ROG
I Don’t Wear the Flag Pin
I wish I could find the piece done some years back by Andy Rooney of all people, who explained well why he didn’t wear a flag pin. Bob Schieffer on Face the Nation addressed the topic more recently here.
But it’s more personal than that. Very few people were wearing them before 9/11. Then wearing one not only supposedly “proved” patriotism, the lack of one, or the lack of a flag off one’s front porch 24/7 suggested otherwise. I resented it. While people were giving lip service to the concept, the country was being hijacked with “patriot” acts, torture and a loss of civil liberties.
It’s also that, save for my wedding ring, and an occasional pair of cuff links (were ARE they anyway?), I just don’t DO jewelry. Someone gave me a cross to wear. I’m a Christian, so I tried wearing it for a while. It just didn’t fit me; it’s back in the box.
This is not to say that I never wear pins. I have a few hundred pins, and I’ll pull out one for a special occasions such as St. Patrick’s Day – “Kiss me, I’m the Blarney Stone.”. I have a number of political buttons, but except for “Choose peace”, I almost never wear them. Sidebar: our cars have never had bumper stickers; I mean, what does it really say about you to have a “Kerry/Edwards” sticker on your fender except to say the last 3 1/2 years weren’t really your fault?
Every year, i get a pin indicating how long I’ve worked in the organization – 15 years! – which I wear at our annual conference, then put away or lose it. When I get a gallon pin from the Red Cross – 15 gallons – I tend to wear it for a day or two, then put it away or lose it.
I’d be disingenous, though, if I didn’t resonate with this quote from a recent cover story in Time magazine, The State of Patriotism by Peter Beinart: “But for liberals, patriotic devotion without political struggle is often empty. Liberals think lapel pins are fine if they inspire Americans to struggle to realize the nation’s promise. But they worry that those symbols can become–especially when wielded by people in power–substitutes for that struggle and thus emblems of hypocrisy and complacency.”
I’m loving my country, but I’m not wearing on my sleeve. Or my lapel.
ROG
I Might As Well Have Been Speaking Greek
Just about every year in mid-May, our family goes to the Greek festival at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church in Albany. This year we went on Saturday evening and in spite of the sometimes inclement weather, we had a pretty decent time. There’s lots of food and even more music and dancing. there was a point when I had no idea where my wife and daughter were, but I just hung out, knowing they had to cross a particular intersection eventually.
However, there was one incident that hangs in my mind. Lydia and I went into the playground area of the church, along with several other children and their parents. I noticed that one child of about eight whacked her head on a wooden crossbeam of the slide/climbing contraption. Immediately I went to see if she was okay. She was not – it looked as though she somehow didn’t even see the beam based on the force of the collision. She ran to her mother, wailing, and I followed; I figured if my child suddenly began crying I’D like to know why. Immediately her mother asked, “What happened – what happened – what happened?” I tried to explain to her what had taken place, but she apparently was suffering from hysterical deafness, for she couldn’t understand a single word I was saying. Her demeanor, though, had that “What did YOU do to my child?” feel. Fortunately, her friend was able to translate for me. Talking about shooting the messenger.
***
Finally got through the Tony Awards; it takes a while when you watch int in 20-minute increments. Someone I know was complaining how unfamiliar he was with Broadway shows; I thought that was odd, since the nominees featured everything from the 39 Steps to Little Mermaid and Xanadu to Young Frankenstein. He specifically mentioned August: Osage County, Boeing-Boeing, Passing Strange and South Pacific. South Pacific? Really? It was only a major Rogers and Hammerstein collaboration, based on the James Michener book, made into a long-running musical as well as a movie. Something I didn’t know: the song You’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught was, in 1949, quite controversial, considered to be contrary to American values because of the miscegenation it seemed to accept.
Here’s one of Fred Hembeck’s favorite singers performing it:
ROG
Tragically hip
I was playing my one Tragically Hip album for Canada Day – Tragically Hip being a Canadian band – when it hit me: there seems to be a number of Americans who seem to have ascribed to the dominion to the north powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal countries. They seem to think of Canada as just like the United States, only not on steroids. Yet – and it has been proven in poll after poll after poll – Americans don’t know jacksquat about about Canada.
Quick, Americans: how many provinces and territories are there in Canada?
OK, Canadians, how many states are there in the United States? OK, the flag design DOES make that a bit easy.
Americans: Who’s the current elected head of government in Canada? What do you call the elected head of the government in Canada?
Canadians: What do you call the…OK, Canadians, put down your hands.
Lessee. Americans: in terms of size, area not population, where does Canada rank in the world? Bonus question: where does the United States rank?
Canadians: Same questions.
Americans: Mame the two houses of the Canadian legislature.
Canadians: Name the two…oh, never mind.
Americans: Name the two largest cities in Canada, and the capital.
Canadians: Help me find fairer questions.
My point is that some Americans have seemed to have romanticized Canada with having any real sense of the place.
There is, however, one thing to be said for considering moving to Canada. when the global warming really hits – as though it hasn’t already? – and the maple stops flowing in New York and Vermont because it doesn’t get cold enough for long enough, I suspect the provinces at least will be quite temperate.
Top Baby Names in Canada vs. the US.
Background Note: Canada from the US State Department.
Don’t recall the source, but it suggested that when dealing with US Customs agents and they ask you how long you’ll be in Canada, answer as though you know, even if you don’t. Otherwise, you’ll appear suspicious. Siounds right.
This site notes that there are 13 states that border Canada; I had forgotten states whose international borders are actually in the middle of the Great Lakes (Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania).
***
I’m not a big fan of Canadian-born singer Sarah McLachlan, but I love this scene from Toy Story 2:
And it’s equally affecting in Portuguese.
ROG
100 Things I Love
May I just write music, movies and massages and leave it at that? Probably not. From Jaquandor. Again. In no particular order. Took longer to compile than 100 things that bug me. What does THAT say about me?
1. Government and association websites/databases with a lot of good, free stuff.
2. Blogging. It practically saved my life, created connections I would not have otherwise; among others, it’s how I reestablished with Fred and Deborah.
3. Cranberry juice. Often mixed with orange juice, sometimes with a splash of ginger ale.
4. A good massage.
5. Albany will probably withstand the forces of global warming better than most places.
6. Oatmeal raisin cookies.
7. Cinnamon raisin bagels.
8. Music in harmony – it could be Bach or the Beach Boys. I love it. I know unison singing has its place, but it’s not my favorite.
9. British invasion music and its American counterpoint.
10. The blues and folk and rockabilly that led to the 1960s music explosion.
11. Pizza. Good pizza, not the stuff at the work cafeteria.
12. The answering machine. Yes, I screen my calls. Got a problem with that? Now, the phone number will appear on my TV screen for me to (usually) ignore.
13. The DVR. We still have in the queue Raisin in the Sun from February, ice skating from April and Thursday night comedies from May. Back in the VCR days, we’d have to keep track of what tape to watch or tape with. I’m also pleased with the limitations of the DVR, about 50 hours, which forces one to watch or delete, thus limiting the amount of TV we can watch. We see very little in real time.
14. The Billboard books Top Pop singles and Top Pop Albums.
15. The World Almanac, which I’ve been reading since I was 9 or 10.
16. Woody Allen movies of the 1970s and 1980s.
17. Candlelight. The power has gone out in my neighborhood two or three times a year.
18. Hess trucks for Christmas.
19. Oatmeal.
20. Gud grammer.
21. Cats. Used to own them; maybe, someday, I will again.
22. Reading the funnies in the paper, especially Pearls Before Swine.
23. Playing racquetball.
24. Watching baseball, especially at the stadium; maybe I’ll see the Cubs in September.
25. Watching football on TV from November on.
26. Pie. Apple or blueberry or peach, slightly warm, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
27. Builders who seem to have meshed form AND function into design in “green” ways that are accessible to all.
28. Joni Mitchell. Some other singer-songwriters too, but I’ve seen Joni twice, so we have a track record.
29. Cottage cheese. Goes with everything – fruit, eggs, cold chicken, apple sauce.
30. Maps. My grandfather used to give me his National Geographic maps. I’ve long been fascinated with how the US and the world changed geopolitically over time.
31. White wine, served with a slight chill. The red stuff gives me wicked headaches.
32. Walking on the beach as the waves roll in. My favorite time was in Galveston about a decade ago.
33. Intentionally getting “lost”, just walking somewhere with no particular goal.
34. Newspapers. I like to read, and they’re useful for drawing on, etc.
35. The late 1970s music movement: Police, Talking Heads and the like.
36. Giving massages.
37. JEOPARDY! daily calendars.
38. From JAQ: “Older women with long hair. Too often, when women head into whatever it is we consider ‘elder years’ these days – for purposes of this post, to pick an arbitrary figure, over fifty – women tend to cut their hair short or make liberal use of curlers or something like that. There’s always something striking, though, about an older woman with a full head of long, silver hair. Or red. Or blonde.”
39. “Picking songs and pieces of music for mix CDs. I like to think I’m pretty good at this.” I get rather invested in it.
40. Doing square root by hand. Because I can.
41. License plate math. Thinking of a license plate as an equation and solving for an unknown factor. (Has many rules, listed in the 8th paragraph http://rogerowengreen.blogspot.com/2006/05/pastiche.html here.)
42. Rack of Lamb with Mint Jelly.
43. Cheerios and spoon-sized Shredded Wheat, together.
44. Spinach lasagna.
45. Ice cream.
46. JEOPARDY! But Alex HAS to stop mentioning Ken Jennings every time someone wins more than three games.
47. Hell. The book series by Matt Groening that predates the Simpsons. Especially Love Is Hell.
48. Librarians are wonderful people.
49. Neil Young, just because.
50. Green. Green means go, in the money, environmentally friendly. Green’s the color of spring.
*****
Brian Ibbott of Coverville re: someone’s controversial opinion: “When you stir the pot, do you prefer a wooden or slotted spoon?”
*****
51. Excellent short-lived TV series, such as My So-Called Life and Once and Again. Maybe they would have eventually gone downhill, but we’ll never know, will we?
52. Dictionaries, the less abridged, the better.
53. The Complete Directory to Prime Network and Cable TV Shows by Brooks and Marsh.
54. Hymnals. It’s a great way of seeing the transition of the way religion is enacted. I have one nearly 150 years old, with just the words; it was ASSUMED you knew the music.
55. The Simpsons. One of those things I like that my wife does not
56. Romance language, especially French and Italian. I just like the way they sound.
57. Fireworks.
58. “Footbridges and boardwalks.”
59. The color blue.
60. Real maple syrup. Probably won’t be available in New York and Vermont in the next century.
61. “Sausages.”
62. Bill Moyers’ Journal. It speaks truth to power.
63. Rum. Don’t drink NEARLY enough of it anymore.
64. My birthday, which I share with Jenna Fischer, Rachel Weisz, Luther Burbank and many other fine folks.
65. Taking a bath. I do it rarely enough that it’s always special.
66. Jazz, of many kinds.
67. Automatic bill payments.
68. Song of Solomon. A horny little book of the Bible that’s hardly ever in the lectionary.
69. The Twilight Zone and Rod Serling.
70. Montreal. I’ve been there twice and loved it.
71. Motown, especially 1963-1972.
72. The Dick van Dyke Show and everyone associated with it, from Carl Reiner to Earl Hagen.
73. “Popcorn. My favorite of all snacks! I tend to prefer it with butter…”,
74. Slippers.
75. “Ms. Pac Man is still my favorite video game, however many years it’s been since I first played it.”
76. Sorry, the board game I most like to play with children.
77. SCRABBLE, which I used to play with my great aunt when I was eight.
78. The train, my favorite form of transportation.
79. “Shrimp.”
80. The promise of the U.S. Constitution. That it sometimes falls short isn’t its fault.
81. Many card games, including hearts, spades and pinochle.
82. Comic books. I don’t read them much now, but especially that period from 1972-1992, I devoured ’em.
83. The bicycle. In spite of the accident.
84. Thunderstorms when I’m home.
85. Books about movies and the industry.
86. My rain stick. It relieves stress.
87. City buses. I love how the daughter has learned to hail them.
88. Good Italian restaurants.
89. Intelligent movie comedies such as Groundhog Day.
90. Non-chain movie theaters.
91. Headphones, so I can listen to music but you don’t have to.
92. Dreamer politicians, such as Dennis Kucinich, who recently took action to have Bush and Cheney impeached. May history judge him more kindly.
93. Sunrise.
94. Sunset.
95. Learning new things almost every day on my job.
96. Optimists. Not sure I’m one, but they’re good to have around.
97. Cynics. They have their place, too.
98. Friends I’ve met, and friends I know only know electronically.
99. Being the alpha male of my tiny tribe. Didn’t like it initially, but now I’ve grown accustomed to it.
100. “You. You know who you are.”
And there we have it: 100 things I love.
ROG