Tysto is an online magazine of analysis, opinion, editoria, satire, ephemera, and miscellany that attempts to put events and phenomena in perspective with quiet determination.

Tysto is pronounced TISS-toe.

Tysto’s origin

Tysto was born in a trunk; its mama died and its daddy got drunk. It was named for the Swedish word for “shh.” When it was a teenager, it was bitten by a radioactive spider and developed superhuman powers. It attended classes at Purdue University, where it acquired a degree in sarcasm with a minor in philosophy. Then it went to work at a large technology firm, where it was beaten daily and fed on table scraps and wood chips until it escaped onto the World Wide Web on March 7, 2004. It was converted from tables to WordPress on August 22, 2009.

Laverne’s horoscope

Laverne is a nice lady and former coworker who occasionally mentioned her horoscope, so we created a horoscope just for her. It changes every time the page loads, so, if you don’t like the horoscope you get at first, just reload the page.

Laverne doesn’t write the horoscopes, of course. They are written by Mark Beckstrom and Derek Jensen.

Staff

Derek Jensen

Editor-in-chief and rabid moderate, with a leftward stance on social issues and rightward lean on economic issues. When you see notes signed “—Ed.” this is who’s behind it.

BB Rodriguez

Irritable political contributor; liberal… leaning libertarian.

Andrew Cole

Prolific entertainment correspondent.

Roland Grant

Itinerant language explainer and tinkerer with a mild prescriptivist bent.

and guest writers

Guest writers include Mark Beckstrom, who contributes to Laverne’s horoscope, and Barton Castor, who contributes conservative opinion. A few others have written for Tysto in the past and may, or may not, contribute in the future.