Friday, December 18, 2009
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock My relationship with money sometimes irritates people. It would be none of their business of course, except when it comes up in conversation. I’m one who avoids specifics, but I try to be supportive of stuff that people say casually. Yet every once in a while I bite my tongue [...]
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Saturday, September 12, 2009
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock Identity is a flummox. Sometimes it feels like you spend a lifetime — or the lifetime thus far — pursuing an identity, but your identity may not be you. I’ve heard of two senior or retired professors who said they chose their doctoral fields rather arbitrarily and lost interest as [...]
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Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock The Internet is not killing the newspaper. The economy is. This would be obvious as it’s stated in every halfway decent article on the print media, but the copy usually includes comments by people who seem to throw their hands out and cry, “Ach, die Web” (Japanese for “OMG, did [...]
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
DATELINE DREAMLAND — We must have gotten lost. My wife and I were on the road. It was a long trip, and it seemed to be in a foreign country, although we had a common language with the locals. We pulled over, rather than get more disoriented, and soon saw a native family in the [...]
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I’m vacationing in Lebanon, using this time to get up to speed on Facebook. How’s Arkansas treating you? Let me know when you can. Bye, Michael” This came last August. I had just joined Facebook as well. After seven months, I figured out a reply. I delayed writing for two reasons. One, Michael, is because [...]
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock The news business is collapsing. Lots of other industries are imploding — banking, autos — but who can do without loans and cars, while who needs news in this time of peace (yes, it is)? I. News Always Has Been Free, Almost The explanation given is that the Internet is [...]
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I’m old enough and responsible enough that I no longer try to avoid funerals. I’m heading to one on Tuesday of one of my mentors, Connie. Now that I’ve attended a variety, eulogies have become fascinating. The best-intentioned speakers try to illuminate the mourners on less commonly known aspects of the deceased but alway end [...]
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Friday, December 19, 2008
Copyright 2008, Ben S. Pollock Unexpect the Expected Living up to your potential means failure if you drop out early. There have been moments, or a little longer, maybe moments and a half, in the last two weeks where I ponder, “I almost died,” which moves to, “I almost got crazy bad hurt. Now what?” [...]
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Saturday, September 27, 2008
Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock How do anyone know how much to give, to what to give to? Let’s label this, charity. Non-profit, that could be lots of things besides charities. My professional organization, can you call that a charity? A wing of it is a card-carrying (tax ID) non-profit and sponsors an annual scholarship [...]
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Close Calls for Second Chances from Second Sight Copyright Ben S. Pollock 2008 Brick paused. Posting this month has been more inconsistent than usual. Bricks do get started but tossed to the slag heap. The lump, with its gaps and off corners, can be reshaped or mushed with others. After all, none of those has [...]
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