Ben Raskin

Author: Ben Raskin

  • The Lonely Juggalo

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    Ben Raskin
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    150 years ago, he would have been mistaken as a carpet bagger. He had a tight mustache, carried a handbag filled with clothes and a backpack stuffed to the gills. He sat down in front of my well and wanted to know what the cheapest drink was. I told him our cold, cheap and yellow…

  • Bill Hicks Was A Reader

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    Ben Raskin
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    Bill Hicks was a reader. At least he tells us on one of his standup albums. While sitting alone at a Waffle House in Nashville, eating and reading a book by himself, a waitress making her rounds swing by his table. Noticing he was thumbing through a book, she asks, “What you reading for?” Now,…

  • Off To Pleasant Grove

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    Ben Raskin
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    Did you know that Pleasant Grove was originally called Battle Creek? The sleepy little city in Utah County was called Battle Creek to commemorate a skirmish between a band of Utes and the Mormon pioneers. There isn’t a score card for the fight but presumably the pioneers won the day because winners rename historic places.…

  • Rooney Speak

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    Ben Raskin
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    There is something very pleasant about falling asleep on an airplane. On those rare moments where I get an aisle seat and nobody sits in the middle, if the air is just chilly enough and I can find that notch just between the seats, I can clunk out. The vibrations on a plane are soothing…

  • Thirteen Is The New B

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    Ben Raskin
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    Happy New Year’s, y’all. I want to wish everyone a very happy 2013. 2013. 13 is not just a great number, it is my lucky number. It’s the day in March that my father was born and one of the few squares on a roulette table that always gets a chip. It is the number…