@davidswanson.bsky.social
New Yorker, Scotsman, editor, writer, map and archive nerd Politics, culture, and sandwiches at https://buttondown.com/theswordandthesandwich
mea culpa
20.02.2026 17:38 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
"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
!!!! 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...
[Enter Puck.]
19.02.2026 20:56 — 👍 860 🔁 207 💬 13 📌 27
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...
18.02.2026 16:37 — 👍 80 🔁 24 💬 1 📌 3
John Brown inspects a curling stone.
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
18.02.2026 11:08 — 👍 101 🔁 20 💬 3 📌 4I 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.
16.02.2026 18:11 — 👍 289 🔁 26 💬 16 📌 4
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...
13.02.2026 18:03 — 👍 229 🔁 46 💬 12 📌 11
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...
Here it is!!!! The Sandwich Fact!!!! Near guaranteed to make you go "huh I didn't know that" unless you did!
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
02.02.2026 19:02 — 👍 557 🔁 66 💬 6 📌 2
i like my pb&j with a dense helping of historical facts about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
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...
I wrote this yesterday about the hero city of Minneapolis
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKOW...
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...
23.01.2026 18:47 — 👍 504 🔁 71 💬 25 📌 28
Thanks for the new sandwich column @swordsjew.bsky.social I needed that. Though, now I'm hungry. buttondown.com/theswordandt...
23.01.2026 18:21 — 👍 50 🔁 6 💬 2 📌 3
“The Grateful Dead, more than most, is a band of eras. Each year has a distinct sound to it,” Nick Paumgarten wrote in 2012. More on the lore of the rock band.
www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...
me, thinking to myself: boy i had kind of a breakdown and read 400 romance novels instead of writing about the news for most of the last year
me, writing about this phenomenon: I built myself an inner Elba, and exiled myself to an isle of love
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
for new years you should become a paid subscriber to my newsletter so i can write about romance and gender and sandwiches and as much politics as i can handle at erratic intervals and you'll love it
buttondown.com/theswordandt...
YES and we have an amazing entry today feat. @swordsjew.bsky.social, Jack Pendarvis, and Misha Angrist
Anchors aweigh!!
flaminghydra.com/issue-471/
A menorah in a window across the street from a building displaying a Nazi flag.
Happy Hanukkah to our friends who celebrate. Rachel Posner, a rabbi’s wife in Kiel, Germany, took this photograph in 1931 -- a potent reminder that fascism must be fought in every generation, even if it's wrapped in an American flag and a red hat.
08.12.2023 01:50 — 👍 2283 🔁 683 💬 13 📌 27
A digital atlas of ancient Rome’s highways and byways reveals a road network that was more extensive than thought, according to a study published last month.
09.12.2025 13:25 — 👍 123 🔁 34 💬 5 📌 9
Where the Original ‘America First’ Leader Went to Die
@stephenrodrick.bsky.social visits Charles Lindbergh’s gravesite, recalling parallels with the man who picked up Lindbergh’s nativist scepter, Donald Trump.
Dispatch: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
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...
05.12.2025 17:03 — 👍 516 🔁 89 💬 46 📌 46
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...
evangelicals love jews like a hungry man loves a chicken wing
21.11.2025 16:13 — 👍 271 🔁 31 💬 2 📌 0
No prizes for guessing who grok chose sorry
I asked grok who was the better role model for humanity, Jesus Christ or Elon Musk. GUESS WHAT.
20.11.2025 20:34 — 👍 2137 🔁 575 💬 222 📌 220[BBC Scotland] reaction to [4]-2 K. McLean 90+7
18.11.2025 22:12 — 👍 110 🔁 24 💬 1 📌 20every british sandwich is just like "we put carbs between other carbs" it is impressive
18.11.2025 21:40 — 👍 504 🔁 28 💬 42 📌 7
