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
Zen and the art of sexual predation by David Benjamin “I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything.” — You-know-who MADISON, Wis. — Motoko Rich, in the Times, reported last week that a Japanese bureaucrat…
Suckered by the rich guy by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — For a while in grade school, I was friends with a kid named Fat Vinny. He wasn’t friends with me. Fat Vinny had no friends. He was the most hated kid in school — no. In the whole town. Other kids despised Fat Vinny so…
A trailing spouse by David Benjamin “He LIED! LIED! LIED! McCabe was totally controlled by Comey — McCabe is Comey!! No collusion, all made up by this den of thieves and lowlifes!” — Donald Trump, 13 Apr. TAIPEI — Too often, we tend to measure our lives by our irritations. We have, for instance, a White…
Rules for well-fed romantics by David Benjamin “Paris is a place where, for me, just walking down a street that I’ve never been down before is like going to a movie or something. Just wandering the city is entertainment.” — Wes Anderson PARIS — Lisa, who’s much younger than I and naturally contrarian, leans toward…
Hail, hail Freedonia! by David Benjamin “The last man nearly ruined this country./ He didn’t know what to do with it./ If you think this country’s bad off now,/ Just wait ’til I get through with it!” — Rufus T. Firefly PARIS — The latest burst of palace intrigue in the Trump White House sent…
How it should be done by David Benjamin “Real life is slow; it takes professionals time to figure out what happened, and how it fits into context. Technology is fast. Smartphones and social networks are giving us facts about the news much faster than we can make sense of them, letting speculation and misinformation fill…
Alone and palely loitering, among the deviceniks by David Benjamin “The spread of automation could cause some Asian countries to lose eighty percent of their textile industry jobs. What on earth are they going to do? How will they support their families? What will they do with their time?” — Jim Yong Kim, President, World…
Get out of the kitchen by David Benjamin “Can you see why some of us are whispering? It is the sense of viciousness lying in wait, of violent hate just waiting to be unfurled, that leads people to keep their opinions to themselves, or to share them only with close friends.” — Katie Roiphe PARIS…
A few questions for the populist in chief by David Benjamin “People who boast about their IQ are losers.” — Stephen Hawking Not long ago, Donald Trump spent years demanding that President Barack Obama produce his birth certificate and prove that he was a natural-born citizen. Trump also wanted to see the president’s college transcripts,…
With apologies to Dangerous Dan McGrew by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — This week marks the 40th anniversary of the Blizzard of ’78, a thousand-year northeaster that buried New England under four feet of wet snow in a span of a little more than 24 hours. The vortex of that storm was a little town…