Joel Achenbach

Joel Achenbach is an American staff writer for The Washington Post and the author of six books, including The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, and three compilations of his syndicated newspaper column "Why Things Are" (now defunct). He wrote a monthly science column for National Geographic magazine and has been a commentator on National Public Radio's Morning Edition. His writing has been featured in the 2007 Word-A-Day calendar. He graduated from Princeton University in 1982 with an A.B. degree in politics. He often makes a point of noting that during his freshman year, he lived next door to David Duchovny. Achenbach lives in Washington, D.C., with his wife and three daughters.

Achenbach's "Washington Post Magazine" column, entitled "Rough Draft," was primarily humorous. He was also staff writer for the Post's Outlook section. On September 7, 2007, The Washington Post named him National Enterprise writer for the duration of the United States presidential election, 2008.

He has a regular blog on the washingtonpost.com website as well, attracting a small audience of devoted fans as well as a larger group of casual readers.

A large degree of the conversations on Achenblog tend to arc back to previous posts, creating a large litany of phrases and comments that are somewhat opaque to the average reader.