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Monthly Archives: July 2006

Playing Dodgson Ball

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Follow some literary logic down a rabbit hole If “Alice laughed: “There’s no use trying,” she said; “one can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible [...]

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Ice is Nice til Pass on Gas

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock We need a barometer. It will predict when gasoline costs too much. Just under $3 a gallon here in the Arkansas Ozarks. Everyone complains, but while we’re driving perhaps more carefully, combining errand trips, topping off the tank, we’re not all buying scooters. We’re not demanding that Ozark Regional Transit [...]

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Tie One On

Saturday, July 15, 2006

It should have been Bill Clinton who brought more informality to the White House during his eight years, but credit here has to go to George W. Bush. Clinton seems to have moved everywhere with a coffee mug indoors and a to-go cup away from home. President Bush is shown increasingly without a necktie. Also, [...]

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Our Constitution’s Bill of Goods

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Wouldn’t be a lot easier for President Bush and the current Congress to begin the process to repeal the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights? Bet it wouldn’t take too long to get the votes their way. Think of how many birds they’d drop with that one cast stone: [...]

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Norma Desmond (heart) Hildy Johnson

Sunday, July 9, 2006

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Consider the classic movies Sunset Boulevard (1950) and His Girl Friday (1940) (the latter the second of three film adaptations of The Front Page, the first out in 1931 then the 1974). If Norma worked for Cary Grant, instead of proclaiming to William Holden’s character, she would say: I am [...]

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Introduction, a Look Back

Thursday, July 6, 2006

BACK HOME — Is it live, or is it Memorex? went the commercial. Blogs are Memorex, just like newspapers, sitcoms and National Public Radio. We all have smoke charges hidden in our cuffs. The windows on the set are mirrors. Morning newspapers are made to look like they are reported and printed simultaneously and at [...]

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Epilogue, or a Look Ahead

Wednesday, July 5, 2006

DETROIT — Automatic soap dispensers were in restrooms of a number of stops throughout this trip, including Detroit’s airport in general and its Northwest Airlines World Club in particular. Does everything have to be automatic, run by an infrared electric eye? This one is particularly wasteful; a number of times I’d rinse the automatic gel [...]

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Pop Pop Pop Goes the Fourth

Tuesday, July 4, 2006

BOSTON — Standing on the Cambridge side of the Charles River, under one of the 10 giant amplifiers mounted on portable towers where it was ironically quietest, we thousands had the best view for the fireworks but the hundreds of thousands at the amphitheater seemed distant and behind trees at that. What do you do [...]

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Our Fair Cambridge

Monday, July 3, 2006

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The day was devoted to Cambridge. We left the subway at Harvard Square and walked the entire afternoon, stopping in several Tibetan shops, for her, and whatever struck my fancy. One was Leavitt & Pierce Inc., just off Harvard Square. I could have spent an hour in the nearby Harvard Book Store [...]

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Happy, happy seals

Sunday, July 2, 2006

BOSTON — A grand day. The conclusion of the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists always is a morning business meeting of the entire membership, at least those who don’t have especially early flights back home. I grabbed My Beloved Wife (MBW, not to be confused with BMW, one of which she [...]

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