Roger O Green

Sunday Stealing — 2×4

office space

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Dr. Medusa is an associate professor who stole this meme from her friend Clare. Since Clare no longer blogs, it’s unknown whether she originated it or stole it. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important now is how you answer these questions.

The 2×4 Meme

TWO foods you can’t stand

Peanut butter: What’s odd is that, as a kid, I LOVED peanut butter. But I must have ODed on it because the smell now makes me nauseous.

2. Black olives

FOUR foods you love

Lasanga, possibly the only thing I make using the oven

2. Strawberry ice cream

3. Carrot cake

4. Deviled eggs

Location

TWO places you never want to see again

A truly awful motel in Ashtabula, OH, where we stayed for the 2016 Olin Family reunion.

2. A cockroach-infested apartment I lived in Kingston, NY for two months in late 1972.

FOUR places you’d like to revisit

Toronto, ON, Canada, where we went to just ahead of the Olin Reunion in Peterborough , ON in 2011. It was combined with a stop at Niagara Falls. I can always go to the Falls.

2. Barbados, where we spent our honeymoon in 1999.

3. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. I’ve been there twice, in 1998 (the Carls Perkins and Wilson had recently died) and 2016.

4. Paris, France. We were in France for a few days, but not nearly enough in the capital

TWO musical artists who make you want to change the station

I don’t know a musical act well enough to hate. There are aspects of various music that I don’t enjoy: misogyny, hyperviolence.

FOUR musical artists you love to listen to

The Beatles (what a surprise)

2. Sly and the Family Stone

3. Beach Boys – Sly and Brian died recently

4. Talking Heads

The past

TWO moments you’d like to erase

Oddly enough, this came up in conversation recently. Trying to get moved from a horrendous office space in August 2017 involved yelling (not just by me), and I needed to leave to cool off, but I was physically blocked. There are more details, but suffice to say: 1) I did get to move, but 2) it took WAY too much effort.

2. One morning in June 2009, I was trying to get back from Charlotte, NC, to Albany, NY. Because of a conversation too inane to repeat, I was late for my plane and had to switch items while in the TSA line.

FOUR moments you’d like to relive. OK, I’m not sure the premise is correct for me. Do I want a rush of nostalgia? No. Do I want to “fix” the past? Maybe, but THEN what? Do I want to re-remember stuff? Well, maybe.

I’m told that, when I was in third grade, I got so angry because some kids were playing keep-away with my hat that I went home. I can totally believe it. I don’t remember this, but my friends tell me I then hopped a Crowley’s milk truck to get home. I’d only want to relive to clarify the narrative.

2. When my maternal grandmother would ramble about relatives, which she called “relations,” I would take notes the next time.

3. I would put my childhood photo album in a safer place.

4. When I took apart the front door lock when I was a kid, I would have taken notes so I could put it back together.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Easy Listening #1s in 1975, part 1

NASA

Like the other charts, the Billboard Easy Listening #1s in 1975, the nomenclature at the time for what became Adult Contemporary, were also overcrowded. `

Something Better To Do – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1

Please Mr. Please – Olivia Newton-John, three weeks at #1, also #1 pop

Midnight Blue – Melissa Manchester, two weeks at #1 – I loved that song at a point when I had no real romantic relationships

At Seventeen – Janis Ian, two weeks at #1. She sang it when she was 23.

I’m Sorry – John Denver, two weeks at #1, also #1 pop

The Way I Want To Touch You – Captain and Tennille, two weeks at #1

My Little Town – Simon and Garfunkel, two weeks at #1; this song was included on the solo albums of each artist

I Write The Songs – Barry Manilow, two weeks at #1. Not incidentally, Barry Manilow did not write it, though many people assume so. The Beach Boys’ Bruce Johnston penned it.

The rest of the songs, #1 for a single week

Only You (And You Alone) – Ringo Starr. This was originally recorded by The Platters in 1955. On Ringo’s version, John Lennon plays acoustic guitar, and Harry Nilsson sings harmony vocals

Please Mr. Postman – Carpenters, also #1 pop . Yes, it’s Carpenters, not the Carpenters. The 1961 debut single by the Marvelettes for the Tamla (Motown) label was the first Motown song to reach the number-one position on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Morningside Of The Mountain – Donny and Marie Osmond. I had never heard this song before! Pure treacle

Best Of My Love – The Eagles, also #1 pop

Sweet Surrender – John Denver

Lonely People – America. I wrote a post about this song, as well as NASA, DC, and Charlotte, NC.

Nightingale – Carole King

Poetry Man – Phoebe Snow

Have You Never Been Mellow – Olivia Newton-John, also #1 pop

I’ve Been This Way Before – Neil Diamond

(Hey, Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – B.J. Thomas, also #1 pop

Emotion – Helen Reddy

Movie review: Sorry, Baby

Eva Victor’s film debuts

My wife wanted to see the film Sorry, Baby. I’d seen the trailer thrice, but I couldn’t get a feel for what the film was about other than Agnes (Eva Victor) being REALLY happy to see her good friend Lydie (Naomi Ackie) when Lydie visited their college town from New York City. Lydie is a generous friend.

At first, you don’t know why Agnes is so stuck. This is a function of the fact that the five main sections are not presented in chronological order. Eventually, a significant event—not shown on screen—is revealed, and one begins to understand her dealing with her trauma as best she can.

At the same time, she becomes a popular young professor. She’s so well-regarded that one of her frenemies, Natasha (Kelly McCormack), is practically stalking her.

The film also stars Louis Cancelmi as her professor/mentor, Preston Decker; John Carroll Lynch as the helpful stranger, Pete; and Lucas Hedges, whom I have seen in a few films, as Gavin, the neighbor.

I fear some viewers might be bored by the slow pacing, but it is clever enough to recommend. Of those trailers I’d previously seen, some were laugh-out-loud funny when I saw them in the film. I didn’t understand the movie title until the final section.

I learned that Eva Victor, born in Paris but raised in San Francisco, is an American comedian who garnered fame by posting funny videos on Twitter. Sorry, Baby was her film debut as both writer and director.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the critics were 96% positive, and the audiences were 83% positive. The IMDb summary was that the movie ” carried off difficult subject matter with a light touch and wry sense of humor.” This is accurate.

August rambling: down 1000%

both fans and athletes being left at the gate

Deferred Prosecution Agreements and Immigration Enforcement: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

In a democracy, the people shape their government. But in the long run, the government also shapes its people. What kind of citizens does a democracy need to have, if it will sustain itself? And An Authoritarian Economy is a Bad Economy

Maga’s boss class thinks they are immune to American carnage

FTC Data Show a More Than Four-Fold Increase in Reports of Impersonation Scammers Stealing Tens and Even Hundreds of Thousands from Older Adults

An Ancient Law Could Shape the Modern Future of America’s Beaches. Here’s How. The growing battle over how to manage sea level rise turns partly on a legal principle set down in Roman times.

I spent a year in Antarctica. Here’s what I learned living through nine months of darkness and -112F temperatures

New book explores the science behind ‘super aging’ and longer, healthier lifespans | PBS News Weekend

Library of America to publish new edition of William Kennedy’s ‘Albany Trilogy’

“YOU OVER-OFFICIOUS JERK!” (or, Happy 100th Birthday, Marv Levy, the great former coach of the Buffalo Bills)

Jim Lovell, who flew on Apollo 8, the first manned mission to orbit the Moon, and commanded Apollo 13, died at 97

Loni Anderson, who died at 79 after a long illness, gained her greatest recognition on screen in the American sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati.

JEOPARDY Coincidences

Now I Know: Do Not Touch, Eat, or Even Smell The Flowers and Extreme Paint Ball, Literally, and Crashing a Car to Save a Life

Flat earth

Speaking to members of Congress last month, he boasted, “This is something that nobody else can do. We’re gonna get the drug prices down. Not 30 or 40% which would be great, not 50 or 60, no. We’re gonna get ‘em down 1000%, 600%, 500%, 1500%.” Steven Rattner, counselor for the Treasury Secretary in the Obama administration, says he’s “economically illiterate.”

Yo Semite

He Orders New Census Excluding Undocumented Immigrants. New York Law School Adjunct Professor and Senior Fellow Jeffrey Wice: “The Congress debated whether or not to count citizens only, and the decision was made back in the 1860s that the reapportionment was to be based on the whole number of persons, regardless of their status.” The old poli major who was a State Center rep for two decades is really ticked.

The Texas plan to hand the GOP five more safe seats is part of the Massive Fraud that’s tearing America apart. It’s all a part of the Regime’s Campaign to Undermine the Next Election.

A Confederate statue toppled during Black Lives Matter protests will be reinstalled, but remembering black and women heroes is DEI. Got it.

WH to Vet Smithsonian Exhibits to Ensure They ‘Align’ With His Interpretation of US History’

FCC Considers Supercharging Corporate TV Consolidation. Media conglomerates are pushing to eliminate rules limiting local TV station consolidation.

‘Utterly Unqualified‘ Project 2025 Economist Named as New Labor Stats Chief

People will die

Pulling the Plug on mRNA Vaccine Development Is ‘Reckless,’ Experts Say. Puts the U.S. at a disadvantage as the H5N1 pandemic threat looms. RFK Jr. does not understand the science. His Impact So Far: ‘The Worst Possible Case’; David Wallace-Wells and Emily Oster argue that the effects of MAHA will be long-lasting. They use fringe science.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin moves to rescind the ‘legal foundation for all US greenhouse gas regulations’

Should the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics go forward?

I am ambivalent.

NYT: What Immigration Crackdown Means for the 2028 Olympics.

Axios: A new $250 visa fee could curb World Cup and Olympic travel. The U.S. travel industry is warning that the fee could deter millions of international visitors just as the country gears up to host the 2026 World Cup and 2028 Summer Olympics.

USA Today: Olympics organizers are willing to treat FOTUS like a toddler to protect 2028 LA Games | Opinion. “By letting him think he’s in charge of … something, Games officials could avoid headaches over athlete visas and fan safety while keeping him from meddling elsewhere…

“Olympic athletes and their coaches are supposed to be exempt from Trump’s latest travel ban, while Olympic fans are usually greeted with open arms by host countries. Yet the recent refusal to allow Cuba’s women’s volleyball team and Senegal’s women’s basketball team into the United States, along with ICE agents who target immigrants, as well as citizens and tourists, has raised concerns that Olympic athletes and fans won’t have a safe harbor for the Los Angeles Games.

“Before anyone squawks about canceling the Games or moving them, save your breath.”

Democratic reputation

Inside The Game (February 2025): “The [regime] didn’t prioritize visa processing in its first term… So I can’t imagine that there’s going to be some full-court press to get these visas processed in a short amount of time,” David J. Bier, Associate Director for Immigration Studies at the Cato Institute, told The Los Angeles Times last month.

“The fear among organisers and sporting bodies alike is that even stricter immigration policies end up resulting in the worst-case scenario of both fans and athletes being left at the gate, with the ensuing and considerable revenue loss if the situation escalates; not to mention a major hit to the nation’s democratic reputation.”

MUSIC

Eddie Palmieri, Latin Music’s Dynamic Innovator, Dies at 88. He roped salsa into conversation with jazz, rock, funk, and modern classical music. I saw him perform when I was in college.

A Jazz Symphony by George Antheil

Everytime You Go Away – Paul Young

K-Chuck Radio: The hidden evolution of Black Betty

Strawberry Fields Forever – Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, featuring Debbie Harry

Shout – Tears For Fears

Ellen Plays Bass – the channel of a girl, starting at nine (now 13), who’s pretty good

Beautiful Maria of My Soul from the film The Mambo Kings

Coverville 1544: Help! 60th Anniversary

Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jimmy Fallon, and The Roots Perform a Hamilton Medley (Classroom Instruments)

K-Chuck Radio: How a vintage doo-wop song turned into the OTHER Kingsmen hit

The Chicks – Goodbye Earl

Music is a language of its own: 12 terms explained.

Country hits of 1975, part 2

Tanya Tucker, Merle Haggard

Of the Country hits of 1975, most topped the chart for one week, including all of the songs listed here. Some also topped the pop charts as well, and will be designated as such.

Roll On Big Mama – Joe Stampley (Epic). Background Vocal: The Jordanaires!

She’s Actin’ Single (I’m Drinkin’ Doubles) -Gary Stewart (RCA Victor). Background Vocal: The Jordanaires! There are a lot of songs on this list with apostrophes standing in for letters.

(Hey Won’t You Play) Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song – B.J. Thomas (ABC), one week #1 pop, also AC #1

I’m Not Lisa – Jessi Colter (Capitol). Co-produced by her husband, Waylon Jennings. Pop Chart Peaks: Billboard 4, Cash Box 5, Record World 6 – A/C Peak: 16

Thank God I’m A Country Boy – John Denver (RCA Victor). Pop Chart Peaks: #1 on Billboard, Cash Box & Record World; AC Peak: 5. One of six Top 10 Billboard country songs.

Window Up Above – Mickey Gilley (Playboy)

Been mistreated

When Will I Be Loved – Linda Ronstadt (Capitol). Harmony vocals by Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards. Pop Chart Peaks: Cash Box 1, Billboard 2, Record World 4; A/C Peak: 3. One of nine Top 10 Billboard country songs.

You’re My Best Friend – Don Williams (ABC/Dot)

Tryin’ To Beat The Morning Home – T. G. Sheppard (Melodyland)

Lizzie And The Rainman – Tanya Tucker (MCA)

Movin’ On – Merle Haggard (Capitol Records Nashville). I heard this trucking song on the radio, I suspect, because of the popularity of C.W. McCall’s Convoy, though it didn’t reach the pop charts.

Just Get Up And Close The Door– Johnny Rodriguez (Mercury)

Feelins’ – Loretta Lynn and Conway Twitty (MCA)

Hope You’re Feelin’ Me (Like I’m Feelin’ You) -Charlie Pride (RCA)

San Antonio Stroll – Tanya Tucker (MCA)

(Turn Out The Lights And) Love Me Tonight – Don Williams (ABC/Dot)

I’m Sorry – John Denver (RCA Victor), also #1 pop and AC

Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way – Waylon Jennings (RCA)

Rocky – Dickie Lee (RCA Victor)

It’s All In The Movies – Merle Haggard (Capitol)

Secret Love—Freddy Fender (ABC/Dot). This standard, written by Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster, has been covered by the Moonglows, Billy Stewart (#29 pop), Frankie Avalon, Johnny Mathis, Duane Eddy, Andy Williams, Connie Francis, Frank Sinatra, Jerry Vale, and many more.

Love Put A Song In My Heart – Johnny Rodriguez (Mercury)