{"id":4432,"date":"2013-09-21T20:46:22","date_gmt":"2013-09-22T01:46:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=4432"},"modified":"2016-12-10T19:28:36","modified_gmt":"2016-12-11T01:28:36","slug":"ich-ben-ein-razorbacker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2013\/09\/ich-ben-ein-razorbacker\/","title":{"rendered":"Ich ‘Ben’ ein Razorbacker"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Ben<\/a>
Giving ’em the slip<\/strong>
Ben Pollock, probably 30 September 1978, thus age 20, playing Tulane at home, Palo Alto.
Photo by Robby Beyers, @ lsjumb.stanford.edu .<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A few days ago, a fellow journalist<\/a> asked me if I planned to grow a goatee for her skit in next month’s Northwest Arkansas Gridiron<\/a>,<\/em> the annual satirical sketch revue of the local SPJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I asked the show’s coordinator, who reminded me that I should look clean-shaven for another skit. Yea, saved by a practical matter!<\/p>\n

I am a laid-off journalist. I’ve been freelancing — reporting, public relations, web content and design — surprisingly successfully, but full-time employment remains the need and the goal.<\/p>\n

Now is not the time for facial hair, especially as it’ll be scraggly in its first weeks, right? So September\/October would be the time I land the TERRIFIC interview and offer, unlike the last 13 months?<\/p>\n

In the spirit of “it just doesn’t matter<\/a>,” I present a photo found online six months ago. If I located it, the web ‘bots<\/a> of anyone’s Human Resources would find it.<\/p>\n

In 1970, as a preteen baritone\/euphonium player in Fort Smith, Arkansas, I watched Stanford play the Razorbacks<\/a> on TV. The band members at halftime dropped their trousers, but, never fear, they were wearing swimsuits in a salute to the beach or some-such. But the ABC cameras swooped up, just in case the nation was being mooned by West Coast college pranksters.<\/p>\n

That’s what persuaded me to apply to the California university and join the band<\/a><\/span> when the time came, provided needed scholarships, work-study jobs and student loans came in. They did, so I played in the Stanford Band<\/a><\/span> — the only valve trombonist in the conference — and graduated in four years from the esteemed school.<\/p>\n

Hence the photo. I found it last March. I have no recollection of which game\/show\/formation this is, where all of us (see my pals in background) apparently have dropped trou’ to reveal slips. Stanford Daily<\/em> photographer Robby Beyers dated it Oct. 1, 1978, a Sunday, so probably it was shot Sept. 30, meaning the Tulane game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I do, however, have a memory of sweaty bulky discomfort of the garment stuffed around our hips inside our wool pants for previous parts of the program, not to mention the first half of the ballgame.<\/p>\n

Not visible in this picture is my usual wild bow tie. Barely seen is the plastic nose-and-mustache from a Groucho mask<\/a> threaded onto my trombone mouthpiece. The crowning achievement is an Arkansas Razorback molded hat<\/a>. For maximum field visibility, I weekly painted the tusks white with Liquid Paper<\/a> and outlined other parts with black marker.<\/p>\n

That was no Freudian slip.<\/p>\n

Ich<\/a> bin ein Razorbacker.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few days ago, a fellow journalist asked me if I planned to grow a goatee for her skit in next month’s Northwest Arkansas Gridiron, the annual satirical sketch revue of the local SPJ. I asked the show’s coordinator, who reminded me that I should look clean-shaven for another skit. Yea, saved by a practical […]<\/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":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-lessons"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":287,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/corrections-so-far-this-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":0},"title":"Corrections So Far This Week","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"\"An illustration Sunday with a story about the McClellan-Kerr waterway incorrectly showed the angles of the gates when closed and the position of the lower gate when open.\" \"A story in Monday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette incorrectly called President Bush a Republic when he actually is 1\/298 millionth of a Republic.\" \"A\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":346,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/08\/stox-and-bondz\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":1},"title":"Stox and Bondz","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 27, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Why I'm in journalism and not real business, Point 2001: I do force myself to save some salary twice a month, once to IRA things and the second to more-immediately available accounts. I do mutual funds, no-load indexed jobs just like neutral experts advise: Money market, stocks and bonds. This\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":237,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/09\/baseball-takes-a-walk\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":2},"title":"Baseball Takes a Walk","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 14, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The multipart sale-tax increase passed in Fayetteville on Tuesday. Those who love to taunt the city doubtless will mock the smaller percentage approving the bit for continued construction of trails, as compared to the 3-to-1 majorities for the sewage treatment and road improvements. Specifically, according to the NWA Times (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3047,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/08\/blog-on-blog-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":3},"title":"Blog On, Blog Off","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 1, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This column first was published in the August 2011 newsletter of the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Instead of polishing this column, I should be sewing nametags into my clothes, shaking out my sleeping bag for WordCamp. If I showed up with that stuff, even the geeks there would laugh.\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":463,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/07\/a-little-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":4},"title":"A Little Magazine","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 25, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"For decades, The New Yorker arrived 52 weeks a year, on the same day, must've been Tuesday, in Mom and Dad's mailbox in Fort Smith. Rarely, it came on Wednesday. A little while before it dropped to 47 issues annually, the regular day ended, annoying Mom to no end. It\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":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7334,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2022\/07\/3-cheers-for-nea\/","url_meta":{"origin":4432,"position":5},"title":"Three Cheers for NEA \u2014 Ra Ra\u00a0RA","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"UA Takes Its First Seat at NEA Convention By Ben Pollock, Local 965 secretary This report first was published in the July 2022 newsletter of UA-Fayetteville Education Association \/ Local 965. Lots of us this summer have had to consider both mass shootings and reproductive rights. I ended up diving\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brick Bats Reportage"","block_context":{"text":"Brick Bats Reportage","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/brick-bats-reportage\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ben Pollock of UA-Fayetteville Education Association \/ Local 965 takes the minutes July 3, 2022, (left) of the morning Arkansas caucus meeting July 3, 2022, at Chicago\u2019s Drake Hotel. At right, Pollock listens to debate July 4, 2022, at the NEA Representative Assembly at Chicago\u2019s McCormick Place convention complex.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/BenP-2022-NEA-RA-collage.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4432","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=4432"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5533,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4432\/revisions\/5533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}