Lane Greene
lanegreene.bsky.social
Lane Greene
@lanegreene.bsky.social
Editor and language guy at The Economist.

Author of Writing With Style: The Economist Guide (2023).
https://www.amazon.com/Writing-Style-Economist-Guide-Books/dp/1639364374
Bravo to the headline writer.
December 5, 2025 at 5:40 PM
He does golf, to be fair.
December 3, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Just curious, is this pan-German or somewhere in north Germany culturally similar to Denmark? I’ve spent a few Christmases in Germany and never seen it but then again I’ve been with Danes or Americans most of the time.
November 30, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Traditional is to cut it down yourself very close to Christmas, so yes, they aren’t barbecue chimneys.
November 30, 2025 at 7:50 PM
In Denmark the Christmas Eve tradition is to dance around a tree with lit candles. Amazingly I do not see a spike for “burn injuries” in Danish every December 25th. I mostly enjoy visitors’ amazement and fear.
November 30, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Sorry, the figure i was looking for was "34 years younger than you", so my math will have to be rejiggered.
November 29, 2025 at 8:49 PM
I am an American abroad and I can promise you this is false.
November 28, 2025 at 11:22 AM
Missed opportunity to lard it on with "the coral-coloured crustacean".
November 28, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit" essay remains, for me, the best way to think about how Trump talks.
www.math.mcgill.ca/rags/JAC/124...
My first column after Trump was elected in 2016 argued this point...
www.economist.com/books-and-ar...
3/
Harry Frankfurt's "On Bullshit"
www.math.mcgill.ca
November 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM
I've argued for years that "lies" is the wrong word with Trump. People seem to think "lying is bad; therefore we must use this big bad word to call Trump out." But not knowing or caring what reality is, and instead just trying to magic up reality through language, is just as bad as lying—or worse.2/
November 26, 2025 at 11:52 AM