Roger O Green

Ides of March rambling: Jesus Was a Socialist

Workism Is Making Americans Miserable. Understand – Aubrey Logan, Rebecca Jade on background vocals.

Pandora's Inbox — Pandora’s Inbox by Dave Coverly. used with permission
www.speedbump.com

Obituary of legendary Albany activist Vera P. Michelson, known to most everyone as Mike.

Thirteenth (2016 documentary about the 13th Amendment).

Patheos: Jesus Was a Socialist.

Listen, papa: let priests marry.

Buddhist robot priest to dole out advice in Kyoto temple.

Fran Rossi Szpylczyn: I Need Help (First Sunday of Lent).

The best thing to give up this Lent is plastic.

Political Notebook: Stupidity and hope.

The Balloon Pops on His Economic Promises.

How to Spot Fake News Online.

Activity At 2nd North Korean Missile Site Indicates Possible Launch Preparations, so the fact that rump and Kim failed to reach a breakthrough in Hanoi may be for the best.

Malaysia Airlines flight MH370: Five years on, here’s why people still believe the conspiracy theories.

Before We Even Think about Candidates for 2020.

Cartoon: A very Peanuts third-party candidate.

More local meteorologists are using their air time to bring climate change down to street level and communicate what this crisis means for their viewers’ everyday lives.

Where is Congress’ Center on Climate Change?

Workism Is Making Americans Miserable.

Jaquandor: On Writing Longhand.

Think you know Abraham Lincoln? New photos reveal the man behind the legend.

The inspiring story of H’Hen Niê, who won Miss Universe Vietnam 2017.

Do Grammar Mistakes Annoy You? You Might Be an Introvert.

Movement And Breathing Breaks Help Students Stay Focused On Learning.

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: robocalls and automation and psychics.

How to make “New York style pizza” at home. (n.b.: too much work for me!)

The People Who Eat the Same Meal Every Day.

Hate tried to come for Brie Larson. Captain Marvel destroyed them.

Boney – a television drama with the worst casting gimmick ever.

Now I Know: New York City’s Secret (Tiny) Subway and Arresting the Rooster and The Writing Was on the Wall and When a Baseball Team Traded for Runs and Too Much Hare in Your Ear and Bernie Madoff’s Other Swiss Bank Account and The Hole Truth About Ballpoint Pens and Domo Arigato, Mr. Robutto and Darts Darts Bo Barts Bananafana Fo… Uh Oh.

STAR WARS: ALWAYS.

AND

Execute order 66.

Loud music.

MUSIC

Understand – Aubrey Logan, Rebecca Jade on background vocals.

The revolution will not be televised – Soul Rebels club mix.

Gustav Holst’s The Planets – Jupiter, scored for five pianos.

Everything Changes – Eytan and The Embassy, also Star Wars parody, plus the identities revealed of the original video.

Coverville: 1253: Tributes for Peter Tork of the Monkees and Mark Hollis of Talk Talk and 1254: Cover Stories for The Who and Townes Van Zandt.

RIP, Hal Blaine of The Wrecking Crew, Hall of Fame drummer.

Andre Previn has died at age 89.

K-Chuck Radio: The “cover band” phase of popular bands and Olivia Newton-John does make you feel mellow.

Monkees Screen Tests

NPR’s ‘Jazz Profiles’, hosted by Nancy Wilson; Miles Davis: ‘Kind of Blue’ (2001).

They Really Don’t Make Music Like They Used To.

The best 40 minutes: ice crystals

I could see the wave of sparkling items in the snow. It felt like looking up in the sky and seeing a panoply of stars.

snowflake It was the last day of February. It had snowed the night before, and I had considered going out to shovel the walk then but I was too tired.

I woke up at about 5:15 a.m. and checked the school closings. Sure enough, both my wife’s and my daughter’s schools experienced two-hour delays. In fact, virtually ALL the school districts had the same, except, of course for the Albany Academies, which were closed. There were four or five inches of snow, but it was slippery underneath.

When my wife’s alarm went off, and she got up, I gave her the news. She proclaimed, “Then I’m going back to bed, ” but not before I grabbed a raggedy pair of pants to shovel snow in. The snow removal timing was geared to the imminent delivery of milk from the local dairy – yes, we have that – and my desire for the fellow not to kill himself on our steps.

As I was removing the snow from the walk, I discovered this magical thing. You know how you can sometimes see the ice crystals sparkle in the snow? That is rather nifty in the day time and indeed was that morning.

But before the sunrise, when the only illumination is the porch light and the streetlight, the lawn area in between is dark. Yet I could see the wave of sparkling items in the snow. It felt like looking up in the sky and seeing a panoply of stars.

Except that one is looking down, and it is much closer, much more intimate, with a representation of the universe at my feet. It was, dare I say, spiritual. I wish I could have taken a photo, but without the skill or equipment, I’m sure it would not have done the moment justice.

As I finished shoveling the sidewalk and cleaning off my wife’s car, the milk truck arrived. I brought him the empties and he handed me a couple bottles. The driver yelled, “This is it for the snow!” From his lips…

A Scriptorium, if it brings you joy

I used to read Russell Baker’s New York Times column religiously, and Growing Up was one of my all-time favorites.

Growing Up.Russell Baker This is a continuation of “I cannot throw out these books,” in response to Jaquandor’s Scriptorium piece. It is a counterpoint to Tidying Up’s Marie Kondo, who has said, “I now keep my collection of books to about thirty volumes at any one time.” That doesn’t mean YOU should have only 30 books, she added, if they bring you joy.

RELIGION

The Heart of Christianity: Rediscovering a Life of Faith – Marcus J. Borg (2003). In many ways, my own story.

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb: A Spirituality for Leadership in a Multicultural Community – -Eric H.F. Law (1993). In the late 1990s, my wife and were sent to Maryland to get training on multiculturalism by Law himself.

Methodist Hymnal (1851) – an ex-girlfriend gave it to me. It has lyrics but no music because it was ASSUMED that everyone knew the tunes.

The Methodist Hymnal (1935) – it was used by the church I grew up in. Same ex-girlfriend refers to it as the “REAL Methodist Hymnal.” She is correct.

Here and Now: Living in the Spirit – Henri J.M. Nouwen (1994) – In this blog, I have often quoted the birthday section on March 7.

Gandhi, An Autobiography: The story of my experiments with truth – Mohandas K. Gandhi. Written in the late 1920s, published in the US in 1957 and starting to fall apart from overuse.

POP CULTURE

Life Itself -Roger Ebert (2011). Naturally.

The Twilight Zone Companion – Marc Scott Zicree (1982). “The complete show-by-show guide to one of the greatest television shows ever.”

Word Freak – Stefan Fatsis (2001) – a book about Scrabble, which I used to play with my dear great-aunt Deana before she died in the mid-1960s

Uncle Andy’s: a faabbbulous visit with Andy Warhol – James Warhola (2003) – a book about Andy Warhol I got at the Norman Rockwell Museum in the past couple of years

Leonard Maltin’s 2015 movie guide, because it’s the last one

Love Is Hell – Matt Groening (1984). Before there was a single episode of the Simpsons, there was the HELL cartoon book series: Childhood is Hell, School is Hell, Work is Hell, The Road to Hell, all of which I own

MISCELLANEOUS

Roberts Rules of Order – given to me when I was elected Binghamton Central High School student government president in 1970 by the late Pat Wilson/Curry

The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, An Oxford Freshman – Cuthbert Bede. I’ve never read this 1856 book “with numerous illustrations”, but I don’t need to.

Thinking in Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math – Daniel Tammet (2012). I did a talk on this for the Friends of Albany Public Library

The Fate of the Earth- Jonathan Schell (1982). about avoiding nuclear annihilation, a real policy wonk piece. And somewhere in the middle of the book, was some hopeful narrative citing Socrates and Jesus, that was almost poetic in its verbiage, and it made me smile. I even used it at a ceremony once.

Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life – Sissela Bok (1979) – one of the most significant books I’ve ever read

Growing Up – Russell Baker (1982). I used to read his New York Times column religiously, and the book was one of my all-time favorites. I was really sad to note that one of America’s most celebrated writers had died recently at the age of 93

Les and Trudy: Redhead in San Francisco

Many of the wives were talking about the issues of the day: war, politics, and, inevitably, race.

Les and Trudy I don’t think I told this story before. If I have, in the words of an old friend of mine from England would often say, “Toughy buns.”

In the late 1960s, after about six mind-numbing years at IBM and a brief but productive stint at Opportunities for Broome, my father worked for Associated Building Contractors. I’m not quite sure what he did at ABC, but I imagine it had something to do with safety compliance, since that’s what he did at J.A. Jones after he moved to Charlotte, NC in 1974.

One of the perks of the job was the ability to travel. In 1969, give or take a year, mom and dad went out to San Francisco on a business trip of his. While the men did whatever, the “wives” would have lunch.

At one of these events, many of the wives were talking about the issues of the day: war, politics, and, inevitably, race. Some conversation took place on the latter topic, during which Mom listened thoughtfully, but said nothing. One of the wives, wanting to draw Mom into the discussion, said, “Trudy, what do think?”

Mom said, “Well, being a black woman…” Apparently, many jaws hit the table, perhaps one or two literally.

It is true that the red wig that she wore in the 1960s, which was even brighter in color than this one from the 1980s, made her skin appear even lighter. But she never identified as anything but a black woman.

My father tended to be the more visible, the more outgoing in the couple. So when there was a narrative in which SHE was the chief protagonist, mom enjoyed it immensely. She told this story more than once; there were a few anecdotes that she liked to repeat. I never asked him, but I have to think that dad was pleased that mom was out there, gathering information.

Les and Trudy Green were married on March 12, 1950, and were wed for more than 50 years, until my father died in August 2000.

JEOPARDY!: Jackie Fuchs/Jackie Fox

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the JEOPARDY! Tournament of Champions?

When it comes to the game show JEOPARDY!, which I’ve been viewing since I was in grade school, I try to watch each episode. Thanks to the technologies, first the VCR and now the DVR, I don’t tend to see them in real time.

It was a Wednesday in mid-December when I was watching the Tuesday show. The player in one slot, an attorney and writer from Los Angeles, was asked by host Alex Trebek, “Jackie Fuchs is our champion… and was also a performer in an all-girl rock band?” She noted, “I was the bass player in the ‘70s all-female rock band the Runaways.”

What? So I immediately contacted the biggest Runaways fan I know, SamuraiFrog. As it turned out, he had happened upon the second half of the game on his own. Apparently, the producers of the show knew who she was, though I very much doubt that Trebek was aware of Cherry Bomb.

“Fuchs’ tenure in the Runaways was short — she joined the group that launched Joan Jett when she was 15 years old, under the name Jackie Fox, and left at 17. In 2015, the world found out why: According to Fuchs and several alleged witnesses, Runaways manager Kim Fowley raped her in front of a crowd, including her bandmates, while she was drugged and semi-conscious at age 16. Fowley died before Fuchs made her allegations public.”

She noted: “Once you can talk about that on camera, an audience isn’t going to faze you. It’s kind of like that’s the worst thing that can happen to you, so you know, losing a game show is not fun, but it just pales in comparison.”

Jackie Fuchs or Fox has been on variety of game shows over the years. She was on The Dating Game on the same show – though not the same segment – as Peewee Herman. “‘I was on ‘The Chase’ on the Game Show Network — it’s not on anymore… I did not acquit myself well on that show, but it made me want to get back up and do it again.

“‘So I went on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire (in 2013) — and I still didn’t acquit myself that well, but it was better. I figured I would try one more time, and this time I was ready.’ In both of those earlier cases, she was identified as an ex-Runaway immediately before flaming out, “which is also part of the reason why I didn’t want to lead with that’ on JEOPARDY!'”

Will we see Jackie Fuchs in the Tournament of Champions, which brings back the best players over the past two years? There are 15 slots. Two are for the college champion and the teachers’ tournament champ. When she finished with four wins and $87,089 in winnings, she was in the 12th slot, so it was possible. However, four players since then have exceeded her score, so unless one cannot play, it’s now unlikely.

For ABC Wednesday