Our Book!
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…
Some Categories of Apology…
More on the science of apology
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)
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!
Image Credits: rainbow photo by Marjorie Ingall
Apologies of a Jeopardy Jerk
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
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
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
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!
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?
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...
Why did I say that? I’m going to be court-martialed, aren’t I?
“Working with you has been quite an education for me. ..."
Condolences, bro, but at least you don’t have my money problems
Marx’s next letter is not great, either. He does say it was “very wrong” of him to have written as he did, but then he’s on to excuses, complaints about Jenny’s unfairness to him, the state of his marriage, and guilt-tripping. He was FORCED TO BE CYNICAL! But DON’T WORRY ABOUT ME! I will just declare bankruptcy and send my children out as servants! No prob! It’ll be fine!
It was wrong to try to steal his secret sauce
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?
Rotten leadership
When Winter Storm Uri hit Texas, bringing icy horror, electrical blackouts, failing water supplies, and dangerous roads, Mayor Tim Boyd did not sit on his hands and remain silent. He took his pixels in his own two hands, rared up on his hind legs, got on Facebook, and attacked his constituents.