Joshua J. Friedman

@joshuajfriedman

Welcoming media and government (and everyone else!) to Bluesky. Formerly of The Atlantic, Boston Review.

4.498 Folgt213.978 Follower68.263 Posts

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Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 2d

They're on the NYC seal too!

The Seal of New York City, which is described thus on a city website:

Arms: Upon a shield, saltire wise, the sails of a windmill. Between the sails, in chief a beaver, in base a beaver, and on each flank a flour barrel.

Supporters: A sailor on the left, his right arm bent, and holding in his right hand a plummet; his left arm bent, his left hand resting on the top of the shield; above his right shoulder, a cross-staff. A Native American of Manhattan, his right arm bent, his right hand resting on top of the shield, his left hand holding the upper end of a bow, the lower end of which rests on the ground. Shield and supporters rest upon a horizontal laurel branch.

Date: Beneath the horizontal laurel branch the date 1625, being the year of the establishment of New Amsterdam.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 2d

It's often called the greengrocer's apostrophe because of its association with handwritten market signs, and usage experts have been pointing to it as a sign of recent degradation of the language for centuries

From Robert Baker's Remarks on the English Language (1770):

XXV. Apostrophes improperly used.

It is a common Practice even with good Writers to put an Apostrophe between the A and the S of the words Ideas and Operas, and of many others, of which the Singular ends with the Letter A.

This is certainly wrong: For why should an Apostrophe be placed where there is no Letter omitted?

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 4d

Attention font fiends! Legendary sign painter and font designer John Downer has a new beauty out from Emigre: "Franglais" www.emigre.com/News#Franglais

Type specimen of Franglais, with text reading "C'est un walk-over." Franglais is a cheeky quasi-script (with some humanist sans serif aspects), in clean painter-like strokes. It has lots of charming quirks, but not so many that it's painful.

Type specimen of Franglais, with text reading "Franglais. Quel Design! SUPER!" Franglais is a cheeky quasi-script (with some humanist sans serif aspects), in clean painter-like strokes. It has lots of charming quirks, but not so many that it's painful.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 5d

Errand-running mood

An advertisement for Degree antiperspirant in a New York subway station: it looks just like a familiar subway mural, except it claims the station name is “SWEAT CENTRAL.”

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 6d

You're going to have to fight this out with Affleck

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 6d

I'm calling this a rave www.goodtimes.sc/sarah-hennie...

After the stagnant 30-minute concert-closing piece by Sarah Hennies at the 2026 Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, I felt nothing but pity for the orchestra and outrage for my fellow audience members. This was not the programming that had, in the past, propelled the Festival to thrilling heights.

It was a tedious, mind-numbing exercise in acoustical terrorism. We were held hostage by a performance narcissist who misused the skill and expertise of a large orchestra to proclaim her hatred of the current social landscape. The effect was excruciatingly dull.

So insulting to orchestra and audience alike was the irritating, seemingly uncomposed piece, that most of us enduring its performance on Saturday August 1 were physically numb when the sequence of sounds finally stopped. Hennies admitted that the piece was created through free association. A sonic tantrum guided by the perpetrator's unconscious.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 8d

Forgive me for bragging, but I too have been known to wear a fish in my front pocket

Photo from an online listing of an apron I also own: Marimekko's "Hauki" (pike) apron, a silver-gray apron with a lovable illustration of a tall red-and-white speckled fish that looks like it's sticking out of the front pocket.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 8d

Monday morning watch

Panda the Brooklyn bodega cat—a white cat with black patches on their head—sits on alert behind the glass front door of a convenience store. Above Panda’s head, a sign: “Sorry, no dogs allowed.”

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 10d

It got an upgrade

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 12d

^^^

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 15d

They put this line in two articles without correcting the apostrophe

"I bought a new bicycle for my daughter, and I asked him, 'Hey, do you want [her's]?" she told The Post. (H-e-r-apostrophe-s)

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 15d

Incredible

A pair of Bluesky posts.

Lydia Polgreen posts a screenshot to a London Review of Books error page that says "Sorry! The LRB website is not currently accessible."

Lydia writes: "Uh, did Emily Wilson's Odyssey takedown crash the @lrb.co.uk website?

The London Review of Books replies:

Short answer: yes.
Our tech team are working on it and we hope to be back to normal soon.
Emily Wilson is on the LRB Podcast in the meantime

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 15d

First rule of poasting: know your audience

Screenshot of a Bluesky notification showing that Plant Editors liked my post consisting of three ear-of-corn emojis.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 15d

(You're allowed to change your house style once a century or so)

The New York Times, Sunday, October 30, 1927

Old-Time Cabby Struts His Little Hour

He is one of the sturdy survivors. He is a cabby—a man of spirit, too. Though his vehicle is a victoria propelled by horse power in the flesh, he will not be elbowed out by chauffeurs, not by an army of chauffeurs.

He is a cabby with a smart whip which he can crack with the best of the old-timers. And now and then comes a chance really to hold. for a charmed moment, the centre of the stage. The lines of commerce surge along the Avenue, north-bound, south-bound. For miles they stretch, forward and back, flowing, crowding, impatient. But the lights in the traffic towers change from green to red. The traffic cop holds up his hand; blows his whistle. The cross street has its chance now and the Avenue must wait.

He is a cabby, and, as it happens, has just reached the impasse, which is a whistle-shrill, commanding- and a lifted white-gloved hand. The cabby reins in his horse. With an imperious sweep of his arm he signifies to the line he heads, the line of motor cars behind him, that progress must surrender to pause. There he sits as the proud head of the procession; and there is a kind of splendor in the poised, arresting power of that arm. It is a gesture. Yes, it is superb, in a way.

Presently the lights will change again from red to green; again the traffic cop's whistle will blow and the lines of commerce will press forward in their eager march. The cab driver-so imperious now, so the master of the situation-will become once more just a rather forlorn old-time figure, slumped on his box behind a horse that clop-clops on the pavement. But while the spell endures, he is a kind of king, an Imperator.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 15d

Fascinating! (NYT Manual of Style and Usage, 1999 ed.)

C.

cabdriver. Also: cabby; cabbies. But: gypsy-cab driver.

("Cabby" is spelled c-a-b-b-y.)

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 22d

Ahh, thanks! Would you mind double-checking the feed aspect, because this is how I see it on the WSJ timeline

Screenshot of WSJ timeline that appears to show the full headline superimposed on the photo.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 23d

Celebrity sighting in Brooklyn

A mural on a Brooklyn street advertising an adjacent barbershop: Cristiano Ronaldo, wearing a white Adidas jersey with Real Madrid insignia, uses an electric razor to cut the hair of Lionel Messi, wearing a blue-and-red striped Nike jersey with Football Club Barcelona insignia.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 26d

I could not figure out why this post was muted. Then I remembered I had muted the first names of every Love Island contestant when I was behind on watching the finale.

Bluesky post from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists that begins, "Today marks 81 years since the first detonation of a nuclear weapon on July 16, 1945: the Trinity test." To my knowledge, the bulletin takes no position on Love Island contestant Trinity Tatum, who stole America's hearts with her quirky friends-to-lovers romance with Bryce Detloff.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· 29d

This is where I post from

A giant light-blue dome with the words WILD BLUEBERRY written on it.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· Jul 9

Best part: You can now search the posts of people you follow!!

Screenshot of the new advanced-search interface: A "From" drop-down menu gives you two choices, "Anyone" and "People you follow."

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· Jul 7

"Shit show" as two words is still the primary treatment in @merriam-webster.com and published books!

Google Ngram showing that the two-word "shit show" continues to be more common in printed English books (and some periodicals) than the one-word "shitshow."

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· Jul 7

Helpful NYT map with UN building 😬

A New York Times graphic showing that the United Nations headquarters are on one of the edges of the "frozen zone" around the evacuated, possibly collapsing building.

Joshua J. Friedman@joshuajfriedman· Jul 7

I’m not even a sports guy, but it’s making me so happy to see the endless stream of cheers and comments in my feed. This is what social media is great for!