Peter D. Kramer
@peterdkramer.bsky.social
1.2K followers 670 following 310 posts
Author, most recently, of Death of the Great Man, a novel. Also new: 30th anniversary edition of Listening to Prozac. peterdkramer.com
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peterdkramer.bsky.social
Given what else made the cut today, BANALIZING (missing pangram) would have fit fine.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/b...
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Apeneck Sweeney spread his knees
Letting his arms hang down to laugh,
The zebra stripes along his jaw
Swelling to MACULATE giraffe.

TS Eliot, Sweeny among the Nightingales

[missing pangram]
peterdkramer.bsky.social
While I'm at it: If MICROCRACK was low frequency, how about ANABIOTIC?
peterdkramer.bsky.social
I've been alerted that I'm on a list with Sigmund Freud, B.F. Skinner, Theodor Adorno, Michel Foucault, & Oliver Sacks. Not gonna happen often, so I intend to enjoy. bit.ly/486Zo5l
12 Greatest and Most Controversial Psychology Books Ever Written
12 Greatest and Most Controversial Psychology Books Ever Written
www.timesnownews.com
peterdkramer.bsky.social
How should I feel about Amy Coney Barrett's (and my publisher's—Penguin Random House) adopting a "Listening to" title for her current book?

bookshop.org/p/books/unti...
Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution
Reflections on the Court and Constitution
bookshop.org
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Yesterday's formerly accepted word: TELETYPED.

@merriam-webster.com does not accept TELETYPE as a verb, but the OED finds many examples from 1904 to 2007.

& why isn't the OED here on BlueSky?
peterdkramer.bsky.social
was in, is out: past tense of an accepted entry
peterdkramer.bsky.social
I'm thinking of Cato the Elder's policy of ending every speech with the demand that Carthage must be destroyed: that kind of consistency.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carthag...
Carthago delenda est - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
peterdkramer.bsky.social
I think that this sort of reminder should appear as a drumbeat—an element in all reporting on Trump's various transgressions. Every article should include that reminder: This act also serves to undercut democracy, concentrate power, and move us toward tyranny.
peterdkramer.bsky.social
At last. Today ‪@nytimes.com‬ has an essay describing Trump's routine acts as coming from an authoritarian playbook. That's what's often missing from reporting & opinion both: Reminders that a behavior under discussion not only ruptures norms but also serves in a campaign to undercut democracy.
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Glory days. Here's the cover, with an image taken from the office television. I was a college intern, but I had three pieces in the issue & got written up in the house organ, N/W. In the photo, I was more or less in uniform, wearing a seersucker suit with a thin bow tie.
peterdkramer.bsky.social
In 1969, when the Waldorf-Astoria had lost much of its glory, it rented rooms to Newsweek for staff who had to work late into the night. I was put up there when writing on the moonshot for the July 28 issue when "Newsweek beat Time" to the newsstand.

www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
A Peacock’s-Eye View of the Waldorf Remade
Waldorf Astoria New York, one of the city’s grandest hotels, closed for renovations in 2017. After almost eight years and billions of dollars, it returns, reborn for the 21st century.
www.nytimes.com
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Not sure why the whole Web isn't saying this. Trump's Brazil tariff is illegal.
Presidents can impose tariffs only for limited economic reasons. Interfering with a prosecution abroad is not a permitted rationale.
The issue is both legislative & constitutional. Only Congress can levy taxes.
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Funny, I just wished for a linguist to go to work on "biblical grounds" for divorce. A copy editor will do nicely.

bsky.app/profile/pete...
peterdkramer.bsky.social
Sad to learn of the death of Anna Ornstein, a yet more influential figure in psychiatry than this obituary suggests—and a sterling person.
Oddly, I just quoted her in a talk I gave in Germany last week.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/04/h...
Anna Ornstein, Psychoanalyst Who Survived the Holocaust, Dies at 98
www.nytimes.com
peterdkramer.bsky.social
SSA BS.

Is this politicization a first? Just got an email from the Social Security Administration patting the President on the back for the budget-busting bill

Irony (one of many) is that the bill changes the taxation of benefits in a way that threatens to deplete the fund a year early.
peterdkramer.bsky.social
The missing pangrams were HABITABLY & HABILITY.

Deciding what to include must often be tough, but this choice creates a problem. Won't someone who sees HABITABLY rejected assume that HABITABILITY is out as well?

HABILITY is more marginal.

www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/h...