Upcoming Events:
Monday, 9 June, 10:30 am
Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Fitchburg Community Center, 5510 Lacy Road, Fitchburg, Wis.
Saturday, 14 June, 1-3 pm
Meet & Greet, Barnes & Noble, West Towne, Madison
Thursday, 19 June, 10 am
Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Middleton Community Center, 7448 Hubbard Ave. Middleton Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
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…
Read More...by David Benjamin “In the fell clutch of circumstance I have not winced nor cried aloud. Under the bludgeonings of chance My head is bloody, but unbowed…” —William Ernest Henley, “Invictus” MADISON, Wis. — Jeez Louise, whatever became of the strong, silent type? For all my life, and yours, the first commandment of…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Hot town, summer in the city? Back of my neck getting dirty and gritty…” —John Sebastian MADISON, Wis. — You don’t have to guess what city John Sebastian was thinking about when he — along with Steve Boone and his brother Mark — wrote “ … All around, people looking half-dead, Walking on…
Read More...by David Benjamin “… laws are being shoved through Congress that specifically restrict certain firearms, armor, ammo and the like. The Obama administration made it clear that their agenda was to disarm patriots, just like Hitler, Stalin, [Pol] Pot and Mao did. We are headed for disaster…” —Lisa Haven, The Millennium Report (dated Feb. 2018)…
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