York Times, from an article dated 6/11/25.
Clare Downham (@downham.bsky.social) reposted
Re-introduce this one??? "38.1.1 And in all cases, the greater a man is and the higher his rank, the more stringent shall be the amends which he shall be required to make to God and to men for lawless behaviour" #medievalsky #law #power
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
On one occasion, I encountered de Blasio and Jim Comey in the same physical space. I'm 6'4" and those two towered over me. It felt like the 30-year reunion of a liberal arts college's mediocre basketball team
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Also, the Labour "landslide" did not actually reflect widespread popularity. They got 34% of the vote in a low-turnout election, which was distributed well enough to win almost two-thirds of the seats in Parliament
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes, no matter how banal it is to say that every right-wing fantasy is a projection ("every fear hides a wish") it keeps proving out over and over again
Ian Boudreau (@ianboudreau.com) reposted
Very striking how every right-wing conspiracy freakout was just a prophecy of what they planned on eventually doing - whether it was Jade Helm or FEMA camps, the moment they had the opportunity to make these imaginary monstrosities they came up with come to life, they did
Louise (@selkies.bsky.social) reposted
I had an assignment last week to make a typographic portrait of a public figure, so predictably I used it as a excuse to go on about Bernadette Devlin McAliskey's work on civil rights and refugee welfare (and slapping Tories)
Dr. Sandra Duffy Golden (@sandraduffy.bsky.social) reposted
English political establishment up in arms because an Irish guy said something it didn't like. Then a Black guy said something it didn't like. If a dog says something it doesn't like, that's all of us on the sign accounted for.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
Fintan O'Toole reporting that contra ChatGPT and Google, he has not been married to the same wives as Peter O'Toole, does not have "one known sibling" named either Ryan or Jade, and sadly lacks other family members invented out of whole cloth www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2025...
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
um wow
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
👑
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes! And that's what makes this moment so extraordinary. Cuomo's campaign wasn't a failure at all, in terms of expected outcomes. His leading opponent blew past all expected outcomes, to an extent I don't think his most fervent supporters predicted.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Dude I feel for you, but maybe not quite as much as the entirely respectable German-studies prof and translator Eric Trump, who should probably change his name except he's a real person and that's his name
Luther Yungblood (@wado1.bsky.social) reposted
I wanna thank @joelanderson.bsky.social for bringing this video to my attention. I've been laughing at this all morning. There are so many layers. Teal dress is about nothing but action. Polka dot dress is about smoke but has no fight game. What team is black dress 2 on?
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
I mean, give yourself credit. There were entirely sane and reasonable people -- people on the left, more or less! -- who genuinely believed he would be somewhere in the realm of "meh OK." I can't bring myself to utter the words "Blair was better," but that's almost certainly true
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
This does make a lot more sense than any other theory of reality
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Agreed and Jeffries is essentially non-primary-able, given his power base and the realities of NYC politics. But if and when the political winds shift, he'll forget that he ever sounded like this.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
"Zohran Mamdani’s big win is highly specific to New York in some ways. But it also represents a symbolic challenge to the perceived global centrist renaissance, or what could be called the 'neo-neoliberal consensus.'” www.salon.com/2025/06/29/z...
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Jeffries is a shameless panderer and operator. I used to be one of his constituents -- then I moved boroughs and now my dude is ... Ritchie Torres. Seems like I fucked up bad, in some ironic fashion, in a previous life
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
If you should happen to require an explainer on who the heck these guys are, and why they're a big deal, here's my @salonnewsroom.bsky.social article from a few weeks back www.salon.com/2025/05/11/k...
Amanda Katz (@katzish.bsky.social) reposted
Shoutout to the woman wearing a thong bodysuit to the NYC dyke march with BI 4 ZOHRAN written neatly on her butt. You don’t see that for Cuomo or Adams
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
so sick yet so true
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
haven't you gotten the memo we just need a liberal Joe Rogan and everything will be cool
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
That's incredible. I can't imagine there is any recent parallel, or relevant comparison, in any American election at any level and in any jurisdiction
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Hello Eileen! Conas atá tú? The level of fact-free assholery among the so-called members of Zohran's so-called party is just off the charts. (Slightly self-serving, cos I'm publishing something on this shortly.) Also "white segregationist enclave" = sick burn! Yeah there are exceptions, etc.
Philip Bump (@pbump.com) reposted
The right deciding that New York has suddenly become overrun with immigrants is another example of how 98% of MAGA has little awareness of politics or history prior to 2014. s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?tra...
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
pay no attention to the main behind the curtain Doug
Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) reposted
Meredith has always been a G, but it's still exceptionally weird and very refreshing hearing from a tech exec who can see through all of this AI bullshit for what it is at its foundation: a backdoor surveillance tool.
Tim Onion (@bencollins.bsky.social) reposted
They did it.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
How does one answer this poll question if one believes that event has already occurred? Asking for a friend
Clare Downham (@downham.bsky.social) reposted
"Irish immigrants were reviled by nativists ... Again, take a second to think about who's being attacked as the unwelcome immigrant here and who's making the attacks today." #IrishStudies #Migration #Eugenics
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
yeah holy living shit that is a pome
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
With obvious reservations, I recommend reading the entire transcript of Douthat-Thiel. It goes so deep into mutual mental masturbation I felt like I was back in my freshman dorm, four decades ago. They must have edited out the parts where they're like "Dude I am so high right now"
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Yeah I was born in California in the '60s, where the dangerous radical Gov. Pat Brown [NB a completely normie Democrat] had subsidized effective zero tuition for state residents in the entire UC system. Sounds laffable now, rite.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
I've admittedly followed this from across the pond and I never thought Starmer was a lefty -- but he was in fkg Corbyn's shadow cabinet and now he's fkg turned into Bill Clinton, without the charm or conviction
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Yes. That night was one of the last long conversations I had with my mother, a 1940s Red, who was then 97 and very close to the end. She was tremendously excited and stayed up way past bedtime, even though she had to turn the TV sound all the way up. I'm thinking a lot about her today.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
yeah. this.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Wow, I have to say this warms my cold, dark heart. Thank you! That review briefly made me famous after Rush Limbaugh (may the Lord have mercy etc.) read the *entire thing* live on the air, although he had to explain to his audience who Leni Riefenstahl was. I shoulda sent him chocolates.
Robert Reich (@rbreich.bsky.social) reposted
Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. —Harry Truman, 1952
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
and as usual they're just pulling this stuff out of their tightly constricted butts. While NYC's population is exceptionally diverse and dynamic, and always changing, in broad strokes the balance between white, Black, Hispanic and Asian residents hasn't changed much in recent decades.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
I'd started to believe Mamdani was likely to win — but not like this! For me, this illustrates how powerless the mainstream media and Democratic "establishment" have become: They fought like hell to save Cuomo's bacon over the last two or three weeks, and if anything they sank him for good.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
I was thinking about this but hadn't done the math. Thank you, that's amazing.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
I was thinking the same thing! Went to the DMV in the Bronx recently, was called to the window within 5 min of my appt time, and was outta there in less than half an hour
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Guinness is good, yes Zohran, fair enough. But it is not actually "good for you"
sophia ♥️ (@sophamir.bsky.social) reposted
hey panera can we have the lemonade that kills us again
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social)
With guest appearance by one of Amanda's colleagues! (Spoiler: It's me.)
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
This thing of Darkness, I acknowledge mine.
Brad Lander (@bradlander.bsky.social) reposted
Hi, this is Meg Barnette, Brad's wife. While escorting a defendant out of immigration court at 26 Federal Plaza, Brad was taken by masked agents and detained by ICE. This is still developing, and our team is monitoring the situation closely.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
I know things are deeply dark and grim, but I'll say this again: "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" will never stop being funny. It's like the letter you get from the credit union when you're 3 days late on this month's car payment.
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
On what appears to be a playground structure for young children!
Jay Rosen (@jayrosen.bsky.social) reposted
If you missed it...
Andrew O'Hehir (@andrewohehir.bsky.social) reply parent
Honestly, I view the *absence of grammar and syntax errors* as a likely tell for AI submissions, in an already suspicious context. There are others, even as the bots grow "smarter," but certain kinds of errors are distinctive to almost every human author, and machines don't make them