Thoughts on literature, well, anything people write
First published in the November 2010 issue of the e-Columnist By Ben S. Pollock President, National Society of Newspaper Columnists “Politics make strange bedfellows” goes the quote by 19th-century newspaperman Charles Dudley Warner, and this fall it’s been columnists getting renown for jumping on the mattress. Columnists, commentators, news analysts, bloggers, interest-group hacks, cable yaks — […]
The following is my column for the October 2010 edition of the monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Defining and analyzing humor is a pastime of humorless people.” — Robert Benchley To avoid betraying my idol, Mr. Benchley, I’ll rationalize. This is not analysis but a lesson on creating humor. Books I’ve […]
News clipping from the Thursday, Sept. 23, 2010, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: WEHCO Newspapers has signed a contract to work with Righthaven LLC of Las Vegas, which files lawsuits against website owners who post copyrighted newspaper articles without permission. The agreement covers all the company’s papers. Righthaven is currently looking for violations of copyrighted material published by […]
The following is my column for the September 2010 edition of monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Last year I asked my Facebook friends on my “Wall,” where conversations are texted (Is this English?), “Why are people so upbeat on Facebook?” I’d been on Facebook a few months, having been sold on […]
My first “President’s Column” for columnists.com. Thank you for electing me president of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Didn’t you hear? I have not published a running column since Sept. 16, 2001. Instead I’ve written at www.benpollock.com/brick for nearly seven years. After the first year, the water warms up. Blogging is how I’ve coped […]
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 […]