Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto.

The Wrong Way

When I first voted in an election primary, back in 1972, the New York State primary day was in June. There was one primary date for President, and for other offices. This was about the right length for the campaign.

Because of the nature of Presidential politics, though, the Presidential primary was moved to April, while the other primaries moved to September, creating, not so incidentally, greater expense. In subsequent years, the Presidential primary moved back into March, and in 2008, will move to February 5, where it will be on Supa Dupa Lollapalooza Tuesday. Meanwhile, the September primary has been moved this year from September 11 to September 18, out of “respect” for 9/11. You may recall, especially if you lived in New York State at the time, that 9/11 was Primary Day in the state six years ago. The primary was postponed at the time for a couple weeks.

The early Presidential primary bothers me because we could have a protracted, undoubtedly nasty, nine-month race for the White House, which will almost certainly generate a situation in which most voters will say, “A pox on both houses.”

The later non-Presidential primary bothers me too, because usually there is an incumbent in the race. Running against two or more challengers who aren’t winnowed out until eight weeks before the general election, gives even more advantage to the current officeholder. Moving the Primary from September 11 to the 18th just worsens that.

More to the point, I think voting on September 11 honors the victims of 9/11. Democracy is not postponed; the terrorists haven’t won, or whatever.

Expect this never to happen.
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Shock Doctrine, a short (less than seven minutes) film by Alfonso Cuarón and Naomi Klein, directed by Jonás Cuarón, on Klein’s book.
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While working on a reference question last week, I discovered, to my surprise, that most Arab-Americans identify as Christians.
ROG

ROG

Eight things

It was undoubtedly Lefty who semi-tagged me to write eight (more) things about myself.

1. I have gone out with two different women who had lost children in car accidents, before I met them. I think – check that, I’m certain – that I didn’t understand their deep-seated devastation at the time.

2. I recently finished listening to a disc that someone compiled of the 500 best songs. Of the 500, I downloaded 128. Of the 128, the vast majority I already own on vinyl – six by Chuck Berry, four by Little Richard, three each by Queen and Buddy Holly; I also grabbed Buddy Holly by Weezer, which I had never owned before.

3. I worked as a bank teller for less than a month in 1978. My first day solo, I was off by five cents, and I was required to spend an hour looking for it; not worth it.

4. I’ve received Hess trucks for Christmas the last seven years. I actually play with them on those rare occasions when neither my wife or daughter are home.

5. The sound of a power lawn mower, vacuum cleaner, or washing machine could put me to sleep, given the opportunity.

6. I’ve shaken Nelson Rockefeller’s hand twice.

7. I used to be in a volleyball league. I served well.

8. I never took the SATs.
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What Is Art?

ROG

ROG

Wind Energy


The last post about our vacation week in June. Although, if I find that picture of my wife in Shaker garb that she dressed up in at Hancock Shaker Village on the Friday of that week, I’ll have to show you. As a family outing, it was probably the most successful, for Lydia could look at the animals, and there was a kid’s exploration building, where they could draw, milk a faux cow, as well as see real bees making honey.


Meanwhile, the big deal at the timeshare was that much of the parking would be blocked off the accommodate a wind turbine passing through on the way to the top of the mountain. It came in by ship to the Port of Albany, it was announced on the news, and I knew it by the description that it couldn’t come where we were via either of the routes we took. Route 43 has a nasty turn which would not accommodate sections that long. I was right; they came a more circuitous, but straighter path (on Route 20).

I’m sure I was more interested in these things because I had just done a reference question about wind farms. It seemed like an easy alternative to other forms of energy, and it may be. But the people opposing then complain about a constant low hum, the destruction of birds and bats that run into them, and the evolutionary nature of the technology whereby 30 windmills five years from now may generate as much power as 60 windmills today, as well as the aesthetic considerations. One also needs to look at wind maps to maximize the effectiveness of the items.

Still, I’m extremely curious about them.
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I was going to write about this disturbing, and somewhat bizarre racial story in Jena, LA, but Thom beat me to it. The nooses in the story disturbed me viscerally, just reading about it; “strange fruit”, indeed. Read more here.

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ROG

When the Cat’s Away QUESTION

Unusually, my wife and my daughter were both away for a week last month. This meant I got to do all the laundry the day before my wife returns, which is a good thing. I got deeper into my T-shirt collection, as usually the same three or four shirts get washed and end up on top, so that those other shirts don’t get the love they deserve.

I’m hoping Tosy or Jaquandor can remind me of the particulars of this scene from the excellent, but short-lived, TV series Once and Again: Karen Sammler is sorting her (underwear?) drawer so that those pieces that hadn’t gotten worn recently got put on the top. I’m sure I saw this scene, and since I almost certainly watched it on tape, I rewound it and showed it to my wife (who seldom watched the show). “See? See?”, I told Carol.

Anyway, I did things such as all of the dishes at once. I stacked all my reading material on the living room floor one day, and cleaned it up en masse the next. My wife’s more incrementalist.

So, here’s the question: what things do you do when your boyfriend, girlfriend, spouse, roommate is away that you would never do when he/she’s there? If you’re living alone now, or have lived alone in the past, post-roomie, what did/do you do solo that would have driven your exes nuts? Conversely, what did they do when you were away that would drive you nuts? (My wife would tidy up, then I’d ask her where so-and-so was that had been sitting on the kitchen table for weeks, and she had no idea – sure it LOOKED good, but some Thomas Dolby quote would come to mind.)
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How to: Be an uber blogger, by Cory Doctorow

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ROG

Things I Don’t Know

Today is my half birthday. That seems appropriate, in that I have some half-developed thoughts today:

1. I can’t tell if an operatic star is really good. The title of a Luciano Pavarotti obit Charisma, hype and that incredible voice – with a link to a performance – seems to be true in many performing arts, but in rock and roll, for instance, I’m versed enough in it that I can usually make an informed opinion about it. It’s even more true of Beverly Sills, who died earlier this year; maybe not the greatest opera soprano, but she popularized the genre. Couldn’t tell one way or the other by me.

2. I’m confounded by that guy from Idaho. Larry Craig gets arrested, pleads guilty. The story gets out, he resigns, he makes noises about reneging on his resignation.
Why are the Repubs SO willing to throw him to the wolves so quickly? The video of Democratic operative James Carville here, with the transcript here sort of encapsulates the thing for me:
What I found extraordinary about this is nobody came out and defended this guy. I mean, nobody said, “He’s a good man, done a bad thing.” “Here’s a decent guy who’s obviously been struggling with a problem.” “Here’s somebody who” —I mean, nobody. No Republican, no, no, no, no operative, no journalist. Nobody said, “Well, Larry Craig’s got nothing.” And I mean, they didn’t throw him under the bus, they hit him with the bus. I mean, he’s like, boom! Flattened him.
So, what, exactly, were the Republicans running from? What is the subtext?

I was interested to see that Larry Craig believed he was implicated in this 1982 Congressional page scandal.

So is this homophobia, hubris, hagiography, haiku, or what?

3. What the heck DID Jerry Lewis say in the waning hours of the MDA telethon? Given the fact that Jerry has apologized, I assume he used the word Isaiah Washington has been known to use. But honestly, I’ve watched the tape, and I wouldn’t know WHAT he said.

4. I’m afraid I may know the answer to this one:
Did the country REALLY need Mario Cuomo, the Hamlet on the Hudson who should have taken that Supreme Court job rather run unsuccessfully for a fourth term as governor of New York to remind us that according to the Constitution, Congress has the right to declare war? (Answer: probably.)

5. If I got one of these, Les Newsman would be proud, but would it alienate my co-workers?

6. I saw this license plate last night: THEREVS. Was it supposed to mean THE REVS (a pair of ministers) or THE REV S (a specific minister) or THERE VS (a “them versus us” scenario that I gave more credence to for good cause).
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Happy birthday this week to Cecily and Susan.

ROG

ROG
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