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
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…
Read More...The ophiocordyceps presidency By David Benjamin “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” — Grover Norquist MADISON, Wis. — Ever since I was an unwashed urchin turning over wet rocks next to the…
Read More...A mundane mile of Monona Drive by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — A modest building called the East Side Club was the venue last month for what Sharyn — my crack publicist — and I, decided to call a “book party,” to mark “officially” (I actually don’t have an office) the initiation of my publishing…
Read More...The Unthinkables By David Benjamin “I’m gonna tell you something. Somebody messes with me, I’m gonna mess with with him.” —Al “Scarface” Capone “When people wrong you, go after those people, because it is a good feeling. And because other people will see you doing it. I always get even.” — Donny “Pink Eyes” Trump…
Read More...The Islamic siege of Verona By David Benjamin “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” — U.S. Constitution, First Amendment MADISON, Wis. — My friend Ivan (not his real name) in Verona is under siege. The Muslim invasion there is all around him. Mohammed’s spawn are…
Read More...Red rover, red rover, send Gordy right over By David Benjamin “Robert D. Luskin, Mr. Sondland’s lawyer, said in a statement that as a State Department employee, his client had no choice but to comply with the administration’s direction. He said Mr. Sondland was ‘profoundly disappointed’ he was not able to testify, and would do…
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