The following is my president’s column for the June 2011 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The NSNC Conference, three days out of 365, is a highlight of my year. Apparently, I mustn’t have a life. Actually, I do have a grand life, and NSNC has been a huge [...]
Last year, which is to say 11 days ago, Brick described the local cable company as reneging on its agreement with area governments by moving the local access channels from its cheapest tiers, analog cable, to the more costly digital ones. This posting provoked interest among Facebook friends. They gave conflicting stories, hence some informal [...]
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Columnist Stu Bykofsky of the Philadelphia Daily News, despite being quite the extrovert, rarely finds himself a news subject. It’s because he’s first a journalist, although with his in-your-face style, that might seem surprising. This week, however, Bykofsky has landed in the cable yaks war, “yaks” being those chat-show hosts on the 24/7 news/comment channels, [...]
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A concert by Mark Knopfler and his band, seen April 21 in Kansas City, promoting his album Get Lucky, was tremendous. If you live within 250 miles (the distance from Fayetteville, as it happens) and have some extra 20s for tickets, try to see it; otherwise listen to the record. Though usually featuring electric instruments, [...]
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Friday, September 4, 2009
No More Foolin’ for Schoolin’ Brick by current policy does not give political endorsements. Now that the Fayetteville School District’s high school plan is set for a public vote, in about 10 days, all I should do is create a nice neutral analysis. Yawn. Better: Just lay out some facts, in a smirk-free zone. The [...]
Passover ends at sundown today, its eighth day. Just before the festival week of Pesach began, local stores that carry some kosher products year-round — and a few more items come early spring — began running out of unleavened bread. Again. Must be those Christians. Northwest Arkansas only has a few Jews, who surely are [...]
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Thursday, February 5, 2009
The knit sheets we grabbed in the dark annoyed, our flannels would slide in woven linens. Cascading limbs threatened the bed upstairs so with four blankets below, three above, we lay with cats by the washer/dryer. Not merely sleepless, for 10 hours we stared under the hurricane in slow motion: Crack crack crackle groan — [...]
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CONWAY, Ark. — Circumstances kept My Beloved and I away from our inaugural plans. With a rough idea and a bit of luck, though, we became better witnesses to a slice of history. The Shady Hill manse is 959 miles from the Washington Monument so the biggest piece we could expect was a dieter’s sliver [...]
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock Over the decade (since February 1998) that we’ve lived in Northwest Arkansas, Ginny and Nick Masullo have thrown the most fantastic and memorable, surreal and comforting parties. Some involved costumes, a number had modest bonfires, and all had warmth, lots of food and a truly wide assortment of guests. The [...]
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The other day as I was leaving a specialty store (as opposed to “general merchandise”) a fellow whose wife I used to work with waved hello. What we have in common is her so I asked and learned in brief that she’s been award more responsibilities at her job and is pretty happy. Wrapping those [...]
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