Roger O Green

JEOPARDY! +20 yrs (7,305 days; 1043.57 wks)

I’m buds with Amy Roeder, one of my competitors, on Facebook.

It was 20 years ago today that I was in a room at my then-church watching myself on JEOPARDY! I was VERY uncomfortable with this – I would have as soon watched it alone at home – but others had talked me into this gathering.

I need not go through the blow-by-blow experience about being on the show. I wrote about it extensively when I started this blog in 2005, a serial with cliffhangers at the end of each installment, which you can read HERE. The pieces are below the links. They’re also on this site for those dates, Saturdays starting on May 28.

In fact, as I’ve noted, it was being on JEOPARDY! that convinced me that I had enough stuff to write about, at least for a little while. Since I needn’t recap this period, I thought I’d mentioned how the show has changed.

For one thing, the show does an online audition, whereas I did mine in person. The value of the board doubled three years after my appearance. They now give cash prizes to the runners-up.

The most significant change was that, starting in September 2003, a contestant who won five consecutive days could keep playing instead of retiring undefeated and showing up in the Tournament of Champions. For all sorts of reasons, I’ve always opposed the change. And for this season, there’s their FIRST-EVER TEAM TOURNAMENT! I’m not excited.

I still watch the show every day. Well, that’s not technically true. I record it every day and watch at my leisure. So I hate it when JEOPARDY! becomes newsworthy, such as a Sudden Death Tiebreaker! first in regular play.

Or when someone’s noted as an eight-time winner in a news story when I’ve only watched his fourth episode. I now knew he would win those next four games. (That happened last year with bartender Austin Rogers.) It seems that recent champions are more quirky, in the main.

I’m buds with Amy Roeder, one of my competitors, on Facebook.

Winning one game on JEOPARDY! is better than not winning at all, or not getting on at all. No, I can’t go back. But I still have the VCR tape transferred to a DVD. Oh, 12 surprising things you didn’t know about ‘Jeopardy!’ all but one of which I was aware of.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ quiz

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.

Big Bird I was going to pass on this quiz. But Ken Levine did it, and so did Mark Evanier.

Then the original Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, left ‘Sesame Street’ After Nearly 50 Years. What’s THAT got to do with anything? Those of you who spent time in the neighborhood know.

Available/Single? Neither. In the words of Bullwinkle J. Moose, “This time for sure!”

Best Friend? Either someone I’ve known since kindergarten or someone I’ve known since the first day at college.

Cake or Pie? Pie, clearly. It’s so flexible. Meat pies, fruit pies, pies for throwing, which I don’t do but this guy – buy his books! – does.

Drink of Choice? it’s seasonal. Right now, mulled cider. At other times, lemonade.

Essential Item You Use Everyday? My electric toothbrush.

Favorite Color? Well, duh. Green. Or maybe blue. No, definitely green.

Gummy Bears or Worms? I don’t HATE them, I just don’t see the point.

Hometown? Binghamton, NY

Indulgence? Probably this blog.

January or February? Probably February. Closer to my birthday. Also, it’s Black History Month at my church, which is a pain in the tuckus, but January involves PLANNING it, which is worse.

Kids and Their Names? Oh, The Daughter doesn’t mind being The Lydster, but HATES being referred to as The Daughter.

Life is Incomplete Without? Music. Even when it’s not playing, I often hear it.

Marriage Date? May 15, which we picked in honor of McDonald’s opening its first restaurant in San Bernardino, California in 1940.

Number of Siblings? Two sisters, both younger.

Oranges or Apples? Orange juice for drinking, Mac apples for eating.

Phobias/Fears? Trump in 2020.

Quote You Like? I’d rather stay silent and appear ignorant than to speak up and remove any doubt. That’s the way my late father said it.

Reason to Smile? A familiar piece of music when I suddenly hear something new. In general, learning something new.

Season? Paprika. Oh, sorry, spring, which, BTW, my birthday is the foreteller of.

Tag Three or Four People? Willie Mays, Art Fleming, Eleanor Roosevelt. And Arthur, but only if he wants to so he can make par.

Unknown Fact About Me? 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. What I don’t remember is the anecdote my friends all tell that I hopped a Crowley’s milk truck to get home.

Vegetable You Don’t Like? I was going to say Trumpettes, but let’s go with canned beets, which are also terrible.

Worst Habit? I am not a neat freak.

X-Rays You’ve Had? There was one on my left knee in 1994, one showing my broken rib in 2009, and the usual ones folks have.

Your Favorite Food? Spinach lasagna. It has spinach. It has lasagna. What more do I need?

Zodiac Sign? Pisces, like Luther Burbank, Maurice Ravel, and Willard Scott.

Here’s Caroll Spinney, as Big Bird, singing ABC-DEF-GHI Song.

A Bronx Tale, The Musical tour

My family saw A Bronx Tale in Schenectady at Proctors Theatre

A Bronx Tale.playbill In the advertisements for A Bronx Tale, The Musical, the ad copy calls it a crossover between West Side Story and Jersey Boys, which is vaguely accurate.

It’s an account of an Italian-American boy named Calogero in New York City’s northernmost borough circa 1960 when he encounters a local Mafia boss. He’s conflicted, “torn between the temptations of organized crime and the values of his honest, hardworking father.”

The production has a long history. Initially, it was a play written by actor Chazz Palminteri, which was turned into a 1993 movie starring Palminteri as the mobster Sonny and Robert DeNiro, in his directing debut, as Calogero’s father Lorenzo. While not a huge commercial hit, the film was critically acclaimed.

By 2007, Palminteri was a big enough star to perform a one-man show from October 2007 to February 2008, followed by a tour from September 2008 to April 2010

Finally, A Bronx Tale became a Broadway musical, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Glenn Slater. It ran from December 2016 to August 2018, followed by a tour, beginning in October 2018, first in Rochester, NY.

My family saw it in Schenectady at Proctors Theatre On October 27 to a packed house. The show was quite good. Frankie Leoni was marvelous as the nine-year-old Calogero, with Joey Barreiro fine as the 17-year old C. Richard H. Blake was solid as Lorenzo, and Brianna-Marie Bell as Jane has a marvelous singing voice.

There was a cadre of assorted hoodlums with very distinctive nicknames such as Tony-Ten-To-Two because he stood with his feet that way; or JoJo the Whale, played by Michael Barra, who made his Broadway debut in the role and moved very well for a big man.

Still, the show belongs to Joe Barbara as Sonny the mobster, a Broadway understudy for the role. He doesn’t have the greatest voice, but it is perfect for my favorite song from the show, Nicky Machiavelli, which talks about being loved versus being feared.

There are another 11 months of The Bronx Tale on the tour, so if the show is coming to a city near you, I recommend checking it out.

Registering to vote for Election Day

The Supreme Court has eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act

votingrightsact_0 It’s Election Day in the United States. One of the things that needs explaining to the ABC Wednesday folks from outside the US is that each state gets to set the rules for voting; the window for registering, what is required for registering, the hours the polls are open, et al.

Someone noted on Facebook that Oregon provides automatic voter registration unless the person opts out. The story was from 2015, but there were recent comments suggesting that this method should be in the US Constitution.

Of course, changing the Constitution is difficult. Still, many of the amendments after the first ten, the Bill of Rights, are about voting. #15 allowed blacks to vote, at least theoretically. #19 provided women’s suffrage. #24 prohibited a poll tax. #26 permitted 18-year-olds to vote. And there are others.

A guy named Frank S. Robinson is no relation to the baseball Hall of Famer, as far as I know. He says he was “a devoted conservative Republican for 53 years,” but feels “today’s Republican party must be exterminated (electorally).” He explains this all in about 1000 words on Facebook. I’m going to quote just a part of the stuff related to elections.

“Republicans have… become masters of vote suppression, imposing ID requirements, reducing early voting, closing polling stations, and purging voter rolls, all cunningly targeted against non-white, elderly, and poorer voters likely to back Democrats. Stopping them from voting.

“For example, North Dakota has passed a law requiring a street address for voting. Indian reservations — guess what? — don’t have street addresses. This will probably mean defeat for Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp.

“Meantime, such vile voter disenfranchisement tactics may well have made the difference in three key states Trump narrowly won in 2016, giving him the presidency. (And they have the chutzpah to talk about ‘election fraud.’)

“Democratic governors can veto Republican gerrymandering and vote suppression schemes. One noteworthy governor’s race is Georgia’s where Stacey Abrams, a black woman with a tremendous background of accomplishment, faces a cringeworthy Trump sycophant flaunting his almost sexual love for guns.

“He’s also the Georgia secretary of state overseeing the election (refusing to recuse himself) and trying to keep as many blacks from voting as possible. He’s canceled more than a million voter registrations, including 50,000 new ones — mostly by blacks. To steal the election.

“‘Disenfranchisement’ was an overused buzzword some years back. But now it’s a huge reality, with the Supreme Court having eviscerated the 1965 Voting Rights Act; it even upheld North Dakota’s atrocity.”

I’ve complained about most of these tactics in the past, but it’s nice to read them all in one place. If you’re in the US and CAN vote, do it!

For ABC Wednesday

Matthew Shepard as Emmett Till

Matthew Shepard’s parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, became activists for gay rights and more vigorous prosecution of hate crimes.

Recently, Arthur wrote about Matthew Shepard’s interment, a surprising ending of a two-decades-long journey.

In case you are unfamiliar, per NPR: “Matthew Shepard, the young gay man brutally killed on a chilly night in Wyoming 20 years ago… was finally laid to rest at Washington National Cathedral… A reflective, music-filled service offered stark contrast to the anti-gay protests that marred his funeral two decades ago.”

The music included Lacrimosa from the Mozart Requiem, which always affects me greatly. His parents had been afraid to bury him in Wyoming, lest his grave be ransacked.

Somehow, that murder became a flashpoint where other crimes of that nature had not. “Shepard’s killing became the basis for a play, The Laramie Project, which brought widespread attention to the problem of homophobia.” The events were the subject of a 2002 TV movie, The Matthew Shepard Story.

“Shepard’s parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, established the Matthew Shepard Foundation and became activists for gay rights and more vigorous prosecution of hate crimes.”

It occurred to me that, in some basic ways, his death paralleled that of Emmett Till, the Chicago-born black teenager who was murdered, purportedly for whistling at a white woman, in rural Mississippi in August 1955. The woman in the case has only recently recanted her allegation.

His brutal demise, which helped energize the efforts for black equality, has been the subject of Dreaming Emmett, the first play by the Nobel-winning African-American writer Toni Morrison, in 1986, and the Oscar-nominated short film My Nephew Emmett (2017), both of which I have seen.

The parallels are interesting. Neither victim was a publicly known person; they weren’t activists in their respective civil rights struggles. Yet because Emmett’s mother had his battered body photographed in an open casket, because we saw the fence upon which Matthew was symbolically crucified, they were remembered nationally far beyond how the average murder victim is recalled.

As I’ve mentioned here more than once, Emmett Till’s death has haunted me ever since I saw the photos in either JET or Ebony magazine in 1960. When some idiot pseudo-Christian group came to Albany to protest a production of The Laramie Project at Albany High School in 2009, I was one of the great number of counter-protesters.

It’s kismet the way some lives, and deaths, transcend to tell the larger story.