Jeffrey Greenberg / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
“Bean Dad” laments and wants the world to know that his daughter was not completely deprived of food during the six-hour canning war, which became one of Twitter’s first 2021 disasters over the weekend. Seattle musician and podcaster John Roderick drew the ire of thousands for tweeting that she forbade her 9-year-old son to eat until she discovered a manual can opener that she had never seen use. But now he has posted an apology on his website and says that he and his daughter were sharing other snacks at the time, and that her mother was also present.
“My story about my daughter and the can of beans was poorly told,” wrote Roderick, founder of The Long Winters and a former Seattle Town Hall candidate, on his website. “I didn’t tell you how much we were laughing, how we had a bowl of pistachio between us all day while we worked on the problem.” He also said that the two had had a full breakfast a few hours earlier.
He also said that his daughter’s mother was in the room during the day, which was not mentioned in the original story, and that she was “alternately laughing at us and telling us to be quiet”. And although the original line looked like Roderick was dedicated to putting together a puzzle at the expense of his son, he now says, “We all take turns in the puzzle.”
In Roderick’s original 23 tweet thread, he tells his daughter that neither of them will eat until she discovers the can opener mechanism, letting her say that she hated him and that she spent six hours trying to open a can of baked beans.
“A lot of the language I used reminded people very viscerally of the abuse they had suffered at the hands of a father,” said Roderick in an apology. “The idea that I would withhold food from her, or force her to solve a puzzle while she cried, or hold her to the task for hours without a break, were all images of child abuse that deeply affected many people. history, I can see what I did. “
The singer also apologized for several racist and anti-Semitic tweets, as well as rape jokes, which he had sent in the past, which have resurfaced thanks to the drama Bean Dad.
“I can only say this: all these tweets were intended to be ironic, sarcastic,” wrote Roderick, adding that “my language was not appropriate then or now”.
Roderick deleted his Twitter account on Sunday “in a panic”, he says now, after his “Father Bean” story continued the trend.
“I have a lot more reflection to do in the next few days, so I’m going to take a hiatus from my public life to let some of those lessons penetrate,” he wrote.
Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings, who co-hosts the Omnibus podcast with Roderick, was one of those who defended Roderick on Sunday, tweeting, “If that reassures anyone, I personally know that John is (a) a loving and caring father who (b) tells stories heightened to the effect on his own irascibility at about 10 podcasts a week. “