Categories
Life Lessons

Duality in the Sun

Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock The occasional, amateur anthropologist in me has been studying the spouse for 19 1/2 years. Occasional discoveries have been made during the field work, but a revelation has occupied the study recently: There’s two of her. I’m pretty sure of this because there’s two of me. My Beloved has the […]

Categories
Bake

Savor Schnecken Like a Snail

My Reform Jewish family in Fort Smith, Arkansas, had schnecken for breakfast every Christmas. There was no recipe so every December in adulthood I’ve tried to recreate the childhood memory, with cookbooks, recollections of family and improvising. That was starting in my 20s. In my 30s, I also began cooking healthier. These cannot honestly be […]

Categories
Chronicles of Crystal Britches

Belly Up with Dickson Street

Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — I grabbed a take-out coffee from Common Grounds and headed across Fayetteville’s Dickson Street to the rose garden of the current Walton Arts Center. I sat on the terraced brick wall, waiting for my client-friend Crystal Britches, and shivered. The flower bushes were faded, matching the mood. […]

Categories
Main Courses

Fried Soup

Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock This recipe was revised in October 2013. “Fried soup” was what I announced when I brought these to the table, what otherwise are called veggie croquettes, pancakes or burgers. When I try to make veggie burgers they fall apart. These held together and are as good or better than grocery […]

Categories
The Course of Words

Food, Shelter and Columns

The following is my column for the December 2010 edition of monthly newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Earlier this week I woke up presuming I could start this month’s column with, “Hello, I have a story to tell,” and wing it. I didn’t have a clue where to go from there, though. It’s […]

Categories
American Culture

Lightening Up

On my most recent big trip, I was struck by lightening. Right, not lightning. I walked hours through a city I did not know with my trusty laptop carrier. It was after a daylong conference. Compared to most briefcases, day packs or messenger bags, the canvas Domke Reporter’s Satchel is lightweight. After years of refining, […]