Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 20 March, 9 am
Interview with Phil Nee, live on the WRCO morning show, Richland Center, Wis.
Thursday, 20 March, 5-7 pm
Tomah Chamber of Commerce Author Showcase, Three Bears Resort, 701 Yogi Circle, Tomah, Wis.
Thursday, 24 Apr., 6 pm
Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Waterloo Public Library, 625 N. Monroe St., Waterloo, Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “… Every town must have a place where phony hippies meet/ Psychedelic dungeons popping up on every street …” —The Mothers of Invention MADISON, Wis.— The counterculture is back, but in a mirror image, everything in reverse. It’s been with us since 2015 but we’ve barely noticed, because of its dizzying…
Read More...by David Benjamin “A little song, a little dance/ A little seltzer down your pants.” —Chuckles the Clown, “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” MADISON, Wis.—Something has happened to TV situation comedies. Or is it me? For much of my life, I’ve been a sort of sitcom maven, not just watching and chuckling but analyzing…
Read More...by David Benjamin “”The Roman Pontiff, head of the college of bishops, enjoys this infallibility in virtue of his office, when, as supreme pastor and teacher of all the faithful—who confirms his brethren in the faith he proclaims by a definitive act a doctrine pertaining to faith or morals.” —Catechism of the Catholic Church, Paragraph…
Read More...by David Benjamin “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they’re trying to keep out of your…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Lawd, in the bourgeois town, ooh the bourgeois town,/ I got the bourgeois blues, gonna spread the news aroun’./ Me and Marthy we was standin’ upstairs,/ Heard a white man say, ‘Don’t want no niggers up there … ” — Huddy Ledbetter MADISON, Wis.—It’s instructive to regard politics, especially nowadays but—really—forever,…
Read More...by David Benjamin “I shuddered to think that while we wanted that flag dragged into the mud and sullied beyond repair, we also wanted it pristine, its white stripes, summer cloud white. Watching it wave in the breeze of a distance made us nearly choke with emotion. It lifted us up with its promise and…
Read More...by David Benjamin “I’ll have what she’s having.” —Older lady customer at Katz’s deli, When Harry Met Sally PARIS—As I was wedging my way between two thirsty Frenchmen and awaiting eye contact with the publican behind the bar at Le Baron Rouge, a wine and oyster oasis near the ancient Marché d’Aligre, I thought…
Read More...by David Benjamin “The trail of lime trees outside our building is still a public loo … where else are they supposed to go to the toilet in a city where public toilets are about as common as UFO sightings?” —Sarah Turnbull, Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris PARIS—Anyone who has…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Several of the books in question in Llano County have L.G.B.T.Q. themes or characters, or addressed racial inequality, but they also include goofy children’s titles, such as a series of picture books about flatulence.” —N.Y.Times, 13 April PARIS—Sometimes, I think Congress decided to annex Texas to the USA for the sake…
Read More...by David Benjamin “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to say what people do not want to hear.” — George Orwell MADISON, Wis.—Although I can’t track down the quotation, I recall somehow that Lillian Hellman once said something to the effect that feminism is the art of winning small battles…
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