Copyright 2006 Ben S. Pollock Consider the classic movies Sunset Boulevard (1950) and His Girl Friday (1940) (the latter the second of three film adaptations of The Front Page, the first out in 1931 then the 1974). If Norma worked for Cary Grant, instead of proclaiming to William Holden’s character, she would say: I am […]
Categories
Introduction, a Look Back
BACK HOME — Is it live, or is it Memorex? went the commercial. Blogs are Memorex, just like newspapers, sitcoms and National Public Radio. We all have smoke charges hidden in our cuffs. The windows on the set are mirrors. Morning newspapers are made to look like they are reported and printed simultaneously and at […]
Categories
Epilogue, or a Look Ahead
DETROIT — Automatic soap dispensers were in restrooms of a number of stops throughout this trip, including Detroit’s airport in general and its Northwest Airlines World Club in particular. Does everything have to be automatic, run by an infrared electric eye? This one is particularly wasteful; a number of times I’d rinse the automatic gel […]
Categories
Pop Pop Pop Goes the Fourth
BOSTON — Standing on the Cambridge side of the Charles River, under one of the 10 giant amplifiers mounted on portable towers where it was ironically quietest, we thousands had the best view for the fireworks but the hundreds of thousands at the amphitheater seemed distant and behind trees at that. What do you do […]
Categories
Our Fair Cambridge
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The day was devoted to Cambridge. We left the subway at Harvard Square and walked the entire afternoon, stopping in several Tibetan shops, for her, and whatever struck my fancy. One was Leavitt & Pierce Inc., just off Harvard Square. I could have spent an hour in the nearby Harvard Book Store […]
Categories
Happy, happy seals
BOSTON — A grand day. The conclusion of the annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists always is a morning business meeting of the entire membership, at least those who don’t have especially early flights back home. I grabbed My Beloved Wife (MBW, not to be confused with BMW, one of which she […]