Roger O Green

The Name Game

There are 15 people in my office. Two of them had already planned to take yesterday off. Two called in sick, six called in to take vacation, and five showed up. I was in the latter category. A dedicated follower of dedication, or foolishness…
***
I was reading one of those trends in baby names articles, so I went to Social Security Popular Baby Names section and generated these charts.

Popularity in 1880
Rank/Male name/Percent of total males/Female name/Percent of total females
1 John 8.1525% Mary 7.2389%
2 William 8.0512% Anna 2.6677%
3 James 5.0052% Emma 2.0520%
Meaning that almost one in six of all male babies born that year were these two names. In fact, there were 14 boys named Wm, which I assume was just an abbreviation for William.
Popularity in 1900
1 John 6.0608% Mary 5.2562%
2 William 5.2889% Helen 1.9948%
3 James 4.4684% Anna 1.9237%
John was #1 from 1880 to 1923, and still in the Top 10 until 1986. It’s now 18th.
William is now #11.
Popularity in 1950
1 James 4.7319% Linda 4.5717%
2 Robert 4.5926% Mary 3.7216%
3 John 4.3649% Patricia 2.7247%
Mary, which was #1 until 1946, #2 from 1947 to 1952, and #1 again from 1953 to 1961, fell out of the top 10 in 1971, and was 73rd in 2005.
Popularity in 2005
1 Jacob 1.2145% Emily 1.1818%
2 Michael 1.1175% Emma 1.0027%
3 Joshua 1.0912% Madison 0.9658%
Even though certain names are MOST popular these days – Madison is STILL there? The movie Splash was two DECADES ago! – none dominate like John, William and Mary did 125 years ago.

I decided to look at some timelines for particular monikers, names picked TOTALLY at random:

Popularity of the male name Roger
Year of birth Rank
2005 417
2004 414
2003 396
2002 389
2001 371
2000 373
1999 358
1998 347
1997 329
1996 285
1995 278
1994 264
1993 253
1992 214
1991 231
1990 209
1989 196
1988 180
1987 176
1986 167
1985 159
1984 157
1983 145
1982 127
1981 120
1980 134
1979 132
1978 120
1977 115
1976 103
1975 97
1974 93
1973 84
1972 78
1971 71
1970 61
1969 59
1968 55
1967 53
1966 51
1965 49
1964 49
1963 53
1962 48
1961 47
1960 47
1959 47
1958 47
1957 42
1956 41
1955 37
1954 34
1953 31 (0.6581%, 13,144)
1952 30
1951 29
1950 27
1949 25
1948 24
1947 25
1946 23
1945 22
1944 23
1943 24
1942 25
1941 25
1940 26
1939 28
1938 31
1937 36
1936 35
1935 36
1934 39
1933 48
1932 50
1931 53
1930 57
1929 64
1928 71
1927 84
1926 89
1925 90
1924 93
1923 95
1922 96
1921 99
1920 103
1919 124
1918 116
1917 120
1916 129
1915 124
1914 126
1913 139
1912 138
1911 139
1910 171
1909 180
1908 187
1907 169
1906 194
1905 226
1904 194
1903 189
1902 210
1901 227
1900 219
1899 199
1898 202
1897 232
1896 215
1895 207
1894 225
1893 254
1892 241
1891 217
1890 229
1889 232
1888 259
1887 259
1886 308
1885 324
1884 277
1883 346
1882 304
1881 305
1880 349
I wonder if its popularity in the years before and after WWII had to do with Roger, Over and Out?

Popularity of the female name Carol
2005 753
2004 844
2003 881
2002 851
2001 834
2000 726
1999 742
1998 658
1997 607
1996 565
1995 525
1994 493
1993 496
1992 411
1991 384
1990 350
1989 339
1988 331
1987 319
1986 310
1985 292
1984 267
1983 253
1982 262
1981 238
1980 232
1979 224
1978 203
1977 198
1976 171
1975 149
1974 137
1973 120
1972 109
1971 92
1970 71
1969 55
1968 48
1967 47
1966 48
1965 42
1964 36
1963 33
1962 28
1961 24
1960 23
1959 22
1958 20
1957 18
1956 16
1955 15
1954 15
1953 16
1952 12
1951 11
1950 9
1949 8
1948 8
1947 6
1946 5
1945 5
1944 5
1943 5
1942 5
1941 4
1940 6
1939 6
1938 6
1937 6
1936 10
1935 11
1934 14
1933 20
1932 32
1931 46
1930 54
1929 63
1928 77
1927 106
1926 113
1925 119
1924 132
1923 139
1922 159
1921 166
1920 182
1919 200
1918 196
1917 215
1916 215
1915 243
1914 250
1913 254
1912 246
1911 291
1910 285
1909 302
1908 294
1907 328
1906 338
1905 349
1904 330
1903 389
1902 357
1901 378
1900 392
1899 361
1898 391
1897 455
1896 480
1895 404
1894 519
1893 503
1892 504
1891 526
1890 510
1889 443
1888 561
1887 590
1886 610
1885 661
1884 800
1883 a
1882 827
1881 513
1880 685
a Not in top 1,000 names for indicated year of birth
A top 10 name for 15 years around WWII. Can’t help but wonder if it has something to do with the Christmas carol. In the year of Carol’s birth, there were 16,651 other Carols, which meant 0.8027% of the female names.

Popularity of the female name Lydia
2005 119
2004 126 (0.1295%, 2,598)
2003 127
2002 137
2001 140
2000 149
1999 149
1998 153
1997 160
1996 175
1995 173
1994 188
1993 206
1992 205
1991 214
1990 206
1989 219
1988 229
1987 224
1986 233
1985 212
1984 217
1983 239
1982 240
1981 267
1980 287
1979 296
1978 327
1977 312
1976 310
1975 333
1974 317
1973 329
1972 319
1971 315
1970 307
1969 320
1968 301
1967 288
1966 270
1965 263
1964 258
1963 246
1962 227
1961 214
1960 205
1959 210
1958 207
1957 206
1956 205
1955 200
1954 198
1953 201
1952 213
1951 225
1950 223
1949 214
1948 209
1947 230
1946 239
1945 223
1944 233
1943 227
1942 226
1941 248
1940 234
1939 237
1938 244
1937 239
1936 237
1935 242
1934 249
1933 237
1932 246
1931 236
1930 233
1929 223
1928 219
1927 217
1926 222
1925 206
1924 217
1923 204
1922 199
1921 197
1920 184
1919 186
1918 180
1917 170
1916 168
1915 169
1914 168
1913 154
1912 152
1911 142
1910 152
1909 142
1908 140
1907 130
1906 132
1905 123
1904 112
1903 116
1902 112
1901 103
1900 104
1899 97
1898 88
1897 83
1896 91
1895 85
1894 85
1893 81
1892 93
1891 86
1890 78
1889 83
1888 85
1887 76
1886 87
1885 77
1884 80
1883 75
1882 76
1881 77
1880 77
Lydia as a name is becoming as popular, percentagewise, in the early 21st century as it was in the beginning of the LAST century.

“Note: Rank 1 is the most popular, rank 2 is the next most popular, and so forth. Name data are from Social Security card applications for births that occurred in the United States.”

Another site for this type of stuff, with rather nifty Java-enhanced graphics, is here, with its related blog, here.

***

Oh, the picture above is Comet Hale-Bopp Images – May 1997, taken by Lydia Green, probably no relation.

Does Valentine’s Day Make The Month Feel LONGER?

I’ve discovered that most people fall into two groups: those who love Valentine’s Day and those who hate it. Interestingly, it does not seem to be determined by whether is in a relationship or not, sexual orientation, or race.

I’m mildly indifferent to it. This not to say that I didn’t get my wife something, only that I couldn’t tell you, if you gave me bills in large denominations, what I gave her LAST year. Or what she got me.

My favorite Valentine’s Day song is this one. I recommend the album.

Valentine’s Day/ Artist: Steve Earle
Album: I Feel Alright

I come to you with empty hands
I guess I just forgot again
I only got my love to send
On Valentine’s Day

I ain’t got a card to sign
Roses have been hard to find
I only hope that you’ll be mine
On Valentine’s Day
I know that I swore that I wouldn’t forget
I wrote it all down: I lost it I guess
There’s so much I want to say
But all the words just slip away
The way you love me every day
Is Valentine’s Day

If I could I would deliver to you
Diamonds and gold; it’s the least I can do
So if you’ll take my IOU
I could make it up to you
Until then I hope my heart will do
For Valentine’s Day
***
Then again, there is a specific recollection of Valentine’s Day five years ago. Five years ago, on Lincoln’s Birthday, my eldest brother-in-law, John Powell, died of colon cancer at the age of 41. He was a technogeek, in the best sense of the word, generous in spirit and in fact, and the biggest cheerleader of Carol and me getting back together when we were apart in 1996-1998. Yes, the funeral was February 14, 2002. Good thoughts to his family, especially his widow Cindy.
***
I just heard that John Scott, a member of my church’s congregation, died recently. He was a very dear man, I was quite fond of him, and I will miss him.
***
180 miles WNW of here, in Oswego, NY, they had 100 inches of snow in less than a week. For the whole winter, Albany has had less than 7 (Nov-trace, Dec-0.3, Jan-3.9, Feb-2.3). That will change today, when the forecast says we’ll get 12 to 24 inches, or more, between 11 pm last night through 6 am tomorrow.

Boom Box Bust

I got this message in my work e-mail on 12/19/2006:
Please remind your respective staff members as appropriate that personal items and belongings and/or items of a valuable or sentimental nature should be properly secured if they choose to bring them into the workplace or simply left a home. Unlike many of our previous office locations, we have an open floor plan setting at this location with several of our programs merged onto one floor. Our swipe card system simply limits the number of people who have access to our area but does not limit access once inside the secured zone.
Please let me know if you have any questions.

In the last couple weeks, one of the folks in my section had an iPod stolen from his desk. And not just the device itself, but the base, that was plugged in under his desk. The powers that be on our floor were notified, and they sent out this message on 2/6/2007:

Please remind your respective staff members as appropriate that personal items and belongings and/or items of a valuable or sentimental nature…

Yes, the very same message, including the phrase “simply left a home”, rather than the intended “simply left at home”. This means that the thieves work on the floor and/or are from the cleaning crew. In any case, I thought the response was inadequate, and told the powers that be of that fact.

In part at my urging, the victim of the iPod theft had called the Town of Colonie Police. What was striking is that the officer said that the department hadn’t gotten any complaints from our building before the iPod, which of course was a bit discouraging to the victim.

I recommended to the powers that be that they should encourage people to report the thefts. And I told them why, which leads to a story also recollected as a result of my recent jury duty.

It was March 14, 2001. (Why do I remember the date? It was a week after my birthday.) I was supposed to meet Carol somewhere, so I left my office on State Street in downtown Albany at 5 pm. Carol and I must have gotten our wires crossed, because she wasn’t where I expected her. I returned to my office to call her at 5:30, when I discovered the boom box that had been on my desk had disappeared. Initially, I thought one of my co-workers who were there – there were at least two – might have borrowed it. Alas, that was not the case. Immediately, I called the police and reported the theft. I had no illusions of getting my box back, but it seemed like the right thing to do.

What surprised me is that a few months later, they caught a guy who had stolen a number of pieces of personal property from offices all up and down State Street and adjoining streets. Eventually, I had to testify in front of a grand jury – that was surprisingly intimidating – that the boom box pawned by the accused was not given to him by me.

The real surprise, though, was when I received a check for about $70 from some victims’ compensation fund; the particulars I’m not clear on, but the fact that I got back about 88% of what I had paid for the machine was a really pleasant, unexpected outcome.

So, I’m waiting, waiting, waiting for the powers that be to actually follow through on his pledge to encourage police reports to be filed. But holding my breath, I’m not. And in case, you’re wondering why I don’t just tell people myself, I have, informally, but a mass distribution from the powers that be would be much more effective.

Deadly sins (again)

Did you ever wonder why Andy Rooney, of all people, seems to be depicted as the authoritative figure on about a third of the junk e-mails in the United States? O.K., I made that up, but I did get another one of those “agree or delete” things, wanting me to verify my Christian faith. Without going into great detail, the thing is filled with a combination of half-truths. For instance, the Supreme Court DOES have the 10 Commandments on the building, but it also has other representations of law givers. So it’s not the Commandments per se that was the problem, it was the status as the singular law which that Alabama judge was trying to suggest that was problematic.

In any case, I’ve seen Andy Rooney enough times to doubt that he was actually the source of the info attributed to him. Intellectually lazy, the creators of these spam e-mails are. And speaking of lazy:

Which Seven Deadly Sin are you?

Sloth- You don’t do anything too difficult in your life. You take the easy way out and sleep way too much.While sleeping, you will be burned alive in a house fire.
Take this quiz!

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Make A Quiz More Quizzes Grab Code

“Sloth- You don’t do anything too difficult in your life. You take the easy way out and sleep way too much.While sleeping, you will be burned alive in a house fire.”

Still sloth. Oh, barnacles!
***
Paired deadly sins! As dwvr put it, “This is one of those ‘how come I didn’t think of that?’ concepts HERE.

I was trying to come up with others, and all I got was the same sloth/lust combination one of the respondents came up with. I do agree that it’d be more informative if, e.g., the chart replaces “the A-G letter labels with meaningful letters. Use the first letter of each sin (with Greed replaced by Avarice, for uniqueness). Then it will be possible look at WE = Cattiness and see immediately that it refers to Wrath and Envy.”

The page in general is fun with ersatz math.

Walking Home, Minding My Own Business

I found the experience of being called for jury duty last week to be extremely affecting on me, despite the fact that I never even got to actually sit in the box. It forced me to think about a number of things. By the end of the week, all will be made clear. Maybe.

Part of it involves this story about my childhood, which I could have sworn I had told before. Maybe it’s that I THOUGHT about telling it more than once.

Anyway, so I don’t have to keep mentioning it throughout the story, all of the players in this tale, except for my father and me, are white.

As I’ve described previously, I lived in a predominately Slavic neighborhood in Binghamton, upstate New York, and there were only a handful of black kids in my school. Often, I would walk my friends home before going home myself. Often it included my friend Carol (not to be confused with my wife Carol).

One day, though, when I was 16, my classmates weren’t around for some reason, and I ended walking a girl named Peggy, who lived across the street from Carol, home. We weren’t great friends, but we went to the same elementary school, which was small, so we were friendly.

Just as I get to Peggy’s house, this guy from next door to Peggy’s house started yelling racial slurs at me, and quite possibly at us. He was under the mistaken impression that she and I were dating. Having been trained in the method,of Martin Luther King, Jr., I ignored him. I said nothing, and I did not look at him.

Suddenly, the guy, who has been getting closer and closer, attacks me. I’m not sure that I saw him coming. He was, it turned out, a 23-year-old Marine from Florida who was visiting his father. Don’t remember much except that my glasses flew off. I found them, and retreated to Peggy’s porch. By this time, Peggy’s mother, who must have heard the commotion, was on the porch in a shouting match with the Marine and his family.

Someone had called the police. I explained to the officer what happened; I presume the Marine gave his version, too. The policeman said that I could press charges if I wanted to.

I went home, talked with my folks, and decided to go downtown the next day. The judge, whose name I’ve forgotten, took my paperwork, but made it clear that he thought my actions were silly. He believed – perhaps from the police report – that it was just “some spat over a girl.”

I went home and I was livid. LIVID. I could use a half dozen exclamation marks to express my near rage at being dismissed in that way. So I wrote a letter, a long, angry, nasty letter to the judge, commenting on his lack of listening skills. It wasn’t “some spat over a girl”; this jerk attacked me, and him making light of it was not helpful. Having composed it, I did not feel compelled to mail it. And I didn’t.

Instead, my father hand-delivered my letter to the judge. Obviously, I didn’t ASK him to do it, and now I’ve a bit peeved with him, too.

The judge then called and asked to see me. I complied, and he apologized to me.

There was a trial, with that same judge on the bench. I testified, Peggy and, I think, her mother testified. I’m not sure because I didn’t hear it. They kept me out of the room, to see if our testimonies jibed; my father, who was in the courtroom, assured me that they did.

Then the Marine, his father, and I think his mother and/or his wife or girlfriend testified. This testimony I did hear, and the details were wildly inconsistent.

Anyway, I suppose you’d like to know the results of the trial. So would I. I never got word from the judge or his office as to the outcome. Since I don’t remember the name of the Marine, perhaps I never will. To this day, I appreciate the actions of Peggy and her mother, neither of whom I’ve seen in decades.

First time I ever voted, in 1971, the judge was up for re-election on my absentee ballot. I didn’t vote for him, though; I wrote in my father.