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Category Archives: Body, Home, Street

Ranging from near-memoir to considerations of local news.

Mallets Aforethought

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock The race for mayor of Fayetteville seems to have a full roster although the filing period is Aug. 6-26. A surprise candidate or two would be welcome, especially if they’re capable sorts. All of the announced candidates could be competent. While this is no endorsement — though a pooh-bah I [...]

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Yes, In My Backyard

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Coincidences are happy flukes, I say, maybe rarely signs of a higher significance. My Beloved, true to our tomayto-tomahto nature, calls nearly all of them synchronicities. It was over the weekend when MB had a cartoon light bulb flash over her head: We need a cell-phone tower in the yard, collect rent and escape the [...]

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A Rare Bird

Wednesday, May 7, 2008

We’ve had a finch feeder — the kind with slits for tiny niger seed — in the yard for years, and, until Saturday, the thistle (what niger had been called) was so rarely sampled that it grew mold. To prevent another violation of the Washington County Health Department restaurant regs (Section 8H, fly-by, not Section [...]

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Hydrangea, Sweet Bird of Youth

Tuesday, April 1, 2008

This tale is in honor of Robert Benchley, on account of the day. For those of you who don’t know much about him, Benchley’s nickname in his Hollywood days was Dick Cheney. Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — Saturday I rushed into the yard for some early spring gardening. My neighbor had been [...]

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Turnips to Squeeze

Monday, March 31, 2008

Things are tough all over so what am I doing, about to criticize non-profits I favor? The endeavors — literature, fine art, serious music — are the sorts of things that keep me rooted here, but some of their staff members could use some free advice, for what it’s worth. 1. The literary bimonthly Oxford [...]

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What Honesty Comes To

Friday, March 21, 2008

Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock In the last couple of weeks, American politics took a big turn — all of it, from national to state to local. U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., gave a speech to explain how he has devoted his life to acting on inclusive feelings of love and harmony while following the [...]

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In My Inbox

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock This is a “found poem.” That’s like “found art,” where the artist roots around an alley or someplace and puts what he finds into some kind of combination. Here are lines — spelling, capitalization and punctuation intact — found: In My Inbox,

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Unkle Katrina

Thursday, January 24, 2008

Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — In the Mall of the Ozarks where the Toasts of the Town shop, where the vivacious news anchors and the handsome sports anchors check out the best duds to wear on the air, the meteorologists also lurk. They grab the nice clothes as well, but you’ll usually [...]

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WAC-ky in Fayetteville

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

The Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville at age 16 is being called a relic in some (moneyed) quarters. Those quarters know it’s not old by civic center standards, and in the last year or so it got reupholstered. The quarrel is its size. The main auditorium has about 1,200 seats, and we’re a growing metropolis, [...]

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Stone Picnic

Monday, December 24, 2007

The Fayetteville newspaper reported recently that a tombstone was found at a just-vacated rent house. The marker is of a woman who died two years ago. The rental management company phoned police. The Times’ print edition treats us to a photo of the flat marker. Later in the week the Times reported it reached the [...]

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