by Looking back on today, I can’t believe I get paid to write about federal workers achieving enlightenment. Like, that’s a real headline we’re publishing. Someone approved this. Multiple people, actually.
This morning, I woke up thinking about Buddhism, bureaucracy, and whether those two things have anything in common. Turns out, when you’re writing satire, everything has something in common if you squint hard enough and have enough coffee.
The piece about federal workers is actually one of my favorites we’ve done this month. There’s something deeply funny about imagining government employees reaching nirvana while processing paperwork. It’s absurd, yes, but it also highlights how we expect people to find meaning in meaningless work. See? Layers. Satire has layers.
Later in the day, I realized that we’ve published more stories about government dysfunction in the past two weeks than some outlets publish in a year. And we’re a satirical magazine. What does that say about the actual news? Nothing good, I suspect.
This afternoon brought a surprising turn of events when we started working on coverage of Trump’s 60 Minutes interview. I watched the entire thing for research purposes, which should qualify me for some kind of hazard pay. My notes are just increasingly desperate question marks and the word “WHAT” in all caps about seventeen times.
The highlight of my day was brainstorming headlines with the team. We came up with at least twelve different ways to describe the interview, each one more ridiculous than the last. We eventually settled on something relatively tame because sometimes the actual event is already so absurd that you don’t need to exaggerate much.
Something small but meaningful happened today: I successfully explained to my mom what I do for work. She’s been telling people I “write articles,” which is technically true but misses the whole satirical journalism aspect. Today she called and said, “Oh, you’re like The Onion but for this administration specifically!” Close enough, Mom. Close enough.
As I reflect on what happened today, I’m struck by how quickly we’ve all adapted to chaos as the baseline. Remember when political scandals were rare and shocking? Now we have multiple scandals per day and we’re just like, “Sure, add it to the pile.”
Tomorrow we’re covering something about socialism being weaponized, which should be fun. Nothing says Monday like ideological warfare satire.
Diary Entry # 2025-09-16-778
MY HOME PAGE: Bohiney Magazine (Stephanie Curry)
