Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, 6 May 9 am
Radio Interview with Phil Nee, on “Jim Otis and Smalltown Crime, WRCO Radio, Richland Center, Wis.
Friday, 29 May, 7 pm
Book Talk, Signing and Sale, on “Upstairs and the Jim Otis Series,” Belleville Books, 20 East Main St., Belleville, Ill.
Saturday, 30 May,1-3 pm
Meet & Greet, Signing & Sale of Last Kid Books, at Belleville Books, 20 East Main St., Belleville, Ill.
The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “You could be walking around lucky, and not even know it.” — Jay Trotter (Richard Dreyfuss) Let It Ride MADISON, Wis. — As I left a little Cape Cod movie house after my first viewing of Breaking Away, I sensed (dimly) that I’d just seen one of my favorite flicks of all…
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — As the Federal Reserve prepares to raise interest rates, after the biggest annual growth spurt since 1984— with an accompanying inflation uptick — there is panic on Wall Street, angst at the Federal Reserve and unrest inside the Beltway. Observing all this tsuris, I’m reminded of an obscure historic…
by David Benjamin “MAR-A-LAGO (25 January 2022) — The sudden, apparent demise of ex-president Donald J. Trump on Monday, when he choked to death spectacularly trying to swallow whole a Burger King Triple Whopper that could not be dislodged from his fat-narrowed windpipe despite the efforts of his daughter Ivanka and four muscular bodyguards simultaneously…
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Katz had the ball. God knows who passed it to him. He couldn’t dribble. Katz was a kid who couldn’t talk and adjust his glasses at the same time. He was the least coordinated kid in our gym class. If he tried to dribble, walk, talk or take his…
by David Benjamin “The digits 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 are Arabic numerals, developed in the 6th or 7th century in India and later introduced to Europe through the writings of Middle Eastern mathematicians, most notably Al-Khwarizmi and Al-Kindi, in the 12th century. These numerals paved the way for…
by David Benjamin Author’s Note: In Part 1, as you might recall, Murray Lefkowitz, the drunk Santa banished from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, applies for a sleigh-driving job with Kris Kringle, but has to assembly a team from his milieu — the down-and-out dregs of New York City. The sleigh squad Murray recruits includes a…
by David Benjamin Author’s Note: I’ve been writing Christmas stories — most of them the offbeat products of a hard-knock youth — since I was sixteen. Over the ensuing years, I’ve generated enough Benjie Christmas originals (and snatches of sliphorn verse) to constitute an entire anthology, which I plan to publish next year under the…
by David Benjamin “Elmer had, even in Zenith, to meet plenty of solemn and whiskery persons whose only pleasure aside from not doing agreeable things was keeping others from doing them.” — Sinclair Lewis PARIS — On the flight over here, I finally got around to reading Elmer Gantry — during which it readily dawned…
by David Benjamin Aaron Rodgers 1265 Lombardi Avenue Green Bay Wisconsin Dear Aaron: You’re an odd duck. I mean that in the most complimentary sense. I’m one, too. Been that way since — best guess — the summer before second grade when I was corrupted by Chucky Dutcher. You’re also a know-it-all. Me, too. Like…
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.…