Archive for October 2021
Sympathy — with airtime — for the Devil
by David Benjamin “African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing.” — Jefferson Davis MADISON, Wis. — The ratings for two Civil War retrospectives, aired Sunday on MSNBC, were probably lousy. I can only hope so. This documentary double-dip, Patricia Boynton’s “Civil War (Or, Who…
Read MoreDing dong, “in which” is dead
by David Benjamin “… It is not surprising that military leaders would be reluctant to give up on a mission their organization had invested so much in…” — Jessica D. Blankshain & Max Z. Margulies, NY Times, 16 Sept. MADISON, Wis. — This week, sportswriter Chris Conte, an online columnist for Hardwood Houdini, wrote the…
Read MoreAn oasis of culinary discourse
by David Benjamin “… It is aways advisable to remember that Paris is a city of brilliant light, and corresponding shadow which cloaks many strange things.” — Netley Lucas, Criminal Paris PARIS — In the early 1920s, a reformed British crook named Netley Lucas undertook a perilous tour through the underworld of Paris, guided —…
Read MoreSpluttering with Otto, splattering with Roy
by David Benjamin “Once you have learned how to ask questions — relevant and appropriate and substantial questions—you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” — Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner PARIS — There’s a persistent and popular prejudice, particularly in America,…
Read More“Who are those guys?”
by David Benjamin “We have had some just horrible, horrible confrontations in our public meetings in Anchorage, The top of the fold in the Anchorage paper is about an assembly meeting where individuals wore yellow Stars of David to protest the mask ordinance that the Anchorage Assembly was taking up, comparing a mask mandate to…
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