I learned a new word last year, treppenwitz. OK, “learned” might be overstating it, because it subsequently slipped my mind.
It’s of German origin, as you might surmise. It’s that phenomenon that takes place when someone angers or frustrates you; the moment passes, and then 15 minutes later, you come up with that perfect rejoinder that would have turned your antagonist into a puddle of despair. Or so you would believe.
That smackdown to the rude driver you eviscerate, instead of saying, “You…you…” Putting racist/sexist/homophobic commenters in their place with a such rapier-like wit that they are slackjawed.
I listen to the political talk shows or the Jerry Springer-type shows – in some ways, they’re pretty much the same – and I know that if I were on one of them, I would suffer mightily, not because I don’t have my facts or a sense of my own convictions, but because I’d likely get caught up trying to match snark with snark.
Ultimately, I think I’ll stick with the written word thing. This is not to say that, someday, I wouldn’t want to do a podcast. But it’d be MY podcast, or on a civil and friendly podcast of someone else’s. *** Speaking of words, I seriously had no idea of the primary meaning of the word ‘teabagging’ until this week, though someone said it was mentioned by a character in The 40-Year Old Virgin, which I saw. I think the tea party notion is silly; it may have been Arthur of AmeriNZ who said, “Taxation without reprsentation? I thought they were from the District of Columbia!” which DOES suffer from that political malady. *** Because I like it: Susan Boyle.
I have pretty much purloined this from Rose, who wrote: “Bloggers love comments. Comments tell us that our readership is actually interested in what we blog about. If you like someone’s blog, you leave a comment. It’s that simple.”
I find it trickier, though. In my comments to Rose, I wrote: “Some sites require you to register to comment, and I have if I’m likely to return. Some have word verification, and some work better than others – if I have to work at it, never mind. Some open another window that take too long to open and I’ll bail.”
Then there are folks who just KNOW I’m checking out their sites by my frequent comments, but I may not have anything to say about that particular post. Scott, for instance, is a really swell guy. He’s actually snail mailed me something out of the blue. When he writes about music or his son, I often comment. When he tells about Aussie Rules Fantasy Football, though, I’ve got nothing to add, but I’ll still come back the next time.
I’d particular like to hear from the lurkers out there who read but never write.
One of the things that I’ve opted to do here is to try to make it easy to reply. One does not have to join Blogger to answer, just pick anonymous or your own URL. I don’t even have word verification or comment moderation; I do, however, get comments e-mailed to me, and I can delete spam after the fact. ROG
The reason that minor league baseball is off my radar is that it’s not yet being played around Albany. The Tri-Cities Valley Cats, a Houston Astros farm team, are in the New York-Penn League a “short season A” league that doesn’t start until June and ends around Labor Day. It seems strange for a city of 95,000 in a metropolitan area of about 850,000 to have such a low affiliation. Meanwhile, my hometown of Binghamton, with maybe 47,000 and a metro of 250,000 has a Double A team in the Eastern League, the Binghamton Mets.
I usually seem to miss that free opportunity to experience Extra Innings, the MLB package of games around the country. This year, it was April 6-12. I did take advantage a few years ago, though. It’s fun watching the same game, while alternating two different announcing teams; totally different perspective.
I just realized that I haven’t talked with my father-in-law about the inaugural Hall of Fame Classic featuring retired players, some of them Hall of Famers, replacing the Hall of Fame Game. That’s probably because tickets aren’t available at all until this weekend to Museum members, and not to the general public until April 26. A different system than waiting in line in Cooperstown in February or March, which is what my father-in-law’s tradition has been. *** Failed to note the passing of the colorful Mark “the Bird” Fidrych, the AL Rookie of the Year. Here’s a 1985 interview:
Last week, on Maundy Thursday, our church choir was rehearsing in the sanctuary. One member got up a couple times, but then returned. Suddenly, she toppled over. This wasn’t a slumped over as though she had fainted; this was a stiff collapse as though she were a tree being felled by a lumberjack. She was terribly pale. Someone called 911, and while a nurse in a congregation – previously unknown to me – helped others tend to her, I waited for the ambulance.
So as people arrived and said “hi” to me, I was evidently not very responsive. The emergency team treated her, then put her on a gurney and took her to the hospital. a member of the congregation not in the choir, who worked in the hospital, followed her to the facility. Then the choir had tpo sing, which we did, admirably under the circumstances.
As it turns out, the culprits were low potassium and dehydration, which meant low blood volume and low blood pressure. Much to our delight and surprise, she was able to sing on Easter Sunday morning.
There have been other choir incidents though, all of these involving different people over the past couple weeks * hospitalized with arrhythmia, though out by Easter * out for six weeks for a surgery, though should be returning today * family was in a car accident which totaled the vehicle but rendered relatively minimal harm * on medicine that thinned the blood too much and had had to be briefly hospitalized * illness * flu * broken foot
And during Holy Week, the choir director also had the flu, missing her first Easter in church probably ever. Fortunately, our former acting director was able to step in for both the Maundy Thursday and Easter Sunday services.
So say a little prayer (or whatever it is you do) for our hardy little band. ROG
Happy U.S. Income Tax Day! Every year in the United States, the Social Security Administration sends out Your Social Security Statement to help me plan for my “financial future”. It provides estimates of your Social Security benefits under current law.” But for me, it’s a personal history lesson.
The first year I worked, 1969, I made $529 at the Binghamton (NY) Public Library. I worked six months at IBM in 1971 and made the most I would make until 1978. $50 in 1976 – really? I can always tell when I went to college, or when I was unemployed or underemployed. I also received my 401(k) statement this week. I started putting money in this account because we were all warned that Social Security wouldn’t be there. My employer and I each contributed about $1000 each this past quarter. I managed to lose that plus an additional $5800. So much for retiring. Let’s talk about music instead. There are two great songs called Money that I own and that come to mind. The first was written Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, when challenged by someone who complained that all he wrote about was romance. “What else do you care about, Berry?” Well, there was money.
The original version of Money was recorded by future Songwriters’ Hall of Famer Barrett Strong, who later teamed with the late Norman Whitfield to write I Heard It Through the Grapevine (a hit for both Gladys Knight & the Pips and Marvin Gaye), War (Edwin Star’s hit), and a bunch of late 1960s/early 1970s classics for the Temptations, such as Too Busy Thinking About My Baby, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Just My Imagination and Ball of Confusion.
Barrett Strong’s version of Money went to #2 on the Billboard R&B charts for six weeks, and to #23 on the pop charts early in 1960. It’s #288 on the Rolling Stone magazine’s list of greatest songs, and was covered by a Liverpudlian band of some note, the Beatles.
The other Money song is by the British band Pink Floyd, by that point consisting of David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Rick Wright and Nick Mason. It appeared on the 1973 album Dark Side of the Moon, and though it spent but one week at #1 in the U.S., it spent a total of 741 weeks on the U.S. album charts, selling more than 15 million copies.
I’m still collecting the state quarters. Right now, all I need is a Missouri quarter from the Denver mint; I even have both District of Columbia coins. But I haven’t seen the Puerto Rico quarter yet from either the Philadelphia or Denver mints and other territories will be released this year. (And yes, I know DC and Puerto Rico are not states, but their coins are a continuation of the same series.) Meanwhile, I’m still looking for Denver mint coins for two of my co-workers. Certainly it was the juxtaposition of Marilyn Chambers as wholesome Ivory Snow mom with Marilyn Chambers as, er, an actress that helped fuel whatever commercial success she had. No, though my name is Green, I’ve never seen Behind the Green Door or any of her other work. She died this week. *** And speaking of advertising, does Burger King REALLY think it’ll make money mixing SpongeBob Squarepants, Sir Mix-A-Lot, and “the TRUE (non-pirate) meaning of the word ‘booty'”, as my friend Fred put it in his April 13 post? And if the BK King is creepy in 30-second increments, he’s REALLY bizarre in the 2:30 segment Fred found. *** OK, so what other song about money am I thinking of? The clues are in this post.
