Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock New anythings to town are governed by a series of publicity stunts. A new business will send out announcements that it has been formed, that it has hired executives, it has bought land, it is breaking ground, setting a cornerstone and so on. Even communities do similar things for, say …
Monthly Archives: May 2007
Thrust, Parry and the Other One
By which is meant, when you withdraw the rapier to prepare to strike again, as parry means to deflect and thrust is thrust. Crossing swords naturally refers to former President Carter’s blunt criticism over the weekend of current President Bush, particularly his foreign policy. Can’t get harsher than say “the worst,” which is the quote. Carter …
No Lone Zone
We visited family over the weekend, driving almost six hours to Warrensburg-Knob Noster, Mo. A half-dozen or so in-laws were there, for the retirement ceremony of a 25-year airman, a stepbrother-in-law. His last deployment was to Whiteman Air Force Base. The career began in fuels and ended in the branch’s financing branch, ensuring personnel and …
Twin Double-Feature
Scott Shackelford wrote a thoughtful column for today’s Northwest Arkansas Times, about a possibility we Ozarkers should make a pitch for: A cinema specializing in small films. Malco Theatres Inc., which has a number of multiplexes in the area, is building a 12-screener in Fayetteville just down from Northwest Arkansas Mall on Joyce Boulevard. We could …
Dash it, Ashcroft
I don’t know about you, but when I was growing up during the first administration of the second Bush, I was taught that John Ashcroft was the anti-attorney general. Both his foes and his supporters seemed to agree that he was a proud religious-right zealot in terms of God-first, Constitution-maybe, and the remaining job description …
Who Are These People?
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Memoir. As much as can be mocked of the genre — (1) Was the life of “X,” no matter his or her accomplishments, so fascinating that we’d want the least of details? Often no, and (2) Memory even corrected by research distorts both the facts and the truth — I …
Hail, Commodius, seen Caesar?
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Commodity. I didn’t know that was a bad word. During the early years when I covered business while reporting a lot of subjects, I learned that one invested in commodities. It is an article of trade or commerce, especially a product that can be processed and resold, such as in …
Get What You Don’t Pay For
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock Last Monday, the 7th, newspaper publisher Walter E. Hussman, Jr. had an op-ed piece published in The Wall Street Journal. The essay already had been distributed to employees. The Journal apparently cut his first graf, a soft intro. It read fine this way. As usual the hyperlink won’t be provided here, …
Prick Him, He’ll Bleat
Here I am, a James Lileks fan, and I can’t think of a thing to say that hasn’t already been written about his predicament. Maybe I shouldn’t have read all of the articles and a number of the blogs on his, er, transfer. “Transfer.” Lileks has been a humor columnist for the Star Tribune of …
Getting Perpendicular
A pair of problems seem as different as their solutions in huggable Fayetteville, but they’re not, really. It’s all about power, after all. The scary power play is how the local electric company, Southwestern Energy Power Co. (called Swepco everywhere but the phone book when you need to report an outage, where it’s AEP, or maybe …
