As the only person in my family born and bred in Wisconsin, I have had life experiences that were not available to my Minnesota kin. For example, I have been to and enjoyed many cheese…
Posts tagged Essays
Love is a four-letter word
I’ve grown leery of the essay anthology after the horrible experience I had reading Things I Would Have Learned in English 101 if I Hadn’t Skipped Class to Have Sex, I mean, Things I Learned…
Augusten Burroughs is on probabtion
I read Magical Thinking on recommendation from a friend who understands and appreciates my intense germaphobia. She had read his essay entitled “Rat/Thing,” where Burroughs goes into his bathroom in the dead of night and…
When You Are Engulfed in Flames
Most often when I’m reading, I’m alone in the room if not the entire house. I usually don’t laugh out loud while reading unless there’s someone nearby I can share the humor with. I don’t…
Memoir of a Literary Master
Three things are clear about Kurt Vonnegut: he loves the work of Mark Twain; he loves the character of Abraham Lincoln; he absolutely, without a doubt, hates our former President George W. Bush. Now that…
The Nicomachean Ethics
Reading Aristotle's The Nicomachean Ethics reminded me of a recent training I conducted at work. I teach a simplified form of process development in a culture that propagates making easy processes difficult. Ben: Using this…
My name is Ben and I am a Sarah Vowell fanboy
It is difficult to write objectively about a book when the author both makes you laugh and seems to always write about things that interest you. For me, this author is Sarah Vowell and the…
Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks
Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks is a collection of thirteen essays authored by various academics and one film critic about assorted facets of “Twin Peaks.” Full of Secrets has been on my…
When you are engulfed with an overwhelming sense of apathy
I was a late comer to the David Sedaris party. While everyone I knew was going on and on about how funny he was, I was busy reading dark and depressing, serious “literature” or, you…