Ramblin' with Roger

Expedition, metaphor, universe, 4635

103 is a prime number

More prompts.

You are asked to join on an expedition. Where are you going? Why did they ask you to join?

First off, is the word “on” necessary in the prompt? I don’t think so, and neither does Grammarly.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, expedition. Going to every Major League Baseball stadium in the same season to ascertain how difficult it would be to get to them via mass transit. For instance, I know I can get to Yankee Stadium via the B, D, or 4 subway lines.

But the last time I went there, my friend and I took the Metro North from Poughkeepsie, which gets you pretty darn close to the stadium as well. I’ve taken the #7 subway to see the Mets.

Similarly, I took Amtrak from San Diego to Anaheim, and the Angels’ stadium was not far away at all. Most of the other games I PROBABLY took by local mass transit: Boston, Chicago Cubs, Oakland, San Diego, and the now-defunct stadiums in Atlanta, Detroit, Houston, and Montreal.

The reason they want me is that I can navigate local and intercity mass transit surprisingly well.

Also

Invent a new metaphor.

“His mind is a Doanish conundrum.” Hey, I understand it. At least one other person gets it. That’s enough.

You stepped into an alternative universe. One thing here is different here. Explain.

It would be a place that would actually follow the Golden Rule. It is common in many places in this universe, but not often adhered to. This would mean making food, clothing, shelter, healthcare accessible to all who need it, a reasonable framework so that all could have the opportunity to thrive.

You have retrieved exactly 4,635 fallen leaves. Why?

Obviously, so that I can put them in 103 piles of 45 leaves. Or 309 piles of 15 leaves. Maybe 515 piles of 9 leaves. Perhaps 927 piles of 5 leaves. But definitely NOT 1545 piles of 3 leaves, because that would be silly.

The Call of Wisdom (Proverbs 1)

Big Lies

At my church yesterday, the liturgical Old Testament lesson was Proverbs 1:20-33. It describes a personified Wisdom, and, not so incidentally, as a woman.

The New Revised Stand Version (NRSV) reads, in part:

Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares, she raises her voice.
At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple?”

But there is a Bible translation called The Message, by Peterson. It was the preferred translation by my late friend Keith Barber.

This take is far more pointed:

Lady Wisdom goes out in the street and shouts. At the town center, she makes her speech. In the middle of the traffic, she takes her stand. At the busiest corner she calls out:

“Simpletons! How long will you wallow in ignorance? Cynics! How long will you feed your cynicism? Idiots! How long will you refuse to learn?”

The birth of the Big Lie

And it feels like she’s addressing, oh EVERYTHING that is happening. Mark Evanier pointed to an essay by Lucian K. Truscott IV, and quotes this section:

“The legacy 9/11 has left us is that there is no common set of facts we can agree on about anything: Not about the COVID pandemic and masks and vaccines; not about the climate change that has killed hundreds and left town after town burned to the ground or underwater and destroyed by tornadoes and hurricanes.

“We cannot agree that votes counted amount to elections won or lost. We cannot even agree on the common good of vaccines that will save us, that science is worth studying, that learned experts are worth listening to.”

As a librarian who tries to find facts for people, this blatant disregard for truth has continually made me, at first, angry, but ultimately very, very sad. And I don’t know what to do about it.

Proverbs 1 (Peterson):

What if catastrophe strikes and there’s nothing to show for your life but rubble and ashes? You’ll need me then. You’ll call for me, but don’t expect an answer. No matter how hard you look, you won’t find me…

Don’t you see what happens, you simpletons, you idiots? Carelessness kills; complacency is murder. First, pay attention to me, and then relax. Now you can take it easy-you’re in good hands.

Unisex restrooms: a matter of time

“backing up the flow”

Unisex Restroom Sign I get reminded in occasional news stories and the random Quora question that a great many people still think a lot about unisex restrooms. I should note that ALL the bathrooms in my house are unisex, and this has not led to any particular distress.

As for public toilets, there was a specific event from my past that has informed my opinion. A bunch of us were traveling on two or three couple charted buses from New Paltz, NY (about halfway between Albany and NYC) and Washington, DC. It was going to an antiwar rally in 1972 or maybe 1973.

We stopped somewhere in southern New Jersey or perhaps Maryland or Delaware to get something to eat and stop at the restrooms. As is usually the case, the men’s room line was short to non-existent, whereas the women’s room line was getting longer by the minute. We had a finite amount of time before the buses had to leave.

Some women, a handful at first, but eventually at least a couple dozen, decided they should use the line for the men’s room. While I was momentarily startled, I realized it made perfect sense.

Inequity

When, pre-COVID, I went to the Palace Theatre in Albany, Proctors Theatre in Schenectady, or a number of other venues, I’m tempted to encourage the women to storm the men’s room. I have not (yet) but I’m on the verge.

From The Conversation: “Studies show men take an average of 60 seconds in a toilet and women take 90 seconds – that’s 50% longer. If there are the same number of toilets for males and females, this will result in a bottleneck, backing up the flow in and out of the facilities.”

And there are other reasons, such as women actually washing their hands more frequently. “In Hong Kong, building regulations now specify there must be 1.6 female toilets for every one male toilet in public places.” I expect it should be more like two-to-one.

In my church, the large single-person facility is unisex. There’s also a women’s room on the first floor. There are men’s and women’s rooms on the second floor as well. With the changing understanding of gender, this is a good start.

I liked this

Since we still have gender-specific bathrooms, one needs to appreciate the victories for common sense and privacy. Back in August, an Illinois state appellate court ruled Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. violated state anti-bias law by denying a transgender woman employee access to the women’s bathroom. Hobby Lobby v. Sommerville, Ill. App. Ct., 2d Dist., No. 2-19-0362, 8/13/21.

The court said. “The only reason that Meggan Sommerville is barred from using the women’s bathroom is that she is a transgender woman, unlike the other women (at least, as far as Hobby Lobby knows.)”

When New York Had Her Heart Broke

I was planning a flight to a conference

When my daughter was in middle school five years ago, she had a homework assignment to interview an adult about 9/11 and she got to transcribe the answers. I was the interviewee.

1. Where were you when the attacks occurred?

In my offices in downtown Albany. [I was planning a flight to a conference in Dallas scheduled to start the next day. It was quickly canceled. One of the planes that crashed into one of the towers was in Albany air space]

2. How did you find out about the attacks?

Somebody in another office across the hallwas watching it on TV.

3. What were your first feelings/emotions when you heard about the attacks?

Well, when the first plane crashed into the building, I thought it was an accident. When the second plane hit, I knew it was a siege.

4. Did you know anyone in the Towers, Pentagon, or one of the planes? If yes, did they survive?

I knew one guy. Met him at a conference two or three times. I didn’t know him well, but a nice guy, and very helpful. He was in one of the buildings. He did not survive.

looking back

5. Do you “relive” the feelings you felt when the attacks actually happened when you see videos or read articles? Explain how it made you feel.

Right afterward, I did watch a lot of TV, over and over. {See below.] Now it seems when I see pictures of the burning towers, it still reminds me of the day. If I watch the videos, it reminds me, but I tend not to watch videos if I can help it. [What I still remember was just how beautiful the day was before the attacks.]

6. What aspects (parts) of American life do you think we changed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks?

I think, in the short term, there were a lot of people coming together. In the long term, I think people got a whole lot more paranoid, and rightly so. We lost a lot of unity when we decided unnecessarily to go to war in Iraq.

[I’ve written a lot more in the past about the so-called USA PATRIOT Act and Islamaphobia, and lots of other topics. This is enough for today, except…}

Mark Evanier recently wrote about people who may be too young to remember: “Thanks to the Internet and its hoarders, there are hundreds of places where you can download or just watch the news coverage from that day. Here’s one of many. Pick out a channel and watch its broadcast from just before the reports of the first plane hitting the North Tower until you’ve had enough. That was how most of us experienced it that morning…staring at the screen.” Including me.

John Hiatt: When New York Had Her Heart Broke –

Creedence Clearwater Revival is #2

Tommy Roe, Henry Mancini

An old friend, and music professional, noted that when an artist’s song stalls at #2, they take a certain amount of grief. I replied, “Unless they’re Creedence Clearwater Revival. They had 5 or 6 #2 songs but never had a #1.”

My friend laughed because she knows well it’s just the kind of arcane knowledge stuck somewhere in my brain, just waiting to bubble up.

Here are the CCR songs that went to #2 on the Billboard pop charts, and the songs that kept them from the top slot.

Proud Mary
First charted on January 25, 1969
Hit #2 on March 1, 1969
Kept out of the #1 slot: first by Everyday People – Sly and the Family Stone in their fourth and final week at the top
THEN, on March 8 and 15, CCR was still #2, kept out of the top by Dizzy – Tommy Roe for two weeks in a row

Bad Moon Rising
First charted on May 3, 1969
Hit #2 on June 28, 1969
Kept out of the #1 slot by Love Theme from Romeo and Juliet – Henry Mancini

Green River
First charted August 2, 1969
Hit #2 on September 27, 1969
Kept out of the #1 slot by Sugar Sugar – The Archies
The Archies spent 4 weeks at #1, blocking CCR in the song’s second week, and Jean – Oliver in weeks 3 and 4.

Double-sided hit

Travelin’ Band/ Who Will Stop The Rain
First charted January 31, 1970
Hit #2 on March 7, 1970, and again on March 14, 1970.
Kept out of the #1 slot by Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon and Garfunkel in its second and third weeks at the top. In the S/G week 4 reign, it stopped The Rapper – The Jaggerz from reaching #1. In weeks 5 and 6, it even temporarily blocked Let It Be – The Beatles, before the Fab’s single finally broke through

Lookin’ Out My Back Door
First charted August 8, 1970
Hit #2 on October 3, 1970
Kept out of the #1 slot by Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross, in her third and final week at the top.

There’s no shame in being blocked from the top slot by Paul and Artie or Diana or Sly. And The Archies were a commercial force, even if they were cartoon characters.