Ramblin' with Roger

R is for Roger, redux

I’d been a fan of Roger Moore since I watched him as Beau Maverick on the television show Maverick.

As I’ve undoubtedly noted, the name Roger comes from the Germanic roots meaning spear bearer, specifically “famous with the spear.”

When you think of the first name Roger, who are the first people you think of? (I mean besides me, of course.) That was the question in this segment of the TV show Family Feud; I’m sorry it is incomplete.

Here’s a list of celebrities whose first names are Roger. The ones that immediately came to mind are some I mentioned three-and-a-half years ago when I last did R is for Roger, plus these that I inexplicably left off:

Roger Clemens – in 24 seasons with the Boston Red Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, New York Yankees, and Houston Astros, he won the Cy Young as the best pitcher in his baseball league a record seven times and pitched a perfect game in 1994. He would have been a lock for the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013 except for allegations of him using performance-enhancing drugs.

Roger Federer – the tennis player from Switzerland had spent 237 consecutive, and at this writing, 302 total weeks at number 1 in the ranking and has won 17 Grand Slam singles titles. He’s considered by many to be the greatest player of all time.

Roger Staubach – in an 11-season career, all with the Dallas Cowboys, the quarterback out of the Naval Academy had a Hall of Fame career. I wasn’t much a Cowboys fan, since they were/are rivals with my New York Giants; nevertheless, I always liked him personally.

Sir Roger Moore – I’d been a fan since I watched him as Beau Maverick on the television show Maverick, then as Simon Templar in the TV series The Saint. But, of course, he’s best known as Bond, James Bond, in seven movies. See his other credits.

Roger Waters – he was a founder member of the rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist, vocalist, and principal songwriter. In the 1970s and 1980s, the album Dark Side of the Moon spent years on the charts; Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall were other hit albums. He has been performing The Wall all over the world without his former bandmates.

Roger B. Taney – he was the fifth Chief Justice of the United States (1836-1864), and the first Roman Catholic to sit on the Supreme Court. While he dealt with many other cases, I know him for just one: writing the majority opinion in Dred Scott v. Sanford (1857), that ruled that black people, who were considered inferior at the time the US Constitution was written, could not be considered citizens of the United States, whether slave or free.

Roger Williams – the theologian who left England, only to knock heads (figuratively) with the Puritans, and eventually founded the state of Rhode Island as a place of religious tolerance.

Roger Rabbit – he is the frantic, neurotic title cartoon character of the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The film also starred the live human Bob Hoskins, and Roger’s animated human wife Jessica, who is not bad; she’s just drawn that way.
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My review of the late Roger Ebert’s autobiography.

ABC Wednesday – Round 12

My mom’s first year as a mother

“I don’t know why you kids fight. You’re so lucky! I never had a brother or sister. If *I* had had a sibling, we would have gotten along.”

My sister Marcia sent me via Facebook a whole slew of photos at the end of March. I’d seen most of them at one point, but it had been years. They’re great to see.

This is a picture of my mom, with her eldest child, who is yours truly. It appears that she is filled with unbridled joy, which is lovely, of course. The thing is that I didn’t think of her in that way. I considered her a bit of a worrier.

Partly, I think this was a function of her working outside the home at a time when that was not the norm. Perhaps it was the thought of leaving her son, and, eventually, her two daughters with her somewhat crazy mother.

It was also, though, that she, as an only child, did not understand the fact that siblings have disagreements. Many times, she dragged out this particular speech: “I don’t know why you kids fight. You’re so lucky! I never had a brother or sister. If I had had a sibling, we would have gotten along.” I think she actually believed this. Of course, because she WAS an only, she had ZERO credibility with this logic. (My father was an only as well, but I never heard him say this.)

Still, I thought she was a pretty good mom, though I’m not convinced SHE thought so. She probably fretted, like many parents do (including me) about whether she had any idea about what she was doing.
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Happy Mother’s Day to all you moms, including my wife and my mother-in-law.

My favorite albums from 1961-1970: 50-26

Songs in Latin and French.

More of the SamuraiFrog-inspired madness shortly. You may find this article interesting: Many classic hits are secretly re-recorded. I remember buying a soul collection (3 CDs), and all but a half dozen tracks were by the original artists, but NOT the original tracks. Likewise with a Herman’s Hermits’ greatest hits collection. VERY disappointing when one discovers it; the ear knows.

50. Temptations: With A Lot O’ Soul (1967)
Usually, a Temptations album is under the direction of one producer, such as Smokey Robinson or Norman Whitfield. But this was a transitional time, which made the album more eclectic.

49. Beatles: White Album (1968)
Remember hearing it for the first time in the basement of the Unitarian church in Binghamton, NY.

48. Roberta Flack: Chapter Two (1970)
Three extraordinary songs out of the eight.

47. Doors: Waiting For The Sun (1968)
‘Hello, I Love You’ is the single, and the least interesting song on the album.

46. Cream: Goodbye (1969)
Album has three live songs, including the definitive version of ‘I’m So Glad’. It also features Badge, written by Clapton and George Harrison.

45. Janis Joplin: Pearl (1970)
Contains the posthumous #1 single Me and Bobby McGee. I was singing ‘Mercedes Benz’ at work around that time. and someone thought it was a Temptations song. Weird.

44. Aretha Franklin: Lady Soul (1968)
It was my sister’s album, so I played it less than it warranted.

43. Jefferson Airplane: Surrealistic Pillow (1967)
Their second album, with ‘White Rabbit.’

42. Neil Young: Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (1969)
Two very long songs, but also my second favorite Neil song, Cinnamon Girl.

41. Vanilla Fudge: Vanilla Fudge (1967)
Great covers of the Beatles, Supremes, Zombies, Sonny & Cher.

40. Led Zeppelin: III (1970)
The worst-selling LZ album. I liked it because it was more mellow.

39. Four Tops: Reach Out (1967)
I believe it was my sister’s album.

38. Temptations: Psychedelic Shack (1970)
That’s where it’s at.

Meet_the_supremes_1965 — **Cover of the 1965 reissue, which I still own.**

37. Supremes: Meet the Supremes (1962)
The first several singles from the former Primettes were commercial flops, but I enjoyed them, especially ‘Buttered Popcorn.’

36. Traffic: John Barleycorn Must Die (1970)
Was always ‘Glad’ to listen to this album.

35. Jefferson Airplane: Volunteers (1969)
Heavily political, but also has the lovely ‘Good Shepherd.’

34. Judy Collins: Who Knows Where The Time Goes (1968)
My grade school friend Lois gave this to me on my 16th birthday. She said apologetically, “I don’t know if you’ll like it; it’s kinda countryish.” Yes, there is a pedal steel guitar on a couple of songs, but I liked it very much, thank you.

33. Best of Joan Baez (1963)
After Joan made it big on Vanguard Records, a minor label put out this misleading title, which I wrote about.

32. King Crimson: In The Court Of The Crimson King (1969)
I was in a mall in Oneonta, NY a few years ago and heard some really irritating remake of ‘21st Century Schizoid Man,’ a song I loved. Used to play it as loud as the neighborhood would bear.

31. Steppenwolf: Steppenwolf (1968)
This album contains ‘Born To Be Wild’ and ‘The Pusher’, both of which would end up on the Easy Rider soundtrack, but it is ‘The Ostrich’ that was the highlight for me. I forgot that I used to have a feature on this blog called Underplayed Vinyl.

30. Diana Ross and the Supremes: Love Child (1968)
The last good Supremes album, with ‘Keep An Eye’ and ‘Honey Bee’ standouts for me.

29. Paul McCartney: McCartney (1970)
It was like a home recording, Paul, with Linda, noodling about. Yet created my favorite Macca song ever, ‘Maybe I’m Amazed.’

28. Santana: Abraxas (1970)
The segue from ‘Black Magic Woman to Gypsy Queen’ was, well, magical, then followed by ‘Oye Como Va’. The second album, and the first after Woodstock.

27. Hair: Original Broadway Cast Recording (1968)
Played this so much on vinyl that I knew where all the pops and skips were.

26. James Taylor: Sweet Baby James (1970)
There was a law passed in 1971 that every college dorm room in the US HAD to have Carole King’s Tapestry and this album.

The Health Report, Spring 2013

What ARE those thing that look like snow flurries or spent dandelions?

So what’s been going on with me since I got out of the hospital in mid-April, knowing my cardiovascular system was OK? Went to my primary care physician, where we kvetched together about public education. She’s going to schedule me for a stress test.

Meanwhile, I went to an orthopedic practice. My left knee has hurt on and off since I tore the meniscus in 1994. Now I have a touch of the bursitis. (My grandmother always used the definite article before all ailments, such as the arthritis, which she called the arthuritis; don’t think it had anything to do with Kiwis from Chicago.) The bursitis and the arthuritis, which I had in that knee before, sound like an old person’s ailments, but then I took a look at my date of birth on my passport, only to be surprised to find how old I really am! Got a cortisone shot in the knee, which helped some.

I’m supposed to go for physical therapy for my left elbow. Not sure if I have tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow – I don’t play either sport and certainly not with my left arm. The brace does aid me a bit.

Then I went to the gastroenterologist’s office in anticipation of getting a colonoscopy in late June. It’s been 10 years. Not incidentally, my wife gets one every five years because her brother John died of colon cancer at the age of 42 back in 2002.

While my wife and daughter went on a 4.5-mile CROP walk against hunger this past Sunday, I rode my bike nearby. It had been so cold and overcast for so long that I did not prepare properly and got a bit of sunburn on the top of my head, and even worse on the back of my hands, where the vitiligo is prominent; it has been red and itchy for days, and lotions aren’t helping.

Meanwhile, why is it that I’m so stuffed up? Could it be the stuff floating around here? And what ARE those things that look like snow flurries or spent dandelions? I decided to ask my Facebook friends. A couple of them said it was cottonwood, but Lynn Moss, a longtime reader of this blog, added: “It’s probably not the cottonwood that is causing your allergies, but something else coincidentally releasing pollen.” She even provided this video. Another said, “It is the pine pollen. Coincides with the release of cottonwood seeds in our area…” The picture above may or may not be the culprit, but someone sent it to me, so what the heck.
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Here’s some sage advice about the problems with self-diagnosis.

Those damn standardized tests

Someone lied to my child that she’ll otherwise flunk third grade, and this caused her undue stress, which really ticked me off.

There’s a columnist for the Metroland weekly newspaper, Miriam Axel-Lute, who wrote on her Facebook page the middle of last month: “Good luck to all the parents and kids who are refusing this crazy high stakes testing tomorrow. Stand strong.” My daughter had been stressing over these same tests, but I was unaware of this “opt-out” thing. I replied, “Damn test is ticking me off.” She then asked me and a few others: “Would you guys talk to a Metroland reporter about this? I’m going to be opinionated about it in my column next week, but I think they are also interested in maybe doing a reported news story.” Another guy said likewise, adding “Albany schools get enough unwarranted BS, and removing my kids from the mix will cause more.” True enough; if fewer than 95% of the kids take the test, the school could be taken over by the state, as I understand it.

This is how busy I am lately: I received a Google Alert on April 25 based on ‘Roger Green’. Usually, it’s some OTHER Roger Green, but in this case, it was the story for which I was interviewed by phone the previous week. Also in that issue: Miriam’s column on opting out.

I hope it’s clear that I believe my daughter would/will probably do well on the test. It’s just that someone lied to my child that she’ll otherwise flunk third grade, and this caused her undue stress, which really ticked me off. We HAVEN’T opted to opt out – yet – because it’s unclear what it would mean to my child. Would she sit in the classroom silently for 70 minutes at a time while others take the test? Would there be some type of retribution against her? Indeed, after the fact, I worried about participating in the article.

Also, my wife’s teaching schedule – she’s an iterant teacher of English as a Second Language – has been mightily disrupted. If I thought the end was worth it, I wouldn’t complain. But this No Child Left Behind/Race To the Top stuff, to my mind, is bogus.