My name's Josh Benton. This is my web page. It was cool once, around 1994. It is no longer cool.

I live in Toledo, Ohio. I'm a reporter at The Blade, the ancient daily newspaper here. I'm one of two city hall reporters, covering city council, the mayor, and occasionally county government. I'm also the paper's alternative music critic.

I'm anxiously awaiting a trip this spring to Pitcairn Island, the small South Pacific island where the descendants of the mutineers on the HMS Bounty still live today. It's the most remote inhabited place on Earth, and very, very few outsiders ever get to see it. I'll be gone for almost a month.

In May 1997, I graduated from Yale University, despite my best efforts to put my senior essay off until the last possible minute. There I was editor of the weekly student newspaper, The Yale Herald. I was also a part-time geek-for-hire.

Before even that, I spent my childhood in tiny Rayne, Louisiana, a mostly Cajun town just west of Lafayette, a couple of hours west of New Orleans. It's best know for the Frog Festival every fall and for relentlessly oppressing all ambition, skill, and acceptance of the outside world. I went to a terrific school, the Episcopal School of Acadiana, in not-so-nearby Cade from seventh grade through high school.

Things I enjoy: college basketball, particularly the University of North Carolina; great music (Mark Eitzel, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Tindersticks, Velvet Crush, Public Enemy, Sebadoh, Uncle Tupelo, etc.), reading magazines (particularly Esquire, GQ, Salon, The New Yorker, and Wired); promising myself I'll be in shape by the time I go to Pitcairn; going to New York City; Scorcese movies; the surprisingly solid offerings of Comedy Central (South Park, Viva Variety, Dr. Katz, The Daily Show); and Indian food (mmmmm...chicken tikka massala).

Things I used to enjoy: Pink Floyd (far too much, around 8th grade or so); designing web pages (back when, as I mentioned above, it was cool); staying up all night (now that I'm all of 22, it's just tiring); and academia.

To get in touch with me, try email (jbenton@aya.yale.edu), mail (2428 Old Stone Ct. #3, Toledo, OH 43614), phone (h: 419-382-1303, w: 419-245-6050), or semaphore flag.