Categories
News, Spin

Haven’t they been through enough?

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 […]

Categories
Body, Home, Street

Goody, a poem

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 […]

Categories
News, Spin

Shareholders, spill your bean counters

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. […]

Categories
The Course of Words

Falling from a plane’s easy

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 […]

Categories
Body, Home, Street

Books in mud

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 […]

Categories
News, Spin

Gulf of misunderstanding

Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Friday, September 2, 2005: Gulf War III. This one is American, too, but it’s being fought on a different Gulf. Thoughts about Hurricane Katrina. In my morning paper today is a color insert ad, Heartland Honda of Springdale: four glossy pages on gas-powered portable generators. Now I know the biz, […]