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David Swanson

@davidswanson.bsky.social

1.3K followers 469 following 321 posts

New Yorker, Scotsman, editor, writer, map and archive nerd Politics, culture, and sandwiches at buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwi…

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Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

pagodas! a transylvania exhibit! emperor franz joseph visiting 48 times! and ... a bread so good it became a notable sandwich halfway round the world! today @davidswanson.bsky.social reports from the 1873 Vienna World's Fair! buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #151: Pebete

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

today, the sword and the sandwich explores the rise and fall of World's Fairs and the sandwiches they begot along the way, by way of Vienna, 1873, and the pebete sandwich: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #151: Pebete

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

today's sandwich is the xis gaúcho, a brazilian hunk o beef on bread so naturally i went absolutely apeshit learning all about gauchos, the whip-wielding, maté-drinking, knife-fighting outlaw horsemen of the pampas!!! CLICK FOR KNOWLEDGE buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #150: Xis Gaúcho

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

in today's essay i discuss -gaucho pants -black market tallow trading -the vast, vast pampas grasslands -a homoerotic bar fight in an old novel -equestrian feats -a beef sandwich buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #150: Xis Gaúcho

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

Today: everything you ever wanted to know about Marmite, Vegemite, vitamins and the Great War: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #149: Vegemite

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, an...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

in which i take a lot of words and quoted wwi diaries to say i like vegemite better than marmite: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #149: Vegemite

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, an...

Reposted by David Swanson

Rolling Stone @rollingstone.com · 11/09/2026

One month after 9/11, Rolling Stone published a special issue with stories from David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Lethem, Kurt Loder, and more. Many are online for the first time today to mark the 25th anniversary of the attack. Read: www.rollingstone.com/p/9-11-remem...

Reposted by David Swanson

KristyQ01 @kristyq01.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

In lunch discussions, when people ask "do you know what I'm in the mood for?" I always reply in the form of a question "a peanut butter and pickle sandwich?" and so this essay is very validating for me, personally.

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

today at the sword and the sandwich, @davidswanson.bsky.social explores the weirdness of the PB&P: peanut butter and pickle. featuring: the history of pickles!!!!! buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #148: Peanut Butter and Pickle

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

i wrote about, as Poland's national poet calls it, "the ancient and decorous rite of the mushroom hunt": buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #147: Zapiekanka

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

"Barbra Streisand wanted a sandwich." today's opener: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #146: Peameal Bacon

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

today's newsletter is about Canadian bacon (what it is and isn't), why Toronto is nicknamed Hogtown, and Barbra Streisand demands a sandwich: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #146: Peameal Bacon

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I eat our way through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

The Kindle book is $2 today! You too can be engaged, terrified and depressed for less than the cost of a latte! (Sorry to link to Amazon, but.) www.amazon.com/Wild-Faith-C...

Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America

Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America - Kindle edition by Lavin, Tal. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Wild Faith: How the Christian Right Is Taking Over America.

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 07/08/2026

in which we discuss -a thousand years of japanese pescatarianism -emperor meiji eats beef -ramen and black markets -the rise of japanese worcestershire sauce buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #145: Yakisoba-Pan

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

On the Welsh rarebit, Dreams of a Rarebit Fiend, what dreams cheese can cause and what it means when you dream of cheese: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #144: Welsh Rarebit

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Luke O'Neil @lukeoneil47.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Just an extraordinary joyous version of Fairytale of New York at Shane's funeral www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptay...

Glen Hansard and Lisa O'Neill Perform "Fairytale of New York" at Shane MacGowan's Funeral

YouTube video by Consequence

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

i wrote about the tuna melt and other miracles buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #143: Tuna Melt

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

the beggars out of here getter @milesklee.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

i'm doing anti-harassment training videos for work and when this one part talked about gender being a spectrum they showed b-roll of different types of packaged sandwiches at a grocery store

Reposted by David Swanson

The New Yorker @newyorker.com · 20/07/2026

Try the sandwiches Helen Rosner calls “messy, oozing, saucy, and insistent.” newyorkermag.visitlink.me/lpecu_

newyorkermag.visitlink.me

A New Crop of Unapologetic Sandwiches

Sanwits, in the East Village, serves a glorious mashup of American sandwich styles and frank Filipino flavors.

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

"This case, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is about a sandwich." -opening of the incredible defense summary of Sean Dunn aka Sandwich Guy aka American Hero, sandwich and man: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #1: American Hero

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 08/07/2026

Glad you asked!!! Look for The Book of Notable Sandwiches: A Lunchtime History of the World next summer!!!

THE BOOK OF NOTABLE
SANDWICHES
By Talia Lavin
Imprint: Atria
Author of CULTURE WARLORDS and WILD FAITH Talia Lavin's THE BOOK OF NOTABLE SANDWICHES, an A-to-Z exploration of our favorite portable meal across borders and time periods, layering hidden histories with memoir, cultural criticism, and culinary critique on sandwiches ranging from the American sub to the Polish zapiekanka, to Jenny Xu at Atria, in a pre-empt, by Dan Mande at Sanford J. Greenburger Associates (world English).

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 05/07/2026

any Polish speakers on bsky want to help me research sandwich history? I Need Your Help, dm me or email talialavinwrites at gmail

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

I wrote about why a turkey is called a turkey, what they call a turkey in Turkey, what's in a name, and the story of the bird that makes such a good club sandwich buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #142: Turkey

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

David Swanson @davidswanson.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

"Let us contemplate, for a moment, the crucial binding agent in the glorious loaf that is the smörgåstårta: mayonnaise. And how it intersected with my own private madness, so that, for a time, I became insane about it. Mad about mayo." — @swordsjew.bsky.social

Notable Sandwiches #141: Smörgåstårta

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 24/04/2026

finally it's here my magnum opus a greasy grind through historical grit the mayonnaise essay, or, mayomento mori buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #141: Smörgåstårta

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week,...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

so what happened was, i read nine john le carré books, then i saw the pictures of the preposterous drapery SCIF at mar a lago where the iran war was being conducted, and then i thought about how many spies there must be at that place and then i wrote a short story buttondown.com/theswordandt...

The Submarine of Czechia: Or, The Life of a Spy at Mar-a-Lago

A version of this short story was originally published in Flaming Hydra, an art collective I'm proud to be a part of. This is most definitely a work of...

David Swanson @davidswanson.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

The spy life at Mar-a-Lago, as imagined by @swordsjew.bsky.social

The Submarine of Czechia: Or, The Life of a Spy at Mar-a-Lago

A version of this short story was originally published in Flaming Hydra, an art collective I'm proud to be a part of. This is most definitely a work of...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 10/03/2026

in which i imagine the life of a spy at mar a lago, in a short story buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Australia's man did the flowerbeds. New Zealand had sent a chappie to labor in the gardens too. Their American accents were vaguely southern, and they tended to avoid officials from below the Mason-Dixon line.
Aussie Jack was a lady-killer, though, and was sleeping his way through every Republican wife who still had a beating heart under her twinset and pearls, and skimming quite a bit of information on the side. He called himself a
"martyr to his duty." He and New Zealand Craig were drowning their sorrows by working steadily through all of Florida's craft beers, one microbrewery at a time. Their relationship was significantly more harmonious than that of the clandestine representatives of Argentina and the Mossad, who had inadvertently dated for several weeks before mutually discovering one another's identities, and now existed (as bartender and assistant golf green superintendent respectively) in mutually icy disdain, lending further stress to cocktail hour.
She'd heard Brazil's guy in an unwisely loud Portuguese phone call describing the fiasco as
"Eichmann, on the rocks."
buttondown.com

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

today at the newsletter, free: an adapted excerpt from my book Wild Faith, about evangelical Christian prophecies about war in the Middle East and the end of the world & how they influence US foreign policy: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Yearning for the Apocalypse

As chaos and violence break out across the Middle East in a war led by the US with Israel as junior partner, I wanted to revisit my research on Christian...

Reposted by David Swanson

Sean Woods @seanwoods.bsky.social · 04/03/2026

Must read from @stephenrodrick.bsky.social www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...

rollingstone.com

ICE Comes to the American Heartland

After the government declares mission complete in Minneapolis, aggressive ICE occupation continues in small-town Minnesota

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

every mystery of the sloppy joe revealed! i debunk its connection to ernest hemingway! we discuss the loosemeat sandwiches of iowa! the fashion movement around "sloppy joe" sweaters ca. 1940! the french concept of "nostalgia for the mud"! buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #140: Sloppy Joe

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 27/02/2026

"The beef dry and granular as mortar in the temple of a forgotten god; the sauce at once totally opaque and yet watery; the bread reverting to its medieval function as a trencher to sop up this collusion of juices...." on the sloppy joe: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #140: Sloppy Joe

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I slip messily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

I read Casey Means' book last year and wrote about her "salvation through orthorexia" ideology so you don't have to. This woman being Surgeon General will entail enormous amounts of harm buttondown.com/theswordandt...

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....

David Swanson @davidswanson.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

"MAHA is, above all things, the apotheosis of a puritanical American tendency to blame the ill for their illness, the poor for their poverty." @swordsjew.bsky.social on Casey Means and MAHA

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....

Reposted by David Swanson

Protean Magazine @proteanmag.com · 13/02/2026

Richard Hell's novel Godlike has been re-released by NYRB Classics. Andrew Holter spoke to Hell on his literary trajectory, the inevitable Rimbaud and (Tom) Verlaine comparisons (and other noms de plume), the New York School poets, and his fearlessness of influence. proteanmag.com/2026/02/13/a...

Anti-Convention: Richard Hell on Godlike • Protean Magazine

Richard Hell's novel Godlike has just been re-released with a new afterword by New York Review Books. Andrew Holter spoke to Hell on his literary trajectory as a novelist and street poet, the sometime...

David Swanson @davidswanson.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

"It’s not necessarily intuitive to draw a line between centuries of ruthless exploitation and a very pleasant breakfast sandwich, but the two are integrally connected, as bread and labor often are." — @swordsjew.bsky.social on the roti bakar

Notable Sandwiches #139: Roti Bakar

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 20/02/2026

!!!! coconut jam on toast alert !!!! in which i discuss roti bakar / roti bakar kaya through the lens of dutch colonization in perak, malaysia & now i want an ipoh white coffee & a roti bakar kaya with softboiled eggs on the side please buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #139: Roti Bakar

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

William Shakespeare @shakespeare.lol · 19/02/2026

[Enter Puck.]

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

bummed out by the news being awful? subscribe to my newsletter and get one email a week about sandwich history that will make you go "cool facts, nicely written." bonus points if you sign up as a paid subscriber, helps me get that bread (literal & metaphorical): 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...

Reposted by David Swanson

The New York Times @nytimes.com · 18/02/2026

From @theathletic.com: How are curling stones made, and why does only one company have the rights to make them? We explored the uninhabited Scottish island that makes one of the most interesting Olympic sports possible. nyti.ms/4kKA5uf

John Brown inspects a curling stone.

Reposted by David Swanson

Mark Harris @markharris.bsky.social · 16/02/2026

I know a lot of people still like to draw a bright line between movies and television, but you simply cannot fully measure Duvall's greatness without taking in all eight hours of his work as Gus McCrae in Lonesome Dove. Treat yourselves if you can.

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 13/02/2026

i wrote about the reuben sandwich (an all time classic), the food feud behind it, and the totally washed and failson life of its namesake, the biblical patriarch reuben: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #138: Reuben

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

It's Friday! Sandwich day! Today I answer your burning question: who are the poor boys po'boy sandwiches are named after? The answer: Streetcar workers from the great New Orleans strike of 1929! Two brothers stepped up to feed them: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #137: Po' Boy

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Here it is!!!! The Sandwich Fact!!!! Near guaranteed to make you go "huh I didn't know that" unless you did! buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #137: Po' Boy

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where my editor David Swanson and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches. This week, a...

Reposted by David Swanson

Bob Mould @bobmouldmusic.bsky.social · 02/02/2026

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

i like my pb&j with a dense helping of historical facts about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #136: Peanut Butter & Jelly

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where David & I traipse through the garden of earthly delights that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 30/01/2026

TODAY: the myth the icon the legend the peanut butter and jelly sandwich on the making of a myth, and how it became ubiquitous (alas, george washington carver did not invent peanut butter) buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #136: Peanut Butter & Jelly

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where David & I traipse through the garden of earthly delights that is Wikipedia’s List of Notable...

Reposted by David Swanson

Billy Bragg @billybragg.bsky.social · 26/01/2026

I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...

BILLY BRAGG - CITY OF HEROES

YouTube video by Billy Bragg

Reposted by David Swanson

Tal Lavin @swordsjew.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

I wrote about the patty melt, about not fitting into molds, and about the pain & joy of a life that doesn't fit a predetermined menu: buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #135: Patty Melt

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where David and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches, in alphabetical order. This...

Reposted by David Swanson

Dr. Michael Mario Albrecht @drmario.bsky.social · 23/01/2026

Thanks for the new sandwich column @swordsjew.bsky.social I needed that. Though, now I'm hungry. buttondown.com/theswordandt...

Notable Sandwiches #135: Patty Melt

Welcome back to Notable Sandwiches, the feature where David and I trip merrily through Wikipedia’s List of Notable Sandwiches, in alphabetical order. This...