Had a TV show you didn't watch and wrote books you didn't read. Now I do humanitarian aid and have a podcast, like everyone else.
New York, NY
Joined May 2008
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This is great.
Things I've overheard American tourists say in Japan this month:
At a traditional inn in Kyoto:
"There are special slippers just for the bathroom. I wore the bathroom slippers into the dining room. The grandmother made a sound I will never forget."
On a Tokyo train at 8 a.m.:
"Nobody is talking. Nobody. I'm whispering, and I'm still the loudest thing in this city."
At a ramen shop:
"Wait. You're SUPPOSED to slurp? My mother spent eighteen years telling me not to. I'm calling her. I'm calling her right now."
In a department store food hall:
"That melon costs a hundred and fifty dollars. Who is this melon? What has it done?"
On a street in Osaka:
"There are no trash cans anywhere in this entire country, and it's the cleanest place I've ever been. I've been carrying this empty can since breakfast. We're close now."
On the bullet train:
"Babe. The seats turn around. The whole row just spun. I thought it was a ride. I clapped."
On the subway:
"That little girl is riding the subway by herself. She's maybe six. Her backpack is bigger than she is. She just gave me directions."
And then there's the one I didn't overhear. I just watched it.
At Kiyomizu Temple in Kyoto, there are always school groups. Japanese kids on field trips have a famous assignment: find a foreign tourist and interview them in English. They carry little notebooks with ten questions written out. Most of them are terrified.
A boy, maybe eleven, walked up to a huge American man in a Texas Rangers cap. He held up his notebook. His friends hung back behind him, giggling.
He opened his mouth.
Nothing came out.
His face went red. His friends laughed harder. He looked like he wanted the temple to swallow him.
The man didn't laugh.
He got down on one knee, right there on the stone steps, so his eyes were level with the boy's. And he said, very gently:
"Take your time, buddy. I got all day."
The boy read the first question. One word at a time.
"Where. Are. You. From?"
"Texas!" the man said, like it was the best question anyone had ever asked him.
He answered all ten. Slowly. Clearly. Favorite food: "Brisket. And now, ramen." Favorite thing about Japan: "Kids who are brave enough to do this."
Then he asked the boy one question back, in Japanese so bad I almost laughed out loud.
"Namae wa?" Your name?
The boy told him. The man repeated it twice until he got it right. Then he signed the notebook, shook the boy's hand like they had just closed a business deal, and said:
"You know what, man? I couldn't do this in Japanese. You're braver than me."
Then he turned around and yelled, "Y'all, get over here!" And his wife and their three kids lined up behind him on the temple steps, one by one, to be interviewed too.
That boy walked back to his class with five interviews. More than anybody.
His teacher bowed to the man. The man bowed back, too deep, and his cap fell off.
As the boys walked away, I heard the shy one whisper to his friend, in Japanese:
"Americans are so kind."
He said it like he'd just found out something about the world.
I've watched a thousand school trips at that temple.
I've never seen a kid walk down those steps standing that tall.
Brian Sack retweeted
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to:
Johns Hopkins Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center Fund
alzresearch.org/giving/
Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Caregiver Resources
alzfdn.org/donate/
Photo Credit: Tommy Garcia
Brian Sack retweeted
BREAKING: Sen @lisamurkowski just provided the Landmine with this powerful statement following the @nytimes scathing article on @MaryPeltola’s involvement in the Decoy Dan Sullivan scheme:
“While some may try to write this off as just how politics works now, ballot-stacking should have no place in our electoral process. Run and win on your merits: your views, your policy ideas, and your accomplishments. By contrast, recruiting candidates to manipulate the field and influence voting outcomes is simply wrong. Alaskans deserve the honest truth from Mary and her campaign—what has been revealed is a pattern of lies and coverups and a culture of deception that belongs nowhere in our elections or among our elected officials.”
Brian Sack retweeted
“I came to Cuba expecting to see suffering. What I did not anticipate was the near-total collapse of the state,” @robertfworth writes. He reports from the island on what daily life is like: theatlantic.com/magazine/202…
Brian Sack retweeted
"Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine. They haven't been doing much."
- President Trump
She lasted 0.45 Scaramuccis.
Breaking News: President Trump’s new press secretary, Katie Zacharia, was fired after less than a week on the job, according to people familiar with the matter. nyti.ms/4yuECpZ
Brian Sack retweeted
Abdul El-Sayed’s sister on the October 7th massacre:
“It was the most beautiful day of my life.”
If you're curious about education in the US, and why it turned to mushy poo, this Sold a Story podcast is fantastic. Digest season one before the next one comes out.
The new season of Sold a Story is coming tomorrow. I've seen speculation about it. I think there will be some surprises. I'm interested to know what you think.
First two episodes tomorrow. Then one a week on Thursdays until Nov 19. features.apmreports.org/sold…
Brian Sack retweeted
WATCH: A New Yorker filmed immigrants dumping trash into a Central Park pond in broad daylight, leaving the park’s water littered.
Brian Sack retweeted
The Ukrainian people are the victims of this war, not its perpetrators. That simple historical fact eludes some in this administration, so it must be restated again and again.
Putin’s Kremlin isn’t just Ukraine’s enemy. It’s America’s enemy.
Whatever it is that drives the Trump administration’s animosity toward Ukraine, that hostility represents a grotesque moral failing. It isn’t just strategically incomprehensible; it betrays America’s values and traditions. nationalreview.com/corner/th…
Brian Sack retweeted
Keith Malink Update:
Continued Prayers for a Miracle Needed...
Below is a message from Keith's wife Kari about all the prayers and gifts of money that have been sent...
That is absolutely amazing… I am so incredibly overwhelmed by the love and prayer that is pouring out. I have told Keith and his mom has read so many of the kind words people are writing.
I appreciate the support so much… right now we need prayer prayer prayer. I do relay the messages of your love and support to Keith. I know he hears me, so I know he hears how much he is loved. Thank you ❤️❤️❤️
Brian Sack retweeted
I sat my 7-year-old down and explained to him that dying industries (legacy media, academia, DNC politics) ride algorithmically driven cultural hysterias both because it’s the only way they can stay relevant and because their business models demand it.
He looked up at me and with a tear in his eyes asked, ‘so, for the sake of the journos, the assistant professors, and Dem Politics Inc, we’re obligated to attest to the moral urgency of the hysteria and act completely emotionally dysregulated?’
‘Yes,’ I answered him. ‘Yes, that’s right.’
And then we both sat quietly.
Brian Sack retweeted
DO NOT STOP TALKING ABOUT IRAN.
A compilation of the Islamist regime in Iran mass-murdering and gunning down the Iranian people in the streets of Iran during the January Uprising has gone viral.
It was crimes against humanity.
Make sure you share it with the world.
"It ought not to be a surprise that Nikole Hannah-Jones believed that her daughter was getting A’s despite doing no homework, given that getting A’s despite doing no homework is exactly how Nikole Hannah-Jones’s own career has played out thus far."
SO GOOD
nationalreview.com/2026/09/w…
Brian Sack retweeted
one free piece of comms advice is to never, ever make an ad with the words "STANDS WITH CHILD PREDATORS" next to your face
