Free Saturday Morning Walking/Shopping Tour

Classic

            My fellow connoisseurs of all things Benchley will undoubtedly treasure these classic comedy films on DVD.  And, after all, what’s more satisfying than reading Benchley? Viewing Benchley!

            By watching Benchley in these clever and hilarious shorts, you can savor his impeccable comic timing, the subtlety of his understated humor, and the endearing sweetness of his nature.

            The Warner Brothers Archive Collection - Robert Benchley Shorts (30 Shorts 1935 - 1944) includes my favorites How To Sleep, An Evening Alone, and The Courtship of the Newt.

            The Paramount Comedy Shorts 1928-1942: Robert Benchley and the Knights of the Algonquin (1928) includes The Treasurer’s Report and The Sex Life of the Polyp.

            “But… where can I find these precious DVDs? Are they available for me to purchase?” you ask. Why, yes they are to be had! Here’s the link:

http://amzn.to/17B3cDm

            Also, courtesy of (none other than) The Robert Benchley Society, here’s a comprehensive listing of Benchley books and DVDs:

http://www.robertbenchley.org/shop/index.htm

Enjoy!

Register Now for the Robert Benchley Society Annual Gathering

The Robert Benchley Society Humor Award Dinner will be held at the 11th Annual Gathering of the Robert Benchley Society, in Boston, November 22-24. CLICK HERE for details or to register.

Join Us in Boston for the Robert Benchley Society 2013 Annual Gathering

This year all events will be priced "ala carte" so you can pick and choose which to attend. Final prices and exact times are still being worked out, but here is an overview of the events.

Friday, November 22nd. Late afternoon/early evening (more-or-less end of the work day) cocktails and informal dinner at the Downtown Club House of the Harvard Club of Boston. Price = moderate.

Saturday, November 23rd. Daytime lost-cost fun activity. Evening, black-tie Awards Dinner at the Back Bay Club House of the Harvard Club of Boston. Price = expensive!

Sunday, November 24th. Late morning a moderately priced brunch. For those staying until Sunday evening the local "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Society will host a low-cost fun event -- a life drawing session -- beginners welcomed as it is directed toward non-artists.

WHERE TO STAY IN BOSTON. Contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org and he can book rooms at the Back Bay Harvard Club at less than the price of local hotels.

Robert Benchley Society Names Winners in Annual Humor Writing Competition

The Robert Benchley Society is pleased to announce the winners in the 2013 Robert Benchley Society Annual Humor Writing Competition. For the list of winners CLICK HERE. The awards will be given out by this year's judge Gina Barreca at the Annual Gathering of the Society, Friday through Saturday, November 22nd through 24th, in Boston, Massachusetts. Theme of this year's annual gathering is "You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man..."

Our bad.

In the list of top ten semifinalist that went out at four o'clock, there is a bad link one to one of the entries. It has been corrected. If you have trouble viewing all ten entries, go to our website http://www.robertbenchley.org/competition/index.htm

The Robert Benchley Society Announces the Top-Ten Semifinalists in 2013 RBS Humor Writing Competition

Today David Trumbull, Chairman, Robert Benchley Society, announced the top ten semi-finalists in this year's humor writing competition. "There were many fine entries and the preliminary judges are to be commended for their dedication in carefully reading and ranking the entries. "I know it was not easy, in some cases, for judges to place a rank order to entries that were so good that, in a less exclusive contest, any one of them might have been number one," said Mr. Trumbull, "however, the results, which were derived from a tabulation of all the score cards, in the end, produced a definitive list of the ten funniest and most Benchley-like," Trumbull continued.

This years preliminary judges were:

• Sharon Lyon, a founding member of the Robert Benchley Society

• Matt Hahn, Chairman of the Washington "Lost Locomotive" Chapter of the RBS

• Daniel Montville, winner of the 2007 RBS Award for Humor Writing

• Chris Morgan, Vice Chairman, East Coast, RBS

• Ed Tasca, winner of the 2009 RBS Award for Humor Writing

• Michele Wojciechowski, professional humor writer and stand-up comediene

The top ten entries (in alphabetical order) are:

• Lowell T. Christensen of White Rock, N.M. for The Excruciating History of Dentistry

• Chelsea Fisher of Arlington, Virginia for The Old Movie Shuffle

• Ramona Grigg of Drummond Island, Mich. for Budget-Cutting the Hard Way

• Dave Jaffe of Deerfield, Illinois for Quality is Job Three out of Seven!: How to Create a Press Release

• Barbara Samuels of Port St Lucie, Florida for Take a Gesund-hike

• E. Mitchell of Palatine, Illinois for How to Be Human

• Lisa Smith Molinari of Newport, R.I. for The Future of Archaeology

• Cindy Lane Poch of Stillwater, Minnesota for Iatrophobia

• C.J. Scuffins of Dublin Ireland for Quick! Sand!

• Jerry Zezima of Coram, N.Y. for As a man who is known far and wide...

The final determination of the final first, second, third, and fourth place entries will be made by this year's final judge Dr. Gina Barreca, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin’s), who has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, NPR, Oprah, and Dr. Phil to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (reissued in a “classic” edition in 2013), Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League, and six other books she's written-- in addition to sixteen she's edited. They've been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Gina, whose columns from The Hartford Courant are distributed worldwide by the McClatchy-Tribune Syndicate, is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut. Her B.A. is from Dartmouth College, where she was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar, her M.A. is from Cambridge University, where she was a Reynold's Fellow, and her Ph.D. is from the City University of New York, where she lived close to a good delicatessen. Gina writes regularly for Psychology Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Huffington Post; she has also written for The New York Times, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. She grew up in Brooklyn, now lives with her husband in Connecticut, and has two step-sons who are at that adorable age where they’re attorneys. A new member of the Friars' Club, a "Voices and Visions" honoree of CT Women's Hall of Fame, winner of UConn's most distinguished teaching award, and a keynote at events from The Erma Bombeck Conference, the National Association of Independent Schools, Women In Federal Law Enforcement, The Smithsonian, and The Chicago Humanities Festival, Gina can be found in the Library of Congress or in the make-up aisle of Walgreens.

The awards will be given out that the Ten International Annual Gathering of the Robert Benchley Society, Friday through Sunday, November 22 through 24, 2013, in Boston. The theme of this year's Annual Gathering is "You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man."

Boston RBS Chapter Monthly Round-up Set for Thursday, Sept. 19th

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, September 19th, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

Let the Laughter Begin!

The entries in the 2013 Robert Benchley Society Annual Award fro Humor Competition are available for reading at www.robertbenchley.org/2013_competition/index.htm.

This year's final judge is Dr. Gina Barreca, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin’s), who has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, NPR, Oprah, and Dr. Phil to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (reissued in a “classic” edition in 2013), Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League, and six other books she's written-- in addition to sixteen she's edited. They've been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Gina, whose columns from The Hartford Courant are distributed worldwide by the McClatchy-Tribune Syndicate, is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut. Her B.A. is from Dartmouth College, where she was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar, her M.A. is from Cambridge University, where she was a Reynold's Fellow, and her Ph.D. is from the City University of New York, where she lived close to a good delicatessen. Gina writes regularly for Psychology Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Huffington Post; she has also written for The New York Times, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. She grew up in Brooklyn, now lives with her husband in Connecticut, and has two step-sons who are at that adorable age where they’re attorneys. A new member of the Friars' Club, a "Voices and Visions" honoree of CT Women's Hall of Fame, winner of UConn's most distinguished teaching award, and a keynote at events from The Erma Bombeck Conference, the National Association of Independent Schools, Women In Federal Law Enforcement, The Smithsonian, and The Chicago Humanities Festival, Gina can be found in the Library of Congress or in the make-up aisle of Walgreens.

The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013.

Reminder, Friday, August 30th, is the Deadline to Submit Your Winning Essay

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013. For more details or to enter click here. The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013. This year's theme is "You Can Aways Tell a Harvard Man..." Now, to get you in the mood for Boston --

Something to Get You in the Mood for the RBS Annual Gathering in Boston

Remember, your entries for the 2013 Robert Benchley Society Annual Award for Humor Writing are due by Friday, August 30th. And now, for something completely different --

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013.

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013. For more details or to enter click here. The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013. This year's theme is "You Can Aways Tell a Harvard Man..." Now, for a song from another very funny Harvard man, Tom Lehrer.

Speaking of college football, his an excerpt from Mr. Benchley's "Football; Courtesy fo Mr. Morse," from :Of All Things (1921)

Sunday morning these fine fall days are taken up with reading about the "40,000 football enthusiasts" or the "gaily-bedecked crowd of 60,000 that watched the game on Saturday." And so they probably did, unless there were enough men in big fur coats who jumped up at every play and yelled "Now we're off!" thus obstructing the view of an appreciable percentage.

But why stop at the mention of the paltry 50,000 who sat in the Bowl or the Stadium? Why forget the twice 50,000 all over the country, in Chicago, St. Louis, San Francisco, Atlanta, who watched the same game over the ticker, or sat in a smoke-fogged room listening to telegraphic announcements, play by play, or who even stood on the curbing in front of a newspaper office and watched an impartial employee shove a little yellow ball along a black-board, usually indicating the direction in which the real football was not going. Since it is so important to give the exact number of people who saw the game, why not do the thing up right and say: "Returns which are now coming in from the Middle West, with some of the rural districts still to be heard from, indicate that at least 145,566 people watched the Yale-Princeton football game yesterday. Secretary Dinwoodie of the San Francisco Yale Club telegraphed late last night that the final count in that city would probably swell the total to a round 150,395. This is, or will be, the largest crowd that ever assembled in one country to watch a football game."

You can always tell a Harvard man...

...but you can't tell him much. -- Yale president Arthur Twining Hadley, Yale College Class of 1876, quoted in the Chicago Daily Tribune, May 27, 1906.

This year the Robert Benchley Society Annual Awards Dinner will be held at the Main, Back Bay, Clubhouse of the Harvard Club of Boston. Robert C. Benchley, a Harvard man (Class of 1912) would have felt right at home with us in the Harvard Club's Back Bay mansion on Commonwealth Avenue. It all began with a torchlight parade down Massachusetts Avenue, culminating with Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell laying the cornerstone at 10 p.m. on February 26, 1913. A little over eight months later, on November 12, 1913, the Club's new home was formally dedicated. The Harvard Club of Boston has always been a magical place. While not a member of the Harvard Club of Boston, Mr. Benchley was an active member of the Harvard Club of New York. Watch for an announcement here in a few days regarding booking overnight rooms at the Harvard Club for out-of-town Benchley fans.

The "You Can Always Tell a Harvard Man" theme will continue throughout the Friday, November 22, through Sunday, November 24, Tenth Annual Gathering of the Robert Benchley Society. In addition to the black tie awards dinner at the Main Clubhouse, we'll also enjoy the fabulous 38th floor views of Boston, high a-top the modern sky-scraper in the Financial District that houses the Downtown Clubhouse of the Harvard Club at One Federal Street. Save the date and prepare to come to Boston, the "Hub of the Universe" for this fun weekend being planned by the Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society.

Benchley Society Announces 2013 Humor Competition Judge

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013. The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013. For more details or to enter click here.

This year's final judge is Dr. Gina Barreca, author of It's Not That I'm Bitter: How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Visible Panty Lines and Conquered the World (St. Martin’s), who has appeared on 20/20, The Today Show, CNN, the BBC, NPR, Oprah, and Dr. Phil to discuss gender, power, politics, and humor. Her earlier books include the bestselling They Used to Call Me Snow White But I Drifted: Women's Strategic Use of Humor (reissued in a “classic” edition in 2013), Babes in Boyland: A Personal History of Coeducation in the Ivy League, and six other books she's written-- in addition to sixteen she's edited. They've been translated into several languages, including Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, and German. Gina, whose columns from The Hartford Courant are distributed worldwide by the McClatchy-Tribune Syndicate, is Professor of English and Feminist Theory at the University of Connecticut. Her B.A. is from Dartmouth College, where she was the first woman to be named Alumni Scholar, her M.A. is from Cambridge University, where she was a Reynold's Fellow, and her Ph.D. is from the City University of New York, where she lived close to a good delicatessen. Gina writes regularly for Psychology Today, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and The Huffington Post; she has also written for The New York Times, The Independent, Cosmopolitan, and The Harvard Business Review. She grew up in Brooklyn, now lives with her husband in Connecticut, and has two step-sons who are at that adorable age where they’re attorneys. A new member of the Friars' Club, a "Voices and Visions" honoree of CT Women's Hall of Fame, winner of UConn's most distinguished teaching award, and a keynote at events from The Erma Bombeck Conference, the National Association of Independent Schools, Women In Federal Law Enforcement, The Smithsonian, and The Chicago Humanities Festival, Gina can be found in the Library of Congress or in the make-up aisle of Walgreens.

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013. The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013. For more details or to enter click here.

Deadline to Enter the Competition for the 2013 Robert Benchley Society Humor Award

The deadline to enter the 2013 competition for the Robert Benchley Society Humor Award is August 30, 2013. The award ceremony will in Boston, November 22 - 24, 2013. For more details or to enter click here.

Save the Dates!

The Robert Benchley Society Annual Humor Writing Competition and Annual Gathering will be announced shortly. The deadline for submitting entries to in the competition will be August 30th. The Annual Gathering and Awards Dinner will be held in Boston, Friday through Sunday, November 22 through 24. Watch for details to come out shortly.

Downtown Santa Monica Photo Tour: Sat. July 27 with Benchley Fan Helen Garber

Emerging Focus Photo Nomad Tours:  Historic Downtown Santa Monica Saturday, July 27, 2013  6:00 - 8:00 pm   Join internationally renowned photographer and 30 year Santa Monica resident Helen K. Garber for a fun and informative photo tour through historic downtown Santa Monica. Joining Helen will be a historic preservation specialist from the Santa Monica Conservancy who will provide a detailed history of the city that will inspire your images beyond the click of your shutter! Beginning with a drink at Michael’s, the acclaimed, award winning restaurant where chef Michael McCarty created California Cuisine in 1979, the tour takes in historic art deco buildings, the view of the Santa Monica Bay from the top of the California Incline at Palisades Park, south through famous historic hotels like the Fairmont Miramar and the Shangri-La. From there the tour will stroll through the Promenade shopping district, stopping along the way at various landmark buildings and then back up to Michael's Restaurant where we encourage the group to share a post adventure meal! Tour notes: A wide angle lens 28mm and wider is encouraged. Students should have a working knowledge of their equipment which can range from a point and shoot to a DSLR. Comfortable shoes, hat, layered causual elegant clothing (for restaurant), and a bottle of water is encouraged. All food and beverages during our time at Michael’s are extra.     Date/Time: Saturday July 27, 2013 6:00pm - 8:00pm Meeting Point: Michael's Restaurant, 1147 3rd Street, Santa Monica CA 90403 To Register:   $125.00 (Student $100.00)    Helen K. Garber Studio 801 Ocean Front Walk, Studio 9 Venice, CA  90291 Tel: 310 344 7883 Facebook Twitter

Every Night She Would Teach Me How to Play Her Mandolin

From the mailbag --

Thanks for naming the [chapter] "We've Come for the Davenport". One of the most elegant practical jokes ever played. But I will not be able to attend.

A friend is working on documenting the mandolin-club fad in the U.S., and Benchley was a part of that early in his writing career. I have lodged in the dusty recesses of my brain a Gluyas Williams drawing of Benchley trying very hard to play one, I think with someone trying to use a radio in the same room. Know which story that would be, which collection?

All the best,
Nick B.

The illustration accompanies Mr. Benchley's essay "My Own Arrangement," which is found in Chips Off the Old Benchley (1949), beginning at page 240. The essay pokes fun at radio performers whose arrangement of popular tunes of the time bear little resemblance to the original compositions. While discoursing on this topic of "Hide the Melody," Mr. Benchley writes, "I used to practice the second-mandolin part at home alone. If you have ever heard a second-mandolin part being played alone without the air, you will understand why my mother felt that I wasn't getting along as fast as I might."

Speaking of mandolins, enjoy this in this popular song of 1920 (music by James V. Monaco and words by Edgar Leslie and Pete Wendling), as performed by Al Jolson.

Join the Boston Chapter for Cocktails this Thursday, July 18th

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, July 18th, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

NSNC '13 Lifestyles and the Writing Life

By Rose A. Valenta

The annual National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) Conference was held in Hartford, CT, last weekend. It was a remarkable and exciting event with stellar headliners.

Featured guests included Pulitzer Prize winner, Dave Barry, who has also served as the final judge in previous Robert Benchley Society Award for Humor Writing competitions; Emmy Award-winning TV writer, original SNL writer, Thurber Prize for American Humor winner and novelist, Alan Zweibel; women’s humorist, UConn professor of English and essayist, Gina Barreca; CNN contributor, John Avlon; bestselling author and previous Robert Benchley Society Humor Award winner, W. Bruce Cameron; Heloise; bestselling author, Tracy Beckerman; and popular radio personality, Mike Morin.

Among the highlights of the event: Dave Barry won the Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award; Mike Morin of WZID-FM in Manchester, NH, won the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award; the late film critic, Roger Ebert, posthumously won one of the column contests; Blake Seitz of the University of Georgia won the Jeff Zazlow scholarship award; and Bob Haught and Stacey Hatton won the exciting “Columnists’ Got Talent” contest on Saturday night.”

The NSNC comments about Dave Barry:

For more than two decades, Dave Barry was a syndicated newspaper columnist, based at The Miami Herald, whose work appeared in more than 500 newspapers in the United States and abroad. His career at the Herald brought him worldwide acclaim as a humorist with a distinctive style and a best-selling author of 31 books of humor and parody, as well as 13 novels and children’s books.

In 1988 he won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary “for his consistently effective use of humor as a device for presenting fresh insights into serious concerns.” He retired from the grueling demands of weekly column writing in 2005, but still contributes special projects.

The theme at NSNC ’13 was “Lifestyles and the Writing Life,” which was impeccably demonstrated in the various sessions and panel discussions. You can click here for the entire NSNC Conference Program.

Note: The grand tour of Mark Twain's home on Friday, unveiled the world's first "Man Cave" on the third floor of his house complete with pipe stands, pool table, bar and balcony. It was built in 1873. Legend has it that when uninvited guests arrived at the house, he would step out onto the balcony, so the person answering the door could truthfully say that he was "not in residence."

If you are on Facebook and Twitter, you can follow post-Conference discussions and photo sharing by searching the hashtag #NSNC13 on both social media sites. You can follow @NSNCGroup on Twitter and “like” the NSNC page on Facebook.

I must warn you that “What happens in the hospitality suite, stays in the hospitality suite.” I know, I was there - only I can’t seem to remember anything.

You just have to be there next year!

Photo source: Dave Barry, Gina Barreca and Alan Zweibel Photo copyright: Teri Rizvi, Director of the Erma Bombeck Writers’ Workshop

Boston Chapter Roundup Set for July 18th

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, July 18th, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

RBS Member Ed Tasca Publishes New Comedic Play

Parlor Games
By Ed Tasca

Cast: 4 m, 4 w
Script: 60 pages. About 90 minutes.
A funeral parlor is the perfect setting for this quirky, off-kilter farce where family and “special” friends come to mourn, to surprise, to plot, and even to negotiate their futures. Everyone thinks Donny D’Silva was killed in a car crash. But it wasn’t Donny at all. Then again, it was – until everyone assumes the real victim is Rodrigo Benitez, Donny’s former employee. Then, Rodrigo shows up, so it’s not him either! Throughout the confusion, the families of the would-be dead make every effort to take advantage of the loss of their respective loved one. So who was the real victim? In the end, it turns out to be the town’s local lothario, whose life has ended in a most fitting way!

See more at http://www.histage.com/playdetails.asp?PID=2507

From the Mailbag

Recently someone contacted the Robert Benchley Society to ask:

Can you please tell me the date that Mr. Benchley first used the quote

"there are two kinds of people in the world.."

I am writing a paper for school and need the date, at least the year, of the original quote.

Thank you very much for your assistance.

Thank you for contacting the Robert Benchley Society.

The quotation is: "There may be said to be two classes of people in the world; those who constantly divide the people of the world into two classes, and those who do not."

In is from his essay "The Most Popular Book of the Month," which is a literary review of the New York Telephone Directory as if it were a novel.

The essay also contains the hilarious line: "But it is the opinion of the present reviewer that the weakness of plot is due to the great number of characters which clutter up the pages. The Russian school is responsible for this."

It appears in the first book of Mr. Benchley's collected writings, titled, "Of All Things" and published in 1921.

David Trumbull

The Benchley Roundup One of 50 Great Books That Will Change Your Life

"Benchley taught me how to create and then mine a comedic worldview with details gleaned from everything all around me," writes humorist Merrill Markoe in the June issue of Real Simple magazine. Her comments on Benchley's influence on her career in humor are also available online at http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/entertainment/great-books-00100000101474/page8.html

Join the Boston Chapter for Cocktails on the 20th

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will meet for cocktails Thursday, June 20th, at 5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Harvard Club, One Federal Street.

Join the Boston Benchley Chapter for Cocktails Thursday

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will meet for cocktails on Thursday, May 16th, at 5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Harvard Club, One Federal Street.

From the Mail Bag

Dear Mr. Trumbull,
I am looking for a story by Robert Benchley and I wonder if you would help me. A favorite childhood memory is of my father reading Benchley aloud to us. One of our family's favorites, one that always resulted in our laughing ourselves out of breath, was his woeful tale of substituting at his wife's afternoon bridge party. I remember the way he described the silence at his table amidst the hum that arose in the room as the players finished their hands and began their postmortems: "at our table there was no postmortem, but not because there had been no death." I have lost this story; I don't remember it's title or what book it is in. Can you help? Sincere best wishes from a life-long Benchley lover, Linda W.

Dear Linda,
Thank you for contacting the Robert Benchley Society. The essay you seek is called "Not According to Hoyle" and appears at page 77 of the book Of All Things. The book is available for purchase through a link to Amazon.com on our website at http://www.robertbenchley.org/shop/index.htm. The work is in the public domain in the United States and is available to view or print out free on our website at http://www.robertbenchley.org/oat/index.htm. Yours, David Trumbull

Join the Boston Benchley Chapter for Cocktails Thursday

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will meet for cocktails at 5:30 p.m. at the Downtown Harvard Club, One Federal Street.

Join the Robert Benchley Society for Cocktails at the Harvard Club on Thursday

Join the Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society at the Downtown Harvard Club's Annual St. Patrick’s Day Pub Night!
 

Thursday, March 21, 2013 One Federal Street, 38th Floor 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Complimentary Hors d’Oeuvres
Irish eyes will be smilin’ at the Downtown Club as it hosts its annual St. Paddy’s Day Pub Night! Come celebrate the grandest of all Pub Nights.

"The worst part about a radio audience is that it is so cold. ... You get a stony silence that hasn't been equaled since they asked for a rising vote of thanks to Tad Jones at a Harvard Club dinner. ...but it's always the same old story about two Irishmen." -- Robert C. Benchley, from "On the Air" as published in "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or David Copperfield," 1928. (Originally published in the Detroit Athetic Club News.)

For information on Thomas Albert Dwight "Tad" Jones see his entry at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T._A._Dwight_Jones

Join the Boston Chapter of the RBS for Cocktails at the Harvard Club Thursday

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, February 21st, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
We'll be well into the first full week of Lent; nevertheless, the Club will be offering a Mardi Gras-themed evening with:

• Aged Cheddar Cheese Spread with Crackers,
• Vegetable Crudités,
• Cajun Deviled Eggs,
• Crab Florentine Stuffed Mushrooms,
• Bayou Fried Shrimp with Cajun Remoulade,
• Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo, and
• Muffuletta Sliders.

Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

2013 NSNC Conference: Lifestyles and the Writing Life

The National Society of Newspaper Columnists (NSNC) will hold its annual Conference in Hartford, CT, June 27 - 30, 2013 at the Hartford Hilton. Registration is now open, as is the annual writing contest. Click here for details: 2013 NSNC Conference

The entire NSNC Board of Directors nominated a Program Committee and has worked diligently, since the untimely death of its president, Larry Cohen, and a few other mishaps, to pull this exciting conference together. Many impressive headliners will be there, including Dave Barry, who is being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award; original SNL writer, Thurber Prize winner and co-author of Lunatics, Alan Zweibel; popular public speaker and author of a hilarious new book It's Not That I’m Bitter, Gina Barreca; and many others.

There are still sponsorship opportunities open! If you are interested, please contact the NSNC Executive Director (director@columnists.com). The publicity will be amazing.

Who can register?
The NSNC says "If you’re reading this, you are. Whether you write for newspapers, magazines, newsletters, trade journals or other periodicals or for radio or video … whether you’re on staff, a freelancer, syndicated, self-syndicated or independent. We heartily encourage online and multimedia columnists, bloggers and similar Web reporters, commentators, analysts, humorists and essayists. We welcome retired or former columnists, journalism scholars and collegian columnists. And all those who want to write columns or blogs… And your guests!”

Benchley 1914 Piece Uncovered

Sept. 9, 1914, New York Tribune, "The Conning Tower"

Thanks to independent historian Stuart Y. Silverstein of Los Angeles and Chicago, the editor of Not Much Fun, the Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker, we can now read something Robert Benchley wrote in 1914 for "The Conning Tower" of the New York Tribune. Benchley was just two years out of Harvard, and the Algonquin Round Table was five years off on the horizon.

The piece, "Blank Form To Be Handed to Returning Tourists," was submitted to the editor of the column, Benchley's mentor, Franklin P. Adams. As all "contribs" to "The Conning Tower" it was signed with Benchley's initials, not his byline. It ran Sept. 9, 1914. Mr. Silverstein says, "Note that it refers to the First World War - which started July 28, 1914 - just 6 weeks earlier. This item appeared less than a week before Benchley's 25th birthday."

Thanks, Mr. Silverstein, for digging up what we believe is the first appearance of Benchley in a New York newspaper, and sharing it with us.

(If the image is hard to read, here is a transcription)

Blank Form To Be Handed to Returning Tourists

Please fill in blanks and return with photograph showing yourself with mouth open.

The first inkling I had of the war was in _____. I was with my _____ (and my _____) at the time, and we had just come from a delightful trip through _____. One evening, the _____th of _____, we heard _____ and I said to our _____friend--, "_____?" He replied: "_____!" Immediately the streets were thronged with enthusiastic _____, all singing "_____." We had time only to get our _____ and stand _____ hours in the station for the train to _____. We were grossly insulted on the border by a _____ who insisted on _____. On reaching _____ we had to stand like cattle before the _____ left for _____. I tell you, the old Statue of Liberty looked pretty good to me. I don't know, of course, but take it from me, the war won't be over until one side is victorious and that won't be for _____.

R. C. B. 

Boston Benchleyites to Meet Thursday, February 21st, at Downtown Harvard Club

The Boston "We've Come for the Davenport" Chapter of the Robert Benchley Society will hold its monthly Roundup at the Downtown Harvard Club, high above Boston town on the 38th floor of One Federal Street, in the Financial District. We'll gather at the Crimson Pub on Thursday, February 21st, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
We'll be well into the first full week of Lent; nevertheless, the Club will be offering a Mardi Gras-themed evening with:

• Aged Cheddar Cheese Spread with Crackers,
• Vegetable Crudités,
• Cajun Deviled Eggs,
• Crab Florentine Stuffed Mushrooms,
• Bayou Fried Shrimp with Cajun Remoulade,
• Chicken and Andouille Sausage Gumbo, and
• Muffuletta Sliders.

Dress code is informal or business casual. For more information, contact David Trumbull at david@robertbenchley.org.

2013 Thurber Prize for American Humor Submissions are now being accepted!

A new year means a new Thurber Prize for American Humor, and from now until April 1, Thurber House will be accepting submissions for the 2013 prize! Books published in the U.S. in 2012 are eligible. Entry guidelines, rules, and application forms are available on our website. The winner receives $5,000, a commemorative plaque, and is invited to be a guest at a special ticketed event in Columbus, Ohio the following year.

The judges for the 2013 prize are Laurie Notaro, two-time Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist; Nate DiMeo, 2012 Thurber Prize for American Humor finalist; and Lisa Birnbach, co-author of The Official Preppy Handbook and True Prep: It’s a Whole New Old World. The winner will be announced at an event at Caroline's Comedy Club on Broadway in New York City on September 30, 2013.
Past winners include Calvin Trillin, David Rakoff, Christopher Buckley, David Sedaris, and others.

Entries must be submitted no later than Monday, April 1, 2013. Visit their website (http://thurberhouse.org/thurber-prize-for-american-humor.html) for more information and to download the entry guidelines and the application!

Proposed New Yorker Benchley/Parker Tribute

Dear David,

Hi, I'm an entrant in the New Yorker Eustace Tilley contest and my entry is a playful tribute to Robert Benchley & Mrs. Parker.

It's currently posted at the New Yorker website. I doubt if I'll win, but I wanted to see Sweet Old Bob represented at his magazine! Regards,

Eileen Mitchell

http://www.newyorker.com/online/photocontests/eustace_tilley_2013/entry537501244?previousId=537501481.

Sounds like something to highlight on a resumé: Bilingually deficient.

Carol C. of Los Angeles sent me this message last evening:

In checking out the chapters of the Robert Benchley Society, I came across the Los Angeles Chapter. On the RBS website, this fifth chapter is called “e-p-i-s-l-o-n,” which sounds like “He pissed on.” I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to say “epsilon.” Spell check keeps confirming this; every time I try to type “e-p-i-s-l-o-n” it corrects it. That’s why I have to write it with dashes in it
Check it out:
http://www.robertbenchley.org/rbs/chapters.htm.

Bad enough that I am dyslexic; now she informs me that I am dyslexic in Greek as well as English! However, who would not have trouble with Greek, a tongue that says "nay" for "yes" and "okay" for "no." --David T.