Upcoming Events:
Tuesday, 4 February, 10:30 am
Book Talk, “The Paradox of Smalltown Crime”, Attic Angel, 8302 Old Sauk Rd., Middleton, Wis.
Thursday, 20 March, 5-7 pm
Tomah Chamber of Commerce Author Showcase, Three Bears Resort, 701 Yogi Circle, Warrens, Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way” —Juan Ramon Jimenez PARIS—The dilemma of the moment in America and beyond: Confrontation or subversion? Or both? I offer a case in point: Many moons ago, the renowned La Scala Opera Company of Milan mounted a lengthy excursion to Japan. It brought…
Read More...by David Benjamin Jerome was a giant. Nobody told him he was a giant, but he figured it out. Jerome lived indoors and never went out. There were no windows in his house. If there were windows, the tinies might be able to squeeze inside. They might get hurt. Jerome had learned a lot from…
Read More...by David Benjamin “I think I’m going to get a Nobel Prize for a lot of things, if they gave it out fairly, which they don’t.” —Trump STOCKHOLM—In announcing the creation of a new category in the world’s most prestigious international awards program, Sigurd Sigurdssonn, chairman of the Nobel Prize Search Committee, has denied that…
Read More...Roger Goodell, Commissioner National Football League 345 Park Avenue New York NY 10154 Dear Mr. Goodell: I’m writing to you about a National Football League problem of which you are likely unaware and to which you are unlikely to seek a solution. Indeed, as with most of the occasional missives I address to the rich…
Read More...by David Benjamin “The Naming of Cats is a difficult matter, “It isn’t just one of your holiday games…” —T.S. Eliot MADISON, Wis.—If there’s any silver lining in America’s descent toward strongman despotism, it’s the left wing’s opportunity to undertake a linguistic reset, to heed Thoreau’s advice: “Simplify, simplify.” The people who uneasily call ourselves…
Read More...by David Benjamin “… Justice Merchan made clear that even if the sentencing were to go forward, he would not recommend any kind of prison sentence or home confinement.” —Maggie Haberman, NY Times, 5 Jan. ‘25 MADISON, Wis.—The inhabitants of “Earth One”—immune to the fantasy world of “X,” Fox News, Truth Social, OAN, InfoWars and…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Under those blue pajamas was a shape to set a man nuts … ” —James M. Cain, Double Indemnity MADISON, Wis.—Recently, as I watched the opening credits of the 1944 classic, Double Indemnity, I suddenly whispered, “Wow!” The writers listed for the movie—based on James M. Cain’s darkly compelling novel—were Raymond Chandler…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Strange things have happened of late and are still happening. Some of these tend to dim the lustre of the American name, and chill the hopes once entertained for the cause of American liberty. He is a wiser man than I am, who can tell how low the moral sentiment of this…
Read More...by David Benjamin “These [AI] methods only work in areas where things are empirically true, like math and science. The humanities and the arts, moral and philosophical problems are much more difficult.” — Dylan Patel, chief analyst, SemiAnalysis, MADISON, Wis.—For most of my career, I’ve been a slave to technology. This bondage began in earnest…
Read More...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…
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