Ramblin' with Roger

Three Questions: the Veep, et al.

OK, sports fans.

1. Who does Obama pick to be his Vice-Presidential running mate?
I say NOT Hillary, because of Bill.
Not another woman, because it would be an insult to Hillary. Besides which, he couldn’t pick the Arizona governor because, as Mo Rocca noted, it sounds funny: “Obama-Napolitano sounds too much like a coffee drink.”
Not Bill Richardson, because I don’t think having a black and Hispanic on the same ticket will play.
Which leaves us with, as Cokie Roberts said on ABC This Week last week, “some boring white guy.”
While I think a governor is desirable, I’m not feeling Tim Kaine of Virginia. Nobody knows who he is. A more likely candidate would be Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania.
Ultimately, though, he may pick someone like Senator Joe Biden or Jack Reed, whose been involved in foreign policy issues for many years. Can Evan Bayh help Obama win Indiana?

2. Who does John McCain pick to be his Vice-Presidential running mate?
The idle speculation about someone in the Bush White House (Rob Portman, Condi Rice) I think is crazy.
He too needs a governor or former governor.
Lots of folks are hot on Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, but I found him unimpressive on a Sunday morning talk show; still, McCain likes him personally.. Others have suggested Mark Sanford (South Carolina), Sarah Palin of Alaska and the far too tanned Charlie Crist of Florida, among many others. Don’t discounts former governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, whose Michigan roots may help, even with that Mormon thing.

3. What traditional red state might turn blue, or vice versa?
My guess is Georgia, and there’s only one reason: Bob Barr, a native son running as the Libertarian. If he gets 5 or 6% of the vote, it’ll come out of the McCain column, and if the black voters come out, Obama could win. Much less likely: Alaska, where Barr should also do well, and disgust with an indicated Republican senator, Ted Stevens, may dampen the GOP turnout.

Snake in the Garden

Back in the early days of this blog, before I knew any better, I would write a “state of the blog” piece every month, on the first of the month. Now that I’m a more “mature” blogger, I tend to do this only on the anniversary of the blog, which is May 2. So consider this a (temporary) reversion to form.

There was a point in June when I seriously considered quitting doing the blog. not only were my numbers down, I was having this dispute with this other blogger that I didn’t understand over things on that person’s blog,

But then I started having dreams. Vivid dreams. Disturbing dreams. Dreams that pointed out my mortality to a degree that would wake me up and not allow me back to sleep. At the same time, it seemed to help answer unresolved questions that were lurking just beyond my conscious awareness. Sometimes, essays would come nearly fully formed. A couple became blog posts.

Another factor mitigating in favor of continuing – or maybe it’s the same factor – is that I realize I have more to say, whether anyone’s reading it or not. And occasionally, when someone like Shirlee Taylor Haizlip or Glenn Weiser, who thanked me for this piece (and in return, I corrected the misspelling of his name), write, it makes it worthwhile. As did a 13-year-old girl writing in response to my piece on my vitiligo.

I got a Twitter account on July 11. That would be July 11, 2007, made one post, then not again until this past week, when I wrote: “Saw a piece on ABC News about how some companies such as Comcast, JetBlue and Dell track Twitter for customer complaints. Very cool indeed.” So, I’m trying it on for size. Don’t want to have a “300 days ago” notation on it, so I’ll see.

I also finally added SamuraiFrog to my links. One of the curses of being in a cubicle is that pretty much anyone can see your computer, and sometimes, when I’m checking websites at lunch time, there are materials that don’t disturb me but probably would disturb others. So I just check him at home, where my wife can be disturbed instead.

Coming up this month: four or five posts that I started weeks or months ago that I never finished – it’ll be cathartic, at least for me; a feature I was doing regularly, but somehow dropped; on August 28, my annual FantaCo publication piece, already written in my head, but alas, not electronically; plus all the usual nonsense (yikes, I have to take more pictures of Lydia).
***
Me and Johnny B.

You are an Airbender!

The Sky Bison taught the first airbenders how to bend the air around them. While they cannot fly, airbenders can soar in the air for long distances by using a glider. Most important to airbenders is the concept of non-aggression. When they fight, they do not attack but defend themselves through circular movements that confuse their opponents.

Which Element do you Bend?

(Photo by Mary Hoffman, July 2008.)
ROG

Roger’s Auto Loan

Sometime late last month, there was a message from a local car dealership wanting to verify my information “for the car loan you had applied for”. seems reasonable except that I had not applied for an auto loan. I called the number back when I got home, got the voice mail of the woman who called me, and left a message that I didn’t request an auto loan.

A couple days later, another representative from this same car dealership called me with the exact same message. This time, I called back, asking the woman to call me at work – I gave her my number. the next day, she called me back – at home – noting that she had gotten my call. So I called back, got a supervisor and let it be known that 1) I did noty want a car loan, and that 2) apparently, no one communicates in therir company.

On July 3, I got yet ANOTHER call. I had gotten home early from work that day so I called back, got a real live person and asked why I had gotten these THREE calls. She looked on the computer and saw only one notation, the one for that day. Apparently, the dealership gets leads from some online service, for which the dealership pays a commission. When it doesn’t pan out, the dealership expunges the record from the system. The representative gave me the phone \number of the online network.

I laid out this now annoying scenario to the online company’s rep, and he says that “anyone can put in the information.” They don’t trace it, or have verifiable passwords. I asked what information he had on “me”:
Name – check
Address – check
Phone number – check
Date of birth: January 4, 1987. Yeah that’s right, I’m 21. That picture I post now and then is doctored to make me appear older.
Monthly rent paid: $7000 a month. Yup, and I make more than thrice that. Librarians are rich, I tell you, rich!
I did laugh out loud with that one.

The rep gave me a website of the Social Security Administration dealing with fraud, but I called the number and it did not appear to be the place I wanted to be.

So, I went to the FTC website and found this nugget:

1. Place a fraud alert on your credit reports, and review your credit reports.

Fraud alerts can help prevent an identity thief from opening any more accounts in your name. Contact the toll-free fraud number of any of the three consumer reporting companies below to place a fraud alert on your credit report. You only need to contact one of the three companies to place an alert. The company you call is required to contact the other two, which will place an alert on their versions of your report, too. If you do not receive a confirmation from a company, you should contact that company directly to place a fraud alert.

I called Equifax and sure enough, I soon discovered I had a fraud alert from Experian and TransUnion.

Once you place the fraud alert in your file, you’re entitled to order one free copy of your credit report from each of the three consumer reporting companies, and, if you ask, only the last four digits of your Social Security number will appear on your credit reports. Once you get your credit reports, review them carefully. Look for inquiries from companies you haven’t contacted, accounts you didn’t open, and debts on your accounts that you can’t explain. Check that information, like your Social Security number, address(es), name or initials, and employers are correct. If you find fraudulent or inaccurate information, get it removed.

Getting the free credit report was increasingly difficult as I went from reporting company to reporting company. Experian was trying to sell it to me, and TransUnion asked questions about what type of credit cards and loans I had, some of which I didn’t have on hand or didn’t jibe with what they were looking for. Really, I have a VISA that ends with XXXX; why don’t you believe me?)

I have received my three FREE credit reports. Apparently, no harm was done to me. The initial fraud alert lasts 90 days, at which time I need to document a need for a seven-year one.

Meanwhile, don’t expect to see me in a new car anytime soon.
***
Equifax (1-800-525-6285), www.equifax.com; P.O. Box 740241, Atlanta, GA 30374-0241

Experian: 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742); www.experian.com; P.O. Box 9532, Allen, TX 75013

TransUnion: 1-800-680-7289; www.transunion.com; Fraud Victim Assistance Division, P.O. Box 6790, Fullerton, CA 92834-6790
ROG

Songs That Move Me, 30-21

30. Sixty Years On- Elton John
Just great use of strings. Too bad Elton’s vocal’s mixed too low, but the instrumentation is a fair representation of the recording.
Feeling: old.

29. The Mercy Seat- Johnny Cash
This is a nice little Nick Cave song about an upcoming execution of the protagonist, for a crime he did not commit (maybe). It is the Benmont Tench keyboards on this song, like his keyboards on Johnny’s version of Hurt, that really stand out for me. I particularly appreciates how it builds sonically. From the third American Recordings CD.
Feeling: a-feared.

28. How Cruel – Joan Armatrading.
“I heard somebody say once I was way too black
And someone answers she’s not black enough for me”
Just for that couplet there. And the piano.
Feeling: a tad ticked off.

27. A Salty Dog – Procol Harum
The sound effects, the building of the sound.
Feeling: adrift.

26. Tempted-Squeeze
Near-perfect pop song, with great background singing and that classic Paul Carrack groan.
Feeling: inappropriate.
HERE.

25. I Saw Her Again- Mamas and the Papas
This is enhanced by an accident of technology. On a greatest hits LP I had growing up, the lead vocal all but drops out, revealing the intricacy of the harmonies.
Feeling: inappropriate.

24. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow – Carole King
It’s the Mitchell-Taylor Boy and Girl Chorus that really makes this. This arrangement practically begs for a cappella singing. From Tapestry, which I played so much, I wore out the LP.

23. Rain – the Beatles.
Not sure i really liked this song on first listen. It was, “What the heck is THAT?” But later, the tape loops and steady beat won me over.
Feeling: wet.

22. Rolling Stones – Gimme Shelter
Not only great guitar playing, but the Merry Clayton vocal really shreds it.
Feeling: alone.

21. Lay Down (Candles in the Rain) – Melanie
I had a friend inn the music business mock me when a mutual acquaintance, a radio DJ, let her know I had requested a Melanie song from him. I protested, “But it’s Lay Down!” the clash between her sometimes homely voice and the Edwin Hawkins Singers creates such wonderful music tension.
Feeling: too tired to sleep.
or HERE.
ROG

How Sweet the Juice

I love the Internet.

Nearly three years ago, Scott asked me what my favorite book was, and after acknowledging my appreciation for reference books such as the World Almanac and the Joel Whitburn Billboard books, I noted my affection for The Sweeter the Juice: A Family Memoir in Black and White by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip.

Here’s the Library Journal account of the book, as published on Amazon:
In Haizlip’s dramatic account of her search for her mother’s multiracial family, race is less a matter of genetic endowment than of social and psychological perceptions. Her mother and her mother’s siblings could all pass for white; Haizlip recounts their differing choices with considerable narrative force. The life-long consequences of these decisions, combined with vivid details of her family’s success in claiming position and power in a race-conscious society, and above all, the emotional pain caused by the conflicting perceptions of race, give this account an almost novelistic quality. We learn of Haizlip’s numerous prominent positions in public service and the media. In the final analysis, Haizlip raises the issue of identity itself–who is black and who is white? How do we know, and what does it mean? Highly recommended for all Americans desiring to come to terms with who we are.
– Marie L. Lally, Alabama Sch . of Mathematics & Science, Mobile
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

So, I check my e-mail Friday, and who should be writing me but Shirlee Taylor Haizlip! She thanked me for my kudos of her work, and noted that HBO had optioned her three books, for which she is currently working on the screenplay. Then she pointed out this YouTube piece running a (5 minute) interview she did when the book came out.

I watched this and I was reminded that in some fundamental way, race is as complicated in America now as it was 40 years ago when my mother, who is a black woman fair of skin, told this story. She and my father went to a business meeting in San Francisco. Well, OK, the men did, and the wives did other things. At some point, the women were talking about various subjects. The topic segued to race, and the civil rights movement – my mother didn’t bring it there – and one of the women asked, “What do you think, Trudy?” She said, “Well, being a black woman…” Apparently, that was a bit of a shock to the system of her compatriots. But knowing my mother, this was no “gotcha!” moment, but merely an honest response.
I should note that my mother, at that time, was rather fond of wearing a red wig, and it was coiffed but not in an “Afrocentric” way. In the right setting, my mother could have passed, but like Shirlee Taylor Haizlip, she had no interest in doing so.

Coincidentally, or probably not, I ran into my friend Mary Liz Stewart at the CVS on Saturday. She and her husband Paul do the Underground Railroad workshops in Albany, and she noted that a woman named Viola Haizlip had help arrange their table at the African American Family Day event this coming Saturday (August 2) at the Empire State Plaza; I’m working the table from noon to 2 pm, though the event runs until 7 pm. Haizlip is not that common a name, and Shirlee confirmed that her husband Harold has family in the Albany area.

In any case, I’ll need to seek out Harold and Shirlee’s book In the Garden of Our Dreams.
ROG