Brick

VENTURA, Calif. — Fol­low­ing are reflec­tions that don’t fit in the reportage arti­cles from the weekend’s annual con­fer­ence of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. A proud moment came in help­ing select the year’s schol­ar­ship con­test win­ner. Paul Bow­ers of the Uni­ver­sity of South Car­olina — the other USC, was the run­ning, old joke — …

VENTURA, Calif. — The final day of the colum­nists’ 2009 con­fer­ence sought both to expand their pos­si­bil­i­ties then return them to the glory of old-fashioned reader-beloved essays. The back­ground on The Last Lec­ture by Randy Pausch with Jef­frey Zaslow is easy to find online, includ­ing Zaslow’s expe­ri­ences in cre­at­ing the book. Jeff, of The Wall …

VENTURA, Calif. — Ear­lier this month, Brick revealed it was a final­ist in the annual con­test of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists. This evening at a ban­quet, it was announced that the honor was hon­or­able men­tion, Online Columns cat­e­gory. Here is a list of all win­ners. Here is the judge’s com­ment: Ben S. Pol­lock …

VENTURA, Calif. — The annual con­fer­ence of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists con­vened in the morn­ing, hew­ing closely to the announced theme of “Sur­vive and Thrive.” Yes, we heard tips; the fate of news­pa­pers may be out of our con­trol, but colum­nists both staff and free­lance the­o­ret­i­cally have a fight­ing chance to also pur­sue …

VENTURA, Calif. — We themed (why not?) the 2009 con­fer­ence of the National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists “Sur­vive and Thrive,” and the speak­ers returned work­ing titles that showed they under­stood, what with the now daily frosts at the begin­ning of the News­pa­per Ice Age. So why are they so upbeat? It’s grim humor, gal­lows or …

LOS ANGELES — I’m about 20 years too early to have hear­ing aids, but there it is. I’ve had one in my right ear since mid-2005, and six months ago had to begin wear­ing them in both. Each new audi­tory cir­cum­stance, rather than get­ting, “Wow, birds chirp­ing!” often starts with, “What?” My first movie with two …

In mid-May, I received the fol­low­ing e-mail: Dear Ben Pol­lock, Con­grat­u­la­tions. You are a win­ner in the “On-line Cat­e­gory” of the 2009 National Soci­ety of News­pa­per Colum­nists annual con­test. We hope you will be with us to accept your award in per­son in beau­ti­ful Ven­tura, Calif. at the NSNC annual con­fer­ence, June 25–28. For more …