You scroll through the Internet and land here. Your choice, your control. I create an essay, choosing topic, slant and wording. I’m in control of what you’re reading now. Hah! The wife reminds the husband about some chore. “You are so controlling,” he says. The husband expounds so about his day that the wife is […]
The Web site of the town stacks, Fayetteville Public Library, offers to e-mail patrons about new arrivals. A couple of months ago I signed up for the non-musical recordings notification to help me grab new book-on-CD titles. The shelves increasingly are picked over every time I stop by, at least for volumes I’d want. Have […]
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — Dear Wal-Mart shareholders and employees, oops, I mean “associates.” And the former, you smart happy investors. If you’ve come to Northwest Arkansas before, we’re glad to have you back, and that means you don’t need to trouble yourself further in the reading this letter of welcome. So […]
(Yes, Eudora, there is a great short story titled “Why I Live at the P.O.”) During the boom economy, canned food drives always seemed odd to me. When a supermarket had a barrel near the door for customers to place an extra food staple for the poor, I would not comply. It was so blatant […]
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 […]
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock Last Tuesday, May 26, the Ozark Poets and Writers Collective hosted the noted, and local, poet Miller Williams at the independent Nightbird Books in Fayetteville. What a turnout for such a space. The reading area — Nightbird just moved to a larger space, the fondly recalled Ozark Mountain Smokehouse, and […]