Average Joe
@planetjoseph.bsky.social
Insatiably curious.
Writer, Reader, Maryland lover.
Writer, Reader, Maryland lover.
If you liked The Count of Monte Cristo, this book is right up there with it.
August 10, 2025 at 11:34 AM
If you liked The Count of Monte Cristo, this book is right up there with it.
While not my favorite band, the strays Coldplay fans are catching over this whole fiasco is rude! Let us enjoy music made for the masses. It’s ok! Let people enjoy things!
July 17, 2025 at 7:03 PM
While not my favorite band, the strays Coldplay fans are catching over this whole fiasco is rude! Let us enjoy music made for the masses. It’s ok! Let people enjoy things!
My latest feature is about our local Shakespeare festival, but don’t be fooled, it’s a great read for anyone interested in knowing what goes into a successful Shakespeare festival and all the reasons why they’re great for a community’s cultural milieu. www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_an...
Now in its seventh season, the Frederick Shakespeare Festival is hitting its stride
By Joseph Peterson
www.fredericknewspost.com
July 15, 2025 at 4:17 PM
My latest feature is about our local Shakespeare festival, but don’t be fooled, it’s a great read for anyone interested in knowing what goes into a successful Shakespeare festival and all the reasons why they’re great for a community’s cultural milieu. www.fredericknewspost.com/news/arts_an...
Important thread on AI in journalism. I think it can be an incredibly useful tool much like a recorder or a pen and notepad are for the gum shoe. But it can’t, and shouldn’t, replace the writer.
I have a lot of thoughts about this, but my main one is this: When @jasonkoebler.bsky.social talks about this job being one that's especially human, he's absolutely correct.
Reporting & writing are intimate, human skills. We need to lean into that to build trust and to create work worth supporting.
Reporting & writing are intimate, human skills. We need to lean into that to build trust and to create work worth supporting.
The Media's Pivot to AI Is Not Real and Not Going to Work
AI is not going to save media companies, and forcing journalists to use AI is not a business model.
www.404media.co
July 15, 2025 at 1:09 AM
Important thread on AI in journalism. I think it can be an incredibly useful tool much like a recorder or a pen and notepad are for the gum shoe. But it can’t, and shouldn’t, replace the writer.
Reposted by Average Joe
Washington, D.C., has a population roughly equivalent to Alaska's.
And it has zero senators. If D.C. had senators, the GOP megablil bill would have failed today.
Instead, Murkowski got carve-outs and money for Alaska, and then voted to subject DC to the bill
And it has zero senators. If D.C. had senators, the GOP megablil bill would have failed today.
Instead, Murkowski got carve-outs and money for Alaska, and then voted to subject DC to the bill
July 1, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Washington, D.C., has a population roughly equivalent to Alaska's.
And it has zero senators. If D.C. had senators, the GOP megablil bill would have failed today.
Instead, Murkowski got carve-outs and money for Alaska, and then voted to subject DC to the bill
And it has zero senators. If D.C. had senators, the GOP megablil bill would have failed today.
Instead, Murkowski got carve-outs and money for Alaska, and then voted to subject DC to the bill
Reposted by Average Joe
This @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social video is absolutely INCREDIBLE. The numbers he cites, the strategy and results they produced — it’s the future. When have you heard *any* campaign talk about this, ever? (Video split in 2 to fit in Bluesky’s limits)
July 1, 2025 at 4:45 PM
This @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social video is absolutely INCREDIBLE. The numbers he cites, the strategy and results they produced — it’s the future. When have you heard *any* campaign talk about this, ever? (Video split in 2 to fit in Bluesky’s limits)
When the food I’m eating isn’t spicy.
a baby in a blue shirt is laying on a couch and making a funny face .
Alt: a baby in a blue shirt is laying on a couch and crying but it’s cute not sad.
media.tenor.com
July 1, 2025 at 5:55 PM
When the food I’m eating isn’t spicy.
This is your reminder to send story tips to your local newspaper. I sent an email saying how all the outdoor summer camps adjusting to this heat wave with more indoor activities would make a timely story. I guess they agreed. It made the lead story on the front page.
June 26, 2025 at 1:31 PM
This is your reminder to send story tips to your local newspaper. I sent an email saying how all the outdoor summer camps adjusting to this heat wave with more indoor activities would make a timely story. I guess they agreed. It made the lead story on the front page.
Reposted by Average Joe
I just finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. Honestly, I don’t think calling it a literary masterpiece oversells it. This book is transformative, and Jones is a brilliant inventor, an alchemist this side of crazy, furiously (and furious) at work. #amreading
June 16, 2025 at 12:30 AM
I just finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones. Honestly, I don’t think calling it a literary masterpiece oversells it. This book is transformative, and Jones is a brilliant inventor, an alchemist this side of crazy, furiously (and furious) at work. #amreading
Scotch in hand and about to watch George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck, on Broadway, but from the comfort of my couch.
It’s one of my favorite movies, so to say I’m exited is an understatement. #goodnightandgoodluck
It’s one of my favorite movies, so to say I’m exited is an understatement. #goodnightandgoodluck
June 7, 2025 at 11:38 PM
Scotch in hand and about to watch George Clooney in Good Night and Good Luck, on Broadway, but from the comfort of my couch.
It’s one of my favorite movies, so to say I’m exited is an understatement. #goodnightandgoodluck
It’s one of my favorite movies, so to say I’m exited is an understatement. #goodnightandgoodluck
Had this same thought
Yes and what it says about the deep misogyny in this country that men (and some women, but especially men!) would rather elect the worst man who has ever been nominated by either party in this country’s history than a qualified woman. Twice,
America was given a choice between a lawless, amoral monster and a qualified, intelligent, joyful woman of color—and it chose the monster. We need to reckon with the reality of what that says about so many of us here.
johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/america-ch...
johnpavlovitz.substack.com/p/america-ch...
June 5, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Had this same thought
I won’t say that my article about how I used to order an oat milk “cortado” at @starbucks when it wasnt on their menu is the reason they launched their oat milk cortado, but given the timing of my article ahead of the launch, I won’t deny it either. 😉😜
planetjoseph.medium.com/the-one-drin...
planetjoseph.medium.com/the-one-drin...
The One Drink You’re Not Ordering at Starbucks…But Should Be.
It’s the perfect espresso + milk combo but Starbucks doesn’t call it what other coffee shops call it. In fact, it’s not even on the menu at…
planetjoseph.medium.com
June 5, 2025 at 2:11 PM
I won’t say that my article about how I used to order an oat milk “cortado” at @starbucks when it wasnt on their menu is the reason they launched their oat milk cortado, but given the timing of my article ahead of the launch, I won’t deny it either. 😉😜
planetjoseph.medium.com/the-one-drin...
planetjoseph.medium.com/the-one-drin...
My latest feature is about a green burial cemetery in Maryland and what a more natural burial can mean not just for the environment but for the grieving process.
www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environ...
www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environ...
How a quiet nut orchard in Frederick became Maryland’s newest natural burial site
This is a story about death. It’s also about a cemetery and an orchard, which in this story are the same thing. In it, there’s a boy and his father
www.fredericknewspost.com
May 30, 2025 at 4:46 PM
My latest feature is about a green burial cemetery in Maryland and what a more natural burial can mean not just for the environment but for the grieving process.
www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environ...
www.fredericknewspost.com/news/environ...
And state governments make it so that only the cities have those services, only to vilify them. It’s disgusting. Utah does this to an extreme degree with Salt Lake City. The biggest economic engine with all the transit and social services, and the supermajority GOP just shits on it.
Duffy: "If you're liberal, they want you to take public transportation ... the problem is that it's dirty. You have criminals. It's homeless shelters. It's insane asylums. It's a work ground for the criminal element of the city to prey upon the good people."
May 28, 2025 at 9:56 PM
And state governments make it so that only the cities have those services, only to vilify them. It’s disgusting. Utah does this to an extreme degree with Salt Lake City. The biggest economic engine with all the transit and social services, and the supermajority GOP just shits on it.
I’m calling for self-imposed social media sanctions on all insane bullshit the president shares in all caps. It’s all a distraction anyway. Let’s stifle the oxygen of it by just…not reacting. Save the reactions for legislation and executive orders, but let’s skip the showboat. Would be nice, eh?
May 28, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I’m calling for self-imposed social media sanctions on all insane bullshit the president shares in all caps. It’s all a distraction anyway. Let’s stifle the oxygen of it by just…not reacting. Save the reactions for legislation and executive orders, but let’s skip the showboat. Would be nice, eh?
In line with my tendency to invest time and effort into crafts and industries that are all but extinct, I have the best idea for a new version of the classic Reporter’s Notebook, where do I go to say “make it so” and then someone else brings it into existence?
May 28, 2025 at 7:41 PM
In line with my tendency to invest time and effort into crafts and industries that are all but extinct, I have the best idea for a new version of the classic Reporter’s Notebook, where do I go to say “make it so” and then someone else brings it into existence?
Reposted by Average Joe
Stick close to your desks.
Honor the desk
Three and a half years ago Kimi Yoshino came to Baltimore from Los Angeles to become the first and founding editor-in-chief of The Baltimor...
johnemcintyre.blogspot.com
May 28, 2025 at 7:22 PM
Stick close to your desks.
Miso sesame cream cheese on fresh-baked sourdough toast with a low-sugar berry jam, fresh cherries, almonds and mushroom “coffee.” A fascinating book, a clean slab of paper ready for ideas, and a rainy day outside round out this perfect late-breakfast moment.
May 28, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Miso sesame cream cheese on fresh-baked sourdough toast with a low-sugar berry jam, fresh cherries, almonds and mushroom “coffee.” A fascinating book, a clean slab of paper ready for ideas, and a rainy day outside round out this perfect late-breakfast moment.
Y’all, no qualifiers, I’m just really really really proud of the feature story I turned in. My editor loved it too, which I know is like saying “my mom thinks I’m cool” but it gave me some much needed validation. Because I turned in something different, experimental for me, and something that …
May 28, 2025 at 3:42 PM
Y’all, no qualifiers, I’m just really really really proud of the feature story I turned in. My editor loved it too, which I know is like saying “my mom thinks I’m cool” but it gave me some much needed validation. Because I turned in something different, experimental for me, and something that …
I’m basically a famous writer. You’ve heard of me. I’ve won awards*
*one award. 👇
*one award. 👇
May 23, 2025 at 11:25 PM
I’m basically a famous writer. You’ve heard of me. I’ve won awards*
*one award. 👇
*one award. 👇
Feckin hell, I turned in my story. A day late but it was a beast (for me. 2500 words) and I’m just lying in a puddle after that journey.
May 23, 2025 at 1:20 AM
Feckin hell, I turned in my story. A day late but it was a beast (for me. 2500 words) and I’m just lying in a puddle after that journey.
Help! Writing requires sustained emotional effort!
a woman is crying while leaning against a wall
ALT: a woman is crying while leaning against a wall
media.tenor.com
May 21, 2025 at 5:12 PM
Help! Writing requires sustained emotional effort!