Stefan Fatsis
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stefanfatsis.bsky.social
Stefan Fatsis
@stefanfatsis.bsky.social
1.5K followers 550 following 190 posts
Author: Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary
Also: Word Freak, A Few Seconds of Panic, Wild & Outside
Ex: Hang Up and Listen, WSJ, NPR, AP, Daily Pennsylvanian, Pel Mel
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
bookshop.org
Black Friday reminder: You can support independent bookstores and get great deals without lining the pockets of billionaires 😌
November 28, 2025 at 3:01 PM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
Honored to crack this lineup. 🙏 @smithsonianmag.bsky.social
The Ten Best History Books of 2025
Our favorite titles of the year resurrect overlooked histories and examine how the United States ended up where it is today
www.smithsonianmag.com
November 28, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
melikhovo.bsky.social
Really enjoying reading "Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary" by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social. Here it sits on top of a Webster's International Dictionary from 1900 that I got ~25 years ago from a friend who didn't want to haul it during a move. (I've hauled it plenty.)
The spines of a regular-sized hardcover book on top of a gigantic old hardcover book. The top book has black lettering reading "Unabridged", stylized like a dictionary entry with syllables separated by dots and emphasis noted with an apostrophe-like mark (for which I'm sure there is a technical term, but I've forgotten it if I ever knew it). Subtitle in small white typeface below: "the thrill of (and thread to) the modern dictionary". Author's name, Stefan Fatsis, in same black lettering as title, all lowercase, but not in the style of a dictionary headword. Below that, a very brown, very big spine of a Webster's International Dictionary from the year 1900. Gold lettering is still there, but hard to read. The spine is something like leather and has lovely crackle like an old couch.
November 28, 2025 at 4:40 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
“Gretz brought the loonie in the room and everybody went nuts. It was a gong show in there.” Me in @defector.com on the hockey-related rise of "gong show"
How A Campy 1970s Game Show Became Part Of Canada's National Lexicon | Defector
On tiny Hornby Island northwest of Vancouver, after the Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2015, our bed-and-breakfast host was telling us about the town. The pizza place in the park is terrific, he s...
defector.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
exolinguist.bsky.social
Oh hey, I’m in this. And I still use gongshow as an example in my Varieties of English class
November 26, 2025 at 7:43 PM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
Had a blasting on "Nobody Listens to Paula Poundstone" talking about "Dutch oven" and more with @paulapoundstone.bsky.social and Adam Felber
Ep. 385: All the Words with Stefan Fatsis • Paula Poundstone
What’s the good word? We don’t know, but author/journalist/immersive adventurer Stefan Fatsis does, especially after embedding himself at Merriam Webster! And as Thanksgiving approaches…
paulapoundstone.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:43 PM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
“Gretz brought the loonie in the room and everybody went nuts. It was a gong show in there.” Me in @defector.com on the hockey-related rise of "gong show"
How A Campy 1970s Game Show Became Part Of Canada's National Lexicon | Defector
On tiny Hornby Island northwest of Vancouver, after the Women’s World Cup in the summer of 2015, our bed-and-breakfast host was telling us about the town. The pizza place in the park is terrific, he s...
defector.com
November 26, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
paulapoundstone.bsky.social
What’s the good word? We don’t know, but author/journalist/immersive adventurer Stefan Fatsis does, especially after embedding himself at Merriam Webster! And as Thanksgiving approaches, be thankful that you haven’t experienced these Worst Thanksgivings Ever!
November 25, 2025 at 5:00 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Larry Summers (Nov. 10): The trustees need to investigate the Harvard Crimson!

Harvard Crimson (Nov. 16): Mr. Summers, while we have your attention...

www.thecrimson.com/article/2025...
Lawrence H. Summers @LHSummers I found this article by a former Harvard Crimson President very disturbing. The moral bankruptcy that led the Crimson to endorse BDS some time ago, without subsequent withdrawal, appears to have spread to the news pages. (I have shared Stoll's article to several at the Crimson without substantive response and this tracks with the things I have observed.) Many of the students I have engaged with at the Crimson have high integrity and smarts but I do hope alumni trustees will investigate and take any necessary steps lest a problematic situation deteriorate further. News Opinion Arts Blog Magazine Metro Multimedia Sports Newsletter Office Hours Editor's Pick Tips Donate Career Guide Please disable your ad blocker for The Crimson. As Summers Sought Clandestine Relationship With Woman He Called a Mentee, Epstein Was His ‘Wing Man’ When former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers was pursuing a romantic relationship with a woman he described as a mentee, he turned to a longtime associate for guidance: convicted sex offender Jeffrey E. Epstein.
November 17, 2025 at 12:52 PM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
New Yorkers! Book event alert! Tonight, 6 pm at QED Astoria. I promise to talk about trying to get the farting sense of "Dutch oven" into the dictionary. Bonus: Hot Scrabble talk qedastoria.com/products/una...
"Unabridged" Book Reading/Signing
Join author Stefan Fatsis for a reading from his new book "Unabridged"! Copies of the book will be available to purchase at QED. About the book: Words are the currency of culture—and never more than t...
qedastoria.com
November 14, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
defector.com
On this week's Distraction, Stefan Fatsis talks about the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. defector.com/the-man-who-...
The Man Who Defined "Sheeple," With Stefan Fatsis | Defector
Stefan Fatsis went 17 years between books, but you wouldn’t say that he was taking it easy. He was on NPR and co-hosted Slate’s Hang Up and Listen podcast for many years, and was writing big feature…
defector.com
November 13, 2025 at 7:06 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
trentreinsmith.bsky.social
This is a great episode that almost immediately sold me on the book “Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary” by @stefanfatsis.bsky.social
November 13, 2025 at 8:30 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
literaryhub.bsky.social
@stefanfatsis.bsky.social explains why choosing the word of the year is such an intense process.
Choosing the Word of the Year is No Easy Feat
Thirty-five years ago, the late English professor Allan Metcalf had an idea. “I was thinking that Time magazine has its Person of the Year,” he told me, “and why can’t we do for words what Time did…
buff.ly
November 13, 2025 at 4:30 PM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
Wrote about the past and present of Word of the Year for @lithub.com.web.brid.gy. Some 2025 candidates in the piece: "Kavanaugh stop," "Coldplayed," "broligarchy," "amphipha," "chopped unc," and the hard-charging "Trumpstein files" #wordoftheyear
Choosing the Word of the Year is No Easy Feat
Thirty-five years ago, the late English professor Allan Metcalf had an idea. “I was thinking that Time magazine has its Person of the Year,” he told me, “and why can’t we do for words what Time did…
lithub.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
drewmagary.bsky.social
New Distraction ep! Featuring the great @stefanfatsis.bsky.social! art19.com/shows/the-di...
You Depraved the Manner of Men with Stefan Fatsis
Stefan Fatsis joins Drew and Roth to talk about dictionaries! For his new book, Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary (out now), Stefan embedded with Merriam Webster, and eve...
art19.com
November 13, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
bgrueskin.bsky.social
Kyle Kingsbury is not a journalist. He is not an op-ed writer.

He is a computer safety researcher.

And he has written one of the most compelling, comprehensive accounts of the ongoing hell in Chicago that you could possibly imagine.

In under 1600 words.

aphyr.com/posts/397-i-...
I Want You to Understand Chicago Politics Chicago 2025-11-08 I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time. Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again. An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next. Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st. Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Sho…
November 9, 2025 at 8:49 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
lynneguist.bsky.social
John Kelly @mashedradish.bsky.social makes 'fascism' his Etymology of the Year

mashedradish.com/2025/11/04/f...
The 2025 Etymology of the Year
“Fascism” is a challenging word for a challenging moment, and its origins may bear lessons for us.
mashedradish.com
November 9, 2025 at 10:54 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
pjsauer.bsky.social
I’m a little late nighty, but once again @squawkinsports.bsky.social crushed. With @williamfleitch.bsky.social
@stefanfatsis.bsky.social
@davidjroth.bsky.social

12/4. Bitches.

www.eventbrite.com/e/1865660985...
November 7, 2025 at 5:03 AM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
davidjroth.bsky.social
We're doing this on Thursday night. Fun books, iconic bloggers, the type of German beers they serve in a big ceramic mug. Not a lot of sports, if we're being honest, but I'll ask Will about Jake Plummer or something.
The promo image for the November 6 installment of Squawkin Sports, at which Patrick Sauer and I will interview Will Leitch and Stefan Fatsis about their books, at 7pm.
November 5, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
frogandtoadbot.bsky.social
They climbed higher, and they heard a loud noise. Many large stones were rolling down the mountain.
A avalanche of rocks comes tumbling down the mountain, threatening the lives of the very brave Frog and very brave Toad. From "Dragons and Giants" In *Frog and Toad Together*
November 5, 2025 at 5:37 AM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
pjsauer.bsky.social
COME CELEBRATE ZOHRAN WEEK AT ONE OR BOTH OF THESE AWESOME BK BOOK JAWNS

W/ @willleitch.bsky.social
@stefanfatsis.bsky.social
@davidjroth.bsky.social
@risenc.bsky.social

(5% SNAP goes for Red Scare book/wine sales too).

www.eventbrite.com/e/1744028358...

www.eventbrite.com/e/red-scare-...
November 5, 2025 at 12:23 AM
stefanfatsis.bsky.social
If @joshuablevin.bsky.social makes it you should listen to it
joshuablevin.bsky.social Josh Levin @joshuablevin.bsky.social · 26d
I'm thrilled to announce the pilot episode for a new sports history podcast called Replay Booth. The pilot, "Wilbur Huckle for President," is live now. If you liked Slow Burn and/or One Year and/or Hang Up and Listen, you'll love this www.replaybooth.show/p/replay-boo...
www.replaybooth.show
November 4, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
wirobooks.bsky.social
An exceedingly cromulent story about defining words. www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/bookreview/u... @groveatlantic.bsky.social @stefanfatsis.bsky.social #booksky
Unabridged: The Thrill of (and Threat to) the Modern Dictionary | Washington Independent Review of Books
The Independent is an important voice in the community of readers and writers dedicated to book reviews and writing about the world of books.
www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com
November 3, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
artbutmakeitsports.bsky.social
The Good Samaritan, by Joseph Highmore, 1744, 📸 by @patricksmith04
November 2, 2025 at 4:49 AM
Reposted by Stefan Fatsis
slangsonsports.bsky.social
Yoshinobu Yamamoto:

First pitcher to win 3 games in a single World Series since 2001 Randy Johnson

First pitcher with 3 road wins in a single WS

4th P to win G6+7 in a WS, joining ‘01 Johnson, 1946 Harry Brecheen, 1925 Ray Kremer — FIRST to do it on road
November 2, 2025 at 4:41 AM