David Swanson
@davidswanson.bsky.social
New Yorker, Scotsman, editor, writer, map and archive nerd
Politics, culture, and sandwiches at https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich
Politics, culture, and sandwiches at https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich
Reposted by David Swanson
The sandwich newsletter is back!!! Prepare to learn more than you ever thought you would about pastrami! Origin myths! Disputes! An outstanding historical mystery! Yiddish ballads! Unlikely lyricism! The Armenian Church takes a stand! buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Notable Sandwiches #132: Pastrami
Hello, and welcome back to the Sword and the Sandwich! I’ve been struggling with a particularly pernicious case of writer’s block, for months now. Not being...
buttondown.com
December 5, 2025 at 5:03 PM
The sandwich newsletter is back!!! Prepare to learn more than you ever thought you would about pastrami! Origin myths! Disputes! An outstanding historical mystery! Yiddish ballads! Unlikely lyricism! The Armenian Church takes a stand! buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Reposted by David Swanson
this week the sandwich newsletter is coming BACK
hold on to your butts
Prepare for an onslaught of pastrami facts by subscribing: buttondown.com/theswordandt...
hold on to your butts
Prepare for an onslaught of pastrami facts by subscribing: buttondown.com/theswordandt...
The Sword And the Sandwich
This is a newsletter about the dismal state of American politics, the far right, and .... sandwiches. Plus literature, whimsy, culture, and absolutely everything else you could imagine, brought to you...
buttondown.com
December 2, 2025 at 5:09 PM
this week the sandwich newsletter is coming BACK
hold on to your butts
Prepare for an onslaught of pastrami facts by subscribing: buttondown.com/theswordandt...
hold on to your butts
Prepare for an onslaught of pastrami facts by subscribing: buttondown.com/theswordandt...
Reposted by David Swanson
evangelicals love jews like a hungry man loves a chicken wing
November 21, 2025 at 4:13 PM
evangelicals love jews like a hungry man loves a chicken wing
Reposted by David Swanson
I asked grok who was the better role model for humanity, Jesus Christ or Elon Musk. GUESS WHAT.
November 20, 2025 at 8:34 PM
I asked grok who was the better role model for humanity, Jesus Christ or Elon Musk. GUESS WHAT.
Reposted by David Swanson
[BBC Scotland] reaction to [4]-2 K. McLean 90+7
November 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
[BBC Scotland] reaction to [4]-2 K. McLean 90+7
Reposted by David Swanson
every british sandwich is just like "we put carbs between other carbs" it is impressive
November 18, 2025 at 9:40 PM
every british sandwich is just like "we put carbs between other carbs" it is impressive
Reposted by David Swanson
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
November 17, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Editors have a really hard job, and the good ones can make something unreadable readable, and the great ones can make something unreadable into something good. But they're basically invisible, until someone tries to write without one.
Reposted by David Swanson
"If you had to pick a sandwich to throw at a fascist, what sandwich are you picking and why?" defector.com/big-words-ar...
Big Words Are Big Fun | Defector
Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. You can also read Drew over at SF GATE, and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it. Today, we’re…
defector.com
November 15, 2025 at 9:22 PM
"If you had to pick a sandwich to throw at a fascist, what sandwich are you picking and why?" defector.com/big-words-ar...
Reposted by David Swanson
I got to talk to @akilahhughes.com alongside amazing people like @profgabriele.com and Heather Weaver of the ACLU about Christian authoritarianism and the plot to force it on this country. Check it out: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
The Plot to Force Evangelical Christianity on Everyone
Podcast Episode · How Is This Better? · 11/07/2025 · 30m
podcasts.apple.com
November 11, 2025 at 1:51 PM
I got to talk to @akilahhughes.com alongside amazing people like @profgabriele.com and Heather Weaver of the ACLU about Christian authoritarianism and the plot to force it on this country. Check it out: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
Reposted by David Swanson
the fact that Sandwich Guy is facing this 'wich trial at all is evidence of subpar justice. he is a hero being put through the judicial grinder. i hope the jury wraps up a not guilty verdict without delay or loafing around
November 6, 2025 at 7:55 PM
the fact that Sandwich Guy is facing this 'wich trial at all is evidence of subpar justice. he is a hero being put through the judicial grinder. i hope the jury wraps up a not guilty verdict without delay or loafing around
Reposted by David Swanson
twelve hungry men
🚨🚨🚨 The jury has reached a verdict. Sean Dunn, aka the DC Sandwich Guy, has been found NOT GUILTY of assault.
November 6, 2025 at 7:31 PM
twelve hungry men
Reposted by David Swanson
Reposted by David Swanson
Celebrate World Sandwich Day by exploring the origin of this convenient meal 🥪
Legend says the Fourth Earl of Sandwich asked for meat between slices of bread so he could continue playing cards or working without greasy hands. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)
Legend says the Fourth Earl of Sandwich asked for meat between slices of bread so he could continue playing cards or working without greasy hands. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)
November 3, 2025 at 2:01 PM
Celebrate World Sandwich Day by exploring the origin of this convenient meal 🥪
Legend says the Fourth Earl of Sandwich asked for meat between slices of bread so he could continue playing cards or working without greasy hands. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)
Legend says the Fourth Earl of Sandwich asked for meat between slices of bread so he could continue playing cards or working without greasy hands. 🧵⬇️ (1/2)
"The irony is that, even though I lived through two decades of religious dietary strictures of byzantine complexity, it never felt half as much like a story about sin as Casey Means’ book does."
@swordsjew.bsky.social on orthorexia, keeping kosher, and Casey Means
@swordsjew.bsky.social on orthorexia, keeping kosher, and Casey Means
You Are What You Eat
Casey Means, Influencer General Casey Means, the Trump administration’s new nominee for Surgeon General of the United States, has a prescription for America....
buttondown.com
October 30, 2025 at 2:23 PM
"The irony is that, even though I lived through two decades of religious dietary strictures of byzantine complexity, it never felt half as much like a story about sin as Casey Means’ book does."
@swordsjew.bsky.social on orthorexia, keeping kosher, and Casey Means
@swordsjew.bsky.social on orthorexia, keeping kosher, and Casey Means
Reposted by David Swanson
in which @annaleen.bsky.social and I obsess about the Wicker Man (1973), with its nipple anointing, sinister man-woman, Christopher Lee, Bond girls, scary cakes & ACAB (a cop is burning) ending, for @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-426/
flaminghydra.com/issue-426/
Hear the music / Feel the burn
Wicker Man Week opens with Tal Lavin and Annalee Newitz, jointly and severally
flaminghydra.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:34 PM
in which @annaleen.bsky.social and I obsess about the Wicker Man (1973), with its nipple anointing, sinister man-woman, Christopher Lee, Bond girls, scary cakes & ACAB (a cop is burning) ending, for @flaminghydra.com
flaminghydra.com/issue-426/
flaminghydra.com/issue-426/
Reposted by David Swanson
Get ready for WICKER MAN WEEK at @flaminghydra.com
October 20, 2025 at 4:52 PM
Get ready for WICKER MAN WEEK at @flaminghydra.com
Reposted by David Swanson
St. Clair McKelway’s 1949 New Yorker story about an elderly counterfeiter “illuminates the timeless oddities and wonders of the human psyche,” David Grann writes. #NewYorker100
David Grann on St. Clair McKelway’s “Old Eight Eighty”
The three-part series, about an elderly counterfeiter, established a template for narratives about small-time grifters.
www.newyorker.com
October 19, 2025 at 5:55 PM
St. Clair McKelway’s 1949 New Yorker story about an elderly counterfeiter “illuminates the timeless oddities and wonders of the human psyche,” David Grann writes. #NewYorker100
Reposted by David Swanson
Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.
October 18, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Head to a protest today. I can almost promise you will feel less hopeless. That's exactly what they don't want. There are more of us than there are of them.
Reposted by David Swanson
thinking about peter freuchen danish explorer allegedly getting himself out of a frozen ice cave that would have been his tomb by using one of his own frozen turds as a chisel
October 17, 2025 at 6:00 PM
thinking about peter freuchen danish explorer allegedly getting himself out of a frozen ice cave that would have been his tomb by using one of his own frozen turds as a chisel
Reposted by David Swanson
“People talk about trying to change society,” a young Bob Dylan said, in 1964. “All I know is that so long as people stay so concerned about protecting their status and protecting what they have, ain’t nothing going to be done.”
What Bob Dylan Wanted at Twenty-three
From 1964: A portrait of the artist trying to move past “finger-pointing” songs, and finding a new voice in the process.
nyer.cm
October 15, 2025 at 3:08 PM
“People talk about trying to change society,” a young Bob Dylan said, in 1964. “All I know is that so long as people stay so concerned about protecting their status and protecting what they have, ain’t nothing going to be done.”
Reposted by David Swanson
10 years ago, I stayed up all night with D’Angelo, two nights in a row. R.I.P. to a straight-up genius.
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
The Second Coming of D'Angelo
How soul's lost superstar D'Angelo reclaimed his mojo and finally released the epic 'Black Messiah.'
www.rollingstone.com
October 14, 2025 at 5:19 PM
10 years ago, I stayed up all night with D’Angelo, two nights in a row. R.I.P. to a straight-up genius.
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
www.rollingstone.com/music/music-...
Reposted by David Swanson
“Rip Van Winkle” isn’t just a folktale about a very long nap. It’s a story about the making of America, John Swansburg writes:
America’s Most Famous Nap
How “Rip Van Winkle” became our founding folktale
bit.ly
October 10, 2025 at 1:30 PM
“Rip Van Winkle” isn’t just a folktale about a very long nap. It’s a story about the making of America, John Swansburg writes:
Reposted by David Swanson
in case you want some non bullshit about antifa here is something i wrote
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
We Keep Us Safe: On Antifa
This past Saturday, Donald Trump announced that his administration would be deploying federal troops to Portland, OR, authorizing the military to use “full...
buttondown.com
October 10, 2025 at 2:05 AM
in case you want some non bullshit about antifa here is something i wrote
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
buttondown.com/theswordandt...