Search results for ""author david benjamin""

Fat Vinny, the most repulsive eighth-grader in the history of Tomah, is in love. He has chosen as the apple of his eye the wrongest girl he could possibly pursue. Worse than that, he has decided to involve in his sexual awakening the only kid on earth whom he can call “friend.” Fat Vinny’s weird romance, accompanied by disgusting poetry, drags our hero, seventh-grade Benjamin, into a world of sex where he doesn’t want to go. He has enough troubles already. Father Finucan is furious about the “incident” at eight o’clock Mass. Sister Mary Ann is plotting his destruction. He’s learning “The Facts of Life” from Wes and Wally, who only know about it from dirty jokes. His “best friend” Koscal is a pain in the ass. And his big sister Peg keeps yelling at him to stay away from Fat Vinny. But every time he thinks he’s free, Vinny reels him back in… to the peeping Tom incident and the lost sneaker… to the two break-ins at the priests’ house… to the mad chase from the library… all the way to the high-speed climax in old man Geisendorff’s stolen Thunderbird. A sampling of the provocative and often hilarious essays, sketches and screeds David Benjamin has written weekly for decades. Throughout, David Benjamin embodies a dictum that irreverent essayists, from Voltaire and Twain to Dave Barry and Gail Collins, have faithfully embraced: Nothing is sacred.

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Josie Dobbs, sweet sixteen and beautiful, is everybodys angel. Or is she? Police chief Jim Otis, fired from the Chicago Police after an affair with an underage hooker, is a lost cause. Or is he? Josie has secrets nobody in little Hercules, Wisconsin, wants to uncover. Nobody but Jim Otis. In his last month on the job, the lame-duck chief must unravel the dark side of Josie Dobbs, or a young Marine could go to jail -- and innocent people might die. Otis wades into a swamp of sordid trysts and local gossip-mongers, sorting lies from truth from rumors in a dogged pursuit to find out what really happened one cold night in November at the Hercules Hardware.

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Architecture is increasingly understood as a field of practice that is inextricably embedded in ecologies and energy systems, and yet embodied energy-the various forms of energy required to ex- tract raw matter, to produce and transport building materials, and to assemble a given building- remains largely under-explored in its ramifications for both design and environment. As operational energy has declined as a proportion of buildings' total energy consumption, embodied energy has become an essential site for further speculation and innovation. Embodied Energy and Design: Making Architecture between Metrics and Narratives asks questions about the varying scales, methods of analysis, and opportunities through which we might reconsider the making of architecture in the context of global flows of energy and resources.

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Where the hell is Carrie Crowfoot? Jim Otis, police chief of Hercules, Wis., doesn't know. But he suspects that the disappearance of the popular high-school cheerleader connects somehow to his nemesis, teenage femme fatale, Josie Dobbs. But Josie has left town for college in Philadelphia. How does a scheming seductress in Philly pull off an abduction a thousand miles away? Meanwhile, how can Jim Otis -- who does NOT understand women -- cope with all the other women in his life? His "trouble" includes his girlfriend Carol, his ex-wife Connie, his daughter Natalie, his ex-paramour Elena, Native American activist Angelina Killdeer, superannuated hippie Crystal MacDougal and Town Council scold Electra Grimes -- not to mention Minnie Trout, Maisie Hopkins and the enigmatic Professor Swerdlow. All Jim Otis can do -- to save Carrie -- is plug away, follow his cop instincts, and get by with the help of his (female) friends.

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Reporter Steve Knight has stumbled into a terrorist plot to destroy Japan's Imperial family and turn Asia's model democracy into a gangster state. Along with his fierce and beautiful sidekick, Mie Nishimura, Steve joins forces with "Japan hand" Ike Greenwald to foil the terrorists. As Steve's motley crew struggles to save the Emperor, the Black Dragons dispatch assassins to kill them, too! Japan's fate comes down - at last - to a wild race through Tokyo, amidst a hail of bombs and bullets, in a disintegrating VW Beetle!

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David Benjamin pays homage to the exuberance of countless untamed boys who grew up in Middle America at mid-century. Whether hes stalking snakes in the bogs of Wisconsin. playing four-kid baseball with his bothersome little brother and two favourite cousins, leaping garbage cans for a beautiful little redheaded girl, or joining Chucky Dutcher for a movie marathon at the Erwin Theater, Benjamin is the kind of precocious ironist who would have found a sidekick in Huck Finn. His tales and insights lyrically capture a precious moment in bygone American life, as Benjamin recalls the myriad scrapes, reckless escapades and wanderlust that once made childhood an exhilarating -- or terrifying -- adventure.

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For a kid named Cribbsy, the month of November, 1963, was a private train wreck weeks before JFK undertook his fatal motorcade in Dallas. Cribbsy is tangled in a half-dozen romantic crises. Hes hounded by malevolent dwarfs. Hes under threat of suspension by a vicious vice-principal. Hes at war with his English teacher. Every time he sets foot in the halls, he faces death at the hands of a delusional gridiron gladiator. Cribbsys trials trace Americas loss of innocence. Kennedy has faced down Khrushchev over Cuban missiles, but every kid grows up with the haunting certainty that his life -- all life -- will end beneath a mushroom cloud. As the nation mourns JFK, Cribbsys troubles mount. He becomes an unwitting felon. He receives an unexpected overture from the yummiest girl in school. He faces a showdown with his raging nemesis. He knows what happened in the Art Room. And he has a conversation -- both crushing and illuminating -- with the Playmate of the Month.

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Saint Paul, Private Eye! It is written, in Matthew, that Jesus, on the cross, cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Was this all Jesus said? Who was present to hear him say anything at all? His disciples had fled in fear. Roman soldiers surrounded him. Was there a secret revealed at the Crucifixion — lost forever because there was no one to bear witness? Paul, the “saint” who for ten years tormented the followers of Jesus, suffers visions of the Crucifixion. He is haunted by its secret. After fleeing near-death in Damascus, Paul begins a quest for one witness who can solve… … the Golgotha murder mystery Paul’s winding journey carries him far and wide throughout the Holy Land — and beyond. He faces constant danger from a host of enemies — from the King of Syria to the powerful brother of Jesus, known as James the Just. Paul is beaten, mobbed, knifed, shipwrecked, cast away, bewitched and flung into prison. His only “friend” is a rogue apostle named Iscariot, whose death was “greatly exaggerated.” Paul’s tortuous quest ends at last in Jerusalem, in the midnight gloom of Herod’s Great Temple. At last, Paul meets his witness and faces the most shocking revelation of his life.

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Complexity has met its match! Today, every leader and organisation grapples with unprecedented complexity. Some thrive in these situations while the vast majority do not. Now updated for a post-Covid world, David Benjamin and David Komlos share their cutting-edge, highly-engaging step-by-step formula for rapidly cracking incredibly knotty and important challenges, by involving and mobilizing all the right people-no matter where they are-to co-create solutions.Filled with compelling stories and advice distilled from years of experience applying the Complexity Formula across a broad range of sectors, Benjamin and Komlos have delivered the defining handbook for current and future leaders.Fully updated to include highly successful and proven virtual methods and practices that have been used to solve real problems. This book serves up the mindset, steps and skills that you and your team will need to crack complexity, wherever you are in the world, so that you can find clarity and build momentum even in the most uncertain of times.

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Foreword by: Marshall Goldsmith, #1 NY Times bestselling author, Thinkers50-#1 Executive Coach and the only two-time #1 Leadership Thinker in the WorldComplexity has met its match! Today, organizations are grappling with ambiguity, volatility and paradox surrounding the challenges they face. This is complexity. But too many leaders approach complexity the wrong way - they push their people harder and harder and tackle problems one-at-a-time over months, sometimes even years and nearly always in a linear fashion. It's like setting a pot of water on "low" and waiting for it to boil. To solve the seemingly intractable challenges that leaders bang their heads against for months - to get the metaphorical water to boil - you must generate a high amount of heat very quickly. In this book, the authors share their proven formula for dramatically shortening the process and solving an organization's toughest challenges in mere days.

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