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Ryan Flanagan

@ryanflanagan.bsky.social

Former journalist now working in media relations. Living in Kitchener after a few years away.

106 Posts245 Follower226 Folgt
Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 3w ago

All this PLUS it makes following sports less fun! I want to enjoy athletic drama on its merits or be won over by an outstanding performance or grudgingly accept that the Jays just don't have it tonight. Gambling steals all of that in favour of obsessively rooting for the outcome I bet on earlier.

Charlotte Prong@charlotteprong.bsky.social · 3w ago

When you go to a Blue Jays game every guy around you that’s on his phone is sports betting. The gambling industry in Canada went from $2.75 billion/month in 2019 to $4.25 billion/month in 2025. It’s a massive waste societally and it ruins lives & families.

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Dayne St. Clair spent 2016 and 2017 playing for Kitchener-Waterloo United FC. He's since gone onto bigger things, like winning MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and being named to #CanMNT for two World Cups.

NBC Sports@nbc-sports.bsky.social · 2mo ago

Canada’s goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair is making a HUGE impact on the field and off, as he looks to mentor the next generation of soccer stars, on #MyNewFavoriteFutbolista: available wherever you listen to podcasts.

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 3mo ago

You'd think the creator of Rambo must have been an American but it was actually David Morrell, who was born and raised in Kitchener. He snuck in a hometown reference: two deputies who oppose Rambo are named Galt and Preston. (This is a Waterloo Region trivia account now.)

Jason Bailey@jasondashbailey.com · 3mo ago

'Rambo: First Blood Part II' was released on this day in 1985. For @crooked-marquee.bsky.social, I wrote about how the 'Rambo' series started as something quite different than what it became:

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 5mo ago

PSA: Transport Canada has launched a survey for Canadians to detail their experiences with headlight glare at nighttime. In other words, you're not the only one who's noticed brighter headlights on vehicles and this could be a very small way to do something about it! tc.canada.ca/en/corporate...

Canadian experience with vehicle headlights and glare at night

Transport Canada wants to learn how headlight glare affects road users and what vehicle or lighting features may influence how people experience it at night.

tc.canada.ca

James Davis Nicoll@jdnicoll.bsky.social · 6mo ago

My apologies to everyone who has heard this story before. Back in the 1970s, two things were true about UWaterloo: * UW never, ever closed. * Many faculty members owned farms. Cue the Great Storm of 1978.

A plow making its way though a vast landscape of snowdrifts.
Graeme Smith@graemesmith.bsky.social · 6mo ago

The university @uwaterloo.ca is closed for a snow day today! Thank you to the associate dean for helpfully letting me know that I’m entitled to schedule a makeup class on Saturday if I’d like to HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHA

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 7mo ago

This was one of the most surprising (to me) lessons I learned when I moved from newspapers to digital news. Nobody clicks on the clever headline. Our eyes scan right past it to the headline that makes it more obvious what's on the other side.

Tanis Fowler@tanisfowler.bsky.social · 7mo ago

The other thing modern headline writers are sometimes warned about is using puns or idioms. It’s another holdover from newspaper days that has faded a bit online. Puns, in my opinion, can be fun, but for some reason, they don’t do well in the digital world.

Melissa Bowman@dtkmelissa.bsky.social · 8mo ago

We've got so many great grassroots orgs and non-profits in #WatReg and I need your help to highlight them! For an upcoming Citified post, I'm wanting to share short blurbs (3-5 sentences) about your favourite local organization or non-profit. Feel free to share it on this thread or DM me. Thanks!

Solarina Ho@solarina.ca · 9mo ago

This is an absolute *must read* by @nickhunebrown.bsky.social on the impact of AI slop in an era where journalism trust is already depressingly low, and why fact-checkers are more important than ever. As a freelancer who agonizes over accuracy and getting quotes right, this was a mind boggling read.

Nick Hune-Brown@nickhunebrown.bsky.social · 9mo ago

A few months ago @thelocal.to got a promising pitch from a writer with bylines in whole bunch of reputable publications—The Cut, The Guardian, Dwell, Architectural Digest, etc. Then I started investigating. Here's a story about fabulists in journalism's AI slop era. thelocal.to/investigatin...

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 9mo ago

Other Queen songs the #BlueJays could have used as #WantItAll -style anthems, in descending order of appropriateness: Play the Game Don't Stop Me Now The Show Must Go On Keep Yourself Alive Another One Bites the Dust Hang On In There The Millionaire Waltz Lost Opportunity I'm In Love With My Car

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 10mo ago

I’ve been a huge Blue Jays fan for as long as I can remember (since 1994, just after the last World Series). I’ve seen good years and bad years. Good decisions and bad decisions. Amazing moments and ho-hum Tuesday nights. Stars demanding to be traded. Fans demanding that other stars be traded.

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

I’ve explained how Kitchener and Waterloo acquired their names, but what about Cambridge? You might know that it only dates back 52 years, but you might not realize that it contains a nod to local history or that, like Kitchener, it was selected by a vote of its citizens…

The Grand River flows through Cambridge, Ont. in 2020.
Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The story of how Waterloo, Ont. got its name has some similarities to Kitchener’s. Both cities owe their names to war developments that were top-of-mind at the time of the renamings. While Kitchener’s name came from a general, Waterloo’s is a tribute to a famous battle.

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

The story of how Waterloo, Ont. got its name has some similarities to Kitchener’s. Both cities owe their names to war developments that were top-of-mind at the time of the renamings. While Kitchener’s name came from a general, Waterloo’s is a tribute to a famous battle.

Ryan Flanagan@ryanflanagan.bsky.social · 11mo ago

On this day in 1916, Berlin, Ont. officially changed its name to Kitchener. Although nearly 20,000 people lived in the city at the time, only 346 of them had voted in favour of the change. So how did that happen? Read on…