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Erin McKean

@emckean.bsky.social

Wording at Wordnik until the words stop.

1,960 Followers  |  1,065 Following  |  187 Posts  |  Joined: 01.06.2023
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Posts by Erin McKean (@emckean.bsky.social)

Careers | ROOST Join the team at ROOST and help shape the future of open-source online safety.

If you were laid off from Block (or anywhere) and want to stay remote, @roost.tools is hiring for multiple SWE roles and levels.

If you're the kind of person who's deeply satisfied by figuring out why a service has multiple databases and ripping some out, we might be for you! roost.tools/careers

27.02.2026 00:02 β€” πŸ‘ 79    πŸ” 29    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
Sticker with black text on a yellow background reading β€œI find it kinda bussin’
I find it kinda cap
That the dreams in which I’m dying
Are the ones that kinda slap”

Sticker with black text on a yellow background reading β€œI find it kinda bussin’ I find it kinda cap That the dreams in which I’m dying Are the ones that kinda slap”

β€œEach generation must discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it, in relative opacity.”

18.02.2026 02:02 β€” πŸ‘ 27    πŸ” 9    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

new post from Daniel on OSS docs! Always worth reading :)

17.02.2026 18:07 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Five Words from … The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper | Wordnik

New on the Wordnik blog: Five Words from ... The Notebook, by Roland Allen (
@zibaldoni.bsky.social): blog.wordnik.com/five-words-f...

16.02.2026 21:03 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Roses are red
Violets are prime
This is the sort
Of linguist that I'm

14.02.2026 18:13 β€” πŸ‘ 307    πŸ” 27    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 4
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Reading and writing can lower dementia risk by almost 40%, study finds Cognitive health in later life is β€˜strongly influenced’ by lifelong exposure to intellectually stimulating environments, say researchers

new marketing campaign for print dictionaries, as totemic items to ward off dementia: "researchers found higher scores in lifetime enrichment were associated with a 38% lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease ... enrichment included ... dictionaries and library cards" www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

12.02.2026 16:53 β€” πŸ‘ 12    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Over on threads someone just use ai;dr and we all need to adopt that right quick

11.02.2026 19:56 β€” πŸ‘ 11991    πŸ” 4159    πŸ’¬ 86    πŸ“Œ 191

This month in Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things: the Odeillo Solar Furnace, broadcasting "Destroy Mount Rushmore", and searching for smells: buttondown.com/thingslearne...

11.02.2026 15:43 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
Post image

🚨 Tell your Senators to vote NO on the GOP’s so-called β€œSAVE” Act”, which would:

Require continuing voter purges w/ NO PENALTY for erroneous purges.

Subject election officials to potential PRISON TIME & citizen suits for mistakenly registering a single voterβ€”even if the voter is a citizen! 1/

04.02.2026 20:54 β€” πŸ‘ 501    πŸ” 315    πŸ’¬ 13    πŸ“Œ 34
Preview
Study shows Operation Metro Surge costs taxpayers $18 million a week North Star Policy Action, a progressive research institute, released the study Thursday.

18 million per week. That’s what we are collectively paying to hunt and kill people in Minnesota.

I never wanna hear that we can’t afford to take care of our fellow Americans ever again. Healthcare. Education. Infrastructure. We can afford it all.

www.kare11.com/article/news...

01.02.2026 23:09 β€” πŸ‘ 88    πŸ” 42    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1

If Graham can hold up this bill for venal and treasonous reasons, then @amyklobuchar.com & @smith.senate.gov can block the whole spending package until Dems get the GOP to agree to clawback ICE detention funds.

30.01.2026 05:54 β€” πŸ‘ 468    πŸ” 167    πŸ’¬ 5    πŸ“Œ 3

Angular numbers? πŸ˜‚

27.01.2026 01:40 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 1
Working on a project bringing linguistics to broader audiences? Apply for a 2026 LingComm Grant! Due: April 30, 2026. Details at link in bio.

Working on a project bringing linguistics to broader audiences? Apply for a 2026 LingComm Grant! Due: April 30, 2026. Details at link in bio.

Working on a project bringing linguistics to broader audiences?

The 2026 LingComm Grants are $300 USD grants to help you with your project!

Please apply and/or share with any up and coming lingcommers you know!

Details:
lingcomm.org/grants
#linguistics #langsky #lingcomm

23.01.2026 02:35 β€” πŸ‘ 22    πŸ” 24    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 7

and now you can subscribe for vol 2! paperairplane.pub#subscribe

16.01.2026 19:47 β€” πŸ‘ 4    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

It’s the 11th of the month, time for a new edition of Things I Learned While Looking Up Other Things! This month: hemerology, ubuesque, and the fattura della morte buttondown.com/thingslearne...

11.01.2026 21:42 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0

This implies that when given notice, these facilities will change their behavior and conditions for the better. So... Democrats should be requesting NON-STOP rolling daily visits to these facilities. Whatever the "tour" mode is should become permanent.

11.01.2026 04:26 β€” πŸ‘ 154    πŸ” 51    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
2025 Word of the Year Is β€œSlop” New Orleans Marriott–Jan. 9β€”The American Dialect Society, in its 36th annual words-of-the-year vote, selected slop as the Word of the Year for 2025. More than three hundred attendees took part in the…

The 2025 Word of the Year is "slop," both as a noun for low-quality AI-generated content and as a combining form for anything of little value. Read the full press release. #WOTY2025 #ADS2026 #LSA2026
americandialect.org/2025-word-of...

10.01.2026 08:18 β€” πŸ‘ 65    πŸ” 48    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 5

So sad to learn of John Langdon's death. His words-as-art were always a delight.

08.01.2026 21:10 β€” πŸ‘ 15    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Post image

Make it viral.

08.01.2026 03:22 β€” πŸ‘ 47658    πŸ” 21394    πŸ’¬ 360    πŸ“Œ 528

Knowing that you are stable enough handle an emergency - the luxury that shouldn't be a luxury. I hope that, in 2026, that will become reality for many more people in the world.

01.01.2026 02:10 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Tools for successful documentation projects At Open Source Summit Japan 2025, Erin McKean talked about the challenges to producing good pro [...]

There's a very nice writeup of my talk at OSS Tokyo in LWN! lwn.net/SubscriberLi... (gift link) Thanks again to the wonderful @kissane.myatproto.social and @ddbeck.com who created the Docs Advisor and Docs Archetypes (github.com/google/opendocs)!

22.12.2025 19:19 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 1

Now would be a great time for a 10 episode, 20 hour prestige series about the ten years between 1916 and 1926, covering the establishment of the 8-hr work day & 5-day work week, in the US. Each episode would be one year & the middle episode should be entirely devoted to the Battle of Blair Mountain.

21.12.2025 04:44 β€” πŸ‘ 972    πŸ” 272    πŸ’¬ 19    πŸ“Œ 12
A well-loved paperback copy of The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper against a plaid background, very festive yet foreboding

A well-loved paperback copy of The Dark Is Rising by Susan Cooper against a plaid background, very festive yet foreboding

it’s today! planning to start my re-read at dusk for the full effect

20.12.2024 15:30 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 4    πŸ“Œ 0
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Merriam-Webster Accused Of Bias After β€˜Dictionary’ Named Word Of The Year SPRINGFIELD, MAβ€”Facing intense backlash and scrutiny from critics who say the reference book publisher had failed to take all words into consideration, Merriam-Webster was accused of bias Monday after...

Merriam-Webster Accused Of Bias After β€˜Dictionary’ Named Word Of The Year

15.12.2025 17:00 β€” πŸ‘ 1695    πŸ” 158    πŸ’¬ 7    πŸ“Œ 9
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Word Origins ... and How We Know Them: Etymology for Everyone Etymology for Everyone

How about bookshop.org/p/books/word...

15.12.2025 09:47 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
Em Dash Appreciation Society

Announcing the Em Dash Appreciation Society (for Humans).

em-dash-appreciation.org

11.12.2025 19:49 β€” πŸ‘ 10    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 3    πŸ“Œ 0

It's the 11th of the month, and the last month of the year, so this is the "words I recorded in 2025" installment! buttondown.com/thingslearne...

11.12.2025 13:50 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Samuel Johnson: β€œI do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.”

07.12.2025 03:23 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

For your enjoyment: a zine combining letterpress blocks and measurement facts: zinebakery.com/assets/homem... via @dhnow.bsky.social

04.12.2025 16:26 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

happy International Pie for Breakfast Day to all who celebrate

28.11.2025 18:37 β€” πŸ‘ 20    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0