Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 22 August, 1 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books?”, Fitchburg Community Center, 5510 Lacy Rd., Fitchburg, Wis.
Thursday, 19 September, 6:30 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books, and Why This Book?”, Oregon Public Library, 200 N. Alpine Parkway, Oregon, Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “I had a doctor that gave me a letter — a very strong letter on the heels.” — Donald John Trump MADISON, Wis. — If, around 1960, I’d been a kid in the Soviet Union, it would have been my own private Siberia. If I’d been a kid in France, Devil’s…
Read More...by David Benjamin “Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.” — Richard Milhous Nixon NEW YORK CITY — Car 54 came to a screeching halt in the 700 block of Fifth Avenue. Officers Francis Muldoon and Gunther Toody leapt from their cruiser, drew their weapons and cautiously approached a…
Read More...by David Benjamin “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.” — H.L. Mencken MADISON, Wis. — As best I can guess, I became an elitist during a spelling bee in fourth grade…
Read More...Y’know, it’s fake by David Benjamin “Las Vegas is the only place I know where money really talks — it says, ‘Goodbye.’” — Frank Sinatra MADISON, Wis. — The vignettes are haunting, and as commonplace as the little hooker leaflets strewn on the pavement along the all-night electric Strip from the Mandalay Bay to the…
Read More...Up against the wall, Grandma! by David Benjamin “I don’t understand why we’re spending all this money on artificial intelligence when we can get the real thing for free” — John M. Ketteringham MADISON, Wis. — According to the latest research, it’s pretty safe to say that the current artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms for facial…
Read More...Happy Election Year By David Benjamin “I’m a Leninist. Lenin wanted to destroy the state, and that’s my goal, too.” — Steve Bannon MADISON, Wis. — The byzantine, bumbling Ukraine extortion plot engineered among a motley coterie of Trumpniks, including Gordy Sondland, Mike Duffey, Mick Mulvaney, Rudy Giuliani and, of course, the Orange Don —…
Read More...Twilight at the Last Chance Saloon By David Benjamin “Doubting everything may be a workable plan for individual survival in a fracturing media universe dominated by algorithms and digital media of dubious authenticity, but pervasive doubt could just as well bring on civilizational ruin…We’re bringing on a death-spiral of distrust — and I fear that in…
Read More...A burrow full of memes By David Benjamin “Liberals want to sit in a circle and share. Conservatives do not want to sit in a circle, and they do not want to share.” — David Blankenhorn, founder, Better Angels PARIS — Not even Noah Webster knew the word “meme” before social media gave voice and…
Read More...And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson By David Benjamin “He drained his coffee, stubbed out his cigarette, flung down some coins…” — Robert Goddard, The Ways of the World PARIS — Wait a minute! Twice, in Robert Goddard’s novel, The Ways of the World, the protagonist, James Maxted, blithely tosses “some coins” onto his table…
Read More...“It’s quiet out there… Too quiet” By David Benjamin “Never miss a good chance to shut up.” — Will Rogers MADISON, Wis. — Early in John Ford’s best film, The Searchers, the doomed Edwardses are settling in for the evening when an eerie silence settles over their desert homestead. The stillness is only broken by…
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