Author: Ben van Loon

Writer, Researcher, Chicagoan

Freedom From Religion

Pleased to announce that I’ve placed in the 2014 Brian Bolton Graduate/Older Students Essay Contest, offered by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. The essay had to answer “why ‘Religious Liberty’ does not mean the right to impose your religion on others,” and though I played by the rules on this particular submission, I’m glad to see… Continue reading Freedom From Religion

Everything Loose Will Land

“Tip the world on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles.” Once said Frank Lloyd Wright, famously smug. In his mind was the teenage City of Angels, then and now a sprawling metropolis of traffic jams, cultural piracy, and media cacophony. Angelenos had no innate culture but for those rootless scraps landing… Continue reading Everything Loose Will Land

Letters to Ted Kaczynski: Part I

[I began writing letters to Ted K back in 2011. I needed a muse and so I designated Ted K as the would-be receiver of my epistolary confessionals. I have and will never sent these letters to Ted K. They’re for my own amusement. And now yours. I plan on posting them intermittently. Following is… Continue reading Letters to Ted Kaczynski: Part I

Five Ways to Make X Look Like the Dickhead He Is

[Following is an experimental piece I wrote for theNewerYork a year-or-so ago. It combines mathematics and juvenile self-loathing. All that’s missing from this Neopolitan combo is the strawberry flavor.] 1. Neo-Yiddish Poo-Poo Sequence: X + [shm(X-Y)] X = thing you want to poo-poo Y = consonant(s) prefixing X; if there are no consonant(s) prefixing X, Y=0 Example: You… Continue reading Five Ways to Make X Look Like the Dickhead He Is

Let Me Tell You about the Ibexes

[I took a free trip to Israel in winter 2012 as part of the sometimes-criticized ‘Birthright‘ program, which is an Israel/non-profit/private-funded trip for American Jews between age 18-26 to visit Israel. I would turn 27 shortly after the trip, so I got in just under the wire with Shorashim. It was a great opportunity (to… Continue reading Let Me Tell You about the Ibexes

Serious Tower: Reading Homan Square

In October 2013, I was graciously invited by my friend, John Rich, executive director of Chicago’s venerable Guild Literary Complex, to participate in a reading event organized in cooperation with the Chicago Architecture Foundation’s Open House Chicago. The reading was held at the ‘Original Sears Tower‘ in Lawndale’s Homan Square on Chicago’s west side. I… Continue reading Serious Tower: Reading Homan Square

I Made ‘Music.’ Listen To It.

My music-making moniker is Hebdomad, a strange word that means a period of seven days. The name of my album is Borborygmus, an ugly word that means the rumbling/gurgling noise made by the movement of fluid and gas in the intestines. I made most of this album as an undergrad in 2009 and 2010. The music… Continue reading I Made ‘Music.’ Listen To It.

A Dandelion Grows in Cairo

A dandelion grows in Cairo, but not where you’d expect. I’m in Cairo, Illinois. Locals pronounce it care-oh. It’s a small town of 2,831 at the southernmost tip of the state, occupying the 9.08-square-mile interfluve at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. It’s a sweaty, summer afternoon, and I’m standing under the shade… Continue reading A Dandelion Grows in Cairo

Zion, Illinois, or, is That Calf Driving a Land Rover?

You’re fifty miles north of Chicago, driving along Sheridan Road through the main drag of Zion, Illinois. Lake Michigan is a few hundred yards to your east, beyond the pot-holed parking lots, Taco Bells, and boarded-up bodegas. More than 24,400 people call Zion home, and according to the 2010 census, median household income tallies just… Continue reading Zion, Illinois, or, is That Calf Driving a Land Rover?