Alternate taglines archive
Occasionally, we change up the site tagline as an Easter Egg for our readers. Usually, it’s a reference to something going on at the time. Sometimes, it’s just because we think it’s funny. It makes sense in our heads, at least.
Here are all of our special taglines with an explanation of the reference.
If you have a suggestion for a new one, let us know in the form at the bottom!
| Special Edition Taglines | ||
|---|---|---|
| Dates | Text | Explanation |
| 8 April 2019-? | American democracy: if it is broke...do fix it. |
Discussions of structural changes like abolishing the Electoral College have started to gain some currency among more mainstream Democrats - like those running for president in 2020. |
| 30 January-8 April 2019 | Data, data everywherenor any moment to think. |
We exist in a time of unprecedented access to information about vast quantities of things. It's more important now than ever that, in order to separate signal from noise, we take the time to think about the questions we're asking. |
| 18 December 2018-30 January 2019 | Gentlenerds, start your spreadsheetsDivided government + 17 separate federal investigations into the President + 2020 election season = buckle up. |
With a pending government shutdown and the Mueller investigation starting to produce sentencing.... |
| 14-26 June 2018 | A tale told by an idiot, full of fire and fury...signifying nothing. |
Macbeth, that prescient bastard, musing on the dueling interpretations of the Singapore Summit. |
| 15 March 2018-2 April 2018 | The robots are out for revenge.because Obama took their March madness pool money last year. |
Our models did well last year. Obama still beat them. |
| 28 December 2017-1 January 2018 | 2017: Year of the mendacious hyperbole.In the history of the printed word, with the exception of Billy Shakespeare, nobody has had more readers than us in 2017. |
This tagline kind of speaks for itself, regrettably. |
| 13-26 November 2017 | In Soviet America...Facebook uses YOU! |
El Presdiente is going to take Vladimir Putin's word that Russia absolutely did not engage in a long-term Facebook campaign to divide the American electorate and install Trump in power. Nope. He said so, and everyone knows he's an honest guy. |
| 20-29 October 2017 | John Kelly knew what he signed up forAdult. Daycare. |
John Kelly issued a fervent defense of the President's tactful and respectful decision to console the widow of a fallen soldier by assuring her that "he knew what he signed up for." |
| 16-19 October 2017 | Dreaming of C-beams glittering in the darkHopefully, we don't end up in Man in the High Castle |
Blade Runner 2049 was released last week, and we're holding mandatory viewings of the original. On loop. |
| 16-26 September 2017 | What Would Indiana Jones Do?"Nazis. I hate these guys." |
A general statement of principles. Also, a reminder that the middle is not by default the wisest position on a political spectrum. A moderate is someone who generally benefits from the status quo. |
| 14-20 July 2017 | Possession of Congress is 99.44% of the lawEspecially when the subject is "Congressional procedure." |
Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is grumpy that the Congressional Budget Office is making frowny-faced assessments of his proposed healthcare bill. So he wants to have someone else do it next time. Of course, the 0.66% of the law won. |
| 16-24 May 2017 | Write with beer; edit with coffee.Beware typos in the harsh light of day. |
Other than being good advice in general, this is a bit of advice for our dear Tweeter in Chief, a man who never edited a tweet in his life. |
| 14-20 March 2017 | We are in the job of having evidence...but we're keeping our distance from the microwave, just in case. |
Senior Presidential Adviser and notorious propagator of alternative facts Kellyanne Conway finally admits that facts are for nerds. She warned us to be afraid of our microwaves being used as surveillance devices, but then refused to support her own claim in an interview with CNN's Chris Cuomo because she's not in the job of having evidence. Also, she's not Inspector Gadget. |
| 4-10 March 2017 | Tweeting at windmillsdel poco dormir y del mucho tuitear, al Donald le secó el cerebro, de manera que vino a perder el juicio. |
The mouseover is paraphrasing Part 1, Chapter 1 of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, the original of which is translated as "from little sleeping and much reading, his brain dried up, in a manner that he came to lose the ability to reason." "Tilting at windmills" is an English idiom referencing the famous sequence in Don Quixote, Part 1, Chapter 8. This was posted the day that Trump started twittering out conspiracy theories of being wiretapped by his predecessor, Barack Obama. |
| 17-25 January 2017 | Did He who made the lamb make thee?Tyger tyger burning bright |
William Blake's "The Tyger" questioned the idea of a benevolent god that could create a large orange predator. Not coincidentally at all, we felt this was appropriate to capture our skepticism towards the universe during Trump's inauguration. |
| 2-6 January 2017 | Or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb | Trump kicked off the new year by thumbing his nose at North Korea's nuclear program and advocating that America expand its nuclear arsenal. The quote references Stanley Kubrick's classic Dr. Strangelove, which, if you haven't seen enough to memorize all the lines, should go out and watch right now. |
Got an idea for a tagline? Let us know!