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 “ … Like many policy declarations by Mr. Trump, it is hard to divine his true beliefs, and impossible to assure he will not change position again. He is nothing if not mercurial. His foreign policy views, former aides say, are more often driven by pique and a sense that he has…
by David Benjamin “Conductor, when you receive a fare,/ Punch in the presence of the passenjare!/ A blue trip slip for an eight-cent fare,/ A buff trip slip for a six-cent fare,/ A pink trip slip for a three-cent fare,/ Punch in the presence of the passenjare! … “ — Mark Twain, “Punch, Brothers, Punch”…
by David Benjamin “Now and for all eternity, he will stand at his Savior’s side wearing the glorious crown of the martyr.” — Erika Kirk Shortly after the death of Pope Francis, the president posted a photoshopped picture of himself wearing a golden papal mitre and posing as Pope Donald I. This was only fitting…
by David Benjamin “If you don’t like rock ’n’ roll./ Think what you’ve been missin’./ But if you like to bop and stroll,/ Come on down and listen./ Let’s all start to have a ball./ Everybody rock ’n’ roll!/ Oh, baby, rock … ” —Danny and the Juniors MADISON, Wis.—With the possible exception of the…
by David Benjamin “It became necessary for me to choose whether, using only the existing means, agencies, and processes which Congress had provided, I should let the Government fall at once into ruin or whether, availing myself of the broader powers conferred by the Constitution in cases of insurrection, I would make an effort to…
by David Benjamin “… With computers, students can type as fast as I speak and strive for verbatim transcripts, but there is almost no mental processing of the class’s content. Conversely, virtually no one can hand write 125 words per minute for 90 minutes. Thus, handwritten notes require simultaneous mental processing to determine the important…
by David Benjamin “We’ve always thought knowledge was naught. We should be taught to dance! Right here in Tait, we’re up-to-date. We teach a great new dance! Don’t think that I brag. I speak of the drag!” —June Allyson MADISON, Wis.—Hollywood musicals, particularly the classics, croon to me a Siren’s song but, after the finale,…
by David Benjamin “How low can you go?” —Chubby Checker WASHINGTON D.C.—Smedley, who has been my undercover informant in the nation’s capital since Nancy Reagan’s astrologer, is nervous now because he has, somewhat reluctantly, come in from the cold. He has an actual salaried job in the second reich of Donald Trump and even an…
by David Benjamin “Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland. You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men,…
by David Benjamin “No more ashes, no more sackcloth, and an armband made of black cloth Will someday never more adorn a sleeve, For if the Bomb that drops on you gets your friends and neighbors, too. There’ll be nobody left behind to grieve, And we will all go together when we go … ”…