The 2009 deadline of a long-running column-writing contest, now open to bloggers, is less than a week away. Entries for the seven categories of the annual contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists need to have a postmark — or time-stamp — of Sunday, March 15. Five of the categories are traditional: humor and […]
Author: Ben S. Pollock
Why write more when my home page
will distract you from the real me.
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Depressing News
Copyright 2009 Ben S. Pollock The news business is collapsing. Lots of other industries are imploding — banking, autos — but who can do without loans and cars, while who needs news in this time of peace (yes, it is)? I. News Always Has Been Free, Almost The explanation given is that the Internet is […]
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Two for the Show
What a thoughtful movie. It’s about this middle-aged man who’s in a real interesting career, been at it his whole adult life. But the guy is on its far side, losing it. What he’s doing — or selling, depending on the degree of jaundice in your opinion of work — well, maybe it’s best as […]
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Nature in slow motion
The knit sheets we grabbed in the dark annoyed, our flannels would slide in woven linens. Cascading limbs threatened the bed upstairs so with four blankets below, three above, we lay with cats by the washer/dryer. Not merely sleepless, for 10 hours we stared under the hurricane in slow motion: Crack crack crackle groan — […]
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Turn Rupees to Scruples
Report: Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire. Why, everyone should see Slumdog Millionaire. It’s a cross between Oliver Twist (book and any movie version) and WALL-E. Other lead characters: Fagin, Artful Dodger and Eve. The plot: fish-out-of-water-into-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire. (Shouldn’t reviews now and then be as short as possible? Complete write-ups, not capsules) In short, this is the best […]
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Street Oath
CONWAY, Ark. — Circumstances kept My Beloved and I away from our inaugural plans. With a rough idea and a bit of luck, though, we became better witnesses to a slice of history. The Shady Hill manse is 959 miles from the Washington Monument so the biggest piece we could expect was a dieter’s sliver […]