Categories
The Course of Words

Thanks for the memoirs

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock   Thursday, March 11, 2004. What does it say about a person when, first, they continue to carry on about years’ old problems as if they were fresh and, second, they evidently feel a need to tell people about them? It’s evidence perhaps of this being the memoir-and-Oprah age of […]

Categories
American Culture

The Passion of the Gimmick

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, March 9, 2004. "The Passion of the Christ." I have not seen the movie, though it’s been out a couple of weeks. I am not curious about it, the way I have been about other movies about Christianity, and so may not see it anytime soon. It’s not the […]

Categories
Life Lessons

How to get to Carnegie Deli?

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday 18 February 2004. Monday night at community band, the euphonium section sat beside the trombones. It was just one baritone player, and she looked unfamiliar. I introduced myself. This was indeed her first night with the Arkansas Winds. She sat by us because that’s where baris traditionally sit; no […]

Categories
News, Spin

We all scream

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Friday, Jan. 23, 2004. I like Howard Dean. I didn’t care one way or the other before the night of the Iowa caucuses and that speech of his, Jan. 20. Now I don’t know if he should be elected president or even the Democratic nominee; if he’s still a candidate […]

Categories
The Course of Words

Disagreeing to agree

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2004. It is OK to for a publication, or an individual writer, to be superior to readers. Ps and Ws, increasingly in recent years, attempt to be either equal to the reader or beneath them. The first is thought to appeal to the reader more strongly. The […]

Categories
Life Lessons

Decisions

Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2004. The old chestnut of a philosophical construct: If you knew you were going to die tomorrow, what would you do today? Ideally, you’d spend lots of time in the park, barefoot (the sun would be warm and shining of course), using your cell phone to call […]