October rambling: wrackful

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

 

WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a multimillion-dollar ballroom on the eastern side of the White House. (Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)
Wrackful. Meaning – adjective: Ruinous. In Sonnet 65, Shakespeare laments time’s “the wrackful siege of battering days.” You can almost hear the timbers groan and the sigh of loss. 

AWS outage spotlights the global economy’s fragile foundations

The AI that we’ll have after AI

How a Fringe Movement of Gun Nuts, Backwoodsmen, and Free Marketers Paved the Way for Autocracy

American e-waste is causing a ‘hidden tsunami’ of junk in Southeast Asia

The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water. What Happens If We Do? The pace of freshwater depletion is staggering. An area twice the size of California is drying up annually.

Does Brazil have an app that can upend digital finance?

One of 20 Million in the US With Long COVID. RFK Pulled the Rug From Under Us.

Americans remain pessimistic about the country’s direction and the state of the country. 

Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity

A Whole Lotta Fibbin’ Going On

The Big Budget Act Creates a “Deportation-Industrial Complex” —The result will be a lopsided, enforcement-only machine that will be hard to dismantle.

“Divisive”? (BHO)

The shrinking future of Ph. D.s

Medicare Advantage: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Response

The Resistance Stiffens and “No Kings” — Loving America

Labor Unions, EFF Sue Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online

John Dickerson: What Hamilton warned in the Federalist Papers #1

June Lockhart obituary: American stage and screen actor who enjoyed huge success on the television shows Lassie, Lost in Space, and Petticoat Junction.

Baseball Obituary: Mike Greenwell (1963-2025)

The Jewish Prisoners Who Escaped From a Nazi Death Camp

Ernest Shackleton’s journey was most likely doomed before it began

Why Paris Designed Its Peculiarly Popular Grand Graveyards to Evoke a Celebration of Life Amid All the Death

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal, History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1 (1906)

These Airport Codes Make No Sense

Now I Know: Where the Other Two Musketeers Went and Hackers, Pre-Internet Edition and The $10,000 Blade of Grass (Dali and Ono) and The “Baseball versus Beer” Loophole and Our Anti-Photographic Memories?

The dog that was twenty times smarter than Lassie

Wrecking crew

The East Wing of the White House has been demolished. Here’s a look at its history

Demolition Seen as Potent Metaphor for His Destructive Presidency

Daily Kos: “Normal people looked at the demolition… and asked, ‘Hey, shouldn’t an official body, like the National Capital Planning Commission, have to sign off on the demolition?’

“No, you sweet summer child. According to him and his allies on the NCPC, the planning commission need only sign off on the construction of buildings, not their demolition. 

“What kind of person who heads a planning commission charged with the overall planning of the nation’s capital would agree to this?

“Oh, that would be Will Scharf. Scharf is the White House staff secretary, and he is also now the head of the NCPC. Does Scharf have any experience in urban planning or architecture, or anything really? 

“Nope. You all get one guess as to why Scharf has not one, but two high-level government jobs? Yes, he was one of his former criminal defense attorneys.” 

Borowitz: FOTUS “would continue his father’s proud tradition of gleeful destruction [Steeplechase Park] when he demolished the Bonwit Teller Building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to clear the site for his Tower. After saying he’d try to preserve the building’s priceless Art Deco friezes so that they could be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he discovered that it would cost $32,000 to remove them intact. As a clever solution to his problem, he had his workmen smash them to bits.”

MUSIC

Take Me Down To Stewy’s – Jackson Simpson (feat. Azel & Grey Mizzy), a tribute to the many Stewart’s Shops, a chain of convenience stores located in Upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.

Last Time (I Seen the Sun) – Alice Smith and Miles Caton

That Thing You Do! – The Wonders

I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow – The Soggy Bottom Boys with Dan Tyminski

La Academia – Peter Sprague

Piano Sonata no. 14 in C-sharp minor, Moonlight, by Ludwig van Beethoven

That Song In Every Musical That No One Likes – Sarah Smallwood Parsons

While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Take 27) – The Beatles [Anthology 2025]

Bonehemian Rhapsody– 28-Trombone collaboration

Coverville 1553: The Bruno Mars Cover Story and 1554: The Tom Petty Cover Story V

New Moon in the Old Moon’s Arms by Michael Kamen

Over, Under, Sideways, Down -The Yardbirds

How Lucky Can You Get -Jason Graae, the voice of the Leprechaun in the Lucky Charms commercials for several years

Take On Me– a-ha

You’ll Be Back (from Hamilton) – Primer (Barbershop Quartet)

Theme to Top Cat – Hoyt Curtin

On Your Shore -Enya

Theme from Jurassic Park – John Williams

Oh Sheila – Ready for the World

J. Eric Smith’s blog, Genre Delve #4: Gospel, with links to the intro, Jazz, and Africa

What Makes Surf Rock Sound Instantly Recognizable?

A specific dream

phooey

I had a very specific dream last Saturday night—actually, Sunday morning, after which I woke up about 4:20 a.m. And I know the genesis.

An old friend of mine, whom I have known since 1977, Facebook messaged me at 11:34 a.m. Saturday morning. They indicated that their significant other would be playing music at a block party only a mile or two away between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

I wrote back: “Phooey – if I had known earlier, I would have planned for it.” This is to say that I would have been showered and dressed; I had been in the midst of the cleaning project.

The dream: Someone had taken a reference question and explained to me what the person wanted to discover about selling paper products. They were undercapitalized and not generating enough income.

I went to an adjacent room and felt I needed to use the desk. (Why, I don’t know.) Somebody else already had items on their desk: pens, papers, and a folded-over coat. I didn’t want to mess up their desk, so I decided to get my phone and take a picture of the top of the desk so that I could take everything off and then put everything back. Just at that point, my phone died.

Analysis

This dream was almost certainly about that friend, who no longer lives in the immediate area. They were among the people who had nagged me to get my Master’s in Library Science. We even worked together briefly. 

The paper products reference was about the items I’ve been dealing with, not very efficiently, in my office, things on top of things. 

I sense it was a missed opportunity dream. Maybe I should have just thrown on some clothes and taken a bus or Uber to the location to see my friend. Sometimes, it’s difficult for me to spontaneously shift gears when my mind has mapped out the day.

The JEOPARDY Alumni T-shirt

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Amy Roeder

Jeeopardy T-shirtA few years ago, I bought a Jeopardy Alumni T-shirt online. Initially, the shirts didn’t reflect the 1998-1999 season, in which I appeared. Presumably, the demand generated some of the earlier shirts.

The peculiar thing about this item is that I’ve never worn it. One doesn’t want to wear these customized things out too quickly. This year, I’m considering wearing it on November 9th, the date of my first Jeopardy appearance.

On the backside of the shirt is a list of all the people who were on season 15, listed alphabetically by first name, which I think is a hoot.

Jeopardy T-shirt

As you can see, there were 11 Celebrity Jeopardy games, including a Legends in Sports match on November 6 featuring Reggie Jackson vs. Martina Navratilova vs. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. I remember Kareem winning because it was the episode before my first match aired. Also, Kareem played a character named Roger in the Airplane movie.

Connected

So, it’s oddly fun to be listed on a T-shirt with Kareem, Bob Costas, Robin Roberts, Keith Olbermann, Al Franken, Garry Marshall, Jane Seymour, Graham Nash, and Maine state representative Amy Roeder, among other notables, plus about 400 other folks I have one thing in common with. 

There were also 10 five-day champions, including Juliet Wiley, a Tournament of Champions finalist; the ToC winner was Dave Abbott, who played the previous season.  A part of me wishes they would go back to limiting champs to five games, excluding the ToC. But that’s not going to happen. The fanbase and the JEOPARDY staff want to have players win 10, 20, 38, or 74 games.

The clues’ values doubled in November 2001, from Friday, the 23rd, to Monday, the 26th. Occasionally, I mused how I would have fared. But I recall that early players in that period had difficulty recalibrating their wagers, so it’s just as well.

Calendar post: November 2025, et al.

Underground Railroad Education Center

I love my little calendar post. I’ll probably do one of these monthly, if only so I can keep it straight in my own mind. My choir has been rehearsing quite a bit for the December 14 concert. I suppose I should read the tome before my book review. 

ITEM: Marathon public reading of Legs by William Kennedy. Noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 5. Albany Distilling Co. Bar, 75 Livingston Avenue, Albany, NY 12207 518-949-2472

Want to join the reading? Readers are asked to sign up and select a time slot by Friday, Oct. 31. Just want to listen? No registration is needed to attend. The event is free and open to the public. Drop in anytime from noon to 8 p.m. 

Support a good cause: Donations will be collected at the door to benefit the food pantry and free meal outreach at Sacred Heart Church in Albany, Kennedy’s childhood parish.

The event is the third in a series of public readings of Kennedy’s novels. We read Ironweed in 2023 and Billy Phelan’s Greatest Game in 2024. (I participated in both, and will again this year.)

ITEM: Roselee Blooston, who will be speaking at APL in December, provided this info about her new book, Including the Periphery: 

Main Street Magazine’s author profile, which you can read HERE. She was also included in  Chronogram’s “5 Hudson Valley Books to Read in September.” She will be at:

The Ballad of the Brown King

ITEM:  There will be a concert on Sunday, December 14, at 3 pm at First Presbyterian Church, 362 State Street (corner of Willett) in Albany. The FPC choir will perform in partnership with the Festival Celebration Choir. It will feature a chamber string orchestra (plus harp). Half of the concert will feature carol settings by Alice Parker, including her Seven Carols for Christmas. The second half will feature the cantata The Ballad of the Brown King by Margaret Bonds, one of the most significant black woman composers of the 20th century, with lyrics by Langston Hughes.

ITEM: Connections That Feed Hope – FOCUS Churches Breakfast Club. Donate if you can.

ITEM: Stand with the Underground Railroad Education Center as a sponsor or attendee of the upcoming Arias in the Afternoon: Lifting Every Voice on December 14, 2025, from 1 to 3 pm, at the New York State Museum. Arias in the Afternoon brings Handel’s Messiah together with the Smithsonian’s Voices and Votes exhibit for a powerful experience combining music, history, and inspiration.

ITEM: The current Art at APL exhibit — “Sight Specific” — is on view at the Pine Hills Branch until Nov. 8.

The exhibit is curated by Opalka Gallery and funded by the Friends & Foundation of APL, with additional support in 2025 from the Arts Thrive and Grow grant through The Arts Center of the Capital Region.

Stay tuned for information about the next Art at APL exhibit — “Countenance: The Contemporary Portrait” — which will debut on Dec. 5.

Another book review (moi)

ITEM: Events at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue, on Tuesdays at 2 pm in the large auditorium.

October 28 | Special Program: Andrea Nicolay, Executive Director of APL, will discuss APL and Current Events.

November 4 | Author Talk | Peter Balint, retired international businessman and former US Army officer, discusses and reads from his memoir, The Shoe in the Danube: The Immigrant Experience of a Holocaust Survivor.

November 11 | Author Talk: Ryane McAuliffe Straus, formerly professor of political science at St. Rose College and now an Empire State Fellow, discusses and reads from her book Divided by Choice: How Charter Schools Diminish Democracy.

November 18 |Book Review | On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.  Reviewer:  Mark Lowery, retired from NYS Department of Environmental Conservation.

November 25| Book Review | Everything is Tuberculosis:  The History and Persistence of Our Deadliest Infection by John Green.  Reviewer:  Roger Green, business librarian retired from the NY Small Business Development Center.  (Not related to John.)
ITEM: Remember to make a plan to vote and take advantage of Early Voting if you can! 
In New York State:
Saturday, October 25 – Sunday, November 2, 2025
Saturday & Sunday: 9:00AM – 5:00PM
Monday & Wednesday: Noon – 8:00PM
Tuesday, Thursday & Friday: 9:00AM – 5:00PM

 

Early Voting Locations for 2025 in Albany County 
You may vote at ANY of the following sites during Early Voting only:

Bethlehem Lutheran Church (Parish Hall) 
85 Elm Ave., Delmar, NY 12054 

Albany County Board of Elections
St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church
Boght Community Fire District
Pine Grove United Methodist Church
East Berne Volunteer Fire Company
Guilderland Public Library
Scams

ITEM: 🚨REPOST PSA🚨

The Albany Police Department’s Center and South stations have received numerous calls regarding scams. Please remember:

The scammers may:
🚨Claim you owe money.
🚨May identify themselves as an officer of APD demanding arrest if you do not pay the amount owed.
🚨Demand payments through gift cards.

Just a reminder:
🚨APD will not call you and demand payment over the phone.
🚨APD will not ask for personal financial information over the phone.
🚨Do not provide any personal information over the phone

If you receive a suspicious call, hang up and report it to the police.

Lydster: ’70s soul

There’s Love In Them There Hills

Obviously, I have failed my daughter. My wife, daughter, and I were visiting my mother-in-law’s communal residence. Curiously, in the background was, of all things, the Ohio Players’ Fire, a song I love. My daughter did not know this track.

On the ride home, she clarified that she isn’t familiar with many ’70s soul songs. She does know the Beatles, Motown, and other stuff from the ’60s, as well as Gladys Knight and the Pips on Arista Records. Reciprocally, she has taught me about 1990s/early 2000s soul, such as Aaliyah and Blaque.

I have all of the songs mentioned in some physical form

Some songs:

Fire – Ohio Players. I made a post in 2016 of other songs titled Fire.

Lady Marmalade –  LaBelle. This is the song that she had a vague understanding of because it had a line in French; did she learn it in high school class? The song was added to the National Recording Registry in 2021.

Tell Me Something Good – Rufus. My niece Rebecca sang this song in concert during a Chaka Khan medley that my daughter heard. The daughter may not know that Stevie Wonder penned it. Chaka Khan and I have the same birth month.

Strawberry Letter #23—the Brothers Johnson. Shuggie Otis wrote and performed the song; I have it on CD. Shuggie was the son of 1950s music legend Johnny Otis. This cover, produced by Quincy Jones, is iconic. I wrote about this song in 2015. Here’s the single, which is good, but the album cut is better.. 

Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin) -Sly and the Family Stone. I love Sly, and there are a bunch of other songs she should know about.

STAX

Mr. Big Stuff – Jean Knight. A Stax Records hit

Respect Yourself – the Staple Singers, arguably my favorite Stax song from the 1970s,  though their I’ll Take You There is a worthy choice as well.

Thin Line Between Love and Hate -The Persuaders. The Pretenders covered this. 

Why Can’t We Live Together – Timmy Thomas. I have this on an LP. One of the longest intros on a single I’ve ever heard at over 90 seconds before the vocal. 

Getaway – Earth, Wind, and Fire. There’s a lot of EWF she should know.

There’s Love In Them There Hills – the Pointer Sisters. Play in the dark, as loud as you can; it’ll be clear why after the first 2:30. 

Ramblin' with Roger
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