That would be Atrios whose birthday it is today. Happy Birthday!
Atrios is famous for his wonderfully succinct posts which nevertheless contain the universe. He is also famous for his desire to have a pony and for his immense ability to name new political phenomena.
Take, for instance, the immortal phrase "preznit give me turkee." Atrios himself once stated:
If 'preznit giv me turkee' is only thing i have contributed to civilization i will still die happy
But that is not all he has contributed to civilization. Never mind "wanker of the day", there's much more:
The Friedman Unit:
The Friedman Unit (F.U.), is a tongue-in-cheek neologism coined by blogger Atrios (Duncan Black) on May 21, 2006.[1]
A Friedman Unit is equal to six months in the future.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] The Huffington Post cited it as the "Best New Phrase" of 2006.[9]
The Big Shitpile: Atrios' term for the consequences of the still-present financial crisis where sub-prime loans were ground up with OK securities and derivatives and made into that sausage nobody wants to eat. Or the big shitpile.
Very Serious People:
I use the phrase “Very Serious People” a lot; it seems to me to capture the way respectable opinion keeps demanding utterly foolish policies. But where did I get the phrase?Heh, indeedy.
Well, it’s not original; I’m sure I stole it from someone. But when I look the phrase up on the web, it gets attributed to … me.
So where did I get it from? If anyone knows, please weigh in.
Update: So it appears to be Atrios. Actually, Duncan Black is a great coiner of phrases, all of which I like. Unfortunately, VSP seems to be the only one I can use in the Times.