A news release from the public relations office of the University of Arkansas, the “University Relations,” recently announced that noted writer Ellen Gilchrist, of the UA Creative Writing and Translation Program, had an essay published in last November’s Smithsonian Magazine, “Watching Water Run: My Kind of Town.” The essay is vivid; she explains why she lives …
Monthly Archives: January 2007
Thumb
It’s another skirmish between Israel and the Palestinians: “EILAT, Israel (AP) — A Palestinian suicide bomber killed three Israelis at a bakery Monday in the first such attack inside the country in nine months, and the two radical groups that claimed to have sent him said they were trying to end weeks of Palestinian infighting …
Peek at Peak, Pique Experiences
Pinnacle Hills Promenade, the new shopping center in Rogers inspired by The Truman Show, is wonderful to mock. It features Muzak-like music via outdoor Bose speakers. It markets itself as upscale while including tenants like Payless Shoes and Dairy Queen. Sunday marked my fourth visit — and the first time My Beloved and I visited …
State of Deniers
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Saturday was the 62nd Nazi Holocaust Remembrance Day, marking the anniversary of the Soviet army’s liberation of Auschwitz in 1945. The holiday was set up a long time ago by the United Nations. It’s not a sis-boom-bah holiday of course; if compassionate Americans note it at all, it’s like Flag …
Cast bread upon the voters
It’s not fair to blow up a quotation of a state legislator, even adding context to show that he or she probably did mean it the way it sounded. But when remarks fall into your lap, courtesy of alert journalists, who can resist? I have written previously about opposing the repeal of Arkansas charging sales …
Fish in a Pork Barrel
If one wanted to blog observations — the more daily and more local the better — the time to start imprinting the habit couldn’t be better than one’s state Legislature’s general session. Forking pickles from a bucket. I hate easy pickin’s. So I’m hoping to just focus on matters that just might become law, not …
Get It On …
All these flags being half-staff have been making me nervous. A little Internet work, and it turns out to be legit. Formal mourning for a president is 30 days. It’s in the U.S. Code. The pertinent section is “m.” Poor President Ford. Now the real histories can start to be compiled. I bet scholars will find …
Carve Buchwald on Rushmore
A great columnist passes. It’s Art Buchwald, about whom I wrote nearly a year ago, when he’d been in hospice just a few weeks and well before he recovered enough to get thrown out. Actually he was a part of my master’s thesis of spring 2003, which researched the apparent death of the newspaper humor …
“Shut up, he explained.”
In slightly expanded context, from Ring Lardner: “Are you lost daddy I arsked tenderly. “Shut up he explained.” It seemed reasonable to wait for the blogs to calm, and then some. It took nearly two weeks, an eternity on the Ether. The topic is what was meant by the Tuesday offering of Los Angeles Times …
Resolution Desk
This must be the way to get a couple of New Year’s resolutions accomplished: Start and finish early. It works, it has to work this time. On Dec. 26, My Beloved and I returned to Phase 1 of the South Beach Diet. By mid-month, I dropped nine pounds and relaxed into the just-a-little-carb Phase 2. She’s …
