Ben Yagoda
@byagoda.bsky.social
Author "Gobsmacked!”; “About Town: The New Yorker and the World It Made"; "Will Rogers: A Biography"; "How To Not Write Bad" etc.
If you’re in or near Baltimore, Monday, November 3, come on by. For tickets and info, check out @profsandpints.bsky.social
November 2, 2025 at 4:48 PM
If you’re in or near Baltimore, Monday, November 3, come on by. For tickets and info, check out @profsandpints.bsky.social
"The Lives They're Living" has been on hiatus but we're back with a vengeance. On the new episode, the great Dave Barry talks about the also great Roy Blount Jr. Among our topics: why Roy hasn't won the Mark Twain Prize, while Adam Sandler has.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
August 13, 2025 at 8:35 PM
"The Lives They're Living" has been on hiatus but we're back with a vengeance. On the new episode, the great Dave Barry talks about the also great Roy Blount Jr. Among our topics: why Roy hasn't won the Mark Twain Prize, while Adam Sandler has.
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Delighted to talk with John Barth about the public broadcasting pioneer Bill Siemering, on The Lives They’re Living. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
February 20, 2025 at 3:55 PM
Delighted to talk with John Barth about the public broadcasting pioneer Bill Siemering, on The Lives They’re Living. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/t...
Jasmine Paolini is like, “Why does my shirt say ‘Where’ on it?”
January 14, 2025 at 9:21 PM
Jasmine Paolini is like, “Why does my shirt say ‘Where’ on it?”
Positive “anymore” in @slate.bsky.social headline!
December 6, 2024 at 2:55 PM
Positive “anymore” in @slate.bsky.social headline!
AI gonna AI. Why and how would it invent an intermission?
December 2, 2024 at 12:41 PM
AI gonna AI. Why and how would it invent an intermission?
November 30, 2024 at 2:36 PM
Wasn’t Stark Fealty a character in All the King’s Men?
November 29, 2024 at 2:55 PM
Wasn’t Stark Fealty a character in All the King’s Men?
A commash in the NY Times! And from the great Robert D. McFadden www.worldwidewords.org/ww-com1.html
November 26, 2024 at 10:20 PM
A commash in the NY Times! And from the great Robert D. McFadden www.worldwidewords.org/ww-com1.html
Intrusive “of” reaches the groves of academe (U of Pennsylvania). Or maybe the interviewer “heard” it @fritinancy.bsky.social
November 26, 2024 at 3:38 PM
Intrusive “of” reaches the groves of academe (U of Pennsylvania). Or maybe the interviewer “heard” it @fritinancy.bsky.social
Well, if there’s no penalty, I’ll choose “Viscount”
November 14, 2024 at 11:19 AM
Well, if there’s no penalty, I’ll choose “Viscount”
, and without a doubt deserves a place in Guinness World Records.
November 13, 2024 at 12:09 PM
, and without a doubt deserves a place in Guinness World Records.
Kind of thrilling—pigeonholes that held the word slips for Oxford English Dictionary. At Oxford’s University Press Museum.
November 12, 2024 at 6:19 PM
Kind of thrilling—pigeonholes that held the word slips for Oxford English Dictionary. At Oxford’s University Press Museum.
“Baby bump” made it in America but I’m doubtful about “mum chums” because rhyme.
November 12, 2024 at 5:30 PM
“Baby bump” made it in America but I’m doubtful about “mum chums” because rhyme.
One sentence, four Britishisms. No, Americans aren’t polluting or homogenizing the Mother Tongue. (None of the four have made it over here either. )
November 11, 2024 at 5:51 PM
One sentence, four Britishisms. No, Americans aren’t polluting or homogenizing the Mother Tongue. (None of the four have made it over here either. )
Letter from Charles M. Schulz to Oxford English Dictionary, on the origin of “security blanket”
November 11, 2024 at 3:22 PM
Letter from Charles M. Schulz to Oxford English Dictionary, on the origin of “security blanket”
Too-bad about losing the hyphen. It was a kind of secret handshake among copy editors and other obsessive types, like minuscule, Daylight Saving Time, Finnegans Wake, Mother’s Day and, come to think of it, the hyphen in Moby-Dick.
October 29, 2024 at 12:04 PM
Too-bad about losing the hyphen. It was a kind of secret handshake among copy editors and other obsessive types, like minuscule, Daylight Saving Time, Finnegans Wake, Mother’s Day and, come to think of it, the hyphen in Moby-Dick.
There’s some chatter later in the article about the meaning of the world “great,” but jeezum crow.
Gandhi was 4th, FDR, 5th.
Gandhi was 4th, FDR, 5th.
October 25, 2024 at 2:33 PM
There’s some chatter later in the article about the meaning of the world “great,” but jeezum crow.
Gandhi was 4th, FDR, 5th.
Gandhi was 4th, FDR, 5th.
October unsurprised.
October 2, 2024 at 10:03 PM
October unsurprised.
