Why do I have to pretend that I'm going to print something in order to save it as a PDF. Why do I have to engage in a little ruse.

This is basically my villain origin story. "How old are you?" (unique responses)

With all the coverage about "older" women competing in the Winter Olympics this year, I became curious and did an informal dive into data on ages of the oldest women in the Olympics over time. Finally finished the post here! #Olympics alirruth.substack.com/p/olympics-s...

on my way to humble myself* before God** *bring clothes to the consignment store **the hip 20-something who decides if my clothes are stylish enough to be consign-able

I really appreciate the way CWG emphasizes the level of uncertainty as a key component in forecasting

did some research to see if skeleton is as dangerous as it looks; found this piece by @clivethompson.bsky.social confirming it is even MORE dangerous than it looks 😱 www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

HUGE scoop re: George Washington’s fabled wooden teeth

Wrote this for the last Winter Olympics - would genuinely still love to have Johnny Weir and Tara Lipinski providing real time sports commentary on my assorted mundane dysfunctions #Olympics originallittleoldlady.com/2022/02/25/j...

DC theater lovers! RUN don't walk to Studio Theatre for Dave Malloy's "Octet" - a quietly powerful musical about the age of the endless scroll. Audience members must lock up their phones in bags during the show (!) So much talent in the cast. Can't imagine a better musical for the present moment

production of The Muppet Show should not be dependent on petty vulgarities like “ratings” or “revenue.” it should be preserved as a vital function of american culture. it should have a taxpayer-funded budget rivaling the CIA

Really impressive history research approach- careful and thorough review of Census records to identify the small number of the last enslaved people in New Jersey in 1865

If you're a Post journalist who got laid off today: 1. [pats bench] come sit by us, is it time to go get that book deal?; and 2. even if not, I'd be happy to comp you a free year's subscription to "How to Glow in the Dark" if you reach out this week. neonliterary.substack.com?utm_campaign...

For those looking for freelance work in the wake of WaPo layoffs: I'm an editor at large overseeing Ideas & Culture at Bloomberg, including our Books coverage. Find me at [email protected]

MacKenzie Scott has the chance to do the funniest thing right now.

All I’m saying is that if *I* were the billionaire novelist divorcée of Jeff Bezos and I had just watched him gut one of the best book review sections in a leading national newspaper and I had the opportunity to swoop in and use lots of money to build a new thing, I would simply Consider It

Heartbroken by the gutting of the Washington Post, esp the book section frankly hoping that some other billionaire (maybe Mackenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex and also a NOVELIST?!) will stand up some other pub with a rigorous book review section where these talented writers can go

i once bought a new blazer for a schitts creek panel, and when i walked into the green room, catherine o'hara complimented me on it, and also noted that i had forgotten to cut all the threads off the vents. and then she leaned in and said, "it's because you're going to return it, isn't it"

How, then, am I supposed to propel pieces of news into the sun

this photo. minneapolis. 💜 📷️ Alex Kormann/Star Tribune

To mark "Trump will declare a national emergency for mass deportations" day: here is the initial spreadsheet of our crowd-sourced *local* immigration advocacy/support organizations. Please share widely, put to good use, and keep letting me know about more organizations folks can connect with.

I'm putting together a piece about how much investigative journalism actually costs. If you are an investigative journalist and you're willing to share (not for attribution) what you make and how many hours (years!) you put in, my DMs are open. Estimates fine, just want to get a sense of it.

The chaos adds to the stress. Young adults I spoke to while reporting named the uncertainty around SNAP and the back-and-forth as part of what was taking such a heavy toll—not knowing what to prioritize, or how to plan. Even as benefits begin to go out, that kind of uncertainty is devastating.

Continuing my furlough hobby of recording parody songs - this is a jazz parody cover of Autumn Leaves #sweaterweather m.youtube.com/watch?v=puQd...

This is a beautiful interview with (now-28!) Malala Yousafzai www.nytimes.com/2025/10/15/p...

We don’t know how or when this government shutdown ends. But there are resources to help if you’re not getting a paycheck. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

While furloughed I am dusting off old song parodies and contemplating a Sesame Street career pivot into educational Broadway songs (joking / actually not entirely joking given… everything going on) #Wicked #Broadway #WickedForGood youtu.be/E7yIwWn0F2c

spent Day #5 of my furlough learning how to create a MIDI musical backing track by plugging a cable into my electric piano keyboard, just as the GOP intended

Absolutely loved this quick read about later-in-life pop stardom www.nytimes.com/2025/10/05/o...

Beginning of October means beginning of Spooky Season, the month in which I argue that "Sweet Caroline" in a minor key is *actually* the scariest Halloween song of all time - www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vH4...

A Harvard Business School study shows that several AI companions use various tricks to keep a conversation from ending. www.wired.com/story/chatbo...

I'm late to catch up on it but the timing ended up being ideal for watching Marc Maron's new "Panicked" special - so so good (& perfect for right now) play.hbomax.com/movie/c51673...

Random useful thing I learned today - when you’re hyperlinking to a url for a pdf, you can append “#page=11” at the end of the link to direct the user to land on a specific page when clicking

Centralizing data from diverse reporting systems enables timely, actionable measles surveillance, helping guide public health interventions, improve vaccination efforts, and model outbreak risk more precisely within communities. ja.ma/3IwmxUl

Gun violence has such a massive blast radius the stats never capture. Those who witness it in person, the medical professionals that handle the wounds, the injured who carry the damage with them forever, the families shattered, the communities permanently scarred.

reading-wise I am really leaning into my Retired Dad Era* right now *exclusively reading books abt WWII and Ancient Rome

Yesssss love to see map projection minutiae make the news (also wholly endorse making changes to better represent the actual scale of Africa) www.npr.org/2025/08/21/n...

from chandra manning's wonderful book "what this cruel war was over"

Ooo this is slightly different but just found this great piece by @cllevin.bsky.social on the weirdness of Amazon shop names slate.com/technology/2...

Journalistes! Could someone plz write a deeply reported piece (or point me to an existing one) about these web-only clothing brands with names like "EARTH THREADZ" and "GREENN ECO-CHIC" but the clothes are still mass-manufactured plasticky garbage? Are there regulations about this?? Thx in advance

After literal YEARS of trying, I finally managed to write a bioethics-themed crossword! Available now in @science.org: www.sciencenews.org/article/cold... (thanks to @norahsharpe.bsky.social and @bewilderingly.bsky.social for excellent editing!)

Relatedly it is never too late to start closely following the activities of your county- and state-level Boards of Election! (Many allow public attendance at meetings / post minutes online)

Every single time I see "small craft advisory" on one of these things, my brain just imagines the tiny handicrafts that we used to make in Girl Scouts (popsicle stick creations, little weaving loom blankets, etc) and I get super confused

me working to solve the rising sea levels

will *try* to catch the Perseid meteor shower in the Northeast tonight - thx @ianlivingston.bsky.social wapo.st/45q58nS

Great job opp with the Associated Press' elections data team blending data science + journalism! I worked with this team for the 2022 midterm elections and really enjoyed it - so interesting to get a bird's eye view of county-level election result websites: careers.ap.org/job/Washingt...

Terrific deep dive by Alexander Sammon in @slate.com about those weird scam texts offering too-good-to-be-true remote jobs slate.com/technology/2...

awww RIP Tom Lehrer - one of the greats www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPrA...

Thoroughly enjoyed this profile of Jessamine Whitney, a public health statistician from the 1930s, via @amstatnews.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Happy JAWS day to all who celebrate #Jaws 🎉🦈 wapo.st/45qZ4x4