Sports
The red-and-white blues (and yellow fringe)
The red-and-white blues (and yellow fringe) by David Benjamin “Speech doesn’t just mean written words or oral words. It could be semaphore. And burning a flag is a symbol that expresses an idea…” — Justice Antonin Scalia MADISON, Wis. — The Stars and Stripes is easily the most battered and beleaguered flag in anybody’s history.…
Read MoreWho put the “mock” in all those mock drafts?
The Packerscreed, by David Benjamin Who put the “mock” in all those mock drafts? PARIS — One of the perverse pleasures of being a hardcore fan, in any sport, is the discovery — as you get deeper into the intricacies of inside baseball, inside football, inside croquet, whatever — that the season never ends. As…
Read MoreStop playing defense, Zorba. Play the Game(s) your way!
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#731) Stop playing defense, Zorba. Play the Game(s) your way! by David Benjamin TO: Alexis Tsipras, Prime Minister, Hellenic Republic Dear Prime Minister Tsipras: Please accept my belated congratulations on your triumph last month in the Greek-bailout plebiscite. Although this was, in many respects, a Pyrrhic victory, it…
Read MoreDa Pats
WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 2015 The Weekly Screed (#720) Da Pats by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — It’s one of the ugliest scenes in the history of professional football. On 12 August 1978, in a desultory pre-season National Football League game between the Oakland Raiders and New England Patriots, Pats quarterback Steve Grogan threw an off-target…
Read MoreTo a lot of athletes dying young
, footballTUESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#693) To a lot of athletes dying young by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — Just about every year in Japan, the tabloid press reports the death of a young man, in his late teens or early twenties, in a sumo stable somewhere in Tokyo. The story typically…
Read MoreWhy must I be a (filthy rich, 80-year-old) teenager in love?
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#674) Why must I be a (filthy rich, 80-year-old) teenager in love? by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — If you listen to the full nine-minute dialog between L.A. Clippers erstwhile owner Donald Sterling and his mistress, V. Stiviano, you come across one of those prickly been-there, done-that moments…
Read More“Mammy’s power forward loves short’nin’ bread…”
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#669) by David Benjamin “Harry, that son of a bitch is ordering me to get some niggers in here. What am I going to do?” — Adolph Rupp MADISON, Wis. — The Badgers of the University of Wisconsin have the whitest team left in the NCAA basketball tournament.…
Read MoreJudge not, lest ye be screwed by the Russian judge
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2014 The Weekly Screed (#662) Judge not, lest ye be screwed by the Russian judge by David Benjamin MADISON, Wis. — The first Olympics in my recollection were the 1960 Winter Games in Squaw Valley. The memories, in grainy black and white, consist almost entirely of endless, redundant ski jumping (on tiny…
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