Roger O Green

20 Men I Admire

Here’s a meme that I found on Mr. Frog’s site and then I was tagged by Jaquandor. You’re supposed to name 20 men you admire. So, here I go. But first a couple of things for the participants:

A. Link back to the blog that tagged you.
B. Link back to the originator of this meme, which is The Dino Lounge.
C. Create your own list of 20 men that you admire and post them on your blog.
D. Tag 5 other people to participate in this meme.
E. If you like, please let The Dino Lounge know that you’ve participated in this meme so he can check out your posting and comment on it.

I was going to wait to do the neat photo montage that Mr. Frog and Jaquandor did, but I find that I was too impatient to learn how.

Initially, I was intimidated by the project because I thought it had to be the 20 men I’d admired MOST. How would I winnow THAT?

I also decided to limit the list to Americans of the last 200 years (except Lennon, because it’s my list). Otherwise, we’re talking daVinci, Copernicus…

I’ve actually met four people on this list: Seeger, Serling, Speigelman and Warren.

Muhammad Ali – a big admirer of Jack Johnson, Ali actually won his court case, ultimately.
Bill Cosby – listened to him forever on records; can quote without prompting.

Frederick Douglass (pictured) – among other things, an early feminist
W.E.B. duBois
Thomas Edison – for the phonograph alone, I’m thankful
Benjamin Franklin – I’m an almanac guy
Woody Guthrie – spoke of America in a most telling way
Thomas Jefferson – wonderfully conflicted guy
Martin Luther King Jr. – the strength of his Gandhian methodology. His April 1967 sermon against the Vietnam war was one off the most pivotal documents in my life.
John Lennon – when we played the Beatles, I WAS John
Willie Mays – the greatest living baseball player
Bill Moyers – opening the dialogue without being disagreeable
Carl Reiner – performer, writer, producer of a lot of entertainment I enjoyed
Paul Robeson – could pick him just on the voice alone

Jackie Robinson – just because
Pete Seeger – his ability to transform music from many cultures is phenomenal
Rod Serling – telling preachy stories about wrong and right without always being preachy
Dr. Seuss – I always especially loved the books where his characters spoke truth to power, such as Bartholemew and the Oobleck, and Yertle the Turtle
Art Speigelman – I loved his RAW magazine; then he created an even more amazing work
Earl Warren – liberties we take for granted, such as right to counsel and Miranda warnings we can credit (or blame, if you’re of that inclination) the Warren Court

I’m not feeling the need to tag, although if Gordon, Rebecca, Uthaclena, Kelly or anyone else wants to, fine.
ROG

The Missing Presidents

I know an astonishing amount of information about the 43 men who’ve served as the 44 Presidents of the United States: party affiliation, terms of office, even, for many, major Cabinet officers.

But I know almost nothing about these fellows:
* Samuel Huntington (March 1, 1781– July 9, 1781)
* Thomas McKean (July 10, 1781–November 4, 1781)
* John Hanson (pictured) (November 5, 1781– November 3, 1782)
* Elias Boudinot (November 4, 1782– November 2, 1783)
* Thomas Mifflin (November 3, 1783– October 31, 1784)
* Richard Henry Lee (November 30, 1784– November 6, 1785)
* John Hancock (November 23, 1785– May 29, 1786)
* Nathaniel Gorham (June 6, 1786– November 5, 1786)
* Arthur St. Clair (February 2, 1787– November 4, 1787)
* Cyrus Griffin (January 22, 1788– November 2, 1788)
Hanson became the first President of Congress to be elected for an annual term as specified in the Articles of Confederation, although Huntington and McKean had served in that office after the ratification of the Articles. There’s even a website seling coins of The Forgotten Founders.

I fully recognize that the powers of the Presidency were far different (i/e., weaker) under the Articles of Confederation than under the Constitution. still, I don’t think they should be totally forgotten.
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The 44 Presidents

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12 Things You Don’t Know About the White House. Actually, I knew four.
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Barack Obama’s historic victory probably ended any chance that someone born during the 1930s will become president. This makes it the only decade from the 1730s to the 1940s that failed to produce either a president or vice president.
The 1940s already have given us two presidents — Bill Clinton and George W.Bush — and four vice presidents — Dan Quayle, Al Gore, Dick Cheney, and Joe Biden…Presidential contenders from the 1930s included John McCain, Michael Dukakis, Ted Kennedy, Ross Perot and Gary Hart.
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U.S. Grant obit from the New York Times
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During the frenzy over whether Barack Obama was a “natural born citizen, I came across this, FWIW: Chester Arthur was a British subject at the time of his birth.
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Presidents of the United States: Resource Guides
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Debunking the Presidents

ROG

VIDEO REVIEW: WALL*E

I really needed to see the new Pixar film WALL*E because the first two people I know who saw it really disliked it. Given its otherwise high critical praise, this was a real motivator. I also decided to see if I could, for the first time, have my daughter watch a full-length movie; we’ve failed with Enchanted, Stuart Little and a couple others.

So, for that first 20 minutes, I was a bit distracted. I was taken in by the charms of the cleaning and collecting robot but would the child be like-minded? Actually, she was OK until EVE came and started blasting all over the place. And when she started blowing things up in the vicinity of our hero, that was the end of that. For her.

For me, it’s when it really started getting interesting. Sure it has those somewhat heavy-handed apocalyptic imagery. Ultimately, though it was a story of heroism, changing from a state of inertia to a state of action. And of course, it was a love story.

In this economic climate, the fact that we ARE producing so much garbage, and that we should think about consuming and producing less of it, is a timely lesson that I got without feeling as though I’d been ho=it over the head with it.

I “get” the less than enthusiastic early reviewers, though. Perhaps too intense for some younger kids, though other kids really like it. On the other hand, animation is not just for kids, and perhaps never was.

ROG

Valentine’s Day QUESTIONS

About a month ago, I stopped at the florist shop and got my wife some flowers, for no reason at all except that she likes flowers, I hadn’t gotten her any recently, and I happened to be walking by the shop (Saturday buses take a while in Albany). I the same way I was inspired to celebrate her last month, I’m rather disinclined to do much about “Valentine’s Day” this month.

I think it’s what Frank Zappa said in a different context, “enforced recreation.” And while I’m cooll with Thanksgiving being set aside for thanks, I’m less inclined to want to set aside a day to romance. Maybe it’s because there’s been enough years where February 14 was merely a reminder of relationships past.

In any case, all my wife wants for Valentine’s Day are some Lindt’s chocolates and for me to organize my armoire so that all of the doors actually close. She actually finds orderliness to be romantic.

This is not to say that we won’t have our monthly date. The child’s daycare is open on Washington’s Birthday, and we both have the day off, so we’re going out to lunch and a movie – together!

1. What, if anything, are you doing for Valentine’s Day?

2. What do you consider romantic? What does your partner (or previous partner) think?
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How You Can Be Romantic Every Day from About.com
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For the cynical only: Unverified factoids, stolen from who knows where

Valentine’s Day is the busiest day of the year for private investigators, it seems that 80% of external ‘affairs’ spend at least a portion of the day with the other person, making this a great day to get caught.
The unofficial ‘record’ for multiple secret “long-term relationships” at the same time is believed to be 6 by a traveling salesman and 3 by a woman. Just thinking about that probably scares most of us and proves that men are the larger idiots! (Although women seem to be catching up!)
Contrary to popular belief, Valentines Day and selecting February as the romantic month was a man’s selection, something about if we must have a romantic month, it should be after the Super Bowl, before March Madness and definitely the shortest month of the year.

So, if you haven’t been wished a Happy Valentines Day, allow me. If you have been, consider yourself lucky, and if you received several cards, gifts or candies, enjoy the month and don’t get caught!

ROG

Is it bad luck?

I have long been fascinated with all things related to the calendar. Last February, I received three biweekly paychecks, a phenomenon that’s possible only once in about every 56 years.

This year, we’re having two Friday the 13ths in a row, in February and March. This only happen when February 1 is on a Sunday AND February is NOT a leap year, or about thrice every 28 years. (I say “about” because the non-leap year century marks such as 1900 and 2100 throw off the calculation.)

I was born in 1953, which was one of those years. Subsequent paired Friday the 13th years were in 1959, 1970, 1981, 1987, and 1998. The next ones will be in 2015, 2026, 2037, 2043, and 2054, when I’d be 101.

This means my birthday will be on a Saturday, same as my birth day. (Hey, hearts players, game at my house on that day.) This would be more special had I not made the decision years ago to take off my birthday from work anyway. So this year, I’ll take off the day before my birthday and get a massage.

The one downside is that I was unable to go to the annual MidWinter’s party in the MidHudson of New York State, about an hour and a half south of Albany. Usually, the first Saturday of February is followed by the first Sunday of the month, and I can blow off that one church service. However, this year, the first Saturday is followed by the SECOND Sunday, which begins our church’s Black History Month celebration.

In fact, I was leading the conversation in the Adult Education class this past Sunday, using that NAACP timeline as a starting point. Conversations about whether to show the D.W. Griffith movie “Birth of a Nation” or how public education has become resegregated in the decades after Brown vs. Board of Education ensued.

All in all, I’m feeling pretty lucky today, all things considered.
I’m Lucky by Joan Armatrading, from the Walk Under Ladders album

I’m lucky
I’m lucky
I don’t need a bracelet
No salt
For my shoulder
I don’t own a rabbit
No clover
No heather
No wonder
I’m lucky
ROG