Andrew Ordover
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aordover.bsky.social
Andrew Ordover
@aordover.bsky.social
Educator, Substacker, Novelist, Walker of Dog.
Husband of Heather (producer of the CraftLit podcast).
Father of two amazing young artists.
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For those of you who don't know me, here's my Substack newsletter, which I publish every weekend. I write about education topics mostly, with a little regular life, politics, art, and culture thrown in from time to time.
brokenhand.substack.com

#education #arts #culture
Scenes from a Broken Hand | Andrew Ordover | Substack
Thoughts on teaching, writing, living, loving, and whatever else comes to mind. Click to read Scenes from a Broken Hand, by Andrew Ordover, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
brokenhand.substack.com
Laughing at the victim and applauding the bully won't stop the bully from targeting you next.
November 9, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ordover
40 men Trump sent to CECOT tell the NYT they were beaten, tortured, and sexually assaulted. The details are worse than you can imagine.

We can’t let them get away with this. Miller and the other architects of this sadism need to go to prison.

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/w...
‘You Are All Terrorists’: Four Months in a Salvadoran Prison
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 2:20 AM
From "Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions" by Dan Ariely -

"Descartes said, Cogito ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am.” But suppose we are nothing more than the sum of our first, naive, random behaviors. What then?"
Predictably Irrational, Revised and Expanded Edition: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
Quote shared via Kindle: "Descartes said, Cogito ergo sum—“I think, therefore I am.” But suppose we are nothing more than the sum of our first, naive, random behaviors. What then?"
a.co
November 2, 2025 at 2:00 AM
Carving out space for something smaller and closer than superheroes and monsters.

open.substack.com/pub/brokenha...
A Theater of Presence
Everything old might be new again
open.substack.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:09 PM
To those who have much, so much more must be given. To those who have little, a little bit more must be taken.

Lovely
October 29, 2025 at 6:36 PM
Saddam 2.0
Area developer finally gets his wish: the ability to fire all the inspectors. 🤡

@ddiamond.bsky.social
www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...
October 29, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ordover
I love this, not least because the original context is almost certainly a take-down of some German professor's conjecture at Manilius 4.507.
My quote of the day

The house of delusions is cheap to build but drafty to live in.

A. E. Housman
October 29, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ordover
Ken Burns on Rogan's podcast to promote "The American Revolution"; they reportedly "talked about the need for heroes." Which put me in mind of Brecht’s comment: “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.”
Also Anaïs Nin: "Those who see giants are still looking at the world through the eyes of a child."
October 26, 2025 at 5:43 PM
I'm sure historians will have their own take, but as far as I'm concerned, it was the blithe acceptance of "me and him" as subjects of a sentence that signaled the beginning of the end of everything good.
October 25, 2025 at 10:42 PM
What are we talking about when we talk about academic rigor?

open.substack.com/pub/brokenha...

#edusky
[2025 Re-Post] Rigor Shouldn't Lead to Mortis
There's more to rigorous instruction than "harder" and "more."
open.substack.com
October 25, 2025 at 4:17 PM
There's nothing more bewildering and paralyzing to the norms-and-rules mindset than a guy who said, "I'm just going to do things, and if you want to stop me, go ahead and try."
October 25, 2025 at 1:01 PM
Stop asking what right he has. He doesn't feel bound by laws or or conventions or morals, and never has. He just does things, and he does them until somebody stops him. Stalin probably never said, "Fuck the pope; how many divisions does he have?" But I bet he thought it. And so does this guy.
October 25, 2025 at 2:24 AM
I hate the psychopath, but I don't blame him. He is exactly who he has always been. I blame the voters who worship him and the toadies who enable him.
October 24, 2025 at 6:15 PM
The fact of Versailles didn't save the king from the revolution.
Just saying.
Leavitt: "At this moment in time, of course, the ballroom is really the president's main priority."
October 24, 2025 at 12:17 AM
How could anybody have expected this kind of behavior, other than paying attention to any single day of the man's life?
WOW: The White House says the president's MAIN PRIORITY is his BALLROOM. SNAP is ending. Subsidies for health care are gong to double and in some instances quadruple plan premiums. The government is shut down. The cost of living is through the roof. And his priority is his ballroom.
October 23, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Reposted by Andrew Ordover
Unless you're boycotting, this is a good time to buy from indie authors on Amazon. October's the last month with sales paying out in 2025. Payments hit on Dec. 29, giving your faves some much-needed end-of-year income!

Suleikha: www.amazon.com/stores/Sulei...

Kali: www.amazon.com/stores/Kali-...
October 21, 2025 at 3:34 PM
By what right? By the right that no one has stopped him yet.

The under-reported corollary to Catch-22 is that you have the right to do whatever other people can't or won't stop you from doing.
October 22, 2025 at 11:20 AM
We need more Teddy.
October 20, 2025 at 1:21 AM
Some thoughts on trying to listen in a noisy (inner and outer) world.

brokenhand.substack.com/p/the-still-...
The Still, Small Voice
On learning to listen
brokenhand.substack.com
October 17, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Train your research assistant whoever or whatever it is.
October 14, 2025 at 1:37 AM
A look back at the halfway point:

brokenhand.substack.com/p/1994
1994
Looking back at my half-life
brokenhand.substack.com
October 10, 2025 at 1:38 PM
This country will not be destroyed by people who have different dreams for the future. It will be destroyed by people who are so afraid of the future that they rip the present to shreds in search of some less threatening past.
October 9, 2025 at 12:39 PM
Donald Trump has a constituency of one, and he will happily light the world on fire if it puts a dollar in his pocket or makes him feel more like a man.
October 7, 2025 at 1:49 AM
Reposted by Andrew Ordover