December 2025 - Page 3 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing Feels Festive

Maundy Thursday

Welcome to Sunday Stealing, which, heading towards the solstice, Christmas, and other celebrations, feels festive.

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!

Impetua is a blogger who stole this meme from someone named Yello, whom our moderator could not find. While it’s not specifically about the holidays, these questions do have a festive feel.

Stealing Some Fun

1. Describe your favorite cake.

My favorite cake is carrot cake, which I’ve had for my birthday about half of my life. Considering I didn’t have it in the first 18 years means I’ve had it a lot since. Part of my grand self-delusion is that, since it has carrots, it must be healthy. I don’t REALLY believe it, but it’s pretty delicious, especially with vanilla ice cream.

2. Think of the best party you’ve ever attended. Were you a host or a guest?

The best parties I can remember are my birthday, which I suppose seems terribly unimaginative and/or self-centered, but it’s true. For my 16th birthday, my parents held a party at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, NY. I rarely had parties at home because our house was so small, so my parents renting out a place was a big deal.

The next birthday that stands out is actually the 33 1/3rd birthday party I had with my then-girlfriend. We held it in July because my birthday in March is cold, and the weather can be dodgy. I remember the invitation was on green paper, of course, and the design was an LP label with the party information.

My 50th birthday was at my church, and my sister Leslie came up for it.

I’ve had a card party (hearts) at my house almost every year for the past dozen years, and that’s always a joy. We play hearts

Hallmark

3. When you choose a greeting card, do you pay more attention to the words or the pictures?

I always pay more attention to the words. I like a nice picture, but a nice picture with saccharine verbiage will turn me right off.

4. What’s your favorite holiday?

The problem with most holidays in the United States is that they are often fraught. The so-called “war on Christmas.” Thanksgiving carries a lot of baggage from its first celebration. MLK Day and Juneteenth are deemed too DEI. Most people can’t tell the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day?

It may be Lent generally, and Maundy Thursday specifically. I love that melancholy music.

5. Who is your favorite character on your favorite TV show?

That would be Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He had a good job, a lovely and talented wife, and a pleasant child. They lived in a charming house. He had good friends. What’s not to like?

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

the Ballad of the Brown King

Langston Hughes

The cantata The Ballad of the Brown King (1954) is an important work, James Bennett II from New York Public Radio WQXR posits: “Margaret Bonds’ multi-part choral work, for which she collaborated with poet Langston Hughes, is an attempt to recapture the titular brownness that has art-historically been associated with one of the biggest holidays of one of the world’s biggest religions.

“Like the worlds in which the Nativity story exists, there is no singular style that dominates Bonds’s work; over the course of about 25 minutes, there’s the western orchestra’s pastoral serenity alongside gospel and black-and-bluesy American folk traditions.”

But it was not a straight line to success. From John Michael Cooper here: “Bonds and Hughes then shelved the cantata despite this impact, but as the Freedom movement gained headway in the early 1960s, they returned to it – revising it, adding two movements, and energetically promoting it in advance of the performance.

“The premiere of the reworked version took place, in a now-lost version employing piano-duet accompaniment, to a packed house in a concert produced by the Emergency Committee for the Southern Freedom Struggle on Sunday, 11 December 1960, at the Harlem YWCA at 50th St. and 8th Ave; the work was dedicated to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “

From Wikipedia: “A new orchestration of the piece by conductor Malcolm J. Merriweather was recorded in 2018 by the Dessoff Choirs and released on November 1, 2019. Margaret Bonds’s original orchestration is unpublished and has never been recorded.

Balthazar

“Ballad focuses on one of the Three Kings from the story of the birth of Jesus. Hughes chose the African king, Balthazar, as a way to ‘reinforce the image of African participation in the Nativity story.'”

Here is The Ballad of the Brown King:

The Dessoff Orchestra and The Dessoff Choirs

The Chapel Hill Chorus – ‘Wint’ry Light’ 12/15/24

UUCSR Choir and Soloists with The Orchestra at Shelter Rock, Manhasset, NY, with remarks

Rob Reiner; Michele Singer Reiner

Being Charlie

Rob Reiner, I knew pretty early on, was Hollywood royalty. He was the son of Carl Reiner, who worked alongside Sid Caesar and Mel Brooks in the 1950s and ’60s. I mainly knew that he created “The Dick Van Dyke Show” based on those days, plus many other comedy projects.

Like most people of a certain age, I first saw Rob Reiner regularly in the Norman Lear sitcom All in the Family (1971-1979) as Mike Stivic, the son-in-law of Archie Bunker, who referred to Mike as “Meathead.” Or worse. But my favorite Archie/Mike scene involves socks and shoes; the concept was replicated in the December 10, 2025 Pearls Before Swine.

From Variety: “‘I’m not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that among American studio talents, I consider Rob Reiner the best director never to have been nominated for best director,’ writes chief film critic Peter Debruge. ‘Just look at his credits. The guy was the Billy Wilder of our generation: a filmmaker with an instinct for comedy who could operate across genres, making films with brash, larger-than-life characters you recognized instantly and felt you’d known your whole life.'”

Critics have considered his run of films from 1985 to 1994, all but one of which I saw in the cinema at the time, to be among the most incredible runs. And many of them have memorable lines that have entered the general lexicon.

This Is Spinal Tap (1985) – “up to 11“

The Sure Thing (1986), I never saw

Stand by Me (1987)

The Princess Bride (1989) – “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” And many more.

When Harry Met Sally… (1990) – “I’ll have what SHE’S having.” The line was delivered by Rob’s mom, Estelle.

Misery (1992) – “I’m your number-one fan.”

A Few Good Men (1994) -“You can’t handle the truth!”

Changing the ending

From the LA Times: Michele Singer “was gigging as a photographer in the late 1980s, visiting film sets as part of her income. One of those sets was ‘When Harry Met Sally …,’ the romantic comedy Rob Reiner was directing in New York, a film that would go on to become one of the era’s defining hits. Having divorced actor and director Penny Marshall eight years earlier, Reiner said he noticed his future wife across the set and was immediately drawn to her.

“Scripted by Nora Ephron, the film was originally written to leave its central couple, played by Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, separate, crossing paths over the years without ending up together. But after meeting [his future wife], Reiner reconsidered. He rewrote the final scene so the characters reunite and marry, an ending that helped make the film a beloved classic.”

Michele was a photographer who “moved from still images into filmmaking and later into producing, with work that blended performance, politics, and persuasion.”

From here: “Alongside her husband, Singer Reiner supported initiatives focused on early childhood education, family well-being, and social development. Her involvement was typically behind the scenes, reflecting her preference for substance over public recognition.”

Family dynamics

THR notes, “Nick Reiner has been arrested in connection with the homicide investigation into the deaths of his parents, Rob and Michele Reiner.

“It is not the first time that tension between the son and his parents has come into the public eye. Ten years ago, Rob and Nick actually made a movie about the challenges the Reiners faced.

“The younger Reiner had long struggled with addiction. The family’s 2015 film drama, Being Charlie, documented the resultant struggles. Nick co-wrote the script with a friend from rehab, inspired by their experiences, while Rob directed the movie, drawing off what he went through as a father. Sanctioned by the family, the movie offers an unusually candid glimpse into the inner workings of the Reiner household in those years when Nick’s challenges grew. Cary Elwes played the Rob stand-in and Nick Robinson the Nick Reiner character.”

Legacy

Here’s a Photo gallery from IMDb and Tributes from actors and fellow directors about Rob. CBS Sunday Morning – From the archives: Three with Rob Reiner

From the Atlantic:

“The shocking loss of the filmmaker and actor Rob Reiner is especially distressing because of the manner of his death…

“But he was also part of Hollywood for more than 50 years, the son of a comedy legend who built out a multi-threaded career of his own that included quintessential sitcoms, groundbreaking mockumentaries, and a cinematic legacy that went far beyond his comic origins.

“Rob Reiner, 78, was an avuncular public figure through it all, taking on kindly mentor and chipper-sidekick roles—both on- and off-screen—for decades, as well as a quietly brilliant force in the industry, producing the kind of intelligent, varied films no one could have expected from a man audiences once knew best as ‘Meathead.'”

Soul Christmas songs

What Christmas Means To Me

Some soul Christmas songs, most NOT from the album pictured.

Louisiana Christmas Day – Aaron Neville, from Aaron Neville’s Soulful Christmas (1993)

Merry Christmas, Baby – Charles Brown (1968).

Little Drummer Boy – Lou Rawls (1967).

Silver Bells – Earl Grant (1969). This needs more airplay.

You’re All I Want For Christmas – Brook Benton (1963)

Mary’s Boy Child – Harry Belafonte, #12 in 1956. The remarkable Jester Hairston, who had a fascinating life as a composer and actor, wrote the song.

‘Zat You, Santa Claus? – Louis Armstrong, The Commanders

Every Valley Shall Be Exalted – Lizz Lee & Chris Willis & Mike E. from Handel’s Messiah: A Soulful Celebration (1992)

Little Drummer Boy (African Tribal Version) – Alex Boye’ ft. Genesis Choir

A Very Special Christmas

There were several of these collections to help the Special Olympics.

Do You Hear What I Hear? – Whitney Houston (1987)

Christmas in Hollis – Run-D.M.C. (1987) The last time I took the Long Island Railroad, I noticed the Hollis, Queens stop.

Merry Christmas, Baby – Charles Brown, Bonnie Raitt. Bonnie had both Charles Brown and Ruth Brown on her subsequent tour. (1992)

Motown

Several Motown artists released Christmas albums: the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, and the Temptations. They appeared on a couple of compilations, one of which I own on vinyl.

Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer—The Temptations (1971).

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder (1967). One of my top five favorite seasonal songs.

Stax

I think I favored the Stax Christmas music over Motown because it was less familiar. All of these I found on one of my STAX/Volt box sets.

Jingle Bells – Booker T. & The MGs (1967)

Winter Snow -Booker T. & The MGs. (c 1967) Isaac Hayes wrote this melancholy tune.

Who Took The Merry Out Of Christmas – The Staple Singers (1973). . Besides the vocals, it’s a bit melancholy, which is why I like it.

The Mistletoe and Me – Issac Hayes (1970)

Every Day Will Be Like A Holiday – William Bell (1967). It was a minor RB hit

Kennedy Center Honors 2025

George Strait, KISS, Michael Crawford, Gloria Gaynor, Sly Stallone.

The Kennedy Center Honors 2025 took place on Sunday, December 7. As people who follow the blog may know, I almost always watch the program when it’s broadcast on CBS; this year it’s scheduled for Tuesday, December 23. This year, though, is… different.

In an article in The Atlantic [behind a paywall], Alexandra Petri wrote: “For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with the Kennedy Center Honors, a strange, D.C.-based entertainment-awards show where four celebrities you’ve heard of (and one you should have) wear medals, sit in a special box at the Kennedy Center with the president, and receive some form of artistic tribute. Unlike other awards shows, which honor celebrities of the present, these celebrate a lifetime of achievements.” What she said.

The five

I don’t have a strong problem with the awardees. Sylvester Stallone, I’ve seen in five Rocky-related films, though no Rambo flicks, and he’s still a working actor.

I have a George Strait greatest-hits album – here’s the first cut – titled Ten Strait Hits, whose simplicity appeals to me. He is “the only act in history to have a Top 10 hit every year for over three decades. Offstage, Strait’s philanthropy has raised tens of millions of dollars for military and children’s causes, including the Jenifer Strait Foundation to preserve the memory of their daughter, and presenting 127 mortgage-free homes to wounded veterans through the Military Warriors Support Foundation.”

I know the least about Gloria Gaynor, whose “legendary career spans over 50 years, never losing momentum. The 2x Grammy winner has achieved global stardom with hit songs in the charts in all five decades. She has also shared her talent through roles in film, television, and on the Broadway stage.” Well, except for that song, which is an anthem.

Michael Crawford, I know for one thing, which he has apparently done very well. “Best known for originating the role of the Phantom in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, Crawford’s legendary performance captivated audiences in London’s West End, on Broadway, and in Los Angeles.” He is “one of the most celebrated performers of his generation, with an illustrious career spanning theatre, television, film, and music.”

Makeup

The only KISS music I own is on a couple of compilation albums. But I used to own a couple of Marvel comics featuring the group. “Kiss, one of the most successful Gold Record Award–winning groups in American history, has sold over 100 million albums worldwide. Rising from New York’s rock scene to the pinnacle of rock royalty, they’ve earned countless awards, including induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame [in 2014].”

The KCH only inducts folks who were living as of the selection date. Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley, Peter Criss, and the late lead guitarist, Ace Frehley, who died in October, were awarded. This is similar to the Grateful Dead last year, when Mickey Hart, Billy Kreutzmann, Bobby Weir, and the late Phil Lesh (d. Oct 2024) were selected.

By the way, the KCH bios pages were far more robust in previous years.

Previously, the host was someone such as Walter Cronkite, Caroline Kennedy, Stephen Colbert, Glenn Close, and Queen Latifah. This year, it’s FOTUS.

This is (mostly) not a political rant. It’s not that he’s taken over the Kennedy Center, though that’s problematic. It’s that I can’t stand the sound of the man’s voice. His self-serving prattle – at the medal ceremony, he mispronounced “Stallone” twice – bugs me. Maybe I’ll record the show and fast-forward through him. Or mute him. Or something.

Oh, and how will he deal with it when CBS edits the broadcast, which they always do, and some of his yammer is cut out? Will he sue CBS? Again? (See 60 Minutes.)

I do like to see the look of wonder and surprise when the honorees are feted by their colleagues. Sigh!