Categories
News, Spin

Spring into Business

What a world this is, what a country. That’s today’s controversial opinion, based on local news articles and a national item. Those pieces from last week come to mind the morning after massive health-care legislation passed the U.S. House, where opposition spanned from principled and reasonable to name-calling. Two Northwest Arkansas reporters last week reviewed […]

Categories
Body, Home, Street

Cultural Indifferences

The wonderful thing about having a well-run auditorium in town is opportunities it provides. If you follow Paul Simon or were listening to pop music in the mid-1980s you know of his album Graceland, which introduced to the West the South African men’s chorus that was in Fayetteville last weekend. Its name can seem a […]

Categories
The Course of Words

Columnist Sympathizer

A nice thing just happened. On Jan. 31, I was elected vice president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. I’ve been a card-carrying columnist since 1991, joining during the run of my column Mirthology, in the old Arkansas Democrat. The post is interim, to cover after a resignation, until the annual membership meeting in […]

Categories
Life Lessons

Man and Superboy

Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock Seeing the backstage drama Crazy Heart down at the Malco on its opening weekend here in Northwest Arkansas gave me lots to think about, being a good movie. It’d be fine to wait for a home viewing, but leisurely, panoramic views of New Mexico increase the worth of a cineplex […]

Categories
Body, Home, Street

iStumblebum

I miss smoking. Yes, quit pipes and the occasional cigarette or cigar 22 years ago. Don’t mean miss my own smoking. I do miss how smoking helped the dexterity of nearly everyone — that is, people who smoked, which was nearly everyone. That was not obvious until a few weeks ago. My office moved from […]

Categories
Mr. Boo Klist

Positive Positions Perhaps

“Think, men, think.” — Prof. Harold Hill, The Music Man New Year’s Resolution No. 1 for 2010 is modest: Keep a book list. Then in a year there’ll be a better best books Brick. One could say that if the books I read were memorable then I’d remember ’em. It’s not as if I read […]