What in the word?

My instinctive reaction to the broad, undifferentiated cuts to federal departments and programs was skepticism and distress. Would the cuts affect the cleanliness of our air and water, the safety…

When Elon Musk took over Twitter, he reinstated accounts of people who frequently had plied misinformation on the site, and he seemed unconcerned about the platform’s takeover by people with…

“You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is satire. All you’re doing is recording it.” — Art Buchwald Before Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Trevor Noah, there was…

When I think about the issues raised (or ignored) during the just-past election season, so many of them are unhelpfully complex — e.g., vaccines and how to fight the spread…

As flood waters swirled around people’s homes and yards along with spiraling rumors and disinformation about emergency rescue services, I became fed up — fed up with the lies that…

This week, visitors to Planet Word will confront an unusual sight in the Library: books wrapped in paper, their covers obscured, the word “BANNED” stamped across them. Banned Books Week…