If you were to rewrite the Gospel for today, you would find no more powerful, no more poignant, no more to-the-point version than this. My word.

We should remember, too, that the great city of Minneapolis is still healing from the mass shooting at the Church of the Annunciation last August.

"Respect your elders" means not making them have to download an app to park their car. It's a frickin' indignity, man.

Do it!

The biggest accomplishment of ‘The Pitt’ is putting forth a non-cringey, non-cynical positive male role model on must-see TV in 2025-26. It’s at once radical and really hard to pull off.

Seriously, though, and I know this is corny as hell, but I have found myself on more than one occasion in my real life asking myself, “How would Dr. Robby respond to this situation?”

Never try to predict the taste of a teen. There is no logic. Just give them stuff you find interesting.

“…if you have to, swear like you mean it. And if you really mean it, and voters can see it, you won't even need to.”

This being said, no one in Trump world should be allowed around children. As a teacher, I am a mandatory reporter.

Using my teacher voice on this clown: DO YOU THINK RIGHT NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO BE OUT OF OUR SEATS? I DID NOT THINK SO EITHER.

A class of kindergartners would eat all the Trump ghouls alive in under 5 seconds. Also, ponder a single one of ‘em even taking any joy in … anything not sadistic.

About to start using my goddamn TEACHER VOICE on this country.

The man believed to have named ‘Venezuela’ also lent his name to ‘America.’ Now on the blog: mashedradish.com/2026/01/09/v...

It was quite moving to see Braille’s tomb—except for his hands, which symbolically remained in his original burial place of Coupvray—in the crypt of the Panthéon in my visit to Paris late last year.

Inter multa alia, last year I read 'Final Harvest,' a selection of nearly 600 of Emily Dickinson's 1800 poems. Way back as an English major in undergrad, I focused on poetry, especially mid-century American activity viz. Black Mountain School, San Francisco Renaissance, New York School. -->

Emperors even straight-up murdered countless senators and they kept convening.

Once again, I find myself turning to etymology to process the news. (I’m not sure what, really, it does for me—or what it even means to be sharing it. But so I go on.) A short tread on the origin of 'regime' and related words:

With some incisive commentary from the likes of @misterslang.bsky.social, @lynneguist.bsky.social , and @jwdent.bsky.social:

Have a read and then have a listen to the episode we did on the rise of the WOTY as a 'thing' in the recent @lexispodcast.bsky.social episode with @mashedradish.bsky.social to compare notes. open.spotify.com/episode/5mJW...

Very interesting thread.

@thehighsign.bsky.social In the 2025 call-in ep, I was delighted by your "odd shelf" of artificial language books. Do you know about/been to the Esperanto Museum in Vienna? Linked to the Austrian National Library's extensive Department of Planned Languages! It's a gem: www.onb.ac.at/en/museums/e...

And “-wic” is thought to derive from “vicus”, the term for the civilian settlements that grew up around Roman forts.

New York could have been called … “New Everwich”?! Mamdani’s inauguration brought a few things—political, cosmological, and, yes, etymological—to mind. Let’s take them in order. 🧵

Superb etymological spaghetti from John. Give it a read, even if ( like me) you can't stand the song!

Here's a December-31st-related etymology: 'hogmanay', a primarily Scottish term for the day. Its history isn't crystal clear, but the evidence points to a French origin, specifically Old/Middle French aguillanneuf. This was an exclamation, partly composed of the words an 'year' and neuf 'new'.

How do you ring in the New Year? I like to party with some Old English grammar. On the blog, the 'syne' in 'Auld Lang Syne' sent me down the etymological rabbit hole of the adverbial genitive suffix '-s': mashedradish.com/2025/12/31/a...

👏👏👏

The changing meanings of symbols. We actually talked about this example in the latest @lexispodcast.bsky.social with @mashedradish.bsky.social! BBC News - How frogs went from right-wing meme to anti-ICE protest symbol www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Great thread here.

Did you see this stuff?

It makes me really, sincerely, unironically happy that Grace offers up her regular content in the form of a blog using WordPress. (It's what I do with Mashed Radish.) Not a substack. Not short-form video. Call it "slow content." I call it: nice, clean, clear content. Respect. Hell yeah.

This is the content I’m here for. Great thread.

Lois Lowry's 'The Giver' but it's just seasonal content.

Love this thread! Like 'naughty,' some delightfully ridiculous things are hiding inside in other such words in English 'yes' and 'no.' I went a little too hard on the topic on the ole blog. (Pshaw, there's never such a thing in etymology.) mashedradish.com/2025/12/12/y...

That's a wrap for the 2025 Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar. I've compiled all 25 of 'em on my site along with a few extra presents: a very brief history of the Advent calendar and the Ancient Roman origins of "calendar" itself. Should your thumb need a scroll: mashedradish.com/2025/12/24/o...

Day 24, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: nugget Origin unknown.

“Groundhog Day” is a Christmas movie, though.

You can do a lot worse than Rossetti’s “In a Bleak Midwinter” set by Holst.

Jaco’s “Continuum” is a Christmas song.

Day 23, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: boost Origin unknown.

On top of everything else, the University of Oklahoma situation is an ABSOLUTE INSULT to all the young people who work tirelessly in hopes of one day going to college. And to their families who so often make great sacrifices to help send them there. Just trashing education to score points.

Day 22, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: hives Origin unknown.

Perform empathy. Please. Perform the fuck out of it. It's so good to act with kindness. I hope it penetrates to a place where you feel it, too, but if you must act some way, act the right way. I'm not here to judge your authenticity, I just want you to be kind, thoughtful, and mortified by meanness.

My new newsletter contains more than FIFTY Words of the Year from around the world. Those won't be the final hashtag#WotY2025, but it is the final newsletter of the year! lynneguist.substack.com/p/2025-words...

Adding to the drama of that PIT–DET end, my wife and I were simultaneously finishing a thrilling game of cribbage. If I held her to one point during pegging, I was up to play my hand first and would have won with a come-from-behind 15-pointer. Can we call OPI in cribbage?

Day 21, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: peevish Origin unknown.

Day 20, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: lorry Origin unknown.

Day 19, Obscure Etymology Advent Calendar: moniker Origin unknown.

These Epstein files are wild