Archive for December 2024
You want to be free? How much you got?
by David Benjamin “… The president-elect has 96.2 million followers on X, while Mr. Musk has 207.9 million. (Mr. Musk is also far richer than Mr. Trump. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, he is worth $458 billion, while the president-elect is worth a mere $6.61 billion.)…” — NY Times, 19 Dec. MADISON, Wis.—Once, one…
Read MoreThe editorial hole
by David Benjamin “How to write: butt in chair. Start each day anywhere. Let yourself do it badly. Just take one passage at a time. Get butt back in chair.” Anne Lamott MADISON, Wis.—Since the mid-1970s, I’ve spent my life deep in the editorial hole with no way out and no serious effort to escape.……
Read MoreWhere’s Santa?
by David Benjamin We gotta send Santa Claus back to the Rescue Mission. Christmas don’t make it no more. Don’t you know that murder and destruction Scream the toys in every store… — Frank Zappa Ralphie was too old to believe in Santa Claus but zero hour was approaching and he couldn’t afford to risk…
Read MoreThe residue of journalism
by David Benjamin “From journalism I learned to write under pressure, to work with deadlines, to have limited space and time, to conduct and interview, to find information, to research, and above all, to use language as efficiently as possible and to remember always that there is a reader out there.” ― Isabel Allende MADISON,……
Read MoreInvasion of the Hermaphrodites!
by David Benjamin “It was difficult for me to see the relationship between public morals and public toilets, as to me those facilities had been more a matter of convenience than of sex.” —Christine Jorgensen MADISON, Wis.—Come here once. Follow me into the boys’ room. I know, it’s a scary place—where dead-end kids go to…
Read More