New-To-Me Phrases, September 14, 2025
Propaganbots * Drab-breasted bamboo tyrant * Japandi style * Documentary theatre * Deep casual hosting * Uncle Robot * Room 8
The Phrases, With Context
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Man, what a week to be an American. Every week feels like that but this one was particularly extra. Our elected leaders fear MAGA and love their own power more than they love our kids. The only things I’ll say about Charlie Kirk are that nobody deserves to be shot and killed for stating their beliefs and I sincerely hope his kids get to grow up in a better society than the one their father worked to make happen. It is also increasingly clear how harmful our online media silos have become. We hold radicalization machines in the palms of our hands, a seductive antidote for loneliness and disenfranchisement, with apps run by people who do not give a shit about any of us.
I don’t know what to do about any of this except try to single-handedly solve it all inside my brain for about 22 hours each day. (The other two hours are spent thinking about birds or Andor.)
If you want a small action to take, author and history teacher Sharon McMahon has so far helped raise over $300K for Moms Demand Action via Instagram. You can also donate on your own if you’re off the socials or don’t want to give through Meta.
Pro tip: Get a Google Voice number and use it for all political donations. Then their spam texts can just go there, where you never check them and can mass delete them when Google threatens to delete your number for lack of use.
Okay, wow, what an intro. So somber. So salty. I promise, there are phrases! This week, we have a reader-coined phrase, an insulting bird name, a roving, presumably-friendly dad bot, and more.
Let’s get to it!
1. Propaganbots
This phrase was coined by my friend (and NTMP subscriber) Mel:
Propaganbots are what I’ve been calling the fake accounts hitting me up for $$$ on Tumblr and the fake Bluesky accounts with White Dude of a Certain Age avatars (but no posts).
A solid portmanteau to describe one of the many minor inconveniences that comprise the continual enshittification of online spaces, where trying to do any little goddamned thing prompts a user experience akin to swatting at swarms of gnats.
2. Drab-breasted bamboo tyrant
I can’t recall where I saw the name of this bird but it did make me wonder about what drugs avian taxonomists use. This bird is tiny and cute (see above); why’d they go and do them like that?
Can someone put me in charge of bird naming? I think Tiny Little Green Guy is much better suited to this fly-catching friend. eBird has a description and habitat range for the Tiny Little Green Guy, which lives in South America.
Fun fact: “Tyrant” is a name used for a group of birds called flycatchers. I looked into how “tyrant” was chosen and found a Tuscon.com post attributing it to an English naturalist named James Catesby, who traveled to the U.S. in the early 1700s. It doesn’t say why Catesby called the flycatcher a tyrant, but it caught on.
Carl Linnaeus, the father of taxonomy, adopted the tyrant name when he was classifying the group of birds to which the kingbird belongs with the family name Tyrannidae, because he admired Catesby’s work. Since then there are a number of birds in this group referred to as tyrants.
Catesby lived an interesting life, exploring the wilds of the U.S., Bermuda, and Jamaica in the early 1700s, documenting wildlife and plants in beautiful illustrations. He captured images of birds that are now extinct, like the Carolina Parakeet and the Passenger Pigeon. Like a proto-Substack content creator, Catesby solicited subscribers to fund a self-published volume called Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama Islands, which he made his life’s work. His art was beautiful and several original copies of this work still exist.
3. Japandi style
I’ve been looking for a blanket that is silky smooth on the outside and not too hot but not made from microplastics or whatever. During my (so far futile) search, I came across this phrase on some bougie home goods site.
Japandi is a portmanteau for Japanese and Scandanavian, and the home style incorporates elements from both cultures—”minimalist, earthy, and organic,”— according to my Instagram bio The Spruce. It essentially combines natural elements (wood and bamboo are prominent), open, airy design, and a “less is more” look.
I think I’m way too into color and chaos for this look and have more of an “art store explodey” situation going on at my place. Case in point—my shitty Wayfair cabinet:
4. Documentary theatre
We saw alt-country legend Steve Earle during his 50th anniversary tour earlier this year, where he told stories about the arc of his career. Here’s one of my favorite songs of his.
I was not aware that Earle lives in New York and writes primarily for a genre he called documentary theatre these days. This phase began when screenwriters Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen approached Earle to write the songs for their play, Coal Country, which tells the story of the Upper Big Branch Mine disaster that took the lives of 29 workers. Earle noted during his performance that it was the first non-union mine in West Virginia history, adding that this wasn’t a coincidence, because trade unions exist to protect workers. He’s a fiery ol’ progressive shit and I like that about him. #goals
The song “It’s About Blood” ends with Earle saying the names of the men who were killed. It was really moving to see it performed live, and while I’m not a musical theatre person, I’d go see this show.
On a minor personal note, I was thrilled to hear Earle credit DJ Lin Brehmer at WXRT for getting his alt-country career started by playing his songs for a major market like Chicago. My ex-radio-producer husband knew Lin, whose signature sign-off was, “It’s great to be alive.” He was a good guy. ‘XRT also introduced me to John Hiatt, an all-time alt-country fave of mine. I think it’s cool to trace the roots of where we discover things that travel with us through our lives, and how people with influence can completely change the arc of a career. I say this while recognizing that “people with influence” has historically meant “white men with money and power,” and thus is a flawed, often harmful hierarchy.
5. Deep casual hosting
This Substack post makes the argument for chill gatherings:
In this method of hosting, you are going casual on the surface, so you can go deeper with your connections and relationships by regularly gathering in a more relaxed setting.
They list eight tips for pulling this off, including “Don’t aim to ‘wow’” and “Embrace a ‘Minimum Viable Cleanliness’ Standard.”
Can we just call this hosting? Because this is exactly how I host.
Then again, I was raised lower-middle class where money was always tight and social media didn’t exist, I’m a neurospicy chaos muppet, and IDGAF about either propriety or perfection. But in case you needed a permission slip to host in ways that prioritize interaction over appearances, there are some good tips here.
6. Uncle Robot
I only saved this for the description, via Garbage Day:
“There’s a robot in China that’s dressed like Adam Sandler and runs like he shit himself and I love him.”
The internet seems to have dubbed him “Uncle Bot” if you want to do a deeper dive into this. Here’s a good example of the whole dad bot vibe (via X).
Also hard pass on robots just running around in the streets.
7. Room 8
Are feel-good animal stories on social media single-handedly holding us up right now, or am I projecting? Found at Depths of Wikipedia, this is such a cool story and I want more people to know about it.
Room 8 was a cat who adopted a classroom at Elysian Heights Elementary School in Echo Park, California in 1952. He climbed in through a classroom window one day, hung out, and just . . . kept visiting until 1968. Each summer Room 8 would peace out and live elsewhere, but on the first day of school, there he’d be, back in class.
You can see a photo of Room 8 and read more of his story written by a former student.
Here’s how you know this cat was real: “One former student said, "I never liked Room 8 because he sat on my homework."
Asshole Bird of the Month
It’s these guys.
Observe (sound on to get the full effect):
What an honor to dub not one, but four birds as ABTM! I’m referring to the two-year-old turkeys who roost in the trees above our house. These siblings are apparently sort of horny or something right now, so their obsession with shiny things like their own reflection in a car is making them go a bit bananas. Last week, one of the three hens jumped onto the roof of my husband’s car and scratched the shit out of it.
We still adore them. Well, my husband not so much, but of course they love HIM because all animals do.
Bonus Bits
A simple action step to protect our public lands: Leave a public comment telling the Trump administration to leave the “roadless rule” in place and not open public lands to development. For almost 25 years, the Clinton-era roadless rule has prevented building roads or logging in nearly 58 million acres of public lands. Part of the basis given for rescinding the rule is to thin forests to prevent wildfires—a seemingly good goal—but do we trust these fuckers, like at all? We can sustainably and responsibly thin the forests as a fire suppression tactic without opening them up to business interests.
Tasty spoonerisms: I really like they way that they slightly break my brain, as a little treat.
That’s it for this week! Remember to keep making it weird and stay furiously curious!