Upcoming Events:
Saturday, 13 December, 6 pm
Book Talk, “Unexpected Variations on the Theme of Christmas,” Garden Wall Bookshop (formerly Kismet Books) 101 N. Main St., Verona, Wis.
Friday, 16 January, 6 pm
Book Talk, Signing and Sale, An Apartment in Paris, Benjamin's Mess, The Gathering Place, 715 Campus St., Milton, Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “Kings are like stars. They rise and set, they have the worship of the world, but no repose.”— Percy Bysshe Shelley MADISON, Wis. — Since monarchy fell out of fashion, it’s gotten tougher to be an autocrat. Donald Trump, for example, appeared to be rising unstoppably toward a sort of reich amerikanisch.…
by David Benjamin “Judge Rayford: Mr. Kirkland you are out of order! “Arthur Kirkland: You’re out of order! You’re out of order! The whole trial is out of order! They’re out of order!…” — And Justice For All (1979) A COURTROOM SOMEWHERE IN WISCONSIN — The judge pushed aside several empty Chinese food cartons and…
by David Benjamin “I think that they’re making a terrible mistake and they’re injuring children’s brains. It’s the second child abuse crisis in the Catholic Church.” — Denny Doyle MADISON, Wis. — There’s a visionary in Cincinnati, although some consider him a crank, named Denny Doyle, who’s trying to convince the Catholic Youth Organization to…
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — So, it’s 1965 or ’66 and I’m between classes in high school. I encounter a singularly yummy girl named Sherry, who has a reputation. Gently, she pins me against the lockers and goes into a sort of Mae West “Why don’t you come up and see me sometime?” routine.…
by David Benjamin “African slavery, as it exists in the United States, is a moral, a social, and a political blessing.” — Jefferson Davis MADISON, Wis. — The ratings for two Civil War retrospectives, aired Sunday on MSNBC, were probably lousy. I can only hope so. This documentary double-dip, Patricia Boynton’s “Civil War (Or, Who…
by David Benjamin “… It is not surprising that military leaders would be reluctant to give up on a mission their organization had invested so much in…” — Jessica D. Blankshain & Max Z. Margulies, NY Times, 16 Sept. MADISON, Wis. — This week, sportswriter Chris Conte, an online columnist for Hardwood Houdini, wrote the…
by David Benjamin “… It is aways advisable to remember that Paris is a city of brilliant light, and corresponding shadow which cloaks many strange things.” — Netley Lucas, Criminal Paris PARIS — In the early 1920s, a reformed British crook named Netley Lucas undertook a perilous tour through the underworld of Paris, guided —…
by David Benjamin “Once you have learned how to ask questions — relevant and appropriate and substantial questions—you have learned how to learn and no one can keep you from learning whatever you want or need to know.” — Neil Postman & Charles Weingartner PARIS — There’s a persistent and popular prejudice, particularly in America,…
by David Benjamin “We have had some just horrible, horrible confrontations in our public meetings in Anchorage, The top of the fold in the Anchorage paper is about an assembly meeting where individuals wore yellow Stars of David to protest the mask ordinance that the Anchorage Assembly was taking up, comparing a mask mandate to…
by David Benjamin “A pestilence isn’t a thing made to man’s measure; therefore we tell ourselves that pestilence is a mere bogy of the mind, a bad dream that will pass away. But it doesn’t always pass away and, from one bad dream to another, it is men who pass away.” ― Albert Camus, The…