Ramblin' with Roger

My wife was reading my blog

a whoa moment

Much to my surprise, my wife was reading my blog. She mentioned to me in last week of June, she perused the post about our daughter coming back from South Africa, and also the next one.

Then, on Saturday morning, June 28th, I heard music from her office. Usually, if she has any audio entertainment, it’s either talk from NPR or classical music, but this was distinctly not that. No, she was listening to links from my post about the #1 country songs in 1955. This is fascinating because I’ve been writing for two decades, and that hasn’t always been the case.

I remember the days when we would visit my friend Fred Hembeck and his wife and child. Fred and I would talk about things we had in our blogs. My wife is trying to understand what we were talking about.

FGH

In fact, I wrote about it here in 2008: Fred, “our wives and I also had a philosophical conversation about blogging. My wife chastised me for saying that she should look at my blog, rather than me having to explain what I had written. I noted that it isn’t just the information in the blog that I was trying to convey, but the style and manner in which I said it.” Ultimately, I resigned myself to making inadequate bullet points if she asked.

She intellectually knew that I always wrote about her on her birthday and our anniversary, and occasionally on Mother’s Day, though our anniversary and Mother’s Day are very close together.

Now she’s reading the blog, at least sometimes. I’d taken it as a matter of faith that she’s not reading it, so the change is a whoa moment.

Anyway, today is her birthday. She’s taken off work for the summer, though I know at least a few work-related calls. This means that all things she can’t get done during the rest of the year are going on. My wife had to go through that stuff after her mother moved from one retirement facility to another, smaller location.

Things are already better. She’s cleared off the dining room table of the material that had been there since we filed our taxes in April. (Why didn’t I put it away? Because our filing systems are mutually confounding.) She probably has more projects to do than time to do them in the next four weeks, but she’ll use the time well—she likes morning walks—and I’m sure I will be enlisted to work on many of those projects.

Happy birthday, dear. I love you.

July rambling: the Sin of Condemnation

The 1934 National Firearms Act unconstitutional?

The Stones in Our Hands: Misreading John 8 and the Sin of Condemnation

‘Motherhood Should Come With a Warning Label’

CBS News’ John Dickerson Takes on Paramount Settlement: “Can You Hold Power to Account After Paying It Millions?” (especially from 36:45) Dan Rather calls it “a Sell-Out to Extortion.” Steve Kroft tells Jon Stewart that it was a “shakedown.”

“The regime is gutting scientific research into climate and atmospheric science for political reasons; at the very time, we need a much better understanding of it,” said one environmentalist. “This is so reckless and dangerous.”

A 2024 report published by Texas A&M University found that extreme rainfall events in the state have already increased by about 10 percent due to climate change. That number could double in the coming decades, reaching a 20 percent increase compared to a century ago.

Deep cuts erode the foundations of the US public health system, end progress, and threaten worse to come.

Kelly has links, including the sad closing of the Ontario Science Centre, which my family LOVED when we went to Toronto in 2011.

VeggieTales creator Phil Vischer released a viral video about race in America in 2020, just after George Floyd was killed. If anything, it’s more relevant now.

Meet the Moon Mammoths, the baseball mascot masterminded by John Oliver’s show

Now I Know: The Bovine Unity of Milk and Glue? and Brunch: Because We Like the Party and Why the National Animal of Scotland is… Wait, Really? and This Airport SUX

Leading to the semiquincentennial

Full interview: Ken Burns on “Face the Nation” about his new film on the American Revolution and the importance of telling the story of American history.

July 4th in the Face of Fascism: Moral resources for Americans who know we’ve been betrayed – Our Moral Moment w/ Bishop William Barber & Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove

“If fireworks ring hollow, you’re not alone. Light a candle instead.”

HCR: The MAGA Ideology That Brought Us to This Moment. It’s Our Job to Make Sure People Know the Truth

I am the man on Fifth Avenue.

Americans Have Never Been Less Proud of Their Country

Retired Supreme Court justice gripes about the hot mess he helped create

“While the lighthouse shining the way is admittedly hard to make out through the cruel fog that envelopes us, it is out there, sturdy upon the shore, and still blazing brightly. We must trust that we will rediscover its guiding power and, together, steer this ship safely home. We’ll do it together, and in our strong and welcome company, we will find the courage and conviction we need.” – Jay Kuo

Purblind bunny boiler

Heather Cox Richardson: “Within hours of [FOTUS] signing the [OBUB] into law, Gun Owners Of America and… other pro-gun organizations filed a lawsuit claiming the measure makes the 1934 National Firearms Act (NFA) unconstitutional. That law regulated machine guns and short-barrel guns by imposing a tax on them and making owners register their weapons. The Supreme Court upheld that law as a tax law. The budget reconciliation bill ended those taxes and thus, the plaintiffs’ claim, the constitutional justification for the law.”

10 Charts to Understand the 900-Page Budget Bill

GOP budget bill would give top 1% over $1 trillion in tax breaks, analysis finds. It will steal from the poor and give to the rich.

FOTUS/DOGE foreign aid cuts could cause 14 million deaths by 2030, study warns

The trolling is coming from inside the White House

Cold as ICE

A surge in ICE detentions of those with no criminal record, despite stated priorities. Still, “as a result of the agency’s stonewalling, the Guardian, alongside the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, last week filed a lawsuit against ICE for unlawfully withholding documents that represent a clear and overwhelming matter of public interest.”

FOTUS ramps up deportation spectacle with new stunts and ICE funding

He only has ICE for you. And: ICE Agents Deserve No Privacy. Attempts by the public to keep tabs on ICE are provoking predictable and pathetic responses from the government.

MUSIC

Lou Harrison’s Pacifika Rondo

Coverville 1539: Carly Simon Cover Story and 1540: The Blondie Cover Story III

Mockingbird – Weavers Gallery

Chorale and Shaker Dance by John Zdechlik

Another Day of Sun, the opening number from La La Land.

Sit Down, John from 1776

Weird Al Medley (A CAPELLA) White & Nerdy, Party in the CIA, Like A Surgeon, Tacky, Eat It – Jared Halley

Sussudio – Phil Collins

The Longest Time – Boyz II Men and Billy Joel

Sunday Stealing — Spill It!

JEOPARDY!

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 is less a steal than a cheat. These are AI-generated responses to the request: “What should I ask to get a stranger to open up?”

Spill It!

1. If money wasn’t an issue, would you move to a new home?

I hate moving. I’ve moved north of 30 times in the last three scores and ten plus years. You know, I hate moving. I grew up in the first house I lived in for about 18 years. Now, I’ve been here in this house for a quarter of a century. I hate moving, going through, and getting rid of stuff. There will probably be a point in my life where I’ll have to move, and I will hate it. I suppose I should mention the fact that I hate moving.

2. Do you listen to different music when you’re happy than when you’re sad?

I have had some depressing music I would play when I was sad, but in general, I play what’s in the queue, tied to either some artists’ birthdays or Irish music around Saint Patrick’s Day, movie soundtracks the month of the Oscars, original soundtracks around the time of the Tonys in June, et al.

3. What’s your favorite way to unwind after a tough day?

Reading a book, a magazine, or a newspaper in a very comfortable chair, preferably with something to keep my legs up on.

4. What’s the first book you remember from childhood?

Play The Game, which I mentioned here.

Charisma

5. What made you smile today?

The picture above. This requires some context. I taped a couple of segments of JEOPARDY in Boston in mid-September 1998. Since it was relatively close by, WTEN-TV (Channel 10) in Albany, which airs the show, had sent a crew to the taping at the Wang Theater, much to my surprise.

From here: “When [WTEN’s] Bianca de la Garza had interviewed me before the show, I noted that just passing the test didn’t guarantee being on the show. So here’s the Bianca voiceover: ‘He had to have something else.’ Roger, talking: ‘It must be charisma, I don’t know.’ (I laugh.)

“Charisma. Apparently, enough people saw this [which aired in the days before the show aired on November 9] to make this the running joke in the office, not for a couple of days, or a few months, but for four or five YEARS, especially from Jinshui.”

So, somebody gave me this picture. It was buried with some other artwork in my house before my annual hearts game in March, but since then, it’s been sitting on my bookshelf in my office, not far from my desk.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

#1 Hot Country Singles for 1965

Eddy Arnold, Sonny James, Jim Reeves

Here are the #1 Hot Country Singles for 1965. While I only owned one of the songs on this list – Roger Miller, naturally – I always had a great affection for Buck Owens. I liked to watch him on TV long before he was on Hee Haw. It’s partly a function of the fact that he was on Capitol Records, and I got to read the song list of his albums from the record sleeves of my Beatles albums. I loved that Bakersfield sound.

Before You Go (Don Rich-Buck Owens)- Buck Owens (Capitol), six weeks at #1

I’ve Got A Tiger By The Tail (Harlan Howard-Buck Owens)- Buck Owens (Capitol), five weeks at #1

King Of The Road (Miller)- Roger Miller (Smash), five weeks at #1

You’re The Only World I Know (Bob Tubert-Sonny James) – Sonny James, “the Southern Gentleman” (Capitol) four weeks at #1

Is It Really Over (Reeves)- Jim Reeves (RCA Victor), three weeks at #1.

Hello Vietnam (Tom T. Hall)- Johnny Wright [with his his wife Kitty Wells] (Decca), three weeks at #1

Make The World Go Away (Hank Cochran) – Eddy Arnold (RCA Victor), three weeks at #1. Other than King Of The Road, the song I best remember from this list.

This Is It – Jim Reeves (RCA Victor), three weeks at #1

Behind The Tear (Ned Miller and Sue Miller) – Sonny James, three weeks at #1

Girl On The Billboard (H. Mills-W. Haynes) – Del Reeves (United Artists), two weeks at #1

What’s He Doing In My World (Carl Belew, Billy Joe Moore, Eddie Bush) -Eddy Arnold (RCA Victor), two weeks at #1

The guy hawking breakfast sausages

The First Thing Ev’ry Morning (And The Last Thing Ev’ry Night) (J. Dean-R. Roberts)- Jimmy Dean (Columbia), two weeks at #1

Yes, Mr. Peters – Roy Drusky and Priscilla Mitchell (Mercury), two weeks at #1

May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Yur Nose (N. Merritt)=”Little” Jimmy Dickens (Columbia), two weeks at #1

Buckeroo (Bob Morris)- Buck Owens and his Buckeroos (Capitol), two weeks at #1. Instrumental

Ribbon Of Darkness (Gordon Lightfoot)- Marty Robbins (Columbia). I got my first Marty Robbins album, The Essential Robbins, 1951-1982, from my late FIL’s CD collection

The Bridge Washed Out -Warner Mack (Decca)

Only You Can Break My Heart (Owens)- Buck Owens and his Buckeroos (Capitol)

A week in the life for July 2025

money for college

Here’s a week in the life for July 2025. Some were referred to before the fact here. The last time was not.

Friday, July 4: Lavada Nahon, culinary historian and interpreter of African American history with the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation, spoke at the Underground Railroad Education Center, 194 Livingston Avenue in Albany. “She has a wealth of experience interpreting the lives of free and enslaved African Americans across the mid-Atlantic region, with an emphasis on the work of enslaved cooks in the homes of the elite class.”

She spoke powerfully about New York State’s Investment in the Institution of Enslavement and Its Legacy Today. Northerners seem to buy the myth that slavery was only a Southern thing, but enslavement existed in New York State until 1827. Frederick Douglass’s famous What To The Slave Is the Fourth of July in 1852 was only a quarter century later.

(Sidebar: I need to write about one of my ancestors who may have been enslaved in New York before 1810, just north of New York City, per the Northeast Slavery Records Index (NESRI), a “searchable compilation of records that identify individual enslaved persons and enslavers in the states of New York, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey.)

Also, my church had raised $10,000 for the planned UREC Interpretive Center. The proposed Center has taken a hit with money allocated by the IMLS suddenly terminated.

Songs of Freedom

Sunday, July 6: My family had never been to Hudson Crossing Park in Schuylerville, about 45 minutes north of Albany. As a part of the buildup to the Albany Symphony concert that evening, the UREC singers performed Songs of Freedom at the Pavilion. I didn’t mention that I was one of the singers; my wife was also recruited. Some of us had rehearsed a week before.

Some songs were from George Washington Clark’s The Liberty Minstrel, a “collection of songs and poetry written in the mid-19th century addressing the themes of slavery and the yearning for freedom.” It seemed to have been well received.

But it was really hot and muggy, and my family left before the ASO performance.

Frederick Douglass

Tuesday, July 8: Jack Hanrahan discussed his history/travel book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: Frederick Douglass in Maryland at the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. He was very informative and engaging.

Jack also described his 2022 book, Traveling Freedom’s Road: A Guide to Exploring Our Civil Rights History. “In 2018, [he] and his wife Lisa took a lengthy car trip to the South. They visited big cities and small towns where civil rights history was made decades ago. The trip changed them.” While initially focusing on several Southern States, he expanded the book to most of the country.

He’s now working on books about Frederick Douglass in New England, and in New York in the next two years.

Money for college

Wednesday July 9th: My wife and daughter, with my input, have been working on a letter to send to our daughter’s college. The college has offered us far less for this upcoming semester than what they had given us in previous years.

They believe that we are lot more well off. That’s in part because I had taken out several thousand dollars from my retirement 401K to help finance my daughter’s semester abroad to the University of Cape Town, South Africa. This shows up as income on an IRS statement, but in fact I am merely taking money from my extant resource.

The appeals process trying to convey this messsage mechanically involved making a bunch of PDFs and then trying to upload it to the college. It didn’t “take” on Monday, so this was a redo.

Unfortunately, the computers of my wife and daughter are lacking upload capabilities. So they had to purloin my computer for several hours over the two days. My own machine also has upload limitations – I can’t upload Windows 11, which I need to do before October – but I had enough capacity so they could eventually get those documents to the college.

We hope that our appeal is successful, but we do have a Hail Mary Plan B.

Weird random thing

In the past week, two strangers, separately, walked up to me and said how much they like my sunglasses. They fit over my regular glasses. I have had prescription sunglasses, but they’ve never worked for me, even the ones that change. for a few minutes, they are too dark when I walk indoors and not dark enough when I go outdoors.

These sunglasses I bought for three bucks at Lodge’s, a downtown department store founded around the end of the Civil War. I should see if they have more.