You just can't have too many computers

I had the idea for my presentation for the Underground Railroad conference months earlier. But on long-term projects, I procrastinate. (Or, conversely, I do it right away, because I know I tend to procrastinate.)

So it's the Monday before the Saturday of the conference. I've taken the day off from work. The plan: in the morning, finally watch Hurt Locker on DVD. In the afternoon, go to the library and work on the presentation. Neither of these things happen, though; the daughter is home sick for the 10th time this school year. and as usual, she's not SO sick that she's sleeping, but rather needs regular attention from daddy.

So it's now the Thursday evening before the Saturday of the conference. I blow off Bible study and choir, stay at work until 8 pm and actually get the presentation into some sort of narrative shape. It's not finished, but it's quite far along.

So it's now the day before the conference. I dig out the thumb drive I was given which I had never used, and copy the program. My intention is to finish it up at home on the wife's laptop. Except the wife's computer doesn't seem to have a cursor anymore.

So now it's the morning of the conference. I still cannot get the laptop to work. As for my desktop computer, not only is it slow, it is so old that it actually doesn't have a compatible slot for the thumb drive. I'm thinking I may have to go to the downtown branch of the library; the local branch doesn't open until 1 pm, and that's too late.

Then I play with the daughter's new Netbook that her aunt and uncle just gave her for Valentine's Day. I can't get the Internet to work on it, but the word processing is fine, and the presentation is finished Just In Time.

Eventually - I have no idea how - I've gotten the cursor to work again on the wife's laptop. I mean I'm a Luddite, but not as bad as this guy, at least most of the time.

So here's the question: do you consider yourself technologically savvy, or do you go around screaming when technology fails? I'm not a screamer, but...well, let's put it this way: DON'T hire me for IT.




ROG

Privacy, identity

My daughter went to the pedetrician she's seen since she was born last week for her annual physical. The ofice required proof of her insuance - it has not changed, but OK - and proof of identity for her or her parents.

This week, I went to see my primary care physician for MY annual physical doctor. I've had this doctor for over 15 years. The front staff know who I am. In fact, when he asked me for MY ID, the staffer said, almost giggling: "We KNOW who you are." I also prsented my insurance card, though it hadn't changed.

Now I understood it when I went to St. Peter's to get X-rays; I'm not exactly a regular.
***
A bit off topic, but it did get me to think about issue privacy and personal information. The type of info I hate giving up is the type I believe will harm me. For instance, one of my providers STILL uses my Social Security number as my patient identification. This makes me VERY nervous. And isn't that in violation of the HIPAA law?

Meanwhile, there are members of Congress complaining about the "invasive" Census. Frankly, I'm a bit disappointed that, with all the money being spent on it, they didn't ask for more.

Newspapers, when I write a letter to the editor, require my name, address, and phone number. But if I write to their blogs, I can hide under a pseudonym and say pretty much what I want. The blogger can block it, but still the conversation is far more incidiary than the print letters. I'm not sure that folks online shouldn't be subjected to the same rules of contact as their pen-and-paper cohorts.

***
The question: what issues of privacy do YOU worry about? Census, online transactions, the restaurant worker with your credit card ?

Rooting QUESTIONS

As some of you know, the men's college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, ended on Monday, with traditional powerhouse Duke barely beating Butler. I was pulling for the team from Indianapolis, and not just because it was the underdog. A small piece was the bulldog mascot; my high school teams were the Bulldogs. A greater factor, though, is that there's a woman in my choir. Every year, during prayer concerns, she talks about her alma mater's progress in the tournament. Given the fact that she lost one son, her husband (also a Butler alum) and her other son to various illnesses in the past two years, I was pulling for the team for her sake; alas, it was not to be.

Whereas I'm not fond of Duke. Though they'd not dominated the tournament recently as they did, I developed a dislike for the team not unlike how some baseball fans HATE the New York Yankees.

Now there are teams I dislike for a period. College football was dominated by teams from Florida for a time, and often there was a certain thuggery in the teams, but they're not as dominant now, so not an issue.

I used to hate the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1960s because they beat the Yankees in the 1963 World Series, a team my father LOVED because the Brooklyn Dodgers played Jackie Robinson. But my Dodger disdain has passed.

In fact, the only franchise I really can't stand are the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League. Started off with the Cowboys beating the NY Giants in the 1960s, but it's more about the "America's team" moniker, something *I* never voted on.

Since it's a new baseball season, I thought I'd ask - what teams do you really dislike, and why? What players can you just not stand?
***
Singer/songwriter Tom Lehrer measures his birthdays in Celsius.
***
John Forsythe died while I was away. I remember him best for two sitcoms. One was called Bachelor Father (1957-1962), where a wealthy attorney took care of his niece, whose parents were killed in a car accident. Niece tries to fix up uncle, who'd rather play the field. The other was The Powers That Be, where he played a clueless US Senator; great cast, short-lived (1992-1993), and deserved a better fate.



ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Jaquandor

From the guy from Buffalo who does Byzantium Shores.

1. If they re-did the Jeopardy! eligibility rules so you could try out again, would you?

Quite possibly so. I feel ever so slightly jealous that they doubled the values a couple years after I was on. This doesn't mean I would have won $35,200 instead of $17,600 when I played, but it made me wonder. Of course, maybe I'd suck at the game now. Certainly, I'd go in the next three years, when I'd be 60, or not at all.

Somehow I feel like one of those baseball players who came along just before free agency.

2. In retrospect: Should Spitzer have resigned?

In retrospect, no, but that whole thing wasn't going down "in retrospect". It wasn't his sexual behavior that did him in, it was his hypocrisy. Truth is that he never had the patience to be governor; things he could have bullied people to do as Attorney General, with the force of law on his side, could not be achieved as Governor, where give and take is more the requirement.

No doubt that if he were not tainted, he might have continued to sound the alarm about the Wall Street fiasco, as he was working on as Attorney General. Equally true that Wall Street as happy to see him go. The truth of the matter is that I wish he had stayed as AG, but he would have had to resign that position as well, once the Customer Number Nine stuff came out.

I continue to be fascinated by sexual scandals in terms of who gets to stay in office and who has to go. I always thought that Bill Clinton got to stay because there was a general feeling that 1) he already had a reputation as a womanizer, so he didn't have the hypocrite label slapped on him (only the "liar" label) and 2) that the impeachment over sex, and lying about it, was an overreach for something that started off as an investigation of a land deal.

3. What the hell is going on with the Catholic Church? I mean, seriously: WTF?!

The church seems to continue to be tone deaf to the scandal. Some archbishop in New York State is attacking the attackers of the Pope, as though THEY were the problem instead of the pedophile priests and the system that protected them.

SamuraiFrog had a good post about this. The church
treated it as an "internal matter", fearing that somehow admitting it and exposing it would undermind its moral authority. Have they not learned from Watergate? It's the COVER UP that REALLY underminds their moral authority. If they'd gotten in front of this even 30 years ago - John Paul II became Pope in 1978 - then it would have been painful, yes, but not this drip-drip-drip of scandal.

Mr. Frog notes the fact that the church feels selectively persecuted/prosecuted for its religion, that other people did wrong things. OK, and the church also claims that its first Pope knew Jesus personally, which, I'd like to suggest, places it at a slightly higher standard.

The Catholic hierarchy for years has been blaming this problem on the United States' culture and society, as though it had been the "permissive" Americans who regularly ignore Papal dictates on issues such as birth control as the problem. Classic misdirection, but it did not "take", given the worldwide problem.

And the "it happened a long time ago - get over it" argument, not just on this issue, but any issue, such as institutional racism and sexism, has always irritated the crap out of me. Let me say it again: the persecutors oughtn't be able to say "Let's move on" without the adequate response of not only apologizing for the problem, but, to the degree possible, rectifying the problem. This is why the Armenians in Turkey are still, and rightly from my POV, kvetching about the 1915
genocide that the Turkish government still denies.

As someone who protected a priest who had victimized 200 boys, the former Cardinal Ratzinger has given new meaning to "papal bull".
***
Remember last month when I directed you to a link to my guest review for Trouble with Comics, then it went away? Well, as Bullwinkle J. Moose says, This time for sure!



ROG

Theological QUESTIONS

I was talking to my Jehovah's Witness buddy on the bus the other day. Frankly, I agree with him a lot more than not, and he certainly knows his Bible. So I was surprised that he thought that we were in the end times, that the things that are happening NOW suggest the Armageddon foretold in Revelation.

Having read the Epistles, I believe people have predicting the Lord was coming back at least since Saint Paul was on the earth (which, not incidentally, predates the writing of Revelation), that these particular circumstances (Israel as a nation, the United Nations as an entity that will try to create a one-world secular government in violation of God's will, and all the earthquakes, floods, etc. worldwide) are the signs of the End Times. Well, maybe. I'm of the school that "No one knows the day or time when the Lord comes", so you might as well live your lives loving each other, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked and the like.

Meanwhile, the sermon at church on Sunday was useful in another way. I know there is evil in the world, but haven't attributed it to a personified devil, Satan, Lucifer, the accuser since I was a teenager. Apparently, most people don't; how else could we make devil's food cake, deviled eggs and buy Underwood deviled ham, with a little red devil character right on the can?

So, a couple of lighthearted questions for Good Friday:
1. How do you think the world ends? With a bang or a whimper? In lack certainty, so I don't really worry about it. I DO doubt that the UN will be the vehicle through which a one-government body will arise, if it ever does; it'd much more likely be via the multinational corporations pulling the strings than the US, Iran, Israel, China, and Russia all ceding authority to a controlling government.

2. Do you believe in a personified Devil? I don't. As a monotheist, which I am, if there is one God, then making "the Devil" like unto God seems wrong.

But what do YOU think?
***
And all he asks of us is we give each other love
- Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984)
God is Love, from the What's Goin' On album
Album version
Extended mix

ROG

Changing the Rules in Sports QUESTION

The NCAA Men's Basketball tournament is thinking about expanding from 65 teams to 96, which I happen to think is a terrible idea. The Wall Street Journal wrote a snarky article, Hey NCAA, No Need to Stop at 96 Possibly Expanding the Tournament by Nearly 50% Is a Cop-Out; Let's Let Everyone in,where they sarcastically suggest inviting "every one of the current 347 NCAA Division I schools. That's right: The Magnificent Three Hundred and Forty Seven. Catchy, right? It just rolls off the tongue...One school will be crowned
the champion, but everyone will be considered a 'winner.' The idea is to replicate the drama, energy and positivity of a third-grade gingerbread-house-making contest."

Meanwhile, the NFL has changed the rules regarding ties in the playoffs, which seems reasonably fair.

So what rule changes in sports would you like to see? How about:

Electronically-called balls and strikes in baseball?
Going back to the 6.0 scale in figure skating?
Actually calling traveling in NBA games?
(I'd say no, no and yes.)

ROG

Springtime for Roger and Albany

On a quarterly basis, I get REALLY lazy. I make my readers do all the heavy lifting in a little thing I like to call ask Roger Anything. Anything at all.

OK, don't ask me if there are any words that have the vowels A, E, I, O, U, and Y in order, he said facetiously.

But other than that, anything goes. And I have to answer, or you get double your money back.

Seriously, there has never been a question I was asked that I didn't, in some substantial way, answer. Sports, politics, religion - we take it all on.

Hmm. Do you know what I'm thinking about? The word "invalid", and how with the emphasis on the first syllable, it's a noun that means someone incapacitated by chronic illness or injury. But with the emphasis on the second syllable, it's an adjective meaning falsely based. They shatre a common root suggesting "npot strong", but I hate the notion that people are invaldated because of their physical condition.

Oh, and the death of Fess Parker, who played Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone. Re: the former role, probably every other household in America with a child in it owned at least one coonskin cap.

Assuming I GET any questions, I'll start answering later in the week.



From the movie The Producers (1968). That slackjawed look at 2:35 is still one of my favorite moments in all of cinema.
ROG

Peevish QUESTION

I wrote a little piece about pet peeves a little while ago. But I'm interested in asking you folks if there are things that really bug you, especially if you have not much to do with it. Maybe it's the political discourse that's distasteful.

I was at work helping someone with a question, and I rediscovered that there are a couple issues that really have been bugging me, and really are, in the end, none of my business. Though I will make a case for the idea that, at least the former issue is a public health issue and therefore everyone's concern.

Issue #1 is the huge number of Cesarean section births in the United States. From this document, the CDC notes that the C-section rate went up for the 11th straight year in 2006 up to 31.8%, the highest ever reported in the country. Lowering the rate was a governmental objective for the last quarter century. The mission actually seemed to be working for a while - the rate went from 22.8% in 1989 to 20.7% in 1996, but it's been going up ever since. The optimal rate is between 5% and 10%. The whys are varied, but it concerns me regardless. And it worries some in the medical community as well.

The other issue involves pregnant women smoking. I know that tobacco is addictive, but when I see it, it makes me crazy anyway. Low birth-weight babies are often the result.

So what issues that really don't affect you directly nevertheless gets on your nerves?

ROG

Feeling Your Age QUESTION

One of the things I hated about some of the music of the 1990s was that it sounded like songs I knew, sort of. This wasn't just a copyright issue (Hammer, for one, was very good at attribution of the original source). It was that I would be briefly lulled into the familiar, only to be jolted into...something else. P. Diddy's music did that to me a lot.

(Though the Every Valley from Handel's Messiah: A Soulful Celebration was a GOOD surprise.)

So my family was at the 60th birthday party of the colleague of my wife's. And this song comes on. I think it's Werewolves of London by Warren Zevon, a song for which I have deep affection. Turns out to be some popular tune by Kid Rock that I had somehow missed. And, just for the moment, I was feeling my age.

What makes YOU feel like, just maybe, you're not still a kid?
***
Blue Is Frustrated from Blue's Clues. Pray tell, what is Blue frustrated about?
***
GORDON'S BIRTHDAY TODAY.
ROG

Oscar Pics QUESTIONS

Who's going to win the big awards? I have no idea, of course, but I'll hazard some guesses anyway, based on how watching the Oscars for decades has informed my opinions.

Best Supporting Actor:
*Matt Damon-'Invictus'
Woody Harrelson-'The Messenger'
Christopher Plummer-'The Last Station'
Stanley Tucci-'The Lovely Bones'
Christoph Waltz -'Inglorious Basterds'
Who will win: Waltz. There's always someone who the general public has never heard of who wins one of the supporting nods. Don't think it'll be Plummer, whose movie got only a so-so 68% positive in Rotten Tomatoes; on the other hand, he's old (80), and the Academy likes old, plus it's his first nomination. Could be Tucci, but I think that some of those Academy voters just aren't going to watch his performance because of the subject matter.
Who I want to win: Tucci, who's just an actor who shows great range.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz-'Nine'
*Vera Farmiga-'Up in the Air'
Maggie Gyllenhaal-'Crazy Heart'
*Anna Kendrick-'Up in the Air'
Mo'nique-'Precious'
Who will win: Mo'nique. Academy loves to reward those who play against type. Bonus that she's a minority, and Cruz got one recently.
Who I want to win: Farmiga, who lives in Ulster County, NY where I lived for a time. So I'm a homer; so what?

Best Animated Feature Film
'Coraline'
'Fantastic Mr. Fox'
*'The Princess and the Frog'
'The Secret of Kells'
*'Up'
What will win: Up. I mean it was a nominee for Best Picture.
What I want to win: The Princess & the Frog. While I LOVED the wordless beginning of Up more than I could have imagined, I liked the Disney flick more throughout.

Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal 'The Hurt Locker'
Quentin Tarantino 'Inglourious Basterds'
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman 'The Messenger'
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen 'A Serious Man'
*Peter Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy 'Up'
Who will win: Boal. I'm expecting a Hurt Locker avalanche.
Who I want to win: Boal, though it wouldn't bother me if the Coens ot Tarantino got it.

Best Adapted Screenplay
*Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell 'District 9'
*Nick Hornby 'An Education'
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche 'In the Loop'
Geoffrey Fletcher 'Precious'
*Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner 'Up in the Air'
Who will win: Reitman/Turner. This is Reitman's consolation prize for losing for Best Picture and Best Director, an Oscar tradition.
Who I want to win: Reitman/Turner.

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges 'Crazy Heart'
*George Clooney 'Up in the Air'
*Colin Firth 'A Single Man'
*Morgan Freeman'Invictus'
*Jeremy Renner 'The Hurt Locker'
Who will win: Jeff Bridges, who's been nominated four times without a win, and won the Golden Globe.
Who I want to win: Bridges or Clooney

Best Actress
*Sandra Bullock 'The Blind Side'
*Helen Mirren 'The Last Station'
*Carey Mulligan 'An Education'
Gabourey Sidibe 'Precious'
* Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia as Julia Child
Who will win: Streep. The pundits are making this a contest between Streep and Bullock. Streep, whose been nominated 16 times, and won twice (but not since 1982!) has been beaten by perceived stronger performances. The competition this year includes two novices (Mulligan, Sidibe), Mirren's appearance in a so-so film, and a certain backlash against Bullock's film. If not this year for Meryl, when?
Who I want to win: STREEP

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow 'The Hurt Locker'
James Cameron 'Avatar'
Lee Daniels 'Precious'
*Jason Reitman 'Up in the Air'
Quentin Tarantino 'Inglourious Basterds'
Who will win: Bigelow. I mean, a well-received film, directed by a woman, and not on what's considered a "women's film". Perhaps her biggest booster is one of her competitors, her ex-husband Cameron.
Who I want to win: Bigelow.

Best Picture
'Avatar'
*'The Blind Side'
*'District 9'
*'An Education'
'The Hurt Locker'
'Inglourious Basterds'
'Precious'
'A Serious Man'
*'Up'
*'Up in the Air'
What will win: The Hurt Locker. In a five-movie race under the "first-to-the-post" rules, this is Avatar's, almost for certain. But I keep hearing that while Avatar is a technological achievement, its story's weak.
What I want to win: Up In The Air, which I think in the future will be seen as emblematic of its time.

So what are your picks, for who WILL win, and who you WANT to win?
Links to your blogpost describing same would be fine.


ROG

Movie music QUESTION

It's no secret that my favorite movie music is from West Side Story. I'm also quite fond of Fiddler on the Roof. But it occurred to me: these are Broadway musicals adapted for the screen. What do I like the best that's MOVIE music?

Difficult question. But, excluding the Beatles - I've recently seen again A Hard Day's Night and Help! - here are some examples:

This is the famous Germans bomb Pearl Harbor speech by John Belushi from Animal House. But try to listen to it without the dramatic music of Elmer Bernstein, and I think it falls flat. In fact, throughout the film, Bernstein, who's probably best known for the score for The Magnificent Seven (a/k/a the Marlboro theme), has all sorts of flourishes in this movie, giving the dopiest action a counterpoint.

Quality of Mercy by Michelle Shocked from Dead Man Walking. I THINK this was written for the film (though this performance is not), as opposed to what the compilers of the music of, say, Easy Rider, called "found music", existing songs put on a soundtrack.

Forrest Gump, BTW, is the worst example of that trend; it's not that the songs are bad, only that they're obvious. California Dreamin' by the Mamas & the Papas, Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel, For What It's worth by Buffalo Springfield, and Get Together by the Youngbloods? I mean, I already own all of those songs; not everyone does, but some Time-Life collection might have been a better venue.

Ridin' the Rails by k.d. lang and Take 6 from Dick Tracy, a movie I never saw. I'm a sucker for trains, and songs about trains.

The Funeral from Cry Freedom. This is a bit of a cheat. The bulk of the song is the anthem Nkosi Sikeleli Africa (God Bless Africa). But it is the most stirring version I know, taking place after South African activist Stephen Biko's death. (It starts at 2:25 on the video.)

But the movie music I have the greatest, perhaps irrational attachment for, is from the film The Night They Raided Minsky's, which I saw with my friend Carol and her friend Judy when I was 15 in 1968. I had a mad crush, unstated, for Judy. The film was rated M, a precursor for PG. Because I have the soundtrack, I can admit that though I haven't seen the film in 40 years, I know this song, and others in the movie, by heart:
TAKE TEN TERRIFIC GIRLS (But Only Nine Costumes)
I have a secret recipe
Concocted with much skill
And once you've tried my special dish
You'll never get your fill

Take ten terrific girls
But only nine costumes
And you're cooking up something grand

Mix in some amber lights
And elegant scenery
Then stir in a fine jazz band

Then add some funny men
And pepper with laughter
It's tart and tasty I know

Then serve it piping hot
And what have you got?
A burlesque show!
Music: Charles Strouse Lyrics: Lee Adams


What movie music moves YOU?



ROG

Olympic QUESTION

Are you watching the Olympics? I turned on the TV for the opening ceremonies, only to see how luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili of the Republic of Georgia died. In case I missed it, NBC kindly showed it a couple more times.

(Sidebar: before I saw the accident, I was talking on the bus yesterday with some of the regulars. We found it an interesting sociological phenomenon that ABC Wide World of Sports showed Slovian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj as the Agony of Defeat for 20+ years; the guy fortunately only suffered a concussion.)

But I'm not a big Winter Olympics fan. The newish extreme sports (halfpipe, etc.) look interesting, but I have no sense of how they score them. I learned a while ago that hockey is more interesting live than on TV, but if the US is in the match and not being trounced, I'll probably watch some.

I figured out only yesterday why skiing, as inherently appealing as it should be, bores me silly. It's one guy going down the hill. Then another guy going down the hill. And another. And another. And it all looks the same unless someone makes a mistake, and falls. Are we supposed to wait for a tumble, and hope it's of the Vinko Bogataj variety rather than the Nodar Kumaritashvili type?

I realized that skiing is like the Kentucky Derby, except that only one horse and jockey go around the track. Then another. Then another. Substitute your favorite race (auto racing, track and field, swimming). Whereas the luge is so intense, not just fast but claustrophobic, it's generally more watchable. Are we waiting for the (non-fatal) wipeout there as well?

The only thing I'll truly see, though, is figure skating. The one thing my ex and my wife have in common is a love for the sport. I've been watching since 1992 and even have a basic understanding for the scoring in the men's and women's events, less so in the pairs, and hardly at all in ice dancing.


ROG

Valentines QUESTION

Valentine's Day - love it or hate it?

Well, I don't hate it anymore. But I'm still less than enamored by it than I might be. I still feel more affinity for the heartbreak songs than the "true love" tunes. Even as a kid, I related to songs of love lost.

Later it was the revenge songs such as Del Shannon's Hats Off To Larry or the Johnny Mercer song I Wanna Be Around.

My favorite Valentine's day song is titled Valentine's Day, by Steve earle. Can't find a version by the singer/songwriter, except on lala.com, though there are cover versions on YouTube and last.fm such as this one.

I come to you with empty hands
I guess I just forgot again
I only got my love to send
On Valentine's Day
I ain't got a card to sign
Roses have been hard to find
I only hope that you'll be mine
On Valentine's Day
I know that I swore that I wouldn't forget
I wrote it all down: I lost it I guess
There's so much I want to say
But all the words just slip away

The way you love me every day
Is Valentine's Day

If I could I would deliver to you
Diamonds and gold; it's the least I can do
So if you'll take my IOU
I could make it up to you
Until then I hope my heart will do
For Valentine's Day

How do you feel about Valentine's Day, and what's your favorite song for the occasion, if any?

ROG

QUESTION: How's Obama Doing?

Since it's the anniversary of the inauguration of Barack Hussein Obama, the obvious question for you folks: how's he doing? When he gave an interview with Oprah Winfrey in December, he gave himself a B+; he must have been grading on a curve, because I'm thinking more like C+.

The good:
Pretty much his very first act was to sign an order extending the time women who had been systematically discriminated against in pay to seek redress.
He set a tone of more international cooperation rather than "America's way or the highway."
He promised to close Gitmo, though I think he could have waited on ANNOUNCING it until he had actually lined up the places the prisoners would be transferred to.
He ended torture. I know that there are those who think banning "enhanced interrogation methods" makes the US less safe; I so totally disagree.
He took responsibility for the failing in his administration, notably Christmas airline near-disaster (cf, his Homeland Security chief's tone-deaf pronouncement that everything had gone right).
And I shouldn't understate the impressive nature of his comportment.

The bad:
Yes, he was dealt a touch economic hand. But he always seems to side with the big bankers on deregulation when he should have been putting the screws to them. The dissatisfaction from people on the left and the right on this one topic may be the failed legacy of this Presidency.
The Afghanistan war; I'm willing to be proven wrong on this.

The ugly:
Health care. I support the ideas that Obama put forth in the campaign. And I agreed with the notion that hit had to be done early. Yet, apparently afraid of Clinton Health Care Disaster, Part 2, he instead left it to Congress to flounder around the topic, undercutting what I believed was the most important idea - single payer - making the bill weaker and mushier. And now, with the US Senate race in Massachusetts, Teddy Kennedy's seat, the health care guru's seat, falling to an obstructionist Republican, health care seems to be dead for the foreseeable future. It was bungled - badly. I'm talking Jay Leno at 10 p.m. badly.
Race. The one "teachable moment" became a "beer summit," a bit of a joke.

Now to be fair, there was a lot of poisonous lies (born in Kenya, a Muslim, a socialist/fascist/communist) that too many people were eager to believe. That doesn't help governing, though there was a point when I thought that since so many people were accusing him of being a socialist, he ought to act more like one, rather than the centralist he tends to be.

I'm sure there are other issues I'm forgetting. What say you re: BHO?

ROG

The Party Mummy Meme

Sunday Stealing, again:

1. Name someone with the same birthday as you.

Jenna Fischer, Pam on The Office. (Could have picked Willard Scott from the Today Show, which would have been more birthday appropriate.)

2. Where was your first kiss?

Under some mistletoe at someone's house. A girl named Mary. Maybe it was Mary's house, I'm not sure. I was 13.

3. Have you ever hit someone of the opposite sex? If yes, why?

No. Do you know what song I really hate that I just played this week? I know it'll sound PC, but it's The Crystals' He Hit Me (And It Felt Like A Kiss), written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King. It's on a Phil Spector collection; his birthday is next week.

4. Have you ever sung in front of a large number of people? When?

My father, sister and I sang in front of some drunk VFW guys when I was 17.
Slightly off topic, there was a Red Cross training event at Manlius, NY. I played a blues comb. Got a standing O.

5. What's the first thing you notice about your preferred sex?

Ratio of bust, waist, hips.

6. What really turns you off?

Generally, people who talk too much without saying anything.

7. What is your biggest mistake?

Impatience.

8. Have you ever hurt yourself on purpose?

Well, if you count drinking too much in college, then yes.

9. Say something totally random about yourself.

I fell asleep watching Citizen Kane on VHS.

10. Has anyone ever said you looked like a celebrity?

Yes, but I'm at a loss remembering who.

11. Do you still watch kiddie movies or TV shows?

I have a daughter who's under six. I have seen, just this WEEK The Wonder Pets, The Backyardigans and The Fresh Beat Band.

12. Are you comfortable with your height?

Heck, yeah.

13. What is the most romantic thing someone of the preferred sex has done for you?

I'm not going to tell you.

14. When do you know it's love?

I don't think you do except through trial and error.

15. What's something that really annoys you?

I'm walking across the street with the light. Some driver will turn right on red, forcing me to wait in the intersection.
***
Art Clokey died this week at the age of 88. He created Gumby and Pokey. I actually HAD a Gumby toy, dammit. Really.

But the thing I remember more from Art Clokey is this really odd limited animation thing called Davey and Goliath, about a boy and his dog, put out by the Lutheran Church. There came a point where I found the moralistic tales too simplistic, but even in my cynical late teens, I would keep watching it. here's but one example from YouTube; there are plenty more, including a commercial...for Mountain Dew?
ROG

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

LOST Question

This has nothing to do with the ABC-TV show of the same name.

The scripture in the lectionary was that reading in Luke where Jesus is 12 and he gets lost. OK, he doesn't think he's lost. Mary and Joseph think he's visiting other relatives, and travel a day before realizing he's not with the other travelers. Frantic, they return to Jerusalem and look all over for three days before finally finding him in the temple. Jesus says, "Yeesh, mom and dad, you should have KNOWN where I'd be." I always thought he was a little impudent. On the other hand, if they were in fact visited by angels before Jesus was born, maybe he had a point.

So my questions:

1. Have you ever been lost as a child?

I was at Ross Park Zoo in Binghamton, NY when I was four or five, maybe six. There were these huge culverts though the park and I wanted to know where they went. I got to the end, or at least as far as I wanted to go, and I came back. *I* didn't think I was lost; I knew exactly how to get back. But my parents thought I was lost. I vaguely recall their combination of relief and anger.

2. Have you ever lost a child?

Well, no, but I have thought from time to time that I had. Lydia has this annoying habit of hiding, and she's pretty good at it, too. So there have been a few times I Thought she was MIA, but fortunately, she was not.
***
And speaking of lost, we lost Chas. Balun, horror film expert, a funny, irreverent, and generally nice bear of a man, to cancer at the age of 61. I started dealing with Chas. in my FantaCo days in the early 1980s when Tom Skulan came across one of his publications and we started it sell it. Later we were putting out the magazine he edited, Deep Red, and eventually we published books he authored, such as Horror Holocaust (1986) and The Gore Score (1987). My dealing with him as the person in charge of the mail order, I'd talk to him about the prosaic issue of how the items were selling. We always seemed to find some amicable banter, primarily about music.

Steve Bissette wrote a nice piece about Chas.


ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Scott and Jaquandor

Queries from veteran Roger queriers,

First up is the noble Scott:

Is there a team you are rooting for to win the Super Bowl?

Besides the Giants, who just don't deserve it this year (41-9 loss to Carolina yesterday?), gotta be the Saints. Partly it a parochial hope that a Super Bowl appearance will once again point out the aftermath of Katrina and how much is yet undone in the recovery. Also, can't help but think it would give the city a real boost; they've already postponed some Mardi Gras events in anticipation of getting to the big game. And yes, I thought losing to the Cowboys was probably a good thing; get the loss out of their system. (So naturally they lose to Tampa Bay yesterday.) The perfect season was a curse for the Patriots a couple seasons back, so the loss to the Jets - who are still in playoff contention - theoretically will help the Colts. Or not.

What is your favorite Christmas family tradition?

I'm still grasping at any kind of tradition. We had a tree the last three years, but not the previous two. What we eat varies; this year it was lasagna! And while I sing on Christmas Eve, it's hardly a FAMILY tradition, since my wife and daughter weren't there. In fact, I didn't see my daughter at all on Christmas Eve, though I did talk with her twice on the phone. The tree decorations I used to have seem to have disappeared. So it's not so much tradition; it's jazz improv, and it's all good.

Do you do a lot of decorating inside and outside your house for the holidays?

Outside, not at all. Inside, the Christmas cards - and we got a LOT of Christmas cards this year, more than ever - go around the entryway to our living room. In fact we had so many, we put a few on the other side, the entryway back into the hallway. There's the tree. There's red garland on the railing heading upstairs. We do have a creche.

The daughter constructed a snowman from paper, which we hung up. She also made some drawings that got put around the house.

What Christmas gift made the most lasting impression on you?

That would be the Beatles in Mono box set that I got in...2009. It wasn't just that I got the music; it was something I wanted and Santa delivered that singular package that was more than Santa is inclined to spend on a one item.

What was the best Christmas gift you received as a child?

Seriously, a Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army); I played with that forever and STILL turned out as a pacifist. Tom Hanks got one as a kid, he once told Leno.

Although the family getting a color TV in 1969, when I was 16, was huge, too; we literally saw the world in a different way. Watching the Wizard of Oz the next year, in particular, was a revelation; a "horse of a different color", indeed.

Merry Christmas to you and your family, Roger!

You too, Scott.

The best of the west, western NYS, that is, Jaquandor asks:

Do you cook? If so, what? Do you have a favorite ethnic cuisine? If so, what?

I did cook. And I was functional, not inspirational, at things like chicken. But I don't particularly enjoy it, Carol's better at it, and I get home close to 6:30 pm. I tend to make eggs, pancakes, oatmeal, grilled cheese sandwiches, those kinds of things on the weekends.

My favorite ethnic cuisine is lasagna, which I used to make in the winter, though the recent Christmas meal in fact was made by the wife and mother-in-law; I shredded the mozzarella. I also used to bake, but likewise Carol's more ept and I, rather inept. Damn, I just remember a time I confused baking powder with baking soda in a pancake recipe; it was AWFUL.

And do you have a strong opinion one way or the other on Governor Paterson?

Notice that David Paterson's positives have gone from the low 20s to the mid 30s. Still not great, and still losing to Andrew Cuomo by 40 points, should the attorney general run in a primary against him. But perhaps there is a recognition that he's at least TRYING to balance the budget, whereas the state legislature is unable/unwilling to. I wonder if those television ads, like this one are having an effect.

I have a question for you; do you think those Saturday Night Live parodies hurt him with the electorate? I've been under the impression that the NYS voters and SNL watchers are not that linked, but I could be wrong.

I can/do argue with some of his choices; his cuts to education and libraries seem particularly short-sighted. But I haven't written him off politically, especially if Rick Lazio, who ran a TERRIBLE campaign against Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate race in 2000, turns out to be the GOP nominee, rather than Rudy Giuliani.

ROG

Roger Answers Your Questions, Sherry, Jay, Autumn Belle, magiceye

Answers, we got 'em for our contestants, all newbies:

Sherry asked:
I must know, "What will you do in 2010? Will you still play in the ABC Meme. Is there life on Mars?"
Maybe a nice glass of Eggnog will help you get into the spirit of the season and a cookie.

What I'll do in 2010? I never know what tomorrow will bring. That said, if the ABC Wednesday meme continues, I'll still participate; already have an A, B and V(!) in mind. Do you know if it'll stick around?
Of course there's life on Mars. I'm a David Bowie fan.
While trimming the tree on December 23 had eggnog with Amaretto. Thanks for the suggestion.

Jay got excited:
Hmmm. Ask you anything? *Rubs hands together* Well then...

Uh.

OK, why do I think you're an ordained minister?

Well, I think it's because when I was about 11 or 12, I thought I would be an ordained minister. Just about everyone at church thought I'd be an ordained minister. I had my "saved" experience when I was nine, watching Billy Graham on television. I was very pious; I say that without irony. I went to Bible study every Friday night (except in the summer) for about seven years.

The problem I developed in my mid teens were twofold: 1) the notion that everyone who didn't follow Jesus, such as a pious Hindu in India, was going to hell conflicted with my belief in a just God; and 2) sex. OK, that's an oversimplification, but not incorrect.

So, I fell away from church and Christianity for over a decade, though I would dabble in all sorts of things from the Unitarians to the Moonies. Finally, in 1982, my grandmother died. I sang in the choir at her funeral, and it moved me, slowly and cautiously, back to church and Christianity, in that order.

So now I am actively involved with Bible study. The certainty of my youth has been replaced by, I hope, a more broad understanding of my faith. And I am always looking at other faith traditions to see what seems consistent with my evolving beliefs. You may have read that Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life study that said that nearly six in 10 Americans blend their faith with New Age beliefs. This is unsurprising to me. The one good thing I got from the Unitarians is the idea that we create our own religion. Whether it's American Catholics who ignore the Pope on birth control or my rejection of the "literal" interpretation of Genesis 1 (the "six days" creation), I recognize that God has given us reason for a purpose.

http://mymalaysiadailyphoto.blogspot.com/ asked:
Did you have a White Christmas?

Yes. we got a dusting a couple days before Christmas, and it stuck around, to clean the extant stuff.

magiceye wants to know: why the stress during holidays meant for destressing? it is distressing!

Well, I can't speak globally, but for me, this year in particular was tricky. Days I was going to take off to do Roger things I ended up watching the sick daughter, who was ill three separate times. As a result, I violated my own tradition, which was to take off from work a weekday 7 to 10 days before Christmas and do all my hands-on shopping. I deluded myself into thinking that since I did so much purchasing online, I didn't need the carve-out time; false. I needed it even to go to the library and shop online - my home computer is increasingly as cranky as I was becoming. So next year, I'm taking off Thursday, December 16 to shop; someone hold me to that.


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