Uncategorized Archives - Page 24 of 1305

November rambling: voter turnout

Thanksgiving pie

A Finnish study found that voters had a lower risk for all-cause death over 21 years of follow-up compared with non-voters. (Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health)

Voter Turnout Highest in Half Century as Mamdani Phenomenon Galvanizes Electorate; More than 2 million New York voters cast ballots, the most in a mayoral race since 1969.

Why do the French eat healthier? The government helps.

Nancy Pelosi Plans to Retire in 2027 After 39 Years in Congress

What would a Republican healthcare plan look like

NTSB agents arrive in Louisville, KY, to investigate what caused the engine to fall off the UPS cargo plane and the left wing to catch fire

Charity Scandals of 2025

YouTube Quietly Erased More Than 700 Videos Documenting Israeli Human Rights Violations

Police Chases and Felony Murder: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Amazon Ring’s upcoming facial recognition tool could violate the privacy rights of millions of people and result in Amazon breaking state biometric privacy laws.

Dick Cheney is dead

How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral (MIT Technology Review)

The Casinoification of America: Gambling Is Killing Sports and Consuming the Country

This year’s anti-DST rant

The Man Who Held His Breath for 24 Minutes (not recommended)

10 Cities With the World’s Oldest Subway Systems

Crocs– Josh Johnson (thru 10:21)

Now I Know: Basketball’s Digital Problem and The Time Travel Trap and Prison Food You’ll Want to Eat and How the Civil War Decided What Pie You Eat on Thanksgiving

Metamucilini

His actions have raised a chilling question: Are We Losing Our Democracy?

Why He Can Do No Wrong

$230 Million: The Biggest, Most Blatantly Corrupt Political Thievery in U.S. History

His many lies on 60 Minutes; Jon Stewart takes him on

Could a Third Term Happen?

Violent innocence

Banquet of Greed: Ballroom Donors Feast on Federal Funds and Favors

A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up FOTUS

Border czar admits ICE sees all immigrants as criminals

Listeria outbreak surfaces after CDC cuts key program

MUSIC

Big Phony Schmuck! – Randy Rainbow Song Parody

Losing My Mind – Imelda Staunton from Follies

My Cologne – Howl Owl Howl

I’ve Just Seen A Face (Take 3) – The Beatles (Anthology 4)

Lawyers, Guns, and Money – Warren Zevon

Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life – Monty Python with orchestra

Water Music by George Frideric Handel on original instruments

The Rainbow Connection -Kermit the Frog with the Lincoln Center choir

The Isle of the Dead, Op.29 by Rachmaninoff, plus some spooky/moody/scary movie music

Danse Macabre, Op. 40 by Saint-Saëns – Leopold Stokowski

Superman March by John Williams, performed by the Danish National Symphony Orchestra

Goodnight Moon by Eric Whitacre

Riders on the Storm – The Doors

The Passenger – Iggy Pop

Short-Term Memory Loss Blues – Ray Jessel

Bohemian Rhapsody – Pentatonix

With A Little Help From My Friends – Joe Cocker

Building the Barn by Maurice Jarre, from the movie Witness

September – EW&F; Leonid & friends

Girls Just Want to Have Fun – Cyndi Lauper

Old Friends – Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez from Merrily We Roll Along

Where I Wanna Be – Jasmine Amy Rogers from BOOP! The Musical

Bad Company – Bad Company

One Short Day – Voctave from the musical Wicked

Beyond The Sea -Jonathan Groff and the Broadway company of Just In Time from the musical based on the career of Bobby Darin

The Twist – Chubber Checker

Sidestep – Charles Durning from the 1982 movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas

Omaha, Nebraska – Groucho Marx

The Lively Ones – Vic Damone

More music

J. Eric Smith’s Genre Delve: Americana and Prog

Slapstick Slops – the Slop Sisters, for Kelly, as is The James Bond Theme – Harvard Undergraduate Drummers playing on boonwhackers

Lord Vinheteiro plays familiar tunes whose names we don’t know while he stares accusingly at us.

So Rare & Flippin’ – The Haircuts (CAESAR’S HOUR, Apr 25 1955)

Coverville 1555: The Ellie Greenwich Cover Story, 1556: The David Ball Tribute and Soft Cell Cover Story, and 1557: The America Cover Story II

The Doobie Brothers: Tiny Desk Concert (NPR), Nov 5, 2025

Paul McCartney on the lost years after the Beatles

Grateful Dead singer Donna Jean Godchaux-MacKay dies at 78; I saw her perform in the late 1970s

Is it ever acceptable for musicians to collectively refuse to perform a piece of music?

Movie review: Grand Hotel (1932)

Garbo, Crawford and TWO Barrymores

A few weeks ago, my wife and I went to the Spectrum Theatre in Albany to see the film Grand Hotel. I didn’t review it then because I was struggling for a narrative.

It came across, at least early on, as stagey and melodramatic. From Wikipedia: “Alfred Rushford Greason of Variety, comparing the film to the stage production, wrote, “[it] may not entirely please the theatregoers who were fascinated by its deft stage direction and restrained acting, but it will attract and hold the wider public to which it is now addressed.”

Once the story started revealing itself, it became more interesting. Doctor Otternschlag (Lewis Stone), a permanent resident of the Grand Hotel in Berlin, observes, “People coming, going. Nothing ever happens.” He is proven wrong on the latter point.

Felix von Gaigern (John Barrymore) has the title of baron, but the assets from his position are spent. He survives as a gambler and sometimes a thief. Otto Kringelein (Lionel Barrymore) has a fatal condition and decides to enjoy his remaining days at the luxurious hotel.

General Director Preysing (Wallace Beery) seems to be a decent industrialist trying to close an important deal. He hires aspiring actress Flaemmchen (Joan Crawford) as his stenographer.

Russian ballerina Grusinskaya (Greta Garbo) is no longer packing theaters, causing her despair.

Most of these folk interact. As we get to know them, we find that the thief has a conscience and that the industrialist is not as nice as he initially seems.

Kael says

The Times of London wrote: “Even all this brilliance of acting and even the remarkable ingenuity of the production cannot disguise the simple artifice of the whole construction, which seems all the more obvious in a plotless story designed to show a section of life.” I wouldn’t say plotless. It was more that the strands began to overlap.

The late, great Pauline Kael (1919-2001) wrote in the New Yorker: “There is every reason to reject Grand Hotel as an elaborate chunk of artifice… But if you want to see what screen glamour used to be, and what, originally, ‘stars’ were, this is perhaps the best example of all time.”

Notice the word “artifice” in both quotes. Yes, the acting seemed, at times, overly affected. Then I remembered that this movie was released in the early days of film with audible dialogue.

So I was glad I saw it. It has Garbo’s “I want to be alone” quote. Two brothers in the legendary Barrymore family are represented; Drew Barrymore is John’s granddaughter.

My veteran ancestors

Three great-great-grandfathers fought in the Civil War

I decided to catalogue my veteran ancestors. I’ve mentioned some, but not all, and I’ve likely missed several.

A few years ago, I noted a piece from the Equal Justice Initiative: “Military service sparked dreams of racial equality for generations of African Americans.” It was seen as ‘proof’ of their worthiness to be included in the American dream… No one was more at risk of experiencing violence and targeted racial terror than black veterans who had proven their valor and courage as soldiers during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Because of their military service, black veterans were seen as a particular threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination.”

Civil War

James Archer, my mother (Trudy Williams Green)’s mother (Gertrude Yates Williams)’s mother (Lillian Bell Archer)’s father. Served in the 26th New York Colored Regiment. I’ve known about him for decades, as he was buried in Binghamton, NY, near my grandmother’s house.

William Bell, my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother (Harriet Bell Archer)’s brother. Served in the 26th New York Colored Regiment with James Archer.

Henry Bell, my mother’s mother’s mother’s mother’s brother. Served in the Massachusetts 54th Colored Regiment. In the 1865 New York State Census, although they were all at war, William, Henry, and James were listed as living together in Binghamton, NY, with William and Henry’s recently widowed father, Edward Bell, their sisters Harriet Archer (married to James) and Francelia Bell, two of James and Harriet’s sons, Morgan and James, and William’s son, Martin.

Daniel Williams, my mother’s father (Clarence Williams)’s father (Charles Williams)’s father. Served in Company F of the 43rd United States Colored Infantry Regiment. I discovered him trying (and failing) to find my Irish ancestors.

Samuel Patterson, my father (Leslie Green)’s mother (Agatha Walker Green)’s mother (Mary Eugenia Patterson Walker)’s father. Served in the 5th Regiment, Massachusetts Calvary (Colored). I have three great-great-grandfathers who fought in that great Civil War, “testing whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”

World War I

McKinley Green, my father’s stepfather. Served from October 1917 to February 1919 in the 368th Infantry. Stationed in Argonne and elsewhere. Discharged from Fort Mead, MD. McKinley and his wife/my grandmother Agatha, lived upstairs from my birth family at 5 Gaines Street in Binghamton.

World War II

Edward Yates, my mother’s mother’s brother. Served as “Branch Immaterial – Warrant Officers, USA.” Since my mother’s grandmother, Lillian Archer, reportedly “drove off” my mother’s father, Clarence Williams, Ed was my mother’s primary male role model. I remember seeing his photo at my grandmother’s house; the family was so proud.

Leslie Green, my father. “At the end of February 2010, I gave a presentation for the Underground Railroad conference about Black Soldiers in Post-WWII Germany,” which I wrote about here.

I’m pleased all the men here escaped the wars alive.

*Preserving a Legacy: Caring for Your Ancestor’s Military Uniform

Justice starts at jury

Jury starts with YOU

A poster on several CDTA buses in my area reads, “Justice starts with JURY. Jury starts with YOU.” I pondered the idea of volunteering for jury duty, which, I suppose, is weird.

A jury summons came in the mail for the October 6 session. My number was 428. When I checked in the previous weekend, they only took folks to 391, but I had to call that Monday night. Nope, I’m off the hook for another six years. Yay, I guess.

Still, I feel vaguely like I OUGHT to serve on a jury at least once. I wrote about my experience in 2007, when I had to show up but just watched, and my only voir dire in 2014. I feel that, since I’ve lived in Albany County since 1979, always been a registered voter, in the phone book when that was a thing, and a homeowner since 2000, it’s weird how infrequently I’ve been summoned.

I’m not saying that this is the issue in my county, but I am reminded of a John Oliver segment from 2020. He examined “an unjust cog in America’s criminal justice system: the unrepresentative makeup of trial juries. Serving on a ‘jury of your peers’ is an ‘essential civic duty…, one enshrined in the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution. But in practice, ‘peers’ are not chosen from a fair cross-section of society. People of color, and particularly black Americans, are chronically underrepresented in jury pools, which can have serious and devastating consequences for verdicts.”

Ah, videos!

NYjuror.gov has videos like The Jury: The Conscience of the Community. “Chief Judge Rowan D. Wilson has spoken of jury service as a cornerstone of our democracy and has underscored the importance of jury service in attaining the goal of our Founders to provide juries of we, the people. Taken together, our series of 16 new Public Service Announcements… carries the judge’s vision further by featuring individuals from diverse walks of life sharing their perspectives on the importance of the right to a trial by jury in rendering verdicts that are fair and consistent with the law. The New York State Unified Court System hopes you enjoy them.” Excitingish.

And jurors are paid $72 a day!

I’m contemplating it for 2026. It seems like something I should do, like voting at every opportunity. Hmm…

Sunday Stealing — Stranded on an Island

books, movies, songs

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!

This week, we’re stealing from Jess Riley Writes. She puts a unique spin on the “desert island” concept by allowing us three choices in three categories.

The Desert Island Meme

You’re stranded alone on a desert island …

1) Which three BOOKS could you read over and over again?

One would be the Bible. This is less a theological requirement than the fact that it is very long. In fact, I’d probably opt for the Douay-Rheims Bible, since it contains seven Deutero-Canonical books that are missing from most non-Catholic Bibles, such as 1st and 2nd Maccabees.

When I was a kid, I tried to read the whole Bible more than once, but I was unsuccessful. So I’d start over; I read Genesis a LOT. I have read the Bible all the way through systematically at least thrice, c 1977, c 1985, and c 1997. Participating with the Bible Guys at church this century, I may have managed a fourth. I wrote about the vagaries of the Bible in 2013.

The World Almanac. It is not great literature, of course, but it has a lot of stuff. Before I married my current bride, there was a gathering, and we were supposed to answer questions about each other. I didn’t know that 100 Years of Solitude was her favorite book, but she instantly picked the World Almanac as mine. I wrote about it in 2016, but honestly, I haven’t gotten one since 2018, ending a 40+ year streak.

Top Pop Singles by Joel Whitburn. Yes, it shows the chart action, but it also has background info about the artists.

Cinema

2) Which three MOVIES could you watch over and over again?

I went to this post and decided on King of Hearts/Le roi de coeur (1966), West Side Story (1961), and Field of Dreams (1989), but I could have picked others.

3) Which three SONGS could you listen to over and over again?

How much may I stretch the definition of “song”? Off the top, I thought of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (New World), and the Mozart Requiem.

If I have to pick actual songs? Oh, it is too difficult! Okay. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel, which someone described here; Biko – the last song on Peter Gabriel’s excellent third album; and Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) – Billy Joel. They are all sad songs.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.