Roger O Green

Roger Answers Your Questions, Gordon, Tom, Demeur, and Uthaclena

When I’ve just written something difficult, the meme serves as a sort of intellectual “palate cleaners”, as it were.

Gordon of Blog This, Pal!, who had a birthday this month, the day before mine actually, asks:
With all the rampant de-funding that seems to be happening (NPR, Americorps), do you think it’s being done out of partisan motivations? Or simply (as I like to think of it) a case of relatively new legislators playing hack and slash without really considering the consequences?

Gordon, you attribute to these legislators a level of naivete that I just don’t find at all convincing. An opportunity to get rid of Planned Parenthood funding, for instance, is like a dream come true for the GOP, at least since 1994; maybe since 1973. Never mind the facts that 1) the funding, per the Hyde Amendment, cannot be used for abortions and 2) the services that are provided are often the only medical treatment some women get. I find it incredibly cynical that they want to, symbolically at least, support the unborn, while at the same time, imperil the born by cutting programs such as WIC (Women, Infants, Children.)

Getting rid of those damn liberals at NPR will be saving, at a cost, especially in some rural communities, of having any local radio at all. And speaking of NPR, it distresses me that a faux journalist with a microphone and video camera can help besmirch the network by clever editing, the same way Shirley Sherrod can be forced out of the Department of Agriculture based on the same clever manipulation.

Let’s be realistic, though: if cuts are to be made to the federal budget, it’ll have to come from somewhere. A good 88% of the budget has been deemed by pundits as non-discretionary. As much as I hate agreeing with columnist George Will, that’s nonsense. Most of the budget, save for payment on the debt, is discretionary; it may require Congressional action, but it’s not untouchable. But which jobs program is one to cut: a factory making weapons that the Department of Defense doesn’t even want, which employs a number of folks in the district of a powerful member of Congress, or Americorps, whose only native constituency are not-for-profits and some smaller governments?

There are choices as to what to “hack and slash”, and they seem to be quite targeted, while other programs, even within the 12% of the budget that everyone considers discretionary, have been considered off-limits by House GOP leaders.
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Tom the Mayor, with whom I worked at FantaCo, wonders:
Do you think State budget cuts will affect your librarian job? How about your wife’s job? I know Medicaid cuts have already cost me one job and might cost me my present one.

Well, indirectly, yes. My job gets some state money, so that’s a possibility. But if the US Small Business Administration gets a 45% cut, as proposed in the Obama budget, that’d be even worse for the Small Business Development Centers, which do the hands-on counseling, and therefore, that’s not great for my colleagues and me if there are fewer centers and counselors. So it’s the federal budget I’m more worried about.

My wife’s job is with BOCES. If the district she works in decides to hire their own ESL teacher, my wife has been with BOCES longer, and with good evaluations, than any other ESL teacher in the area. So probably not.
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Demeur, who I read regularly, relates:
Thomas, I feel for you I’m in the same boat that might sink any time now. I retrained for a different job only to have funding cut. I was lucky enough to get tied into a temp job with a government agency. I now hear that this program may be cut…

My question: Have you considered what you’d do if you had to change careers?

It’s difficult to think of my life as having a “career”. Besides being a librarian, the kind of jobs I’d like and for which I could make the case for which I’m currently qualified are writing, editing, customer service, retail sales, and some sort of instruction.
***
My good friend Uthaclena asked me – well it was more that he indicated that he didn’t understand me doing those meme things such as Sunday Stealing.

Well, here’s why I do them.

1. The process of answering predetermined questions I find as an interesting exercise for me. Moreover, I often find out things about me that I didn’t know before. It’s a controlled reveal.
2. Sometimes, when I need to write something that is difficult and/or time-consuming, it starts the writing juices going.
3. Related: when I’ve just written something difficult, the meme serves as a sort of intellectual “palate cleaners”, as it were.

And in writing this, I realize that I do pretty much the same thing at work.

We librarians generally take the next question in the queue. Sometimes, the query is a bear, requiring a certain learning curve before even attempting to respond to it. Occasionally, I get stuck, waiting for someone from a government agency or an association to call or write me back. While I’m waiting, I might take another question down the list that I know is answerable. Perhaps it’s Census data I know exists, or regulations for a type of business I’ve helped before, or a business list. After struggling with something difficult, I want a “win”, something I KNOW I can answer without great difficulty.

J is for Justices

The only way a Supreme Court Justice can be removed is through impeachment (indictment) by the House of Representatives, and conviction by the Senate.

On the United States Supreme Court, the nine judges are called justices. There have been 110 justices since 1789, with 17 of them having served as Chief Justice, not counting some in temporary positions due to the death or retirement of the Chief Justice.

Someone nominated by the President, and ratified by the U.S. Senate by a majority vote, can serve for life. The idea was that the judiciary not be affected by the whims of pedestrian politics. Not that that hasn’t happened on occasion.

Here’s a list of Supreme Court members. I can tell that this picture was taken after the 2006 retirement of Sandra Day O’Connor, the first woman ever to serve on the high court, replaced by Samuel Alito, and before the 2009 retirement of David Souter. There is a particular order in these pictures. The Chief Justice, in this case, John Roberts, is always front and center, literally. To his left, from your point of view, is the justice with the most seniority, in this case, 2010 retiree John Paul Stevens. To the right of the CJ is the next person in terms of seniority, Antonin Scalia, followed by (far left front) Anthony Kennedy, (far right front) Souter, (near left back) Clarence Thomas, (near right back) Ruth Bader Ginsburg, (far left back) Stephen Breyer and (far right back) Alito.

Here are the biographies of the current Court members, plus recent retirees.

Only four Presidents have never gotten a nomination confirmed: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, Andrew Johnson (who did try), and Jimmy Carter. Of those, only Carter served a full term as President, though Johnson, who was impeached, nearly did.

And speaking of impeachment, the only way a Supreme Court Justice can be removed is through impeachment (indictment) by the House of Representatives, and conviction by the Senate. And only one justice, Samuel Chase has ever been impeached, though not convicted.

The first Roman Catholic on the bench was Roger Taney (1836), the chief justice who delivered the dreadful Dred Scott decision (1857). The first Jewish person was Louis Brandeis in 1916. So it is interesting that the current court consists of six Catholics, three Jews, and none of the Protestants who had dominated the courts for centuries.

The first black on the bench was Thurgood Marshall (1967), who appeared before the court in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education (1954) anti-discrimination case; Clarence Thomas is the second. Marshall is not the only justice to move from lawyer before the court to justice on the court; e.g., Abe Fortas was the lead attorney in Gideon v. Wainwright (1962), which ruled that state courts are required under the Sixth Amendment to provide counsel in criminal cases for defendants unable to afford their own attorneys.

The first woman, as noted, was Sandra Day O’Connor (1981). There are now three women on the court, and there have been four in total. In the current picture, Thomas and Bader Ginsburg have made it to the front row. The newbies are Sonia Sotomayor, the first Hispanic on the Court (2009), and Elena Kagan.

ABC Wednesday – Round 8

It’s the equinox ASK ROGER ANYTHING

Lydia is very curious about death. Specifically, she was fascinated how my mother’s cremains could fit in such a small container.

It’s finally spring (or autumn) and it’s time for me to relax and you do the heavy lifting. This is the regular segment in which you get to ask Roger (i.e., me) anything you want. Nothing’s off limits.

Now, as I often mention, I AM allowed to perhaps engage in a little bit of clever obfuscation, but I cannot lie outright. If you ask anonymously, the amount of trickery will no doubt increase.

Actually, I already have a question to start. It’s a query that Uthaclena asked last month that I’m too lazy to look up. The upshot was, “How is Lydia coping with her Grandma Green’s death?”

Actually, she’s fine.

A few things are going on:
1) She knew my mother, but not that well. She saw her last year once, the year before once. They talked on the phone rarely. Now, my mother, with my sister and niece, did come up a month after she was born, and my mom and my daughter had been in each other’s presence a few times after that, but the daughter’s not likely to remember most of those.
2) She has had a cavalier, even what others might call an inappropriate casualness, talking about death, e.g., the way she’s spoken about my father and my wife’s brother John being dead (before she was born), which I took as the naivete of a child.
3) She is very curious about death. Specifically, she was fascinated how my mother’s cremains could fit in such a small container. What is the process?

So ask away.

Hamantashen

The quintessential Purim treat is hamantaschen.

I’ve long had a certain affection for the Jewish holiday of Purim. Partly, it’s because it always seems to fall somewhere around my birthday, or at least during Pisces. This year, it’s today (or last night), which, like Easter, et al., is particularly late in the season; next year, it’ll be March 8 (or the night before). You can find out when it falls each year here.

But it’s also because it’s based on a story from the Old Testament book of Esther, one of only two books in the Bible named for a woman, the other being Ruth. I always liked the story of palace intrigue involving Esther, though secretly Jewish, getting to marry king Ahasuerus. Meanwhile, the king’s prime minister, Haman, gets ticked off with Esther’s cousin Mordechai and plans to get all the Jews killed. Through some clever strategy, which you can read about Purim here, it is Haman who ends up being executed. The Jews’ deliverance led to the celebration of Purim.

In a church miniplay about 20 years ago, I got to be the evil Haman. Always more fun playing the bad guy.

As part of my wife’s birthday present to me, she let me have a card party, specifically HEARTS party, at our house yesterday. My friends Jeff and Sandy said they would come, but they would have to leave early because of Purim, a fact that I mentioned to my friend Mary. So one of my friends, who is a gentile who likes to bake, considered making and bringing hamantaschen. What?

The quintessential Purim treat is hamantaschen. This Yiddish word means “Haman’s pockets”; the name of these triangular-filled cookies in Hebrew — oznei Haman — means “Haman’s ears.” They are served as a reminder of the triumph over Haman, whose name is also symbolically drowned out by the children using noisemakers during the synagogue recitation of the Purim story.

Hamantaschen with poppyseed filling

Total time: 6 1/2 hours; much of it is chilling time

Servings: This makes about 3 dozen hamantaschen

Creamy poppyseed filling with raisins

3/4 cup poppyseeds (3½ ounces)

1/2 cup whole milk

3 tablespoons mild honey

2 to 3 tablespoons sugar, divided

1/4 cup raisins

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest (from about 1 orange)

1. Using a spice grinder, grind the poppy seeds into a fine meal but not to a paste. This will need to be done in batches.

2. In a small saucepan, combine the poppy seeds, milk, honey, and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Stir over low heat and bring to a simmer. Cook over low heat, stirring often until the mixture is about as thick as peanut butter, about 10 minutes.

3. Add the raisins and butter, and stir over low heat just until the butter is blended in. Remove from heat and stir in the orange zest. Taste, and stir in the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar if you like.

4. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and set it aside to cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate it until cold before using, at least 1 hour. This makes about 1 cup filling, enough for about 3 dozen hamantaschen.

Hamantaschen and assembly

3/4 cups flour (12.4 ounces)

1 cup powdered sugar (3.5 ounces)

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter or stick margarine, cut into ½-inch pieces

1 egg, beaten

1 1/2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest (from about 1 large orange)

1 to 3 tablespoons orange juice

Creamy poppyseed filling with raisins

1. Combine the flour, powdered sugar, baking powder, and salt in a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process briefly to blend. Scatter the butter pieces over the mixture. Pulse the mixture just until it resembles a coarse meal. Add the orange zest. Pour the beaten egg evenly over the mixture in the processor. Pulse again, scraping the sides down occasionally, just until the ingredients are blended.

2. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon orange juice and pulse briefly until the dough begins to stick together but does not quite form a ball. If the dough is too dry to stick together, add another tablespoon of juice and pulse several times to blend. If necessary, add the last tablespoon of juice 1 teaspoon at a time, pulsing after each addition.

3. Transfer the dough to a work surface and divide it into 4 portions. With the heel of your hand, knead each portion lightly to blend. Using a rubber spatula, transfer each portion of the dough to a sheet of plastic wrap, form it into a fairly smooth flat disk and wrap tightly. Refrigerate it for at least 3 hours or up to 3 days.

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. If it is very firm, let it soften for a few minutes at room temperature. Meanwhile, butter a baking sheet, or line it with foil and butter the foil.

5. Unwrap 1 quarter of the dough at a time. Push to form it into a rough circle. Tap it firmly a few times with a rolling pin to soften it and to begin flattening it. Roll it on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin, turning it often and flouring lightly as necessary, until it is about one-eighth-inch thick.

6. Using a 3-inch cookie cutter or a glass, cut the dough in rounds. Brush water lightly along the rim of each one. Put 1 teaspoon filling in the center of each. (Do not add the extra filling, or it may come out during baking.) Pull up the edges of the round in 3 arcs that almost meet in the center above the filling, to form a triangular pastry with the filling showing slightly. Pinch the edges to seal them firmly.

7. Put the pastries on the greased baking sheet and refrigerate them. Push the trimmings gently together; wrap and refrigerate them.

8. Roll the remaining dough into 3 more portions and shape more hamantaschen. After refrigerating the trimmings for at least 30 minutes, you can roll and shape them also. Refrigerate the shaped pastries for 30 minutes or up to overnight to firm the dough.

9. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 375 degrees.

10. Bake the hamantaschen until they are lightly golden at the edges, about 10 to 14 minutes.

11. Cool them on a rack, then store them in an airtight container.

Each of 3 dozen cookies: 128 calories; 2 grams protein; 14 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 7 grams fat; 4 grams saturated fat; 21 mg cholesterol; 6 grams sugar; 27 mg sodium.

As it turned out, my friend opted for another treat that was likewise DELICIOUS.

STUFF post

One sister is a recovering shopaholic – and annoying, in that way recovering addicts tend to be.

I have, over the past few years, been much less likely to get things than I used to be. Oh sure, I might buy a few DVDs or CDs per year, but it’s nothing like my heyday a couple of decades ago. This has been a function of several factors:

1. Stuff owns you. When you have stuff, you have to keep track of stuff, you have to dust stuff. The old cliche about the boat owner is true; the two happiest days of his/her life are the day getting the boat and the day selling it.

I used to live in apartments, which meant moving every few years. Schlepping the long white boxes of my comic books – which I’ve since sold – and the heavy boxes containing LPs – which I have not – got very old.

There was this older couple I once knew, and they had a rule: for every item that came into the house, an item of equal size had to go out. I admire their discipline because I’m pretty sure I could not do that.

There was this young woman on JEOPARDY! a few years ago who stunned Trebek when she talked about the fire at her dwelling and how liberating it was. I’m certainly in that mindset, but I sure understood the sentiment.

2. My family obviously has issues with stuff. When he died, my father had a couple of warehouses full of stuff he was (presumably) going to sell, but it was in such disarray, my family struggled for a couple of years to thin it out. My mother used to collect bells, but one day just decided that they were taking over the living room and dumped all but a handful. One sister is a recovering shopaholic – and annoying, in that way recovering addicts tend to be.

3. If I can’t use the stuff, then I don’t want the stuff. I actually like reference books because I access them regularly. But that pile of books I keep meaning to read is starting to get on my nerves. Of course, I love music, but it is probably the case that I could not play all I own if I played it 10 hours a day, every day for a year; if I’m not listening to it, do I need it?

What is your relationship with stuff? How do you limit how much stuff you have? Are some of your stuff in storage?