Personal
Papa'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 MoreA thousand rings, a single clown
A thousand rings, a single clown by David Benjamin “It’s just that there are all these Sandras running around who you’ve never met before, and it’s confusing at first, fantastic. But damn it, isn’t it great to find out how many Sandras there are? It’s like those little cars in the circus, you know? This…
Read MoreOut to dejeuner
Out to dejeuner by David Benjamin “A good photograph is like a good hound dog, dumb, but eloquent.” — Eugene Atget PARIS — I follow, meekly, the footsteps of Eugene Atget. Atget was the original, essential Parisian, unable to get his fill of the City of Light. In the early days of photography, Atget fed…
Read MoreSuperego
Superego by David Benjamin “Hooray, excelsior and pow! The ship of state is sunk and dead, And we, the fools, are at the bow, From which the wise and good have fled.” — Benjie, The Id, 1966 PARIS — Bob Schuster was my first publisher. The imprint was SRTB Ketchachokee Publications. The four letters designated…
Read MoreConfessions of a navel observer
Confessions of a navel observer by David Benjamin “It is hardly necessary to waste words over the so-called bikini since it is inconceivable that any girl with tact and decency would ever wear such a thing.” — Modern Girl, 1957 MADISON, Wis. — I went to Catholic school and developed a belly-button fetish. Looking back…
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 roar of the grease stain, the smell under the hood
The roar of the grease stain, the smell under the hood by David Benjamin “Everything in life is somewhere else, and you get there in a car.” — E. B. White MADISON, Wis. — The presumptuous Republican presidential candidate styles himself as a man of the people, the buddy of the working class. But how…
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 More“I will bomb the shit out of ISIS…”
“I will bomb the shit out of ISIS…” by David Benjamin “I am tired and sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, for vengeance, for desolation.” — William Tecumseh Sherman…
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