{"id":1688,"date":"2009-10-15T23:59:17","date_gmt":"2009-10-16T04:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1688"},"modified":"2009-10-16T02:17:14","modified_gmt":"2009-10-16T07:17:14","slug":"answering-machines-new-message","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/10\/answering-machines-new-message\/","title":{"rendered":"Answering machine’s new message"},"content":{"rendered":"

You’ve reached the voice mail of Ben Pollock. I can’t answer the phone right now because I’m floating above the Ozark foothills inside a balloon<\/a> — which explains my high-pitched voice — looking for radioactive rabbit droppings<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you now must ask Where the Wild Things Are<\/a><\/em>, they’re eating supper in their room. And it’s still hot.<\/p>\n

Please leave a message after the pop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You’ve reached the voice mail of Ben Pollock. I can’t answer the phone right now because I’m floating above the Ozark foothills inside a balloon — which explains my high-pitched voice — looking for radioactive rabbit droppings. If you now must ask Where the Wild Things Are, they’re eating supper in their room. And it’s […]<\/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":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":150,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/05\/voices-gone-wild\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":0},"title":"Voices gone wild","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 3, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, May 3, 2005. It is far too easy for executives of media to pigeonhole columns into commentary. Or analysis. It then needs to be consistent, which is why humor and certain other person viewpoint columns are out these days. You can't have your toothpaste\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Technical Difficulties"","block_context":{"text":"Technical Difficulties","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/technical-difficulties\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6705,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2020\/11\/more-than-three-little-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":1},"title":"More Than Three Little Words","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"When I have taught or trained in editing or writing or somesuch, I always bring out a personal lesson: What is wrong with the headline \"Suspect Arrested\"? For those who did reasonably well in high school English, you'll recall having been taught that such sentences or phrases are in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Presidential election result headline in the Nov. 8, 2020, editions of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/biden-called-victor-adg-110820-e1605053523458.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/biden-called-victor-adg-110820-e1605053523458.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/biden-called-victor-adg-110820-e1605053523458.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/biden-called-victor-adg-110820-e1605053523458.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5487,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2016\/11\/cloakroom-talk\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":2},"title":"Cloakroom Talk","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Endorsing Conner Eldridge for U.S. Senate Let's leave the 2016 presidential race a moment. It'll continue without us. Let's consider Congress. From an Arkansas view. The Republican Party has had majorities in the House and Senate the last two years. The party has worked hard to oppose most of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Conner Eldridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Conner-Eldridge-240x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1402,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/06\/opening-volley\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":3},"title":"Opening Volley","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 25, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"LOS ANGELES -- I'm about 20 years too early to have hearing aids, but there it is. I've had one in my right ear since mid-2005, and six months ago had to begin wearing them in both. Each new auditory circumstance, rather than getting, \"Wow, birds chirping!\" often starts with,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Few Bullets More"","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":4790,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2014\/04\/tall-lady-short-but-sound\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":4},"title":"Tall Lady Short but Sound","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"It's unfair to say one feels let down by a free program. It's more unreasonable to feel let down by a non-performer's performance. Alas, several of us did; I asked around afterward. Writer Joyce Carol Oates, 75, still teaching at Princeton and other campuses, was fascinating for her 45 minutes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joyce Carol Oates.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/JCOonline3-247x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2005\/09\/whos-in-charge-here-anyway\/","url_meta":{"origin":1688,"position":5},"title":"Who’s in charge here, anyway","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 1, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2005 Ben S. Pollock Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005: In contemporary language, we Americans say we love take-charge people, yet we resent controlling people. Are people one thing at home and another at work? This approaches Walter Mitty. Let's think, no, people are as they are all the way through.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688","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=1688"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1694,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1688\/revisions\/1694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}