Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing: another swap bot

multiverse

Apparently, today’s Sunday Stealing is yet another swap bot production.

1. Write about the best decision you ever made. How did you make it? Was it reasoning or gut instinct?

Putting money away for retirement. My employer was matching it at some percentage. It was neither reasoning nor gut instinct; it was “I might actually live to be 70, so maybe I should do that.”

2. What ONE thing would you change about your life? How would your life be different?

I could spend dozens of blog posts musing that, if I did X, my life would be different in so many different ways. Jobs, and especially relationships. Too many variables – think multiverse – so that’s a hard pass.

3. What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Why was it hard for you? What did you learn?

Burying my father was hard because there was a lot of familial strife. And because he was my father, a complicated guy. If I learned anything, it was that, at that moment, it was right to stay the course I believe he had wanted us to take.

4. What is your greatest hope for your future? What steps can you take to make it happen?

I hope for my daughter, and I worry for my daughter. I try to be an educated citizen. Naturally, I vote. I try to be kind and a good listener.

I discuss issues in my blog – though not as often as I could because, frankly, it exhausts me, it doesn’t convince many people who weren’t inclined to that POV, and it tends not to bring me joy.

Talking with myself

5. If you can time travel, what will you tell your teenage self?

Not a damn thing because he wouldn’t listen anyway.

6. Write about the most glorious moment in your life so far.

This probably isn’t it, really, but still. When I was in high school, there was a Red Cross training event in Manlius, NY, near Syracuse. At the end of the week, there was a talent show, and somehow, a couple of guys, one a blues guitarist, asked me to play with them. I stood on stage, people expecting me to sing. Instead, I played the comb. The whole thing was about 3 minutes. I got a standing ovation.

7. Write about a moment you feel brave.

There was a kid whose parents ran a falafel shop on Delaware Avenue in Albany. He wandered into traffic, and I went out and scooped him up before he could get hit by a car. It was only scary after the fact.

8. What made you happy today?

The blog post I wrote for October 25th.

9. What do you dislike most about growing up?

We lived in a district where we walked to school. So our superintendent of schools almost NEVER called for snow days, even when the drifts were a foot taller than I was.

Using time

10. Write about ten activities you love the most and why you love them.

Singing in choir, listening to recorded music, and writing this blog – because it feeds my soul.

Reading books, reading certain online articles/websites, playing word games (Boggle, Wordle)- because it feeds my brain.

Collecting Hess trucks, watching recorded NFL football games while fast-forwarding between snaps and during commercials – because it’s fun.

I buy books that I take forever to read – because it supports local authors.

I am doing genealogy – because it gives me insight into my roots and myself.

11. Do you have an embarrassing moment that still makes you cringe? Write about it in as much detail as you feel comfortable!

It’s hardly cringeworthy at this point, but I still remember elements of it. I was in a class at school – I don’t even remember when or what class, but probably junior high. We were all supposed to give a talk about whatever. The outline was on the chalkboard in the back of the room. I broke my glasses shortly before this exercise and couldn’t READ the chalkboard in the back of the room. So, I used binoculars to read. It got a big laugh, and I was mortified.

12. What has been your best trip so far?

Maybe the 2011 family trip from Albany to Niagara Falls to Toronto to Peterborough, ON in 2011.

Moi? Unique?

13. Write a list of 5 things (physical or personality-wise) you love about yourself, and why they make you unique.

I’m desperately curious about a lot of things.

When necessary, I can be loud enough to get the attention of a crowd.

When I was three, I fell down a flight of stairs; as a result, I have a scar around my soul patch where hair won’t grow.

I’ve given over 22 gallons of blood and continue to do so at least twice a year, even though it’s more difficult now as my injection site has developed scar tissue.

I’m told that I read well in public.

14. Discuss 5 things you wish others knew about you.

When I say I don’t care about a choice – I don’t care what kind of restaurant we go to, I mean it.

Conversely, when I get insistent, I REALLY mean it: no anchovies! (I have two specific examples, neither having anything to do with food.)

I am more introverted than most people believe; I’m just fakin’ it, as I wrote.

Here’s something that seems obvious to me: I am thinking a lot of the time about the best way to do something, what I can do to remove obstructions, how to be aware of being in someone else’s shoes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

The rest of the time, there’s music in my head.

15. Is social media a blessing or a curse?

Yes. While it’s a way to keep in touch with people I used to know IRL, there’s too much noise.

Music cover and re-cover

Sinatra

I’ve often mused on musical covers by the same artist. This would be a re-cover in the parlance of the Coverville podcast, which I listen to regularly.

The post was initiated by a 2021 video of a lawyer talking about Taylor Swift rerecording her early albums issued under her original contract. The attorney wondered if the public would purchase the songs again; from the last time I checked the Billboard album charts, three of the ten albums were “Taylor’s version.”

I should compare the old songs with the new ones, but I’m not a Swifty and would feel inadequate to point out the differences in the recordings. (However, I’m quite amused and bemused by the MAGA disdain for her.)

Conversely, I could discuss some of the variations among the records of Frank Sinatra on different labels long before Taylor. A good example would be Snatra’s Sinatra.

“Ten of the album’s twelve tracks are re-recorded versions of songs that Sinatra had previously released, with ‘Pocketful of Miracles’ and ‘Call Me Irresponsible’ being first-time recordings for Sinatra.

“Sinatra’s two previous record labels, Columbia Records and Capitol Records had both successfully issued collections of Sinatra’s hits; this album was the attempt of his new label, Reprise Records, to duplicate this success by offering some earlier songs in stereophonic sound, which by 1963 was an exploding recording technology.” You should be able to hear that album in its entirety here; then, you can tool around and find earlier iterations.

Fab

The Beatles had different versions of Get Back and Let It Be, from the single to the album version. Both Get Back and Medicated Goo by Traffic have singles that come to a dead stop – I still own the 45s – while the album cuts do not. Get Back: LP and single. Medicated Goo album cut; I can’t find the single.

I also considered remakes such as Fame and Fame ’90 by David Bowie, Think and Think ’89 by Aretha Franklin, and a supposedly improved version of John Hiatt’s Have A Little Faith In Me. In each case, I prefer the original. However, I have an odd affection for the Trans version by Neil Young of Mr. Soul compared with the Buffalo Springfield take.

In Paul Simon’s In The Blue Light, he re-covers ten of his songs that he thought were previously overlooked. One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor: original (There Goes Rhymin’ Simon) and remake.

My favorite: Crying – the original is by Roy Orbison, the re-cover by Orbison and k.d. lang.

Egregious sins exist on remakes of some compilation albums. I have a Herman’s Hermans greatest hits collection that is all redos; Peter Noone is singing them, but it ain’t the same. Likewise, I have a 4-CD set of soul songs, with the only originals by deceased artists. These are very disappointing.

Licensing rights are often the issue. Rhino put out The Ray Charles Anthology, with 17 songs from his ABC/Paramount period and three live versions of songs he first recorded when he was on Atlantic Records.

Live versions versus studio albums? A whole ‘nother conversation. I tend to like the studio versions, though the live performance of I’m So Glad on Goodbye Cream shreds the studio track from Fresh Cream.

That said, I needed to do much more compare and contrast, scouring YouTube to do the topic justice; frankly, it was too daunting.

A Sedingerian ARA post

the rules of curling

Kelly Sedinger asked a slew of questions for Ask Roger Anything. And he’s not even from New Jersey. (An old SNL reference.) This makes this a Sedingerian post. Or a Sedingeresque post. You decide.

What do you think of Spam? The actual food product! (I’m still stunned at how beloved it is in Hawaii; you can get Spam at McDonald’s there!)

When my then-girlfriend/now wife went there in 1995 with her parents, she reported the same phenomenon. By the way, I ended up going to New Orleans for work at the same time.

I’m sure I used to eat Spam when I was a kid, maybe in my twenties. As I recall, I liked it. But I’m not sure I’ve had it in the past four decades. I’ll have to try it again.

BTW, from the SPAM FAQ: The true root of the island’s love for SPAM® products goes back to World War II, when the luncheon meat was served to GIs. By the end of the war, SPAM® products were adopted into local culture, with Fried SPAM® Classic and rice becoming a popular meal. The unique flavor quickly found its way into other Hawaiian cuisine, from SPAM® Fried Wontons to SPAM® Musubi, and SPAM® products became a fixture for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Today you’ll find SPAM® dishes served everywhere from convenience stores to restaurants, reflecting a demand that is unmatched by any place in the world.”

Timeshare

For whatever reason, you are required to spend one week someplace that’s no more than an hour away from home. Where are you going?

There’s a timeshare in western Massachusetts that we’ve been to perhaps 25 times in the past quarter of a century. It was initially my parents-in-law’s place, but we’ve taken it over in the place few years.

Once, we were there when our then-baby daughter got a splinter, and we couldn’t get it out. So we took her to a doctor in Albany, then returned to the timeshare the same day.

Sports report

Do you understand the rules of curling? I do not. In fact, I’m not convinced the whole thing isn’t an elaborate prank.

I looked at the rules for the 2024 Olympics in Paris. And I STILL don’t understand them.

Favorite obscure sport?

Foot archery, of course. It is something that I could never do.

Food eating contests: your feelings? (I loathe them, but that’s just me.)

It’s fairly revolting, gluttony as sport; it’s on ESPN! And yet I know Joey Chestnut’s name.

What’s one lesson you learned from any one teacher you had as a kid?

My fifth-grade teacher, Miss Oberlik, taught us to count to 19 in Russian. I can still do that.

Milk as a beverage: Yes or no?

Yes and no. Yes, when served with cookies or, I suppose, pastries. No, when on cereal.

Why is my cat such a doofus? (I doubt you can answer this, but it’s been much on our minds of late)

One of my cats is a doofus. When I come in from outdoors, he runs to the door like he wants to go out. About four years ago, he did go out, and he was terrified when he finally returned over an hour later. Many felines are doofi.

Two more questions will be answered forthwith. Or with forth.

The Las Vegas strip and Fremont East

Meow Wolf

Sun, Sept 24: You’d think two old guys flying three time zones might at least nap before going out. You’d be wrong. We needed to check out the Las Vegas Strip.

After checking into our quite lovely Club Wyndham Desert Blue room- thanks to my mother-in-law, who had points that needed to be used up before the end of September – we took the hotel shuttle to the Paradise Hotel. It ran nearly every hour. M-Th until 9 pm going out and 9:30 coming back, but until 1/1:30 on Friday through Sunday.

We just walked a lot, stopping for a slice of pizza.

We spent a good deal of time in the Bellagio. It had many interesting and unusual features, such as this ceiling.

This room is fantastical.

This view of the Eiffel Tower, which included a water show in the front of the Bellagio, is wonderful Also, the place was so damn big, and it was difficult to leave without doubling back.

Working for a living

A lot of people were out there trying to make a buck, including so many buskers, their sounds blurred into each other. Instead of the costumed Muppets and Spider-Man at New York City’s Times Square, we see several young women wearing enough clothing not to be arrested, who asked us several times over the first two days if we wanted our pictures taken with them. I was in the “thanks but no thanks” school. MAK was more conversational with them, but ultimately answered in the negative as well.

The Las Vegas Sphere opened the day after we left town. This picture does not do it justice, but I was too tired to walk closer that night. Yes, it’s an abomination of wretched excess, it looks really cool, and apparently, the sound system inside is incredible. ( You could read how Darren Aronofsky Describes His Journey to Creating the First Movie for it.)

M, Sept 25: The resort offered a ride to a local grocery store affiliated with Kroger’s every Monday. It left at 10 a.m., took ten minutes to get there, and then returned to the hotel at 10:40. We had a half hour to get our food—milk, raisin bran, sandwich fixing, orange juice, etc.

There was a guy on the bus who looked astonishingly like Barack Obama, especially in profile. With his soft Texas cadence, he even sounded a bit like 44. MAK asked him if he ever… Faux BHO cut him off: “All of the time.”

Old LV

After lunch, we took a cab to East Fremont. It’s an older part of the city, a bit grittier. But a few blocks are covered by a dome that changes color. Below the roof, people periodically ride ziplines.

The most fascinating place had to be Circa, an adults-only hotel and casino. It had a bank of four dozen monitors and provided the ability to get information to bet on almost everything. We did not gamble at all, and I’m disinclined to. But it was an interesting anthropological observation. (Read more about the Circa and its Stadium Swim here.)

Omega Mart

Tu, Sept 26: We went to something called Meow Wolf. What is it? I don’t know, and I was there. “Meow Wolf opens portals of possibility. We redefine the paradigm of art and storytelling to make a positive difference in the world.

Yeah, that. “We have numerous full-time artists on staff, working in a huge range of media, including sculpture, painting, fabrication, digital art, writing, film, and many more. Additionally, we prioritize collaboration with many local artists in each exhibition location.”

There are exhibits in Denver, CO; Grapevine, TX; and the original site in Sante Fe, NM, as well as Las Vegas, which has the Omega Mart, “America’s Most Exceptional Grocery Store.” Let’s see: “Every door or box of cereal at Omega Mart is a potential entryway into new worlds and artful revelations.”

You have to go with it. It is part weird, part scavenger hunt, and part meditative space.

Afterward, we ate at an excellent Vietnamese restaurant with a savvy server who said, “You don’t want” that item I was about to order. She told MAK what flavorings to add to his soup. This is someone who cared about her work.

(Note: the cereal box pic is from MeowWolf.com. MAK took the first three and the last two photos. The rest are mine; having seen the REAL Eiffel Tower fairly recently, I was obsessed with getting a good picture of the LV one; the sixth time was the charm.)

1973: the class trip to DC

New Paltz Democratic Club

I intend to finish my 1973 diary recollections by the end of 2023. Though I found nothing I wanted to share in the first two months, the class trip to DC was particularly noteworthy.

Wed, Mar 7: I was famished that evening and was going to eat. But the Okie said she was going to bring food. Then my parents and my sisters arrived, surprising me near or on my birthday for the second year in a row.

We were about to leave when a car with a little girl barreled down the street in reverse. Dad tried to stop it, but he couldn’t. It rammed into another vehicle. The girl was okay. She was trying to adjust the radio station and released the brake. My family went to a Chinese restaurant called Great Wall.

Tues, Apr 10: I attended, not for the first time, a New Paltz Democratic Club meeting. Ralph Kulseng nominated me to be the acting recording secretary. Someone whispered, “Who’s Roger Green?” I whispered, “I’m Roger Green!”

[I joined the Club after I was allowed to register to vote in the town. The law in New York State at the time was that no one would gain or lose the right to vote by attending college. The Republican registrar was going to deny me the chance to vote there. But the Democrat, noting that the Okie was already registered in Ulster County and that it would be silly for a married couple to have to be registered in different counties.]

I won the election and was given postcards, the membership list, etc.

Sat, Apr 14: I was back in Binghamton. I met a legislative assistant of my Congressman Howard Robison at the Federal Building about war, Watergate, and other issues.

District of Columbia

Sun, May 13: My classmates (Sid, Andi, Ivy, Gary, Jay, Mitch, Stu, Charles, Jerry, Tom, and Linda ) and I drove down to DC for a trip arranged by our professor, Ron Steinberg. We ate at the Mayflower Diner. Nixon arrived at the Washington Monument grounds by helicopter, causing chaos. We stayed at a hostel.

Mon, May 14: After breakfast at a greasy spoon, we take a bus to the Supreme Court. They ruled 8-1, Rehnquist dissenting, that a servicewoman could claim her husband for benefits as easily as a serviceman could claim his wife. (As I read the case now, it was a bit more nuanced than that.) We talked with chief clerk Rodak, a real PR man, about court caseloads.

At the Justice Department, we talked with Phil Locavara, deputy solicitor general, who was very candid, even about Watergate.

The last day in DC

Tues, May 15: We had a meeting at the EPA with a guy named Stuart, who was very interesting and informative. I got lost going to the Common Cause meeting, seeing an Ethiopian parade en route. Later, the FCC PR man gave us terse, frustratingly evasive answers.

Wed, May 16: Took a bus to the New Senate Office Building. I hated carrying around my duffel bag, which was searched every time I entered there or the Supreme Court. Ron, Sid, and I ate at the NSOB cafeteria. We got Senate passes from the office of Senator James Buckley (C-NY). I went to the Senate on the subway, but only four Senators were on the floor.

We went to the Old Senate Office Building for a meeting with a subcommittee of the Committee on the Judiciary with two of the staff on Senator Sam Ervin (D-NC).

Then we went to see former Chief Justice Earl Warren. Ron made only an introductory statement and asked the last question over an hour later. )I wrote about this here.)

We all drove back to New Paltz, very tired.