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 “An honest propagandist for any Cause, that is, one who honestly studies and figures out the most effective way of putting over his Message, will learn fairly early that it is not fair to ordinary folks—it just confuses them—to try to make them swallow all the true facts that would be suitable…
by David Benjamin “I want you all to get up out of your chairs, I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell, ‘I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’” —Howard Beale (Peter Finch), Network, 1976 MADISON, Wis.—Everybody recognizes…
by David Benjamin “The dogs were tearing at the girls’ bodies. Irma [Grese] came closer to observe what they were doing. Her eyes were bloodshot. The sight of the blood seemed to intoxicate her. She panted. She was sexually excited—everybody could see that. We stood in a trance, as at a gladiatorial combat.” —Gisella Perl,…
by David Benjamin But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley, An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain, For promis’d joy! — Robert Burns Eighteen years ago, when mobile telephony was only “3G” and “smartphones” were still…
by David Benjamin “… You may never know which colleague posted your address on the internet or which neighbor anonymously reported your undocumented status to ICE. But, say, when those immigration agents show up at your asylum hearing, you can bet that at least some of them will be wearing masks and hiding their identities,…
by David Benjamin “… [Kilmar] Abrego García and [Jennifer] Vasquez Sura — who had married through a glass partition at the ICE detention center… ” ― Washington Post, 19 Apr. MADISON, Wis.—On our lavatory wall in Paris, there’s one of those “What’s wrong with this picture?” puzzles. There are, in the photo, about two dozen…
by David Benjamin “This is a country for white men, and by God, as long as I am President, it shall be a government for white men.” —President Andrew Johnson, 1866 MADISON, Wis.—It did not occur to me, until maybe my eighth birthday, that I was white. Once that awareness had sunk in, I shrugged…
by David Benjamin “I am lucky enough in my life to come across some of the most talented athletes in soccer. And President Trump is made of the same sort of fibre.” —Gianni Infantino, FIFA president PARIS—Largely because I depend on its frequent flyer program for early boarding and free luggage, I’ve been “loyal” to…
by David Benjamin “I love coffee, I love tea/ I love the java jive and it loves me/ Coffee and tea and the java and me/ A cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, a cup, boy … ” —Milton Drake & Ben Oakland MADISON, Wis.—“No coffee?” I cried. “What the hell do you mean,…
by David Benjamin “We cannot get away from the fact that a child is hard-wired to bond with mom. They know her smell, they know her heartbeat, they know her voice. I just think, why should we deny that?” —Jenet Erickson, Institute for Family Studies MADISON, Wis.—I wasn’t interested in my mother. She pretty much…