2009: A Blog Review

Gordon reminded me of this New Year's tradition: "...go through the blog, randomly select one entry per month, and post it. It's a great way to review the year..."

I used the Random Integer Generator and a formula too convoluted to explain here.

January - One review in particular irritated me: "The exceptional The Times of Harvey Milk won the Oscar for Best Documentary 24 years ago.... Yet, all this time later... Hollywood wants us to applaud its courage for finally--finally--telling this story?"

February - Ultimately, though it was a story of heroism, changing from a state of inertia to a state of action.

March - The 2010 Census is coming up and the Bureau will be using "American Indian or Alaska Native" as the designation for native peoples, just as it did in 2000.

April Both parts are recyclable, with a 1 or 2 in a triangle.

May - The makers of the indie hit Little Miss Sunshine also made this movie, right down to casting Alan Arkin as the grandfather; it's a different role, but not so dissimilar that one couldn't find it a variation on the theme.

June - It is true that one-third of all Americans now own an HDTV, putting market penetration at an all-time high.

July - I need to explain that Aunt Charlotte was one of my closest relatives, not biologically but in terms of the effect she had on my life.

August - When Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks spoke the truth about George W. Bush in March 2003, just before the US invasion of Iraq, and took a lot of heat, immediately, I ran out to the local Rite Aid and bought the Dixie Chicks' then-current album.

September - Stories on both 60 Minutes (along with Barack Obama and Teddy Kennedy, FCOL,) and CBS Sunday Morning showed that the institution was finally getting its due, even if it was to sound its death knell.

October - Going back to the earliest days of rock and roll, there have been spoken lyrics within the context of a song.

November - But it wasn't just the Muppets that appealed to me.

December - From my favorite Petty album, Full Moon Fever.

Interesting that 3 of 12 are movie reviews, as though I saw all that many movies. 2 of 12 (1 in 6) are of the ABC variety, which makes sense, since 1 in 7 of my posts are of that variety. Movies, music and television dominate - sounds right, though I watch less and less TV, and the music I listen to isn't always the newest.
***
Then, looking back, I noticed that I DID make resolutions last year. How did I do?
* to play more backgammon. That I did, playing an average of once every three weeks or so, perhaps an average of four games a session. Mich more satisfying than online.
* to play more cards, specifically hearts. Nope, 1 time.
* to see more movies. I haven't tallied the movies that I saw; whatever I might have gained count-wise earlier in the year totally fell apart by mid-year.
* to play more racquetball. About the same, maybe slightly less.
* come spring, I need to BUY a bike to replace the one that was stolen. Done.
* read more books. Not done; more partials.
* listen to more music at home. Marginal improvement.

Good reason NOT to make any for 2010.
ROG

Reeling in the Years

I know historians banter about the most significant years in a given period, as do others. I'd have to pick 1917 (Russian revolution), 1945 (end of WW II), 1968 (unrest in US, Mexico, Czechoslovakia), 1989 (fall of Berlin Wall), among others, for the 20th Century.

But did you ever rank the years in your life? 1977, when I lived in three cities in two states, was pretty awful, but 1978, when, not coincidentally, I moved to Schenectady, NY, was pretty good. I was up in the attic this week, sorting stuff, and I came across a 1998 calendar, 100 Years of American Comics from the International Cartoon Art.

My, that was a good year.

I went to the movies. A lot.
Jan 16-Jackie Brown
Jan 19-Good Will Hunting
Jan 25-Titanic
Jan 31-Fast, Cheap and Out of Control
Feb 1-Amistad
Feb 10-The Tango Lesson
Feb 14-Mrs Brown; L.A. Confidential
Feb 15-Afterglow; Ma vie en Rose
Feb 16-The Apostle
And that was just the first two months.

I took JEOPARDY! test #1 on April 29.

I went on a two-week vacation in May. I don't know that I've been on a two-week vacation since. I went to the Motown museum and a Tigers game in Detroit; and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland on one train trip. I visited the Capitol and other landmarks and took JEOPARDY! test #2 in Washington, DC on a second train trip. I love the train.

Saw LOTS of music in the summer. Many are local band (Burners UK, Hair of the Dog), but I also saw Maddy Prior, Cyril Neville, the Glenn Miller group, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Rickie Lee Jones. Then on August 9, I went to SPAC for the Newport Folk Festival, featuring Lyle Lovett, Joan Baez, Nanci Griffith, Bela Fleck, Bruce Cockburn, Alison Krauss, Marc Cohn, Lucinda Williams, and others; a great day.

I had two conferences in September. At the ASBDC conference in Savannah, GA, my father drove down from Charlotte, NC and hung out with me and a couple of my friends the first two days. THE best time I ever had with my father. Then the SBDC conference was in Niagara Falls; I love the falls. And I walked to NF, Ontario.

The JEOPARDY! broadcast party was November 9. Later that month, my attempts to re-woo Carol, which began in earnest in August, proved successful, and we got married the following May.

Music, movies, travel, love. Even a modicum of fame. That was a great year.

May your 2010, and mine, be as fruitful.


ROG

My Solstice Tradition: ASK ROGER ANYTHING!

I'm trying, really trying, to get into the spirit of the season. I've been checking out Polite Scott's Advent Calendar Comic Book Cover Countdowns and Jaquandor's Daily Dose of Christmas and Tegan's LEGO Advent Calendar, the Tournament of Carols (Bing will definitely win) and most of all, Fred Hembeck's The Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, Many, MANY Faces of Santa Claus!

Yet, I'm still felling the seasonal stress. Sunday, in particular, made me very...grumpy. Sunday, I was Christmas shopping. There IS a correlation, though shopping wasn't the only frustration that day. The neck is sore, for some reason. And my left heel has a cut on it, probably from chafing while wearing some boots when it snowed a couple weeks ago. (But NOT this past weekend, as it turns out.) The one thing that did make me laugh was an e-mail from some cruise line that had the heading, " There's Still Time to Give the Gift of Cruising!"

So, to cheer me up, it is your opportunity to Ask Roger Anything. Anything at all; nothing is off limits. These are the exciting rules:
1. You can ask Roger anything.
2. He must answer.
3. He must stop referring to himself in the third person.
4. My answers must be true. Now it can be the truth without being the WHOLE truth, but the discerning questioner will pick up on this.

And starting on Sunday, I will answer your questions. If you want me to answer a question or three, you can leave a comment - I love comments - or you can find my e-mail on the sidebar and you can e-mail it to me.


ROG

R is for Roger

The picture above was taken by my friend the Hoffinator when she was visiting mutual friends in Asheville, NC.

I must admit to loving the name Roger. It's not too common, not too rare. It's been on the 1000 most popular male names of babies in the United States ever since the Social Security Administration was able to post records of this, tracking back to 1880. At #463 in 2008, it is actually up five slots from the previous year. Indeed, it was in the Top 100 between 1921 and 1975, hitting its peak of 22 in 1945; I can't help but think that its popularity came from "Roger that" or "Roger, over and out" from the World War II years.

Here, in roughly chronological order of my awareness, are some of the people named Roger who have been important to me. (All pictures below courtesy of Life.com, "for personal non-commercial use only".


Roger Maris: We're talking baseball here. In 1961, the New York Yankees' right fielder Roger Maris and center fielder were both pursuing Babe Ruth's seemingly unbreakable record of 60 home runs set in 1927. The fans seemed OK with Mantle breaking the record; he came up through the Yankees farm system (i.e., minor-league affiliation), but he got injured and ended up with "only" 54 homers that year. Maris, though, was traded to the Yankees from the Kansas City A's before the 1960 season and wasn't considered enough of a REAL Yankee, or for that matter, a legitimate star, to break the record. So even before he broke Ruth's record, the baseball commissioner, Ford Frick, a Ruth worshiper, muddied the waters by suggesting that since the record had been broken in a 162-game season, whereas Ruth played in a 154-game season, it was somehow tainted.
I for one was rooting for Roger - I mean he was a Roger - and he broke the record on the last day of the season.
Picture: September 1961, during that noted season.
Fact: Roger Maris got traded to the St. Cardinals in 1967 and won his third World Series ring that very season.


Roger Miller: One of the very first LPs - LPs being long-playing musical albums, on vinyl - I ever bought was Golden Hits: Roger Miller. It was a fun, country-laden album with hits such as Chug-A-Lug, Dang Me (sample lyrics: "My pappy was a pistol; I'm a son of a gun." and England Swings, plus the big hit King Of The Road. I bought a subsequent album that included Husbands and Wives, with the lyrics, It's my belief,
Pride is the chief cause and the decline
in the number of husbands and wives.
Great line, even if it rhymes "pride" and "decline".
Picture: playing guitar & singing as he sits on couch next to coffee table displaying 5 Grammy awards, at his Hollywood home in 1965.
Fact: Posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1995, three years after he died.


Roger Bannister: The British track star was the first person to run a mile in under four minutes. He set the record on May 6, 1954, but I did not become familiar with him until about a decade later. Not only did he break through the time and psychological barrier with a time of 3 min 59.4 sec. then Australian John Landy beat Bannister's record. Next time Bannister and Landy ran head-to-head, they BOTH broke four minutes, with Bammister winning the race.
Picture: taken May 1951, I don't know the venue. Perhaps the Penn Relays?
Fact: Bannister became a distinguished neurologist, who retired in 2001.


Roger Chaffee: The Apollo missions, following the successful Mercury (one-man) and Gemini (two-man) flights into space for the United States, were three-man trips designed eventually to get man to the moon. Unfortunately, Roger Chaffee was killed, along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White during a training exercise for the Apollo 1 mission at the Kennedy Space Center, January 27, 1967. I was personally devastated by this and thought the accident would put the kibosh on plans to go to the moon; apparently not.
Picture: taken October 1963
Fact: There's a Chaffee crater on the dark side of the moon.


Roger McGuinn (center): The leader of the band that, after Bob Dylan "went electric", popularized folk-rock music with Dylan-penned songs such as Mr. Tambourine Man and All I Really Want To Do, and Pete Seeger's Turn! Turn! Turn! The Byrds bounced back and forth among genres from psychedelic rock (Eight Miles High) to country (Sweethearts of the Rodeo album), with an ever-changing lineup.
Picture: the original Byrds -(l-r) Mike Clarke, David Crosby, Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, Gene Clark in 1991.
Fact: The Byrds were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991; I'm guessing the picture is from an event associated with the induction.


Roger Mudd: even as a kid, I was a sucker for the news. And mostly it was the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite. The weekend anchor and Cronkite's primary fill-in was Roger Mudd, a solid newsman who reported on everything from the Civil Rights movement, including the historic March on Washington in 1963, to 1971's the Selling of the Pentagon. He was on the scene when Robert Kennedy was shot in 1968, and his 1979 interview with Ted Kennedy pretty much derailed the Senator's campaign for the Presidency. Passed over to succeed Cronkite, he moved over to NBC News, then PBS.
Picture: TV image of the CBS newscaster giving analysis of President Nixon's resignation speech in August 1974.
Fact: Roger is distantly related to Samuel Mudd, the doctor who was imprisoned for aiding and conspiring with John Wilkes Booth after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.


Roger Daltry: early in my listening to rock and roll, I was familiar with the group The Who and songs such as My Generation, I Can See For Miles and Magic Bus. But it wasn't until the "rock opera" Tommy, followed by the extraordinary album Who's Next (Baba O'Riley with the line "teenage wasteland"; Behind Blue Eyes; and Won't Get Fooled Again) that I started really differentiating the members of the group. The lead singer, with the golden locks, was Roger Daltry.
Picture: from 1991. I SWEAR I owned bolo tie just like this one.
Fact: The Who entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.


Roger Ebert (center): There was this movie review show on PBS (public television) featuring this skinny guy named Gene Siskel and the more round Roger Ebert who I just loved to watch. Later, they became syndicated and their popularity and influence grew until Gene's untimely death in 1999. Roger Ebert continued on, eventually pairing with Richard Roeper until mid-2006, when "he suffered post-surgical complications related to thyroid cancer which left him unable to speak," and lost considerable weight in the process. While he no longer appears on the air, I read his columns regular, now more for his non-movie observations about death and race and politics than for his reviews.
Picture: not described, but the guy on the right is the late Walter Cronkite.
Fact: In June 2005, Roger Ebert was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a first for a critic.


When I was born, my father had told his cousins that he was working on my name, Roger Owen Green, making sure the initials, ROG, could serve as my nickname. As far as I knew, I was not named for anyone. But after my father died in 2000, the family came across a bunch of postcards from a guy named Roger from around 1961, where he worked at a Presbyterian church in New Jersey. They weren't mailed to our house but to a place called The Interracial Center, 45 Carroll Street, Binghamton, NY, where my father used to volunteer. Very mysterious.
ROG

What's The Frequency, Roger?

Lessee, there's Peter Gabriel's On the Air; Joni Mitchell's You Turn Me On, I'm A Radio; Elvis Costello's Radio Radio.

All that is a stall to say that I'm going to appear on Barbara Weltman Internet radio show, Build Your Business Radio, which airs each Monday from 4pm to 5pm/ET.

As her producer Gloria wrote me: "We would like to have you as a guest on an upcoming radio show in early October, if possible. Barbara enjoys highlighting her guests' areas of expertise, and we ask them to compose 5 to 8 questions for her to ask during the interview. Build Your Business Radio's audience consists primarily of small businesses and entrepreneurs. You'll get to use the podcast following the interview to post on your site, etc."

I have an area of expertise? Always thought of myself as a generalist.

Anyway, I’ve agreed to be on Monday, October 5 during 2nd half of show. The studio calls the guest (a/k/a, me) at 4:24pm/ET; live interview begins at 4:30p, continues for 11 minutes, breaks, resumes for 9 minutes more. 20 minutes to fill.

Don't mind telling you...well, let's put it this way: I think it was Steve Stills at Woodstock talking about CSN's second gig who indicated how scared they were.

The fear is...er, ah...that I'll...um...in the words...ah, ah...that my wife...hmmm...hates...suck. Also...(mumble)...I hate (ahem) the sound of [cough] my own...eh...voice when I...er...hear it.

So why do it? Because I'm afraid. One of the things that we've been doing with the daughter is, whenever she does something she's heretofore been scared to do, such as going to a new school or seeing a new doctor, is give her a penny, which she can trader in for certain goodies. Hey, I wonder what I'LL get for doing this?

Also, if I ever get ambitious enough to do my own podcast some decade, this gig will be a baseline for me. Now, I'm hoping it won't be TOO bad. I DID give Gloria a half dozen questions for which I DO more or less know the answers. They're mostly about the Small Business development Center, the state Data Center program, being a librarian, and being a census data junkie (oh, no, can't say "junkie",; it has implications). I'm trying to anticipate the curve balls; I noted in my bio that I used to deal in comic books, so I'm thinking of a couple points on THAT topic, just in case.

So if you want to hear it, but don't have access, I'll link to the podcast afterward. Unless it REALLY sucks.

Ask Roger Anything, Solstice Edition

Now that it's summer (or winter, depending), it is time to Ask Roger Anything. Oh, but wait - I'm distracted by somebody who recently noted that if people from space came to Earth, they might conclude the South Pole is the top of the world and the North Pole is on the bottom; after all there is a large land mass. Or maybe they'd pick some point on the equator or the Tropic of Cancer. Is our sense of top and bottom somewhat arbitrary?

Usually I do this because I'm afraid I'll run out of things to write about. This is not the case presently; I have three or four blogposts re my trip to North Carolina alone. I am, though, having trouble actually composing them, or even deciding if I should. Answering YOUR questions gives me opportunity to muse on them some more.

Anyway, I already have a question from SB: "So perhaps you've already written about this, but I'd be interested to hear how libraries continue to change and evolve with stuff like Twitter and Facebook. Do libraries have their own Facebook badges? Is that - gasp! - allowed?"

Our library has a Facebook page, which is fueled in part from our blog feed. We have a Twitter feed that keeps both our blog and our website fresh. Our Facebook badge is a variation on the SBDC logo.

I've seen over 1000 libraries on both Twitter and Facebook, and I'd guesstimate that there are tens of thousands of librarians who are on one or both of the sites; I am on those, LinkedIn and a couple others.

The Library of Congress has over 10,000 followers but is following, last I checked, no one. At least the Library Journal is following a couple hundred while it is followed by over 5,000. I - and apparently others - had contacted the LOC about this, and the folks responded, rather quickly, that were worried that there would be too much noise in the feed. I'm not sure I agree with their thought process.

So, any other questions, folks? Everything is on the table. Let your mind get creative.
ROG

Siblings

Reading Arthur's post about his sister's memory reminds me yet again of an incontrovertible fact: in the main, the sibling is the longest relationship one will have. Longer than parent/child or spouses. Probably longer than most friendships.

Here's a picture of the Green children of 5 Gaines Street, Binghamton, NY, which my sister Marcia came across and sent to me in the last month. I recall that it was taken when I was 10, Leslie was 9 and Marcia was 5. But some notation on the back of the picture suggests that it was shot earlier. Frankly, I can't believe that Marcia could have been 3 when this photo was taken. This was considered the "good" picture, compared the "ugly glasses" photo taken three (or five) years later.

I was talking to Marcia a month or two ago about a trip Lydia and I will be taking to visit her, our mother and Marcia's daughter Alexandria in North Carolina. As I've noted, Lydia is afraid of dogs. In this conversation, my sister notes that they had to put their dog down. Now, previously, I might have offered some sentiment of condolence. But I was so focused on how this would affect my daughter, I felt - this is not admirable, but it is true - a sense of "Well, THAT issue is resolved."

Of course, Marcia calls me on this, but she used this ancient example to make the point. She recalls that when I was about 12, each of us got a kitten. Mine was Tiger, Leslie had Taffy and Marcia had Tony. Somehow, Tiger got out and was run over by a car and killed. I was devastated and even more so because my sisters had taken some glee in this; children can be so cruel.

So in 2009, Marcia says, "Don't you remember how badly you felt when you lost a pet?" and she's correct, of course, but pulling out that 40+-year old example is something a sibling is most likely to have brought up.

I find it interesting that each of us has only one child.

Indeed, because she was the youngest, Marcia tends to remember almost everything. She can start a sentence, "Do remember when..."; many's the time Leslie and I will say no, but the essence of the story and the details are so vivid that we accede to her recollection.

The sisters used to drive each other crazy, with me as the involuntary referee, but they've become closer over dealing with my mom. Whatever that childhood noise once was, we have more important things to do.
Marcia is the best at sending presents and cards for all occasions, something I'm lousy at and Leslie's not much better. That is her arm holding a dress that she ultimately sent to Lydia for her last birthday, which Lydia likes to wear. (Cell phone picture taken by Alexandria.) She's the one who sent the anniversary card to Carol and me.

When she lived in Binghamton, little sister's name was pronounced MAR-sha, but since she moved south, it's become mar-SEE-ah. Anyway, today's Marcia's birthday. Happy birthday, baby sister. Have I sent her a card yet? Er, it'll be in the mail. Soon. I swear.

ROG

Tell me one interesting or weird fact about yourself, for each letter in your given name

Lorna in Wonderland, who came by my blog a few weeks ago, did this, so what the heck.

R...I had long thought that ROGER was just a random name that worked in my father's ROG (Roger Owen Green) motif. However, when my sisters were recently sorting out some papers at my mother's house, there were references in my late father's handwriting to a Roger that clearly predated me. He's unknown to my mother. Could he have been a childhood friend, an army buddy? Inquiring minds are frustrated that the trail is so cold.

O...I've watched at least some portion of the OSCARS very year as long as I can remember. Increasingly, it's not to find out who won - I generally don't even watch them in real time anymore, but what they say, how they say it, and how they look. In the early days of my current job, we used to try to tune the radio to the CBS television affiliate at 8:37 Eastern time one winter morning to catch the Oscar nominations; this was before one could just wait for it to show up on the Internet.

G...I've had GLASSES as long as I can remember. One time in junior high, I had to give some report using the outline written on the blackboard in the back of the room. The problem was I couldn't READ the blackboard in the back because I had broken, or possibly lost, my glasses. So I used binoculars. Everyone laughed, but I didn't know what else to do.

E...In almost every unfamiliar building I enter, I look early for the EXIT sign, in case of an emergency. I think that is why I volunteer to be the fire marshal for my office, even though I'll be the last one to the exit.

R...The only reason I ever wanted to be Roman Catholic is that they had ROSARY beads, and they seemed cool. At a church study last Advent, I actually made some quasi-rosary beads, and the device I used to remind me of a pair of Bible verses I remember from my childhood,
Galatians 5:22-23:
But the fruit of the Spirit is
*love,
*joy,
*peace,
*longsuffering,
*gentleness,
*goodness,
*faith,
*meekness,
*temperance:
against such there is no law.


ROG

SOLD OUT Part 6 by John Hebert (the conclusion)

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

'Twas the day before Hallowe'en '86, and I'd finally finished what was to be my first comic book art assignment and was on the way to deliver the pages to the printer. The girlfriend and I were in my trusty Camaro, speeding along the NY State Thruway toward the printer in Gloversville with the bundle o' funnybook art nestled in the back seat whilst bad 80's tunes (then again, was there any other kind of 80's tune?) blared from the in-dash Delco. It was pretty darned cold that afternoon, but I kept the heater off to keep me uncomfortable and maintain what little edge I had left as the last thing I needed was to fall asleep at the wheel - I'd been up so long that I was ready to drop and I still had miles to go before sleep.

We alternated between exhausted whimsy and dead silence as we drove on, the whole project had been electrifying yet draining and once we'd completed what we assumed to be the final stretch, we were eager for a return to normalcy, never guessing that all things normal were no longer an option in the life I'd chosen. We hopped off of the Thruway and hit the county roads, passing fields, barns, silos, livestock and some beautiful old farmhouses, the kind of which I had always held a grudging yen for, then, suddenly, it came to me - the entire area looked like the farm town in that awful "Halloween 3: Season Of The Witch" where they manufactured the possessed fright masks. Now maybe it was just a combination of exhaustion, the season and the late night cable reruns that had kept me company at my drawing board talking, but the fact that the town not only looked so similar and was virtually deserted gave me a major case of the creeps (much like many of the editors I would later work with!)

We plodded on, finally pulling up to the printing company - a very basic, nondescript brick and block building that also functioned as a newspaper office - the freelance printing had been a secondary income, utilizing and minimizing the down times between editions, but turning a nice and not-so-little profit for the company as I was later told. We were welcomed by the manager/editor/traffic manager who whisked us inside and gave us the tour of the place, as I'd earlier inferred, it WAS very basic, yet it was also quite impressive in the volume and quality of work produced there. Skulan really had found a true diamond in the rough for his printing needs. We laid out the pages on a composing table and went over everything, stressing certain things we needed and doing a couple of last, last minute corrections that even Tom and Raj hadn't caught and took in the almost erotic experience of viewing my...very...first...printed...COVER WORK. Since we'd missed the initial, scheduled print run, the company had run all of the covers to avoid idle presses and a few of them were sitting around on desks, in boxes and trashcans. To this day, I regret that I didn't grab some of the "rough cuts" that were gracing the previously mentioned wastepaper baskets as even flawed, those covers would have looked so cool pinned up all over the walls in my studio and rooms, but, c'est la vie. I wanted to eat and answer the more and more desperate call of Morpheus which I was finding more and more difficult to ignore.

We thanked the manager and left, stopping at a Burger King and filling up on cholesterol for the long drive home. As we ate, I stared across the road at what must have been the world's smallest Pontiac dealership - basically the size of a gas station, with only 4 or 5 new cars splayed about their meager lot. I respected the quaint, bygone era nature of the area, but decided then and there that "Mayberry" probably wasn't for me and that when the time came, I'd probably be NYC bound. The girlfriend and I talked about it as we jumped into the Camaro and headed back east, alternating between moments of giddiness at the prospects of being a real, honest-to-goodness working commercial artist, possibly living in the city, and then shifting back to melancholy at the less positive prospects it conjured.

The relationship had been increasingly more strained since I'd taken on the project, especially in the last couple of weeks when we'd bearded the dreaded deadline doom and now, for the first time, as I drove on I really began to wonder where we were going and if it might end up being "me" rather than "we". She had another year of school left to complete, we'd all heard the stories and seen the effects of separation on relationships. I know what I was running over and over during those awkward silent moments on the interstate that day, and I think she must've been thinking about the same thing- either that or she was just visualizing a cow and pig wearing ballroom attire and dancing to "Turkey in The Straw", it was so hard to read her.

We made it back to Albany, I said my goodbyes as I dropped her at her house, promising to call later on after some much needed shuteye and headed back toward Stately Hebert Manor with the window open and the stereo cranked to keep me awake and prevent me from thinking too much(it almost made me agree with a couple of Reagan's policies...for a minute) as dusk began to settle. 10 minutes after swinging into my driveway, I had the blinds drawn and was profoundly out cold, having left a wakeup call for 1988 and grinning at the possibilities my future might hold as I dropped off.

Then my Mom came home. I'd only been asleep for around a half hour when she knocked on my door and reminded me nicely, yet curtly, that I'd promised to pick up a pumpkin for the front porch. Damn! I'd been so wrapped up in "The Project" that I'd let the usual, banal everyday stuff like a simple pumpkin get away from me. "Okay", I muttered, let's go get one and dragged myself to my feet. Of course, by the time I'd gotten up, gotten dressed, slogged out to the car and made it to the "pumpkin store", they were: a. closing up and b. sold out(ironic) of the damned gourds anyway. I promised to pick one up at a farm store the next morning, then carve it and have the blasted thing lit just in time for the little vandals to wreck and headed for home and my bed once more.

I'd just dosed off when, off in a hazy distance, the phone rang and a unicorn delivered it to my door, announcing that it was Tom from Fantaco. He was very excited and explained that in the "lag time" we'd created by being late with the pages, the printing company had run every other assignment they'd had on "tap" just as they'd done the covers and now, with nothing else scheduled, they were actually going to print the entire run of "SOLD OUT!" #1 overnight, having it ready the very next morning. The girlfriend and I could drive back out to Gloversville the next morning, pick up a few cases of comics, drive back to Albany, and have them available for the inevitable influx of Friday afternoon customers. Wow! That'd be great...if I wasn't A. exhausted, B. pissed off at the world, and C. numb from the shoulders up. Somehow, though, I heard my self agreeing to do it, hanging up, then calling she-who-was not-to-be--ignored and telling her of the great adventure we had in store for us the next morning ( AFTER getting a pumpkin of course!), then I hung up and headed for my bed. Of course, I was now so overtired and yet wired that I couldn't sleep, so I stayed up and cleaned and organized my studio, finally sacking out at around midnight. I'd been up for something like 36 hours at this point and I had another long drive ahead of me.

At around 1 p.m. on Friday, October 31st, 1986, the girlfriend, several cases of my first published work, and a pumpkin, pulled up in front of FantaCo in that very same dark green Chevette that had been a part of the beginning of all of this fiendish plot, somehow coming full circle. We trotted into the store, announced our presence and the FantaCo crew surrounded us, cracking the cases open, diving into the books with joy, satisfaction and relief, just as I when I'd picked them up at the printing plant some 90 minutes before and when I'd stolen more than a few looks at them while driving back and steering with my knees. It had been a job well done, they all agreed and now, it was time to let the general public get a crack at the comics. We opened up a case which Tom personally placed on the floor in front of the main display racks which he always did with whatever was the "hot" book of the week like Miller's "Dark Knight" or one of the never ending array of X-Men titles and the customers descended on them, picking the proverbial bones clean to a politely positive collective response and more than a few requests for signed copies. I'd done good. I was happy.

Roger wanted to take some photos of the auspicious occasion. We agreed, but first decided to slip into our Halloween costumes that we'd secreted away under the cases of comics...and the pumpkin in the car. A few minutes later, there we were, in full "Rowdy Roddy Piper" and "Cyndi Lauper" attire, leaning up against the logo'd front window of FantaCo, capering for Roger's camera and...loving it, even when some Tony Danza-esque lobotomy scar wandered up and asked where we were wrestling that night. I told him it was a costume, he started naming venues, again, almost demanding where I'd be in the ring that night. I politely asked him what day it was. He said "Friday". I asked the date. He said "October something". I said "It's HALLOWEEN!!!" He seemed to finally get it, then told me he hoped I'd win my match and wandered off as did we a few minutes later. Fortunately, I had the legs for the kilt.

That night, after all of the relatives and friends had gone over the comic with fine tooth combs (as had we, like, a thousand times), and the evening meal was done and the stream of annoying trick-or-treaters had died down, the hastily carved pumpkin burned on, casting its eerie, yet inviting light across my front lawn, she-who-must-remain-nameless and I lay on my bed, watching "Transylvania 6-5000" on cable, grinning a thousand, satisfied grins. I had never been able to visualize what my first publishing experience might be like although I'd waited, hoped and dreamed on it for so long, and now it had happened, and it was exhausting, exasperating, trying, stressful, draining, straining and countless other "ings", but, as I dozed off my thoughts trailed off to that quote in "Where The Buffalo Roam" where Bill Murray summed up not only Hunter Thompson's life, but my own now as well, when he uttered the immortal last line "It Never got Weird Enough For Me". I couldn't agree more, even now, on the other, back side of that long lost, sometimes lamented, sometimes not so much, career, but it was ONE HELL OF A RIDE!

John Hebert


Thanks, John. John is living happily ever after with his bride, who is NOT she-who-shall-not-be-named and working on the comic book Captain Action. There was a second issue, the conclusion of Sold Out, but that tale will be told another time.
ROG

Roger needs

Google your name and the word "needs" in quotes ("Roger needs") and see what you get. List the first 7 entries. In my case, several were the same and one I kinda edited to make it a sentence. But the point is the fun, right?

Roger needs a new JBoat.
Roger needs Rafa.
Roger needs help!!! some would agree with that.
Roger needs a coach.
Roger needs to be with a family who has a large yard.
Roger Needs Facebook.
Roger needs to finally realize, although he knows how to get a woman's attention, he needs lessons from his own nephew.

Lots of references to Roger Rabbit, someone called Roger Needs, the movie Roger Dodger, and especially Roger Federer.
***
What Kind of Information Technology User are You?
I'm a Connector
The Connectors' collection of information technology is used for a mix of one-to-one and one-to-many communication. They very much like how ICTs keep them in touch with family and friends and they like how ICTs let them work in community groups to which they belong. They are participants in cyberspace - many blog or have their own web pages - but not at the rate of Omnivores. They are not as sure-footed in their dealings with ICTs as Omnivores. Connectors suspect their gadgets could do more for them, and some need help in getting new technology to function properly.
[The last part is DEFINITELY true.]
ROG

Roger QUESTION

Concept totally stolen from my good buddy Fred Hembeck.


Joe DiMaggio and yours truly--think you can figure out the connection?

I suppose if you look at a post of mine from last year, it might help.


ROG

R is for

Memes are useful when you're running out of time, because life gets in the way or if you suffered from food poisoning a few days back and are still in a low energy mode. Besides, if it's good enough for Evanier it's good enough for me.

The way this works is that each answer you give has to start with the same letter as your first name. You're not allowed to repeat an answer and if you're "tagged" by someone whose name starts with the same first letter, you can't repeat any of their answers, either. Here's what I came up with...

1. What is your name: Roger
2. A four letter word: Rote
3. A boy's name: Raymond
4. A girl's name: Roberta
5. An occupation: Receptionist
6. A color: Red
7. Something you wear: Raincoat
8. A food: Rutabaga
9. Something found in the bathroom: Rubbing alcohol
10. A place: Racine, WI
11. A reason for being late: Ripped
12. Something you shout: "Raid!"
13. A movie title: Real Life
14. Something you drink: Rum
15. A musical group: Rascals, who used to be Young
16. An animal: Raccoon
17. A street name: Remsen Street (there's one in Brooklyn, but I was thinking of Cohoes and Troy, around Albany)
18. A type of car: Rolls Royce
19. A song title: "Raggmopp" (Mills Brothers, Treniers, Ames Brothers, and Beany and Cecil)
20. A verb: Rinse

I tag anyone named Quentin or Zelda. Question to those outside the U.S. - can you get to the Beany and Cecil video? (You don't have to watch it, just open it).
ROG

Roger Answers Your Question, Roger and Anthony

Roger from Albany wonders: So how are you feeling now after your accident?

The problem is that I'm healing, feeling better, so that inevitably I overdo. Friday, for instance, I was carrying a bag in my right arm that I guess was too heavy, for my left side, where I broke my rib four weeks ago tomorrow, ended up in pain not unlike what I experienced two weeks ago. Still, I am healing, and I actually lifted my left arm almost straight up. I can't run, but i can trot, which I couldn't do the week before . The only thing that gives me really tremendous pain is sneezing. (Yes, i do talk to myself; ask my wife.) Oh and the picture was stolen from ADD, but then again, he stole my whole post, just as he promised.

Anthony asks: If it is not too late, I would like to ask a question, of a mildly philosophical and yet somewhat personal nature.

What do you think is the most critical quality or characteristic for a politician (make that statesman) to have in order to effectively govern, and why do think this?

First off, you assume that someone CAN effectively govern. Let's posit that that is possible.

Second, you assume it's not too late. After listening to a half dozen podcasts by James Howard Kunstler (curse you, ADD), I wonder. (On he other hand, ADD did have his own quasi-theological treatise.

Third, let me touch on a trait that are NOT necessary: be the kind of person with whom I can have a beer. Besides the fact that I don't much like beer, I've thought it was a bizarre criterion for picking leaders.

I suppose the chief characteristic I'm looking for in a politician is integrity. I think that one can lead more effectively that way. And it's not just beyond reproach, like Caesar's wife. It's a value system that makes one feel that the politician/statesperson wasn't bending to which ever way the political winds are blowing. I'm not saying that John Kerry was doing that in 2004, but sometimes it FELT like that.

Of course, one has to have real Christian values, such as looking out for the greater good, rather than just for his or her cronies. One does not profess to be a Christian, or indeed, a member of any faith, to achieve this; conversely, public piety does not Christian values prove (see Bush, George W.)

I read about this town along the Mississippi River that was flooded in 1993. The town decided to move the entire town to higher ground. So while neighboring towns are inundated again in 2008, this small town is literally high and dry. That took leadership, and an integrity that this was taking place to help everyone.

When I was in college in New Paltz, NY in 1974, a Congressional seat opened up. The Republican incumbent, Howard Robison of Tioga County, decided not to run again in this massive district that ran through at least five counties and looked like a giant curved hot dog, running from Ithaca (Tompkins County) through my hometown of Binghamton (Broome County) all the way to Woodstock and New Paltz (Ulster County). Four Democrats and five Republicans vied for the seat.

I was a member of the New Paltz Democratic Club and we heard from three of the Dem candidates; the fourth the Town of Union (Broome County) supervisor Knopp (or something like that) didn't bother, because the core of the population base skewed east and we were on the western fringe. The three who came were a young lawyer from Binghamton, who at least one member ended up supporting; Bill Schecter (sp?) a Woodstock lawyer and perfectly acceptable choice; and Matt McHugh, the district attorney from Tompkins County. As the anti-establishment type that I was, I felt I would be least likely to support McHugh, whose job title epitomized "The Man". But I wish I could tell you now what quiet elegance the man had where he expressed his viewpoint and I realized that, despite my initial misgivings, it as clear to me that he was the best man for the job. He oozed character. Maybe three or four others (John Vett - who would later become mayor of New Paltz; Tom Nyquist - who would also eventually become mayor of New Paltz; Tom's wife Corinne) also supported McHugh; everyone else went to the local favorite, Schecter.

I never worked so hard on behalf of another person in my life until I cleaned out my mother's shed last fall. I went door to door carrying petitions and got at least 125 signatures. I attended a number of "meet the candidate" house events. One of Matt's great gifts was not only the ability to remember people's names, but specific details about them. "Hello, Mary, how's your husband Bob's lumbago?"

Matt even gave me a ride from New Paltz to Binghamton so I could visit friends, and on the two-and-a-half hour drive debated the issues of the day. I didn't agree with all of his positions. I specifically recall his position against abortion, based on his Roman Catholic upbringing which I didn't share, and yet we found ways to agree to disagree while embracing our common ground.

The results of the primary was that Matt McHugh won the primary. He lost the part of Ulster County in the district, but I was pleased to note that HE WON NEW PALTZ!

For the general election, one of my professors, Glenn McNitt, who had been backing Schecter, helped organize polling phone banks, and I made a lot of calls. McHugh would be running against Al Libous, the mayor of Binghamton, whose politics I HATED. Of course, McHugh won the general election and served until the end of 1992, when he declined to run for reelection.

He is currently on the board of http://www.abanet.org/rol/europe_and_eurasia/board_europe_eurasia.html the America Bar association Rule of Law Initiative.

Anthony, I know I've fallen far afield of your question. Anyway, I think people sense authentic or inauthentic. Well, some of the time.

Oh, and thanks for your defense of me by that "opiate of the masses" guy. Peculiar, the post itself was primarily a thanks to my church choir director, whose last service is today; I never expected that sort of response and feel rather ill-equipped to go one-on-one with that type.

ROG

Solstice Strikes Again: Ask Roger Anything

As I plan my next staycation, it's time for that game we call ASK ROGER ANYTHING, in which said Roger is COMPELLED to actually answer the question. There hasn't been a query yet I haven't answered in some form.

Here are some examples:
What was the #1 song on ...
- the day I were born?
- the day I graduated from high school?
- the day I were married?
- the day my child was born?
- the approximate date I was conceived?

Respectively,
"Till I Waltz Again with You" by Teresa Brewer
"Knock Three Times" by Dawn
"Livin' La Vida Loca" by Ricky Martin
"Yeah!" by Usher featuring Ludacris & Lil Jon
"Blue Tango" by Leroy Anderson

Here's a peculiar thing: most people that I know who were born in 1966 or 1976 know the music of the year they were born far better than I know the music of 1953. Why IS that?

Don't know that one, but here's why I always vote Republican and oppose gay marriage. OK, that's not true.

"Hey, Roger, what are you doing today?"
This.

Ask away.

And speaking of asking, I still have copies of this book on racism which I'm willing to send to you. Also, I have some mixed CDs I put together, some going back to before I blogged, mostly unlabeled, that I'd send to anyone who wants; can't guarantee the quality, but as Elwood Blues once said, "What do you want for nothin'? R-r-r-rubber bis-CUITS?"
ROG

Another Father's Day

My maternal grandfather, Clarence Williams, played in the Negro Leagues in 1930s. I’ve never been able to track down any statistics or even exactly what team he played for, though my grandmother thought he played for some team called the Giants. There were several "Giants" teams in the day.

The person I knew as my paternal grandfather, McKinley Green, I’ve mentioned before in these pages. He was a janitor, auto racing connoisseur, and loved the horses. I’ve never found the person who was my real paternal grandfather. I’ve long had a very complicated relationship with my father, who died in 2000, and I'm still looking for information about him.

When I became a father in 2004, I had a great deal of optimism about the world. I still love being a father, but the world? I’m not so sure about it. I guess I wanted the world to be freer now than when she was conceived, and I'm not at all feeling that's the case. I want it to be safer, and given tornadoes in unusual places, more violent hurricanes and the like, not so certain about that one.

There are are some men who just always wanted to be a dad, but I wasn't one of them. I like being Lydia's dad - I LOVE being Lydia's dad - but we're getting a lot of those "Are you going to have another?" questions. That's nobody's business, of course, but I suspect if we were to have another child, he or she would be adopted. In fact, in the period we were "trying to get pregnant", we got a lot of literature on the topic. We're not actively pursuing the issue now, but if we do, you'll be the 100th to know.

I got a handmade card and a two peas in a pod thingy for Father's Day. I do enjoy this part.

I'm watching the Tonys tonight, my annual opportunity to say, "So THAT'S what (name of actor better known for TV or movies) has been doing lately. I thought maybe he was retired. Or dead." I expect this person will watch; since Whoopi Goldberg is hosting, I'd bet money that this guy won't be tuning in.
***
Evanier has on his page this Fiddler on the Roof/Avenue Q mashup. I LOVE Fiddler and plan to see Avenue Q this fall.
ROG

How Do You Know Me QUESTIONS

OK, since it's my birthday week, I'd like you to tell me how well you know me. As added incentive, if you have a blog and post this quiz and let me know you've posted this quiz, I'll do the same for you.

Where did we meet (can be electronically - if so, how did you come to this blog, and if applicable, how did I come to yours)?

Take a stab at my middle name.

Do I smoke?

Color of my eyes.

Do I have any siblings? If so, where am I in the birth order?

What's one of my favorite things to do?

What's my favorite type of music?

Am I shy or outgoing?

Am I a rebel or do I follow the rules?

Any special talents?

How many children do I have?

If you and I were stranded on a desert island, what is one thing that I would
bring?

AND for a bonus question, you can share any other factoid you deign to share, as long as it's about me, and it's truthful. Preferably not mean.

Also, how much of this do you think is actually true:

- March 7 -
You are kind hearted and very friendly. You love attention, and you are always daydreaming in your own world. People gravitate towards you.
Positive Traits: intelligent, ethical, analytical, photographic memory, intuitive
Negative Traits: overly introverted, eccentric, uncommunicative, selfishness, cynicism
'What does your Birthdate mean?' at QuizGalaxy.com

ROG

Double nickel

G-55. That's G, as in Green, 55. I get to be a Bingo card call for five more years!

Every year, I take off my birthday from work. So as I wake from my Nyquil-induced fog, planning to start the day attending a daddy or grandfather/child breakfast at my daughter's day care, I'm taking off my birthday from the blog, and will leave you with the usual thing:

In our local Hearst paper, they always run this poem in August on the anniversary of the death of some founder. I think my tradition will be that I will quote a section from one of my favorite books, Here and Now: Living in the Spirit by Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Canadian theologian who died in 1996. (Copyright 1994, published by The Crossroad Publishing Company.)

I share this passage about birthdays, not only for my sake, but, I hope, for yours as well:

Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: "Thank you for being you." Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: "Thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished." No, we say: "Thank you for being born and being among us."
...
Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people's birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection. These are ways of saying: "It's good that you are alive; it's good that you are walking with me on this earth. Let's be glad and rejoice. This is the day that God has made for us to be and to be together."

ROG

Not boring

The only thing that sucks more than being sick is being sick around my birthday. I seem to have what half of everyone I know seems to be suffering with. My wife's been ill, too, and she took an illness-related fall on Tuesday that meant seven (count 'em, 7) hours in the ER; I went with her, and the event involved a number of brief flurries of action, followed by huge periods of waiting.

On the potential upside this week, one of my oldest friends, Karen, who I've known for 50 YEARS!, and whose birthday, not so incidentally, is March 9, sent me this Susan Miller astrology chart:

"It's rare to have Uranus so close to the Sun and moon, and if you were born on March 7 or within five days of this date, [such as Gordon, whose birthday is today] this new moon will help you advance your hopes and wishes in a big way. This will not be a boring month, by anyone's estimation!

A new moon will coincide with one's birthday only very rarely - it could be decades until this happens again - so the coming 12 months should be VERY memorable, filled with fresh starts. If you were born on or near the new moon, March 7, you more than other Pisces will feel the full effects and benefits that are about to flow forward.

The best part of this is that the new moon will be in elegant angle to Jupiter, the Great Benefactor planet, now in your solar 1st house of your personality, identity, and all dreams and desires important to you. The 1st house is the engine that drives the whole chart!"

I suppose I should note that March 7 is MY birthday. While I'm not a big believer in astrology, I don't dismiss it outright either. Anyway, I love that "the new moon will be in elegant angle to Jupiter"; I have no idea what that means, but it sounds purty.

ROG

Library Poster Person

In lieu of actual content, an article that appeared in the October 2007 Albany Public Library BiblioTech newsletter, on the back page. This article, I understand, has been, or will be, copped in my neighborhood association newsletter:

Roger Green loves to use APL, and he does it from the comfort of his home or office. He is a librarian at the New York State Small Business Development Center and almost daily he uses the APL free databases that he accesses from his office computer with his library card. As a business librarian, he finds the various databases such as Reference USA, Business and Company Resource Center, and the Thomson Gale Legal Forms extremely helpful.

And Roger gives back to APL. As Vice-President of the Friends of the Albany Public Library, he promotes the library and helps create programming. He also created and runs the Friends of the APL blog.

Roger worked as a page for the Binghamton Public Library when he was a teenager. He assisted patrons using the microfilm machines and put away the items in the stacks, including the magazines. He might have glanced at some old issues of Psychology Today and Billboard a little too long before refiling them. "As wonderful as I found going to the library as a child, I’m even more appreciative that what the library usage is no longer limited by four walls," he says.

Outside of work, Roger does visit the library frequently. He loves to bring his three-year old daughter Lydia to the library for story times and to borrow books and DVD's. He's impressed with the Youth services staff and the extent of the collection available for his daughter.

To find out more about the Friends of the APL go to the Friends' blog at http://aplfriends.blogspot.com/. To find out more about Roger go to his blog at http://www.blogger.com/profile/05298172138307632062.

ROG

You Ask Me; I Ask You

It's time once again for Ask Roger Anything, this time with a twist. You get to ask me whatever, i.e., anything you want, and I have to answer. But I also am offering to pose questions to you to post on YOUR blog.

Here's one I got actually a month ago:

Thought of you as the only person with whom I could have a discussion about this -- it seems that more and more musicians are "selling out" and allowing their recognizable tunes to be attached to some product or other. In this week alone, I've heard REM selling something I don't remember, which doesn't seem to fit with everything I've read about Michael Stipe. But it really came home to me last evening when I heard the Corrs' "At Your Side" (from "In Blue," which admittedly is a little on the poppy side and not nearly as Irish as I would like) hawking the AARP!!!!

Just had to bring this to your attention, if it hasn't been already.
What's your opinion?

I replied: The evil facts are that it's increasingly difficult to be in the traditional marketplace. Thus, Moby sells most of the songs on his Play album, Macca is sold by a coffee company, JT is sold by a greeting card company, your man Bruuuuce was out there hawking some of his last albums on the Today show. [The Rising in 2002, and Magic this coming Friday.]
The thing specifically about the Corrs is that I don't know exactly how much control they have over their product. If they did "sell out", it'd be a good group to sell out to, since it's those 45-64 year olds who are still actually buying CDs in good numbers.

I found this article in Metroland that also responds to the point:
There's no such thing as selling out, says Duff McKagan of rock supergroup Velvet Revolver. "It gets harder and harder and harder for a rock group to make a living."
...McKagan points out, "Nobody is selling records like they used to. Even [Velvet Revolver's 2004 debut] Contraband sold only 3 million albums. [In the early '90s Guns ['N' Roses] and [Stone Temple Pilots] and Nirvana and Pearl Jam [were selling 8, 9, 10 million. Three million would have been only OK...
the newfound attitude towards "selling out", particularly among rock acts, is the product of this music-industry sea change. He cites licensing opportunities like commercials, movies and ringtones as alternative methods to make money off of tunes..."Since Iggy Pop did it, it's all OK, cause he's the dude," says Kagan. "God bless him, cause he hadn't made any money....

Now, here's the contract: if you give me questions, I promise to answer them within a fortnight, and to let you know that I did. If I give YOU questions, you promise to answer them in a fortnight, and to let me know that you did.

So, ASK me, OK?
***
Snakes on a plane.
***
Fred Hembeck linked to this story, which really got to me.

ROG