A Murray Christmas to All (Part 2)

by David Benjamin Author’s Note: In Part 1, as you might recall, Murray Lefkowitz, the drunk Santa banished from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, applies for a sleigh-driving job with Kris Kringle, but has to assembly a team from his milieu — the down-and-out dregs of New York City. The sleigh squad Murray recruits includes a…

Read More

A Murray Christmas to All (Part 1)

by David Benjamin Author’s Note: I’ve been writing Christmas stories — most of them the offbeat products of a hard-knock youth — since I was sixteen. Over the ensuing years, I’ve generated enough Benjie Christmas originals (and snatches of sliphorn verse) to constitute an entire anthology, which I plan to publish next year under the…

Read More

Roe v. Gantry

by David Benjamin “Elmer had, even in Zenith, to meet plenty of solemn and whiskery persons whose only pleasure aside from not doing agreeable things was keeping others from doing them.” — Sinclair Lewis PARIS — On the flight over here, I finally got around to reading Elmer Gantry — during which it readily dawned…

Read More

“Dear Twelve…”

by David Benjamin Aaron Rodgers 1265 Lombardi Avenue Green Bay Wisconsin Dear Aaron: You’re an odd duck. I mean that in the most complimentary sense. I’m one, too. Been that way since — best guess — the summer before second grade when I was corrupted by Chucky Dutcher. You’re also a know-it-all. Me, too. Like…

Read More