On my most recent big trip, I was struck by lightening. Right, not lightning. I walked hours through a city I did not know with my trusty laptop carrier. It was after a daylong conference. Compared to most briefcases, day packs or messenger bags, the canvas Domke Reporter’s Satchel is lightweight. After years of refining, …
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Thank You for Your Coverage
The defenders of our country — Thank you for your service — must be made of tough stuff. That’s what military service means. Yet elements of the media worry, presume service personnel and veterans have thin skins. “Garfield” on Veterans Day ran a routine cat comic strip. Many comics just did their daily gag, though there’s …
Taking a Constitutional
What happens when a blogger, columnist or occasional writer dawdles is the the topic either gets away, gets old or gets stolen. Hats off to colleague John Brummett. As of Nov. 2, Arkansas has three fresh amendments to the Arkansas Constitution. That will make the 88th Amendment, 89th Amendment and 90th Amendment. I am bound …
Over and Under
Columnist Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Daily News, despite being quite the extrovert, rarely finds himself a news subject. It’s because he’s first a journalist, although with his in-your-face style, that might seem surprising. This week, however, Bykofsky has landed in the cable yaks war, “yaks” being those chat-show hosts on the 24/7 news/comment channels, …
Third Quarter II, Into the Fourth
The Brick book list with sketchy reviews, continued. Book List through October 2010 September 2010 Solar by Ian McEwan. Book on CD. The novel by the polished McEwan got mixed reviews but I liked it. It’s a successful comic novel whose hero is brilliant but a buffoon, who wages a cynical war against global warming. The audiobook …
It Takes Villages
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock Something that’s amazed me my entire adult life is how lousy a predictor childhood is of adult success. Children reared with all the advantages, the latest psychology and/or consistent discipline — turn out as anything from national leaders to routinely stable mid-levels to layabouts. Children born in abusive families or …
Third Quarter, I
Four months ago, I entered here in Brick for the record a list of books I read or started to read, or heard or started to hear, for the entire year 2010, to date. You can stop here, this is just for me. There will be mini-reviews, though, for reference later. I am not creating hyperlinks. …
The Future, Exactly
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock. “Today is your birthday.” (This is the special section of the Daily Newspaper Horoscope. You remember newspapers — impartial facts, reasoned commentary, comics for the kiddies, and a Zodiac that isn’t truth, comment or let’s face it healthy for children. Now more than ever, Newspapers Are the Future, especially this …
Heeeeere’s Bedtime
The most useless habits can be the hardest to break. The three most annoying routines have dwindled to one. None of them ever was harmful. For me, it was a curiosity, why keep on, no pleasure, not even any risk. The first silly habit I knocked off as an adult was to forego the comic strip …
Begetting Books
It’s been some three decades since I last watched them do it, and I can’t quite replicate it. I wish I could multitask like my parents, who excelled at the feat before it had a name. There’s one round of activities of theirs that I envy. They could read mysteries and novels (Mom) or thrillers and …
