Categories
Technical Difficulties

Forward Slash and Burn

This is a reversal. Brick is all about the new. Live in the present, look toward the future. Dwell just a little on what’s past. But the URL from which it sprang, benpollock.com, has been neglected. Oh, I tell myself, it’s an archive. It works well enough. Fast-loading, a reference for me when I am […]

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I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit

I’m Your Vehicle, Detroit

DETROIT — Six days after returning home, two of the June 23-26 columnist conference’s field trips burn in me, tours of the Motown Historical Museum and the new heart-of-downtown home office of Quicken Loans. Hitsville U.S.A. The museum, informally called “Hitsville,” is in the two original houses in which Berry Gordy created the Motown recording […]

Categories
I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit

Paneling for the Benchley Den

This column also was published in the July 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Once again, an NSNC columnist conference astounded its audience with information and fun. The June 23-26 session in Detroit catered to would-be and published book writers, gave fresh tips to free-lancers (and in “custom content” not just columns), […]

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I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit

Roger and Me

Roger Ebert receives the 2011 Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists A version of this Brick is published at columnists.com. DETROIT, Saturday, June 25, 2011 — Following is the acceptance speech of Roger Ebert for the NSNC’s Ernie Pyle Lifetime Achievement Award. Ebert’s physical condition prevented him from accepting in person, […]

Categories
I'm Your Vehicle, Detroit

Folio the Leader

“Other than that, how did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?” — Attributed to Tom Lehrer DETROIT, 8:47 a.m. EDT, Friday, June 24, 2011 — Hear ye, hear ye, (swat newspaper) I am Ben Pollock, president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. I hereby call the 35th annual NSNC conference to order! [Swat paper? […]

Categories
Brick Bats Reportage

A Columnist’s Scrapbook

The following is my president’s column for the June 2011 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The NSNC Conference, three days out of 365, is a highlight of my year. Apparently, I mustn’t have a life. Actually, I do have a grand life, and NSNC has been a huge […]