Norm Benson

What could be better than books on TV?

It’s Friday, the weekend is almost upon us, and you know what that means—Book TV. Yes, if you’re nerd enough to watch C-SPAN 2 (the second of three Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network feeds) you’ll know that it covers the US Senate during the week and devotes itself to non-fiction authors on the weekend. Mary andContinue reading “What could be better than books on TV?”

Volvos to the left of me, Volvos to the right, stuck in the middle

Yesterday, I looked at one of the three high performance Swedish driving machines that I own. The registration tag was out of date. Well, I’ll be, it is past March isn’t it? So, today I went to the Dept. of Motor Vehicles. I know, I know, some people break out in hives if they setContinue reading “Volvos to the left of me, Volvos to the right, stuck in the middle”

A Way With Words

Back in February, I’d come across a word—catachresis—in my American Heritage Dictionary. I forget what I had been looking for originally. Catatonic? Doesn’t matter. Catachresis means the “misapplication of a word or phrase” such as “the use of blatant to mean ‘flagrant’.” Mary and I have been podcasting KPBS’s A Way With Words (AWWW) andContinue reading “A Way With Words”

Rejection by the rejected

Nate Carpenter, the protagonist in my story The God of Trees muses, “Unlike relationships, my line of work is dirt simple…you grow trees, you cut trees, you plant trees. I’ve planted thousands of seedlings during my life, some grow, some don’t. It all boils down to location and luck.” I’ve been posting the first chaptersContinue reading “Rejection by the rejected”