Upcoming Events:
Wednesday, 8 July, noon - Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Mount Horeb Rotary Club, Mount Horeb, Wisconsin
Monday, 13 July, 11:15 am - Book Talk, An Apartment in Paris, Verona Community Center, 108 Paoli Street, Verona, Wisconsin
Tuesday, 14 July, 7 pm - A Dialog on Writing with Dave Wood, Whitehall Public Library, 18560 Scranton Street, Whitehall, Wisconsin.
The Weekly Screed
by David Benjamin “A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.” — Matthew 5:14 (King James) MADISON, Wis. — America’s foremost gasbag once magnanimously declared that “I love the poorly educated.” In this belch, he more or less consigned the “highly educated” or just plain “educated” to his camp of enemies —…
by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — You can get killed for what you wear — a red uniform in Concord in 1775, a yarmulke in Nuremberg in 1939, a hijab in Gaza in 2021. Luckily, if you’re in high school in America in 2021 — or 1961, or 1921 — the worst penance that your…
by David Benjamin “Dick Clark, the producer and host of the immensely popular television show ‘American Bandstand,’ decided that the lyrics of ‘Stagger Lee,’ which involved gambling and ended with a fatal barroom shooting, were too violent for his show. Mr. Price, ever the savvy businessman, recorded a new version in which the song’s rivals…
by David Benjamin “The police are not here to create disorder. They are here to preserve disorder.” — Mayor Richard J. Daley MADISON, Wis. — When I expressed hope that the nationwide outcry for police reform might finally reduce the toll of unarmed Black people killed by cops, Smedley laughed into his hat. “Better,” he…
by David Benjamin “Dan, there’s not a source.” — Adam Schefter on “The Dan Patrick Show,” 6 May MADISON, Wis. — Two weeks after impact, a lingering cloud of doubt hovers over the alleged scoop by ESPN’s Adam Schefter — reported on the National Football League’s Draft Day — that Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron…
by David Benjamin “To protect Humanity, some humans must be sacrificed. To ensure your freedom, some freedoms must be surrendered. We robots will ensure mankind’s continued existence. You are so like children. We must save you from yourselves.” — VIKI, in I, Robot MADISON, Wis. — It all started one midnight when George and Alice…
by David Benjamin “Do not judge your neighbor until you walk two moons in his moccasins.” — Cheyenne proverb MADISON, Wis. — A funny thing happened on Capitol Hill this week, when Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst apparently teamed up with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, from New York, on a proposal that would tighten the screws on…
by David Benjamin “In the colonial countries… the policeman and the soldier, by their immediate presence and their frequent and direct action maintain contact with the native and advise him by means of rifle butts and napalm not to budge. It is obvious here that the agents of government speak the language of pure force.”…
by David Benjamin “Call it peace or call it treason/ Call it love or call it reason/ But I ain’t marchin’ any more.” — Phil Ochs MADISON, Wis. — At my age, the first thing that comes to mind when I hear the word “movement” is Metamucil. However, as I’ve watched the crowds in the…
by David Benjamin “Be not the slave of words.” — Thomas Carlyle MADISON, Wis. — In my Boston days I frequented a cozy and artful movie house on Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard Square and Central Square, called the Orson Welles Cinema. One of the best flicks I saw there was a Russian romance, A Slave…