Author: Ben S. Pollock

Why write more when my home page
will distract you from the real me.

www.benpollock.com

E-mail me here: (written out to reduce spam) ben(at-sign)benpollock(dot)com

Categories
News, Spin

Woke Up and Smell the Coffee

1987 prestamped postcard showing some drafters of the Constitution

The final draft of this 1987 prestamped postcard depicts some drafters of the U.S. Constitution meeting in Philadelphia in 1797. From left are George Mason, Gouveneur Morris, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and Charles C. Pickney.

1 of 2. See 2. So many times in so many, many years, we are captivated by news from Washington yet breathe relief that as dramatic as it is, it doesn’t hit all that close. Not this year, oh boy. U.S. colleges and universities in recent weeks got the same memos, more or less literally. […]

Categories
News, Spin

Jews Stopped Being White This Year

Favorite yarmulke skullcap and tallit prayer shawl
The shawl is a religious tool, for prayers. The skullcap is more cultural. A North Carolina rabbi gave me the yarmulke for my big sister's funeral in 2021; it was left over from the bar mitzvah of a budding tennis player. The tallit is more or less handmade. I bought the cloth at a fabric store in Fort Smith in the late 1970s, then the Stanford Hillel director taught me how to tie the fringes. "Jewish macramé," the rabbi called it.

This Is Good for the Jews At dusk on Halloween, in the vicinity of 34 years ago, about 1990, my cat B.C. and I happened to be looking out my front window, and she jumped, leaving the window for mid-floor. I saw a young man halfway up the Little Rock apartment’s sidewalk in SS Gestapo […]

Categories
Body, Home, Street

Of Four Minds on Resistance

Pickets illustration by Ceci Davidson, 1990
Pickets, Copyright 1990 Ceci Davidson

Last week a dozen or so members of area union locals gathered for the November meeting of the Northwest Arkansas Labor Council. The discussion was about a 2025 we can barely predict, one led by a Republican ticket dedicated in public remarks to a melding of dictatorship and anarchy that appeals this month to 49.83 […]

Categories
Sides

Friday Night Re-Pabst

4 empty beer bottles, each a different color
Photo by George Chernilevsky, public domain, Wikimedia Commons

DIY Michelada Is Superior Several years ago I came across a curious cookbook. It comprised workable, simple and healthy vegan recipes but as a parody of a diet book, The Taco Cleanse: The Tortilla-Based Diet Proven to Change Your Life. Its authors — Wes Allison, Stephanie Bogdanich, Molly Frisinger and Jessica Morris — are based […]

Categories
Holiday Cuisine Main Courses

Clean Beans

Nearly all the ingredients for Clean Beans in a 2-quart Dutch oven
Nearly all the ingredients for Clean Beans in a 2-quart Dutch oven

The goal for Memorial Day extending to the Fourth of July this year was a recipe for baked beans tasting as I remember Mom opening a can or two and heating them, but also vegan and zero to low oil. The baked beans of yesterday not to mention today had bacon or shreds of regular […]

Categories
Main Courses

Ozarkonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki patties ready to serve
Okonomiyaki patties ready to serve. They started with 4 minutes a side on medium heat, then another 2-3 minutes per side to make them crispier.

Japanese-style savory vegan pancake (okonomiyaki) with everyday ingredients Okonomiyaki (Japanese more or less for “grilled to your liking”) is a thick pancake with a lot of regional variations. Most recipes online indicate they’re usually savory, loaded with vegetables but no oil — an ideal 21st-century vegan crossover. As I’ve experimented, I’ve found this to be […]