Benjamin Wendorf
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benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Benjamin Wendorf
@benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
200 followers 890 following 200 posts
Atlantic World historian and professor. Also known to hockey.
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benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Me, 41 years old: "Yeah, I could've made the big leagues."

Me, had I made the big leagues:
Image of baseball card of MLB shortstop Ed Brinkman, who clearly looks ready for nothing except the warm saddle of a plank of pine wood.
November 3, 2025 at 6:47 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Mmm, yes, AI, thank you. What if October 31st 2025 is not, in fact, a Thursday?

Like...c'mon. You are not going to beat the bubble allegations like this.
Screen photo of AI Gemini's response to a query about 2025 Trick-or-Treating schedule in Worcester, that incorrectly identifies October 31st, 2025 as a Thursday.
October 29, 2025 at 8:18 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Who is this? Wrong answers only.
Picture of a man seated in front of an open book. His hair and eyebrows are obviously dyed (for someone his age), and his hair is Bieber circa 2010.
October 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Powdered Toast Man has added a bit of salt and pepper
Photos of NHLer Blake Nelson from his rookie and 13th season, showing his change in appearance.
October 10, 2025 at 1:01 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Envisioning this going like the President's phone call to the Soviet PM in Dr. Strangelove
Screen grab of Yahoo News headline: "In phone call from White House, Netanyahu apologizes to Qatari PM over Doha strike"
September 29, 2025 at 5:51 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
You know the club goes hard when they have Fast Orange in the bathroom
Picture of a restroom sink with Fast Orange pumice hand soap next to it
September 28, 2025 at 3:18 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Seen in the first issue of The Hockey News (Oct. 1st, 1947), p. 5: "[NHL veteran Bobby] Bauer has left the Bruins to help his father-in-law manage a skate manufacturing business in Kitchener, Ontario..."

Wonder how that worked out for him.
Snippet from the Oct. 1st 1947 The Hockey News, which reads "[NHL veteran Bobby] Bauer has left the Bruins to help his father-in-law manage a skate manufacturing business in Kitchener, Ontario..."
July 21, 2025 at 9:59 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Been waiting for this for quite awhile...long enough for it to become ever-more allegorical of a contemporary fascism
Photo of DVD case of Bela Tarr's film Werckmeister Harmonies (Criterion version)
July 7, 2025 at 7:50 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Ads getting us ready for the next stage of capitalism
Image of web advertisement for a Tesla Power Wall (and Sunrun solar panels) including a customer testimonial which reads, "Our neighborhood had an outage. But we didn't even notice the power went out!"
May 4, 2025 at 8:14 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Tristan Jarry is chaotic
Screen-grab of Tristan Jarry's stats over his last 7 games. His save % across those games: 42.9%, 66.7%, 100%, 73.7%, 87.5%, 100%, 50%.
April 11, 2025 at 11:18 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Gretzky played against real...small...goalies
Image of the Washington Capitals' tiny baby goalie of the early 80s, Pat Riggin
April 6, 2025 at 6:07 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Could score with a beach ball in the 80s
Image of Washington Capitals' early 1980s goaltender Pat Riggin, who was smol
April 6, 2025 at 6:05 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
You say you want to "make America great again" but do you really want to revisit the horror of the Air Bud trials
Photo of an old VHS of the film, "The Trial of Old Drum," wherein it appears that Scott Bakula is representing a golden retriever in court
March 15, 2025 at 3:07 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Lanny McDonald at age 22 looks like a railroad conductor
Old The Hockey News image of a splendidly hirsute Lanny McDonald
March 14, 2025 at 2:28 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
I am capturing this in-case it's taken down. This is real. This happened. The cruelty is the point.
Screen capture of White House's tweet characterizing shackling people and exiling them from the country via plane as "ASMR".
February 19, 2025 at 12:42 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
How we ended up:
Picture of an utterly defeated smol dog in a Christmas bowtie and a tuque that reads "Nice".
December 9, 2024 at 1:29 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
How we got here:
Picture of clearly embattled smol dog in a Christmas bowtie and a tuque that reads "Nice".
December 9, 2024 at 1:29 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Hope you all had a Merry Chrimbus
Picture of a smol dog in a Christmas bowtie and a tuque that reads "Nice".
December 9, 2024 at 1:27 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
When your nose is getting cold but you must stay alert
Picture of a smol white-and-brown Chiweenie resting its nose in the crook of a person's knee, all while keeping its ears up at-attention.
November 30, 2024 at 12:54 AM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
When the quality of the mid-90s #Buffalo#Sabres defense runs into the strong metaphor game of mid-90s #NHL card photography.
1994-95 Stadium Club team card of the Buffalo Sabres, showing Dominik Hasek in net and his teammates, presumably in warmups, shooting a bunch of pucks into the net.
November 27, 2024 at 7:49 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Colby Armstrong looks like a King of the Hill character
Screen grab of former NHL player and current TV analyst Colby Armstrong, looking...comfortable...in his post-NHL life.
November 27, 2024 at 7:42 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
From (former #NHL & #YEG great) Stan Weir's Wiki. Did Stan write this?

(Also, lol, imagining Wikipedia proofreading this and adding "Citation needed" after "Weir started playing and earning respect")
Screen grab from Stan Weir's Wikipedia entry that reads: "Weir started playing and earning respect in 1968 while playing with his hometown Ponoka Stampeders." Screen grab from Stan Weir's Wikipedia entry that reads: "He jumped right into playing with the big boys and found that his game was slowing down."
November 25, 2024 at 10:39 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
This is officially my favorite time of year, the ~20 game mark in the NHL season, aka the point at which the predictive team measures start to really become predictive. A useful distribution to remember (1/2):
A graph showing the distribution of full-season team Goals-for% (high to low) along with those same teams' full-season expected Goals-for%. Data is for all seasons 2007-08 through 2023-24. Per the graph, teams fall consistently between 40% and 60% in these measures, suggesting that expectations should regress between these parameters as well.
November 24, 2024 at 11:13 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
Hmmm. Ok, just a question then: where did Richard the Lionheart go for that Crusade a century prior to Marco Polo? #history
Screen capture of an Instagram ad for an app that advertises itself as "Like Duolingo, But for History". Ad includes brief factoids about historical figures; for Marco Polo, he is noted as "Pivotal in discovering Asia".
November 24, 2024 at 8:09 PM
benjaminwendorf.bsky.social
#ThereWillBeBlood but a buddy #comedy
NHLer Dave Babych wearing a miner's outfit and sporting a 'stache and a smile.
November 22, 2024 at 2:09 PM