SorryWatch

#166 - Friendship Repair: How to Say I'm Sorry, Accept Apologies, and Ask for One Marjorie Ingall joins Dear Nina this week to discuss how to apologize to a friend and how to accept an apology.

I got to interview the wise and wonderful @marjorieingall.bsky.social who knows everything there is to know about saying “I’m sorry,” accepting apologies, and soliciting one when necessary. This was such a good (and useful!) conversation.

ninabadzin.com/2025/09/29/1...

Loved talking to you, Nina! Thank you so much.

Photo of an orange street sign that reads "Titi's Empanadas, Coffee & More!", with a cute cartoon of a woman with her hair tied back with a kerchief, holding a plate of stylized orange and yellow empanadas. A small blue Post-It can be seen on the sign.

Photo of a close-up of the Post-It on the Titi's Empanadas sign. It reads, in childlike handwriting, "So sorry It was a dick move ..."

Via @evgrieve.bsky.social; a group of fratty fellows were caught on video stealing an East Village empanada shop's sign. The shop shamed them on Insta & asked for help ID'ing them. The next night, a person in a hoodie, sunglasses & ski mask returned the sign...with an apology Post-It.

The Flannery O'Connor Apology Response

this is...not how you apologize for lying

I do not know who else needs to hear this @sorrywatch.bsky.social @aoc.bsky.social @chrisccuomo.bsky.social , but “Thank you for correcting me” is not an Apology.

Very sincere, very heartfelt

Pat McAfee issues on-air apology to Mary Kate Cornett Months after publicly joking about Ole Miss student Mary Kate Cornett and a since-disproven alleged affair, Pat McAfee apologized on-air.

Time to add "as a girl dad" to a Bad Apology Bingo card! (We already had "behind the scenes," "this has caused," "going forward," "learn from," "source of negativity" and "what was said on the Internet" as bingo squares.) awfulannouncing.com/espn/pat-mca...

Photo of Byron and employee canoodling at Coldplay concert juxtaposed with Byron’s apology: “What was supposed to be a night of music and joy turned into a deeply personal mistake playing out on a very public stage. I want to sincerely apologize to my wife, my family, and the team at Astronomer. You deserve better from me as a partner, as a father, and as a leader. “This is not who I want to be or how I want to represent the company I helped build. I'm taking time to reflect, to take accountability, and to figure out the next steps, personally and professionally. I ask for privacy as I navigate that process. “I also want to express how troubling it is that what should have been a private moment became public without my consent. I respect artists and entertainers, but I hope we can all think more deeply about the impact of turning someone else's life into a spectacle.fi “As a friend once sang: 'Lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you.’"

Blaming Coldplay in your apology is certainly a choice.

Unjustly jailed grad student Mahmoud Khalil is suing the Trump administration for $20M, but "would accept, in lieu of payment, an official apology and abandonment of the administration’s unconstitutional policy." abcnews.go.com/US/mahmoud-k...

We do not like them at all, Deborah. They are very sour. sorrywatch.com/i-value-my-i...

I value my idiot constituents | SorryWatch A bad apology can make things worse. This was one of those cases.

"We are all going to die" unpacked. What a foul 'apology'!

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Democrats Don't Need To Apologize. They Need To Attack. As I'm writing this, CNN commentator Van Jones and CNN host Jake Tapper are nodding sagely to each other, calling on Democrats to apologize for a "crime against the Republic." As charter members of th...

Thoughts on NOT apologizing.

A person of interest, who can find? Actually, we’re not interested. Nothing to see here. Sorry! | SorryWatch What happened? Why did the NYPD leave the picture up for so long? Why did it take them 5 months to admit Lee wasn’t really a suspect?

Police apologies are rare, so we had hopes for this one. But, um, questions remain...
sorrywatch.com/a-person-of-...

Sorry we're just seeing this now! I wonder if Becky could set aside the whole left-handed compliment thing (she's not wrong), and ask her boss to praise her discovery in another meeting.

Pro tip: When you've been accused of racism after posting racist things about George Floyd and Muslims, maybe don't say "I don't even kill spiders" as evidence of your lack of racism

January 22 post from 45, made on another platform (with untruthful statements, incorrect capitalization and grammatical errors preserved): "The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Tr*mp hater. She brought her church into the World of politics in a very ungracious way. She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart. She failed to mention the large number of illegal migrants that came into our Country and killed people. Many were deposited from jails and mental institutions. It is a giant crime wave that is taking place in the USA. Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!

Apology experts here <checking research>: No apology owed.

I WOULD BUY ALL THE BOOKS FROM BOOKER T (note to self: must visit minneapolis)

Photo of Tom Brady from GQ Sports's Instagram stories, with a quote ostensibly from Brady: "My friend asked me if I read any books. I don't know if I could read a book! I don't know if my attention span would allow me."

Honestly, Tom Brady is the one who should apologize, if he really said what's on this screenshot from GQ Sports, sent to us by a reader. BE A ROLE MODEL, TOM. READ A BOOK. Audiobooks count! Graphic novels count! Short books count! You have children, sir! Model the behavior! /end

Sanchez could have made clear he understood why people were angry: It LOOKED like he didn't care about the game; he seemed to feel he could kick back and picnic because the Jets were way ahead. (It's not over til it's over!) But this is small potatoes. (Fried potatoes. Go well with hot dogs.) 7/

A pretty good apology. Uses the word "apologize" (rather than the pallid "regret"), names the thing he did (rather than "the incident"), offers explanation (queasy!) but not excuses, pledges not to repeat the offense. How could he have done better? 6/

"...but someone offered [the hot dog], so I grabbed it and tried to be discreet about it, but obviously not discreet enough. So I shouldn’t have done that, and it won’t happen again.” 5/

“I want to apologize for that,” Sanchez told the NYPost. “I wasn’t feeling very good & didn’t eat much before the game, so I was feeling a little queasy. Toward the end of the game, I probably should have eaten one of those bars or something..." 4/

Screenshot from 2009 game depicting Sanchez hunched over on the bench, subtly stuffing a tasty hot dog into his piehole.

In 2009, during a Jets rout of the Raiders (38-0), Sanchez noshed on that dog. People felt it was disrespectful to the game, that it was the kind of thing you do AFTER work, not during. 3/

Yesterday former QB Tom Brady said during his commentating on the Packers/Eagles game, "I've never seen a guy reading a book. But I've seen a quarterback eating a hot dog." This sent the half of SorryWatch that is a Packers fan (sob) to the Internet! 2/

Image by the incredible award-winning children's book illustrator Duncan Tonatiuh, depicting Mark Sanchez (rendered in Tonatiuh's distinctive style, influenced by historic Mexican codex art) in a Jets uniform with a football in one hand and a yummy hot dog in the other.

Today we learned that former Jets QB Mark Sanchez apologized for eating a hot dog on the sidelines during a 2009 game. And it was a good apology! 1/

Banished Words | Lake Superior State University 2025 The wordsmiths at Lake Superior State University have released LSSU's newest annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

Banish "Sorry not sorry" b/c it's a cliche, but not b/c it's "a half-hearted apology masquerading as bold honesty" or "disingenuous." We think most speakers & listeners actually understand it, in real-world use, to mean "I'm not sorry at all."

The most bizarre celebrity apologies of 2024 Larry David, Bowen Yang, Madonna and others atoned for embarrassing gaffes.

Every December there's a raft of worst-celebrity-apology stories, so they must generate clicks ... but doesn't this one seem half-hearted? (Don't most of them?) wapo.st/3DzkMmu

YouTube video by BigR MASSIVE NFL BRAWL after DIRTY HIT on Trevor Lawrence During Texans vs Jaguars game..

Al-Shaair's saying "it all happens in the blink of an eye" is fair. But he could've acknowledged, as this commentator does: "It's a dirty-ass hit...when a quarterback is sliding, that's a cheap shot." www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TzT...

Texans safety Azeez Al-Shaair apologizes for hit on Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence "I would never want to see any player hurt because of a hit I put on them," he wrote on X.

Thanks to those who sent us this godawful apology. It uses passive voice, doesn't name the offense, takes no responsibility ... plus those quotation marks around "deemed 'late' or 'unnecessary'"? Chef's kiss. www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcn...