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Monday, August 10, 2009

That scene in Field of Dreams always makes me cry

Even before my father died on August 10, 2000, there was a scene in the 1989 movie Field of Dreams where the Kevin Costner character is playing catch with his dad - you know, this one - that always got to me. My father and I didn't play catch that much, but he did take me to minor league games in Binghamton (the Triplets - farm team at various times of the Kansas City A's, New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves) and explained the intricacies of the sport.

As I noted here, the evening before my father died, when he was in a comatose state, "I turned on a baseball game, and explained the action to my father. I think the sound was down, so I was doing a play-by-play for a couple innings. I told him about Jason Giambi, the long-haired player for the Oakland A's who had 'graced' the cover of Sports Illustrated within the previous year."

So baseball - and music, card playing and football - were shorthand ways for my father and me to deal with each other when other paths were not available.

Here's a couple pictures that my sister came across only last month of my father as an MP at the end of, and after World War II, either in Texas or somewhere in western Europe, sometime in 1945 or 1946:




ROG

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Teachable moment QUESTION

I'm just not getting this notion that not talking about race will somehow fix the race issue, the position, it seems of George Will and Morgan Freeman. Just this month, I came across this Salon piece about a vendor sending the letter writer a racist cartoon. In Racialicious, The protagonist of Justine Larbalestier’s novel Liar is a young black woman with short, natural hair. So why is there a white girl with long, straight hair on the cover? A touching piece in Antiracist Parent notes it's never too late for racial unity in your family, about a mixed race couple, now married 40 years, who were rejected by his (white) family until fairly recently. Great moments in political race-baiting, which I will contend SHOULD include Bill Clinton.

Yet these "teachable moments" such as the Skip Gates arrest/President Obama's comment/the "beer summit" don't seem to teach much. Lots of arguing across each other. Most of these "moments" from Don Imus' comments to Michael Richards', seem to generate a lot of fury, but then we move to the next thing. There seems to be little common ground forged.

Or is there? I think most conservatives and most black people seem to be on the same page with regards to Henry Louis Gates, though they get there different ways.
Michele Malkin and her ilk wondered why he wasn't taught at one point to respecting the police, while black folk thought, "Is that man CRAZY? You don't shoot off your mouth to a cop; you can end up dead." in any case, Gates' Arrest Was Nothing Compared to Evan Howard's.

(Musical interlude: Pete Seeger - What Did You Learn In School?, with Words and Music by Tom Paxton
I learned that policemen are my friends.
I learned that justice never ends.
I learned that murderers die for their crimes.
Even if we make a mistake sometimes.)

So should we talk about race? HOW should we talk about race? I'm convinced there's more to be said but unclear about the methodology.





ROG

Saturday, August 08, 2009

John Hughes

I am certainly aware of the iconic nature of the John Hughes ouevre of the 1980s. Yet I am not all that well versed in it. Which is to say that I've never seen Molly Ringwald in a movie: no Sixteen Candles (1984), no The Breakfast Club (1985), no Pretty in Pink (1986). I've also managed to miss most of Hughes' other work.

So what HAVE I seen?

Delta House (1979), a short-lived TV show based on the movie National Lampoon's Animal House. Hughes as a writer. It was the most authentic of the Animal House derivatives, but none of them lasted for very long.

National Lampoon's Vacation (1983). Hughes as writer. Actually saw this in the theater, and recall enjoying it, though I probably haven't seen it since.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986). Hughes as writer/director/producer. I'm pretty sure I saw it only on commercial TV. I think I need to see it on video/DVD, because I see the clips and I'm not remembering them.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (1989). Hughes as writer/producer. Seem to see this on TV a lot during the holidays, though I don't know if I've ever watched it from beginning to end.

Home Alone (1990) and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992). Hughes as writer/producer. Both on commercial TV. The first one was mildly interesting, but the second one felt as though it was a retread.

Which brings me to my very favorite of the limited number of John Hughes movies I've seen, the only one besides Vacation I actually saw in the movie theater. A film I didn't know, or forgot, was a Hughes film:

Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987)

If you've not seen it, it is the story of two unlikely traveling companions, played by Steve Martin as a tightly wound man and the late John Candy as a too chummy guy who seems oblivious to the Martin character's boundaries. It's very funny, yet quite poignant. Anyone who's ever had transportation difficulties will definitely relate. I haven't made my Top 100 movie list yet, but I suspect it will contain this film.

Now, I'll have to add some John Hughes to my Netflix list.

ROG

Friday, August 07, 2009

Know Thine Opposition

I often read the views of people whose positions I have a track record of disagreeing with. (Whereas actually WATCHING them on TV sometimes makes me apoplexic and I'm forced to shut them off, lest I scream at the TV; Bill O'Reilly I won't even try to view.)

So I'm reading the latest from Ann Coulter, Obama Birth Certificate Spotted In Bogus Moon Landing Footage, where she cleverly compares the birthers to a bunch of conspiracy theories from the left, both implausible -"Sarah Palin's infant child, Trig, was actually the child of her daughter" and possible - "the 2000 election was stolen". Just because I oppose her views most of the time doesn't mean I don't think she's not clever in constructing straw men to knock down.

Meanwhile, Chuck Norris notes in What Obama and My Wife Have in Common that Obama and Chuck's wife Gena have a birthday in the same week (Barack - August 4; Gena - August 9.) He then ties Obama's birthday to the birther movement. (Hey, *I* did that; I think like Chuck Norris!) But of course he took a different tactic: "Refusing to post your original birth certificate is an unwise political and leadership decision that is enabling the "birther" controversy. The nation you are called to lead is experiencing a growing swell of conspirators who are convinced that you are covering up something. So why not just prove them wrong and shut them up?" The particular fun stuff is in the letters of comment.

I was reading somewhere that while their parents grouse that liberals (Barbra Streisand, Sean Penn, Al Franken SENATOR Al Franken) should keep out of politics, it's OK for Chuck Norris or the late Charlton Heston (or, of course, Ronald Reagan). I never biought into that mindset, BTW. How does being an actor (or singer) somehow negate one's right to participate in the democratic process?

Anyway, I didn't get much sleep, so here's former sportscaster Keith Olbermann's recent rant on health care, which I agree with.
***
Peace Through Music Film Trailer
***
Friend Walter and his wife went to see the Lovin' Spoonful recently. The group (sans John Sebastian) performed a song, not an orginal, he'd heard before and wanted to know what it was. It has the lyrics:
Ah-ha-ha-ha (ha-ha-ha-ha)
Hey-oh (hey-oh)
Koo-ba, koo-ba, koo-ba, koo-ba
(Koo-ba, koo-ba, koo-ba, koo-ba)
Ah-ha-ha-ha (ah-ha-ha-ha)
Ah-ah-ah-ha (ah-ha-ha-ha)
Hey-oh (hey-oh)

It was Don't You Just Know It by Huey (Piano) Smith & The Clowns from 1958; went to #9 on the pop charts. (If link doesn't work, try this.) Here's a version by C.J. Chenier from 1996.


ROG

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Cory and Ike

I was surprisingly saddened by the death of Corazon "Cory" Cojuanco-Aquino last week, only in part because she led a peaceful revolution that toppled the corrupt Ferdinand Marcos regime in the Philippines two and a half years after the assassination of her husband. Interesting how there have been several presidents and prime ministers in Asian countries with relatively short post-colonization periods, but not yet in the USA.

I'm also reminded, though, of the father of an ex-girlfriend of mine. The ex and I have remained friends, so I would visit her from time to time. Her father, living only a couple blocks away from her, would come over and we'd all play hearts. During the game, he would test us on our knowledge of current events. On one visit back in 1986, all he said, "What does this mean?" He put his hand in the shape of the Aquino liberation L. Fortunately, I knew the answer. He died a few years back, and when I heard about Cory's death, I found myself mourning again his death.

Frederick J. Eikerenkoetter II, better known as Reverend Ike was a radio and television evangelist, a proponent of a prosperity gospel known as thinkonomics. Long before pikers like Joel Osteen, Ike was doing his thing. I thought he was a charlatan, a snake-oil salesman, but this was the 1970s, in my unchurched period, and I found him an entertaining charlatan.

Here's just a bit of his schtick, as reported here in 2007:

His mail ministry has long included an ever-changing variety of items: miracle prayer cloths, lucky coins, prosperity bracelets and the like, each said to help the user tap into his or her own inner divine power (Reverend Ike suggested, for instance, that the prayer cloth be used to rub lottery tickets or horsetrack betting slips). His latest offerings are "Musivation Ringtones," ringtones for cell-phones he says will motivate followers towards prosperity and success.

The Reverend Mrs. Eula M. Dent Eikerenkoetter (“Rev. Mrs. Ike”), B.A., M.A., D.Sc.L., his wife, serves as Senior Co-Pastor, and his son, The Right Reverend Xavier Frederick Eikerenkoetter (“Rev. Ike’s Son”), B.A., M.Sc.L, D.Sc.L., is his "Bishop Coadjutor."

"I love money and money loves me."
"The lack of money is the root of all evil."
"The Bible says that Jesus rode on a borrowed ass. But I would rather ride in a Rolls Royce than to ride somebody's ass!"
"Be proud of the way I look, because you spend $1,000 a week to buy my clothes."
"The best thing you can do for the poor is not be one of them."


Like the writer, I was surprised he was still around, and I had missed his passing until I saw it mentioned on ABC's This Week.

Another death to report: our cordless phone. My in-laws got it for us the week our daughter Lydia was born. I poo-pooed the need, but now I've miss it terribly the last four days. My father-in-law said it only cost about $15, and to replace the battery would cost about $12; talk about your planned obsolescence.


ROG

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

C is for Census


As of 01 August 2009, the world had 6,774,705,647 people, give or take. About 307 million of them resided in the United States. That info came from the International Data Base, part of the U.S. Census Bureau, which in turn is housed in the US Department of Commerce. And you thought it only dealt with domestic population statistics.

I was an enumerator for the 1990 US Census. An enumerator is the person who comes to your house in the US when you fail to fill out the form that you have been mailed. (People would save taxpayer dollars by filling and mailing the form themselves.) I did this job from late April to mid-August. Lots of employees dropped out, but since it was my primary source of income - and taking another job was impractical, since I was accepted to go to library school in September - it was an ideal position for me. I even made it into a story that was printed in the Schenectady (NY) Gazette in June of that year, though I cannot, for the life of me, find it right now.

The Census, of course, is mandated in the Constitution: "The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct," it says in Article I, section 2.

1930 Census taker, Rev. smith, enumerates a Navajo tribe

The questions asked in the Census naturally have evolved over the years. Many of them can be seen here. My personal "favorite" Census has to be the one from 1890, when they asked questions such as:
4. Whether white, black, mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, Chinese, Japanese, or Indian
23. Whether defective in mind, sight, hearing, or speech, or whether crippled, maimed, or deformed, with name of defect.
1890 was a technological breakthrough as well.


Census goes high tech: 1960.

1960 marked the first time people could self-select their race, 1970 featured the introduction of Hispanic ethnicity and 2000 was the first Census where one could pick more than one race.

2000 was also the last year of the long form which asked about income, education, transportation and other topics to one in six households, including mine in 2000. Data users such as local governments tired of waiting 10 years for new information prompted Census to replace the long form by the American Community Survey, which will provide annual statistics; I respond to an article about it here. The ACS has generated some controversy of being too intrusive, in part because Census has not promoted it, figuring it would affect only a small portion of people each month.

I could write about Census forever. I haven't even touched on the Economic Census, that takes place every five years, or some of the other activities of the Bureau. And, of course, the 2010 Census, with fewer than a dozen questions per householder comes out next year. But that's enough for now, except to ask the ABC Wednesday people stopping by briefly to describe the censuses in their countries. That's enough for now.

ROG

Tuesday, August 04, 2009

The "Obama Birthday Surprise"


It's Barack Obama's 48th birthday. While I do have some real policy issues with him (I fear a quagmire in Afghanistan, among other issues), those can wait. After all, it IS his natal day, wherever he was born.

OK, I jest, but that is my basic point. I think that too many people, including me, have gotten caught up with the various attacks on the President, from whether he's a natural-born citizen of the United States to whether he's a racist (Jeremiah Wright -I heard invoked by Glenn Beck just recently - to Skip Gates) to whether he's a socialist (single payer health care). Or merely the Antichrist who wants to euthanize old people. What we've been missing, what I've been missing, with all those trees, is the forest.

I've become convinced that the proponents of these theories don't need to PROVE the smears against Obama as unAmerican (by birth or by values). It's merely necessarily to repeat them over and over. And over and over and over again.

Take the birthers, please. Jon Stewart pretty much eviscerated their points a couple weeks ago. The very next day, I get an e-mail that goes on and on and on about how the group (I won't bother identifying them) will lead a campaign to "FAX All 50 State Attorneys General To Investigate Obama's Birthday FRAUD"
According to published reports,[WHAT published reports?] Barack Obama's legal team has been paid over one million dollars, so far, to STOP anyone from seeing ANY of his actual identification documents, or many other documents:
* Actual long-form birth certificate (NOT an easily-forged electronic copy of a short-form document that is not even officially accepted in Hawaii)
except by legal authorities in Hawaii...
* Columbia University senior thesis, "Soviet Nuclear Disarmament" - writing about the USSR; maybe he's also a Communist? ...
* Obama's client list from during his time in private practice with the Chicago law firm of Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Gallard Hey, yeah, and while you're at it, reveal why the clients were there. But wait, wouldn't that violate lawyer-client privilege?
* Baptism records
* Obama/Dunham marriage license
* Obama/Dunham divorce documents
* Soetoro/Dunham marriage license
* Soetero/Dunham Adoption records

But would even THAT be sufficient? Ask David Hernandez.
It's a longer list, but it's brilliant in its innuendo.

The point is that it does not matter what Obama does; he will be criticized. And not on legitimate grounds, such as the deficit, but over specious stuff.

Take the mundane example of the so-called "beer summit". Obama was criticized for his choice of beer - Bud Light. But think about it: don't you believe he'd be criticized for ANY pick he made? If he'd picked a German beer, he'd be criticized for not picking a domestic brew. (Is Anheuser-Busch still considered "domestic" now that InBev owns it?) Even a selection of Sam Adams would have been picked as blue state elitist, I'm willing to bet. There was never going to be a satisfactory choice.

So for the President's birthday, we should vow to vow not to get confounded by the - dare I say it? - vast right-wing conspiracy - designed to make sound and fury signifying absolutely nothing. Let us hold this President accountable for the substantive issues, but ignore the politics of distraction. And distraction it is, though it has the capacity of being believed. The repetition gives some the belief that "Where there's smoke, there's fire," except that it's the same cabal blowing smoke.

Monday, August 03, 2009

Jaq's back meme

I had done this meme back in December 2008, when Jacquandor returned to blogging. But it was in draft in Blogger and - oops - never actually posted it!

No time like the present. The skips, I gather, are because I had already answered similar questions (then) recently:

1.Bought everyone in the bar a drink - yeah, but there were only a couple people IN the bar
4. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive - not even a dream of mine
5. Been inside the Great Pyramid - no
6. Held a tarantula - for some reason, I think I did at some controlled environment
7. Taken a candlelit bath with someone - yes
08. Said “I love you” and meant it - yes
09. Hugged a tree - several
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise - yes
14. Seen the Northern Lights - no
15. Gone to a huge sports game - define "huge". I went to some championship high school basketball games.
18. Touched an iceberg - no
20. Changed a baby’s diaper - pretty sure I did this BEFORE I had a child, though it had been so long that when Carol was pregnant, I actually volunteered to diaper a friend's child to get back into practice.
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon - no
23. Gotten drunk on champagne - well, no. Too much champagne doesn't get me drunk, it gives me a headache.
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope - well, yes, but not in far too long.
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment - nothing comes to mind, but it's possible.
27. Had a food fight - not an outright fight; might have flicked a french fry or two.
28. Bet on a winning horse - no. Considering my distance from Saratoga, I've actually only been to the track once, surprisingly.
29. Asked out a stranger - define. I've been to parties where I've meet people and ultimately asked them out.
30. Had a snowball fight - yes.
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can - yes.
34. Ridden a roller coaster - yes, but not in years. It was a tradition that my father rode with my baby sister, I rode with my other sister, and my mother would hold our glasses, lest they fall off.
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking - probably.
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day - no. I have adopted accents, though.
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment - sure.
39. Had two hard drives for your computer - no.
40. Visited all 50 states - 30.
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk. I drove home someone who was drunk. I didn't have a license or a permit. And the statue of limitations on that has definitely passed.
42. Had amazing friends - heck, yeah.
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country - no.
45. Stolen a sign - maybe.
46. Backpacked in Europe - no.
47. Taken a road-trip - define; certainly from my POV.
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love - most definitely.
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them - no. But I have eaten with strangers on a train, which is the tradition.
54. Visited Japan - no.
56. Alphabetized your CDs - how the heck would I find 1500 CDs if I didn't alphabetize them. There are the classicals (arranged by composer), the pop (arranged by artist), the genre -soundtracks, e.g. (arranged by title).
57. Pretended to be a superhero - is the Hulk a superhero?
59. Lounged around in bed all day - probably in February 1975. I was quite depressed.
60. Played touch football - yes, but not in years.
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken - of course.
69. Toured ancient sites - I always thought my grandmother's house, built before 1870, was an ancient site.
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight - never played it at all.
72. Gotten married -yes.
74. Crashed a party - possibly.
76. Gone without food for 5 days - not even in my poorest days.
77. Made cookies from scratch - yes, but the payoff wasn't worth the effort.
78. Won first prize in a costume contest - no.
80. Gotten a tattoo - no.
81. Rafted the Snake River - no, nor any other river.
82. Been on a television news program as an "expert" - no, but I was in a newspaper story about American Idol as an expert on keeping a secret from the time a television show is taped to the time it airs
84. Performed on stage - my father, sister and I performed as the Green Family Singers when I was a teenager. Also did a little theater.
85. Been to Las Vegas - no.
86. Recorded music - yes, but only for personal consumption.
87. Eaten shark - no.
88. Kissed on the first date - yes.
89. Gone to Thailand - no.
90. Bought a house - yes.
91. Been in a combat zone - no.
92. Buried one/both of your parents - buried my father.
93. Been on a cruise ship - no.
94. Spoken more than one language fluently - still working on English.
95. Performed in Rocky Horror - I brought an umbrella.
96. Raised children - more like raising a child.
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour - no.
98. Passed out cold - don't believe so.
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country - no
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - thrice in 1977 alone.
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge - no. Rode on it though.
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking - probably.
103. Had plastic surgery - no.
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived - definitely.
105. Wrote articles for a large publication - well, the Fantastic Four Chronicles had a print run of 70,000.
106. Lost over 100 pounds - gained and lost.
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback - probably.
108. Piloted an airplane - no.
109. Touched a stingray - no.
110. Broken someone’s heart - unfortunately, yes.
111. Helped an animal give birth - watched kittens being born, providing her bedding, but she didn't seem to need much help.
112. Won money on a TV game show - rumor has it.
114. Gone on a photo safari - no.
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears - no, and not likely to.
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol - my grandfather had me fire his rifle when I was 6 or 7; landed on my behind.
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild - I was watching a piece on CBS Sunday Morning and, of the many different types of mushrooms, only about 20% were considered fit for human consumption. That would be a no.
118. Ridden a horse - first time 6/9/1976, the day after my first hangover. Not recommended.
119. Had major surgery - minor surgery (on knee).
120. Had a snake as a pet - no.
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon - never been to the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period - quite possibly. I had an allergic reaction to a pain medication, slept all day on someone else's sofa, then got taken to the ER where I was attached to an IV for nine hours suffering from severe dehydration.
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States - no, 3 to 30.
124. Visited all 7 continents - only this one.
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days - no, though I have been canoeing.
126. Eaten kangaroo meat - no.
127. Eaten sushi - yes, but don't love it. My wife does, though.
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about - almost certainly.
130. Gone back to school - a couple times, once successfully.
131. Parasailed - no
132. Touched a cockroach - dead ones.
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes - maybe.
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey - started, never finished.
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read - yes.
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - no, since I've never killed anything other than bugs.
137. Skipped all your school reunions - no, went to HS 10th and 35th. But never been to a college reunion.
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language - yes, in Mexico.
139. Been elected to public office - if nominated, I shall not run.
140. Written your own computer language - heavens, no. Though I did work with same whemn I was a SYSOP for an electronic BBS. terribly boring stuff to me.
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream - my dreams are so unfocused, I can't say.
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care - well, that was the plan for my father, but he died.
143. Built your own PC from parts - nope.
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you - no.
145. Had a booth at a street fair - yes.
146. Dyed your hair - no, but someone once sprayed my hair gold.
147. Been a DJ - at my brother-in-law's wedding in 1999. it was hard; I wanted to expand the listeners' range, but I could get them on the dance floor only with the more traditional fare. Oh, and I did read the news on my college radio station for a few weeks.
148. Shaved your head - no, but there just isn't that much there anyway.
149. Caused a car accident - caused, no. been in, yes.
150. Saved someone’s life - sure.

Sunday, August 02, 2009

Last Run

As I've probably alluded to, my wife Carol has been away at college for a couple weeks. Last summer, she did two intense weeks of intensive study, and she had to read a half dozen books and write a half dozen papers before she even got there. Then this past school year, she had a 600-hour internship. Now she's back at college for another two-week stint, after the preparatory reading and writing.

This has meant that I have been calling her every morning between 6:30 and 6:45, her only free time, just before breakfast. I was about to call her one day last week when I see an e-mail from her, titled: "Sleeping late Wed 7/29"

"I am turning off my alarm clock to sleep in in the morning because I am just getting back to my room now. If you get this message, don't call me in the morning. I'll call you later to catch up during the day at work and then again in the evening so I can talk to Lydia."

My wife is an early riser, so this was quite curious.

"There was a bus accident tonight when MCLA was returning from Tanglewood. I was not on the bus that ran off the road and am OK, but tired. I was on the bus that was following the one that ran off the road headlong into a ditch so we were right there. It looks as though the driver of that bus had a seizure and lost control of his bus. Two coaches got off our bus, opened the back emergency door, and tried to give the unconscious driver CPR and then the AED but got no response, and the driver was pronounced dead. I helped the rest of the adults climb out of the back of the bus. Five were taken to the hospital for minor (as far as we know now) injuries.

"MCLA classes are canceled for Wed. morning and will probably resume after lunch. They are getting counselors to talk to us if needed."

It turned out that the bus driver had a heart attack. The 70-year-old man had just come back to work after bypass surgery. Carol could hear her bus driver talk to this guy, and he indicated that this particular drive would be his "last run" for the night. Ironically accurate.

Carol and I agreed that it would probably be better not to mention the bus accident to Lydia, since it might make her worry about her mother and/or worry about taking the bus on the field trip that very day.

I never did talk to Carol on Wednesday, but I did on Thursday and subsequently; she is fine.

One curiosity about the media coverage is that the Times Union, the local paper, had a reported a school bus accidents in Pittsfield involving five students. Since it didn't mention the school, it gave the impression that the students were of the K-12 variety, rather than graduate students.
ROG

Saturday, August 01, 2009

Your Sew Vein QUESTION


I went with the child to another child's fifth birthday party last weekend. This was at one of these combo bouncy/bounce arcade places in a mall in Clifton Park, northwest of Albany. On one of the bouncy things, there was a handwritten sign - neatly done, I must say - that read "This is ONlY for those three years and younger." One of my great pet peeves is the use of the lower case L in the midst of otherwise all capital letters. I see it a lot, and except as a space saver, I don't understand it at all.

In the space designated for our group to eat, there were three signs, all manufactured, on an inside door:
NO ADMITTANCE
FIRE PANNELS
ELECTRICAL PANNELS
First off, why they designed the space so that this door was in a patron area, I don't know. Beyond that, though, were these very professional-looking signs with the word PANELS misspelled - twice. I wish I had my camera.

In fact, I think I've become motivated to carry a camera so I can do an occasional piece on bad signage. That's part of the portfolio of the NYC-based blog Your Sew Vein, from which I purloined the picture above. If you don't see the two errors, go to the May 2, 2008 post.

So what makes you buggy about signs YOU see? I'm bothered by excessive apostrophes where none are needed and no apostrophes where one is required. I've actually seen Jone's as the possessive of Jones; this so hurts my head. Also, excessive quotes - You must be "18" is an example in the Your Sew Vein blog.

What signage errors bother you?

Amy favorite websites/blogs that track these trends? Any favorite sites that make these errors?
***
Not quite the same thing, but Arthur at AmeriNZ has a screen shot of a map on a TV "news" program that's a scream.


ROG

Friday, July 31, 2009

July Ramblin'

When the swine flu - I'm sorry, the H1N1 virus - was first announced in the spring, I was feeling bit peevish about the pundits who seemed to think that the government - actually world governments - were making too much of the disease. Frankly, i think it was due to lack of understanding of the nomenclature. We don't know what a Level 6 (pandemic, declared weeks ago) feels like. We understand gradations of temperature, the difference between a Category 1 and category 3 hurricane or a 3.6 earthquake vs. a 6.6. Anyway here's John Berry's 2009 WHITE PAPER ON NOVEL H1N1 (PDF). Barry wrote the book The Great Influenza about the 1918 flu epidemic: "Three of the preceding four pandemics, 1889, 1918, and 1957, show clear evidence of some fairly intense but sporadic initial local outbreaks scattered around the world.

"The novel H1N1 virus seems thus far to be following the pattern of those three pandemics, and it seems highly likely that it will return in full flower. If the virus is fully adapted to and efficient at infecting humans, this would occur soon, possibly during the influenza season in the southern hemisphere or possibly a few months later in the northern hemisphere. The 1918 and 1957 viruses both exploded in September and October in the northern hemisphere, even though this is not the influenza season.

"If the virus needs further adaptation to become fully efficient in infecting humans, that could be delayed, quite possibly a year or two later. It seems very unlikely that this virus will peter out."
***
Got this e-mail: Black Male Teachers - Do you know any Black males who are seniors in high school who want to go to college out of state for "FREE" ? Several Black Colleges are looking for future black male teachers and will send them to universities/colleges for 4 years FREE .

The 'Call Me MISTER' program is an effort to address the critical shortage of African American male teachers particularly among South Carolina 's lowest performing public schools . Program participants are selected from among under-served, socio-economically disadvantaged and educationally at-risk communities...

Visit here for more details and the online application or call (800) 640-2657.


But if you GO to that page, you'll ALSO read "Please read this memo regarding an email hoax that provides misinformation about our program."
It has been brought to our attention that an erroneous e-mail, rife with inaccuracies and misinformation about the Call Me MISTER Program, is making its way around the country. Said e-mail makes such false claims as “South Carolina HBCUs offer FREE TUITION” and our program is for “African American MALES ONLY”, neither of which is true. While we do offer tuition assistance and book support, plus a small stipend to defray other associated costs of attending college, we DO NOT now offer, nor have we ever offered, a full scholarship.
Myths need to be debunked.
***
Lean times in L.A. County leave no money for the dead. This is a story about more people opting for cremation. As someone heavily influence by Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death, I applaud the trend, even if it's being done out of economic necessity.
***
On a lighter note, from Yahoo! Food: 5 Summer Food Mysteries Solved. I KNEW the ice cream one to be true.
***
My wife and her class saw the movie The Yes Men last weekend. "Shocking and funny," she described it. as it turned out there was an article in the local paper about the movie's follow-up, now playing on HBO and perhaps coming to a theater near you.
***
Paul McCartney returns to the Ed Sullivan Theater as he appears on Letterman, 45 years after his first appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Paul at Citi Field, NYC.
***Amusing and even educational. Church Advertising
***
This video was made in the Antwerp, Belgium Central (Train) Station on the 23rd of March 2009. With no warning to the passengers passing through the station, at 08:00 am a recording of Julie Andrews singing 'Do, Re, Mi' began to play on the public address system." As the bemused passengers watch in amazement, some 200 dancers begin to appear from the crowd and station entrances.
***
A final goodbye for S. Palin, YouTube fodder from last year, but what they hey.


ROG

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Poison Ivy


A good friend of mine got a case of poison ivy last week. Of course, it itched liked crazy. after passing along my concern, my mind (as usual) went to music, specifically a song I heard when I was a kid. "I think it was the Coasters," I thought, "and certainly it was written by Leiber & Stoller." And so it was.

I checked out the Wikipedia post on the song, and according to the post, "the song's lyrics are about sexually-transmitted disease", rather than the diseases stated in the bridge of the song:
Measles make you bumpy
Mumps'll make you lumpy
Chicken Pox'll make you jump and twitch
Common cold'll fool you
Whooping cough'll cool you
Poison Ivy's love'll make you itch

I did not know that.

This song went up to #7 in the pop charts in 1959, and to #1 on the R&B charts.

I don't garden - my wife does - and I've been lucky enough to avoid it while mowing the lawn.

(I HAVE used calamine lotion, though, after an allergic reaction to penicillin when I was 16; as Steve Stills said at Woodstock, "Three days, man, three days!)

The map below shows the native habitat for Toxicodendron radicans (L.) Kuntze ssp. negundo (Greene) Gillis, eastern poison ivy

ROG

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Irwin Corey is 95


"If we don't change direction soon, we'll end up where we're going." - Professor Irwin Corey
Irwin Corey - I'm related to him! (Well not really, but sorta. Pay attention: the quiz is brutal.)

My maternal grandmother (Gertrude Yates Williams) had a brother, Ernest Yates.
Ernie married Charlotte Berman.
Charlotte's sister was Frances Berman.
Frances was married to Irwin.
So Irwin is my great aunt's brother-in-law.

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. My mom, who was an only child, really didn't know the relatives on her father's side until after her mother died in the 1980s.

Gertrude had three surviving siblings (one died as a child). Deana had no children, Ed had children much later in life. So it was Ernie's four kids, Raymond, Fran, Donald and Robert, who were my mother's first cousins, her closest relatives. And until the mid 1950s, when Ernest died, they all lived near Binghamton. So Aunt Charlotte was a pivotal character in my mother's life, and the lives of my sisters and me, as we (with my father) would go down to their large house in Queens at least a couple times a year. Since my father was ALSO an only child, my sisters and I have no first cousins, and it was Charlotte's grandchildren who were the closest thing to contemporary cousins, even though they were 2nd cousins once removed (I think).

For reasons that I can no longer remember, I was at Irwin Corey's house on the Island (that's Long Island to you) when I was a kid. Irwin and Fran weren't there. While we thought Charlotte's house in St. Albans was large, I recall that Irwin's house was huge, at least to my mind.

We always made a point of watching Professor Irwin Corey, The World's Foremost Authority, when he appeared on various TV variety shows. I wasn't sure that it was a shtick; Irwin really DID seem to know an great deal, and would explain things in convoluted ways. I'd run into Irwin at various family functions of the Berman tribe, such as weddings and funerals.

The last two times I saw Irwin was at Charlotte's 80th and 88th birthday parties, in 1994 and 2002, respectively. He could be funny, but also coarse, vulgar and a bit obtuse. He gave a toast at the 80th birthday party and rambled on about Richard Nixon (not favorably), among other things, and no one could really stop him. When we met for Charlotte's 88th birthday - Charlotte died few years ago, before reaching her 89th - Irwin started pontificating again, but this time, a couple of the relatives cut him off with a "Thank you, Irwin"; he must have lost a step.

Irwin and Charlotte both were part of that 1930s Socialist tradition and never truly strayed from it.

Here's some Irwin monologue and a 2008 New York times article. This is a great picture; note especially the hat. Have a listen to Irwin.

ROG

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

B is for Binghamton



Binghamton is a city located on the Southern Tier of New York State. It is the county seat of Broome County. It was named after a rich guy named William Bingham, how owned the land in the 1790s. Yet, the place has often been misspelled as Binghampton, as though it were part of the Hamptons of Long Island. Google "Binghampton" and you'll find some references to Binghamptons in Illinois and Tennessee, among others, but also many erroneously referring to a place in in New York State, such as this one. The most egregious error I ever saw was on a road map book. The New York State map actually was accurate, but the Pennsylvania map - Binghamton is less than 20 miles from the PA border - spelled it Binghampton. It's BINGHAMton, town of Bingham.

Why am I obsessing on this? Because it's my hometown.

You can read about Binghamton in its Wikipedia posting, and it seems accurate as far as it goes. It is at the confluence of two rivers; I was almost arrested for swimming in one once, a long time ago. It WAS called the Parlor City, and I recall a Parlor City Shoe Store when I was lived there in the 1960s.

I grew up in the First Ward of Binghamton, or "The Ward", a melting pot of largely people of southern and eastern European stock (Italian, Czech, Ukrainian, Russian, and especially Polish). I remember halupki and pierogies, plus the regional favorite, the spiedie.

Binghamton's school district used to do something quite interesting when I was growing up. Instead of starting school only in September, kids could start in September or February. the kids that started in the winter had birthdays in December through March, generally. While my sisters (born in May and July) went to school in September, I started in February because my birthday was in March. Of course, our class sizer was smaller because it was taken from a different calendar pool. One of the things I recall is that, while we had the same teacher for kindergarten (Miss Cady) all year, we had eight different teachers for Grades 1 through 4. At least two of the teachers left because they were "in the family way", as they used to call pregnancy.

What was particularly important in my growing up was that our school, Daniel S. Dickinson, was a K-9 school, with the younger kids on the lowest floor and the junior high kids on the third floor. There were 16 kids in my sixth grade class, nine (including me) who had gone to kindergarten together. Seventh grade meant an infusion from other elementary schools including the Catholic parochial school nearby. Yet by the end of ninth grade, we still only had 16 kids, including the same none from K. Dickinson was razed a couple decades ago for a housing development.

I went to Binghamton Central High School back in the day when there were two public schools, Central and North. The declining city population, from over 80,000 in 1950 to under 50,000 in 2000 meant that the blue and white of the Central HS Bulldogs and the red and blue of the North HS Indians gave way in 1982 to the red, white and blue of the Binghamton HS Patriots.

For many years, the area used to have a baseball team called the Triplets, named for Triple Cities of Binghamton, Johnson City and Endicott, though the latter two were actually villages rather than cities. It was never called, in my hearing/reading, Binghamton Triplets except in out-of-town box scores. It was primarily a farm team of the New York Yankees, though other teams had brief affiliations. Johnson Field, in Johnson City, was razed in the late 1960s that Route 17, the major east/west corridor from the northern suburbs of New York City to western New York State, could be rerouted through the area. Binghamton was without a minor league baseball team (or stadium for same) until the early 1990s, when the Binghamton Mets, a farm team of the New York Mets, came to town.

I recall vividly Christmas Eve 1971 when downtown Binghamton was bustling with activity at McLean's and Fowler's department stores, plus a variety of other shops. The decline in downtown was easily visible to anyone who had been there over time, with one department store, Boscov's in the old Fowler's building now a primary guardian against a massive collapse of the downtown business district.

I know it's a story not unusual in the so-called Rust Belt of the Northeast and Midwest United States, where formerly thriving industrial towns are now struggling. I myself thought of Binghamton like the Simon & Garfunkel song My Little Town; Billy Joel's Allentown also comes to mind. It is, though, http://www.streetsblog.org/2006/09/11/binghamton-revitalizing-around-livable-downtown/ trying to make a comeback.

Still, it was where I was rooted. It is a comfortable place to return from time to time. I mean, it's the carousel capital of America; the one in Recreation Park inspired Rod Serling, who grew up in Binghamton in the late 1930s, to write an episode of his television series, the Twilight Zone in the 1960s. So it was with no small bit of surreal horror when I discovered on April 3 of this year, that my little town was the site of another case of mass violence. I don't have much more to say on it than I said here, except to reiterate that it wasn't just an assault on the city, but of the specific location, one with which I had more than passing familiarity.

Binghamton was incorporated as a village in 1834, so this year marks 175 years since that event, though it wasn't incorporated as a city until 1867. I wish my hometown hope and healing.

The map is c. 1920. The high school noted was my high school, the cemetery south of Prospect Street is Spring Forest Cemetery, where my material grandmother and many of her relatives are buried, and very close to where she lived. I lived just off Front Street, north of the railroad tracks. The First Ward is north of the tracks and west of the north/south running Chenango River.


ROG

Monday, July 27, 2009

The Great Debate

SamuraiFrog doesn't even know what VH1's The Great Debate is, yet does this survey that's based on it. Well, I'm likewise oblivious, but that won't stop me from taking a crack at it.

Worst thing to happen to a penis on film: There's Something About Mary vs. Porky's
There's Something About Mary. I must have seen Porky's, but I don't recall what happens. Yet I've NEVER seen Something About Mary, yet know precisely what happens. Mary by default - ouch.

Most effective PSA: Crying Indian vs. Your Brain on Drugs
Crying Indian. I always thought Brain was unintentionally hilarious, but I didn't want to disappoint the Indian, after all we had done to his people.

Best teen soap: 90210 vs. The O.C.
Rarely saw Beverly Hills 90210, and never saw the sequel. Never saw The O.C. either but its press coverage just irritated me.

Dreamiest Travolta Stud: Tony Manero vs. Danny Zuko
Tony Manero, big time. Saturday Night Fever is a WAY better movie than Grease, and has better music to boot.

Kanye West: musical genius or tool?
Don't know well enough to say.

Hotter Russian tennis babe: Maria Sharapova vs. Anna Kournikova
Sharapova, maybe because she's a better player. Talent is hot.

Which is the better Hulk: Hulk Hogan vs. Incredible Hulk
Never cared one way or the other about Hulk Hogan. Watched Bill Bixby turn into Lou Ferrigno AND bought the comic book.

Most hated reality show villain: Omarosa vs. Spencer Pratt
I actually watched Omorosa on The Apprentice and she was just overly competitive. Her more recent appearances seem like schtick, the little I've seen. But Spencer and his friends are just mosquitoes.

Which was the wildest toy craze: Cabbage Patch Kids vs. Tickle Me Elmo
I found Cabbage Patch Kids utterly scary at the time. Tickle Me Elmo was just a surprise hit.

Who is the bigger attention whore: Chriss Angel vs. David Blaine
I've seen Angel's name, but I know who Blaine is.

Ultimate 80s teen villain: James Spader vs. Billy Zabka
Zabka.

Most memorable commercial featuring a cat: Morris vs. Meow Mix
Tossup. The music favors the latter, but the look (same or similar cats) works for the former. Still, I'm more aural than visual: Meow Mix.

Sadder song: Nothing Compares 2 U vs. Tears in Heaven
I know Tears in Heaven's about Clapton's late son, but it never really moved me. The sheer strength of Sinead O'Connor's performance wins out; better than Prince's, and he wrote it.

Primo 80s teen queen: Debbie Gibson vs. Tiffany
Tiffany, I suppose, though I was not their demographic even then.

Who's your maple syrup mama: Mrs. Butterworth vs. Aunt Jemima
The Mrs. Butterworth bottle is iconic; I have an empty bottle in the attic. And Aunt Jemima had the mammy thing going, so I tended to avoid it. Really, though, we always had Log Cabin in the house; have a couple empty bottles of that in the attic, too.

Social networking: Twitter vs. Facebook
Twitter. When I come to Facebook, I have 46 things I'm supposed to do. Just takes too long.

Best talent show ever: Star Search vs. American Idol
Mr. Frog: "I have to go with Star Search, because it seemed more genuinely like a talent show. Idol is all about finding someone who fits neatly into the cookie cutter image of Bland, Inoffensive, Very Marketable Pop Star Who Can Quickly Record an Album You Won't Buy." Except that people DO buy them. Almost the only thing people are actually purchasing besides High School Musical and Michael Jackson.

Hotter Simpson sister: Ashlee vs. Jessica
Jessica. Ashley's just weird looking.

Mightier kick-ass TV car: the General Lee vs. K.I.T.T.
At the time, the rebel flag on the General Lee really bugged me, so I guess K.I.T.T.

Which was the better dance craze: Y.M.C.A. vs. the Macarena
"Better"? The Macarena was the bigger hit, but Yimca is more lasting, so I'd pick that.

Ultimate all-girl pop group: Spice Girls vs. the Pussycat Dolls
Spice Girls. Had actual songs, actual personalities. PCD just seemed like burlesque.

Which invention helped men more: Rogaine vs. Viagra
I've been losing my hair since I was 17, so frankly I just don't get worrying about it. Whereas if I couldn't, well you know, I'd probably want to get some blue pills.

Most believable man in drag: Mrs. Doubtfire vs. Tootsie
I always thought Tootsie came from a more more real place, and every interview with Dustin Hoffman confirms that. He was an out-of-work, temperamental oaf. But Mrs. Doubtfire certainly learned more from her, er, his charade. Very different intents.

Which sex tape had the bigger impact: Paris Hilton vs. Kim Kardashian
Impact on what? Society? Meh. That said, Paris always seems bored, so Paris is boring.

Which sports anthem pumps you up more: "Rock and Roll, Part 2" vs. "We Will Rock You"
"We Will Rock You". While overplayed, it ain't nothing like the ubiquitous "Rock and Roll".

Perez Hilton: love him or hate him
Pretty much hate him. Frog: "He's a sad little man, so desperate to be accepted as a celebrity by other celebrities, and at the same time so desperate to be better than them and savage their images with no consequences."

More controversial rapper: Eminem vs. Snoop Dogg
I think Eminem is a jerk - his relationships with others suggest that. But making a well-received movie and singing with Elton John doesn't make one controversial. Snoop Dogg just seems like a celebrity wannabe. Frankly don't know enough about either to care. Frog: "Great quote from 'Weird Al' Yankovic: 'I'm a fan of Eminem, and I love that parody of 'Purple Rain' that he did. What was it called? Oh yeah, 8 Mile."

The Snuggie: genius or crap
Oh, dear. I had to look this up. Maybe five years ago, someone would have given us one to try out and I might actually have had an opinion.

Who wins in a fight: He-Man vs. ThunderCats
With teamwork, I'd think the Cats, but I'm not really versed enough.

Bigger book craze: Da Vinci Code vs. Harry Potter
Harry Potter, hands down. Dan Brown may be rich, but J.K. Rowling's wealth rivals the Queen of England.

Most entertaining pageant: Westminster dog show vs. Miss America
Until about maybe 1986, Miss America. Seriously, could anyone actually NAME the current Miss America? I can't. The fact that the contest's been relegated to cable tells you something. Whereas the Westminster Dog Show has become more prominent. The winner gets mentioned on the news. Couldn't name that winner either. So maybe it's a draw, except the beauty pageant has a down arrow. It's also more diminished by competitors (Miss USA, e.g.) whereas Westminister is the gold standard.

Better talk show host: Conan vs. Letterman
Letterman, but I haven't watched much Conan interviewing.

Huger Schwarzenegger bad-ass: Conan the Barbarian vs. the Terminator
Conan, but that's my comic book roots showing.

Who's more bootylicious: Beyonce vs. J. Lo
Strange, but every time I see Beyonce, I say, "Who's that?" She looks just slightly different each time. J. Lo by default.

Jerkiest high school principal: Rooney vs. Vernon
Frog: "Vernon was a dick who abused his power and got angry, but Rooney was willing to destroy himself in his efforts to catch Ferris Bueller playing hooky." I need to see Ferris Bueller again. Saw it once it was OK, but not iconic. Animal House I saw once and it stuck.

Who's got more cooties: Pete Doherty vs. Amy Winehouse
Yawn. Don't care.

Steamier bisexual fantasy: Lindsay Lohan vs. Tila Tequila
Frog: "They're both awful. Now, if we were talking about 2004 Lindsay Lohan, that would be one thing...The whole notion of either one being a steamy fantasy is pretty disgusting."

Ultimate primetime game show: Wheel of Fortune vs. Jeopardy
Take a wild guess. Actually, even at home, I'm better at J than Wheel. Also, Wheel requires people to feign excitement and yell "Big money! Big money!" while the wheel rotates. No thanks.

Who stole the show: Urkel vs. The Fonz
Both of them did. I liked Fonzie, pretty much until he jumped the shark. That MAY have been one of the last episodes of Happy Days I saw. Whereas I never watched Urkel, couldn't tell you what the name of the show he was on, and yet he'd ALWAYS be on my TV! Irritating.

Spicier sexpert: Dr. Ruth vs. Sue Johanson
Frog: "Who the hell is Sue Johanson?" Haven't seen her in years, but always found Ruth entertaining.

Weepiest tear-jerker: Terms of Endearment vs. Steel Magnolias
I hated Tears of Internment. Actually I liked it early, with Jack Nicholson, but I left the theater feeling really irritated. Whereas I saw Magnolias but am hard pressed to remember it.

Who is the flashier showboat: Sanders vs. Owens
Deion has his schtick down pat; Terrell is still figuring it out.

Who is the better royal lay: Prince Harry vs. Prince William
Frog: "I'd go with Prince Harry, because he looks more like his beautiful mother and Prince William is slowly morphing into his father."

Best TV housekeeper: Mrs. Garrett vs. Alice
Never watched The Brady Bunch while it aired. Always liked Ann B. Davis from the Bob Cummings Show. AND she was born in Schenectady. But I saw Mrs. Garrett more, so I'll go with her.

Most bad-ass Tarantino flick: Reservoir Dogs vs. Pulp Fiction
Never saw Reservoir Dogs.

Hottest Gilligan castaway: Mary Ann vs. Ginger
Mary Ann. Ginger came off as a manipulative jerk.

Most legendary Hollywood couple: Kermit/Miss Piggy vs. Bogart/Bacall
Frog: "Are you kidding? Muppets always win!"

Bruno vs. Borat
Never saw either, but just from the buzz, I suspect Bruno would irritate me more.

Guiltier reality TV pleasure: Rock of Love vs. Flavor of Love
I've never watched either show. Is Flavor the one with Flavor Flav?

Ultimate female movie psycho: Glenn Close vs. Kathy Bates
Frog: "Glenn Close. Annie Wilkes was scary, but Alex Forrest was sexy and enticing, which makes her even deadlier. Because Annie is someone you don't want to be trapped with, and Alex is." I did see Misery, never saw the bunny cooker film Fatal Attraction, but have seen enough clips.

Who has the most fabulous reality show: Tyra Banks vs. Heidi Klum
Have no idea. Fabulous and reality show in the same sentence?

Which are cuter: kittens vs. puppies
Most animals are cute, but I'll give the edge to the felines.

The Hills: Genius or Dumb
I've never seen a minute of it, yet from what I read it sounds very stupid.

Who's the bigger political cad: Edwards vs. Clinton
Clinton, if only because it seems he did it more often. Still, lying about sex oughtn't to be an impeachable offense. (Lying about war? Well, yeah.) And Ken Starr served no interest but prurient when he had a website filled with the smallest details.

Does disco suck: yes or no
No. Lots of dance music still derives from it. Scott reminded me that this year is the 30th anniversary of Disco Demolition Night, which I thought was lame, even before the outcome.

Coolest TV cop pair: CHiPs vs. Miami Vice
I rather liked Miami Vice early, but I grew weary. CHiPs made me weary from the outset.

Most memorable commercial featuring an old lady: Where's the beef? vs. I've fallen and I can't get up!
"I've fallen and I can't get up!" has far more practical applications. "Where's the beef?" is specific to a time (the 1980s,) a place (Wendy's) and an actress (Clara Peller), whereas "I've fallen" has more universality.

Hotter Charlie's Angels trio: the 2000s vs. the 70s
Though I wasn't a fan of either, I'll say the 1970s. Had a crush on Kate Jackson, who I knew from an earlier ABC show called The Rookies. She played the wife of one of the young cops. And Jaclyn Smith even now is hotter than any from the more recent edition.

Boxers vs. Briefs
Own more briefs, prefer boxers.

Battle of the 80s charity songs: "We Are the World" vs. "Do They Know It's Christmas"
"Christmas" always bugged me lyrically. Most of "them" aren't Christians; why SHOULD they know it's Christmas? And "World" has Ray Charles, not to mention Dylan trying to sing in tune.

Ugliest sports injury ever: Holyfield vs. Theisman
Theisman's, which I saw in real time, was way more horrific.

Raddest video game craze: Pac-Man vs. Donkey Kong
Pac Man, definitely. Played DK occasionally, but Pac Man and especially the Ms. a LOT.

Who would you rather adopt: Arnold vs. Webster
Arnold was funnier. Webster was more like an angry old (and short) man. Watched the former occasionally, the latter as little as possible.

Lady GaGa vs. Katy Perry
Must say that I know Perry only for the "I Kissed A Girl" that was inferior to the same-named song by Jill Sobule in the mid-1990s. Here's an interesting take on Perry, Jonas Brothers and Craig Ferguson. But Katy Pery is kinda cute, while Lady GaGa has these outfits that make her look like a space alien. Also, GaGa's's been promoted big time by Perez Hilton, who's a putz.

Who's tougher: Rambo vs. Rocky
Frog: "Rocky. He went the distance." Having said that, I saw five Rocky pictures but zero Rambo flicks.

Best boy band: 'NSync vs. New Kids on the Block
They are the same group in my mind.

The Jerry Springer Show: trash or gold
Trash, trash, trash, under the guise of being helpful. I found it hysterical that he recently appeared on Dancing with the Stars. Probably trying to redeem his very tainted image.

Super Harrison Ford hero: Han Solo vs. Indiana Jones
Frog: "I love them both, but Indy always seemed more human to me." And Sean Connery MADE the third film for me.

Top pop princess: Britney vs. Christina
I suppose Christina.

Scariest serial killer: Freddy vs. Jason
I only saw the guy in the mask once and Freddy not at all. Frog: "Freddy attacks you in your dreams, which is much scarier. I mean, I can stay out of the woods but I can't avoid going to sleep." One of the oddities of my life is that I sold Freddy Krueger masks and (plastic) claws when I worked at FantaCo in the 1980s, mostly via mail order. We sold a LOT of them; THAT I thought was really scary. We tried to sell Jason masks, but it's really just a variation on a hockey mask, and it didn't move that well.

Boobs: fake vs. real
What an odd question. In fact I have no basis for comparison. There are all sorts of legit reasons for artificial enhancements.

Mega music mogul: Diddy vs. Jay Z
Diddy annoyed me years ago, Jay-Z more recently.

Geekiest fans: Star Wars vs. Star Trek
Tough question. Both groups have kvetched about things that aren't part of the "canon". I declare it a draw. Of course, if you throw in Doctor Who, as Mike Sterling did recently, I'd be inclined to lean towards the good Doctor.

Team Aniston vs. Team Jolie
Don't care. It's their - and Pitt's - business, not mine.

Bigger blockbuster craze: Jurassic Park vs. Titanic
Titanic was the bigger movie, but JP was a series, with action figures and the like. I enjoyed the soundtracks to Titanic, especially the second one.

Greatest band of all time: Beatles vs. Rolling Stones
I must say the Beatles' early albums were better than the Stones' early collections. Don't think the Stones had a decent ALBUM until Aftermath (featuring "Paint It, Black"). Then they both had solid runs, the Beatles broke up but the Stones CONTINUED to have good tunes. I'll pick the Beatles because their songwriting had a greater cultural appreciation, but it's a slim margin.

Supreme diva: Whitney vs. Mariah
I liked Whitney Houston early on. Mariah seemed to need to irritatingly infuse her five-octave voice everywhere, all the time. Then Whitney got with Bobby Brown and became a sad persona, while Mariah freed herself from Tommy Mottola - Emancipation of Mimi, indeed - and seems a whole lot more together when she got married again relatively recently. So depends on the definition of diva.

Which alien would you rather party with: ALF vs. ET
Frog: "They both seem like lame party guests. And I couldn't go the whole night without strangling ALF to death."

Simpsons vs. Family Guy
Frog: "The Simpsons, at least the first 10 seasons, is one of the funniest shows in history."

Best pop star ever: Madonna vs. Michael Jackson
Frog: "Michael Jackson. His musical output up to about 1989 is amazing, and Madonna... well, everything of hers I liked can probably fit on one CD." In fact, I have my one greatest hits of Madonna's tunes, while I have a lot of J5 and a couple MJ albums.

Fiercest supermodel biatch: Naomi Campbell vs. Janice Dickinson
I've never watch, but the little I've read suggests that Janice Dickinson is less well hinged. Oh, and I hate the word biatch.

Which baseball franchise rules: Red Sox vs. Yankees
The Yankees ruled the 20th Century, the Red Sox the 21st - so far.

Sexiest 'stache: Burt Reynolds vs. Tom Selleck
Frog: "Burt. That 'stache is what all 'staches aspire to."

Worst celebrity excuse: Simpson's acid reflux vs. Piven's mercury poisoning
Must say, I have no idea what these are about. But I've had acid reflux.

Biggest fall from grace: George Michael vs. Boy George
George Michael, if only because he was a much bigger star.

Greatest cheestastic Broadway show on Earth: Cats vs. Phantom
Frog: "They're both incredibly cheesy, but Phantom of the Opera has better music. And a plot."

Who cares more about the world: Sting vs. Bono
I know Bono comes off preachy and sanctimonious, but he's had an impact. Still the question of who cares more is unanswerable, because I can't see into their hearts.

Least arousing sex book: Joy of Sex vs. Madonna's Sex
I read Joy of Sex when I was 16 and, er, learned stuff. (I think it on Arthur at AmeriNZ's podcast where someone was noting that Joy of Sex was either heterocentric or homophobic; not having looked at it in 40 years, I'll have to check that out.) Frog: "Madonna's book is an over-the-top gynecology exam, far too cynical and cold to really be sexy."

Would you rather be a Flintstone or a Jetson?
Frog: "A Jetson. It's a convenience issue." I'm still waiting for my Rosie to clean up the place.

Most indestructible rocker: Ozzy Osbourne vs. Keith Richards
Frog: "Keef!"

Most hideous footwear trend: Crocs vs. Uggs
I'm fashion blind. If you put them each in front of me, I'd only have a 50/50 chance of sussing out which was which.

Funniest TV foreigner: Balki vs. Latka
Frog: "Latka. I am one of those 'Andy Kaufman was a genius' people."

Better buzz: Red Bull vs. Jolt
I've never had either.

Which member of The View would you eat first if stranded on a desert island?
Frog: "Sherri Sheppard. She's a moron, the world will never miss her. Plus, she'll provide a longer store."

Best cartoon pet: Snoopy vs. Garfield
Frog: "I have to go with Snoopy. Garfield tends to lay around and be cynical, but Snoopy's so many things--a World War I flying ace, a novelist, a vulture, Joe Cool, and he can dance."

Best Jersey export: Bruce Springsteen vs. Bon Jovi
Hmm. I have over a dozen Springsteen albums, he's helped to note the contributions of Pete Seeger, and I went to see him in concert this year. I have zero Bon Jovi albums, and I have no desire to them in concert. Easy choice. Jon Bon Jovi, though, does own a football team; I always wanted to own a sports team, at least in the abstract, so that's one in his favor.


ROG

Sunday, July 26, 2009

The Lydster, Part 64: A Fly Girl


Lydia flew for the first time in June, as she and I went to Charlotte, NC for my niece Alex's high school graduation.

Last time I flew to Charlotte, there were reasonably-priced direct flights from Albany to Charlotte and back. But the last time was in November 2007, on Delta, and that was before the Delta-Northwest merger that stifled competition.

So this time, my options were c. $370 for a direct flight or $230 for one that would stop at JFK, Cincinnati or, heaven forbid, Detroit. (That was not a knock on Detroit or its airport, only the idea of traveling that far west before going south.) I'm talking $370 or $230 EACH.

We got to the Albany International Airport - it's "international" because one can fly into Canada from here - in plenty of time, but I was we were at the wrong gate, and we had to rush through the airport as we heard our names announced on the loudspeaker.

All of these short flights had limited storage, so the small suitcase, which met the carry-on regulations, was nevertheless stowed under the plane; had I realized that, I would have packed differently.

I know that due to circumstances, smaller children ravel by air. But I've BEEN on those flights with screaming children on the flight and I didn't want my child to be one of them. To that end, Lydia, a few days before, got her first pieces of chewing gum ever. She liked it - though she hasn't asked for more since a couple days since the return trip.

One of the smart things I was able to do was book the same pair of seats for all four legs of the trip. It made MY comfort level much greater. As I suspected, she wanted, and got, the window seat each time.

All the takeoffs and landings were uneventful - that's a good thing. I was particularly vigilant in making sure that she did not hear the news about the plane that had crashed between Brazil and France before her first flight. Indeed, the followup news about the crash near Buffalo, and our plane was more that size, also got quickly changed if she happened to be in the room; thee's lots of news she hasn't seen yet, but she will in due time.

There were no snacks on the ALB-JFK part of the trip. But there were a couple choices from JFK to CLT. One was a pair of cookies and the other was peanuts. When the flight attendant asked if we wanted anything, I asked to see the packaging so I could read the label. I noted that my daughter had a peanut allergy. Horrified, she asked if she should retrieve the half dozen rows of peanuts she had already dispensed. I assured her that Lydia's allergy is not airborne but tied only to actual consumption.

Lydia was very well behaved throughout, although she was slightly annoyed at one point that I had to put her tray in the upright and locked position until she realized that EVERYONE had to. It wasn't Daddy's rule, it was the airline's and thus less onerous. On a later flight, she heard a signal and she prematurely put up her tray until I advised her otherwise.

Getting to the Charlotte airport...that's a story for another day, but it's not Lydia-specific in any case.

I must say that I was a little bit worried about the trip, especially four takeoffs and landings, but that Lydia provided to be a very pleasant traveling companion.



ROG

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Vacation QUESTION

One of the websites I visit regularly is Separated by a Common Language, where an American expat in the UK, Lynneguist, talks about British and American English. I'm quite fond of Briticisms generally. But one I've never embraced is the notion of "holiday" for vacation. Holiday (or bank holiday in other countries) to me refers to an event such as Labor Day or Christmas. Of course, one of Lynneguest's readers finds "vacation" strange, "mainly because the word 'vacate' is normally only encountered in toilet cubicles and changing rooms." Whereas for me, the root to vacate means, in the words of some rock band, "Turn off your mind and float downstream."

The sermon at church last Sunday was about fast food and cell phones and Twitter, and how people seem to need to be connected all the time, including at the time they are supposed to be on holiday or vacation. Most of them are NOT heart surgeons awaiting a call to show up at the hospital to perform a transplant or some other life-or-death profession.

I know that when I'm away for several days, not having Internet connection makes me cranky after a couple days. Partly it's because I'll drown in e-mails if I don't tend to them regularly. There are STILL e-mails I know I need to respond to from weeks ago that have been sucked into my LIFO (last in, first out) process. But except for calling the daughter, my last vacation with my wife was quite enjoyed, even though I only had about 15 minutes a day of Internet connectivity; it wasn't a policy decision - the service kept cutting in and out.

So can you vacation/holiday? Do you recreate, or more specifically, re-create yourself? Or do you just keep working and connecting in different venues?

ROG

Friday, July 24, 2009

And Gordon

One of the very first albums I ever bought from the Capitol Record Club -11 albums for only one cent! (But read the fine print) was BIG HITS FROM ENGLAND AND USA: one side had two songs each from BEATLES, BEACH BOYS, and PETER & GORDON, the other side, 2 songs by NAT KING COLE and CILLA BLACK, plus "Tears and Roses" by AL MARTINO. I probably still have it upstairs in the attic.

The intriguing thing I discovered as I actually looked on the record's label was that Lennon-McCartney were listed as composers not only of the Beatles' songs, Can't Buy Me Love and You Can't Do That, but also of the songs of Peter & Gordon, A World Without Love and Nobody I Know. It took me a while to catch up on the Beatles' trivia that Peter, the one with the glasses, was the brother of Paul's girlfriend Jane Asher. Peter & Gordon recorded a number of Lennon/McCartney (really Macca) tunes such as I Don't Want To See You Again and Women, attributed to Bernard Webb to see if the songs were moving because of the Beatles' connection; based on its chart action, maybe they were.

Peter later became a prolific record producer for James Taylor and Linda Ronstadt, among others.

But what of Gordon Waller after the 1968 breakup? According to Gordon's website, he also stayed busy in the music business, with an extensive, if not commercially successful discography.

He also had opportunities to sing with his old mate from time to time. Gordon Waller died of cardiac arrest on July 17 at the age of 64. Peter writes:

Gordon played such a significant role in my life that losing him is hard to comprehend – let alone to tolerate.

He was my best friend at school almost half a century ago. He was not only my musical partner but played a key role in my conversion from only a snooty jazz fan to a true rock and roll believer as well. Without Gordon I would never have begun my career in the music business in the first place. Our professional years together in the sixties constitute a major part of my life and I have always treasured them.

We remained good friends (unusual for a duo!) even while we were pursuing entirely separate professional paths and I was so delighted that after a hiatus of almost forty years we ended up singing and performing together again more recently for the sheer exhilarating fun of it. We had a terrific time doing so.

Gordon remains one of my very favourite singers of all time and I am still so proud of the work that we did together. I am just a harmony guy and Gordon was the heart and soul of our duo.

I shall miss him in so many different ways. The idea that I shall never get to sing those songs with him again, that I shall never again be able to get annoyed when he interrupts me on stage or to laugh at his unpredictable sense of humour or even to admire his newest model train or his latest gardening effort is an unthinkable change in my life with which I have not even begun to come to terms.


I'd read on one of the sites that the duo was originally billed as Gordon & Peter. It's tougher when you're after the ampersand.

World Without Love:

***
There was this old Shake 'N Bake commercial - do they still make that stuff?- and this girl with a STRONG Southern accent says, "And I Haiped!" Which is supposed to be "helped". Brian Ibbott's recent Kinks Koverville, er Coverville was a topic I suggested in honor of Ray Davies' 65th birthday last month. I also pointed out the Tom Jones version of Sunny afternoon, which he played to, so far, positive reaction, I'm surprised to note.
ROG