Monthly Archives: February 2012

Who’d’ve-Thunks

Copy­right 2012 Ben S. Pol­lock I knew what to expect of The Artist, a “silent” film, mean­ing no talk­ing, though it did have sound effects and music (and before­hand, iron­i­cally, the loudest-volume trail­ers since those run­ning with Avatar). Still, the teenage box office cashier warned My Beloved and me, while giv­ing me $7 change for

My Friend Jeff Zaslow

When you’re middle-aged, what the hell is a friend, any­way? Some of my favorite peo­ple I see for one long week­end every year, a con­fer­ence. In between there will be a hand­ful of emails and, these days, rather more fre­quently, single-sentence repar­tee on Face­book. I often have met their spouses, briefly, but damn if I

No Taking Ulysses for Granted

This col­umn first was pub­lished as the “President’s Mes­sage” in the Feb­ru­ary 2012 newslet­ter of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. Spring — OK, this is win­ter but I’m an opti­mist — is busy-time for the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. • We’re halfway through gath­er­ing entries for the annual Col­umn Con­test. Have you sent