December linkstack
AI writing, AI resistance, the F-word, and more.
Happy Boxing Day, and welcome to the last linkstack of the year! I’m grateful to all of you for reading and commenting on my posts; extra-special thanks to Jason Kottke and Kim France for pointing their respective readers to my Words of the Year for 2025 post. And thanks to Jonathon GREEN, Virginia Heffernan, Benjamin Dreyer, Rusty Blazenhoff, Heddwen Newton, Caitlin Barrett, Lingthusiasm, Jay Heinrichs, and Pia Hinckle for recommending this newsletter all year long. Read their newsletters!
This newsletter is (still) free, but if you’re feeling generous you can . . .
This month’s highlights: AI writing, AI resistance, the Utah Olympics logo, and more. And here’s last month’s linkstack.
AI on everything
“Once, there were many writers, and many different styles. Now, increasingly, one uncredited author turns out essentially everything.” Sam Kriss, author of an excellent newsletter (Numb at the Lodge), on ubiquitous AI writing. (New York Times Magazine gift link).
AI? Not!
In addition to being a name developer and newsletter author, Maggie Balistreri has created a fabulous line of “AI’NT” merch — notebooks, cups, stickers — to show the world that you ain’t an AI fan. Check out her online store!
AI dependence
Lila Shroff on the rise of “LLeMmings”: people who outsource their lives to large language models (LLMs). “It’s like a real addiction,” says one such person. (The Atlantic gift link; via Mignon Fogarty’s AI Sidequest.)
“Milkomeda”
Why astronomers shouldn’t be allowed to name things. (Ken Grace, Lingwistics)
F as in film
“Even as the F-word has proliferated on smaller screens, a rule from the 1980s that limits its use in PG-13 movies has endured, influencing the way some filmmakers write, shoot and edit.” (Julia Jacobs, New York Times gift link)
U as in unusual
“The letterforms are monospaced and laid out on a grid. Inspired by the urban grids that Mormon pioneers laid out in cities across Utah and the American West in the 1800s, it gives the otherwise unusual logo a sense of balance.” (Hunter Schwarz doesn’t care what others say: he loves the Utah 2034 Olympics logo.)
Hand job
Tim Brookes wrote his new book, By Hand, entirely — yes — by hand. For her podcast, The Allusionist, Helen Zaltzman interviewed Brookes about the pleasures and frustrations of handwriting in an era of screens. (“Scribe”)
All the rage
“Rage bait is a brilliant word of the year.” Amogh Dimri on why Oxford’s WotY is such a good choice: “It exposes the baseness of some human impulses and the dysfunctional state of contemporary politics.” (The Atlantic gift link)
Hated it!
The most scathing book reviews of 2025. (Lithub) Steve Donoghue on the worst fiction and nonfiction of the year. (The Leadership Genius of Elon Musk? Ha!)
Loved it!
Andy Wolverton picks his favorite nonfiction discoveries of 2025, many but not all published this year. (Journeys in Darkness and Light). Steve Donoghue on his favorite fiction (“not a particularly good year”) and nonfiction of 2025.
Read about some of my own cultural picks here:
Culture diet #3
A year-end culture-palooza! You may want to switch from email to the Substack app or your browser to get the full experience.Thanks for reading Fritinancy! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.
Another Boxing Day tango, eh? Thanks especially for pointing me toward Steve Donoghue. He makes me realize that my own writing is really not that abusive.
Thanks a zillion for putting me on to Virginia Heffernan! Her conversation with Cy Canterel clarified so much for me. The guy with the biggest pile of oysters! Yes!