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Tedium. The newsletter all your other newsletters look up to.

Since 2015, Ernie Smith's Tedium has been hunting for the end of the long tail, and we've yet to find it. But we'd sure love it if you followed us on our journey. Especially now that we're ten friggin' years old and we're still using a Street Fighter II slogan as our subscribe button. Validate the use of obscure video game slang as a successful subscription strategy. Click the button.

 

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A Number Of Surprising Importance
The Latest

A Number Of Surprising Importance

The number 26, which gets back-burnered compared to numbers with neater divisibility, is an essential digit. And you’re gonna be hearing all about it in 2026.

By Ernie Smith • January 2, 2026
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The Accidental Blockbuster

The absurd comedy of errors that led to the year’s best feature story is almost too silly to be believed. But it happened.

By Ernie Smith • December 31, 2025

A Complex Case For Empathy

One of the best videos of the year came from someone who once publicly quit YouTube. It’s a multi-hour epic—and it’s stuck with me for months.

By Ernie Smith • December 30, 2025

Convoy Steamroller

The unexpected connection between advertising, a 1975 novelty song, CB radio, and some of your favorite modern Christmas tunes.

By David Buck • December 25, 2025

Beyond The Last Minute

Tedium’s annual last-minute gift guide presumes you’re going to give your loved ones gifts on the 26th … or let’s be honest, the middle of January.

By Ernie Smith • December 22, 2025

Collecting The Carts

On bottle deposits, cheap local commercials, projectile-style turkeys, union-busting grocery stores, and the friend of mine who showed me the ropes.

By Ernie Smith • December 19, 2025

WINE Cooler

Lessons on laying out the 404 Media zine using a relatively weird setup—on Linux, using Affinity, with the help of the Windows translation layer WINE.

By Ernie Smith • December 10, 2025

Compartmentalizing

How the shipping container, a dominant force in ocean shipping, came from a truck driver whose invention proved to be too good at its job.

By Ernie Smith • December 9, 2025

Break On Through To The Other Side

On doorbuster deals, and the way that shopping events like Black Friday help channel our deep-seated shopping rage.

By Ernie Smith • November 29, 2025

War Copter, Peace Train

Considering the inherent tension of the Ovation guitar, which applied aerospace concepts to the acoustic guitar. It’s a brilliant object, but perhaps a conflicted one.

By Ernie Smith • November 24, 2025
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