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Sorry, Sorry, Sorry: The Case for Good Apologies (the hardcover), aka Getting to Sorry (the paperback) is a synthesis of everything we’ve learned from working on this site for the last decade. Read more about it here!
The Latest in Apologies…

A person of interest, who can find? Actually, we’re not interested. Nothing to see here. Sorry!
by sumac | March 19, 2025 | Police Apologies, Political Apologies | 0 Comments
What happened? Why did the NYPD leave the picture up for so long? Why did it take them 5 months to admit Lee wasn’t really a suspect?

Semi-apology from a ghost-whisperer
by snarly | October 31, 2024 | Historical Apologies | 1 Comment

I did it for the animals and it got out of hand
by sumac | October 9, 2024 | Personal Apologies, True Crime Apologies | 0 Comments
Most people didn’t fall for the ridiculous story, and many wanted to support the family and their business.

SorryWatch Reads: I’m Sorry You Got Mad
by snarly | October 2, 2024 | Artistic apologies | 1 Comment

Mexican Olympians, we celebrate you … with RACISM!
by snarly | August 2, 2024 | Academic apologies | 1 Comment

Why did I say that? I’m going to be court-martialed, aren’t I?
by sumac | June 25, 2024 | Historical Apologies | 0 Comments
“Working with you has been quite an education for me. …”
Some Categories of Apology…

More on the science of apology
- Apr 15, 2016
- 7 comments
Time to look at a new "how to apologize" study! The paper, called "An Exploration of the Structure of Effective Apologies," will be published in the May 2016 issue of Negotiation and Conflict Management Research...

making kids apologize (cuppa comme ci comme ca)
- Jun 16, 2014
- 4 comments
Lots of viral buzz about a post, on a blog called cuppacocoa, from a teacher named JoEllen, about how she makes her class apologize. Some of her ideas work for me; some emphatically don't...

Six times celebrities and public figures apologized terribly in 2023!
- Dec 29, 2023
- 0 comments
Image Credits: rainbow photo by Marjorie Ingall

Apologies of a Jeopardy Jerk
- Aug 20, 2021
- 3 comments
To quote Weird Al:
Don't know what I was thinkin' of/
I guess I just wasn't too bright/
Well, I sure hope I do better/
Next weekend on The Price Is Righ-ight-ight

So many afternoons spoiled
- Jun 22, 2021
- 5 comments
Will Rogers was the first comedian to play Carnegie Hall. Widely beloved, quoted, nominated for president. We know some votes he wouldn't have gotten.

Thanks for the ping, Kim Kardashian
- Jan 15, 2024
- 0 comments
At a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee, the bank’s CEO Jane Fraser said Citi is “deeply sorry” and repeated that it was a “small number of employees” who did the forbidden things. (How many covered it up? Surely a tiny eensy-beensy number, so minute as to be undetectable.)

A horrid apology from Lufthansa, right out of the gate
- May 11, 2022
- 3 comments
It's a lot like United's dragging incident, but with less blood and more antisemitism.

Apologies in the desert with no pants on, revisited!
- Sep 7, 2019
- 3 comments
In 2013, Sumac visited Camp Playapology at Burning Man. Her account of the visit remains one of our most popular posts. In 2019, Snarly went to Burning Man for the first time. Her spouse, Dr. Cheezie, was attending his 22nd Burn. (It’s a mixed marriage.) Of course she had to visit Camp Playapology.

Not new, but new to us. And funny. We need funny right now, no?
- May 7, 2018
- 1 comments
It's Amber Ruffin on Late Night with Seth Meyers, apologizing like a sexual harasser! To be fair, of course, we don't know for sure that Seth didn't ask Amber Ruffin to punch him in the face. And also to be fair, we haven't heard from the many, many men Amber Ruffin did not punch in the face. Plus it is a known fact that my cat is male and Amber Ruffin did not punch him in the face...

Semi-apology from a ghost-whisperer
- Oct 31, 2024
- 1 comments
Image Credits: Missouri Historical Society, 1852, no known copyright, Library of Congress

Why did I say that? I’m going to be court-martialed, aren’t I?
- Jun 25, 2024
- 0 comments
“Working with you has been quite an education for me. ..."

Whereas That Was Sad
- Jul 28, 2023
- 0 comments
Hope you can turn the page! We’ve moved on, and so should you.

A person of interest, who can find? Actually, we’re not interested. Nothing to see here. Sorry!
- Mar 19, 2025
- 0 comments
What happened? Why did the NYPD leave the picture up for so long? Why did it take them 5 months to admit Lee wasn’t really a suspect?

It was wrong to try to steal his secret sauce
- Sep 12, 2023
- 0 comments
It’s bad enough they amputated the wrong finger, but how do they plan to make sure they don’t keep on lopping off people’s fingers randomly?
Some More Categories of Apology
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