December Rambling

I've become fascinated with the fascination over Joe Lieberman re: the health care debate. This example from a New York Times colummnist is a perfectly good example: Let us contemplate the badness of Joe Lieberman.

Who would have thought that this holiday season we’d be obsessed with the senator from Connecticut?

I guess it's the fact that people seem surprised by his intransigence, that it is he, rather than 40 Republicans in the Senate holding bill hostage. I am reminded that he is a DINO (Democrat In Name Only). He got all "mavericky" by supported his "good friend" John McCain over the Democratic nominee last year. In 2006, Connecticut Democrats realized that he was no Democrat and booted him from the ticket when he was running for re-election. He ran and won as a Liebermanist.

Oh, and re: those from the GOP: Republicans, religion and the triumph of unreason: How do they train themselves to be so impervious to reality? This came out in August, but is no less true today for that.

But as Paul Krugman said: A message to progressives: By all means, hang Senator Joe Lieberman in effigy. Declare that you’re disappointed in and/or disgusted with President Obama. Demand a change in Senate rules that, combined with the Republican strategy of total obstructionism, are in the process of making America ungovernable. Butut in his defense of the bill on the table, he says:

Bear in mind also the lessons of history: social insurance programs tend to start out highly imperfect and incomplete, but get better and more comprehensive as the years go by. Thus Social Security originally had huge gaps in coverage — and a majority of African-Americans, in particular, fell through those gaps. But it was improved over time, and it’s now the bedrock of retirement stability for the vast majority of Americans.

Look, I understand the anger here: supporting this weakened bill feels like giving in to blackmail — because it is. Or to use an even more accurate metaphor suggested by Ezra Klein of The Washington Post, we’re paying a ransom to hostage-takers. Some of us, including a majority of senators, really, really want to cover the uninsured; but to make that happen we need the votes of a handful of senators who see failure of reform as an acceptable outcome, and demand a steep price for their support.

At the same time, I was surprised by the attack by Mike Madden on Keith Olbermann's announced intent of civil disobedience: Wrong, Keith: Olbermann's prescription for protesting the insurance mandate -- don't buy insurance -- is nuts. I think these fights are almost always taken on at multiple levels. So if a bill is passed, and a number of people REFUSE on conscience, to abide by said law, sometimes - sometimes - the laws get changed.
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And speaking of laws DC Council Passes Gay Marriage Bill; On to Mayor for Signature. Interesting that Congress - yes, the U.S. Congress - gets final say in this matter. I keep forgetting that the District of Columbia is a protectorate of the United States. But, from the tone of this and other stories I've read, it appears that the Democrats in Congress have enough political muscle to pass this; I'll wait until the actual vote, thank you.
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The 10 Best Web Sites of the Decade
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For those who follow movies, Box Office Mojo has production cost, foreign & domestic box office, and DVD sales in the initial period.
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The resurrection of Josie and the Pussycats?
ROG

Apology QUESTION

I came across a podcast that addressed the question about what makes a good apology and what does not. Can't find it at the moment, but what's interesting to me is that I tend to remember the negatives:
DON'T use the word BUT. An example would be, "I'm sorry, BUT you started it."
DON'T use the word IF. My least favorite apology: "I'm sorry IF you're offended." The clear implication is that you really SHOULDN'T be offended, but I better say it anyway.
The one DO I recall: Do say the word. "I apologize" or "I'm sorry."

I was at a wedding once, and all the family members on my side, even people less close to the bride than I was, were included in the program. except me. This, I believe, was an honest mistake. The person who put it together spent about five minutes apologizing without apologizing, saying, finally, "I just don't apologize," as if that were some soerrt of badge of honor.

And the idea of the public apology, which we seem to have seen lots of, utterly fascinates me. Mark Sanford. David Letterman. Kobe Bryant. Eliot Spitzer. Tiger Woods, sort of; I mean the apology was "sort of". It's such a cliche they've made a TV drama about it: the Good Wife on CBS.

Of course, there are instances where one may be afraid to say I'm sorry for legal reasons. Canada has bandied about having legislation allowing people to say “I’m sorry” without assuming legal responsibility for their actions.

In other words, saying you’re sorry can’t be used against you later as evidence in civil court. “The goal of the legislation is to encourage sincere apologies,” said the Ontario Attorney General. “Saying sorry for a mistake or wrongdoing is the right thing to do.”

Proponents of the law say the ability to make an apology without legal consequences will help ease hard feelings, resolve disputes, and reduce the number of lengthy, costly lawsuits.

The Apology Act is partly based on the actions of more than 30 states across the U.S. where apology laws have been enacted specifically to make it easier for doctors to say “I’m sorry” instead of “See you in court.” Under those laws, an apology for a medical mistake is inadmissible in court.

My questions:

1. What are we the public, not the wronged party in their marriage, due from celebrity screw-ups? Is there some formula that I can plug in, tallying their level of fame, whether they are government officials, the number of times they appear on the cover of national magazines, the frequency and length of the indiscretion. Whether the guy - it's usually a guy - refers to the "other woman" as his "soul mate".

2. Should we have laws allowing for apologies for, say medical malpractice, without that apology be admissible in court?

3. How are you at apologizing to your smaller, more private flaws? I THINK I'm pretty good, but I could be mistaken, oblivious to some opportunities to say "I'm sorry" more often.

The Rod Serling Holiday

Near twin Gordon has decreed, and I have capitulated, to try to make both Bogie Day and Serling Day the holidays of choice in the blogosphere. Why? "Because both men were born on December 25th, and both encapsulate the ultimate in pop culture coolness."

But I just don't have enough to say about Humphrey Bogart, though I did see The African Queen, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and one of my favorite films in the whole world, Casablanca. One of the times I saw Casablanca was in Rochester, NY outdoors in a park with my old neighbor from New Paltz, Debi. How I came to even be in Rochester involves lost brain cells. Oh, yeah, and I have a recording where expounds on the value of baseball.

As for Rod Serling, what more can I say that I didn't already say here or here, where I discuss meeting him or any number of other posts about episodes and whatnot.

It occurred to me, though, that I may never have mentioned the fact that I attended the world premiere(!) of Twilight Zone: The Movie, 13 days before it officially opened. The event took place, naturally, in Binghamton, NY, my hometown, on June 11, 1983 at the Crest Theater on Main Street, which had a seating capacity of approximately 800. I saw lots of movies at the Crest growing up. Hmm, I wonder if Serling saw any movies there growing up? It was a walkable, certainly a bikeable distance from his house on Bennett Avenue.

Some of the details have faded to memory, such as how I got tickets. I DO recall that it was very hot outside, waiting there for the dignitaries to come in. Of course, Rod was not one of them, having died eight years earlier from smoking cigarettes.

And I DO recall that this was a Very Big Deal for this small city where Rod Serling's family moved to from Syracuse before he turned two. One of the dignitaries was Helen Foley, Serling's beloved high school English teacher. Another was Richard Deacon (pictured below with Betty White, circa 1983) who was on Leave It To Beaver, but was best known as the put-upon producer Mel Cooley on The Dick van Dyke Show. Deacon, who died in 1984, was born in Philadelphia in 1921 but also grew up in Binghamton.

As for the movie itself, well, I'd have to see it again. I did think the first segment, a vague remake of A Quality of Mercy (Season 3, episode 80), was almost unrecognizable from the original. The filming of that segment led to the accidental deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors. Whereas the remake of Nightmare at 20,000 Feet (Season 5, episode 123) felt pretty much like the William Shatner version, at least in my memory.

The movie segment It's a Good Life, featured a character named Helen Foley (played by Kathleen Quinlan), which got a big laugh from the audience; oddly, "Helen Foley" was not the name of a character in the original episode, but rather in the Nightmare as a Child television version.

*An episode guide of the television series can be found here.*


Pictures of Rod Serling c. 1955; all photos from LIFE.com.
ROG

A Hitchcockian Evening

It was a not-that-dark, clear and cool night two and a half weeks ago, before the first snow. I was riding my bicycle home past the NEW! IMPROVED! Pine Hills branch of the Albany Public Library.

Then I noticed a presence. Well, it wasn't a singular presence. Rather, I could sense a whole bunch of creatures seemingly peering at me. I noticed that the trees were filled with black birds, crows or ravens. It was eerily like that Alfred Hitchcock movie The Birds, which I saw decades ago and which terrified me, except that film used a flock of seagulls, if I recall correctly.

Suddenly, the birds were on the move! Were they going to attack?! Well, no. But in traveling from tree to tree, they were going to poop. I heard the plop, plop of bird droppings all around me as I rode feverishly the last few hundred yards to my house. Fortunately, I made it home without pelted. I called my wife to see the hundreds of loud, cawing birds in our tree and the trees of our neighbors.

The next morning, they were gone. All that remained were their "gifts" all over the sidewalk, the road, and notably, all over the cars on the street, including ours.

I will remember the evening that I was almost murdered by crows, figuratively..

Crow in birdhouse at the Bronx Zoo.
Location: New York, NY, US
Date taken: 1942
Photographer: Alfred Eisenstaedt
For personal non-commercial use only from LIFE.com
ROG

Social Insecurity

My favorite time of the year is when I get that statement from the Social Security Administration telling me how much money I have made each year. I'm less interested in how much I made last year as I am years ago.
1969 - $529: seven months as a page at the Binghamton Public Library
1970 - $102: I have no idea
1971 - $3,371: six months working at IBM before I went to college. This would be the most money I would make until 1978. I made enough to pay for my college expenses and to lend my parents $1500 for the down payment on a house. Tuition was cheap, and I had a Regents scholarship to SUNY New Paltz.
I worked odd jobs during college, making as much as $2,661 in 1975 and $50 - $50? in 1976.
1978 - $7,434: I was a teller for the Albany Savings Bank for one month, where I was making $6,000 a year, less than what I had in my drawer on state paydays, before I quit to work for the Schenectady Arts Council, at $8,400/year. Unfortunately, that CETA job ended early in 1979.
Then from 1980-1988, I could see my pay progress at FantaCo in Albany, only to drop back in 1989, when I worked for Empire Blue Cross. I mention this specifically because there were some people at the time who thought I was crazy to work at a "funny book" store, but I was making more money there than the "respectable" insurance company, thank you.
I've been working my current job since 1992, and the thing particularly of interest is how much putting aside money for health costs alters the bottom line.

Oh, the other interesting thing on this SSA form is my estimated benefits if I retire at 62, 66 or 70. Especially heartening is this little caveat: "The law governing benefit amounts may change because, by 2037, the payroll taxes will be enough to pay only about 76 percent of scheduled benefits." Of course, I have a five-year old; I'll NEVER retire.
ROG

V is for Values

When I was pondering the notion of "value", this came unbidden into my head:
When the values go up, up, up
And the prices go down, down, down.
Robert Hall this season
Will show you the reason
High quality! Economy!
music by Leon Mitchell; words by Charles A. Gaston; original version (c) 1946

When I was growing up in Binghamton, NY in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Robert Hall was THE place to go for back-to-school clothing. The clothing was inexpensive but solidly made, the kind of place a working-class family wanted to shop for their children's apparel.

The secret of the stores' success was told in this 1949 TIME magazine article. But what sold me were the nifty ads, sometimes with the lyrics slightly altered, which you may be able to hear here and/or here.


But the more pervasive meaning of the word "values" involves the "set of emotional rules people follow to help make the right decisions in life." Or the wrong ones, I suppose. In a large country such as the Unites States, not to mention a vast planet, one hopes for commonality in values, but certainly cannot expect unanimity.

Yet some groups have successfully seemed to have hijacked the term "values". There is a group of "values voters", for instance, who are in the right wing of American politics. Based on their recent summit, they are concerned about the "silenced" Christians, the evil of "Obamacare" (health care), "defending marriage", and in general, the "vast left wing conspiracy."

While I support differing points of view, I'm troubled by the notion that only those people of a particular political persuasion are the only ones with "values". It's similar to the notion that "Christian" only represents a certain political POV.

As a "liberal" and a Christian, my values are just as legitimate. Oh, and I vote, too.

ROG

Child of (Too Much) TV

A television meme (with various comments throughout), via SamuraiFrog. I realized that the programs of my childhood I was pretty indiscriminate. Only had two or three choices at the time.

My Rules:
- Star (*) all of the following TV shows which you’ve ever seen 3 or more episodes of in your lifetime.
- Italicize a show if you’re positive you’ve seen every episode of it.

*24
I watched the whole first season. Then the second season's premiere episode was quite shocking, but still watched good parts of it. But by Season 3, I'd given up on it, largely for political reasons. I can't help but think that some of those Blackwater-type thugs justified their moral code based on Jack Bauer.

7th Heaven
Maybe saw five minutes.

ALF
Never saw except in passing; looked stupid, but I could be wrong.

*Alias
Watched the whole first season, then found out about some time shift thing between seasons. Saw the first episode of the next season, said what the... and bailed.

American Gothic

America’s Next Top Model

Angel
May have seen one episode. It was all right.

*Arrested Development
I tried to watch the first season, just couldn't get into it. Then, nagged by others, notably Gordon, watched the premiere of the second season and was hooked and watched until the end. STILL haven't seen much of the first season, though...

Babylon 5

Batman: The Animated Series
It looks good, but haven't found the time.

*Battlestar Galactica (the old one)
It was goofy.

Battlestar Galactica (the new one)
I haven't seen the new one at all. I figure it's far better than the original but I'm not really that invested.

Baywatch
Never a full episode.

Beverly Hills 90210 (original)
I was in a laundromat once and actually saw an entire episode of this and Melrose Place. I survived.

*Bewitched
Probably saw all the Dick York episodes, certainly all the ones in black and white. I loved this show early on, but somewhere it lost me. Don't know know if it was the introduction of Tabitha, the introduction of color, or the introduction of Dick Sargeant as Darrin that made it lose its lustre.

*Bonanza
My sister had a HUGE crush on Michael Landon. We often went to the neighbor next door to my grandmother to watch it, because they had color TV in 1962, while we didn't get one until 1969. Probably watched for a half dozen seasons.

Bones

*Bosom Buddies
People I knew really liked it, but it never caught on with me.

*Boston Legal
I was a big fan of The Practice. In a cost-cutting move, the show canned half the cast in the last season, which essentially became an extended pilot for Boston Legal, as it introduced Denny Crane (William Shatner) and Alan Shore (James Spader). As a result, I didn't bother with Boston Legal. Yet I caught it either late in the first or early in the second season, and pretty much watched it from that point until the end. Will have to catch that first season on DVD someday.

*Boy Meets World
This is a really bad show, but somehow I got stuck watching it; don't remember why.

*Brothers And Sisters
I got hooked because of Sally Field.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Think I caught a Very Special Episode with music or something. It was OK.

Californication

Chappelle’s Show

*Charlie’s Angels
I was living in Charlotte, NC with my parents at the time of the first season. It was on. Dopey.

Charmed

Cheers
One of my favorite shows ever, though it took me forever to warm up to Rebecca.

Chuck

Clarissa Explains it All

*Columbo
Watched this a LOT. It was in some weird rotation on NBC. Don't know if I saw every episode, but it doesn't matter, because they were all pretty much the same.

*Commander in Chief
This show started off really strong the first half dozen episodes. Got a new show runner and never really regained its footing until very near the end.

*Crossing Jordan
I watched it for most of the first season, but lost interest.

CSI
Wrote about my one and only time watching this here.

CSI: Miami

CSI: NY

Curb Your Enthusiasm
I'd probably watch this if I had HBO.

Dark Angel

Dark Skies

DaVinci’s Inquest
I don't even know what this is.

Dawson’s Creek
I saw the last episode.

Dead Like Me

Deadwood

Degrassi: The Next Generation

*Designing Women
It was on Monday nights on CBS between something I watched (Newhart) and something else I watched (Cagney & Lacey). It was harmless.

Desperate Housewives
Surprised that I've never seen this even for 10 minutes.

Dexter

*Dharma & Greg
I can't believe how dumb this show got after a while. And I think I was invested early because of this.

*Different Strokes
Usually when someone else turned on the TV; I never turned on the set to watch it.

*Doctor Who
Mostly the guy with the long scarf.

*Dragnet
Both the 1950s version, which I saw as a kid, and the late 1960s version with Harry Morgan which I thought was high camp. Probably saw most, if not all of the latter series.

*Due South
Liked the first season, but lost interest.

*ER
I watched it for probably seven seasons but slowly started giving up on it, somewhere between the point when Dr. Romano lost his arm to a helicopter and the point that the helicopter fell on him. Watched the last episode.

Everwood

Everybody Loves Raymond
I saw one episode. It was OK.

*Facts of Life
Like Different Strokes, when someone else controlled the remote.

*Family Guy
Don't love it.

Farscape

*Fawlty Towers

Felicity

Firefly

*Frasier
Very fond, though there was an arc when Frasier was unemployed that just never worked.

*Freaks & Geeks
Found this show a quarter of the way through and became a religious convert. May have seen all the episodes eventually, but not sure.

*Friends
This show I always had a like/hate thing. Couldn't tell Chandler and Joey apart the first season. Hated the monkey stories. But then I'd see something I liked. Probably saw about 30% of the shows.

Fringe

Futurama
Saw this once or twice. Thought it was fine but never pursued it further.

*Get Smart
Funny until Max and 99 got hitched.

Gilligan’s Island
When I was a kid, thought it was greatly entertaining, what can I say? Still has a solid theme song. Oh, Mary Ann.

Gilmore Girls
Found this late in the first season, then caught the reruns. Loved the core relationship: Rory-Lorelai-Emily. Loved the townspeople. especially loved Mrs. Kim, when she developed as a character. Sure, the show would get off track - Rory's refrain with Dean, e.g. I never believed. But I watched all seven seasons, and we even have Season 1 on DVD, albeit unwatched. The subject of one of my earliest posts, and undoubtedly others.

Gossip Girl

*Grey’s Anatomy
Sometimes I don't know why, but there is always a character or two to root for.

Grange Hill
Don't know what this is.

Growing Pains
Not once.

*Gunsmoke
This was on from 1955-1975. When it was on Saturday night and ran for an hour (1961-1967), probably watched every week if I were home, but when it moved to Monday, probably only a dozen or so episodes.

*Happy Days
I discovered this pretty much post-Chuck. Watched it until it jumped the shark, which really made the Fonz a bit of a pussycat.

Hercules: the Legendary Journeys

Heroes
Was mildly tempted, but never succumbed. Now I'm glad.

*Home Improvement
Never of my own volition.

Homicide: Life on the Street
I loved this show.

House
Maybe one episode. Found it irritating.

*I Dream of Jeannie
This was the epitome of sex when I was 12. Again, ruined by the engagement and marriage to Major Nelson. Always liked Bill Daily here,; he played ROGER Healey.

*I Love Lucy
It was on ALL OF THE TIME. I MUST have seen every episode.

Invader Zim

Invasion

Hell’s Kitchen

JAG

Jackass

*Joey
Waited for it to get good; never happened.

Kim Possible

*Knight Rider
In passing the TV.

Knight Rider: 2008

*Kung Fu
Quite fond.

Kung Fu: The Legend Continues

La Femme Nikita
Saw the movie, but never felt compelled.

LA Law

*Laverne and Shirley
Usually, but not always, after watching Happy Days.

*Law and Order
Pretty much from when Lenny Briscoe started, or maybe an episode or two earlier, until when he left.

*Law and Order: SVU
Sordid little show I end up seeing when I'm in a hotel away from home. It seems to be ALWAYS on.

*Law and Order: CI
Probably three episodes.

Leverage

Little House on the Prairie
Never saw a full episode ever.

Lizzie McGuire

Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman
Watched, and liked the first season, but it started grating on me; probably gave up on it.

Lost
Seen five minutes. It's less Lost per se and more the fear of commitment.

Lost in Space
High camp.

*M*A*S*H
Watched the first eight seasons TWICE, but the last three only once. Should have ended when Radar went home and they started repeating. (And we won't mention the messy chronology at all.)

MacGyver
Did I ever see a full episode of this?

*Malcolm in the Middle
Wasn't watching much on Sunday night by this point.

Married...With Children
Saw once all the way through. Hated.

McLeod's Daughters
Don't know.

Melrose Place
One ep in the laundromat.

*Miami Vice
Watched probably a couple seasons of it before I lost interest.

*Mission: Impossible
watched the first ramping up season with Steven Hill as the leader, the excellent next couple seasons with the perfect set of Peter Graves, Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, then the latter, lesser years, with Leonard Nimoy and Lesley Ann Warren replacing Landau and Bain. Maybe it was the acting too, but the writing definitely suffered in those later years.

*Mod Squad
What can I say?

Monk

*Mork & Mindy
LOVED the first season, but by the time Jonathan Winters was hatched, I'd already long given up.

Murphy Brown
I used to love this show.

My Life As A Dog

*My Three Sons
It was on forever.

*My Two Dads

Mythbusters

NCIS

Ned Bigby’s Declassified School Survival Guide

Nip/Tuck

Numb3rs

One Tree Hill

Oz
I will probably see this someday.

*Perry Mason
Watched it for years at every opportunity; made me want to be a lawyer, until I got to college and found that I didn't have much of a capacity for law. One of the best theme songs, ever, and the extended end theme is even better.

Power Rangers

Press Gang

Prison Break

*Private Practice
The cast deserves better.

Privileged

Profiler

Project Runway

Psych

*Pushing Daisies
Lamented loss.

Quantum Leap

Queer As Folk (US)

Queer as Folk (UK)

ReGenesis

*Remington Steele
Have little recollection of this show, actually.

Rescue Me

Road Rules

ROME

*Roseanne
Watched it from the beginning until near the end, when I had to bail.

Roswell

Sanctuary

*Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?

*Scrubs
A very inconsistent show which seemed to finally finally find its footing in the seventh and final NBC season, only to actually improve with its first season on ABC. But I fear the new show will be like AfterMASH.

Seaquest DSV

*Seinfeld
Loved this show in the very beginning, really started being annoyed by it by Susan's death, and by the last season, had all but abandoned it. Did see the disappointing last episode.

*Sex and the City
Never saw it at all on HBO, but watched the entire (edited) series on TBS. Liked it. Didn't love it, but enjoyed it on its own terms.

Six Feet Under
Another HBO show I'll have to see someday.

Slings and Arrows

Smallville
Don't know why I never actually watched this.

So Weird

South of Nowhere

*South Park
Not my thing, though occasionally funny.

*Spongebob Squarepants
Watched maybe a season religiously before the child was born. Go figure.

St. Elsewhere
Possibly my favorite all-time show. I loved the first season when I got a review copy of the DVDs.

Star Trek
But not in the first run.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Felt compelled to watch, maybe to make up for muffing watching the original series.

*Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Star Trek: Voyager

Star Trek: Enterprise

Stargate Atlantis

Stargate SG-1

*Starsky & Hutch

*Superman
Watch countless episodes with George Reeves.

Supernatural

Surface

*Survivor
Watched the whole first season, which was interesting. The second season was dull. I started watching just the first and last shows for about six seasons, but now not even that.

Taxi
Loved Taxi.

Teen Titans

*That 70’s Show

That’s So Raven

The 4400

*The Addams Family
Probably in first run.

The Amazing Race

*The Andy Griffith Show
Watched it for years.

The A-Team

*The Avengers

*The Beverly Hillbillies
Watched it far longer than I should have. Did you know that about a half dozen of the regular season shows of this program are in the Top 50 all-time most watched programs?

The Big Bang Theory

*The Brady Bunch
Never saw it in first run, though came across a few episodes subsequently.

*The Cosby Show
Loved how the theme changed in most seasons. I think when Raven showed up is when I left.

*The Daily Show
Never saw it until Jon Stewart was hosting. See more online than on TV.

The Dead Zone

*The Dick Van Dyke Show
Probably my all time favorite comedy.

*The Flintstones

*The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
Wow, did this show get grating, or what?

*The Golden Girls

*The Honeymooners

*The Jeffersons

*The Jetsons

The L Word

*The Love Boat

The Magnificent Seven

*The Mary Tyler Moore Show
Must see TV.

*The Monkees

*The Munsters

*The Office (US)

The Powerpuff Girls

The Pretender

*The Real World
I watched the first three or four seasons.

*The Shield

*The Simpsons
Watched nine full seasons, have watched only a handful of shows since.

*The Six Million Dollar Man

The Sopranos
The last five minutes.

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

*The Twilight Zone
I'm referring to the original, not the 1980s version, which I also saw some segments.
I was constitutionally required.

*The Waltons
In the spring of 1975, I watched this every week; I was depressed.

*The West Wing
Watched first few seasons. then it got too unfocused and I quit it. But I DID watch the campaign between the Alda and Smitts candidates.

*The Wonder Years
Probably until the last year or so.

The X-Files
Watched one two-part episode.

Third Watch
Saw parts of an episode or two.

*Three’s Company
Usually someone else had it on.

*Twin Peaks
Tried to watch, but bailed about halfway through the first season.

Twitch City

Unfabulous

Ugly Betty

Veronica Mars

Weeds

*Whose Line is it Anyway? (US)

Whose Line is it Anyway? (UK)

*Will and Grace
Very irregularly. Gene Wilder was on a couple of them, and I watched them specifically for that reason.

*Wings

Xena: Warrior Princess

The Shape of Things To Come

Happened to be a shop while, by chance, Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech was on the radio. Understandably criticized, it was generally compared to George Orwell's 1984. It made me think about a song that borrows from Orwell, Tracy Chapman's Why?, which you can (I hope) hear here.
Love is hate
War is peace
No is yes
And we're all free

But somebody's gonna have to answer
The time is coming soon
When the blind remove their blinders
And the speechless speak the truth
***
So what should upon my wandering eyes should appear but ABC-TV's schedule for Tuesday night, Dec 15: A Charlie Brown Christmas. From 8 to 9 pm - 1 hour. When they last broadcast it, LAST Tuesday, as noted here, squeezed into a half hour slot:

Gone was Sally’s materialistic letter to Santa, which finally sends Charlie screaming from the room when she says she will settle for 10s and 20s.

Gone was Schroeder’s miraculous multiple renditions of “Jingle Bells” from a toy piano, including the one that sounds distinctly like a church organ.

Gone was Linus using his blanket as an improvised slingshot to knock a can off the fence no one else can hit, complete with ricochet sound effect.

Gone were the kids catching snowflakes on their tongues and commenting on their flavor.

Gone even was poor Shermy’s only line. He thought he had it bad because he was always tasked to play a shepherd. He had no idea.

And why were all these classic scenes cut? To plug more ads into the show, of course. To sell burgers and greeting cards — and to relentlessly plug the insipid-looking new Disney “soon to be a classic” show immediately following.

So did ABC relent to some sort of pressure? Inquiring minds want to know. But THIS seems to be the viewing of A Charlie Brown Christmas to watch - or record, even if it's filled with even MORE ads. And - it is hoped - an apology.
***
Still catching up, after two sick days this week. One of the truths I've long known is that when you're sick or injured, but don't act particularly sick or injured, people forget. I experienced that Wednesday, and I admit it: it made me rather cranky.
My wife and daughter both had a snow day, but they seemed to think it was MY snow day too; no, I'm home because ...ever look at a computer screen and see it as doubled, only slightly out of sync? That's what was happening to me. Yet the daughter wanted to play a game while the wife took a nap - a nap; *I* needed a nap. And when the wife announced that since we had this found opportunity, we could (oh, boy!) work on the household budget. No, no, no, it's YOUR found time; it's my SICK time. I almost escaped to the local library except I didn't want to infect strangers.

It's odd, but I hate taking off sick time. And I have LOTS of it. At the beginning of December, I had 145 days. If I use three in December, I still get 1.5, so I'll still have 143.5 days left. And it's not as though I get paid it out when I retire, or can apply the time to my health benefits; when I leave, I lose them. The only way I'll use them is if I have a catastrophic illness or injury. But it takes so little to fall behind at work - 180 e-mails and 14 phone messages to look at on Thursday.
***
Two children's birthday parties this weekend - goody.
***
I was looking at my face in the mirror recently and noticed that my cheeks are slightly darker than the rest of my face, as though the pigmentation after its loss in the vitiligo had returned. More recently, a small circle near my left temple and a larger circle around my right has also gotten darker. I find it odd that I really don't know what I look like from month to month of late.
***
When I was growing up, there were two songs, with similar titles, which appealed to me. One was The Yardbirds' Shapes of Things, which got up to #11 in the US pop charts in the spring of 1966. The other is Shape of Things to Come by Max Frost & The Troopers, which reached #22 in the fall of 1968. Seems to be my message du jour.


ROG

Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot QUESTION

Here's the 2010 Hall of Fame ballot, with their 2009 votes noted; those with no 2009 votes are eligible for the first time.

Roberto Alomar
Kevin Appier
Harold Baines 32 (6%)
Bert Blyleven 338 (63%)
Ellis Burks
Andre Dawson 361 (67%)
Andres Galarraga
Pat Hentgen
Mike Jackson
Eric Karros
Ray Lankford
Barry Larkin
Edgar Martinez
Don Mattingly 64 (12%)
Fred McGriff
Mark McGwire 118 (22%)
Jack Morris 237 (44%)
Dale Murphy 62 (12%)
Dave Parker 81 (15%)
Tim Raines 122 (23%)
Shane Reynolds
David Segui
Lee Smith 240 (45%)
Alan Trammell 94 (17%)
Robin Ventura
Todd Zeile

1. Who do YOU vote for, and why?
2. Who will get selected, if any? 75% required for enshrinement.
3. Who will get the lowest votes and not be eligible next year? "Candidates may remain under consideration for up to 15 years provided they are named on at least five percent of the ballots cast."

1. Dawson and Blyleven should have gotten in years ago. Alomar and Larkin are strong middle infielders. I vote for Raines because he played well on a mediocre team (Expos). And though I wouldn't have voted for McGwire in his first year of eligibility, I would now. And why doesn't Lee Smith, who is or at least was the career saves leader for a time, back when saves weren't always 3 outs, get more love?

2. From most likely to least: Roberto Alomar, Barry Larkin, Andre Dawson, Bert Blyleven. McGwire doesn't get in unless/until he shows some contrition over the steroids thing.

3. From most likely to reach the 5% threshold to the least:
Ellis Burks, Eric Karros, Todd Zeile, Ray Lankford. Kevin Appier, Pat Hentgen, David Segui, Shane Reynolds, Mike Jackson

ROG

Stop. Breathe. Think.

One of the things I try to do each month is to take one day off from work on a day the wife and daughter are at school. This allows me to write slightly longer blog posts, while also allowing me to catch up on the newspaper and a TV show or two, a bit of "roger time" that just doesn't usually happen during the week.

I had planned one of my days for Monday, November 30. I had a couple posts, including a movie review, I wanted to work on for the next two days.

Unfortunately, the wife decided the daughter was sick. Her temperature was up slightly, but I wasn't convinced of her illness. In any case, I stayed home with her, because i have far more sick days available (140+) than my wife does.

I must admit that I was disappointed and frustrated. If she were home sick in bed, it'd be one thing. But this was a very active "sick" child, who wanted to play various games and wanted me to watch her TV shows with her.

As it turned out, I ended up watching an episode of Blue's Clues - neither my favorite or my most loathed of her programs, seeing an episode called Blue is Frustrated. Boy, could I relate! (So can this woman.)

The message when you're frustrated is to, well, it's in the title. So I don't post the movie review until the following Sunday - so what? The world didn't end.

So, in answer to the question posed by Salon, Is my kids making me not smart?", the answer has to be "no".

And when I'm too busy, or feeling lousy, both of which are true this week, sometimes one just has to post pictures of cute kittens. I'll just have to deal with that.

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: Amreeka

Let me at the start say this about the new movie Amreeka; when it ended, I was disappointed, because I wanted to know more about the lives of these people.

This is a story of a Palestinian woman struggling to live in the Israeli military-occupied West Bank, where a trip between her work and her home has stretched from 15 minutes to two hours. When she's been chosen in a lottery to receive a U.S. green card, she makes the difficult decision to uproot herself and her 16-year-old son for Amreeka (America), leaving her mother and brother behind. She soon realizes that life the new country, outside of Chicago, is also difficult as she, her son, and even the family she's been staying with face prejudice and struggle to make ends meet.

One of the things that I think made the movie more believable is the lack of actors I recognize. Unless you're a fan of Arrested Development, in which case you might note one performer, these are folks you just don't know. Notably, the lead actress, Nisreen Faour, is very compelling, very genuine.

A complaint about the movie is that it's obvious as an After School Special. Not having watched a whole lot of them in the day, I'm lead to believe that this is a putdown of a film that's overly simplistic. I'm more with the 88% of the critics who liked the film, such as Louise Keller of Urban Cinefile, who writes: "Writer director Cherien Dabis writes about what she knows about being a stranger in a new land: the difficulties, the isolation, the conflicts, the misunderstandings. The result is a heartfelt and engaging film."

There are a couple obvious pointed political points, notably the changing SUPPORT OUR TROOPS sign which distracted briefly. The movie begins just as the Iraqi war begins, and that backdrop is important in the story's development.

My wife liked the film as well. A good Sunday afternoon date movie.


ROG

U is for United Nations

Recently, I was searching for the Harris poll for some reason, and the first hit I got was http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/. Looks like the home page, right? Nope. It was the results of a Harris poll reported December 17, 2008 about the United Nations: Majorities of Adults in Five Largest European Countries and the U.S. Believe United Nations Does More Good Than Harm. "Three–quarters of French adults (75%), two-thirds of Italians (69%), Germans (67%) and Britons (65%) and at least three in five Spaniards (63%) and Americans (60%) all say the UN does more good than harm."

Frankly, as an American, this surprised me. I hear a lot from the naysayers, not just in the media but even in my personal life, about what the survey calls "some of the harsher rhetoric towards the United Nations sometimes heard in the United States".

Interestingly, the only real diffence between the Europeans and the American POV is that most Europeans believe the UN headquarters should move out of the United States, while most Americans believe believe it should stay. again. Again, this is milldly surprising, because many Americans who complain the most about the UN kvetch about world leaders, such as Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to "our" country with their anti-American rhetoric. Of course, UN territory is NOT US territory, though one has to fly into US territory to get there.


One certainly argue the efficacy of armed troops in the conflicts the world has had over the past 60 years or so. There's little doubt, however , as to the importance of programs such as fighting hunger and disease. Here are 60 ways the UN believes it makes a difference. 9 December has been designated as International Anti-Corruption Day to raise awareness of the issue. And, of course, there's a meeting going on in Copenhagen dealing with climate change.

As a librarian, I'm also interested in those less glamourous issues. The United Nations is cited as a great source for international data.

Also, WIPO Expands Searchable Patent Application Database
The United Nation's World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva recently announced an expansion of its online free searchable patent application database. In addition to containing an existing 1.65 million international patents filed for protection under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) from 30 countries, the database now includes digital information for 1.49 million additional records from the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Israel, South Africa, Singapore, Vietnam, the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), and Cuba.


I always wondered how the world would have turned out of the League of Nations, which US President Woodrow Wilsonb supported but which ythe United States failed to join, had been more successful, for instance, in treating the Weimer Republic more equitably. Could World War II been averted? Possibly not.

But I'm of tyhe opinion that nations need to keep talking, if only to try to stem the possibility of World War III.


*United Nations Suez Meeting (n.d., presumably 1956). Photographer: Carl Mydans
*Irish UN troops in the Katanga Province, former Belgian Congo, Africa. Date taken: 1961
*UN guard guarding the United Nations Building. Location: New York, NY, US. Date taken: July 1958. Photographer: Ralph Morse
*United Nations (translators?) Date taken: October 10, 1949. Photographer: Thomas Mcavoy
Pictures, again, from LIFE.com
ROG

Lennon

Sometimes I think about acknowledging the day John Lennon died, but something always draws me in.

This year, it's the fact that he is on the top 10 list of dead celebrities. According to Forbes:

No. 7: John Lennon
$15 million

Musician
Died: Dec. 8, 1980
Age: 40
Cause: Murder

It was a big year for the Beatles, especially for the songwriter behind many of the band's most famous songs. In September, Electronic Arts and MTV Games released The Beatles: Rock Band, allowing fans to jam along with a virtual version of the band and download additional albums for $17. As well, the Fab Four's music was repackaged and remastered in a 16-disc box set that went on sale in September. LOVE, the Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil show featuring the group's music, still reels fans into The Mirage


Add to that John's widow Yoko Ono licensing his song "Real Love" to be used by JC Penney in television ads, and her giving Ben & Jerry's ice cream permission to release a Lennon-inspired flavor called "Imagine Whirled Peace."

Oh, since I know you need to know, the top-earning dead celebrity is French fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent, who "earned $350 million in the past year. Much of his estate was auctioned off at Christie's in February. Laurent died of brain cancer in June 2008." So his #1 status probably won't be maintained.

Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein rank second with combined earnings of $235 million. Why are they considered as one unit, I don't know. Both of them composed with others. Anyway, I imagine the revival of South Pacific did not hurt.

Michael Jackson is third with $90 million; I have to assume it's a reflection of moneys in, since, before his death in June, there were numerous reports about his mounting debt.

Elvis Presley, the perennial leader in this category, is fourth with $55 million, though he made more than in previous years. He's followed by J.R.R. Tolkien ($50 million), Charles Schulz ($35 million), John Lennon ($15 million), Theodor Geisel -Dr. Seuss ($15 million), Albert Einstein ($10 million) and Michael Crichton ($9 million).

The interesting thing about the Beatles 09/09/09 revival is that it has gotten me newly interested in the Beatles, again. Not that they ever fell very far from my heart. But watching all the specials reinvigorated my ears. Seeing the Paul McCartney ABC special on that aired Thanksgiving night reminded me of Lennon playing the organ with his elbow on I'm Down at Shea Stadium in 1965.

I haven't actually GOTTEN any new music - the Beatles in Mono box set is on the Christmas list - but just reading about the differences in the recordings, especially the white album has gotten me excited.

Did I ever mention that, years ago, I received a picture of the Imagine square at Strawberry Fields in NYC? It sits over the entryway from the living room to the hallway.

Ah, the picture above is from LIFE again. It's from 1980, but I didn't need the caption to know that.

ROG

Strange Questions Meme, Part 2

Back to Sunday Stealing, whose motto is: "Cheers to all us thieves!"

26. What color is your watch?

Seriously, I kill watches. I think it is in my DNA that whatever watch I own dies in four months. I have a brown-strapped watch around somewhere; doesn't work.

27. What do you think of when you hear "Australia"?

Sydney Opera House. I blame the Wonder Pets.

28. Would you strip for money?

No. You should be pleased.

29. Do you go in a fast food place or just hit the drive thru?

Generally inside. Something ecologically and aesthetically even worse about the drive through than getting fast food inside.

30. What is your favorite number?

37. It's my birthday. Once, when I was commissioner of a college election, in order to stop voter fraud, I had a friend mark the 37 on the back of the students' ID cards. And yes, quite a few people had tried to vote more than once.

31. Who’s the last person you talked to on the phone?

Time Warner cable. Wanted to know why it is that when I look at the next six days ahead on the DVR, there is NO information for Monday. Last weekend, there was NO information for Tuesday. Had I not specifically checked this, I would have missed not only those days, but also subsequent days.

32. Any plans today?

Same as it ever was. "Water dissolving... and water removing. There is water... at the bottom of the ocean."

33. In how many states have you lived?

Two, North Carolina (4 months), and New York (the rest of my life).

34. Biggest annoyance right now?

Might be the New York State legislature for all sorts of reasons, not the least having to do with cuts to education and libraries.

35. Last song listened to?

Oh Bess, Where Is My Bess by Frank Sinatra. This excludes songs at church yesterday.

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards?

Yes, and so can my five-year-old daughter. In fact, she was my motivation.

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house?

Someone does come by some Saturdays for an hour or two. In fact, when she does not - and this past Saturday was one of those times - I clean obsessively thoroughly. Cleaning the spaces between the radiator folds. I don't enjoy it, as I take forever, but if I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it well.

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?

Red Chuck Taylor sneakers. I have a Christmas ornament that someone gave me that looks like red Chucks. Apparently, I was a great disappointment to my fellow JEOPARDY! contestants in 1998 when I DIDN'T wear them on the show after I had been wearing them during the warm up.

39. Are you jealous of anyone?

Anyone who can type.

40. Is anyone jealous of you?

Seriously doubt it. I could be surprised.

41. Do you love anyone?

Quite a few, actually.

42. Do any of your friends have children?

About half of them.

43. What do you usually do during the day?

A working class hero is something to be.

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now?

This seems to be a very popular question on these things. No, but there are certain people that, if they just all developed laryngitis, or failing that, fell off the face of the earth, I'd be mighty happy.

45. Do you use the word hello daily?

Hello, hello. I don't why you say goodbye. I say HELLO.

I was once working at the voting polls, which involved being there at 5:30 a.m., so I was walking there at 5:20, and this guy says, "Hello." I say "hello" back, but I haven't talked to anyone yet, so the vocal chords weren't really warmed up. He didn't hear me, evidently, and he said, "Don't you say 'hello' when someone says 'hello'?" I said that I DID say hello, that he hadn't heard me. Yeesh.

A few years ago I made a mixed CD with songs with "hello" in the title: Hello, It's Me; Hello Hooray; Hello Hello...

46. What color is your car?

Some boring silver gray that is so damn generic that I never recognize it except by the license plate.

47. What size wedding ring do you wear?

No idea at this point. But it hasn't changed.

48. Are you thinking about someone right now?

Yes, whoever asked such a lame question.

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags?

Well, yes and no. There is one not that far from me, the Great Escape in Lake George. I was at a conference at the lodge, and walked around the closed amusement park - it WAS November in upstate New York.

50. How did you get your worst scar?

May have told this story before: When I was 16, I had borrowed someone's bike. My friend Carol and I were going to ride over from our part of town, Binghamton, NY's First Ward, to the South Side to a friend's house. We managed to go the length of Front Street without having to stop or slow down.

However, as we were going across the Riverside Drive bridge, I found myself gaining on Carol. Every bike I had had up until then would brake by essentially peddling backwards, but this was not working; I would later discover that it was one of those new-fangled bikes with hand brakes. Anyway, in order to not run over my friend, who I had known since kindergarten, I put my foot down on the sidewalk to slow me down. The bike somehow flipped over.

After recovering from the fall, we rode the rest of the way without incident. It was only there when Carol and our friends Karen and Lois looked at my arm and saw the gash in my arm, full of blood, dirt and pebbles. They cleaned it out, but the scar lasted. Although with my vitiligo, the scar has virtually disappeared; hey, an upside!

That was the day I first heard the first Led Zeppelin album, incidentally: "Good Times, bad times, you know I've had my share."
***
Record producer Bob Keane died last week.
***
For no particular reason, save for the whimsy that comes with fatigue, above is a picture captioned: "Served at dinner for Captain Richard McCutchen, winner of the $64,000 question, on TV quiz program, a large basket of fruit which was part of the dinner." (September 1955; photographer: Yale Joel for LIFE).

ROG

MOVIE REVIEW: An Education

The wife and I had a babysitter a couple weeks ago, so we looked at the movies playing at our favorite cinema emporium, the Spectrum 8. While there were other movies we hadn't seen, none had intrigued me as much as An Education, a movie for which Nick Hornsby - who had scripted About A Boy, a movie I liked a lot - had written the screenplay, based on a Lynn Barber memoir. The film had also received big kudos at one of the film festivals. AND my wife is an educator.

Based on a true story, An Education is a tale of a girl named Jenny, 16 going on 17, in 1961 suburban London, England. She's a very smart secondary school student, probably posed to go to Oxford University. Yet she is also quite bored with her perceived lot in life, secondary school to ensure getting to Oxford University.. During a rainstorm, a man in his 30s offers her cello a lift. This starts a very subtle and slow-moving courtship, not just of romance but also of lifestyle, which involves wooing her parents as much as the girl.

This is a very subtle film, with few BIG MOMENTS. Watching the film, directed by Lone Scherfig, I didn't have big reactions until near the end. Thinking about it afterward, it all made a great deal of sense.

Even critics not loving the film, and it has a 94% positive rating in Rotten Tomatoes - gave kudos to the lead actress, who is a real find. Played by newcomer Carey Mulligan, she plays the character with that know-it-all teenager without being too grating. She has a certain young Audrey Hepburn-type beauty in this film.

My favorite character in this film is actually Jenny's father, Jack, played by Alfred Molina, who I probably last saw as Doc Ock in the Spider-Man 2 movie. Jenny thinks of him as a real stick-in-the-mud, and maybe he is, but he shows colors of who he used to be.

Also starring Cara Seymour as Jenny's mom, Majorie; Peter Sarsgaard as the suitor, David; Dominic Cooper and Rosamund Pike as David's friends Danny and Helen; Olivia Williams as Jenny's teacher, Miss Stubbs; and Emma Thompson as the headmistress. It was actually an Emma Thompson line that I most reacted to until near the end.

My wife liked the picture but didn't want to because David was not who he said he was. But we see this throughout the film; at some level, Jenny sees this too. I do wish I loved this picture, but it felt somehow at arm's length. It was a well-crafted film, and I enjoyed it well enough.

ROG

Christmas Shopping QUESTIONS

Are you a Black Friday shopper? Or even a Thanksgiving day shopper? I'm not. I HATE shopping on Black Friday, with something approaching religious fervor. More accurately, the one time I went out there in the big box stores, I felt like an atheist at a tent revival.

Actually, there was a Black Friday a few years ago that wasn't so bad. We went shopping in a little town called Delhi, NY. It was no more crowded than a normal shopping day. It was relaxed and pleasant.

Are you a Cyber Monday shopper? I have been, and would have been this year, save for the fact that I had a sick child who was not so ill that we couldn't play the usual coterie of games (Sorry, Uno and Candyland) over and over, plus reading to her.

For years, I used to have a tradition before online shopping got so easy. I'd take off a weekday from work around December 17 and do all my shopping in one day. It was early enough that if it didn't pan out, I still had the weekend, but close enough to create urgency in me without anxiety.

What kind of Christmas shopper are you?

ROG

Majority Rule, Minority Rights

Suddenly, I was feeling nostalgic for those thrilling days of yesteryear, when the "liberal, activist" Warren Supreme Court ruled the land.

In Gideon v. Wainwright, (1963), the Court ruled that indigent defendants had a right to counsel, even if they couldn't afford it. In Miranda v. Arizona (1966), the court determined that the police practice of interrogating individuals without notifying them of their right to counsel and their protection against self-incrimination violated the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution.

And, most on point, Loving v. Virginia, the Court declared the state of Virginia's antimiscegenation law unconstitutional.

If it were up to the general public in the 1960s, would every suspect get a lawyer and a Miranda warning? Heck, no, but it was the right and just thing to do. Or would Virginia and 15 other states have dropped their ban on interracial marriage without "assistance"? The proof is this: 12 states still had the ban on the books into the 1970s, though the laws were legally unenforceable. Alabama removed its law from its books in November 2000.

So, while I understand the political reality of trying to allow gay marriage via state legislature votes (New York, et al.) and public referenda (Maine, et al.), the issue seems so self-evidently right and just that I had a twinge of judicial nostalgia.

No, the only judicial "activism" we get these days are cases such as Kelo v. City of New London (2005), in which the "liberals" on the court allowed the city to use eminent domain to take private property and sells it for private development. I expressed my serious doubts about this case at the time. Turns out that the whole imbroglio ended up being a big money LOSER for New London.

I think gay marriage and other gay rights, such as ENDA will come about throughout the United States. But I'm now pretty convinced that gay marriage nationally will take another generation, another 20 years, to be fully realized. Maybe longer. And it makes me more than a little sad.

The New York Times was Live-Blogging the Gay Marriage Vote in New York State. State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr., one of the eight Democrats voting against the bill, is quoted as saying, "If you put this issue before the voters in a referendum, the voters will reject it.". Probably true. But as some letter-writer noted, "I wish someone would ask Mr. Diaz if he thinks the civil rights acts of the 1960’s should have been put up for popular votes in the states." As I said, just is just.

ROG

Truth, or a Variation on the Same

This is one of those breakfast blogs Dan VanRiper said I write.

The New York Times recently ran a story about how Rosa Parks WASN'T =the first black person to protest treatment on the bus. How did these others get ignored by history? Because history is arbitrary and not generally 100% accurate. And as a friend of mine put it, "Food for thought about figureheads...Teenagers don't get respect!"

Jackie Robinson was not the first black to play major league baseball, only the first one in several decades, which does not at all diminish his breakthrough. Meanwhile, the black players who reintegrated the NFL, friends of Robinson, BTW, are all but forgotten, or were until this recent Sports Illustrated story. Even if you're not a sports fan, read it, if you haven't. One writer has suggested these players ought to be in the football hall of fame.

My wife, who teaches English as a Second Language, tells me that sometimes only the primary teacher in a classroom is considered the "real" teacher by some students, whereas the specialists (ESL, speech) are though of more like teachers' aides. This is particularly true when the primary teacher is a male and the specialist is a female, and all of the specialty teachers in her schools are women. Stereotypical gender roles, even in our "enlightened" 21st century, come creeping back.

I've mentioned that when I was my daughter's age and in the hospital for an uncontrollable bloody nose, I was slackjawed to discover a male nurse and a female doctor; even at five and a half, I could be surprised that the world wasn't as I expected it to be.

I was listening to the podcast KunstlerCast #90: The Demise of Happy Motoring this week. The host, Duncan Crary, didn't know that "Happy Motoring" was a catchphrase of Esso gasoline (later Exxon). Duncan told Jim Kunsler said he'd Google the phrase, and I ended up doing the same. Apparently, Esso tried to be culturally diverse in its ads. Here are the Esso logo morphing into folks from the British Isles, and, showing some real stereotypes, these American folks.

Here's 18-and a half minutes of sharp political commentary. Eighteen-and-a-half minutes? Shades of Rose Mary Woods!

There seems to be no clear consensus on the meaning of Boxing Day.
ROG

Actors Stalking My TV Set

Ever get that feeling that some actors show up every season on some show or other that you're watching? Sort of like that movie season where Jude Law was in every third movie. Or that period of time when Gene Hackman really WAS in every third movie. Or how Tom Bergeron hosts every third reality show.

Ken Levine cited Sonya Walger and Kim Raver; I don't happen to be in Ms. Walger's sphere of influence, but yeah, I think of Ms. Raver as that person on 24, yet here she is doing a stint on Grey's Anatomy. I could have sworn that there are other working actors in Hollywood, most of them not working at all in their chosen profession; I speak of "Hollywood" generically, not geographically.

It's not quite as pervasive, but I think that way about Jessalyn Gilsig. She plays Terri Schuester, the glee club teacher's wife, on Glee, but wasn't she doing Heroes and Nip/Tuck at the same time? I know her best as a teacher in the early seasons of Boston Public, and a cop in the later seasons of NYPD Blue.

Then there's Julie Bowen, who is now on Modern Family, and I first noticed on Ed, but seemed to show up on Boston Legal, Weeds and Lost interchangeably. And I just saw her on JEOPARDY! to boot.

I was watching Glee recently, and noticed that on that particular episode, there were two NYPD Blue alums, though they did not share a scene. Charlotte Ross, who was bad seed Eve on Days of Our Lives when I was actually watching DOOL, is now old enough to play the mom of the pregnant cheerleader on Glee. This somehow makes me feel old.

Any actors showing up a lot on the shows you watch?
ROG

T is for Three "Tender" Tunes

If you check only the Wikipedia post for the song Try a Little Tenderness, you'll find the listing dominated by references to Otis Redding. While he did perform the benchmark version in the mid-1960s, a live version of which you can watch here, the song has a much richer history.

Here's a version of the song, written by "Irving King" (James Campbell and Reginald Connelly) and Harry M. Woods, performed by Francis Albert Sinatra; click on the button on the upper right side of the page. Interesting that this version has an intro not generally used.

The Wikipedia notes a bunch of other folks who also recorded, including "on December 8, 1932 by the Ray Noble Orchestra (with vocals by Val Rosing) followed by both Ruth Etting and Bing Crosby in 1933.

But in my Top Pop Singles, under the Otis Redding listing for the song, it says: "#6 hit for Ted Lewis in 1933", though the Wikipedia doesn't note Lewis at all. Here's the Ted Lewis version (song #8), with a lengthy instrumental before the lyrics come in.

Who IS this Ted Lewis? According to my Top Memories, 1890-1954 book, this song charted for him in February of 1933 for 10 weeks, getting up to #6. But he had 101 Top 20 hits between 1920 and 1934; Tenderness being the 92nd. Among his #1 hits:
When My Baby Smiles at Me (1920-7 weeks), All By Myself (1921-4 weeks), O! Katharina (1925-1 week), Just A Gigilo (1931-2 weeks; yes, the song later covered by David Lee Roth, formerly of Van Halen), In A Shanty in Old Shanty Town (1932-10 weeks), and Lazybones (1933-4 weeks).

Ruth Etting also charted with Tenderness on 3/18/33 for two weeks. She had 62 Top 20 Hits between 1926 and 1937, this being the 59th, with her biggest hit Life Is A Song in 1935 (2 weeks at #1).

Otis Redding's version got to #25 in the pop charts and #4 on the rhythm and blues charts in December 1966. The song is listed in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and is #204 in a list of Rolling Stone magazine's greatest songs. Otis' biggest hit, unfortunately, was posthumous: (Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay in the winter of 1968, which went to #1 won a number of Grammy awards, as well as citations by Rolling Stone (#28), R&RHOF, RIAA, NPR and BMI

Before Otis, Aretha Franklin had a minor hit (#100 in 1962), and after Three Dog Night (#29 in 1969). But it has become a staple in the repertoire of many an artist.

Paul Simon's second album after his breakup with Art Garfunkel was the eclectic There Goes Rhymin' Simon, featuring songs such as Kodachrome and Loves Me Like A Rock. The 1973 collection also featured a lovely song called Tenderness, which Like Loves Me Like a Rock features the vocal stylings of the gospel group the Dixie Hummingbirds. (Unfortunately, all I could find is this cover version.) The album went to #2 and signaled a successful solo career to come, featuring albums such as Still Crazy After All these Years (#1 in 1975) and Graceland (#3 in 1986).

Paul Simon won the very first Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song in 2007, succeeded by Stevie Wonder and Paul McCartney.

The 1956 Elvis Presley hit Love Me Tender had a peculiar songwriting history, explained here. Briefly, it was written as Aura Lee nearly a century earlier. The adaptation was credited to Presley and the songwriting adapter's wife, neither of whom actually wrote it. It was the title song of Elvis' film debut.

I learned http://www.metrolyrics.com/aura-lee-lyrics-traditional.htmlAura Lee in grade school so found Love Me Tender as somehow peculiar. In fact, the school kids made up a song to Aura Lee, sung with the Elvis enunciation:

When you must take medicine
Take it orally
That's because the other way
Is more painfully.

Orally, orally
Take it orally
That's because...the other way...
Is more painfully.

Anyway, here's the classic Presley tune, the fourth of a dozen and a half #1 hits in the United States. (The 31-song ELV1S album contained #1s in the US and/or the UK.)

ROG