The Trumple with tribbles

by David Benjamin “China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency … I want to thank President Xi!”  — Trump MADISON, Wis. — 1) Let’s give the president an iota of credit. A popular perception is that he spends his days — save for…

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Saving Alaska from literature

by David Benjamin “So now do you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life. The comfortable people want only wax moon faces, poreless, hairless, expressionless.”  — Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451 MADISON, Wis. — The latest illiterate school board to get into the book-banning biz is in…

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Pandemic notes 1.0: First pants, then shoes

by David Benjamin “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,…

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This can’t be happening to us

by David Benjamin “After the Black Death came the Renaissance. From the depths of economic horror came Roosevelt’s New Deal. From this horror, so far, come the senseless twists and turns of the orange Narcissus.”  — Roger Cohen, N.Y. Times MADISON, Wis. — Although I can’t explain why, I’ve always enjoyed reading books about fatal…

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