Ramblin' with Roger

You Are a Winner

All I really need to do to work this blog is steal stuff from Tom the Dog, Tosy, Gordon, and especially birthday boy Lefty.

The latter asked last week the favorite thing his readers have won. In the day, I was very good at winning things from the radio stations I listened to, because I had very good dialing fingers, an advantage lost when the redial button was invented. WENE in Endicott, near Binghamton, was my first station of choice, when I was in high school.
It was followed by WNPC, the New Paltz College station. From them, one of the first things I won this album by this singer I’d vaguely heard of named David Bowie, an album called “Hunky Dory”, with a bunch of weird songs which I liked for the most part. My roommate Ron, however, did not, except for this one song called Changes.

In my early Albany days, I listened to, and got stuff from WQBK-FM, Q-104.

But my favorite win was from a station I actually seldom listened to. In the summer of 1977, I was living in NYC, specifically Jamaica, Queens, with my sister Leslie and her then-husband Eric. One day, they had the radio on, and one had to be the ninth caller “with the phrase that pays, ’99X is my radio station’ ” AND be able to identify the last song played. Well, I was the ninth caller, I said the phrase that paid, and I knew that “She’s Gone” by Hall and Oates was the last song played. I won twice my age, which meant $48, real money for an underemployed telephone solicitor (TV Guide, Encyclopedia Britannica). I had to spend SOME of it though, and that turned to be the ONLY time I’ve ever seen the New York Mets play in person. Don’t remember the game or even the score, but I remember the joy being there with my sister. I also have an unusual affection for the song “She’s Gone”.
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Then there’s Eddie, the Renaissance Geek, who asks if a tomato a fruit or a vegetable? Answer: Yes, both. But if the Supreme Court says it’s a vegetable…
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Oh, I added two blogs to the roll, both guys from upstate New York with long hair, as it turns out. One, Byzantium Shores, I’ve been reading for quite a while, and just forgot to add. The other, Hydrogen Jukebox, is one I’ve waiting for him to post a second item within the same month. (And you may recognize the person in his very first post.)
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The Post Office has new superhero stamps. One guy I read, Gay Prof, will want two of the twenty stamps on the sheet. Belated happy birthday, GP.
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And lest I forget, happy birthday, sister Leslie!

QUESTION: Time Is on MY Side

My friend Sarah noted in a response to a recent post how she spends the 168 hours of her week. I find the idea difficult, because it’s so varied. If I go away it’s one thing, if Carol and I have a date, it’s another. That said, I’m taking the bait and trying to note an “average” week.

46 – Sleep, maybe 6.5 hours in bed, sleeping, or attempting to do so

38 – Work, including some time at home getting rid of junk e-mails I get at work

16 – Specific Lydia time. This involves getting her up, fed, clothes changed in the morning, and stories, diaper changes in the evening, often also including going around the block with her. On the weekends, it’s a bit more concentrated, with Carol going grocery shopping, and me playing with or reading to Lydia.

14 – Eating. About half of this, at lunch, usually also means reading the paper or a magazine. Much of the rest of the time involves Lydia at dinner and especially breakfast.

12- Watching TV. Right now, this includes the nightly news, JEOPARDY!, CBS Sunday Morning, ABC This Week and The Closer, almost always on tape, because Carol & I decided that Lydia REALLY doesn’t need to see the news right now. Also, catching the weather, the first five minutes of the Today show to see if the world’s imploded, catching the weather. When watching taped programming, I generally have a newspaper to read while the commercials flash by.

8 – Racquetball, including time getting there, and showering and dressing afterwards.

7 – Blogging. It’s not like it’s an hour a day, every day. Some days, it’s the five minutes it takes to post. Other days, it’s whatever free time I can find: the last 15 minutes of my lunch break, the 20 minutes it takes for Carol to put Lydia to bed, a half hour of insomniac musings, the hour Carol takes Lydia swimming on Saturday morning. And the blogging also includes my time reading others, which could be 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there.

5 – House stuff: putting dishes in the dishwasher, washing the pots and pans, picking up Lydia’s toys, putting away my CDs.

4- Church, including choir and committees

3- Phone, mostly family. I spend a lot of time at work on the phone, so I tend to avoid it when I can.

2- Reading the paper while listening to music.

13 -All that miscellaneous stuff: getting to and from work, errands, weekend showers (weekday showers counted under racquetball), occasional movies, taking out the garbage, musing on life

What’s your week look like?
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This post, like all of my (nearly-)weekly questions was inspired by one Chris “Lefty” Brown, who turned 35 yesterday. He is one of my musical gurus, and apparently, I’m one of his.
Oh, Lefty, I’ve been having technical difficulties actually burning the Summer Mixed CD exchange your wife set up; I’m going to someone’s house today, and hope to send out on Monday. I wanted to direct people to your contest, but I couldn’t get the specific link to work, unless I put “ketchup” in the SEARCH mode, in which case I found this; what are you gonna do with ketchup packets, anyway? And here is your birthday present: NEVER again will I EVER mention that apparel incident again. Promise.

Making a Good Reference Book Worse

So I’m looking at Tom the Dog’s post about the Top Ten sitcoms, which maybe I’ll do myself around Emmy time, when I noticed a little mistake Tom made about Taxi being one of the few shows that has gone from one network to another. Normally, I’d just leave him a note, but his HaloScan reply thing was hanging up when I was trying to use it.

I pull out my trusty The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, 1946-Present by Tim Brooks and Earle Marsh. I know there’s a list in the back of the book that addresses this issue. But NO LIST. Huh? I’m not crazy (really, I’m not, I swear to Rudy). I was looking at my 8th edition (c. 2003), so I pull out my 5th edition, c. 1992, and the list is THERE. So they dropped this list? How else has the back of the book changed?

Appendix 1 Prime Time Schedules – in both volumes
Appendix 2 Emmy Award Winners – ditto
Appendix 3 Top-rated shows by season – ditto
Appendix 4 Longest-running series – ditto
Appendix 5 The Top 100 series of All Time – ditto (#1 is 60 Minutes, BTW)
Appendix 6 Prime Time series reunions – ditto
But then
Appendix 7 – Series Airing in Prime Time on More Than One Network – ONLY in the 1992 version
Appendix 8 in the older book, Prime Time Spin-Offs, is Appendix 7 in the new book
Appendix 9 in the older book, Prime Time Series Based on Movies, is Appendix 8 in the new book
Appendix 10 in the older book, Prime Time Network TV Series that Also Aired on Network Radio, is Appendix 9 in the new book
Appendix 11 in the older book, Hit Theme Songs from Series, is Appendix 10 in the new book
The new book does have Network Web Addresses as its Appendix 11. But then for Appendix 12, nine pages of “The Ph.D. Trivia Quiz”

As a reference librarian, this is the kind of thing that makes me frustrated. I’m forced to hold on to the old reference source (or at least to Xerox those pages) because the new edition of a reference source inexplicably drops a perfectly good, even unique, reference point in favor of piffle, in this case, a trivia quiz. This has happened in our business library as well. It’s maddening (no, wait, I said I WASN’T crazy…)

Dear Messrs. Brooks and Marsh:

Please bring back “Series Airing in Prime Time on More Than One Network” in your Complete Directory for your next edition. It is a list not easily found. If you need more space, feel free to drop the trivia contest. Quizzes are not why people buy your book. They buy it as a reference source.

I’m guessing that perhaps you dropped the chart because you didn’t know how to handle the so-called “netlets”, WB and UPN, or even FOX, because they don’t broadcast the three hours of prime-time programming that is associated with a “network”. Of course, the early years reflected in your book, the schedules were pretty sparse, too. Perhaps, your calculations this will be easier, now that the CW has replaced the netlets. I would ask you to include the CW (and its antecedents) as well as FOX.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Roger Green
Reference Librarian and Fan of Television History

Wisdom Lost

When I was 18 or 19, I had my two lower wisdom teeth removed, by my dentist.

Four and a half years ago, I went to an oral surgeon to remove one of my upper wisdom teeth (#16), because my dentist doesn’t do such tricky extractions. I was told that if it were just the tooth, it would cost X, but if it involved patching up the sinus area, it would cost about 4X. (The day of the extraction, wee were almost killed sliding into a snowbank.) It turned out that it cost X.

Last week, I went to the same oral surgeon to look at the remaining wisdom tooth (#1), with the same caveat about the sinus ($100 vs. $735, after insurance.) Yesterday was the extraction.

Meanwhile, you can look at my messy desk. (I’m wearing dark glasses because I had misplaced my regular pair, not because I was trying to look “cool”, as the photographer had assumed.) But in fact, I’m taking the day off from work, I’m not feeling particularly loquacious, and I’m $735 poorer.

The Great Northeast Flood of 2006

My family does not get together all that often. My sister Leslie lives outside of San Diego. My sister Marcia lives in Charlotte with her daughter Alex and our mother. Leslie wanted to go to this party in Binghamton, the hometown of my mother, my sisters and me, on July 1. We had gone to this same party two or three years before, with my sister inviting my mother’s first cousins from NYC, Donald and Robert, who were also born in Binghamton but left as children, to the party. The last gathering was quite successful, my mother had a great time visiting old friends, and the idea to replicate the experience appeared sound.

It wasn’t a total disaster, but the Thomas Wolfe quote about returning home felt rather apt.

June 27: the Greens from Charlotte head for Binghamton. It ends up taking them three days, because of heavy rains along the way.
June 28: Leslie flies from San Diego to Albany, in part because it’s cheaper than to fly into Binghamton, and in part to spend some time with her youngest niece, who she hasn’t seen since before her first birthday, except in pictures.
June 29: Leslie, Carol, Lydia and I were planning to drive down to Binghamton, but hear that the main route I-88, was closed from Exit 16 (near Oneonta) to Exit 8 (around Sidney). Moreover, a culvert has washed out part of the road, killing a truck driver in EACH direction. An alternate route, taking the Thruway to Syracuse, then down I-81, is not an option because, and I can’t help but to hear Arlo Guthrie’s voice, “The New York State Thruway is closed, man,” from just west of Schenectady (Exit 25A) to Syracuse (Exit 34). We stay put.
June 30: We drive down to Oneonta in two cars, ours and a rental. Leslie will need one in Binghamton, but I’m happy that she got one now, because sitting in the back seat with the car seat in the middle was a little tough for me. The water has receded a little in the town, which did visit Carol’s parents. But we got started much later than we planned, so Carol and Lydia stay overnight, while Leslie and I continue to Binghamton., Actually, before that, we stop to get bottled water, which proves to be a really good idea. When Leslie and I hit the city limits, we saw fireworks, which we felt must have beckoned our triumphant return, but was actually a scheduled event after the Binghamton Mets game. Even in the dark, one could see how high the river had crested, and parts of the side roads we passed were still closed.
July 1: With a friend, I attend a farmer’s market, Usually, the parking lot is empty for the vendors, but their were stalled out cars there where the flood waters had been only a day or two before. Carol arrives with Lydia, upset because she drove past her uncle’s flooded farm, which, fortunately, does not put him in bankruptcy, as we initially feared. Inexplicably, Lydia throws up – three times; she hadn’t before that, nor since. Meet at this party with my other relatives. The river is less than a block away, moving rapidly, caring various items, barrels, clothes, down the river. The house next door to the party, which is lower, was so flooded a couple days ago, that the American flag hung on the first-floor porch has a water stain. Something was picked up by the water and smashed into the side of the garage when the water receded. The party house basement is still fully flooded, and there is furniture drying all over the yard. My sister Marcia, my mother and niece drop me off (I had ridden in with Leslie, but she was going to be singing at a club.) Somehow, she didn’t get the word that the side door was going to be left unlocked for her benefit and slept in her car in the driveway, much to the chagrin of our hostess.

To Be Continued…