Patrick O'Neil

Update: @StubHub will refund ticket cost (per FanProtect agreement); they also offered tickets to another World Cup match. Here’s my wife’s response, which I think is worth reading. They say they’re considering her suggestion; I will update on how it goes.

Not my usual mode of being in the world or on this thing, but @StubHub *completely* fucked us on World Cup tickets. When the seller failed to transfer the tix, they actually promised us replacement tickets in our email and then reneged. Cool to travel to Atlanta and get nothing.

Here’s a piece I wrote for the @fayobserver about how the founders might think of America today: the first of four surrounding the 250th. Obviously there’s a more value in local journalism than my nattering, but you *can* subscribe for just a dollar. fayobserver.com/story/opinion/…

Historians of this era will eventually have to think really hard about America’s president believing both in what Putin told him about the Russian Army’s ability to overpower Ukrainian drones, and in his own military’s ability to overpower Iranian ones. nytimes.com/2026/05/04/opi…

@whosheba 😅 Like Nelson Rockefeller, got them moderating skills! Anyway, I’m glad to take all the credit. For it all. All of it.

@PaddyoNeilio Hey, don’t leave out how this was made possible through your utterly unrivaled, almost mythic moderating skills!

. @whosheba killing it at @methodistuniversity ‘s #ResearchandCreativitySymposium today

So proud of History Student Benjamin Santiago presenting at @methodistuniversity ‘s #ResearchandCreativitySymposium

Not everyone supported the fourteenth amendment. But the people who voted for it knew that it was meant to give birthright citizenship: they had discussed the consequences, including for then-unloved and unpopular people. Receipts: nytimes.com/2026/03/30/opi…

Over and over again: America without Lincoln’s idea of America isn’t America. This was what the Civil War was about. @jbouie laying it down. nytimes.com/2026/02/18/opi…

Useful perspective from my old college classmate Gabe Rosenberg on ultraprocessed food. This former cancer patient remembers being told that certain surgeries “just looked wrong.” Which is to say, sure! But it’s nice to be alive enough to say it. nytimes.com/2026/02/08/opi…

For context: the NBA bafflingly used a map of France that is well over 1000 years out of date

Happy Presidents’ Day! Here’s a marvelous piece by @kawulf that thinks through George Washington’s use of genealogy. Genealogy has always struck me as in some ways un-democratic, but it doesn’t have to be. In this case, it helped secure his slave property. smithsonianmag.com/history/what-g…

Teaching Honors is a hoot. From a comment I just wrote on a paper about the Iliad: “how does this illuminate all the entrail-spilling and torso-rolling that surrounds it?” American history has its share of entrail-spilling. But torso-rolling is part of Homer’s special sauce.

Among other virtues, this punches a nice big hole in the idea that the lack of divorce in the past equaled stable home or family lives. nytimes.com/2026/01/31/opi…

Leaving Phoenix after a massive soccer tournament, Kathleen DuVal’s Native Nations reminds me that weirdness on this scale has all sorts of precedence—including travel teams in this very region!

@whosheba Except for Paul, right? Except for Paul??

@PaddyoNeilio The only correct answer is Lennon…

They say that 82 years ago, a legend was born. My second-favorite 🪲, but still deserving of some wall space.

Removing this photo inappropriately disparages this American. nytimes.com/2025/09/16/cli…

@juliana_bolzani Thanks, Juliana! That’s very kind—and right back atcha, in fact!

@PaddyoNeilio Wonderful and well deserved! I am not your student (formally speaking) but have learned a great deal from you too!

@MarceloMPrates Thanks, my friend!

@PaddyoNeilio Amazing! Huge congratulations!