July 29: A Day In The Life

A periodic feature: Tuesday, July 29: A Day In The Life.

It was very hot and humid waiting for the bus downtown to the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.  I met a guy I’d seen for years at a local business. If I think of Pink Floyd, his favorite band, I’ll remember his name, David, and he will remember mine.

2 pm: Stephen Weinberg, PhD, health economist at the NYS Department of Health, reviewed Caroline Criado Perez’s book Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men. We allocate resources to everything from economic development to public policy. However, not much data takes gender into account.

Men are considered the default, and women are considered atypical. This touches on everything from medical dosing to voice recognition software. Failure to account for the differences can be anything from inconvenient (bathroom queues) to fatal (recognizing heart attacks). The book seemed to be thorough but possibly overwhelming.

Coincidentally, I came across a recent CBS article titled “Can female crash test dummies improve safety? A bipartisan group of senators pushes for equality in testing.” It’s not just a matter of differences in height and weight.

Traffic 

I took the bus to the Delaware Avenue branch of the APL, reading until it was time to attend the 4:10 showing of the new Fantastic Four movie. My pet peeve: I always hate it when cars come very close to me when I’m crossing the street legally. They stop about a car length as though you are in their way. I crossed Delaware Avenue at the crosswalk, and a car hovered impatiently.

I am more than halfway across when a motorcycle heading north decides to pass in front of me. Naturally, I stop and scream, “Are you out of your freaking mind?” Meanwhile, the impatient car inches even closer. I finish crossing while the vehicle behind the motorcycle keeps coming, and the two cars almost have a collision right behind me.

I saw the movie and liked it. Then I walked to Holland Ave. to catch the bus to Western and Quail. While waiting for the next bus, I hear this woman yelling at someone. Two cars go through the intersection, stop, and then one of the cars makes a U-turn to park on the other side. The woman continues her diatribe when suddenly, about a dozen people come out of nowhere running to this woman’s “defense.” I was worried that the person in the other car was in trouble, and I was about to call the cops. But then, about three minutes later, the crowd dissipates.

A little more conversation

I took the bus down to Western and Allen to pick up something to eat. I crossed Madison Avenue at the same time this young woman, probably in her twenties, did, and we made some passing pleasantry about not wanting to get killed. Yes, we proceeded in the crosswalk. 

The young woman looked thoughtful. “May I ask you a question?” I’ve always said yes, but I’m not required to answer. Often, the question is whether I have 50 cents or five bucks to buy something to eat. Or maybe it’s something irritating.

She asked, “Are you mixed race?” Hmm. This seemed to be a genuine inquiry. I  explained in some hopefully brief detail how, as Henry Louis Gates’ Finding Your Roots would note, almost all black Americans are mixed race of some sort. I also stated that I had vitiligo and my skin was lighter now than 25 years ago.

I asked her if she was of mixed race, and she noted that she was partly Asian. Although I didn’t ask her specifically, she appeared part white.

 This led to a whole conversation about race and genealogy. I told her I wrote about genealogy in my blog, and she said, “Of course, you have a blog.”

I had Emmett Till on my mind (see the 7/28/2025: The photograph of Emmett Till post here). She knew who he was.

Cowboys and…

I mentioned what Heather Cox Richardson said about a person wanting to change the Washington Commanders’ name. The chat lasted about ten minutes, then she had to go, and I needed to pick up my takeout. It was a spontaneously significant human interaction! I guess I’m approachable enough.

So that was my July 29. BTW, what HCR wrote on July 20, which I did not know: “At the turn of the last century, those worried that industrialization was destroying masculinity encouraged sports to give men an arena for manly combat. Sports teams dominated by Euro-Americans often took names that invoked Indigenous Americans because those names seemed to them to harness the idea of ‘savagery’ in the safe space of a playing field.”