December 2025 - Page 2 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Lydster: unsent photo

Ho, ho, ho!

Here’s the story of the unsent photo.

I’ve stated many times that one of the primary reasons I started blogging was because I was terrible at keeping track of my daughter’s first couple of years in that baby book that almost every parent is gifted, including us. You know, the date of the first step, the first tooth. I do recall that she began cruising before she reached eight months; that was a term I had never heard before becoming a parent.

My wife and I were also awful at sending out Christmas cards. But we figured: Hey, we have a new baby! Surely, this will be the opportunity to send out cards with the information about our addition to the family.

Moreover, they were taking pictures at my house of worship for the church directory. This was the perfect time to take advantage of this confluence.

Seasonal failure

And yet… and yet, somehow we never really sent this photo and card, probably taken in October or November of her first year, out for Christmas, even though the cards were printed in plenty of time. So basically, we sucked at sending out Christmas cards even when we should have been highly motivated. A few family members MAY have gotten the picture, although I am not at all certain.

In fact, we sent out Christmas cards in either 2022 or 2023, quite possibly for the first time as a family, and our daughter was already an adult by that point.

So consider this an extremely belated Merry Christmas from us, new parents, and our little child, who’s not so little anymore.

The 24 Dec main meal

Christmas eve pancakes 2025

Finally, here’s our Christmas Eve linner or dunch or sunch or lupper, or whatever you eat at c 3:45 pm when you have to be at church at 6 p.m. The daughter designed pancakes with blueberry eyes and a raspberry nose. The bacon antlers were skipped on her meal.

The candy cane was alternating banana and strawberry slices.

Seven Carols For Christmas

Alice Parker for Robert Shaw

Here are Seven Carols For Christmas, arranged by Alice Parker. My church choir, along with the Festival Celebration choir, performed these on December 14.

In 2006, Alice Parker wrote this description of the process:

“In 1970, Robert Shaw asked me to write some arrangements of Christmas carols for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Choruses. We had not worked together since the last album for the Robert Shaw Chorale, the Irish Folk Songs in 1967, and his move to Atlanta.

“He was planning a series of Christmas concerts, and was not satisfied with the settings he could find: they were apt to be too elaborate, with overly simple choral parts. He asked that the chorus be allowed to shine in rather open orchestrations, and gave me freedom to choose whichever titles I wished in a mix of familiar and unfamiliar tunes. In Mr. Shaw’s acclaimed Christmas concert, the carols were scattered through the retelling of the story, in different patterns with the succeeding years.

“So they were not at the beginning intended to be a single concert piece, although I am frequently asked to share my preference for a sequence. One possibility, using all the numbers, is: O Come, Emmanuel; Away in a Manger; Fum, Fum, Fum!; Good Christian Men, Rejoice; So Blest a Sight; God Rest You Merry; Masters in This Hall. Another choice would be to split the above list into two parts, with the first three forming a little suite from varied sources, and the next four celebrating their British heritage. But you may order them as you wish, or use just one or two in a special program.

Rejoice!

“The enduring popularity of these arrangements has been a source of great satisfaction to me. It shows that these wonderful melodies, with their texts of love and hope, can unite different generations in the concert hall, as well as in the church and at home. Even in the cacophony of today’s musical world, their message shines clear and true. So now, good Christian folk, rejoice, and join your voices in tidings of comfort and joy! “

A live performance by The Michael O’Neal Singers, December 2016

The Pioneer Valley Symphony performance at Greenfield High School. Also, O Holy Night with Emily Jaworski. December 19, 2015

Huron Carol

fillyjonk linked to the Huron Carol. The singer “notes that the Nativity story has been ‘reset’ from the First Century Middle East to pre-colonial North America…. I am not bothered by it: the idea that Christ is for all times and all places can also sit along with the idea of ‘we know a little of the history, so we should try to be accurate.'”

Merry Christmas!

The catch-all Christmas Eve post

random

The catch-all Christmas Eve post is a soft and fuzzy list of seasonally related items. This could be, “Oh, nuts, I didn’t post THAT piece of music,” Or someone else shared a nugget I wanted to steal.

Gabriel’s Message – Sting

Gabriel’s Message – VOCES8 & Classic FM

The Wexford Carol – Yo-Yo Ma, Alison Krauss

Gaudete – Steeleye Span

The Bells of Christmas – Julie Andrews, from a Firestone LP I still own, crackles and all

Jesus Christ -Big Star

A Charlie Brown Christmas album- Vince Guaraldi

GRINCH – Middle Aged Dad Jam Band feat. “Weird Al” Yankovic

Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte

What Child Is This? – Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Nativity Scene | Nate Bargatze’s Nashville Christmas

Must Be Santa – Bob Dylan

Bethlehemian Rhapsody – because puppets

Hamidolph (An American Christmas Story) – Hamilton Parody – Eclipse 6

The serious Carol of the Bells / Shchedryk – Marsh Family adaptation of Ukrainian New Year song for 2026

The raucous The Season’s Upon Us -Dropkick Murphys

It’s A Wonderful Life

I was one of those people who had dismissed that 1946 Frank Capra film, sight unseen.

Cole Haddon wrote Why You’ll Never Get Tired of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ Spoiler: It’s not because life is so wonderful.

“’I’m not a praying man, but if you’re there and you can hear me, show me the way.’

“George Bailey utters these words in a now-iconic scene near the end of It’s a Wonderful Life – but it was an unscripted line of dialogue, as it turns out.

“‘As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears,’ Jimmy Stewart said in a 1987 interview. ‘I broke down sobbing.’

“George wasn’t supposed to cry, but Stewart couldn’t help himself. That’s because the actor was a broken man himself, not unlike the character he was playing…

“He was suffering from shell shock, what we call Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome today. Shakes, a short temper, nightmares. He had become prone to the very same mood swings and explosive outbursts George Bailey periodically displays.

“However, playing George turned out to be spiritually restorative for Stewart in many ways. While he rarely spoke about what he witnessed in the skies over Europe, the character taught him how to act again and, I think it’s fair to say, provided him with one of the most personal roles he ever played.”

Binghamton State Hospital volunteers

Inebriate Asylum

Binghamton State Hospital was/is an imposing behemoth. From the National Park Service: “The New York State Inebriate Asylum [its original name] is nationally significant in the area of health/medicine as the first single-purpose hospital in the United States that was designed and built for the treatment of alcoholism as a disease.”

From Asylum Projects: “Founder J. Edward Turner belonged to a school of thought that alcoholism wasn’t just a vice, but could be cured medically. The well-lit rooms and extensive grounds are an important marker in New York State’s view of addiction… But it “only served its original purpose for 15 years, at which point Turner’s inebriate asylum was converted into a hospital for the chronically insane.”

From Womb to Tomb: The Story of Binghamton State Hospital by Mary Chattin and Danielle Snali noted, “In 1890, the ‘Castle’ now emphasized treating and curing patients rather than isolating them away from society.

“In the late 1950s, the Binghamton State Hospital was home to around 3,400 patients and doubled its staff to implement new, intensive therapy programs… By 1962, the hospital was home to 1,200 employees and 2,500 patients. The nearly 1,000 patients decrease in just a few years was often credited to the effectiveness of the new treatment programs.”

Community support

And perhaps to the volunteers? Starting in the late 1950s, awards were given to organizations and individuals who shared their talents. In 1960, the second annual event honored four Triple Cities groups, including the Vestal Jaycees for ward activities and cooking classes; the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce for holding record hops; the National Secretaries Association, Binghamton Chapter, for teaching shorthand and typing; and the Johnson City Catholic Daughters Court, Monsignor 1594, for ward activities (games and parties). Each volunteered 250 or more hours.

Four individuals, pictured above in the June 9, 1960, Binghamton Evening Press, were also honored for donating 100 hours of volunteer time, including my father, Les Green.

The following year, a longer story appeared in the newspaper about the needs of the clientele. Addison C. Keeler, president of the volunteers organization, noted that hospital volunteers wage a “relentless war on boredom… Many patients, in their present attitude of mind, aren’t going anywhere, but if volunteers can restore some purpose and bring some happiness, the volunteers can feel that their efforts were worthwhile.”

I knew my father performed at the Binghamton State Hospital several times. But I didn’t know until recently that he was the President of the hospital’s volunteer council in 1963. I wonder why he was so invested in that institution.

Closure

“The Binghamton State Hospital was not immune to financial hardships, but it succeeded in the 1960s and 1970s when other state hospitals in the United States were struggling. This institution, once a critical service in the Binghamton community, lost its grandeur and purpose. However, it remains the mysterious ‘Castle on the Hill,’ awaiting a new story.”

Per the Wikipedia page: “The building remained in use as a mental hospital or psychiatric services center until 1993, when it was closed due to inadequate maintenance… In 2015, Binghamton University announced it had taken stewardship of the building and published plans for its rehabilitation.”

The building and its people have been the subject of a one-woman play, The Asylum Project by BU Assistant Professor of Theatre Elizabeth Mozer, which she turned into an original mainstage production called Castle on the Hill in the 2010s.

Here are several photos, from long after it was closed.

Special thanks to David from a Binghamton Facebook page for the nifty photo!

Pay attention to Ask Roger Anything

professional curse

In a silly Vlogbrothers post, John Green repeatedly asked his brother Hank, “What is the meaning of life?” One time, Hank replied, “I think the meaning of life is to be in relationship with other people and pay attention.”

Paying attention sounds like an excellent idea. As a librarian, I am always looking for BS on my social media feed. I see people declare that person X died when they hadn’t. Person Y is attributed to have said or done something that did not happen, or someone with a similar name or look did.

The one thing I have had to learn is that I can’t fix the Internet. I’ll point out typos to long-time blogger buddies. When I find something egregiously wrong on a government website, I would have left a comment in 2024. Now, at least on federal websites, I need to ascertain if it is a casual error or intentional disinformation. This makes me sad. l will still try to correct state government sites.

Some of the lack of paying attention is dangerous. I’m mildly surprised that my wife hasn’t run over someone who walks out into traffic while they are looking at their phones. She’s an excellent driver, but please stop testing her reflexes, people.

It may be a professional curse, but I find myself paying close attention, from removing obstacles on the sidewalk to noting where most people sit in church.

Zee ask

If you have a query that requires my attention, you may Ask Roger Anything. Masochist that he is, he will answer almost any question, no matter how absurd, and in short order.

You can leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.