Friday, February 15, 2008
Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock One of the outcomes of a Democratic presidential victory come November likely will be national health care sooner not later. And one of the outcomes of national health care will be a sudden and welcome drop in pretentious fundraisers. Nearly nine years ago I wrote an offensive column. I apologized [...]
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Sunday, December 30, 2007
Driving home from work early Sunday morning, the radio was playing “It Ain’t Necessarily So” from Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. The tenor’s voice was to-the-back-of-the-hall soaring, precise in enunciation and emoted with the sass the song demands but rarely gets. This was public radio’s Jazz Profiles with Nancy Wilson, who said it was Cab Calloway. [...]
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Tagged music
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I wish the Toyota Prius wasn’t so ugly. I wish it wasn’t so expensive, either. Some cars are ugly-fun, like the old Beetle and the new Beetle. The PT Cruiser has the charm of a friendly bull terrier. Yet in another year or two I’ll be forced to buy a Prius; my car will have [...]
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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Copyright 2007 Ben S. Pollock When I clicked on C-SPAN2 midday Tuesday I did not know Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., was giving a speech important enough to make the national news. He was criticizing George II’s veto of a big domestic spending bill. Big Ted, Old Ted, swatting at the Republican in the White [...]
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Yokel teevee is very proud of itself to have wireless capabilities and satellites and compooters and dishes. It forgets the ability to broadcast live, and to broadcast live away from the studio, reaches to the days of the Hindenberg. It’s called a “remote feed.” This morning all the channels have treated us to the landing [...]
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Tuesday, September 11, 2007
“On that day, our nation changed.” Promotions, teases and lead-ins to broadcast programs or segments about today’s sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 terror attacks often have had this or a similar phrase. Hosts on shows so far repeat the statement and precede it with, “Everyone knows that. …” No, we don’t. No, it didn’t. I [...]
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Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Let us consider “hero,” not this person or that but the word. To consider how this word is being used in the media is to review to whom it is applied. That’s unfair to the person in the headline — “A hero remembered: [City name here] memorializes hometown soldier killed by helicopter crash in Iraq” [...]
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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Art museums are necessary evils. Even as they perform their important functions of archivism, centralization and certification, they rob their collected pieces of vital energy.” – Philip Martin, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007 DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — It’s time, my fellow Americans, to stand up to the injustice of housing works of art in museums. [...]
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The first-day coverage of the Virginia Tech shootings was, compared to most similar events, surprisingly restrained. CNN was unbearably repetitive. I couldn’t see more than five minutes at a time, due to impatience, but wasn’t it wonderful that the cable news station of excess kept guesswork and pseudo-psycho-pap about the shooter to a minimum. But [...]
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Copyright Ben S Pollock 2007 I was looking for The Charlie Rose Show. Honest. It was a little after 11, and I was bored with Dave and Jay. It was pledge week for the state’s PBS conduit, AETN (Arkansas Educational Television Network), though so I realized Rose might be delayed or pre-empted. Most pledge drives [...]
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