Upcoming Events:
Thursday, 22 August, 1 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books?”, Fitchburg Community Center, 5510 Lacy Rd., Fitchburg, Wis.
Thursday, 19 September, 6:30 pm
Book Talk, “Why Books, and Why This Book?”, Oregon Public Library, 200 N. Alpine Parkway, Oregon, Wis.
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The Weekly Screed
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#706) The thing is… by David Benjamin “The thing is to put a motor in yourself.” — Frank Zappa LAS VEGAS — According to all the banners, keynote speakers and shameless self-promoters at this year’s Consumer Electronics Saturnalia (CES), the thing is the “Internet of Things.” The very…
Read More...SUNDAY, JANUARY 18, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#705) An interactive love story for the third millenium by David Benjamin LAS VEGAS — Fifteen years ago, just before the Consumer Electronics Show, Cisco Systems announced a deal with Whirlpool “to jointly build networked appliances, such as washing machines that can automatically detect mechanical problems and summon…
Read More...FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#704) My mother, the raised ranch with detached garage by David Benjamin LAS VEGAS — In the area of technology, the popular media tend to be more credulous than when they cover analog news like evolution, abortion and Big Bang cosmology. One of the whizbang wonders regularly revived…
Read More...THURSDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#703) The fresh eye dances, the jaded eye drifts by David Benjamin PARIS — A.O. Scott, the Times’ venerable movie critic has named his Ten Best Films of 2014. I confess that I didn’t pay it much heed, despite my respect for Scott’s erudition. A guilty glance told…
Read More...WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#702) Izzy Glick, Nativity impresario by David Benjamin BETHLEHEM, 0 A.D. — Contrary to popular legend, the desk clerk at the inn — whose name was Nahim — was sympathetic to the bedraggled couple who arrived from Nazareth and asked for a room. After giving them the bad…
Read More...MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#701) Christmas through a glass, darkly by David Benjamin On a recent visit to New York, I got together with a lifelong friend, Pat Keeffe, who was in the first graduating class (‘65) at LaFollette High. Earlier this year, Pat and his family had mourned the too-soon loss…
Read More...TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#700) Diary of a wetback skip tracer by David Benjamin “ICE deported almost 393,000 people from the U.S. in 2010. At $12,500 per person the cost to remove them was almost $5 billion.” — Associated Press This is the city. Los Angeles. I work here. I’m a dick.…
Read More...MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#699) With friends like these… by David Benjamin “… the Islamic State, or ISIS, is homegrown; its aim is not to strike far away, but to spread and impose its vision of Islamic society right here and right now…” — Thomas L. Friedman in Dubai MADISON, Wis. —…
Read More...THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#698) What’s in it for me? by David Benjamin “This is not the time to lay out an agenda.” — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell MADISON, Wis. — Every election year, the New York Times sends reporters out to some depressed working-class community in flyover country — Ypsilanti,…
Read More...THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#697) The first thing we do, let’s kill all the spies by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Americans tend to learn most of what we know about our “intelligence” establishment by watching TV. For example, I consumed a whole season of “Homeland” and discovered that your typical CIA…
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