Nancy Friedman

Grammarly declined my request to interview CEO Shishir Mehrotra today. But it told me that in response to criticisms, it will allow experts to opt out of the feature by emailing expertoptout@superhuman.com. The company gave me this statement over email: We’ve heard the feedback about this tool and appreciate the engagement from those who have taken the time to raise thoughtful questions about the functionality and the experts surfaced. We agree that the product experience can be improved for both users and experts. The agent was designed to help users discover influential perspectives and scholarship that add value to their work. We want the people behind those perspectives to have greater control over whether their name is used, while providing new ways for influential voices to reach new audiences. Our goal is to improve Expert Review to deliver this outcome.

NEWS: Grammarly tells me it will let "experts" like me opt out of having their names used against their will and for no compensation as part of its "expert review" feature www.platformer.news/grammarly-ex...

Mission Accompl—ish is right there.

It's in Kings Canyon NP in case you want to pay your disrespects.

Camels at beauty pageant disqualified after using hump-plumping injectables Camel owners had used injections to enhance the camel’s lips, dermal fillers around their noses and silicone wax to enlarge the humps

Humps: fake
Headline: real

(ht @paulisci.bsky.social)

www.the-independent.com/life-style/c...

What Do You Do and What Do You Make? Conversations with AI engineers, fashion Substackers, and weed clerks about what they brought in last year.

This is fascinating stuff. I wish someone -- @sfstandard.com? -- would replicate it for San Francisco/Bay Area.

(The "fashion Substacker" who makes $127K/year from subscriptions? I clearly picked the wrong specialty.)

nymag.com/intelligence...

A song for the ages, and for all of us Nancys.

America built the greatest cultural machine in history. Then quit. Here's what filled the vacuum. How America built the most powerful cultural influence operation in history, proved it worked, and handed the syllabus to Korea, Japan, and China.

"America sent Dizzy Gillespie to Iran in 1956 because a diplomat figured out that a jazz musician did more than a tank. Korea sent BTS to the UN 65 years later for exactly the same reason." - @rbrancatelli.bsky.social

readfoundobject.substack.com/p/the-war-no...

Word of the week: Guess A presidential shrug. A surprisingly potent brand name.

"No one wants to hear 'I guess' from a surgeon, a wilderness guide, or anyone with the power to inflict widespread death and destruction. It is uncertain at best, uncaring at worst."

fritinancy.substack.com/p/word-of-th...

This is the Platonic ideal of a social media exchange, never again to be equaled or even attempted:

YouTube video by Boston Ballet Boston Ballet's Response to Timothée Chalamet

Love this. Now do it for Opera!
m.youtube.com/shorts/Urc5p...

It's a great car, so of course Honda discontinued it.

2018 Honda Clarity plug-in hybrid. ~52 miles on electric. ~350 miles total.

I last bought gas in October 2025, when I drove from the Bay Area to L.A. and back.

This is a real video from the official White House account on a war that is currently killing people. I don’t know how the US is going to come back from this.
The post was “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY. 🇺🇸 🔥”

a man in a top hat stands next to a child and says " goggles on please " Alt: Mike TV from Willy Wonka and the chocolate factory

It makes so much sense to put ALL these villains on TV, non-stop, for ongoing viral-video interrogations—to get them to slip up, to say something that pisses him off, to look weak— because the only thing that matters to this guy is what happens on the tube

Poster for MEN OF WAR, a 2024 documentary from Billy Corben and Jen Gatien. In May 2020, a ragtag group of American-led insurrectionists attempted to infiltrate Venezuela and overthrow the regime of Nicolas Maduro. “Operation Gideon” was a spectacular failure. MEN OF WAR brings audiences inside this misbegotten mission, the latest in a string of covert U.S. interventions in Latin America. Only this time, with a Trump era flavor.

This seems timely. New on Kanopy:

Am I the only viewer who was unable to make through even a single episode of "The Pitt"?

Tbf I've never watched any other hospital dramas, either.

(I did chuckle through a couple of episodes of OG "Scrubs.")

Now that they're trying to pretend their war is not a war, they've gone back to calling it the Defense Department.

> @benstiller.redhour.com

In a crowded field that includes Miller, Kash, Hegseth, Marco, RFKJr, Bondi, Vance, Bessent, and until recently Kristi/Corey, etc .... KL deserves a place in the pantheon all her own.

Keep in mind that Noem was not fired for overseeing the murder of American citizens or sending untried men to overseas terror prisons, she was fired for a poor TV performance when being questioned by Congress.

☝️Ht @davepell.bsky.social

YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

Make it shitty.

youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ?...

Compact Gel Ink Ballpoint Pen Cap Type 0.5mm - Brown A compact version of our best-selling 0.5 mm gel ink pens. Cute, portable, and available in a variety of vibrant colors.

Current fave, and may I add that I am PISSED that Muji folded its brick-and-mortar tents in California. www.muji.us/products/com...

YouTube video by The New Yorker A Father-Daughter Swearing Lesson | “The F-Word” | The New Yorker

"The F-Word," a father-daughter swearing lesson.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=_42t...

Well, the marketing copy is pretty asexual. But if you're right, that's even ickier.

A name that makes me say "eww" What is it about MOLECULE that creeps me out? Plus: some notes on "handfeel" and "kah-un."

On name aversion, "handfeel," and glottalization, with musical accompaniment from "My Fair Lady."

Ht @benzimmer.bsky.social @ran-arigur.bsky.social @byagoda.bsky.social @samcorbin.bsky.social
fritinancy.substack.com/p/a-name-tha...

“Presumably, these different AI agents are trained on the oeuvres of the people they are meant to imitate, though the legality of this content-harvesting remains murky at best, and the subject of many, many copyright lawsuits.”

Starting in 2026, the National Endowment for the Humanities will only fund research on "Western civilization"

Journalist: What do you think of Western civilization?
Gandhi: I think it would be a good idea.

What California's gubernatorial candidates won't say So far this is a conventional race during an extraordinary time

The question that no candidate for governor has even tried to answer: What's your plan if Trump decides to turn one of California's cities into another Minneapolis? publiccomment.blog/p/what-calif...