Upcoming Events:
Friday, 24 April, 2 p.m.
Independent Press Association BookCamp, David Benjamin to speak on “The Writer’s Gauntlet,” Hilton Doubletree Hotel, Newark, New Jersey
Thursday, 30 April 2:15 pm
Radio Interview with Sharyn Alden on “Everybody’s Got a Story,” Sun Prairie Media Center
Wednesday, 6 May 9 am
Radio Interview with Phil Nee, on “Jim Otis and Smalltown Crime, WRCO Radio, Richland Center, Wis.
The Weekly Screed
Roxie Alexander and General Ed by David Benjamin “… Mathematical Practices: Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them. Reason abstractly and quantitatively. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others. Model with mathematics. Use appropriate tools strategically. Attend to precision. Look for and make use of structure. Look for and express regularity…
The pathological preppie by David Benjamin “What happens at Georgetown Prep stays at Georgetown Prep.” — Brett Kavanaugh (2015) “You’ve got to deny, deny, deny and push back on these women.” — Donald Trump MADISON, Wis. — Until I moved to Boston, I had little experience with prep school boys. Even those I’d met were…
“The hard…” by David Benjamin “JUST a bit outside.” — Bob Uecker, as Harry Doyle, Major League MADISON, Wis. — As long as Japan, Korea and the Dominican Republic keep sending talent to the Major Leagues, no one can credibly claim that baseball is exclusively “America’s pastime.” However, the U.S.A. — specifically, Hollywood — can…
Impure wind by David Benjamin “In our age, there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues a political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia. When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer.” — George Orwell, Politics and the English Language (1946) MADISON,…
A moving day by David Benjamin “Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened… ” — T.S. Eliot MADISON, Wis. — I’m sometimes subject to a wave of nostalgia. I got hit by one the other day and almost drove onto the median and…
The yellow dogs of asymmetric war by David Benjamin “I think most people in this country realize that Donald Trump comes from… New York City… a slam-bang, difficult world. It is amazing he is as good as he is. If anything, you have to give him plaudits for the way he has run the country.”…
The garlic thief by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — I confess. The other night, I robbed the supermarket. Here’s what happened. Hotlips was making pesto from the rampant basil plant that had swallowed our balcony and was threatening to re-enact The Day of the Triffids in the parlor. The missing ingredient in Hotlips’ recipe was…
Glaucoma of the mind by David Benjamin “Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.” ― Ludwig Wittgenstein PARIS — As a college freshman, I had the odd experience of not being seen all morning, three days a week, by my teachers. Ms. Slavens, my Spanish professor, moved nimbly around campus with a white cane and…
“ICE the Wall!” “Abolish the build!” by David Benjamin “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ― George Orwell, 1984 PARIS — I’ve never put much stock in slogans. Which is not to say I don’t enjoy them. It’s just that the best slogans ever conceived have nowhere to go. The thrill you…
First came the Romans by David Benjamin “I like Chinese,/ They only come up to your knees./ Yet they’re wise, and they’re witty, and they’re ready to please…” — Monty Python PARIS — First, after the war, it was the Americans. Flush and cocky, they invaded, brandishing their “Europe on Five Dollars a Day” manuals,…