Archive for May 2026
Rage is easy, comedy is hard
by David Benjamin “Serving in Congress is like having a second shot at high school.” — Barney Frank MADISON, Wis.—The day Barney Frank stepped into my office at the Mansfield (Mass.) News, I got no sense that he was angry about anything. He had established a reputation as a) probably the smartest guy in American…
Read MoreThe fate of the friendless
by David Benjamin “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” — Muhammad Ali MADISON, Wis.—According to journalist Michael Wolff, sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein boasted that he was, for a period of…
Read MoreSal Paradise, Stephen Dedalus and me
by David Benjamin “Jack Kerouac the last time he visited my apartment 704 East 5th Street, N.Y.C., he looked by then like his late father, red-faced corpulent W. C. Fields shuddering with mortal horror, grimacing on D.M.T. I’d brought back from visiting Timothy Leary at Millbrook Psychedelic Community.” — Allen Ginsberg, 1964 MADISON, Wis.—I come…
Read More“Jesus would never/ Forgive what you do”
by David Benjamin “O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain…” — from The…
Read MoreThe kids aren’t all right
by David Benjamin “A sense of humor is just common sense dancing.” — William James MADISON, Wis.—Recently, in a spasm of random woolgathering, I recalled my circle of high-school friends and their talent for writing. I had gravitated to kids for whom well-crafted prose was a common skill. My sidekick Dick, for example, wrote a…
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