Roger O Green

Too close to exploding manhole covers

Don’t know how energetic I will be to reply to comments after my procedure on this coming Wednesday.

For about four days, it started hurting when I would eat while using tooth 19. So this past Wednesday morning, I finally called my dentist’s office. Amazingly, I got an appointment that day at 2 p.m. (if not that day, then it would not have until tomorrow). From my symptoms, he believes I need a root canal. The tooth had been capped many years ago, not by him, and it’s a good chance that it has an infection, though nothing ominous is on the X-ray.

He referred me to an endodontist who has done work on his teeth, who can take me in a week. The bad news is that the specialist doesn’t take my insurance, which means that I’ll have an outlay of $1000 to $1500. The semi-good news is that my insurance company will reimburse me about 50% after the fact.

As I am making my appointment, my wife and daughter arrive for their scheduled cleanings. After I hang up, the reception asks, “What was that?” I have no idea what she was talking about, though the lights did flicker momentarily.

I get on my bicycle and was about to depart. But as I’m departing the building, I see a bunch of folks standing around looking northward up the street. It turns out they were looking at a hole from where a manhole cover had flown up in the air. It looked like this:

There were multiple police and fire vehicles on the scene, plus a truck from the National Grid utility.

I go back into my dentist’s office, and I apprise them of these facts. I didn’t know at the time that there were in fact multiple explosions from an underground fire. Soon, some parking attendant advised the dentist’s office to clear; it was all hands on deck to respond to this event, which had happened before.

Anyway, don’t know how energetic I will be to reply to comments after my procedure this coming Wednesday. Eventually, I will respond to your comments, and go visit your sites as well, if I’ve done so in the past.

Why the Equinox Ask Roger Anything Edition is Better

One of these days, he, or someone else, will throw some of those questions right back at me. Which, of course, serves me right.

(That is to say, better than the Solstice ARA.)

Yup. Doing that Ask Roger Anything, that exciting time of the year when YOU get to ASK ROGER ANYTHING. Pretty straightforward, eh?

And I LOVE to do this in March and September for one simple reason: Jaquandor does the same thing in February and August. And one of these days, he, or someone else, will throw some of those questions right back at me. Which, of course, serves me right. In fact, preemptively, I’m working on one right now. No topic is off-limits.

Of course, I reserve the right to obfuscate my remarks somewhat, but they cannot be outright lies; there must be an element of truth to my responses.

I’ll be answering y’all (which I consider a perfectly appropriate term) over the next couple of weeks.

Also would like your comments on the new Randy Newman video. He’s the guy who offended Short People, among many others.

Curiouser and curiouser: 20 questions

Donald Trump, because he’s a twit. Planned Parenthood, because it’s constantly under attack.

There’s this website Curious as a Cat, and it asks one to three questions each week. Here are some from 2006 and 2007 I deigned to answer.

1. What is the one experience in your life that has caused the most pain?
Physical pain. Tie between a broken rib and oral surgery. Emotional, surely an affair of the heart.

2. If you had to pick one thing, what would you say is the single thing that can destroy a soul?
Telling so many lies that you start thinking it’s the truth.

3. What one thing always speaks deeply to you, to your spirit, no matter your mood or what else is going on in your life?
Music, always. I hear it all the time. Sometimes it’s something I’ve heard recently, but more often it’s a tune suitable for the moment.

4. What is the least appropriate thing to pray for?

Actually, the harm of someone else. But I get most irritated when sports figures seem to think that God was on THEIR side after a victory; I was reading a Guideposts magazine article recently, which said, and I agree, “God doesn’t care.”

5. If you could remove one of the current Supreme Court justices based on their moral positions, whom would you choose?
Tough. Clarence Thomas is SO awful, and ought to be impeached for ethical violations. But Antonin Scalia (pictured) tends to steer Thomas’ voting compass, so I guess I’ll say him; he ought to be checked out, too.

6. Name one event that changed your relationship with your family the most.
I think it was the rapprochement of my two sisters in the past few years, who used to argue a lot. They would (especially one of them) call me up and vent about the other. Now that that’s no longer the case, I get fewer calls.

7. If you were to make a collage to describe yourself to others, what sorts of pictures or symbols would you include?
Clearly, it would have a picture of red sneakers; I used to have a Christmas ornament of red sneakers, but it broke. A racquetball racquet, the picture of me as a duck, the cover of the Beatles Revolver album, the cover of a Howard the Duck comic book, a caricature of me singing several years ago, the front cover of the World Almanac, a picture of my two sisters and me when I was a kid, a picture of my parents, a picture of my wife & daughter & me.

8. Which year was the best of your life? How old were you? Would you want to live it again?
1978, when I moved to Schenectady, got a job I liked, had my first steady girlfriend in over two years. I was 25. Absolutely not.

9. What is your favorite way to travel?
By train. I like the light rail in San Diego a lot as well.

10. What spiritual concept, from any religion, is the hardest for you to understand? Is it something you have studied, or something you have only observed from the ‘outside’?
I think Christianity has a lot of difficult concepts: the virgin birth, the resurrection of the dead. But nothing seems to mystify as much as the notion of the Trinity, God in three persons. I’ve studied it a lot, but couldn’t explain it adequately if I tried. St. Patrick used to say it’s like the three-leaf clover, three flowers in one, but that falls short for me.

11. What is your earliest memory? Why do you think you have remembered that particular event or thing?
Trip to the now-closed Catskill Game Farm when I was three, which I remember because there were pictures. So it may be the pictures I recall, not the trip.

12. What position in any team sport is the hardest to play? Why? Have you played that position?
Catcher in baseball, and yes, I played it in a pickup league.

13. Imagine you could redesign your hands. Whose hands would you remodel yours to resemble?
Or would you keep the hands you’ve got?
I like my hands. I like the length of my fingers, the shape of my fingernails. I do which they didn’t have the vitiligo on the back.

14. What bothers you most in other people, generally?
Impatience. People four cars back beeping because the line isn’t moving, and it isn’t moving because some considerate driver’s actually letting an older pedestrian cross. Or the surge of shoppers at the front door on Black Friday openings, which is why I avoid that day like the Plague.

15. What one thing have you done that pleased your parents the most?
Graduating from college. Took five years. My one sister and I actually graduated on successive weekends, she from SUNY Binghamton and me from SUNY New Paltz, and my parents, who were by then living in Charlotte, NC, came up to both.

16. You have to choose one rich person to be forced to give all their money away to a cause or charity. Whom would you choose, and to which cause or charity will the money go?
Donald Trump, because he’s a twit. Planned Parenthood, because it’s constantly under attack.

17. Is there an emotion that you think has gotten stronger as you’ve aged? If so, why do you think that has happened?
I’m more of a sentimental sap, where songs or TV movies might make me a bit misty-eyed. I think it’s a function of the experiences, and the fragility, of life.

18. What kind of cowardice do you most despise?
Lack of conviction. I may hate Rick Santorum’s politics, but I believe he believes what he says (and that’s scary.) Whereas I think Mitt Romney will say just about anything to appeal to whomever he is speaking at the moment.

19. If the U.S. had to give up one state, which one would you pick? Why?
Texas. It was briefly its own country and still acts like it.

20. When were you most moved by a ceremony?
I’m often moved by ceremony – communion, weddings, a US naturalization. The funeral of a 20-month old, though…

Six Songs of Me

I have been of the opinion that almost any song could be done in chicken.

Dustbury did NOT insist I do this, so naturally, I did:

What was the first song you ever bought?

As I’ve noted, I belonged to the Capitol Record Club in 1965, where I was buying albums, so I’m hard pressed to figure out the first single. It may have been Eleanor Rigby/Yellow Submarine; I was then depressed by the release of the Revolver album a short time later, yet puzzled by the variation between the single version and the album version of Yellow Sub, as I noted recently. But the more I think about it, my first single was probably Soul And Inspiration by the Righteous Brothers (listen), which came out a few months earlier in 1966, as I remember that blue Verve label.

What song always gets you dancing?

Cliche that it might be, but it’s Celebration by Kool and the Gang (listen). A short-lived romance got me dragged to a local disco a few times in the day. Recently bought a greatest hits album by that group.

What song takes you back to your childhood?

As Dustbury wrote, “There are those who would argue that I never left.” That said, I’ll pick another song from my father’s singles collection, Bird Dog by the Everly Brothers (listen), on Cadence Records. I discovered that women should be referred to as poultry (quail, chick) – something I fortunately unlearned quickly; and that men were canines – is that still true?

What is your perfect love song?

Forever I have been a sucker for I Only Have Eyes for You by the Flamingoes (listen). Always makes me a bit misty.

What song would you want at your funeral?

I have been, for a long time, of the opinion that almost any song could be done in chicken. Bold songs, such as the 1812 Overture or the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony are particularly great. But the first song I heard which stimulated this proposition was In the Mood by Henhouse Five Plus Two (listen), the “group” actually being singer Ray Stevens. I first heard it on one of those Warner Brothers Loss leaders of the 1970s.

Time for an encore. One last song that makes you, you.

At bare minimum, the chorus of Don’t let me be misunderstood by The Animals (listen). “I’m just a soul whose intentions are good.” I think many of us feel that others don’t “get” us, and I certainly am not immune.
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Both Mark Evanier and Dustbury are supporting the Kickstarter effort for Big Daddy’s Smashing Songs of Stage and Screen. I third that emotion.

No One Could Talk Like This Pirate

In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey…

It’s another Talk Like a Pirate Day. All I want is for the Pittsburgh Pirates, a baseball team with a proud tradition going back to the 1880s(!), to finish above .500 again. Is that too much to ask? They have not had a winning season since 1992, when the Atlanta Braves (and former Pirate) first baseman Sid Bream made the ugliest slide at home plate, just beating the throw from left fielder Barry Bonds, back when he was skinny. The Pirates are, last I checked, only 2 games over .500, yet are still in the hunt for a wild card to get into the playoffs. So there is hope. But not so long ago, they were 14 games above .500, so there is great concern as well.

Meanwhile, one of the oddest sporting events ever, 41 baseball seasons ago:
In celebration of the greatest athletic achievement by a man on a psychedelic journey, No Mas artist James Blagden proudly presents the animated tale of Dock Ellis’ legendary LSD no-hitter. This features the late pitcher’s actual retelling of this peculiar feat.
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Actual pirates now have form letters. Bizarre.