Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing: Cookie Day

hamantaschen

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!

March 6 was National Oreo Cookie Day. So said Mary when she completed this meme, which she credited to Terri D (Your Friend from Florida), who used to host Wednesday Medley. So let’s take on these tasty questions!

National Oreo Cookie Day

1. Are you able to pass by a plate of cookies and not take one, or are you a bit of a “Cookie Monster”

Depends on the cookie. It would have to be “worth” the calories; an inferior cookie simply won’t do. For instance, I’ve had great black-and-white cookies, while others were quite inadequate.

I don’t like peanut butter, so I can always pass on those cookies. My daughter is allergic to peanut butter; I can usually smell and certainly taste peanut butter, so I became her tester.

2. Tell us about your favorite cookie. Have your tastes changed since you were a kid?

My favorite cookie is Grandma’s Oatmeal Raisin. I’m also fond of the Golden Oreo cookie. When I was a kid, I was a traditional Oreo cookie guy, but I also liked the Archway oatmeal, molasses, and sugar cookies. Are bar cookies, such as brownies, cookies? If so, then yes for them both then and now.

Tradition

I have an emotional attachment to hamentaschen. I was in a church play at my previous church, and I played the evil Haman. Purim just took place this past week.

3. Enquiring minds want to know if you are a dunker and, if so, do you dunk in milk, coffee, or tea?

Not a dunker. I do like to drink milk, or occasionally hot tea with cream, with my cookies.

4. It is that time of year, and they are selling them on every corner and in front of every store! Do you buy Girl Scout cookies, and if you do, which is your favorite?

I know a dad who is hawking his daughter’s GS cookies. I hadn’t purchased them in about a decade, but I’m likely to buy boxes of Thin Mints and Samoas.

5. Raw cookie dough. Yay or Nay?

Nay.

I will remember being 73

Dennis Rodman?

Last year, I noted that I would remember being 72, because 72 is cool. 2 cubed times 3 squared.

But I worried. Would I remember being 73? It’s a prime number. But I forgot that in the civilized world, one notes a date by day/month. And my natal day is 7-3.

I always felt that if I were a baseball player, I would want 73. Players traditionally like the lower numbers. The New York Times did an article in 2020 about the best players to wear every jersey number in baseball history. Tony Phillips, IF/OF, who only wore the number in 1997, played for both the Anaheim Angels and Chicago White Sox. “Phillips played for 18 seasons and exasperated pitchers during most of them. His eye at the plate was keen.” I barely remember him.

Here are the pro football players who wore 73. I recognize the names Larry Little, John Hannah, and Ralph Neely. They were offensive linemen, those large protectors of quarterbacks tasked with making holes in the defense so the running backs could run through.

On Sports Illustrated list of Best NBA Players by Jersey Number for #73 is the quirky Dennis Rodman, who famously also wore #91. “He became the only player in NBA history to wear No. 73 when he suited up for the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1998-99 season. He’s a five-time NBA champion, winning two as a ‘Bad Boy’ Piston and three with Jordan’s Bulls, and set an NBA record by leading the league in rebounding for seven straight seasons (1991-98).”

Since I don’t blog on my birthday, that’s it!

The Rest of ’66

Songs when I was 13

About 15 years ago, I went to a friend’s house and made a mixed CD of songs I dubbed The Rest of ’66. It was a homage to two LPs I own, The Best of ’66, put out by Columbia Records way back then.

Unfortunately, the CD tracking has deteriorated, so I decided to replicate it here. But there are 24 tracks, and I’m too old and lazy to do that. So I’m not linking to the songs that hit #1 on any Billboard chart, since I will link to them in July.

But before that, WHY 1966? Back in my FantaCo days in the 1980s, we would occasionally listen to WTRY radio. They would play oldies from 1955 to 1972, roughly. I realized they seemed to play about 30% of the songs I loved from that year, when I turned 13.

Don’t Mess With Bill – the Marvelettes. #3 for four weeks RB, #7 pop. I LOVE the bassline.

What’s Become Of The Brokenhearted – Jimmy Ruffin, #6 RB, #7 pop. I wrote about the Ruffin brothers, Jimmy, and the Temptations’ David.

Function at the Junction – Shorty Long, #43 RB, #97 pop

I’m skipping You Can’t Hurry Love – the Supremes

I See The Light – the Five Americans, #26 pop. I’d like to suggest I intentionally picked the group’s track fifth, but that would be a lie.

Little Girl – Syndicate of Sound, #8 pop

I’m skipping Wild Thing – the Troggs

Psychotic Reaction – The Count Five, #5 pop

Pushing Too Hard – the Seeds, #36 pop

STAX

You Don’t Know Like I Know – Sam and Dave, #7 RB, #90 pop

Time – Pozo-Seco Singers, #3 AC, #47 pop

I’m skipping Satisfaction – The Rolling Stones

Daydream– The Lovin’ Spoonful, #2 pop for two weeks. I got the LP from the Capitol Record Club; I still have it.

I’m skipping When a Man Loves a Woman – Percy Sledge

Nothing’s Too Good For My Baby – Stevie Wonder, #4 RB, #20 pop

Red Rubber Ball – the Cyrkle, #2 pop; song written by Paul Simon

River Deep, Mountain High – Ike and Tina Turner, #88 pop. This was a particularly disastrous commercial record produced by Phil Spector

You Better Run – the Rascals, #20 pop. This came out before the release of their second album, Collections, but doesn’t appear on an LP until their third album, Groovin’.

Background

I Saw Her Again – the Mamas and the Papas, #5 pop. I always had a great affection for this song. On the greatest-hits album, Farewell to the First Golden Era, the separation of this song was very weird. The Denny Doherty lead vocal was very muted, so you got to hear a lot of the background vocals, and I always hear that song that way in my mind. Also, the song’s intrigue predates the Fleetwood Mac drama surrounding Rumours.

Yellow Submarine – The Beatles. The single was #2 pop. This is a version from the Real Love EP (at 6:59), which answered a burning question. On the YS/Eleanor Rigby single, the last verse lyric is: “As we live a life of ease.” On the single, the line is echoed: “a life of ease.” But on my Revolver LP, the echoing didn’t start until the next line: “Every one of us (every one of us).” I learned that the mono version had the earlier echo and the stereo had the later one.

B-A-B-Y – Carla Thomas, #3 RB, #14 pop.

I’m skipping Knock On Wood – Eddie Floyd

Standing In The Shadows of Love – The Four Tops. #3 RB for two weeks, #6 pop

If I Were A Carpenter – Bobby Darin, #8 pop

February was long

beg button

One of my blogger buddies commented on how quickly February 2026 whizzed by. This was not my experience. I thought February was long. Very long.

A good part of it was the cold, especially the first weekend of the month. There were only two days in the first half when it reached freezing. But the real issue for me was that the snow from January 26 never really went away.

The City of Albany had a couple snow emergency days during which alternate-side parking was in effect in order to plow the streets. But the snow removal in many of the places I saw never got to the curbs. Some entities – the city, private contractors? – did some work on the sidewalks, but it was often almost impossible to cross the street.

There’s a bus stop in front of the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. But on February 3, I couldn’t get to the bus without mountain goating. So I walked to the Armory next door and carefully/nervously walked in the street towards the bus stop.

At some intersections, pedestrian push buttons or “beg buttons” are installed. Every article I read stated that they SHOULD be unnecessary because autos OUGHT to yield to pedestrians in most circumstances, and I agree in theory. Nevertheless, there are places in Albany that they are necessary, such as crossing Henry Johnson Boulevard as it it enters Washington Park. But I’ve seen, there and elsewhere in photos on Facebook, too much snow and ice to allow a person to reach the button.

My salvation

That is, unless one has a cane. I used my cane every day I left the house in February, to push beg buttons, steady myself through ice patches, etc. In front of our house, as I’ve complained for about a decade, our sidewalk puddles greatly because of an error in construction. So there was a small pond. Then it got very cold overnight and the puddle became an ice rink. Unfortunately, early in the morning of March 1, one of our new neighbors slipped and fell before we had a chance to treat the walkway. We felt terrible.

We have a composting area in the back of our backyard. Usually, we collect a containerful and then schlep it to the back 40. But the snow didn’t really melt. Finally, on February 28, I got irritated enough to pour TWO containers of the biodegradable product into a large plastic bag. Then I walked the product to the location, using the cane, of course.

The snow nearest our back fdoor was up to my knees. But when I got to where the in-ground pool used to be – there before we moved in – the snow was about half that height.

February was a busy month: church Gershwin concert, New Edition concert in Boston, two museum visits, being on a panel discussing the movie The Librarians, and talking to the media about my problem mail delivery. I hated having to cajole the government to do its job.

Ah, February 2025 also sucked in ALB.

But now it’s March! Even though it started with some snow, it’s supposed to be 50F/10C by the weekend! Of course, the WORST snowstorms in recorded Albany history were in mid-March, in 1888 (no, I don’t remember it!) and 1993 (I recall it well.)

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2026

starting with Luther

Nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2026 are out. One can vote for up to seven artists each day. Yes, it doesn’t much matter, but it entertains me. No, I don’t care if artist A or band B is “rock and roll.”

There are two guys, now deceased, neither of whom had been nominated before. Jeff Buckley drowned at the age of 30 in 1997. His father Tim died at 28 of a drug overdose. But Jeff singing the definitive version of Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah isn’t enough for me. I’m afraid NO.

By comparison, Luther Vandross, who died in 2005 at the age of 54, was a prolific arranger and producer, as well as singer and songwriter. He worked with David Bowie, Dionne Warwick, Janet Jackson, Mariah Carey, and most of the New Edition, among many others, starting in the 1970s. A definite YES (1).

YES to Joy Division/New Order (2) and Black Crowes (3), who have been nominated before. I have some JD; I understand the JD/NO pairing but it’s weird. There are two or three Black Crowes albums in my collection.

NO to Phil Collins, who is in with Genesis; I have never been fond of folks being inducted two or three times. especially when it blocks a spot for someone else. However, I like him well enough to have three of his solo albums. Last I checked, he had a huge (50,000) lead in the fan vote.

Is Forever

By the same logic YES to Wu-Tang Clan (4), not just for their collective work but their various spinoffs. They are worthy of a fictionalized bio series. The lawn sign Wu-Tang Is Forever has been a thing for over a half a decade. And they are touring in 2026. Sad news: the Wu-Tang Clan‘s Oliver “Power” Grant, 55, passed away from pancreatic cancer on Feb. 24, 2026.

Is one album worthy of induction? The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill is a critically acclaimed album, which I own. Yet I’m going with NO this time.

But I have one Sade album, yet she is a YES (5), in part because she’s the earlier act. Yes, I have an elder bias.

The fact that I have three of their albums makes INXS a YES (6).

I’ve admitted this before: I hate that Mariah Carey overuses her five-octave range. And also, she’s the queen of Christmas; feh. I have her greatest hits album, but NO.

I could not name an Iron Maiden song, and the group never stuck in my mind. They never made the pop charts, which is not a requirement to vote for them. Still, NO.

So, this leaves me with, in roughly chronological order, by when they first charted: Billy Idol, who has been nominated before, and who I voted for in past years; New Edition, who I recently saw; Melissa Etheridge – I have two of her albums; Oasis – I have the one album most people have; P!NK – someone burned me one of her CDs, and I liked it well enough; and Shakira, who I know mostly from the ending of Zootopia movies.

The 7th YES goes to New Edition, over Idol and Etheridge, based not only on the group’s success but also on the impact of the solo and BBD spinoffs. Call it recency bias.

Final thing: the Hall needs Estelle Axton!