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Sunday Stealing: 10 Questions with Nigel

less world suck

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. “Back in 2010, blogger Nigel Vanstone from Away from a Bit asked his readers this series of questions. He said he was tagged by another, unnamed blogger. But I’m not tracing it back any further. Nigel Vanstone is a cool name, and that’s enough for me.”

10 Questions with Nigel

1. What’s your life’s motto?

Young Simba: Hakuna Matata?
Pumbaa: Yeah. It’s our motto.
Young Simba: What’s a motto?
Timon: Nothing. What’s a motto with you? [laughs]

Well, THAT’S not it! Create less world suck, I suppose, per the terms of the Vlogbrothers.

2. Where were you living 13 years ago?

Same place we are living now. The daughter was in elementary school, which made the commute from our house to her school really easy.

Green-eyed?

3. Is anyone jealous of you?

I have no idea. I’m working on the theory that there are people who perceive me as easygoing, casual, and engaging, among other things. However, the truth is that I’m only those things in spaces where I feel comfortable, such as at church or the library. In other places, I tend to be shy and cautious, so if people only see me in the gregarious space, I think they may perceive me differently than I perceive myself.

4. Where were you when you heard about the 9/11 terror attacks?

I wrote about this at length in 2008 and subsequently.

5. Do you consider yourself kind?

Most of the time.

6. Can you change your car’s oil?

I’ve done this in the distant past. Could I do it now? Doubtful.

7. What’s the last thing you heard about your first love?

I received an unexpected email from her in February 2025. She stumbled across my blog – probably this post – while trying to prove some Binghamton, NY-related television trivia. We’re both in long-term relationships.

8. Have you ever been burned by love?

Oh, heavens, yes.

9. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?

Indian food from the restaurant a block away, five days ago. He gives a 5% discount for cash.

10. Do you hug your friends?

It depends on the friend. When I was at my previous church, Trinity United Methodist, there was an older woman named Helen Knapp who referred to me as the Trinity hugger. Then she added, “Which is better than being the Trinity mugger!” She said that a lot, and, oddly, it never got old. I hug some folks at my current church, but especially a 95-year-old woman, who has become more of a hugger later in life.

Pop hits of 1955

“I owe my soul to the company store”

The pop hits of 1955 were pretty conventional compared to what the following years would show. Yes, it was the year of Rock Around The Clock hitting the top of the charts, but it wouldn’t be until the following year when Elvis and others took over that you see the real change. Incidentally, there are 73 weeks of hits because of the conflicting charts.

Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White – Perez “Prez” Prado and his orchestra, the King of the Mambo (RCA Victor), 10 weeks at #1, gold record, instrumental. Trumpet solo by Billy Regis. From the film Under Water! This was released on both 45 and 78 rpm

Sincerely (Harvey Fuqua-Allen Freed) – The McGuire Sisters, orchestra conducted by Dick Jacobs (Coral), 10 weeks at #1, gold record. Original R&B release by The Moonglows. Fuqua became a top Motown songwriter.

(We’re Gonna) Rock Around The Clock (De Knight-Freedman) – Bill Haley and his Comets (Decca), eight weeks at #1, gold record. First recorded by Sonny Dae & His Knights. In the spring of ’55, once people heard it played over the titles of the hit movie “Blackboard Jungle,” Haley’s version exploded.

Sixteen Tons (Merle Travis) – “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, orchestra conducted by Jack Fascinato (Capitol), eight weeks at #1, gold record.

Love Is A Many Splendored Thing (Sammy Fain-Francis Webster)- Four Aces featuring Al Alberts, orchestra and chorus conducted by Jack Pleis (Decca), six weeks at #1, gold record. From the 20th Century Fox CinemaScope production Love Is A Many-Splendored Thing.

The Yellow Rose Of Texas (D. George) – Mitch Miller with his Orchestra and Chorus (Columbia), six weeks at #1, gold record. Recorded for his 1955 LP “The Confederacy.”

Disney

The Ballad of Davy Crockett (T. Blackburn-G. Bruns- Bill Hayes, orchestra conducted by Archie Bleyer (Cadence), five weeks at #1, gold record. “The song originated with Walt Disney’s wildly popular ‘Davy Crockett’ dramatization, a three-episode Frontier Land segment starring Fess Parker that aired on the new ABC television series ‘Disneyland’ between December 1954 and February 1955.”

Autumn Leaves/Les Feuilles Mortes (Joseph Kosma-Johnny Mercer-Jacques Prevert)- Roger Williams (Kapp), four weeks at #1, gold record, instrumental

Let Me Go Lover – Joan Weber (Hill-J. L. Carson), orchestra and chorus conducted by Jimmy Carroll (Columbia ), four weeks at #1, gold record, from the Studio One TV production.

Dance With Me, Henry (Wallflower) (James-Otis-Hank Ballard)- Georgia Gibbs, orchestra and chorus conducted by Hugo Peretti (Mercury), 3 weeks at #1, gold record

Hearts Of Stone (Ray-Jackson) – The Fontane Sisters, orchestra and chorus conducted by Billy Vaughn (Dot), three weeks at #1, gold record

Unchained Melody (Alex North-Hy Zaret) – Les Baxter, his Orchestra and Chorus (Capitol), two weeks at #1. From the Hall VBartlett production Unchained.

Learnin’ the Blues (Dolores Vicki Silvers) – Frank Sinatra, orchestra conducted by Nelson Riddle (Capitol), two weeks at #1

Ain’t That A Shame (Antoine “Fats” Domino- Dave Bartholomew)- Pat Boone, orchestra and chorus conducted by Billy Vaughn(Dot), two weeks at #1, gold record

The B-word license plate

What does this mean?

unions.afl-cio.2013 A few weeks ago, my wife parked the car in our neighborhood. She ended up behind an old, dark SUV with what appeared to be a New York license plate. The plate “number” was the B-word.

Of course, it wasn’t a real license plate, as it lacked some of the accouterments, and the font wasn’t quite right. But it was white with blue lettering, with the word “New York” on the top. At a passing glance, it looked close enough. My wife was offended.

I was curious. What is the message here? Was the driver trying to say New York is a terrible place or that life is a terrible thing? Is it a comment about women, or does somebody think this was women’s empowerment?

Moreover, I’m puzzled why they would replace their license plate with it instead of putting it on a bumper sticker.

We saw it a second time about a week later.

You can’t do that!

A few days after that, I was being dropped off near my house, and the driver noticed this same plate. They said, “You can’t do that!” This wasn’t a question of what the messaging was. It was that, by law, you can’t replace a New York State DMV plate with this phony item. BTW, there was no front plate; NYS has plates on the front and back of the vehicle.

In the city of Albany, code enforcement will not allow a car without proper plates, even in your driveway. If not addressed, the car could be ticketed and eventually towed.

My friend looked at the registration sticker on the windshield with the real license plate number and immediately called the police on their cell phone. As a public service administrator with years of experience, they have a strong sense of what’s right and wrong. (I’m not a car person, so it would not have occurred to me to look at the registration sticker.)

The next morning, the car was gone. I don’t know whether the owner moved the vehicle or it was towed. A week later, the car returned with the faux plate, slightly crooked because it wasn’t screwed in very well. This has now become fascinating to me. I tell my friend that the car is back, they call the cops, and the car disappears. I haven’t seen it even with its correct plates since.

Pride Month @FPC 2025

Love is a choice

It’s Pride Month @FPC (First Presbyterian Church of Albany). Usually, I don’t get to attend Adult Ed because the choir rehearses at that hour; however, since the Albany Gay Men’s Chorus (AGMC) was performing the service music on June 1, I was able to attend.

The discussion was very meaningful. Some visitors were surprised that a conversation about LGBTQ+ issues, led by a member of Pride Center of the Capital Region, a/k/a the Capital Pride Center, “the longest continually operating Pride Center in the Country.”

What does coming out mean? Who do you come out to? The answer to the latter question is, in part, to oneself. LGBTQ+ people in New York State tend to gravitate to places such as NYC, Buffalo, and Albany because they tend to be not just more welcoming but safer.

The Christian church has often been an unwelcoming institution, to the point that some folks cannot even walk through the doors. I understand this, and as a Christian, it frankly angers me. But it also pains me that folks have been subjected to such crap.

But it wasn’t all heavy. The speaker pointed out “we have been here,” and asked an audience member to pick a number and a continent, excluding Antarctica. I was introduced to Emperor Ai of Han (ruled 7 BCE- 1 BCE). “Traditional historians characterized the relationship between Emperor Ai and Dong Xian as one between homosexual lovers and referred to their relationship as “the passion of the cut sleeve” (斷袖之癖) after a story that one afternoon after falling asleep for a nap on the same bed, Emperor Ai cut off his sleeve rather than disturb the sleeping Dong Xian when he had to get out of bed.”

The service

The 10:45 service, which you can watch here, featured the aforementioned AGMC, as well as a great sermon by Pastor Miriam. Ater the scripture, 1 John 4:7-21, using “sibling” for “brother or sister,” she explained More Light Sunday.

“Our denomination in 1978 ruled that openly gay and lesbian people (the language of the time) could join and participate in the Presbyterian church, but not serve in official leadership of the church – not as deacons, elders or ministers. In reality many churches weren’t even welcoming openly gay people into their church, much less into membership.” She explained how First Pres and the PCUSA had changed.

FPC Albany’s More Light Statement of Inclusiveness notes that “we welcome all persons, regardless of sexual orientation, into the full life and service of the church. …

Last summer, when the PCUSA added sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of categories found in our constitution that may not be the basis of discrimination in the church’s life, it was… “such a bold witness… given that there is so much anti-transgender rhetoric and legislation in the U.S. – especially because it is allegedly being done in the name of Christian faith or justified by the weaponization of scripture…”

Siding with love

“When Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are being removed from public policy, we are standing up and saying, not in our church. When the laws of the human government obstruct the laws of our loving God in denying trans and intersex people both social and medical gender affirmation, we are standing up and saying, not in our church. This is not going to happen to our siblings…”

She borrowed from a 2015 sermon, Siding With Love, by Lisa Friedman called , particularly the paragraph that begins “Love is a choice.”

Miriam ended: “Let us pray – Holy God, at this moment, help us to see who needs us to stand with them on the side of love. Help us to choose that side; help us to make a stand; help us to take action. Help us to love others as you have loved us. Amen.”

Upcoming

And then, on Sunday, June 8, the church will be decorating this year’s “float” for the Pride Parade. You can either join the parade in Washington Park or join as the “float” passes the church after the 10:30 service.

I’ve mentioned that there was a time when a Pride Parade seemed passe to some, that we had overcome. But the current political climate makes it, I would argue, more necessary.

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

“unlimited growth, an unrestrained cancerous sort of creation”

I was watching JEOPARDY Masters for Tuesday, May 27, probably on the following day, because I don’t watch television in real time. The clue above pops up as a $600 clue. This hit me because, on May 27, I attended a book review at the Albany Public Library of Braiding Sweetgrass, that very book by Robin Wall Kimmerer.

Moreover, it was reviewed by Elaine Garrett, who had appeared on JEOPARDY in 2011. I had met her, likely at a Capital District JEOPARDY gathering.

Robin’s father, Robert Wall, was from the Potawatomi tribe in the Midwest. But he was shipped to the infamous Carlisle Federal Indian Boarding School, which “opened in 1879 and operated for nearly 30 years with a mission to ‘kill the Indian’ to ‘save the Man.’ This philosophy meant administrators forced students to speak English, wear Anglo-American clothing, and act according to U.S. values and culture.”

He eventually moved to the Syracuse, NY, area and married Patricia. That’s where Robin was born in 1953. Robin attended the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse, where she received a bachelor’s degree in botany in 1975. She later attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning her master’s degree in botany there in 1979, followed by her PhD in plant ecology in 1983.

Science or spirituality?

But Robin got some pushback. She was told to pick a lane, either science or natural methods, essentially. But she opted for both/and. As Jane Goodall wrote about Braiding Sweetgrass: “Robin Wall Kimmerer has written an extraordinary book, showing how the factual, objective approach of science can be enriched by the ancient knowledge of the indigenous people. It is the way she captures beauty that I love the most—the images of giant cedars and wild strawberries, a forest in the rain, and the meadow of fragrant sweetgrass will stay with you long after you read the last page.”

One of Elaine Garrett’s slides described The Sacred and the Superfund about Nanabozho’s twin, who is “committed to imbalance. He had learned the interplay of creation and destruction and rocked it like a boat on a choppy sea to keep people out of balance. He found the arrogance of power could be used to unleash unlimited growth, an unrestrained cancerous sort of creation that would lead to destruction.” The sacred Onondaga Lake is one of nine polluted Superfund sites in the Syracuse area.

Elaine said reading the book changed her tremendously, emotionally and spiritually. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote of the book: “Robin Wall Kimmerer is a writer of rare grace. She writes about the natural world from a place of such abundant passion that one can never quite see the world in the same way after having seen it through Kimmerer’s eyes. In Braiding Sweetgrass, she takes us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise. She is a great teacher, and her words are a hymn of love to the world.”

I need to add it to my never-ending pile of books.