steve o’grady
@sogrady.org
helped found redmonk. if you see someone at a tech conference wearing a Red Sox hat, that's probably me. otherwise found in the great state of Maine. wrote the new kingmakers and the software paradox. married to @girltuesday.org. eph.
Pinned
steve o’grady
@sogrady.org
· Jan 30
one of my high school friends got her son an atari and a legit 1980's panasonic TV / VHS player for Hanukkah. when i told her it could have come from my parents' basement, she replied:
"That’s what I was thinking about. Your basement."
"That’s what I was thinking about. Your basement."
My twelve-year-old daughter's Christmas haul included a cassette Walkman and a Discman, and music to play on both.
Yes, part of it is STRANGER THINGS. But part of it is the seemingly inevitable swing towards throwback tech, coupled with the current longing to be LEFT ALONE TO LISTEN TO SHIT
Yes, part of it is STRANGER THINGS. But part of it is the seemingly inevitable swing towards throwback tech, coupled with the current longing to be LEFT ALONE TO LISTEN TO SHIT
I used to think that smartphones and streaming were a mistake because giving people the illusion of access to everything all of the time would break us irreparably, but this & returns to iPods, DVDs, records, etc prove that people just want to be people, not 24/7 consumers and marketing targets.
December 31, 2025 at 1:33 AM
one of my high school friends got her son an atari and a legit 1980's panasonic TV / VHS player for Hanukkah. when i told her it could have come from my parents' basement, she replied:
"That’s what I was thinking about. Your basement."
"That’s what I was thinking about. Your basement."
speaking as someone who calendars stranger things episodes years in advance and stays up until the wee hours watching them, people who signed this petition can get bent.
whether you love this season or hate it, toxic, entitled fandom is why we can’t have nice things.
www.upi.com/Entertainmen...
whether you love this season or hate it, toxic, entitled fandom is why we can’t have nice things.
www.upi.com/Entertainmen...
140,000 fans sign petition demanding 'Stranger Things' cut scenes - UPI.com
More than 140K people have signed a Change.org petition demanding that scenes cut from the fifth and final season of "Stranger Things" be released.
www.upi.com
December 29, 2025 at 1:58 AM
speaking as someone who calendars stranger things episodes years in advance and stays up until the wee hours watching them, people who signed this petition can get bent.
whether you love this season or hate it, toxic, entitled fandom is why we can’t have nice things.
www.upi.com/Entertainmen...
whether you love this season or hate it, toxic, entitled fandom is why we can’t have nice things.
www.upi.com/Entertainmen...
there is not
Is there anything /less/ American than the idea that the only way to become an American is to be born into it?
December 27, 2025 at 3:49 PM
there is not
Reposted by steve o’grady
we have a signer of the constitution, a governor, a senator and both officers and soldiers in the continental army. another ancestor gave big swaths of land that philips exeter sits on.
no one cares. none of that is relevant. i am no more american than people who swore their oaths this morning.
no one cares. none of that is relevant. i am no more american than people who swore their oaths this morning.
No ancestors who signed the Constitution, but one Revolutionary War general on my mom’s side. Also my dad came on Pan Am. Both halves of the family are American.
speaking as an american with an ancestor that signed the constitution of the united states who believes that a friend who swore his oath to this country two weeks ago is just as american as i am, these "heritage american" people are both nakedly specious and actively unamerican.
so tired of them.
so tired of them.
December 27, 2025 at 12:36 AM
we have a signer of the constitution, a governor, a senator and both officers and soldiers in the continental army. another ancestor gave big swaths of land that philips exeter sits on.
no one cares. none of that is relevant. i am no more american than people who swore their oaths this morning.
no one cares. none of that is relevant. i am no more american than people who swore their oaths this morning.
speaking as an american with an ancestor that signed the constitution of the united states who believes that a friend who swore his oath to this country two weeks ago is just as american as i am, these "heritage american" people are both nakedly specious and actively unamerican.
so tired of them.
so tired of them.
more confirmation that lurking clearly behind this idea of the “heritage american” is a straightforward contempt for the actual history and tradition of this country, such that vermeule has to hallucinate a framework to justify his desire to jettison the clear meaning of the 14th amendment
I had missed this latest delirium by Adrian Vermeule on birthright citizenship
'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!'
thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...
'Common law?! NAH, it's the Roman law of adoption that should govern the interpretation of the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution!'
thenewdigest.substack.com/p/immigratio...
December 27, 2025 at 12:20 AM
speaking as an american with an ancestor that signed the constitution of the united states who believes that a friend who swore his oath to this country two weeks ago is just as american as i am, these "heritage american" people are both nakedly specious and actively unamerican.
so tired of them.
so tired of them.
out for a walk on the island in the middle of a winter storm early this morning, the plows tapped their horns as i stood clear and waved them by, and two of the three cars that passed stopped to ask if i was ok and needed a ride.
i appreciate living in a place where people look out for each other.
i appreciate living in a place where people look out for each other.
December 25, 2025 at 1:22 AM
out for a walk on the island in the middle of a winter storm early this morning, the plows tapped their horns as i stood clear and waved them by, and two of the three cars that passed stopped to ask if i was ok and needed a ride.
i appreciate living in a place where people look out for each other.
i appreciate living in a place where people look out for each other.
belatedly occurring to me that i'm not going to be able to watch violent night tomorrow as regularly scheduled due to the stranger things volume 2 drop.
the good news is that i've already seen christmas vacation this year, so i can swap those easily.
the good news is that i've already seen christmas vacation this year, so i can swap those easily.
December 24, 2025 at 10:42 PM
belatedly occurring to me that i'm not going to be able to watch violent night tomorrow as regularly scheduled due to the stranger things volume 2 drop.
the good news is that i've already seen christmas vacation this year, so i can swap those easily.
the good news is that i've already seen christmas vacation this year, so i can swap those easily.
technically it qualifies as both, but there are a lot of christmas movies and comparatively few new year's movies, so trading places is therefore a new year's movie
i love trading places but imo it’s more of a new year’s movie!
watching my favorite christmas movie and what is possibly the great american comedy about class and race
December 24, 2025 at 12:36 AM
technically it qualifies as both, but there are a lot of christmas movies and comparatively few new year's movies, so trading places is therefore a new year's movie
that feeling when your kid wakes up at 4 AM with a fever, asks if she'll be able to play basketball that night, and when the answer is no, asks you to apologize to her teammates for not being there for them
December 23, 2025 at 8:42 PM
that feeling when your kid wakes up at 4 AM with a fever, asks if she'll be able to play basketball that night, and when the answer is no, asks you to apologize to her teammates for not being there for them
it was this or die hard, and i’ve got a better chance of the ten year old sitting through die hard tomorrow than this
December 23, 2025 at 3:31 AM
it was this or die hard, and i’ve got a better chance of the ten year old sitting through die hard tomorrow than this
i really feel like there should be a dozen kids movies in theaters over the holiday break instead of two or three, one of which that came out maybe two months ago and that we've already seen.
this is the one time you're not competing with netflix b/c we just need to get the hell out of the house.
this is the one time you're not competing with netflix b/c we just need to get the hell out of the house.
December 23, 2025 at 2:34 AM
i really feel like there should be a dozen kids movies in theaters over the holiday break instead of two or three, one of which that came out maybe two months ago and that we've already seen.
this is the one time you're not competing with netflix b/c we just need to get the hell out of the house.
this is the one time you're not competing with netflix b/c we just need to get the hell out of the house.
and it wasn't super close. i've said it before, but if you're a red sox fan you really need to be listening to the @soxprospects.com podcast. it's the best sox show by far.
December 22, 2025 at 10:39 PM
and it wasn't super close. i've said it before, but if you're a red sox fan you really need to be listening to the @soxprospects.com podcast. it's the best sox show by far.
NARRATOR: it was, in fact, a breakthrough
it's taken me almost six months, but i think today *might* have been a breakthrough in my long term campaign to befriend the island's crows.
December 22, 2025 at 6:57 PM
NARRATOR: it was, in fact, a breakthrough
almost there
We're 60 days from 2026 Spring Training games.
December 22, 2025 at 5:49 PM
almost there
i understand instagrammable (kind of), and i understand bathroom. i do not, however, understand those two words together.
December 20, 2025 at 9:30 PM
i understand instagrammable (kind of), and i understand bathroom. i do not, however, understand those two words together.
speaking as someone who flies quite a bit and does want to board as soon as possible: if you think people in wheelchairs are the problem - and more specifically, people who *you think* don't actually need a wheelchair, you understand neither flying nor disabilities.
just relax and pipe down.
just relax and pipe down.
Travelers bemoan a rise of able-bodied passengers who game the system to skip the lines. on.wsj.com/3N6apva
They Get Wheeled on Flights and Miraculously Walk Off. Praise ‘Jetway Jesus.’
Travelers bemoan a rise of able-bodied passengers who game the system to skip the lines.
on.wsj.com
December 19, 2025 at 3:05 AM
speaking as someone who flies quite a bit and does want to board as soon as possible: if you think people in wheelchairs are the problem - and more specifically, people who *you think* don't actually need a wheelchair, you understand neither flying nor disabilities.
just relax and pipe down.
just relax and pipe down.
i'm so proud of us. high five everyone.
December 19, 2025 at 2:58 AM
i'm so proud of us. high five everyone.
this is so unbelievably childish i thought for a second it had to be satire. but of course it’s not.
finding new ways to embarrass the country every day: www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
finding new ways to embarrass the country every day: www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
White House installs plaques mocking former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden
The Biden plaque refers to him as “Sleepy Joe Biden” and calls him “the worst President in American History.”
www.nbcnews.com
December 18, 2025 at 12:20 AM
this is so unbelievably childish i thought for a second it had to be satire. but of course it’s not.
finding new ways to embarrass the country every day: www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
finding new ways to embarrass the country every day: www.nbcnews.com/politics/whi...
it's been years, literally, since i reviewed any books, but if anyone's looking for suggestions going into the holiday season here are some good, some bad, and some in between
sogrady.org/2025/12/17/b...
sogrady.org/2025/12/17/b...
Books: Winter 2025
When I started posting quick reviews of things I’d been reading back in 2014, I didn’t commit to any regular schedule. As it turns out, that’s a good thing, because my first follow up was a year la…
sogrady.org
December 17, 2025 at 5:03 AM
it's been years, literally, since i reviewed any books, but if anyone's looking for suggestions going into the holiday season here are some good, some bad, and some in between
sogrady.org/2025/12/17/b...
sogrady.org/2025/12/17/b...
today's a good day to remember the words of Joseph Welch.
"at long last, have you no sense of decency?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7x8...
"at long last, have you no sense of decency?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7x8...
"Have you no sense of decency, Sir?" Joseph Welch to Joe McCarthy
YouTube video by Witnify
www.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 2:41 AM
today's a good day to remember the words of Joseph Welch.
"at long last, have you no sense of decency?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7x8...
"at long last, have you no sense of decency?"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7x8...
as of today, this country has two new citizens that have endured an incredibly difficult process to swear an oath to the United States. i'm proud of them and to have them as part of my country.
it's hard to remember in these sad times that people still want to come here, but they give me hope.
it's hard to remember in these sad times that people still want to come here, but they give me hope.
December 15, 2025 at 9:44 PM
as of today, this country has two new citizens that have endured an incredibly difficult process to swear an oath to the United States. i'm proud of them and to have them as part of my country.
it's hard to remember in these sad times that people still want to come here, but they give me hope.
it's hard to remember in these sad times that people still want to come here, but they give me hope.
have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get a walk in, so naturally poseidon is starting the snow two hours before i set out to get just enough down to cover up the ice
December 14, 2025 at 3:49 AM
have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to get a walk in, so naturally poseidon is starting the snow two hours before i set out to get just enough down to cover up the ice
heading to a holiday party at 5 with the family so i assume some major baseball and/or red sox news will drop in that window
December 13, 2025 at 8:15 PM
heading to a holiday party at 5 with the family so i assume some major baseball and/or red sox news will drop in that window
the ongoing spasm of incandescent rage and cowardly online harassment of reporters and red sox radio and tv personnel over the club's lack of activity over three days of the winter meetings reminds me of this piece i wrote in 2006.
bob ryan was right: we've lost our way.
redmonk.com/sogrady/2006...
bob ryan was right: we've lost our way.
redmonk.com/sogrady/2006...
162
“What? They’ve given you thousands of hours of entertainment for free. What could they possible owe you? If anything, you owe them.” – Bart Simpson “Once upon a time, losing brought a brief period of ...
redmonk.com
December 13, 2025 at 2:42 AM
the ongoing spasm of incandescent rage and cowardly online harassment of reporters and red sox radio and tv personnel over the club's lack of activity over three days of the winter meetings reminds me of this piece i wrote in 2006.
bob ryan was right: we've lost our way.
redmonk.com/sogrady/2006...
bob ryan was right: we've lost our way.
redmonk.com/sogrady/2006...