Here’s some vuvuzela blasts to advertisements of the you-must-be-kidding sort. Virtually all of these are from the Sunday newspaper coupon sets. Because these go a long way to paying my salary, please buy every one of these. They’re fine products at honest prices. • • • Del Monte has a new campaign for its canned […]
This is a list, a record, an accounting. Dull in some lights, if not pretentious, condescending and childish: Look at what I’ve been reading, Mommy! But in recent years, I’ve heard of more people keeping lists of books they’ve read. I’ve enjoyed looking at them. Nick Hornby’s is a feature in The Believer magazine. Of course, […]
As long as soccer’s World Cup has made the vuvuzela stadium noisemaker a common word in America, Brick wants to horn in on its ubiquity for a new series of short takes. Today, it’s skin and drama. • • • Speaking of vuvuzela, one rash has come home to roost, on my left forearm. Until […]
The Fourth of July calls for red, white and blue. But if it’s independence we’re celebrating, why not red, green, yellow and purple? Ratatouille is a southern European, mid-summer, vegetarian casserole, ideal for when you return from the farmers market with way too much. The chickpeas make this a one-pot meal; bread crumbs are to […]
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock DATELINE MIRTHOLOGY — My client Crystal Britches was sweltering in her plastic rain gear. It neared 90 this morning at the Fayetteville Farmers Market — nearly all the summer veggies were available but no musicians or sidewalk artists — but the forecast had projected rain. “Hon’. I thought I’d find […]
A statement on Helen Thomas from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists, written by Ben Pollock as its vice president, edited by informal committee: For decades, Helen Thomas has been a paragon for younger journalists and her closing her career as a bad role model provides lessons as well, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists […]