Memory

by David Benjamin “Don’t be afraid, as no life-loving bee wants to sting you. Still, don’t be an idiot; wear long sleeves and pants. Don’t swat. Don’t even think about swatting. If you feel angry, whistle. Anger agitates while whistling melts a bee’s temper. Act like you know what you’re doing, even if you don’t.…

A mundane mile of Monona Drive by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — A modest building called the East Side Club was the venue last month for what Sharyn — my crack publicist — and I, decided to call a “book party,” to mark “officially” (I actually don’t have an office) the initiation of my publishing…

Halloween… before parents by David Benjamin Time was, Halloween was kid turf — just kids. The grownups’ job was to hunker inside, answer the door and fill bags. On any given Halloween in those Wild West days, a kid could cover every prosperous block from Lemonweir Creek to Elizabeth Street and not spot one adult…

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…

Colder than a catlicker’s nose by David Benjamin “We strongly encourage all New Yorkers to stay inside as much as possible… as the cold weather continues. Check on neighbors when you can and bring your pets inside.” — Mayor Bill De Blasio, New York City, temp. 19° F “That’s winter in Wisconsin. It’s nothing really…

New York polite by David Benjamin “It is one of the sublime provincialities of New York that its inhabitants lap up trivial gossip about essential nobodies they’ve never set eyes on, while continuing to boast that they could live somewhere for twenty years without so much as exchanging pleasantries with their neighbors across the hall.”…