The Tangential

Don't be boring. Don't suck.

  • 4 Things Both Parties Can Do to Cut Down on America’s Stupid Political Polarization

    4 Things Both Parties Can Do to Cut Down on America’s Stupid Political Polarization

    1. Stop using humiliating candid photos of politicians in your real, professional news stories.  Covering a Hilary Clinton speech? Why not use a photo of her with her mouth half-open and her hair flying everywhere, to show that she is doing it while also … being a goon! Talking about George Dubya’s low popularity ratings?…

  • Why Top Model Shouldn’t End

    Why Top Model Shouldn’t End

    Ever since Tyra Banks fired the main Top Model judges (Nigel Barker, J. Alexander and Jay Manuel) people have been joking about the loud death rattle coming from the show. People figure it’s going to end in its 20th season, after producing such beloved models as … who? Few of them really made it to…

  • QUIZ: Inspirational Ray Bradbury Quote, or Poetry by Jewel?

    QUIZ: Inspirational Ray Bradbury Quote, or Poetry by Jewel?

    1. “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” 2. “I am trying to move mountains with words, but I am an ant.” 3. “A conglomerate heap of trash, that’s what I am. But it burns with a high flame.” 4. “Infatuation is a strange thing, a bony creature thin with feeding…

  • Free Suggestions for Huffington Post Headlines

    Free Suggestions for Huffington Post Headlines

    Booty in the pants: How much is too much? Five minutes of Facebook every hour reduces cancer risk, say researchers What’s the best smartphone for people with fat fingers? Turn your Wii into an Atari 2600 with this simple trick Is Mitt Romney country strong enough to be Commander in Chief? Solar-powered toaster cuts energy…

  • Kelsey McDonough’s Realest Tweets of the Spring

    Kelsey McDonough’s Realest Tweets of the Spring

    Bunnies to mah left. Bunnies to mah right. (June 4) I guess I just don’t really care about M. Ward. (June 4) If canned tuna ever became illegal I’d be so effed. (June 2) how long do you think that popcorn kernel’s been in my bra? (May 30) The way l frantically check my twitter/Facebook/email/etc….

  • How I Would Make Love to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

    How I Would Make Love to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

    Put on a little light jazz, pop a few Diet Cokes in the ice bucket, remove all my clothing except a “Teach Me How to Bucky” T-shirt, and wait for him to enter the room. I’ve left an extra card key at the front desk of my Motel 6 outside Milwaukee. When he knocks on…

A short history of The Tangential

The Tangential is a pop culture and creative writing blog launched in 2011 by three writers living in Minneapolis: Becky Lang (now Radecki), Jay Gabler, and Katie Sisneros. That was a golden age of irreverent confessional blogging, and over the first couple years we built a national following. Notably, we gained over 120,000 followers on Tumblr, where we were often associated with the provocative, extremely online writers in the movement known as alt lit. We created spinoff blogs including The Sport Hole, The Party Whip, The Tangential Ruins Minneapolis, and Tan Genitals. We hosted Minneapolis events and published three books.

We were having so much fun, in fact, that we never got around to monetizing. Oops! Well, we did have a little income from the books and events, and we became an Amazon affiliate. (This is your official disclosure that we subsidize our hosting costs via revenue from partner links.) Eventually, though, the editors and contributors who fueled the site’s early years largely moved on to other projects.

Today, The Tangential is run by Jay, who continues to publish criticism and other writing as well as to maintain the site’s catalog of posts — if only for, as we’ve always said, “the good of society.”

Site ©2026 The Tangential LLC. Post content copyright is held by individual authors.