Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2005: Apparently, I spoke out of turn. I didn’t mean to cause a stunned silence but rather say something I thought was not out of line, not unusual. I said the same thing to two different audiences, and got this same reaction: A look of incredulity with […]
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Oct. 2, 2005: Refugee, evacuee, ban, persecute. Who could object — well, I couldn’t — when Oprah Winfrey in the second week after Hurricane Katrina pronounced from New Orleans that people who made it through the devastation “survivors”? It’s uplifting, optimistic, triumphant and, well, true. But essentially all of […]
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Sept. 28, 2005: My Oak “How tall you want it?” “There’s a choice on the tree stump?” “Sure, put a plant there.” After a day of thuds, They’ve cleared the boughs: They’re rotten. The trunk’s thud thundered. Long after the cuts And the oak rolled off, who knew Death’s […]
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Monday, Sept. 26, 2005: One of my guilty pleasures finally is starting to regurge on me. I have been enjoying accounts in journalism-industry media of the big, bad bean counters and how they’re ruining my profession. It’s so obvious, it’s so true, it’s so commented upon it must be so. […]
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Book’s as easy as falling out of a plane Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2005. I own a lot of books, hundreds, and have read nearly all of them. This isn’t bragging, as I haven’t read all that much since college, except for my first copy-desk stint of 1985-87. They just add […]
Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Dragging books through the mud Friday, Sept. 16, 2005: I have not written a Brick for more than week because the two subjects I wanted to hit seemed overdone. What could I write about Katrina? Nothing particularly valuable, though I will return to it. Also, I’ve heard from all sides […]