Big Bill Benjamin — not to be mistaken for Ward Cleaver

TUESDAY, JULY 1, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#682) Big Bill Benjamin — not to be mistaken for Ward Cleaver by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — My father was largely absent from my life for more than 20 years — during which, presumably, my character was being (mal)formed. As I commiserated at Dad’s funeral among my…

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The Bergdahl paradox

THURSDAY, JUNE 5, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#679) The Bergdahl paradox by David Benjamin “There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be…

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The death of Paris (greatly exaggerated)

FRIDAY, MAY 16, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#676) The death of Paris (greatly exaggerated) by David Benjamin PARIS — In mythology, Paris was a Trojan prince who left his first wife to steal Helen from Greece, cuckolding Helen’s hubby Menelaus and launching the Trojan War. In combat, Paris was a notorious coward eventually wounded by…

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A natural woman

MONDAY, MARCH 10, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#666) A natural woman by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Hotlips, who was born in Hiroshima ten years after the Bomb, was among 51 honest-looking people who raised their right hands last week in a Milwaukee courthouse and lied their way into America. It would be nice to…

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Sky lantern

FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#660) Sky lantern by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — When I look back, my friendship with Paul Keeffe seemed to spring up almost instantaneously. On first sight, there was a glint of mischief in his eyes that told me he was One of Us. He was a new…

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Something in the air

WEDNESDAY, JULY 31, 2013 The Weekly Screed (#639) Something in the air by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — From place to place, the air is always different. Or so it seems. Most of us, if we sense this at all, register these shades of difference not palpably or knowingly, but in the region beneath perception,…

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