Saturday, November 5, 2011
Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock Though we who note the news have known about the Greek economic crisis for quite some time, it seems to have come to a head here in the first week of November. Maybe if Greece exported more of that sunny yogurt, the budget would teeter back a bit. But in [...]
Facebook often is positive, and rightfully so. A Brick from 11 months ago supported that: The Future Just Showed Up: Like. Facebook is not all feel-good happy talk but controversy and deliberate negativity get moved down and out quickly — posts get “hidden” and friends become “unfriended.” My last weekend post fell in between. Sunday [...]
What, not four? Others are punditing U.S. economy very well. Why there’ll always be real estate agents and contractors In the HomeStyle section of the Saturday regional/state paper is the weekly Personal Space brief. Most weeks the subject, who is asked about her or his home and some biographical information, maneuvers to plug their business [...]
This column first was published in the August 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Instead of polishing this column, I should be sewing nametags into my clothes, shaking out my sleeping bag for WordCamp. If I showed up with that stuff, even the geeks there would laugh. We’re all geeks at WordCamp. [...]
This is a reversal. Brick is all about the new. Live in the present, look toward the future. Dwell just a little on what’s past. But the URL from which it sprang, benpollock.com, has been neglected. Oh, I tell myself, it’s an archive. It works well enough. Fast-loading, a reference for me when I am [...]
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Here is Mom’s Spaghetti Sauce, circa 1970s (my sister kept the index card): Brown 1 pound ground beef, drain. Add 1 Tablespoon salt, half an onion chopped, half a stick of butter, 1 (large) can tomatoes cut up, and 1 large can (2 small cans) tomato paste. Cook covered in 275-degree oven 1 1/2 to [...]
Sunday, December 26, 2010
My Reform Jewish family in Fort Smith, Arkansas, had schnecken for breakfast every Christmas. There was no recipe so every December in adulthood I’ve tried to recreate the childhood memory, with cookbooks, recollections of family and improvising. That was starting in my 20s. In my 30s, I also began cooking healthier. These cannot honestly be [...]
Monday, December 20, 2010
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock “Fried soup” was what I announced when I brought these to the table, what otherwise are called veggie croquettes, pancakes or burgers. When I try to make veggie burgers they fall apart. These held together and are as good or better than grocery store veggie burgers. The name stems from [...]
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Portable chairs these days are of a kind: metal rods supporting a hammock seat and back, designed to collapse and fit in a tubular cloth bag. It’s been impossible to find those web chairs, strips of woven plastic interlaced on a frame of light aluminum tubing; it just folds for transport. Web chairs are more [...]
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
With apologies to George Orwell: Winston gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two Victory Gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose, only to [...]