Ramblin' with Roger

Hodgepodge is named for me?

molasses

There’s a hodgepodge for Sunday Stealing. But first, what is hodgepodge? As far as I can tell, hochepot came from Anglo-Norman French and Old French. So hocher is ‘to shake’ (probably of Low German origin) + pot ‘pot.’

This became hotchpotch in late Middle English, which, besides being an assortment, also means a mutton stew with mixed vegetables. The late Middle English: alteration of hotchpotch is hodgepodge “by association with Hodge (a nickname for the given name Roger ), an archaic British term used as a name for a typical agricultural worker.” Huh! For the record, I’ve never worked in agriculture or in food services.

1. What’s something you’ve recently accomplished solo.

Moving that broken branch.

2. What’s one product you use that never ever fails?

Golden Oreo Cookies never fail to put a smile on a friend of mine.

3. Have you found your place in the world? Where is it?

I think you have to keep reevaluating this, lest you become complacent.

Hated it

4. Worst movie you ever saw?

I’ll go with Fellini Satyricon (1969), which I saw in college. An IMDB review notes. “Then comes along a movie, teetering on the thin line of questionable success where one can not tell whether there is a plot or not. If, while watching Satyricon, you find yourself wondering whether it is going to wrap up finally into an understandable conclusion, after which you can satisfactorily murmur, “Aahh yes, now I got it’. Well, in the end, there is no such luck.”

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 79% positive reviews from critics and 75% from audiences. But Penelope Houston from the Spectator writes: “Satyricon achieves a curious dual effect. It walks all over the audience with its gross, greasy detail, and at the same time, it is deliberately uninvolved and uninvolving.”

T-bird

5. What’s the last fun thing you did?

Went to see the play ABCD at the Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, MA, this past week. Here’s a review.

6. What’s your favorite Italian dish?

Eggplant parmigiana. In fact, if I want to compare Italian restaurants, it’s my go-to.

7. Have you ever been to France? Any desire to visit there, and if so, what site or city would you most want to see?

No, yes, and Auray, because I have a friend I have known since 1977 who lives there.

8. Have you ever been to Disney or any of the parks at all? Are you a Disney superfan or something less than that? They’re open right now, so tell us, would you go if you had the time/money/a free trip?

Never been to any Disney park. My feeling about Disney is complicated. I do like a lot of their cartoons, especially the Pixar films. But the company is too big, owning Star Wars, Marvel, ESPN, and ABC-TV. Still, I’d take a FREE trip.

Rodentia

9. Your favorite place to go when you want to be quiet as a church mouse? Would those who know you well describe you as more church mouse or perhaps more like Mighty Mouse?

I can be quiet in my living room, taking my blood pressure daily. People who see me in venues where I’m comfortable (church, e.g.) see me as more gregarious than I see myself.

10. Do you bake your own bread? Last time you had hot-out-of-the-oven homemade bread? What’s your favorite kind of bread?

I don’t bake bread, but my wife does, and she made several loaves this past winter using the breadmaker. My favorite was oatmeal bread; she used molasses.

11. What’s something you might say is ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’?

The computer.

12. Share with us five little things you’re grateful for today. Small blessings. One catch-they all must start with the letter T.

Tallness, Tylenol, television, telephone, telemedicine.

13. Tell us where you were and something about what life was like when you were 20- 21.

I was in college at New Paltz, NY. I have diaries of the time which I will have to read.

14. What’s on the menu at your house this week?

Spinach lasagna zucchini.

15. Something you recently purchased where a coupon was involved? Do you regularly shop with coupons?

I used to, but haven’t in decades.

Leslie: always drawn to performing

don’t know where, don’t know when

One of the attributes my family always knew about my sister Leslie was that she was always drawn to performing.

She had the opportunity to sing at Carnegie Hall as part of the Manhattan Concerts Productions’ Song of Renewal on Monday, June 13. She and about 240 other people were to sing the Mozart Requiem. (I love the Mozart Requiem. In fact, I could have joined them, but I declined because of my chronic rhinitis and other factors.) And there would be other choirs as well.

Leslie ended up staying at a Club Wyndham on East 45th Street, starting on Friday so she could be at the rehearsals over the weekend. I came down on Sunday night via Amtrak and the subway. The best thing about the resort is the great view from the 33rd-floor deck. One could see the Chrysler Building and the United Nations building only a few blocks away.

We had a nice conversation with a couple from Vancouver, BC, Canada. They have a daughter graduating from high school and two younger sons. They had only recently recovered from COVID, but they had mild cases.

Wet cushions

The next morning, we were back on the 33rd floor. It had rained overnight, and I had quickly ascertained that the cushions outdoors were too wet to sit on. But my sister needed to check this out herself; ah, the cushions were tied down. (By 11 a.m.. they had dried out.)

While sitting in the lounge inside, I mentioned to the two women sitting across from me that my sister on the deck would be singing at Carnegie Hall that night.

I had recommended a video that Kelly had linked to, a clip from the Amadeus movie that was wonderfully enhanced. I showed it to Leslie later, and she loved it.

This led to a conversation about the white cliffs of Dover, which Leslie had recently seen in person on a Dave Koz cruise that Rebecca Jade, her daughter, had performed on. This led to conversations about Vera Lynn (who had sung the song) to Johnny Cash (who had sung the Vera Lynn standard We’ll Meet Again.)

Somehow, we talked about the Green Family Singers and especially the song Hole In The Bucket. By this point, the husband of one of the women had joined us, and he recorded us performing a snippet of it. (We hadn’t had a chance to warm up the vocal cords. Just sayin’.) One of the women was so enamored by my sister that she gave her a big hug.

This is how I spent part of my time seeing my sister Leslie for the first time since the aftermath of her bicycle accident in the summer of 2018. This was a much more pleasant occasion.

BTW, this is Leslie’s XXth birthday. More on this narrative in three days.

Pictures at an Exhibition

Modest Mussorgsky

The Final JEOPARDY on April 29, 2022, was in the category MUSICAL INSPIRATIONS. “‘Tuileries’ and ‘The Great Gate of Kiev’ were 2 of the artworks that inspired this classical work completed in 1874.” Only the defending champion got it correct. What is Pictures at an Exhibition? Yes, I knew that one.

I have at least two versions of this piece. One on the NAXOS label notes that the suite was “a tribute to the versatile Viktor Hartmann,” who was an architect, among other things. THAT I was not aware of. Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839-1881) wrote the piece for piano in 1874. But it did not gain its prominence in the classical canon until Maurice Ravel’s 1922 adaptation for a full symphony.

As the Wikipedia page shows, it is a 10-movement piece, interrupted by various forms of a Promenade. The first Promenade is described from notes by Vladimir Stasov, an influential critic, who likely introduced Mussorgsky to Hartmann. “In this piece Mussorgsky depicts himself ‘roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly in order to come close to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.'”

LISTEN

Philadelphia Orchestra, conducted by Eugene Ormandy
Chicago Symphony Orchestra live, conducted by Georg Solti
Ukrainian Radio Symphony Orchestra with some vocals, though they are mixed down so low that they are nearly inaudible
Sergui Celibidache – this is a slower take than many

The NAXOS recording I have is from the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. I could not find the entire piece online. But you can hear the stirring finale, The Great Gate of Kiev, which has always made me emotional.

The FIRST LP I owned of Pictures at an Exhibition, though, was by Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, described as incorporating “elements of progressive rock, jazz, and folk music (1971).” The lyrics were by Greg Lake.

Note: my spellcheck wants to spell Kiev as Kyiv. I’m guessing that was a recent adaptation.

CDTA’s Purple BusPlus v. NIMBY

neighborhood

This is one of those topics I would have put in my Times Union blog. But alas, it’s gone. Still, you folks not in Albany, NY, might find it interesting if something like it comes to your neck of the woods.

The Capital District Transportation Authority is currently building the Bus Rapid Transit/Purple BusPlus Line, which will run more frequently and make fewer stops. It will connect Crossgates Mall, UAlbany, Harriman, and Downtown Albany, mostly along Western Ave. it will be funded with federal money.

Recently, I signed a petition supporting the bus stop at the corner of Colonial Avenue/Eileen Street and Western Avenue. The petitioners believe the proposal will:
● Reduce traffic on Western Avenue, which can be quite congested.
● Provide better and higher quality access to transit in the neighborhood, potentially enabling many drivers to transition to public transportation. Sidebar: parking in downtown Albany is sparse and expensive.
● Make a busy intersection more pedestrian and cyclist friendly, something I always favor.
● Be a great asset for the neighborhood students relying on buses to get to North Albany Middle School and Albany High School.

The planned stop will be lighted and sheltered, with improved pedestrian access/crosswalks/beg buttons and heated sidewalks to melt snow and ice in winter. CDTA has committed to using it for tripper buses to bring kids to school.

Naysayers

A counterproposal from a few neighbors suggested relocating the stop to Brevator, where Western crosses over Route 85. That intersection has comparably little housing north of Western and has far fewer residents nearby. “Relocating the stops to this less centralized street will increase walking time to the stop and make it more challenging for residents to take advantage of the route.

“Looking at the proposed purple line from the CDTA website, the distances between Allen St. and Colonial (0.6 mi) and the distance between Colonial and the East Harriman Campus stop (0.6 mi) are already at the upper end of the distance that CDTA prefers between its BRT/BusPlus stops.

“If a stop is placed at Brevator instead of Eileen and Colonial,” which are central to the neighborhoods, “the distance between the two stops will be 0.8 mi, which is a very long walk for those who live between those streets; let alone those who have to walk a couple of blocks just to get to Western.”

I miss not being in the TU because I could point out the newspaper’s shortcomings in its article. It didn’t point out the benefit to school children or the university. Instead, it focused on the fervor of the discussion at a recent city hall meeting rather than the substance.

I figure I should bug CDTA, my city council member, my state assemblyperson, and anyone else I can think of.

The reunions and the black eye

sense of humor

We’ll get to the black eye soon enough.

Saturday through Monday, the weekend after Independence Day, my wife, my mother-in-law, and I went to see folks in the Binghamton, NY, area.

Saturday night, we first saw a cousin of my wife’s and her husband. They couldn’t make the Olin reunion. We talked about whether their property was actually… haunted? They made a good circumstantial case for it.

Sunday morning, we saw a bridesmaid at our wedding; we were in her wedding with her husband of 20 years. In November 2021, we rendezvoused with them in Oneonta, roughly halfway between Albany and Binghamton. But before that, it had been years. The guy had a new job where he finally felt appreciated; his previous workplace sucketh mightily, something I know about.

Sunday afternoon, we had the Olin reunion. These are my MIL’s people, whose genealogy goes back to the late 17th century in the US. I’ve described it briefly here. (There’s a cute pic of my kid from a decade ago; just noting.)

After the reunion, one of my oldest friends, Carol, who I’ve known since before my wife Carol was born, came to the reunion site. She met my MIL, and then MIL and my wife left while my friend Carol and I talked for about three hours about everything before she dropped me off at the hotel.

What about the black eye?

Yeah, right. The Friday morning before the reunion, my wife announced that she would go for a walk for about a half hour. Great, I’ll check my email and maybe start a blog post. Less than 20 minutes later, she was back. She had bruises on her knees, knuckles, and face.

She had been talking to a neighbor about a cat. As she walked away, she turned back to say goodbye and tripped over an uneven slab of a sidewalk two doors down from our house. Her sunglasses broke; I’m not sure if they were the cause of the black eye under her right eye, the cut on her right cheek, or both. Regardless, I got her some ice, as our daughter and I helped patch her up.

Eventually, she went to the local urgent care folks. They decided stitches were not warranted but did more cleaning up. She also got a tetanus shot since she couldn’t remember the last time she had gotten one.

The interesting thing about black eyes is that they go through colorful phases. Initially black and blue, with a hint of red, they morph into shades of green, gray, and yellow.

The one thing that really bugged me about the weekend mentioned above is that no fewer than five people “joked” about me giving my wife a black eye. “Did you give her a black eye?” or the like. The first time, I groaned. The subsequent times, I’d say, “That’s two.” “That’s three…”

Here’s the thing. I was CERTAIN – should have bet money on it – that someone would say that, even though, or probably BECAUSE they knew I had not, and would not hit my wife in the face. Person #5 tried to explain that there’s such a problem with domestic violence in this country. Yes. I. Know. That. This is why it irritated me so.

Solidarity

The Thursday morning after the reunions, I walked into my office and tripped over the suitcase I had not yet fully unpacked. I hit my chin, cut my right pinkie finger, banged my left wrist, and scraped my right arm. We then had matching bruises on our right knees. That afternoon, at a birthday party, time #6 of “What did you do to your wife?”

Some people GOT my irritation. Friend Carol did. The adult daughter of the birthday celebrant got it. And I appreciated that.

A person at the birthday party asked me if I’ve always had such a good sense of humor, a question I had no idea how to answer. But there are some things I just don’t find funny at all.