Ramblin' with Roger

Such a weird man, at 80

“The fake images and the false boast are not separate stories.”

Sure, I LOATH his politics. But, beyond that, he’s a weird man. I saw someone complain on their Substack, “Why does the media ignore his madness?” Lately, it’s been too difficult to avoid.

Why did he explain executions to kids? Was the lesson for children “to fear difference, obey power, and treat vulnerable people as threats”?

From April 13: His Erratic Behavior and Extreme Comments Revive Mental Health Debate. As he “threatens to wipe out Iran and attacks the pope, even some former allies and advisers are questioning whether he has grown increasingly unbalanced, describing him as ‘lunatic’ and ‘clearly insane.'”

Thomas Meisenhelder complained in Common Sense that the man “isn’t mentally ill; he’s evil.” Moreover, “repeating time and time again that [he] is crazy not only negatively affects the mentally ill but also seriously misunderstands the man and his policies.” Yeah, I get it. But isn’t it possible that he’s BOTH crazy and evil?

NOT a genius

I’ve been reading the Facebook feed, It’s a Lovely Life by Heather Delaney Reese. Here’s just a part of her June 1 feed:

“In the middle of the night, while most Americans were fast asleep, [he] was awake inside the White House. Unable to get any much-needed rest, he opened Truth Social and shared a post that had the complete opposite effect he hoped it would.

“And at exactly 12:35 this morning, [he] decided it was the perfect time to announce to the world that a cognitive screening exam, the kind doctors use to help identify signs of cognitive impairment and dementia, proved he possessed what he called ‘extreme intelligence…’

“But what he either doesn’t understand, or what nobody told him, is that these tests are not designed to measure genius. They’re not IQ tests, and they’re not difficult for those without impairments to pass. They are screening tools used by doctors to determine whether someone may be showing signs of significant cognitive decline. Healthy adults are expected to perform well on them. The goal isn’t to identify extraordinary intelligence. It’s to identify potential impairment.

This “makes [his] insistence that this was a ‘high difficulty’ test proving his ‘extreme intelligence’ far more revealing than the score itself…

“During a seven-hour posting spree on [May 30] alone, he shared more than fifty posts, including fake images of himself standing beside George Washington, multiple depictions of himself carved into Mount Rushmore, and jealousy that China has a ballroom and he doesn’t. And later, he even posted a bizarre power-fantasy image of Air Force One surrounded by a military escort…

Falsehoods galore

“The fake images and the false boast are not separate stories. They are the same story. Both are attempts to manufacture a version of himself that reality will not provide. He cannot place himself alongside anyone alive today who is of historical significance these days, so he commands others to create fake images of himself with George Washington. He cannot point to actual evidence of extraordinary intelligence, so he points to a test that was never designed to measure it. The medium changes, but the impulse remains the same. Image by image. Post by post. Claim by claim. He is constructing a version of himself that the facts cannot sustain…

“That is why we should expect more chaos, more spectacle, and more manufactured crises. We need to prepare now for more attempts to make us exhausted, divided, frightened, and distracted because they know the clock is ticking.”

Another Heather

Here’s Heather Cox Richardson on June 2: “His posts seemed designed primarily to reassure himself. By Saturday, so many of the musical acts his team had lined up to play at his Freedom 250 “Great American State Fair” from late June through the beginning of July had bailed that he posted that he was ‘thinking about bringing the Number One Attraction anywhere in the World, the man who gets much larger audiences than Elvis in his prime, and he does so without a guitar, the man who loves our Country more than anyone else, and the man who some say is the Greatest President in History…’

“A series of AI images in the style of the 1950s Dick and Jane readers show a town parade festooned with flags and patriotic bunting, little girls laughing together at an old-fashioned town fair, and little boys in a suburb playing ball. All of the images read: ‘AMERICA IS BACK!’ And in them, all of the people are white.

“He posted an image of a white family from that era standing beside a Cadillac Coupe DeVille parked on a suburban street, with the caption: ‘BILLIONS WERE SPENT TO CONVINCE YOU THIS IS EVIL.’

djt is 80 and appears to be utterly daft. Kim Wehle, opinion contributor for The Hill, says he’s “losing it and must be removed.”

Sunday Stealing – Doing It for Ourselves

When Bad Things Happen to Good People

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!

This week we aren’t stealing, we’re contributing! These are questions suggested by our “usual suspects.” They were entertaining, which isn’t a surprise because our participants are bright and fun. Thanks to everyone who took part.

DIY Meme – Doing It for Ourselves

The obvious song.

1. Would you rather have every traffic light turn green or always get the best parking spot? (Kwizgiver)

As a person who takes the bus a lot and doesn’t have to worry about parking as often as most, clearly the latter. And of course, I’ll always choose green anyway.

2. What’s the most difficult thing you have ever done? (Gold in the Clouds)

Physically, it might have been crawling/hobbling down a mountain in Utah in 1994 with what turned out to be a torn meniscus.

My contribution

3. What information do you know that you are proud of/happy about, but others say, “Who cares?” (Roger)

There are so many! It’s faded somewhat, but I could tell you a state by its telephone area code, which remains a geographic identifier to this day. I wrote about it here, and someone I knew well said, “You must have too much time on your hands.”

But the big one is knowing all of the U.S. Presidential terms by year, even those who died in office. So I know there were three Presidents in both 1841 and 1881. This is useful when examining the history of wars, recessions, land acquisitions, and similar events.

4. What mystery do you wish you knew the answer to? (Myra/Mevely)

There’s even a well-regarded book about it: When Bad Things Happen to Good People. And I think even more about the converse, about seemingly good things happening to arguably bad people.

5. What small, ordinary thing brings you disproportionate joy? (Country Dew)

Rainbows, fer sure. As I’ve noted here, we have a rainbow-creating front door, and even little rainbows cause me indescribable giddiness.

6. What time do you go to sleep/wake up? (Annie)

Oh, geez, going to bed sometime between 10:30 pm and 2 am, depending on how much is running through my head. Up at 5 am to 7:30 am.

7. What is your favorite sleeping position? (Lisa)

On the side. I need at least two pillows.

8. Describe your personal Utopia. (Pandora)

No more wars, no more hunger, a clean environment and we can teleport.

9. Imagine that you have a machine that can create any new invention for you based on your description. What do you ask the machine to create, and why? (Plastic Mancunian)

A miocroplastics/PCB vacuum cleaner that would suck up large bodies of water to separate the bad stuff from the good. You could have them at water treatment plants. The why is that too much of our water is potentially or actually dangerous to us.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

#1 C&W hits for 1956

country was “folk”

These are the #1 C&W hits for 1956.

Actually, that’s a bit misleading. In 1944, Billboard published Juke Box Folk Records (JB). On May 15, 1948, it introduced Best Selling Retail Folk Records (BS). Most Played by Folk Disc Jockeys (JY) debuted on December 10, 1949. It wasn’t until October 20, 1958, that a single chart, Hot C&W Sides, was introduced.

This is why there were 92 #1 country hits in 1956. If a song was #1 on ANY of the charts, it was considered a #1 track.

Crazy Arms – Ray Price (Columbia), 20 weeks at #1. JY-20, BS-11, JB-1 (#27 pop)

Heartbreak Hotel -Elvis Presley, 17 weeks at #1. BS-17, JB-13, JY-12 (also #1 pop)

Singing The Blues – Marty Robbins, 13 weeks at #1. BS-13, JB-13, JY-11 (#17 pop)

Don’t Be Cruel – Elvis Presley, 10 weeks at #1. JB-10, BS-5, JY 2/ (also #1 pop)

Hound Dog – Elvis Presley, 10 weeks at #1. JB-10, BS-5 (also #1 pop)

I Walk The Line – Johnny Cash (Sun), 6 weeks at #1. JB-6, JY-1 (#17 pop)

I Forgot To Remember To Forget – Elvis Presley, 5 weeks at #1. JB-5, BS-2 (did not chart pop)

Why Baby Why – Red Sovine & Webb Pierce, 4 weeks at # 1. JY-4, BS-1, JB-1 (did not chart pop)

Blue Suede Shoes – Carl Perkins (Sun), 3 weeks at #1. JB-3 (#2 pop for four weeks)

I Want You, I Need You, I Love You – Elvis Presley, 2 weeks at #1. BS-2, JB-1 (also #1 pop)

I Don’t Believe You’ve Met My Baby – The Louvin Brothers (Capitol), 2 weeks at #1. JY-2 (did not chart pop)

Other charts

There were other charts besides Billboard in the day, most notably Cash Box and Music Vendor, which became Record World. These are the songs that did NOT reach #1 on the Billboard pop charts but topped the charts of CB or MV in 1956.

Just Walking In The Rain – Johnnie Ray, orchestra and chorus conducted by Ray Conniff (Columbia), which hit #1 on MV for four weeks. #2 on Billboard pop chart for four weeks.

The aforementioned Carl Perkins’ Blue Suede Shoes, which hit #1 on MV for one week.

Canadian Sunset (Heywood) by Hugo Winterhalter & his Orchestra, piano solo by Eddie Heywood (RCA Victor), which hit #1 on MV for one week. #2 for one week on Billboard pop chart.

I’ll never be a frequent flyer

ALB to CLT

The idea of me seeing more of the world is stymied by the fact that I’ll never be a frequent flyer. My last adventure is a good example of why.

I ordered round-trip tickets from Albany, NY, to Charlotte, NC, for mid-May 2026. Somehow, I didn’t get the flight I thought I got at c. noon and ended up with a 7:30 a.m. departure. This meant my wife had to take my daughter and me to the airport at about 5:30 a.m.

I went to the TSA machinery. Even though I got a Real ID, the machinery could not read it, despite repeated attempts. Fortunately, just before I left home, I had grabbed my passport, which did the job.

Then I went through the metal detector. The guy asked if I had a belt on; well, yeah. Then he got handsy around my waistband, which made me very uncomfortable. Later, someone told me they should EXPLAIN what they were going to do.

When my sister Leslie arrived in CLT, we had to go to the car rental place, which was visible from the baggage area but which involved an inadequate number of elevators up to the 5th floor, across the walkway, down to the Dollar/Hertz counter with a long line. It was substantial enough time that I returned to the baggage area to retrieve the sunglasses I had dropped, got back to the line, and found it still long.

The “deal” car they first offered was a pickup truck! We didn’t want our luggage out in the elements. Ultimately, with a price upgrade, we got a 2026 Buick Enclave, which was a tank. Also, shifting into reverse, for instance, involved pushing this button on the gear shift, which was non-intuitive.

CLT

Charlotte/Douglas Airport has changed a lot since I last flew into there in 2009, not all for the better. As we were heading towards the rental car return in the 2nd lane to the left, a large bus came out of somewhere into the far-left lane. Though both vehicles were in the correct places, the design made us feel as if the bus were going to crash into us.

We entered the parking garage that was the return vehicle location. But the turn to the Dollar area came up quickly, practically before one could read the sign. By that point, we had to drive out of the whole building – there was no turning around – and leave the airport entirely and come back to try again.

In this TSA line, I was in the midst of making my cane as small as I could, so it would lie flat in the bin, as it did in ALB. But someone said, “It’s good enough.” It went through the scanning machine and jammed it for everyone for about five minutes. While I was waiting near another passenger, we joked about who had broken the machine. If they had given me literally five more seconds, I could have fully retracted the cane.

Flying makes me cranky. It’s a necessary evil until they develop those Star Trek transporters.

Clarence Williams, WWI vet

maternal grandfather

**Top, 4th from the left is Clarence; seated on the right end is Charlie (1911)**

Clarence Williams and his brother Charles loved to play baseball. In fact, in the 1915 Census, Charlie lists his profession as a ballplayer.

But as I noted back in 2019, I didn’t know much about the Williamses, even though Clarence was my biological maternal grandfather. I’m fairly sure I attended Clarence’s funeral in 1958, though I have no recollection of it.

Their father was Charles Williams, who was married to Margaret Collins (1865-1931), whose parents almost certainly were born in County Cork, Ireland.

When I was in Charlotte, NC, recently, I went through a bunch of photos and came upon a few paper relics. I realize that they are exceedingly hard to read. The record below, even blown up, I can’t really make out.

But I was able to find this on Ancestry: Clarence was inducted in Owego, NY, on November 23, 1917. He was 31 1/2 years old and 5’10”. He got promoted twice and served overseas from May 27, 1918, to March 1919, when he was honorably discharged without wounds.

I have noted that his paternal grandfather, Daniel Williams, served in the Civil War.