Benjamin Tausig

The new These Puzzles Fund Abortion puzzle pack is on pre-sale now. I edited a lovely puzzle for it, and the constructor lineup is stellar as always. Solve some top-tier crosswords and help super reproductive rights won’t ya

fund.nnaf.org/campaign/the...

I’ll bite on those dining recommendations

I also saw two Secret Service guys on bikes whose patrol routes were just two adjacent, ten-foot circles. Seemed dizzying and was simply primo security theater

The gangs of like twelve National Guardsmen patrolling empty DC Metro Stations, armed to the teeth and absent mindedly gnawing on Chick-Fil-a while doing a word search on their phone, make the government's concern with budget efficiency very funny

They really are fantastic puzzles btw — one of the great things that happens in crosswords is that the absolute, unmatched best people in the business will write free for activist puzzle packs. It rules.

The new These Puzzles Fund Abortion puzzle pack is on pre-sale now. I edited a lovely puzzle for it, and the constructor lineup is stellar as always. Solve some top-tier crosswords and help super reproductive rights won’t ya

fund.nnaf.org/campaign/the...

Moving to North Korea so I can live in a country with more global allies

We’re sort of at war with everyone now, aren’t we

It’s super low hanging fruit for trolling humorless security guys who’ll never catch on in this town right now. You can basically host your own personal episode of TV Nation whenever you want

Enjoying approaching the clownishly large throngs of National Guard guys in DC and asking them how the terrorists were able to knock down the East Wing of the White House

I am unashamedly showing young parents pictures of my own kids when they were that age years old

Crossword clue reading “”Feliz ___ nuevo!” (Spanish "happy new anus!")”

We at AVCX crosswords believe that N and Ñ are different letters

MEAT SWEATS 2026 graffiti

This is the year!

Exhausting and emotional, but it went super well. If not to tell students what fascism is, its forms and its violence, with evidence and clarity, without censoring myself, I’m not sure what I could hope for from teaching.

Thank you, old friend

For sure. Fair warning it is challenging reading — we spread it over a full week. But not quite opaque, just some advanced concepts.

Thank you brother

I’LL SEE YOU SOON!!

I also learned just before class that I was promoted to Full Professor, so I hereby dedicate whatever juice comes with that to full throated anti-fascism forever.

Exhausting and emotional, but it went super well. If not to tell students what fascism is, its forms and its violence, with evidence and clarity, without censoring myself, I’m not sure what I could hope for from teaching.

The place of jazz is also utterly fascinating, and allows us to talk about the weird ways blackness, Jewishness, and queerness get all jumbled up in the far right imagination. Uh timely

The deep studies of songs, stage jokes, vocal caricature, and radio programs are so well done. I can’t help looking for my grandparents in the pictures.

We read “The Festivalization of the Everyday,” about how the party filed the calendar with events of national belonging (and in tandem, exclusion of Jews, Roma, queer people, etc). I really hope similar studies are being done about parallel efforts today.

Not sure I’ve ever put as much work into a new prep as I did for today’s lecture on sound and fascism — excited for it.

The Carolyn Birdsall book of which we read a chapter is a great history and, if I may, especially relevant right now.

muse.jhu.edu/book/66534/

Was just today reading about the importance to the nazi regime of Othering and prohibiting sex/gender alterity

An airport gate, E40 (which is also the name of a Bay Area rapper with a 2005 hyphy song called “Tell Me When to Go”)

(The screen will) tell me when to go

A bit of poetry, frankly, that doesn’t get its due.

So much parental floundering, summarized so perfectly

non-fiction books to help you fall in love with Bangkok From royal dynasties to neon nights, we’ve stacked up the best literature on the Thai capital

"Bangkok after Dark" gets a very lovely plug/review in Time Out Bangkok's newest issue. Really appreciate it a ton!

www.timeout.com/bangkok/shop...

5. The US economy’s dependence on AI may have been overstated, experts say. In 2025: it became conventional wisdom that AI was a major driver of growth. But some prominent economists estimate that it contributed as little as 0% to economic status

Aren’t we lucky that universities haven’t gotten carried away with the hype and taken a careful approach to AI?
Imagine if they had decided to push AI into our teaching and work life!
All praise to our leaders in higher ed for not falling for hype, hallelujah and praise the goddess