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 “The cup of forbearance had been exhausted… now, after reiterated menaces, Mexico has passed the boundary of the United States, has invaded our territory and shed American blood upon the American soil. She has proclaimed that hostilities have commenced, and that the two nations are now at war.” — President James K.…
Read More...by David Benjamin ‘You remind me of a man.’ ‘What man?’ ‘The man with the power.’ ‘What power?’ ‘The power of hoodoo.’ ‘Hoodoo?’ ‘You do, remind me of a man.’ ‘What man?’…” — Cary Grant & Shirley Temple, The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer PARIS — Once, in my early worklife, on a Wednesday,…
Read More...“Isn’t it funny how day by day nothing changes, but when you look back everything is different.” — C.S. Lewis PARIS — We’ve lost an oasis. We had a pretty faithful routine. Each time we’ve flown into Paris, we climb to our aerie atop the Fifth Arrondissement, settle in and take an afternoon anti-jet…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Stairs can kill us, if we do not walk circumspectly.” — Blaise Pascal PARIS — When I’m out and around, I don’t think about the stairs. I just face them when I get home and slog my way up—more slowly than when we bought this place—five floors up and just beneath the…
Read More...by David Benjamin “They framed an ad that is chilling and kind of classic in its way. It features a portrait of this very scary looking, disheveled, wild-eyed black man. As [Lee] Atwater once said, by the end of this campaign, you’re going to think that Willie Horton is Michael Dukakis’ running mate.” — Bill…
Read More...by David Benjamin “A clear conscience is the sure sign of a bad memory.” — Mark Twain MADISON, Wis. — Last weekend at my 55th-year high-school reunion, I drifted from the crowd and found, alone at a table, a woman whose name tag—featuring her 1967 yearbook photo—read Linda. Hesitantly, I sat with her.…
Read More...by David Benjamin “On TV the people can see it. On radio you’ve got to create it.” — Bob Uecker MADISON, Wis. — I’m not Ohio State. I’ve been an avid Green Bay Packers fan since I was twelve, but, despite repeated suggestions by TV color commentators like Daryl Johnston, I am not—personally—the…
Read More...by David Benjamin “We are going to have a long-term worker shortage. So, bringing back high-labor content products doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” — Sen. Ron Johnson MADISON, Wis. — One of the capitalists myths punctured by the Covid-19 pandemic was the efficiency of the global supply chain, which allowed corporations to…
Read More...by David Benjamin “If they give you ruled paper, write the other way” —Juan Ramon Jimenez, quoted by Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451 MADISON, Wis. — Nobody is quite sure whether the school board in Keller, Texas has “officially” banned from its libraries the Bible and The Diary of Anne Frank. They seem to…
Read More...by David Benjamin “The Negro race has had enough trouble, more than enough of its share of injustice, oppression, tragedy, suffering and sorrow. And because of the social progress which Negroes achieved in the face of these handicaps, it is best that The Birth of a Nation in its present form be withheld from public…
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