Alexandra Petri

"there's a new serif in town"

Trump’s Very Weird Night at the Kennedy Center Honors The president and I both got our heart’s desire. But something felt wrong.

I went to the Trump Kennedy Center Honors Cursed By The Monkey’s Paw and all you got were these 1500 words of observations www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

I can’t believe how much of the Trump era is about solving problems that *don’t* exist while making all the problems that *do* exist, worse.

There is no one who thinks the biggest problem with air travel right now is not having an area to do pull-ups.

Trump’s Very Weird Night at the Kennedy Center Honors The president and I both got our heart’s desire. But something felt wrong.

I went to the Trump Kennedy Center Honors Cursed By The Monkey’s Paw and all you got were these 1500 words of observations www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

oh word

A Manticore with the caption "I am not a toy. I am not a pet. I am not a Christmas present. I am a 400 year commitment."

Consider the following before adopting a Manticore for your family

Tom Stoppard Achieved the Impossible His plays hold us in the moment outside of time.

Tom Stoppard's plays "hold us in the moment before, outside of time, when the impossible is always happening," @petridishes.bsky.social writes:

Doughnuts and Bullets: The Absurdity of Working for RFK Jr. What happens when your new boss thinks you’re a child killer?

impeccable and harrowing, by @kerryhowley.bsky.social:

nymag.com/intelligence...

NYT: “.. Even for Mr. Trump — who has a long history of insulting Black people, particularly those from African countries — his outburst was shocking in its unapologetic bigotry.”

@nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/02/u...

RFK Jr.'s vaccine advisers plan biggest change yet to childhood schedule The new chair of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices said the panel plans to vote to end universal hepatitis B vaccination at birth and to scrutinize if childhood shots cause allergies.

fuming mad wapo.st/3XrsKoD

ooh this has the ring of truth to it

in general I feel that when a coffee place announces that its thing is something other than coffee (“the cafe for dog lovers!” “our proceeds go to a tremendous cause” “we are a bank”) the coffee is… bad. But I love to be wrong! any great-coffee-but-the-concept-is-not-coffee places you love?

when fiyero distorts your argument to refute it more easily that’s a straw man fallacy

some captchas are particularly humiliating

is the fact that I’m searching for “elphaba sex cardigan” not proof enough that I’m not a robot for you, google

do I also have to click on two pictures of a bus

East City Bookshop An independent and community-minded bookstore serving the greater Capitol Hill community.

happy small business Saturday! if you or anyone in your life wants a signed/personalized copy of one of my books, the good folks at @eastcitybooks.bsky.social have a system to get it to you! just order here! eastcitybookshop.com/lists/Ly164F... And if not they have other books by other people!

I had no idea I was such a prolific originator of seasonal tunes!!

So, DOGE, What Would You Say You Did Here? An exit interview

“Never have so few done so much to so many.”

www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

The Biggest Problem With Air Travel: Pajamas? The transportation secretary seems to think fashion will solve flying’s problems.

Sorry, Sean Duffy, the age of suits was not the golden age of airplane civility. To restore order in the skies, we need to look even further back, @petridishes.bsky.social writes:

9 Thanksgiving songs we definitely didn't just make up Enjoy these Thanksgiving classics everyone knows and loves! These are certainly not all parody songs written and recorded last week by humor columnist Alexandra Petri and composer Jack Mitchell! Dis

it’s time!!! on.soundcloud.com/JNUwij0FFp9Q...

according to William Herndon! It was the punchline of a story he loved to tell about an audacious man

happy Thanksgiving! in the immortal words of Abraham Lincoln, “Now by God I’ll see if I can’t cut up this turkey without farting!”

true! scored the invite because the alternative is takeout!

help me I feel powerless and my brain is a waffle -what the speaker of the house says when things are going well

famously good at compartmentalizing: the waffle

Neither could name a single thing that they disagree about. They even agreed that men's brains are like waffles — good at compartmentalizing — and women's brains are like a mess of spaghetti and meatballs. Mr. Johnson's dream dinner party was revealed to be eating salmon with Jesus, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. But when would he possibly have the time? "The all-in commitment - we had no idea," he said when asked what was the most unanticipated part of assuming the gavel. "That's the most surprising." Annie Karni is a congressional correspondent for The Times

much to unpack in the Katie Miller podcast interview with the Johnsons www.nytimes.com/2025/11/26/u...

So, DOGE, What Would You Say You Did Here? An exit interview

One of the best DOGE report cards I’ve seen is from @petridishes.bsky.social
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

turkey 2 won, but the vote was tainted!

yes!! one of the first things I mention!

some say it was was the heirloom turkey my brother-in-law basted laboriously all day long to keep it moist and flavorful, and others say it was a turkey about which one ballot said “I would never vote against my daughter’s mother-in-law”

unfortunately I accidentally revealed whose turkey was whose so the vote was tainted! we may never truly know which turkey was best!