{"id":1204,"date":"2009-06-02T11:22:03","date_gmt":"2009-06-02T16:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1204"},"modified":"2009-07-07T20:53:41","modified_gmt":"2009-07-08T01:53:41","slug":"aw-shucks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/aw-shucks\/","title":{"rendered":"Aw, Shucks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In mid-May, I received the following e-mail:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Dear Ben Pollock,<br \/>\nCongratulations. You are a winner in the \u201cOn-line Category\u201d of the 2009 National Society of Newspaper Columnists annual contest. We hope you will be with us to accept your award in person in beautiful Ventura, Calif. at the NSNC annual conference, June 25-28. For more information about the conference, go to www.columnists.com.<br \/>\nPlease acknowledge receipt of this notification.<br \/>\nThanks and, again, congratulations.<br \/>\nAnn Fisher<br \/>\nContest Chair<br \/>\nDispatch Metro Reporter<br \/>\nColumbus, Ohio<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>It&#8217;s a tease, naturally, to encourage attendance. My prize could  be first, second, third, or second honorable mention. But in the interest of disclosure, for journalism propriety, the following comprised my contest entry:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Eat Cancer in our Lifetime\" href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/15\/eat-cancer-in-our-lifetime\/\" target=\"_blank\">Eat Cancer in our Lifetime<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Hydrangea, Sweet Bird of Youth\" href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/04\/01\/hydrangea-sweet-bird-of-youth\/\" target=\"_blank\">Hydrangea, Sweet Bird of Youth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"Valiance\" href=\"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/09\/13\/valiance\/\" target=\"_blank\">Valiance<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>End of June, I may update this to announce what I won. Also to disclose: I not only am a member of this <a title=\"addressing conference: Steve Lopez, Jeffrey Zaslow, Bruce Cameron\" href=\"http:\/\/www.columnists.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">organization<\/a>, but an officer, secretary. More disclosure, I&#8217;m typing this barefoot. That is, typing with my fingers &#8212; what were you thinking? &#8212; but my feet are &#8230; I&#8217;m wiggling my toes, I mean &#8230; nevermind, once you start disclosing, it&#8217;s hard to stop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In mid-May, I received the following e-mail: Dear Ben Pollock, Congratulations. You are a winner in the \u201cOn-line Category\u201d of the 2009 National Society of Newspaper Columnists annual contest. We hope you will be with us to accept your award in person in beautiful Ventura, Calif. at the NSNC annual conference, June 25-28. For more [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-1204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ventura-2009","tag-columnist"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3484,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/02\/no-taking-ulysses-for-granted\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":0},"title":"No Taking Ulysses for Granted","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 1, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published as the \u201cPresident\u2019s Message\u201d in the February 2012 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Spring \u2014 OK, this is winter but I\u2019m an optimist \u2014 is busy-time for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. \u2022 We\u2019re halfway through gathering entries for the annual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"US 50 dollar bill obverse, series 2004","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/Series2004NoteFront_50-300x128.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3095,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/the-room-in-the-elephant\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":1},"title":"The Room in the Elephant","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published as the \"President's Message\" in the September 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. The board of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists has been cleaning up after the party in Detroit. While washing glasses and emptying the trash, we share the usual\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":979,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/03\/blog-column-contest-ends-sunday\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":2},"title":"Blog, Column Contest Ends Sunday","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 11, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"The 2009 deadline of a long-running column-writing contest, now open to bloggers, is less than a week away. Entries for the seven categories of the annual contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists need to have a postmark -- or time-stamp -- of Sunday, March 15. Five of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;The Course of Words&quot;","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1423,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/07\/parting-shots\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":3},"title":"Parting Shots","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"VENTURA, Calif. -- Following are reflections that don't fit in the reportage articles from the weekend's annual conference of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. A proud moment came in helping select the year's scholarship contest winner. Paul Bowers of the University of South Carolina -- the other USC, was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Few Bullets More&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Few Bullets More","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/ventura-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2143,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/07\/uphold-or-hold-up-standards\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":4},"title":"Uphold, or Hold Up, Standards","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 18, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"BLOOMINGTON, Ind., Sunday, July 11, 2010 -- Indiana University feels bigger than my hometown's University of Arkansas. Yep, 1,933 acres versus 345 acres. It has a journalism school not a department, a music school not a department. It is a handsome forested campus, full of sculptures (even a huge Calder)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Bloomers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Bloomers","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/bloomington-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"NSNC Oath of Office","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Swearing-in-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1394,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/honorable-on-national-scale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1204,"position":5},"title":"Honorable, on National Scale","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"VENTURA, Calif. -- Earlier this month, Brick revealed it was a finalist in the annual contest of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. This evening at a banquet, it was announced that the honor was honorable mention, Online Columns category. Here is a list of all winners. Here is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Few Bullets More&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Few Bullets More","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/nsnc\/ventura-2009\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1204"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1466,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1204\/revisions\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}