I’m doing that retrospective quiz thing for 2023.
Did you keep your New Year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn’t check, but I swear I resolved to do less. I’m not sure I achieved that.
Did anyone close to you give birth?
No.
Did anyone close to you die?
Yes. A couple of folks from the choir, Gladys Crowder and Dwight Smith. Also, two people I knew from high school, Bob Maye and Pat Cannon, died within a week of each other, one from ALS, which weirded me out.
Off-topic, when I get a Google alert for someone who died with my name, I always check it out: Roger C. Green of Saugerties, NY, just an hour south of Albany, passed away on Christmas Eve, and he was only a year older than I am. We’re not related. I didn’t know him, but I found it sad.
What countries did you visit?
I’m checking my blog. Nowhere in January. Ditto in February. March? Nope. How about April? Nyet. May – no… wait, YES. Apparently, I went to France! That’s never happened before!
What would you like to have in 2024 that you lacked in 2023?
Less dread that democracy, hanging by a thread, will totally collapse, and not just in the United States.
What was your biggest achievement of the year?
I did a lot of stuff! I went to Las Vegas, helped plan the Underground Railroad Center’s 4 July event, and participated in three trivia events.
What was your biggest failure?
I have failed to create enough space to spend time working on genealogy.
What was the best thing you bought?
I got that gadget for the trip to France, where I could charge multiple cell phones plus my watch simultaneously. I’m still using it.
Celebration
Whose behavior merited celebration?
Anyone willing to point out the threat to democracy, protecting reproductive rights, fighting against book bans, fighting for bans on assault weapons, et al. Also, a resurging labor movement and folks like Partners In Health are working for better medical treatments globally, with some success in fighting TB.
Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
American right-wingers and Republicans. Last year, Kelly asked, “At some point, these people have to return to Earth, don’t they?” There is no reason to believe that is true. The House Republicans were particularly absurd.
Where did most of your money go?
Same as always: the house, books, eating out.
I’m So Excited
What did you get really excited about?
Lots of things: the Ironweed reading, the Lux Aeterna choir performance, seeing the first niece thrice, the UREC event, and Las Vegas. Did I mention we went to France?
Compared to this time last year, are you happier or sadder?
It’s a mixed bag. Personally happier. But the world is screwed. In particular, there is little room for resolution regarding opinions in the Israel/Hamas/Palestine issue.
Thinner or fatter?
About three pounds heavier. My wife is pitching for us to do better in 2024, which will probably happen.
Richer or poorer?
Definitely poorer. We have a kid in college.
What do you wish you’d done more of?
Nothing, which is to say, to have time to read and do genealogy.
What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worrying about things.
How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve is at church, and Christmas Day is at home, then my mother-in-law’s.
Did you fall in love in 2023?
Sure
How many one-night stands?
Same as last year and the year before that…
What was your favorite TV program?
It’s been so long since I’ve watched any series; it tends to be CBS Sunday Morning and 60 Minutes. I’ve watched more football this fall than in the previous five seasons combined.
Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
No, it’s just more intense.
Literature
What was the best book you read?
Comics for Ukraine; Won’t Back Down, edited by Trina Robbins; John Green’s The Anthropocene Reviewed.
What did you want and get?
I got to see two different Eiffel Towers!
What did you want and not get?
Competence and compassion from many political figures.
What were your favorite films of this year?
A Boston Globe critic named Odie Henderson, who I’m not familiar with, listed his Top 10, and I found some overlap. In roughly my order: Past Lives (his #1), The Holdovers (his #7), It Ain’t Over (his #9), Barbie (his #3). He also had Air and You Hurt My Feelings (at #4 and #5, respectively) which I liked, but not at the same level.
The Holdovers and Barbie got some love from the National Board of Review. The Film Independent Spirit Awards liked Past Lives. Vanity Fair had You Hurt My Feelings, The Holdovers, and Past Lives in its Top 8, but it also had Asteroid City, which I did not love. .
Then there are the 2022 films I didn’t see until 2023 that I liked: The Quiet Girl, The Fabelmens, and Women Talking.
I should make a special note of seeing Cabaret with my wife in a cinema. I’d watched it when it came out a half-century ago, but she had never seen it. It is oddly timely. Shortly after that, we watched the documentary The US and the Holocaust – you’d be amazed how long items can reside on our DVR – which amplified how slipping into fascism can take place.
It was in March – I dunno
What did you do on your birthday?
I had a ZOOM call with the Bible Guys at 9 a.m. At noon, I went to the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library to listen to Frank S. Robinson, JD, discuss and read from his book, The American Crisis: Chronicling and Confronting the Trump S***storm. After that, I don’t have any idea.
If you take selfies, post your six favorite ones:
I don’t take selfies. I suck at taking selfies. But I like this pic, taken by my wife, a lot.
How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2023?
{Yawn.} Say what again?
What kept you sane?
Music. Singing music with others, listening to music, and learning about music. Again, this assumes that I am, in fact, sane.
Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Beyonce attended Taylor Swift’s movie opening, and TS returned the gesture. Sisters are doin’ it for themselves.
What political issue stirred you the most?
Keeping democracy
Who did you miss?
GC
One more question; that’ll be tomorrow because the answer is too danged long.
Oh, the photo on top is one that my friend Alexis took of her TV set while I happened to have been captured by Spectrum News sitting at a Juneteenth event on June 17, 2023, on the grounds of the Underground Railroad Education Center.
