Categories
Life Lessons

Playing Dodgson Ball

Follow some literary logic down a rabbit hole If “Alice laughed: ‘There’s no use trying,’ she said; ‘one can’t believe impossible things.’ “‘I daresay you haven’t had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was younger, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible […]

Categories
American Culture

Ice is Nice til Pass on Gas

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock We need a barometer. It will predict when gasoline costs too much. Just under $3 a gallon here in the Arkansas Ozarks. Everyone complains, but while we’re driving perhaps more carefully, combining errand trips, topping off the tank, we’re not all buying scooters. We’re not demanding that Ozark Regional Transit […]

Categories
News, Spin

Tie One On

It should have been Bill Clinton who brought more informality to the White House during his eight years, but credit here has to go to George W. Bush. Clinton seems to have moved everywhere with a coffee mug indoors and a to-go cup away from home. President Bush is shown increasingly without a necktie. Also, […]

Categories
American Culture

Our Constitution’s Bill of Goods

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Wouldn’t be a lot easier for President Bush and the current Congress to begin the process to repeal the First Amendment of the Bill of Rights? Bet it wouldn’t take too long to get the votes their way. Think of how many birds they’d drop with that one cast stone: […]

Categories
American Culture

Norma Desmond (heart) Hildy Johnson

Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Consider the classic movies Sunset Boulevard (1950) and His Girl Friday (1940) (the latter the second of three film adaptations of The Front Page, the first out in 1931 then the 1974). If Norma worked for Cary Grant, instead of proclaiming to William Holden’s character, she would say: I am […]

Categories
Boston Blotter

Introduction, a Look Back

BACK HOME — Is it live, or is it Memorex? went the commercial. Blogs are Memorex, just like newspapers, sitcoms and National Public Radio. We all have smoke charges hidden in our cuffs. The windows on the set are mirrors. Morning newspapers are made to look like they are reported and printed simultaneously and at […]