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amelia merrill

@ameliamerrill.bsky.social
621 followers 518 following 369 posts

life, a shadow AND a dream? in this economy? writer, yid, theatre journalist and playwright, gymnastics fan MD ➡️ NY she/her @ameliamerr_ on 🐦, @mia_merrill on 📸

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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
No, her legal team will likely argue that subjecting her to another execution attempt violates the 8th amendment, but results have varied. Kenneth Smith's lawyers argued that after a botched lethal injection in 2022, so AL said ok we'll do a new method instead, which is how we got nitrogen hypoxia.
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Liliana Segura @lilianasegura.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The tortuous, botched execution of Christa Pike is truly horrifying. And while it feels unique in some ways, in reality it is also only the latest in a history of botched executions going back years — YEARS — in numerous states. Please know: this is the reality of the death penalty in this country.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
And a reminder that lethal injection was developed to be more humane for us, the people witnessing and reading about executions. Because other methods were too barbaric to watch.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Tonight’s news is too disgusting for words, but it’s also not very unexpected. I highly recommend @mauricechammah.bsky.social’s book about how lethal injection came to be. It’s not easy to stomach, but it is essential reporting IMO. www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/554923...
penguinrandomhouse.com
Let the Lord Sort Them by Maurice Chammah: 9781524760281 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A deeply reported, searingly honest portrait of the death penalty in Texas—and what it tells us about crime and punishment in America “If you’re...
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Mary Sue @marysuesays.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
So if today is the first you've heard of the fact the current setup for lethal injection in the few states that still murder people, here's an article from 2023 that mentions a third of the lethal injections carried out that year in the US were botched due to the med sourcing being sketchy as fuck.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Can you clarify the role the physician played, to your knowledge? I thought physicians only confirmed time of death during executions.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Turns out there is not a super chill way to execute someone, who’d have thought
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Nitrogen hypoxia. But the firing squad is not a foolproof method: www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news...
nbcnews.com
S.C. inmate's firing squad execution was 'botched,' with bullets mostly missing his heart, lawyers say
On April 11, Mikal Mahdi became the second man in South Carolina to be executed by firing squad. His attorneys say he suffered longer than he should have.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Drug companies that make painkillers, as an example, do not want their drugs used in executions. Extremely bad PR.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Come to my play, New York friends! Oct 15 and 18 www.tickettailor.com/events/spark...
tickettailor.com
Buy tickets – I don't know, then we die – 28th Street Theater, 15 W. 28th Street, 2nd Fl
I don't know, then we die – 28th Street Theater, 15 W. 28th Street, 2nd Fl, Thu Oct 15, 2026 - Claire and Mona lock themselves in the bathroom and get ready for one last school dance before the climat...
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
I, for one, will not be canceling my subscription to the Globe because they make you call to do it and they know I'm simply never gonna do that.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Ben: So my mom wants to put you in charge of sukkah decorations Me: Oh no, a CRAFT PROJECT?! You want me to drop everything I'm doing and CRAFT? You're saying I should stop all my other work right now and focus on crafting? Oh no how terrible
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
the only thing scarier than nobody coming to your play is people coming to your play
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Facebook “memories” keep reminding me it’s been 15 years since summer camp when I was 15, a summer that kept me going, kept me grounded, kept me hopeful, kept me grateful. Strange to think I have as much distance from that summer now as I had years then. My summer camp has since shut down.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
Last month, I got to film my one-act play "I don't know, then we die" for a digital slot with the Rogue Theater Festival. This play takes place in a high school bathroom, and filming was an exhilarating (and very humid) challenge. You can stream the piece through July 12: cur8.com/17616/projec...
cur8.com
I don't know, then we die | Allison Hohman and Rogue Theater Festival
Browse details for I don't know, then we die with Allison Hohman and Rogue Theater Festival, Astoria. View dates, ticket price, venue info, and more, and purchase tickets for this must-see event ...
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bijan (spooky version) @bijan.bsky.social · 02/07/2026
every job i see these days is like: LEAD CONTENT ANALYST, Puppy Killing Factory (remote). $350,000 - $500,000. You will edit our internal newsletter (circulation 500). Associate Editor, Nonprofits, Global Good Magazine (in office, NYC). $27,000 - $28,000. Lead ALL of our fundraising efforts!
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Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net · 30/06/2026
Little Jessica wants to participate in middle school volleyball with her friends? Turn over her DNA and subject her to a genital exam. Turns out she has CAIS and is intersex? Oh well, too bad. She can't compete on the girls team anymore and has to use the boys bathroom despite having a vagina.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
This is what checking the mail or turning on the TV in NY-12 feels like www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaL3...
youtube.com
Parks and Rec - Bobby Newport's never had a real job in his life
YouTube video by Josh
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Taniel @taniel.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
A big deal: a federal court has BLOCKED Alabama from using nitrogen gas to execute. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026... My colleague Lauren Gill has done essential work witnessing what nitrogen gas does, and writing about this torturous method of execution in Alabama specifically. Revisit:
boltsmag.org
“Agony” and “Suffering” as Alabama Experiments with Nitrogen Executions - Bolts
Alabama said Alan Miller’s execution by lethal gas would be “more humane.” He writhed and gasped for air in his final moments.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 20/05/2026
Timely again because of the International Gymnastics Federation's decision this week to allow Russian gymnasts to compete under their flag again...
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
My play is on the homepage of @newplayexchange.bsky.social! So grateful to be on this list of Experimental Work alongside some other fabulous artists. You can read it here: newplayexchange.org/script/20199...
newplayexchange.org
Dear Kitty (or, not another anne frank play): a travesty | New Play Exchange
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Baltimore Banner @thebaltimorebanner.com · 05/05/2026
After spending 35 years growing Baltimore’s Everyman Theatre, Vincent Lancisi — the company’s founder and lone artistic director, will retire at the end of June. buff.ly/NklXJ0z
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 16/04/2026
I was looking up an article I wrote a few years ago about Russian gymnasts + other athletes aiding propaganda about the invasion of Ukraine, and I found out it was cited in an academic journal! 🤩 Thank you to Leo Goretti and the Istituto Affari Internazionali www.iai.it/sites/defaul...
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Chanda Prescod-Weinstein 🌌 @chanda.blacksky.app · 18/03/2026
Re Chavez: Thread for sexual assault survivors/victims (however you see yourself is ok!) and people supporting them today. Here are some things that I think are useful. I am not an expert, just someone who has been navigating being public about my experiences, including in media interviews. 🧵
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
Sometimes I'll start talking about a gymnastics things and later Ben will talk about a football thing and I realize we're just doing "blorbo from my shows" at each other. Blorbo from my sports.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 06/03/2026
omfg
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Shammai @shammaiintl.bsky.social · 05/03/2026
"So we've got the firestone and the wood, but no sheep. And you're saying we're going to do a sacrifice with no sacrificial animal?" ABRAHAM:
No. No. No. Isaac, no. All I'm saying is that…
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
when you roll up to the inclusive trad egal megilla reading and three different couples' costumes are each other but you kiiiiinda can't tell
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 02/03/2026
Every time I do a minor fast* I think I can go back to sleep with a brick in my stomach and then feel like death *religion not disordered eating
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
is kara eaker ever gonna do beam again. asking for a me.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
Today we are all alt, gay, and from New Jersey 😭😭😭
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 19/02/2026
I have never watched figure skating before
Meme from Brooklyn 99 of the character Rosa saying "I've only had Arlo for a day and a half but if anything happened to him I would kill everyone in this room and then myself," but the puppy is replaced with the Blade Angels figure skaters
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
If you're gonna victim blame this hard, at least proofread.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 15/02/2026
It's funny how half of any given Olympic gymnastics team or NCAA roster goes into commentating but in figure skating if you want to work in sports media you have to have a bedazzled duel with Johnny and Tara
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Andrew Karre @andrewkarre.bsky.social · 05/02/2026
The administration routinely calls ordinary Minnesotans terrorists and says observer video is doxxing. You just handed them a pass, Chuck. Remove Chuck Schumer now. Every second he spends talking about—and compromising on—masks is unbearable.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
The phrase “not on my bingo card” is not sufficient to describe the theatre news of today
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yC8r...
youtube.com
Best In Show - God Loves a Terrier
YouTube video by Darren Williams
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 30/01/2026
okay I am genuinely devastated and unwell and will be singing "god loves a terrier" all weekend
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
My new mission is to get @zohrankmamdani.bsky.social @mayor.nyc.gov to DIRT at The Tank. He would have so much fun! In other news, I reviewed Elevator Repair Service's ULYSSES adaptation at Under the Radar: www.newyorktheatreguide.com/reviews/ulys...
newyorktheatreguide.com
'Ulysses' Off-Broadway review — a breakneck run through a James Joyce masterwork | New York Theatre Guide
Read our review of *Ulysses* off Broadway, a stage adaptation of James Joyce’s classic novel created by experimental theatre company Elevator Repair Service. Read all our theatre reviews at NewYorkTh...
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
But it's also an impossible conversation because you can't de-center your own experiences...like, I *personally* think she might not like being the model of Holocaust memory. I gather you feel the same. But *obviously* we don't know so every conversation about her just goes in circles
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
No and that's the part that keeps a person up at night (and I wrote a play about it)! She was and is THE model victim.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Also, "it must've been an incredibly difficult experience for him" is the understatement of the century, nay the universe. Like I obviously cannot fathom having my entire family murdered and then finding my children's diary(s) (Margot's was allegedly missing or destroyed)
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
If you're assigned the diary in school now, it's the restored version with all of the talk about boys and puberty, all of the jokes about the Germans, mentions of Jewishness that the original publishers thought were too polarizing/specific (she had to be a universal victim!), etc.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Oh I think the publishers did get it wrong! She was very mad at her parents a lot of the time and Otto said he felt like he didn't know her after reading the diary. It must've been an incredibly difficult experience for him and there's no way to make him an unbiased editor.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
But Anne actually did do a lot of editing with an eye toward publication. Lots of reordering entries and crossing some out. (Gies attested to this.) She specifically mentions hearing on the radio that the cultural ministry wanted accounts of people in hiding to publish after the war.
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amelia merrill @ameliamerrill.bsky.social · 27/01/2026
Otto Frank redacted anything he thought was embarrassing (mostly stuff about puberty, boys, etc) in partnership with Doubleday. The German translation did some further redacting to make it more palatable for audiences. It was all restored in editions in the 90s.
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Josephine beckbook.com Riesman @josie.zone · 24/01/2026
Chuck, I have terrible news. The feds shot the Baileys. Point-blank range, right in the face. They're gone, Chuck. You let them die. You have the Baileys' blood on your hands.
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Daniel Benneworth-Gray @danielgray.com · 19/01/2026
COW TOOLS COW TOOLS COW TOOLS
theguardian.com
Back-scratching bovine leads scientists to reassess intelligence of cows
Brown Swiss in Austria has been discovered using tools in multiple ways – something only ever seen in humans and chimpanzees
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🎃 Cat-O-Lantern Partsch Conlan 🎃 @catconlan.net · 16/01/2026
ICE has kidnapped one of my MN News Guild siblings
Guild member detained by ICE in Minnesota
January 16, 2026
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Dylan Manshack, Comms | dmanshack@cwa-union.org | 202-445-4033
Member remains in ICE custody in Texas
MINNEAPOLIS — On Friday, January 9, ICE arrested a member of our union, the Minnesota Newspaper and
Communications Guild, TNG-CWA Local 37002, as part of Operation Metro Surge.
While the circumstances of his arrest are not clear, we know he has been transferred to an ICE detention facility
in El Paso, Texas, where he is awaiting action on his petition for habeas corpus.
The Guild is not publicly identifying the member out of concern for his family’s safety, but he is a father, a
husband, and a staff member at a Minneapolis non-profit organization. He is a steward in our union and an
advocate for all workers. And he is one of dozens of Minnesota union members who have been detained in
recent weeks.
The Department of Homeland Security says it has made more than 2,000 arrests since the surge began in
December, according to an MPR News report. But the agency has not provided details about the people
arrested, such as how many were charged with a crime, how many face deportation, and how many were
subsequently released.
“The Minnesota Newspaper and Communications Guild stands with our member and his family as they face an
uncertainty that is all too common in our state right now,” local president Nick Woltman said. “Like all
Minnesota workers, our members deserve to feel safe in their communities both on and off the job.”
“The detention of a Guild member in Minnesota amidst the chaos created by DHS is heartbreaking and
infuriating,” said NewsGuild-CWA President Jon Schleuss. “My heart goes out to his family, who are now
without their father and husband. As a union, we commit to fight for each other as stewards of our
communities—especially in times as dark as this, while federal agents continue to target working families.”
ALT TEXT CONTINUED IN NEXT POST
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Ada Palmer @adapalmer.bsky.social · 15/01/2026
Conservation nonprofit American Prairie in Montana has acquired holdings now spanning more than 2,428 km², the nonprofit aims to stitch together 12,950 km² of shortgrass prairie, home to bison, badgers, prairie dogs, ferrets, pronghorn, sage grouse and swift fox. buff.ly/PJYfnwi #ShareGoodNewsToo
buff.ly
Victory for public access: American Prairie unlocks another 70,000 acres in Montana
Conservation group opens gated road and tears down "no trespassing" signs with purchase from Texas billionaire brothers.
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