“Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!
“This week, we’re stealing from Tom, who called his blog The Morning Erection. Despite the rather suggestive title, none of his questions are sexual in nature.”
Stolen from Tom
1) What was the scariest thing in the world to you when you were a kid? Does it still scare you now?
“Topps released their highly collectible Civil War News card set in 1962. The 88-card set consisted of 87 cards depicting the most well-known battles that took place during the Civil War. The fronts contain color drawings along with the name and date of that battle.”
I owned most of these and kept them for a while, but some of the cards freaked me out. The one I best remember is the card Death Battle from July 1863, in which the combatants have bayonetted each other.
To this day, I don’t like to watch my skin being punctured. I’ve given blood over 180 times, but I never look.
Unplugged
2) Imagine your 12-year-old daughter (or granddaughter) is hosting a sleepover at your home. A sudden storm knocks out cellphone service, wifi, and cable. How would you keep these suddenly unplugged pre-teens entertained?
I’d tell stories, maybe things from my past: when JFK died, the 1965 blackout, or the October 4, 1987 snowstorm. Or tales about my ancestors, such as James Archer, who fought in the Civil War. (I’m sensing a theme here.)
3) What piece of movie or TV memorabilia would you love to own?
Nothing, actually. It becomes just more stuff. In the past, I might have wanted something from The Wizard of Oz.
4) You are gifted with the services of a personal assistant for four hours. What would you ask your assistant to do?
Organize files in my office: medical receipts, genealogical records. If I had more time, I’d easily find more tasks.
5) If literary characters were real, which one would you like to interview, and what would you ask?
I would want to ask those time travelers from the past: Is the future what you expected? I’d ask time travelers from the future: How is it that we still have a future?
Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.
From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top Adult Contemporary Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.
O Holy Night – Josh Groban from 2002, #1 for two weeks AC, #109 pop in 2003
The Christmas Shoes – Newsong from 2000, #1 for a week AC, #42 pop. I hadn’t heard of this song until I had heard a vicious parody by Patton Oswald of it a few years ago. The original, IMO, is cloyingly awful.
The Gift – Jim Brickman, featuring Colin Ray and Susan Ashton from 1997, #3 for four weeks AC, #65 pop
White Christmas – Bing Crosby from 1961, #3 for a week AC. This is the 1947 remake as opposed to the 1942 original. On the pop chart, this version went #3 in early 1948, , #6 in early 1949, #5 in early 1950, #13 in late 1950 and early 1952. The rest are late in the year: #21 in 1953 and 1954, #7 in 1955, #65 in 1956, #34 in 1957, #66 in 1958, #59 in 1959, #26 in 1960, #12 in 1961, and #38 in 1962. I own the collection pictured on the video on CD.
The Little Drummer Boy – Harry Simone Choral from 1961, #6 for two weeks AC. This is the version my family owned a 45. The 1965 version slows down tremendously – and unnecessarily to my ear – at the end.
All I Want For Christmas Is You – Mariah Carey from 1994, #6 for a week AC. On the pop charts, #12 in 1994, #35 in 1995and 1997, #83 in 2000. But then – well, look at the Wikipedia page. If I could hear this song exactly once during Advent, I’d be thrilled. Alas, no! There is a Reddit chain “Why do people hate Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ ? One comment: “Christmas songs suck after the first 10,000 times you’ve heard them.”
From https://www.jedleahenry.org/popperian-afterthoughts/2023/6/9/the-paradox-of-tolerance
My friend Steve Bissette posted on Facebook a link to the Wikipedia post on the paradox of tolerance. It is “a philosophical concept suggesting that if a society extends tolerance to those who are intolerant, it risks enabling the eventual dominance of intolerance, thereby undermining the very principle of tolerance.”
Philosopher Karl Popper articulated this paradox in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945), where he argued that “a truly tolerant society must retain the right to deny tolerance to those who promote intolerance. Popper posited that if intolerant ideologies are allowed unchecked expression, they could exploit open society values to erode or destroy tolerance itself through authoritarian or oppressive practices.”
It’s an interesting conversation. “Philosopher John Rawls concludes differently in his 1971 A Theory of Justice, stating that a just society must tolerate the intolerant, for otherwise, the society would then itself be intolerant, and thus unjust.” This is a valid point. Allowing the Ku Klux Klan to march in Skokie, IL in the 1970s, which which was upheld by the Supreme Court, rightly in my view.
“However, Rawls qualifies this assertion, conceding that under extraordinary circumstances, if constitutional safeguards do not suffice to ensure the security of the tolerant and the institutions of liberty, a tolerant society has a reasonable right to self-preservation to act against intolerance if it would limit the liberty of others under a just constitution.”
Turning point
I feel we are there. When we in the United States no longer have checks and balances because Congress, and especially the House of Representatives, has abdicated its constitutional responsibilities, it is our duty to protest. It is the government itself that has become intolerant.
As the Godpodcast explained, while the “military kills unidentified fishermen with missiles with the goal of ‘ending drug trafficking,’ he pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, an actual criminal ex-president convicted of money laundering and tied to drug-running networks.” The hypocracy and scapegoating with these ones are great.
One of the boldest recent pushback occurred when six Democratic lawmakers, all with military or national security backgrounds, reminded military personnel they had the right – the obligation, even – to disobey “unlawful orders”.
Public Citizen notes the regime is “prosecuting and seeking to imprison opponents. They are deploying thousands of masked agents to abduct ‘immigrants’ (and people they think look or sound like certain kinds of immigrants). They are putting heavily armed military personnel on our nation’s streets to intimidate American citizens. And they are in effect extorting the media, major law firms, and universities.” All while enriching themselves.
Protests against these and other incursions, such as the anti-DEI bs that sideline women and “other” groups are required. As a philosophy site indicated, “For the average person, it’s about knowing where to draw the line between standing up for free speech and saying, ‘That’s not right’ when someone crosses the line into being hurtful.”
I’ve noticed that my local Indivisible group is having periodic gatherings. It is so important that we don’t feel alone in trying to create change. Here are some resistance strategies.
Freedom to read (local event)
From the NYCLU Capital Region
Please help us encourage Governor Hochul to sign the Freedom to Read Act that was adopted by the NYS Legislature this year.
Join us on Monday, December 8, at noon in the War Room of the New York State Capitol to hear local people read from their favorite banned books and call upon the Governor to act.
The New York State Legislature adopted the “Freedom to Read Act” (S01099) in 2025 to protect the availability of diverse, age-appropriate materials in school and public libraries. The act requires the Commissioner of Education to develop policies ensuring school libraries are empowered to curate a wide array of materials, reinforcing the legal obligation for school districts to provide access to diverse collections and to prevent materials from being removed based on viewpoint. The bill is intended to counter censorship efforts and uphold students’ right to read freely.
Purpose: To protect the freedom to read and to ensure access to a wide range of books and library materials in schools and public libraries across the state.
Key provisions:
Empowers school librarians to curate diverse and inclusive collections.
Requires the Commissioner of Education to develop statewide policies for library collections.
Makes it clear that school districts have a legal obligation to provide access to diverse materials.
Aims to prevent the removal of books based on disagreement with their content, viewpoint, or ideas.
THE WAR ROOM IS ON THE SECOND FLOOR OF THE CAPITOL BUILDING ON THE EAST SIDE. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE!
Immigration (local event)
As we approach the seventy-seventh anniversary of the United Nations proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have been witness to the shocking disregard of those fundamental human rights in our immigrant communities. People are being targeted and detained by masked thugs because of the color of their skin, denied due process, subjected to cruel and inhumane treatment, deported to countries not their own, left forgotten and unaccounted for in the appalling conditions of foreign prisons. Children are being separated from their parents.
THIS MUST STOP.
Join CAPITAL DISTRICT BORDER WATCH on International Human Rights Day.
Wednesday, December 10, from 12:30 – 1:30 PM at the Leo W. O’Brien Building, corner of Pearl and Clinton, Albany
Please stand with us and with our immigrant neighbors, and let our community know that the treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration is cruel and unjust and will not be tolerated. Bring a sign. Bring your commitment and your solidarity. Please join us for a Sign-Making Party for this event on Tuesday, December 9, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm at the Albany Friends Meeting, 727 Madison Avenue.
From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top Country Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the country charts.
Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer – Gene Autry with the Pinafores from 1949, one week at #1 CW, #1 pop for one week. It eventually sold eight million copies, second only to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas. A new version of the song got to #70 pop in 1957.
Blue Christmas – Ernest Tubb from 1949, one week at #1 CW, #21 pop in 1950. “The song was originally recorded by American country singer, musician, and actor Doye O’Dell in 1948. It was popularized the following year in three separate recordings: one by Tubb, one by musical conductor and arranger Hugo Winterhalter and his orchestra and chorus, and one by bandleader Russ Morgan and his orchestra. Elvis Presley cemented the status of the song as a rock-and-roll holiday classic by recording it for his 1957 LP Elvis’ Christmas Album.
Snow Flake – Jim Reeves from 1966, three weeks at #2 CW, #66 pop
Jason Ritter’s grandfather
Christmas Carols By The Old Corral – Tex Ritter from 1945, one week at #2 CW. Maurice Woodeward Ritter was the star of c. 85 Hollywood westerns from 1935 to 1945. The late John Ritter was his son.
Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane) -Gene Autry from 1948, one week at number 4 CW. It reached #8 pop in 1948 and #24 pop in 1949
Frosty the Snowman – Gene Autry with the Cass County Boys and Carl Cotner’s Orchestra, from 1950, one week at number 4 CW. #7 pop in 1951, #23 pop in 1952
I loved the premise of the movie Rental Family: “An American actor in Tokyo struggling to find purpose lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese ‘rental family’ agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers.” Especially around the holidays, an increasing number of my acquaintances are looking for, or grafting onto, family.
Traveling throughout Tokyo, where he’s lived for seven years, the struggling actor Philip (Brendan Fraser) is uncomfortably large. Even the ceiling in his apartment seems too short.
He has moral ambivalence about his first couple of jobs and complains, “I’m messing with people’s lives.” His boss, Tada (Takehiro Hira), the owner of the agency, counters, “We sell emotions.” Another actor in the business is Aiko (Mari Yamamoto), who, among other roles, played a phony paramour of a cheating husband hired to apologize to his wife.
Philip takes on more complicated gigs. A mother (Shino Shinozaki) wants her bright, biracial daughter, Mia (Shannon Mahina Gorman), to get into a prestigious school, but the girl needs a “father.” A fading, but feisty, old actor Kikuo (Akira Emoto) wants to escape his controlling daughter for a brief return to his past. Both of these situations become more complicated than initially conceived.
Rental Family was directed and co-written by Hikari. I’ve learned, after seeing the film with my wife at the Spectrum theater at noontime the day before Thanksgiving, that the final scene was not in the original script.
Reviews
Sarah Vincent wrote: “While some may find ‘Rental Family’ treacly and television fare, others will walk away inspired.” We were in the latter category. “Mia and Kikuo’s stories feel like the real center… and Phillip just feels like a supporting character in their respective movies,” which worked.
The film didn’t explain everything, and that was fine. Roger Moore – no, not THAT Roger Moore – noted: “Hikari… doesn’t judge and doesn’t take sides in a ‘which culture gets it’ sense. There are merits and drawbacks to both the Eastern and Western ways of living.”
Critics were 87% positive, and audiences were 96% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. Many of the negative views complained that there was “little interest in uncovering the causes or conditions of loneliness,” which I thought was both unnecessary to do and somewhat obvious.
Not incidentally, there are real family rental service companies in Japan. As in the movie, “There have been times when the role has led to emotional entanglement.”
My only regret was that my wife and I were the ONLY two people in the theater.
From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top Adult Contemporary Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts.
From Joel Whitburn’s Christmas in the Charts, 1920 to 2004, Top Country Christmas Hits lists the peak positions these seasonal songs reached on the country charts.
I loved the premise of the