Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing Remembers the Good Old Days

Domingo Samudio

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

We’re going into the new year by looking back. Randy at GeneaMusings encourages us to reminisce. So the group remembers the Good Old Days.

When I Was Young

I used to say that I didn’t really like to wallow in nostalgia. But now it’s more of a mental exercise. Can I remember that stuff anymore?

1. Tell us about a time when your family got a newfangled invention (your first air conditioner, color TV, VCR, microwave, computer, etc.).

Our family got a color TV in either Christmas 1969 or Christmas 1970.

The only times I remember seeing color TV before that were some summer nights c. 1962/63. My sister Leslie had a best friend, Christine, who lived next door to my maternal grandmother.

They, I, and maybe my baby sister would be at Christine’s house watching this piece of furniture. It was usually the Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza on Sunday nights on NBC. ABC and CBS weren’t broadcasting in color until 1966.

So when we got our color TV, I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time in color. I had watched it a dozen times before that, but I never saw Oz that way before. I finally got the “horse of a different color” reference; the equine used to be different shades of gray.

Pharaohs?

2. Is there a particular song that sparks a childhood memory?

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that there are HUNDREDS, maybe THOUSANDS of songs I can identify from when I was 4 to 18. And most of them generate a memory, many of which I have written about.

I don’t think I’ve ever written about Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. I liked the song a lot, especially the countdown: “Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro.” Here’s an oddity: per Billboard magazine, it was the number one song of 1965. However, it never reached number one on the weekly Billboard charts, though it did top Record World.

It wasn’t the song as much as the outfits I was struck by as a kid. These guys weren’t Middle Eastern/Egyptian, were they? No.

Regarding the lead singer, “most sources refer to Domingo Samudio’s ancestry as Mexican-American. However, a 1998 Chicago Tribune article described Samudio as of Basque/Apache descent. In a 2007 conversation with music writer Joe Nick Patoski, Samudio described his grandparents fleeing the Mexican Revolution and settling in Texas, where his family supported themselves working in the cotton fields.”

Learning

3. What is something an older family member taught you to do?

My paternal grandmother taught me canasta, and my paternal grandfather taught me gin rummy. My father’s cousin Ruth described my father at her home, feverishly trying to figure out my name and initials shortly after I was born.

4. Back in the day, what name brands would we have found in your family’s kitchen?

Joy dish detergent, Kellogg’s/Nabisco/General Mills cereals (I LOVED cereal), Fro-Joy ice cream (a truly inferior product), Pyrex bowls, General Electric (refrigerator, maybe?) Our stove/oven was ancient, and I have no idea what brand it was. Maybe my sisters recall.

5. As a child, did you collect anything (rocks, shells, stickers, etc.)?

Stamps, baseball cards, LPs. coins. I was really put out when some kid, the child of my parents’ friends, purloined some of my half-dollars.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

The Motown sound and the Stax sound

The Beatles at STAX?

My friend Jon wrote: If you need ideas for topics to write about, how about a piece on the difference between the Motown sound and the Stax sound?

I wrote back, glibly, “The short answer is migration, but I’ll think about that.”

Rob Bowman wrote in Soulville, U.S.A.: The Story of Stax Records, about the differences circa 1963: “At Motown in Detroit, Berry Gordy was more than happy to put each one of his artists through an in-house charm school with the goal being that each artist could fit into middle-class white America’s image of respectable deportment, style, and grace.

“Jim Stewart of STAX was not as ruthlessly ambitious as Gordy, nor did he have the vision to build the type of vertically integrated empire that Motown became.” I also think geography does have something to do with it. Stax leaned into its Mississippi Delta roots.

1964

Bowman re: 1964: “While STAX was struggling, Motown was on its ascendancy.” In retrospect, 1964 was remarkable not just for the Beatles’ invasion of America but for the string of hits by the Supremes and many others on the Detroit label. Indeed, in ’64, the Supremes put out an album, A Bit of Liverpool, which I used to own, which features five Lennon-McCartney songs among the 11 tracks.

“The sign outside Motown probably proudly proclaimed the company ‘Hitsville USA.'” I made my pilgrimage to the site in 1998.

“The marquee outside the STAX Studio, on the other hand, was adorned with the words Soulsville USA.” (STAX artists also eventually covered the Beatles, but generally sound like STAX.) The Beatles even considered recording an album at STAX in 1966, but it proved logistically impossible.

North and South

“These slogans perfectly sum up the diametrically opposed aesthetic and operating philosophy of the two companies. Gordy was a product of the urban industrial North… and autocratic to the bone. He ran his operation very much from a master plan.

“Stewart, on the other hand, was the product of the rural fraternal South. Although he wanted to make money, he could easily be content with what seemed to be a modicum of success, not caring a wit about making further profits…

“In what had to be the greatest irony of the STAX story, Stewart was always loudly championing keeping the company sound as ‘black’ as possible while various black writers and later co-owner Al Bell were interested in crossover success, Stewart seemingly was not the least bit and interesting interested if crossing over meant compromising what he was gradually coming to understand as the Stax sound.”

Sidebar: I must note yet again the importance of Estelle Axton, Jim Stewart’s sister, and the AX in STAX, as a force in developing the sound. The fact that she’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame – Jim Stewart was inducted in 2002, and Berry Gordy in 1998 – continues to be a travesty.

1966

Bowman, 1966: “Isaac Hayes and David Porter crafted what proved to be the breakthrough record for Sam [Moore] and Dave [Prater] with You Don’t Know Like I Know. Sam and Dave charted, hitting a giddy number seven on the R and B charts while scraping the lower reaches of the pop listening to #90

“Oddly enough, Sam Moore hated the song! ‘Fifty per cent of the songs that were presented to me at STAX I didn’t like,’ exclaimed Sam. ‘I remember saying to myself…it’s hard singing. I wanted to do stuff like Sam [Cooke] and Willie [John] and Jackie [Wilson].

“Hayes and Porter wrote and initially rehearsed the song with Sam and Dave. The melodies would be set in a comfortable lower key, but when it came to recording, they would raise the key.

Porter: “I felt if you were right above where you could be comfortably, then the anxiety and the frustrations and the soul I thought needed to be captured out of those songs would come through.

“I always noticed with the Motown records the singers are so comfortable the melodies are so comfortable one is to have a little different kind of edge and I thought that that gave us that struggling for you to get there would only enhance you to get the soul even though they would be pissed at me pushing them like that they would attempt to do it and they would work I didn’t think you would really doing the record with any kind of soul unless there was some sweat.”

Breaking out

Music critic Joel Francis was asked about the validity of this opinion: “I tend to oversimplify in the following way: Motown is sweet and smooth; Marvin Gaye is Motown’s archetypal vocalist. Stax is raw and gritty; Otis Redding is its archetypal vocalist.” Of course, these things are more complicated.

Eventually, Motown got “less comfortable.” War, initially recorded by the Temptations, but Gordy thought the song would ruin the group’s cultivated image. So he allowed Edwin Starr, lower on the roster, to record it. It went to #1. Likewise, Marvin Gaye’s music, beginning with the album What’s Going On, made Berry uncomfortable, but it was released and was a hit. Stevie Wonder’s series of albums in the 1970s falls within the same category.

So, I guess, especially in later years, the Motown “formula” was modified when the music required.

Civics lesson

Voting Rights and the Church

LWV Civics lesson. More than once, I’ve been told that “they” ought to teach more civics. What the heck IS civics? Wikipedia suggests it is “the study of the civil and political rights and obligations of citizens in a society.”

Maybe it was the way I was raised, but I feel as though I have almost always had a decent grasp of the importance of the concept. My parents consistently voted. I remember when my maternal grandmother finally registered, or reregistered to vote; it might have been in 1964, for the Presidential election between President Lyndon Johnson (D-TX) and US Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ). Regardless, it was the first time I learned that she had been born in 1897, rather than 1898, as she had consistently said for as long as I could remember.

My father’s activism in the Civil Rights movement in the 1960s highlighted the precarious condition of the franchise for black people, how the 15th Amendment to the Constitution (1870), which allowed the right to vote regardless of color, had to be fortified by the 24th Amendment (1964), which prohibited the poll tax, and the Voting Rights Act (1965).

Polly ticks

I also used to read the political columnists in the newspapers, even as a kid. William F. Buckley’s labeling of Robert F. Kennedy as a Massachusetts carpetbagger in the 1964 US Senate race in New York led me to favor the incumbent, Kenneth Keating; RFK won. (interestingly, Buckley’s brother James, running for the very same seat in 1970, was a Connecticut carpetbagger who nevertheless won.

This, in retrospect, is likely how I ended up involved in student government in high school, becoming the president of the General Organization. It definitely made me decide to become a political science major when I went to SUNY New Paltz in the early 1970s.

Lunch and Learn

On Sunday, November 16, there was a discussion, Voting Rights and the Church, led by two women from the League of Women Voters, Erika Smitka, the state’s Executive Director, and MaryKate Owens, president of the Albany County group.

It may have been mislabeled because it surely felt like an advanced civics lesson. In April 2025, the LWV declared that our country is in a constitutional crisis. They are hardly the only ones coming to that conclusion this year.

It is a function, Ms. Smitks noted, due to the specter of loss of due process, the rise of mis-, dis-, and malinformation, attacks on media, and the failure of civics education in the schools.

Executive orders and policies have directly attacked the traditional election process by limiting the registration of new voters at naturalization events, requiring proof of eligibility at the polls, and attacking vote-by-mail, creating fear of participation in the democratic process.

An example: Court Strikes Down Key Part of Unlawful Voting Executive Order, Blocking Show-Your Papers

Voting rights have been undermined by the current push to redistrict between decennial censuses. (Note: I’ve been appaled by what happened in Texas and elsewhere. California’s response to it, Prop 50, is likewise problematic, though, had I lived there, I might have voted for it,which is inconsistent, I know.)

Some of the solutions offered by Ms. Owens included becoming a poll worker or an observer; I worked as an election inspector in 2021. She also recommended working the 2030 Census as an enumerator; I had worked the 1990 and 2020 counts, the latter being far more difficult because COVID had delayed the process.

Links

She recommended some helpful links:

League of Women Voters of New York

League of Women Voters of Albany County

Vote 411 – committed to ensuring voters have the information they need

Albany Law School

Brennan Center for Justice; this is a great site, including an explanation of gerrymandering

ACLU of New York

In 1977, at my alma mater, I was tutoring non-political science students for the intro course, American Politics and Government. I was gobsmacked that, six weeks into the semester, many of my tutees did not know that there were three branches of the federal government. Never mind them trying to identify them.

So I’m thinking that, in some fashion, I should find a way to engage in civics education.

The 2025-26 NFL rooting interests

da Bills and da Bears

I have to recalibrate my 2025-26 NFL rooting interests. Last season, the final game was between the Detroit Lions and the Minnesota Vikings, both with 14 wins. The Lions, whom I was rooting for, won. This season, neither team made the playoffs. Neither did the Kansas City Chiefs, who lost the last Super Bowl, the Steelers/Ravens; nor the Washington Commanders

Historically, I’d have rooted for the New York Giants, but they were among the first teams eliminated from the postseason. Here are the teams in the playoffs, plus the #1 seeds, the Denver Broncos (AFC West champs, 14-3) and the Seattle Seahawks (NFC West champs, 14-3), who have the weekend off and host a game NEXT weekend.

So, I’m backing, in this order:

Buffalo Bills (AFC 6th seed, 12-5), the only team that plays its home games in New York State

Pittsburgh Steelers (AFC North champs, 4th seed, 9-7), based at least in part on the fact that both Steelers greats Lynn Swann and Franco Harris have the same birthday as I do. Check Chuck’s pulse.

Carolina Panthers (NFC South champs, 4th seed, 8-9) because my parents and baby sister moved to the Queen City in 1974. I even own a sweatshirt from when the Panthers were the 1995 Western Division champions

Chicago Bears (NFC North champs, 2nd seed, 11-6). Last season, the Lions, Vikes, and Green Bay Packers all got into the playoffs from the NFC North, with only the Bears staying home. This season, the Bears won their division.

Mile High

Denver Broncos (AFC West, #1 seed, 14-3). They made the playoffs as a wild card last year, but this year they were one of the best teams in the league.

Green Bay Packers (NFC 7th seed, 9-7-1): A community-owned team with Green in its name gets points

San Francisco 49ers (NFC 6th seed, 12-5) were not in the playoffs last year, but are this year, despite their starting QB being injured for several games. I did love the Joe Montana and Steve Young 49ers

Seattle Seahawks (NFC West champs, 1st seed, 14-3) were likewise out of the playoffs last year, but not this time.

Jacksonville Jaguars (AFC South champs, 3rd seed, 13-4) ditto; they were 4-13 last season

Houston Texans (AFC, 5th seed, 12-5) – I tend not to root for Texas teams, but their turnaround after a slow start is impressive.

Los Angeles Rams (NFC 5th seed, 12-5)

Los Angeles Chargers (AFC 7th seed, 11-6)

Philadelphia Eagles (NFC East champs, 3rd seed, 11-6) – they won the Super Bowl last year, reason to root against them.

New England Patriots (AFC East champs, 2nd seed, 14-3) – I don’t hate them the way I did in the coach Bill Bellicheck/QB Tom Brady era. Still, habits die hard. Potential cases of domestic violence against two players are disturbing.

Controversy

There have been a lot of complaints about officiating this season. Just Google NFL controversial officiating 2025 – it isn’t a single event but a series of events that even the NFL Network, which carries some of the games, was critical of. See Broncos-Chiefs on Dec 25 and Texans-Chargers on Dec 27, to name two.

My concern is that the sloppy refereeing leaves room in some people’s minds for the belief that the games are being rigged. With the proliferation of not just bets on the game but prop bets, this becomes an issue of integrity in the game. BTW, A prop bets (short for proposition bet) is “a wager on whether or not a particular occurrence will happen in a game aside from the main outcome. While the standard three markets in NFL betting (spread, money line, total) are all based around the final result of the game, prop bets isolate certain players, teams, or events that could happen during the game.”

There were two really wacky plays during Week 16. One involved the Lions and the Steelers, which Chuck Miller wrote about here. The other was a two-point attempt after a Seahawks touchdown vs. the Rams; the lateral pass bounces off a Rams player, a Seahawks player casually picks up the ball in the end zone, and the conversation was good! It was the weirdest play I have ever seen.

Movie review: Hamnet

director Chloé Zhao.

My wife and I looked forward to seeing the new movie Hamnet. So in mid-December, we went to the Spectrum 8 in Albany.

This is what I liked: the mysterious nature of Agnes (Jessie Buckley), who is a healer and a bit of a mystic. Unsurprisingly, Will (Paul Mescal) is captivated by her. There’s definitely serious chemistry there. After she becomes pregnant, and despite resistance from both their families, they marry.

Wait. Do you know what this sounds like? The actual courtship of Anne Hathaway and William Shakespeare, who got married in 1582. The story is based on Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet. Due to the non-standardization of English in 16th and 17th-century England, Anne/Agnes, and for that matter Hamnet/Hamlet, are essentially the same.

This is something we unfortunately did not like: the dialogue was often hard to follow. Sometimes, it was volume, sometimes the words, occasionally both. And it wasn’t just us; I could hear other people in the theater whisper, “What did they say?”

Language barrier

I have a working theory about this. From the Times of London: “Chloé Zhao…, said she understood only a third of the language and depended on [Mescal] to guide her on set.” She said: “When I was on set of Hamnet, when Paul was delivering his speech, I only understand a third of it, technically, because I don’t understand what those words mean.”

Further, she noted, ” Paul said to me, ‘Listen, if Shakespeare is performed right, you don’t have to understand what they’re saying. You feel it in the body, the language is written like that.’”

I think there is an element of truth in that. Still, I’m more aligned with Adrian Chiles in the Guardian. “You know what that is, don’t you? That’s balls, that’s what that is. Of course, you need to understand what’s being said and what’s going on. At least I do. I’ve often been told not to trouble myself with such trifling details. Just let the artistry wash over you, I’m told, and consider how it makes me feel. Well, I’ll tell you how it makes me feel. It makes me feel confused, rather inadequate, frustrated, even angry, ultimately disengaged, and therefore bored. Just plain bored.”

I was confused and frustrated, for sure. Yet there was enough in the two crucial moments to sustain me. One is mentioned in the IMDb description and on Anne Hathaway’s Wikipedia page. (Yet there were people in the theater who were audibly confused.)

The other critical moment is the play’s production, which, interestingly, was MUCH easier to hear.

It was good enough that I might watch it again at home. Young Jacobi Jupe as the title character was quite good. But I would turn on the captions. Critics were 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes, with audiences at 93% thumbs-up.