idea: right at midnight tonight we all solve a captcha by identifying every photo that contains a bus, so we can enter 2026 AI-free

picked up my phone while writing a column just to ask everyone to take a moment to appreciate the word “pledge.” we went crazy with that one

say what you will about nye in times square, it's one of our last remaining bits of a true monoculture

unfortunately all words ending in B sound to me like words ending in M but said with a head cold

we’ve domesticated wild wolves into dogs, big cats into lap cats- doesn’t it seem like we should have some kind of house elephant by now

me, seeking diaries of famous british naval men: can I get a cook? librarian: is pepys ok?

The 2025 Headline of the Year Nominees 🧵

Oh my goodness, it gets earlier every year. The Word of the Year thread starts here with the 2025 German Youth WotY: das crazy uk.news.yahoo.com/das-crazy-vo...

Wisdom from @samcorbin.bsky.social of @nytgames.bsky.social: on the nourishing brain power of solving puzzles through epiphanies, and why AI diminishes our paths toward having them.

had a dream about a “travel-sized legal defense kit,” and I can’t remember its contents but presumably they included a tiny attorney

oh my god

y’ever send an email so good you want to read it to other people

What an incredible send-off! My deepest love to the #NYTGames desk and flex desk for making me feel so valued. 🩵

cmon, stress cannot be both a symptom and cause of every illness. you guys have to pick one

did you know: the American Dialect Society is the oldest "word of the year" event in the States, and the words are chosen by several hundred linguists who get raucous in a big meeting room in January. you can submit nominations for us to consider! great activity for classrooms!

No one’s rich like Gaston That’s the pitch for “Gaston” No one’s complex and tragic yet kitsch like Gaston He’s a circle that begs to be squared It’s a tentpole, a four-quadrant hit Yes his backstory’s moving and layered And it’s starring a CGI de-aged Brad Pitt

not only did last night’s dream involve me being in an episode of Columbo— when filming wrapped, I started taking props off the walls

“ingredient-driven cuisine” what else would it be driven by????

lying awake waiting until it looks like a normal time to be responding to all of the birthday texts and DMs I got yesterday. I’ve got the thank yous locked and loaded, just gonna stare at the ceiling for a few hours before pressing send

sharks, i come today with an opportunity for you to invest in a cask of the finest amontillado in the world. please follow me into the catacombs so you can try it for yourselves

The rule of Hanukkah: If it fries, it flies

what is Zohran Mamdani's plan to end santacon (PLEASE)

treated myself to first-class plane tickets for my birthday, forgetting i’d have to deal with first-class people

the existence of both Tom Holland and Tom Hollander implies the existence of a bigger, more powerful Tom Hollandest

And the results are in! After carefully reviewing the results of a national poll the Board of Directors of the Society for Canadian English (SCE) has determined that this year’s Canadian Word of the Year (CWOTY), the first of its kind, will be “maplewashing.”

deeply upsetting to have a dream in which you rush to the rescue of friends you thought you saw being hurt, only to realize that the video was AI and they are fine

Can't say I ever expected to see a "That Font was No Angel" headline. But here we are.

crossword puzzles have done more for texting slang than a million teens ever could

Watching Bake-Off as a Yank is so awesome. You can understand what they call pudding, biscuits, etc. but suddenly they’re saying, “Toby’s cake will have all the classic Gingham Day flavors, in the form of Swat the Grump,” and then they make like a carnival game where you shoot lobsters with a cannon

does anyone have any hot takes on vocabulary

Nothing worse than signing an email "warm regards" and getting a reply with "warmest regards". Oh, now it's ON.

brown recluse spider implies the existence of brown social spider

(right said Fred voice after discovering i've once again tried to out my head through the arm hole) I'm too stupid for my shirt, too stupid for my shirt

you know what they say: if the glove doesn’t fit, it’s because my dog ate it

having the neurologist confidently schedule your next follow-up appt for one year out is as good as getting a clean MRI

in the same way that an avocado has like a 3-hour period of being perfectly ripe, there is a very narrow window in which the caffeine you have consumed works to your advantage

I love getting pictures that say “happy thanksgiving” from my dental office, property management company and a store I went to one time for watch repair. the opening of email attachments with clipart of a turkey is truly what makes me feel grateful this holiday

hop, skip AND a jump? in this economy??

your seasonal reminder that it is not only feasible to do a vegan roast on thanksgiving but delicious

remember when it was possible to lose entire hours’ worth of work if you forgot to save a word file? god, we’ve gone soft

why is it called “orthodontist”,,,, imagine telling someone you’ve got a dontist appointment

I love writing a bad column to fix later

Almost a year now since I received this absolutely classic burn from the Canadian government.

i can’t stop rereading this

something deeply humbling about finding yourself staring into the glass-walled “cupping room” of a north-brooklyn coffee shop and seeing your old classmate from acting school at NYU. realizing that that is you, unironically

dreamed I had to retake the SATs (and had not prepared, in the dream tradition) and I was taking too long on the first section, and the proctor came over and was like “don’t worry, I’ll just drop this one straight into the fire” please interpet

filling @debamlen.bsky.social’s shoes at the NYT feels like an impossible task. she has done more for the crossworld than can be described in words, building a puzzle community when no one else was looking or cared, and is the reason I get to do what I do today

what if we said “all joking astride” instead? like we have all had a laugh, and taken it well, and now we can be serious

my current income bracket can best be described as "freely succumbing to the indulgences of thriftbooks dot com"