Memory
Useless stuff I’m glad I learned (mostly in high school)
Useless stuff I’m glad I learned (mostly in high school) by David Benjamin “… And we, so sadly past the bonfire and celebration of our birth, Shall burn quietly, Passing, on a zephyr, into a new realm And blaze anew.” — David Benjamin, Robert M. LaFollette High school yearbook, 1967 MADISON, Wis. — Looking forward…
Read MoreBooksellers and booksmellers
Booksellers and booksmellers by David Benjamin “I know every book of mine by its scent, and I have but to put my nose between its pages to be reminded of all sorts of things.” — George Gissing MADISON, Wis. — I started smelling books — every serious reader does this — at the Tomah Public Library,…
Read MoreBack home, in the Shinjuku death maze
Back home, in the Shinjuku death maze by David Benjamin CHIGASAKI, Japan — On the streets of Tokyo, population 20 million, facing waves of 80-year-old kamikaze bicyclists wearing surgical masks and wielding umbrellas like bayonets, watching with wonder as an office lady in a pencil skirt sprints through traffic on three-inch heels with a stack…
Read MorePapa's thumbnail
Papa’s thumbnail by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — My grandfather’s hands fascinated me. Papa, as we called him, put in fifty years at the Milwaukee Road frog shops in Tomah. He was a machinist, repairing switches and the huge steel “frogs” that intersected rail lines. When he arrived home after his eight hours, I would…
Read MoreFix it, America
Fix it, America by David Benjamin “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” — Samuel Johnson MADISON, Wis. — Sam Johnson’s observation on the nature of knowledge keeps coming back to me, sometimes unexpectedly. The latest occasion was a comment by Paul…
Read MoreThe universal kitchen table
The universal kitchen table by David Benjamin “Out of the kitchen, to stew is to fret, to worry, to agitate. In the kitchen, however, to stew is to have great expectations” — Molly O’Neill PARIS — In another life, with another wife, my in-laws were Ralph and Edie, who lived above a store in Jamaica…
Read More“We could dump it… over the rail”
“We could dump it… over the rail” by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — My kid brother, Bill, had no particular plans. His style was to go with the flow, roll with the punches. You could get into Bill’s face but you couldn’t get much lip. He’d find an angle of deflection. He’d step aside with…
Read MoreGetting Peggy back
Getting Peggy back by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — We’re getting my sister back. We began to lose Peg, my previously bossy big sister, when her body was taken over by a merciless mystery called lupus. It invaded her kidneys, eventually devouring them. She got a replacement kidney, named Steve, from a young man who…
Read MoreDonald and Sarah in my mother’s living room
Donald and Sarah in my mother’s living room by David Benjamin MADISON Wis. — I couldn’t help it. There on TV, broadcast from somewhere in darkest, dimmest Iowa, was the second coming of Sarah Palin, riffing and jiving, flapping her arms, cackling at her own jokes and speaking fluent bumper-sticker — while Donald Trump stood…
Read MoreTo drive or not to drive
To drive or not to drive by David Benjamin “… Went around a corner and I passed a truck I whispered a prayer just for luck Fenders was clicking the guardrail posts The guys beside me were white as a ghost…” — Charlie Ryan, “Hot Rod Lincoln” MADISON, Wis. — My mother was a debutante…
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