December 2020 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Ask Roger Anything, or 2020 won’t end

Bring on 2021

The Boston Globe listed the 20 best shows on television this year; I have seen NONE of them. I’ve done no sourdough bread baking. How is it that I now have MORE books to read than I did last year at this time?

Earlier this month, the NYS Council of Churches had its Gala, the recording of which is here. There were various speakers and presentations. The CoC sponsored a Youth Leadership Seminar in DC, which my daughter attended. Their info is at about the hour and 25-minute mark of the video. About 10 minutes later, see a pic of a chance encounter with our US Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.

What’s weird is that the Seminar was in February of THIS year. You know, as people get older, they are always amazed at how fast time goes by. Yet, I would have thought that trip was two years ago, at least. It’s a 2020… what’s the opposite of a miracle?

Or else

In order to purge myself of this particularly infinite year, I’ve determined that you can Ask Roger Anything. You really should. If you don’t, 2020 won’t end. Or so I’m told. If they say it, it must be true. You may ask about 2020, or 2021 if it ever arrives. I’m not a big believer in the apocalypse. But fires, floods, pestilence, strife…

As always, I’ll even answer your queries, generally within the month. You are invited to leave your questions, suggestions, recipes, predictions of end times in the comments section of this here blog, or on Facebook or Twitter. Hey, if you send it to me on Instagram, I might actually have to go there. On Twitter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck.

If you prefer to remain anonymous, that is permitted. However, let me know if that’s your intent. E-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to be unnamed. Otherwise, I’ll assume otherwise.

The wonderful world of snowfall

The projections for snowfall in the Albany area on Wednesday night and Thursday, even on Tuesday, were for between nine and fifteen inches. It ended up being closer to nine PLUS fifteen inches in my city.

It started to fall at an inconvenient time for my usual snow removal strategy. Usually, I like to shovel often, after four or five inches have hit the ground. But at 10 pm when I went to bed, there was really only a dusting.

By the time I got up a little after 6, there was well over one foot. After my Bible study, I went out for about 40 minutes, fully prepared, including sunglasses to protect me from the snow glare. It took 10 minutes just to clear the porch and the steps. I got only half way down the walkway.

After breakfast, including some hot tea, I went out for round two. And it was wonderful. Seriously. I got to talk to my neighbors, who were all socially distant. We conversed about things such as the fact that my wife, a teacher, had a snow day in her district, but my daughter had to do the mindnumbing online school. A couple of the neighbors had snowplows, but one of the machines stubbornly refused to start.

Is that our vehicle? I can’t tell.

After clearing the sidewalk, it was time to start with our vehicle, parked on the street. This is more difficult to liberate because I feel restricted as to where to put the snow. I don’t want to put it in a place that will make it harder for my neighbors to dig their cars out. You’re not supposed to dump it in the road. So I end up schlepping it farther. By the time I went back inside, it’d been another two hours. The snow had finally stopped.

More tea. After lunch, I asked my wife to help with liberating the car because she’d be the one who had to drive it to work the next day. Already, it was already getting colder. We didn’t want to have to dig it out the next morning when it’d be 9 degrees Fahrenheit. And about an hour later, we had succeeded.

A couple of snowfall notes. The mail never came. Given the stories I’ve heard about the Postal Service, I want to attest that this was the FIRST time this had occurred in years. And we did get that day’s mail the following day. The newspaper arrived the next day as well.

Apparently, our daughter had gone out at 1 a.m. and had shoveled the walk. So she had removed three or four inches before I had started. Thanks, dear.

My wife appreciates the fact that I shovel the whole sidewalk, not a shovel-width of it. That’s the way I learned how to do it decades ago. And as I get older, I HATE walking through those narrow channels that some others call “shoveling.”

My hometown of Binghamton got over 40 inches from that storm. So we were lucky!

That day, we also took some pictures and recorded an Advent video. All in all, a great day. Well, except for my back. Where’s the Tylenol?

Nat Cole, Charles Brown rule Xmas

Nathaniel Daniel Coles

Nat King Cole was born Nathaniel Daniel Coles on St. Patrick’s Day 1919 in Montgomery, AL. Died from cancer on 15 Feb 1965. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000 as an early influence

The Christmas Song. This tune has one of the most interesting recordings and chart histories in music. It was first recorded in 1946 by the King Cole Trio with four string players, a harpist, and a drummer.
#3 RB for three weeks, #3 pop in 1946. #23 pop in 1947. #8 RB, 24 pop in Jan 1949. #30 pop in Jan 1953.

A new mono version was recorded in 1953 with Nelson Riddle conducting. This is the version that charted most often.
#29 pop in 1954. #80 pop in 1960. #80 pop, #29 Adult Contemporary in 1962. #13 Xmas in 1963 and 1973. #6 Xmas in 1964. #4 Xmas in 1965 and 1967. #5 Xmas in 1966. #2 Xmas in 1968. #1 Xmas in 1969 and 1972. #9 Xmas in 1970. #5 Xmas in 1983. #7 Xmas in 1984. #6 Xmas in 1985.

In 1961, Nat recorded a stereo version with Ralph Carmichael conducting.
#16 Adult Contemporary in 1997.
Nat is #4 of the Christmas in the Charts 1920-2004 artists. Gene Autry is #2, and Bing Crosby, unsurprisingly, is #1.

Not the Peanuts character

#3 is Charles Brown. Born in Texas 13 Sept 1922. Died 21 Jan 1999. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 as an early influence.

Merry Christmas Baby, with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers. Brown on piano, Moore on guitar, Eddie Williams on bass.
#3 RB in 1947. #8 RB in 1948. #9 RB in 1949. #5 Xmas in 1965. #4 Xmas in 1966 and 1969. #6 Xmas in 1967. #2 Xmas in 1968 and 1973. #8 X,mas in 1970.
Different versions went to #4 Xmas in 1964 and #10 Xmas in 1965; and #2 Xmas in 1973.
Please Come Home for Christmas – #76 pop in 1961. #108 pop in 1962. #4 Xmas in 1963 and 1969. #3 Xmas in 1964, 1966-1968, and 1970. #2 Xmas in 1965. #1 Xmas in 1972. #9 Xmas in 1973.

And more

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway. #11 Xmas in 1972

White Christmas – The Drifters. #2 RB in 1954. #5 RB, #80 pop in 1955. #12 RB in 1956. #96 pop in 1960. #88 pop in 1962. #17 in 1963 and 1967. #4 in 1964. #13 Xmas in 1965. #14 Xmas in 1967.

The Mistletoe And Me – Isaac Hayes. #8 Xmas in 1969. #5 Xmas in 1973

Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas – The Staple Singers. #2 Xmas in 1973

All I Want For Christmas Is You – Carla Thomas (written by Andrew Charles Williams, Jr., best known for “Oh, Pretty Woman”), #11 Xmas in 1966

That’s What Christmas Means to Me – Stevie Wonder

The new US citizenship test

obsession with battles and wars

You may have heard about the new citizenship test that went into effect in the past month. Immigrant advocates have called it more difficult than previous versions. “Iit is longer, more nuanced and, in some questions, has a tinge of politics.” According to Politico, it’s full of conservative bias – and dotted with mistakes.

“The previous iteration of the test, last revised in 2008, required applicants to answer six of 10 questions, drawn from a pool of only 100.” Now it’s 12 out of 20. “Several new questions call for biographical details about Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and Dwight Eisenhower.” “Another asks for ‘the purpose of the 10th Amendment.'” Please go to the nearest intersection and ask random people to describe Amendment 10. If you get more than one in ten, I’ll be shocked.

Let’s say your first citizenship test question is “Who does a U.S. senator represent?” In 2020, “the only approved answers from the USCIS study guide, now embodying the [regime’s] revisionist approach to government. ‘No, it’s not all people of their state — the ONLY acceptable answer has been changed to CITIZENS of their state.'”

Even more rights than that

65. What are three rights of everyone living in the United States?

• Freedom of expression
• Freedom of speech
• Freedom of assembly
• Freedom to petition the government
• Freedom of religion
• The right to bear arms

“Notably missing from the UCSIS answer list are the rights to counsel, due process, equal protection, and freedom from cruel and unusual punishment or unreasonable search and seizure. An aspiring citizen who gave one of those responses could presumably be marked wrong” on the oral test.

“There are other problems with the civics test, including its unnecessary complexity, its obsession with battles and wars… Only a single answer set includes any women by name (there are 11 naming men). The word ‘democracy’ appears just once. The first section on the 2008 test was titled ‘Principles of American Democracy,’ now ominously replaced by ‘Principles of American Government.'”

The regime’s discriminatory legacy on immigrant rights is intact.

I should note, once again, that immigrants contribute to the U.S. economy in many ways. “They work at high rates and make up more than a third of the workforce in some industries… Immigrant workers help support the aging native-born population, increasing the number of workers as compared to retirees and bolstering the Social Security and Medicare trust funds. And children born to immigrant families are upwardly mobile, promising future benefits not only to their families but to the U.S. economy overall.”

Oh, yeah, What IS the purpose of the 10th Amendment? (It states that the) powers not given to the federal government belong to the states or to the people.

Sedition, Fiddler on the Roof song

he can’t change it with a tweet

Lately, I’ve not slept well at all. I go to bed around 9:30 pm, wake up three hours later, stay up for an hour, and check my email.

The evening before last, I had been singing to myself “Sedition” to the tune of “Tradition”. It’s undoubtedly a function of two things, that post I wrote recently and my unabashed love for Fiddler on the Roof.

I started jotting down notes from the emails. Suddenly, I had a few couplets, followed by a phrase that rhymes with sedition. I’ve barely edited them. Some of the rhymes are really forced. But I offer them up so that YOU might add to them, fix them, whatever.

Leave your suggestions in the comments on the blog or on Facebook. I’d be interested to see what you come up with.

The song, as it were

His faux regime refused to take the virus seriously
Engaged in partisan attacks – where is the PPE?
He hampered prevention, prevention.

The country’s finally seeing through his xenophobic lies
His anti-immigrant retorts should be something we despise
The bigot’s agnation, agnation.

His foolish quest to stay in charge is led by Sidney Powell
And Rudy Giuliani, whose hair dye is a howl
The lawyers’ deception, deception.

IMPOTUS plans to give some pardons to his family
Just like he did for Michael Flynn and Scooter Libby
The pardon provision, provision.

The Electoral College proves his constitutional defeat
Yet he keeps up denying; he can’t change it with a tweet
He stuck in delusion, delusion

Franklin Graham Says Trump ‘Will Go Down in our history
As one of the Great Presidents’ – I think he’s cra-a-zy
No state church in our nation, our nation.

He inflames radicals who hijack our society
They threaten civil servants who just want us to be free
Tyrannical sedition, sedition.