Categories
The Course of Words

Litmus Flavored Columns

This column first was published as the “President’s Message” in the October 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Your president is looking out for your welfare. Thank me later. Tracy Beckerman, chairman of the Social Media Committee, although an NSNC member for several years, still is trying to figure us out. Just […]

Categories
Mr. Boo Klist

Making Book

Here it is September, and not only that but mid-September, and I have not posted my periodic list of books absorbed. This will be the second year I have attempted a complete list of books. Some I read, some I hear, as CD sets in the car while commuting. January 2011 Memento Mori, by Murial […]

Categories
American Culture

Hill of Beans

And I feel like a beetle on its backAnd there’s no way for me to get upLove’ll get you like a case of anthraxAnd that’s something I don’t want to catch— Gang of Four, “(Love Like) Anthrax,” 1978 Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock JUST AFTER ELEVEN — Two hundred eighty-something million Americans had nothing on […]

Categories
The Course of Words

The Room in the Elephant

This column first was published as the “President’s Message” in the September 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The board of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists has been cleaning up after the party in Detroit. While washing glasses and emptying the trash, we share the usual mix of gleeful recollection of […]

Categories
Loose Talk of the Town

Spread It

Facebook often is positive, and rightfully so. A Brick from 11 months ago supported that: The Future Just Showed Up: Like. Facebook is not all feel-good happy talk but controversy and deliberate negativity get moved down and out quickly — posts get “hidden” and friends become “unfriended.” My last weekend post fell in between. Sunday […]

Categories
Loose Talk of the Town

3 Cheers for Saturday

What, not four? Others are punditing U.S. economy very well. Why there’ll always be real estate agents and contractors In the HomeStyle section of the Saturday regional/state paper is the weekly Personal Space brief. Most weeks the subject, who is asked about her or his home and some biographical information, maneuvers to plug their business […]