Roger O Green

Yup, another quiz

I’ve been a renter most of my life, and I think at some level, I still have a renter’s heart.

Stolen, as is often the case, from Jaquandor, who stole it as well.

1. The phone rings; who don’t you want it to be?

You know, I just want it to be someone I know. I love the answering machine. I especially love caller ID. Do we screen our calls? You betcha! All these folks with PRIVATE or blocked phone numbers we wait to hear their voice on the machine. Friends, we pick up…
The only person who knows my cellphone number is one of my sisters. I don’t even know it, I use it so infrequently. I have no desire to be available 24/7.

2. When shopping at the grocery store, do you return your cart?

There’s a designed area in the parking lot; I return it there. Though before they had them, I always returned them to the store.

3. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?

Listener, unless I’ve had at least two glasses of wine.

4. What was the last compliment that someone gave you?

“You’re a good dad.” This was not from my wife or daughter, BTW. She may be right, for all I know.

5. Do you play the lottery?

Yeah, when it’s over $100 million and I think of it, which is maybe twice a year.

6. If abandoned alone in the wilderness, who would you want with you?

If I were abandoned alone, I wouldn’t HAVE anyone with me. OK, I’ll pick Clark Kent. Even if he didn’t want to reveal his secret identity, his strength and other powers could come in handy.

7. Do you like to ride horses?

Other than ponies as a kid, the only time I did was June 9, 1976, after my very first hangover; not recommended.

8. Did you ever go to camp as a kid?

My family went camping for years. Tent, air mattress, Coleman lantern, and stove. I hated it.

9. What is your favorite party game?

Seriously, what is considered a party game? Charades I don’t hate, but I’m not a big fan. What else?

10. If a sexy person was pursuing you, but you knew he/she was married, would you go for it?

Assuming I were available…well, no. Relationships are complicated, and third parties often complicate them more.

11. When was the last time that you lied?

Probably some half-truth to the Daughter about keeping EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ARTWORK SHE’S EVER DRAWN.

12. Could you date someone with different religious beliefs than you?

I have, and it’s created difficulties. Not a dealbreaker, but not optimal.

13. If you have a S/O, who pursued who? If not, do you like to pursue or be pursued?

I think was mutual pursuit the first time out, but I certainly pursued the last time around.

14. Use six words to describe yourself.

Learned, contemplative introvert posing as extrovert.

15. Name a song that could make you cry?

There are lots. Sometimes tears of joy. On the other hand: “Sweet Bitter Love” by Aretha.

16. Are you pleased with your education?

Yes, I am. Best thing I learned in junior high: diagramming sentences.

17. How do you feel about gun control?

Why does one NEED an automatic weapon? Apparently, a lot of American guns end up in Mexico, contributing to the death toll there. If you have rules for driving a car, then some sort of regulation of guns (background check, waiting period) seems reasonable. The Second Amendment is no more absolute than the First Amendment is.

18. If your house was on fire, what thing would be the first thing you grabbed?

My metal file box, which contains my passport, my SS card, and some genealogy stuff.

19. How often do you have a romantic weekend?

A whole weekend? Maybe once every 10 years.

20. Do you think more about the past, present, or future?

Yes. The past informs the present; won’t do THAT again, including something in this very quiz. the future is hope, but the future is uncertain, so living in the present is all we really have.

21. What was the last adult magazine that you have read?

Probably the Playboy magazine that had a follow-up John Lennon piece after the January 1981 interview.

22. What are you told about your eyes?

I’m told that they are attractive, much to my surprise.

23. How tall is just right?

For me, my current height.

24. Where is your dream house located?

Is San Simeon available? Seriously, I’ve been a renter most of my life, and I think at some level, I still have a renter’s heart. If I OWN things, I have to MAINTAIN things. Or as a speaker, I heard once said: “The two happiest days in a boat owner’s life is the day he buys the boat, and the day he sells it.”

25. Do you have a secret fetish?

Why would I tell you? Then it wouldn’t be a secret. Actually, not sure that I do.

26. Have you tried bourbon? If yes, what type?

Yup. Jack Daniel’s, obviously, and a few others. It was my drink of choice in college, with ginger ale. (Purists are booing – I hear ya.)

27. Have you ever seen a male or female stripper?

No.

28. When was the last time you were at TGI Fridays?

Years ago, for dinner with a group. I don’t recall the occasion. It was OK.

29. When was the last time you were at Church?

Yesterday.

30. Where was the furthest place you traveled today?

Yesterday it was to church; today, I have off and I’m hoping that it’ll be no farther than the local CVS drug store four blocks away unless I ride my bike for exercise.

31. What was your favorite job?

Probably the one I’m working now, though the job at FantaCo was great for a time. And the job at the Schenectady Arts Council in 1978 was nice but lasted only ten-and-a-half months.

32. What condiments do you like at your BBQ?

Mustard on hot dogs, ketchup and mustard on hamburgers, onions on sausage, BBQ sauce on chicken and ribs.

33. Bud is hosting Thursday Thunks this week. Will you play?

Probably not. I think one or two of these a week is enough. (It’s not the writing that’s time-consuming; it’s the visiting. I do these Sunday Stealing things and don’t even post them in Sunday Stealing.)

34. Do you look like your mom or dad?

If you saw me with my dad at Carol’s and my wedding in May 1999, you’d say absolutely related. Just last month, someone on Facebook who knew my dad – this guy and I went to elementary school together – says I look just like my dad.

35. Who was the last person that you showered with (it’s okay to leave out the name)?

Well, the answer here is who you think it would be, but I’m not saying that outright, because, well, you know…. (Answer stolen).

I Could Say I’m Tea’d Off…

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!

…but it’s more that I’m just confounded.

Thom Wade has conveniently linked to a couple of ads for a guy named Rick Barber, who’s running for Congress in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. In the June 1 Republican primary, he got enough votes to force a July 13 runoff. (Expensive runoffs – a good reason for Instant Runoff Voting.)

In the “Gather Your Armies” piece, Barber complains to the “Founding Fathers” that IRS taxation and the health care bill are equivalent to ire they must have felt over the “tea tax” that led to the Boston Tea Party. The tiny difference? It was not the tax, per se, that was the source of the ultimate rebellion; it was that the tax, and other activities, were imposed by the British without colonists’ say-so. The rallying cry wasn’t “no taxation”; it was “no taxation without representation.” Representation such as from the very Congress for which Rick Barber, ironically, is running. Now, if he were living in Washington, DC, he might actually have a point, since the district has no voting member of Congress.

In the “Slavery” video, “Abraham Lincoln” confirms that taxes used to pay people welfare is the same thing as people taken from their homeland often treated cruelly, and forced to work for no pay. Barber’s video is particularly mortifying because there is still REAL slavery in the world.

The “Slavery” piece also features a gentleman singing the fourth and final verse of The Star-Spangled Banner, a stanza I’ve memorized since I was 10, or earlier. The notion of “conquer[ing if] we must, when our cause it is just” I suppose I would find more palatable if the country had not participated in recent wars of dubious justification.

So as I read The Declaration of Independence again this year, as I do every July 4, I must be mindful of those who would distort the intention of the document. Specifically, “That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness” gets thrown around a great deal. But remember the very next sentence: “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes.”

How far is it from this type of rhetoric to the Sovereignty shootings of police officers in Arkansas last week? A stretch, perhaps, or maybe not.

So when you’re eating your blueberry and strawberry shortcake with whipped cream, check out the founding document.

Guilty pleasure music QUESTION

Ah — Beach Boys harmony.

Some people, rightly, do not believe in the notion of “guilty pleasure” regarding one’s taste in movies, TV, music and the like. I use the phrase more as it’s understood as something the cool kids don’t watch/listen to.

Links included.

Could It Be Magic – Barry Manilow. First it was the piano intro (and outro) that was a direct, and apparently unconscious, steal of Chopin’s Prelude No. 20 in C Minor. But eventually I got sucked into the whole strings, especally as the strings build at about the three-minute mark.

I Haven’t Got Time For The Pain – Carly Simon. But especially the strings at the end. BTW, Lesley Gore – yes, THAT Lesley Gore – does her own version, pretty good, but without that great ending.

Wishing You Were Here – Chicago. It’s not the whole song; I find Peter Cetera’s vocals on the bridge occasionally grating. But it is that lovely Beach Boys harmony from Al Jardine, Carl Wilson, and Dennis Wilson that has always moved me.

Rosanna-Toto. You that part, “Not quite a year…”? Well, I love that bit. More than that, I love singing along in harmony vocal. If I think about it, there are a number of songs I enjoy specifically on that basis.

ABC-Jackson 5 When they first came out, they were considered “bubblegum soul”, and no song epitomized that more than this abecedarian tune. Thing is, I could always sing all the parts that Tito and especially Jermaine (second lead on most tunes) performed, so I always had a soft spot for the early J5,.

What are YOUR musical guilty pleasures?

30-Day Challenge: Day 9- Favorite Flower

(At this rate, this will be the 30-MONTH Challenge. I’ll pick up the pace in July, if only because I’ll be away for a few days.)

Here’s a real embarrassment: I am outstandingly bad at identifying flowers. Oh, I recognize a rose, a carnation, or the oddball flora such as the sunflower. And the tulip; you can’t live in Albany, which has an annual festival, without being able to ID a tulip. But beyond that, not so much.

“Oh, that’s a pretty violet flower. What is it?”
“A violet.”

This is particularly mortifying because my father worked at a florist shop when I was a child, and for years after that, he would arrange flowers for weddings, debutante balls and other events. He would drag my sister Leslie and me to these gigs, but I still had no absorption of his skills. I WAS useful, though, schlepping stuff from one place to another.

I suppose my favorite may be the lily, mostly because of Easter, and because they remind me of brass instruments.

The first song on the 1994 eponymous album David Byrne is Lilies of the Valley.

Traveling to Canada?

I was the target market for the Enhanced DMV card, but I declined.

My family will be going to Canada, specifically Ontario, in the summer of 2011 for an international reunion of my wife’s people. This will be the fourth quinquennial event – in 1996, it was in Fargo, ND; in 2001, in Binghamton, NY; and in 2006, in eastern Washington state.

As it turns out, my passport expires about a month before the trip. Initially, I was interested in getting those Enhanced Licenses and Non-Drivers’ IDs for the daughter and me from DMV, which would meet the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative guidelines. Only four U.S. states have actually done this, and, shockingly, given the inertia of Empire State government, New York State is one of them, along with Michigan, Vermont and Washington, all border states with Canada.

There was an article in my local newspaper in early June, indicating that sales of new enhanced driver’s licenses had fallen far below projections. The theory was that the card failed as a result of “the poor economy and reduced travel to other countries.” That’s not why I didn’t get a couple of them.

Rather, there were two other factors, especially the latter:
1) getting the enhanced card would have involved actually going to DMV, whereas renewing my old card, which expired on my last birthday, I processed either by mail or online.
2) The enhanced card is specifically designed for cross-border travel into the U.S. by land or sea.

This means no air travel, only entry by car, truck, train, boat, or presumably, on foot. Thus, if we were to fly to Vancouver, British Columbia in the near future, the daughter and I would STILL need our passports. (So would my wife, but hers doesn’t expire for a few years.)

I was the target market for this product, and I declined, not because I’m homebound, but because the product simply proved insufficient for my needs, unfortunately.
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Meanwhile, there is the G-20 meeting going on this week in Toronto. The U.S. President wants the other governments to spend more to stimulate the ecnomy, but at least the G-8 leaders are looking like the Republicans in the U.S. in opposising more spending, the tension over which is currently doing a job on the stock markets.

I’m a big supporter of protest – peaceful protest – but I’m unclear as to the efficacy of breaking building windows and setting at least one police car on fire. Maybe someone can explain it to me.
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HAPPY CANADA DAY!