The foreign despondent

by David Benjamin “First there was a single truck driver. in Genoa, then another, a friend of his, who went up to Milan… We have a printer in Genoa, he hands bundled papers off to three or four friends, and they spread it out among their friends. One takes ten, another takes twenty. And from…

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The Wayback Machine and the Manchurian Zombie

by David Benjamin “Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine… out of a DeLorean?” — Michael J. Fox (Marty McFly), Back to the Future MADISON, Wis. — Ever since I watched Rod Taylor and Yvette Mimieux fighting off the Morlocks sometime during the 80th century in George Pal’s…

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Siberia for naughty boys

  by David Benjamin “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels.”  — Donald John Trump MADISON, Wis. — If, around 1960, I’d been a kid in the Soviet Union, it would have been my own private Siberia. If I’d been a kid in France, Devil’s…

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Murder (not) on Fifth Avenue

by David Benjamin “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.”  — Richard Milhous Nixon NEW YORK CITY — Car 54 came to a screeching halt in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue. Officers Francis Muldoon and Gunther Toody leapt from their cruiser, drew their weapons and cautiously approached a…

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