Ramblin' with Roger

The grumpy post

more alike

Every once in a while, I need to write a grumpy post. This is a piece about things that make me irritable. The parameters are not directly related to politics. However, I will argue that everything is politics.

ITEM: When there’s a health disaster of some sort, such as the E. coli outbreak in some McDonald’s in Colorado and surrounding areas, or Boeing having a series of mechanical difficulties, such as a door blowing off, there’s always that language. Lawyers probably wrote it. “We take safety seriously” or “Safety is our utmost concern.” I give McDonald’s a pass on their bad supply chain onions. But when Boeing says that, I laugh. Oh, please.

ITEM: I have heard the mantra, “We are more alike than we are different ” a lot this season, so much so that it has become a cliche. Nora O’Donnell says it frequently on the CBS Evening News. I suppose this saying is a dilution of a Maya Angelou quote: “We can learn to see each other and see ourselves in each other and recognize that human beings are more alike than we are unlike.”

The first version is a platitude that allows one to say we’re all the same under the skin while ignoring or denying the notion of racism, sexism, homophobia, and the like. The other says we can work at it; we must learn to see each other. These are not the same sentiments at all.

Related: James Baldwin noted, “We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.”

Not So Great

ITEM: A Facebook buddy wrote: “‘That’s a great question’ has become the de facto preamble to every response, in every interview, everywhere.” It’s not just interviews. It appears in a commercial for house gutter products in a faux Q&A situation.

Somebody told me a long time ago that when you say to one party, “That’s a great question,” and you don’t say that every single time, it suggests that those other people’s questions aren’t all that good. The truth is that generally speaking, almost none of these questions are all that particularly good, let alone great.

ITEM: My wife drove us through a grocery store parking lot in the proper lane. Somebody within a parking space started pulling out in front of us or into us, so my wife beeped her horn, ensuring we didn’t have a collision. The face of the other driver looked infuriated. After we went by, they came out behind us and lay on the horn. I don’t know why this bothers me, because bad drivers.

ITEM: I got this pin: “Young people are the solution, not the problem.” The former may be partly true, but it seems that the people who created the problem should help fix it.

When I went to Chautauqua in July 2024, environmentalist Bill McKibben talked about how old people can afford to get arrested more than young people because the consequences are less for them. They also have more money and political power.

This is JEOPARDY!

ITEM: In JEOPARDY! news: “The 2025 ToC will consist of 21 players, the top 20 champs from last April until December, and the winner of a 15-contestant Champions Wildcard. Also, like in past years, the ToC will immediately follow a Second Chance Competition for non-winners and a Wildcard for brief winners who didn’t make the cusp.”

Another Second-Chance thing? I got it when they did this during the writer’s strike. Now, it allows fewer people to get their chance on the Alex Trebek Stage.

ITEM: This sign is in front of 110 State St. in downtown Albany, NY, and I don’t see its purpose. If you carry many packages, does this mean you can’t use it because you’re not disabled? If I am using it, does this mean that I have to identify myself as disabled? It’s weird.

Lydster: the election

“You may need to grieve or scream”

My daughter texted me around 11:00 PM the evening of the election (November 5th) and asked me many questions about how the electoral process works regarding voter estimates. She wondered what would happen, and I said I had no clue. It was true, very true. The next morning around 6:30, she called on the landline, and she was upset. I was asleep, but her mother talked to her and made her feel better.

I know that she recognizes that some of her friends were feeling even worse than she was. They believe, not without cause, that the election results endangered their lives.

But her whole generation feels in peril because it seemed at the time, and even more so now, that the incoming administration will not be terribly responsive to climate change issues; a bit of an understatement, I suppose.

I’m unsure I found the right words for her because I’m still trying to find the correct words for myself. I muddle through, though it feels like walking through pea soup.

Rebecca Solnit

If I get a do-over, I will probably share these words with Rebecca Solnit. “They want you to feel powerless and to surrender and to let them trample everything, and you are not going to let them. You are not giving up, and neither am I. The fact that we cannot save everything does not mean we cannot save anything, and everything we can save is worth saving.

“You may need to grieve or scream or take time off, but you have a role no matter what, and right now good friends and good principles are worth gathering in. Remember what you love. Remember what loves you. Remember in this tide of hate what love is. The pain you feel is because of what you love.

“The Wobblies used to say, ‘Don’t mourn, organize,’ but you can do both at once, and you don’t have to organize right away in this moment of furious mourning. You can be heartbroken or furious or both at once; you can scream in your car or on a cliff; you can also get up tomorrow and water the flowerpots, call someone who’s upset, and check your equipment for going onward.

“A lot of us are going to come under direct attack, and a lot of us are going to resist by building solidarity and sanctuary. Gather up your resources, the metaphysical ones that are heart and soul and care, as well as the practical ones.”

Yeah, I probably should have said something like that. Or what Kellie Carter Jackson wrote to her kids: “I prepared my children for a Harris win. I did not prepare them for her loss.”

You Might Be Old

Selectric

Mark Evanier did one of those You Might Be Old If memes. But I think yes-or-no answers are somewhat limiting, so I decided to expand on some of these.

Used a rotary phone. Well, yes. I am fascinated by the fact that there were films to show one how to use a rotary phone 80 or more years ago. Now, there are videos showing us that current students don’t know how to use them.

Used a floppy disc. Yes, 5 1/4 and 3 1/2 inch.

I used a typewriter. I was a terrible typist—still am. When I was in student government at New Paltz in the mid-1970s, we had an IBM Selectric. The great thing about it was that it had “an internal correction feature…, intended to eliminate the need for typists to use cover-up tape, ‘white-out’ correction fluid, or typewriter erasers.” In the late 1980s, I had a Sears typewriter with minimal memory, which I thought was the greatest thing ever.

Taken pics with a film camera. I have at least twenty photo albums worth of pictures taken with a camera, plus a boxful of loose photos.

Right now!

Listened to music on a CD. As I write this, I’m listening to Magic by Bruce Springsteen. If I’m home, I play six to eight CDs per day.

Watched a movie on VHS. Yes, several. The first VHS tapes I bought were Being There and Groundhog Day.

Rented a movie from Blockbuster. Probably, but I have no strong recollection.

Learned cursive. Yes. I always thought the G in cursive was kind of boxy and ugly. And I’ve written it a lot.

Played an Atari, possibly at someone else’s house. I never owned one.

Sent or received a fax. When I first started working at the New York Small Business Development Center, there weren’t enough phone lines. So I shared a phone with the fax machine. So when my phone rang, I never knew whether it was a call for me or lots of facsimile noise.

Had a MySpace account. Maybe. I’m not sure.

Ordered from Columbia House. No. But I was a member of the Capitol Record Club circa 1966-1968. That’s where I bought most of my Beatles albums, plus LPs by Billy Strange, the Lovin’ Spoonful, Roger Miller, Bobbie Gentry, and the Hollyridge Strings.

Had an AOL address. I still have an AOL address. It’s sometimes used for two-step authentication.

Access the Internet via dial-up. Oh, yeah.

Jiminy Cricket

Used an encyclopedia. My parents bought us, but probably more for me, a set of the Encyclopedia Americana, plus a half dozen annual updates.

Used a phone book. Not only did I use it, but I read it. I used to know all of the area codes in the US and Canada. But it was easier then. The first digit was between 2 and 9, the second 0 or 1, and the third between 1 and 9.

Send a postcard. Yes, and I used to know how much it cost to send one.

Used a paper map. Yes, and I still prefer a paper map for most purposes. I find that GPS can occasionally be unreliable. For example, my wife and I were traveling to Cohoes in Albany County, and the GPS repeatedly told us to take an exit long before we needed to.

Owned a dictionary. I still do, and it’s less than six feet from where I’m sitting.

Written a cheque. I did it all the time. Now, I write about five per year if I can find them.

Uncurled a telephone cord. All of the time!

Sunday Stealing: Good Luck Charm

An American Family

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. The quiz is stolen from the League of Extraordinary Penpals.

Do you have a Good Luck Charm?

Oscar and Bellflower

What was the last song you listened to?

I listened to many albums a couple of days ago, but I don’t remember the order. I Ain’t Marching Anymore by Phil Ochs? Holiday by the BeeGees? Maybe it was the Rolling Stones’ I Am Waiting.

What is your favorite thing about the place you live?

Albany is the right size for me. I don’t want to live in a huge city, and I certainly don’t want to live out in the country or suburbs. A small/medium-sized city is just about right.

What is your earliest childhood memory?

I don’t think I remember this as much as I’ve seen a picture of it. My family had gone to the Catskill Game Farm in Catskill NY, from Binghamton when I was three and a half. There was a plastic or metallic pumpkin large enough for me to sit in, and there’s there’s a photograph of this somewhere.

If you could be any animal, what would you be?

A platypus because it would be so contrary to any logic, It’s a mammal and it lays eggs. I love that.

Trust

Who do you trust the most in your life?

Ostensibly, my wife, but I think there are things you trust some people in certain areas more than you trust other people. I have a couple of friends I’ve known since kindergarten and another I’ve known since the first day of college.

How many languages can you say “hello” in?

From this list, I know French, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, and German.

What is your favorite kind of weather?

Partly cloudy and 72 light breeze

How did you discover that Santa wasn’t real, and how old were you?

Santa Claus isn’t real?

What is the best feeling in the world?

Listening to familiar music with headphones. It tends to be classical music, such as Pictures at an Exhibition or 1812 Overture, or especially Bach’s Toccata and Fugue.

What is your favorite color?

Aquamarine

Is there a language you would love to learn?

All of them, especially Chinese and Spanish, but it is not my strength

How do you feel about reality TV?

Early on, I actually watched a few reality shows, such as An American Family, Queeer Eye for the Straight Guy, the first season of Survivor, and the first four seasons of The Real World. But I’ve long ago lost my taste for them.

Did you ever skip school when you were a kid?

Only to go to a couple of antiwar demonstrations

What is your least favorite food?

Kale. People telling me how good it is has not swayed me.

Songs that resonate

Neil Young

Many different factors create songs that resonate with me. I’m gonna touch on just a few of them here.

Tight vocal harmonies, especially by females, I find particularly affecting. The chorus of Telling Me Lies by the Trio – Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris – on the chorus gets to me. On a Carly Simon album, she, her sister Lucy, and Judy Collins sing The Fisherman’s Song.

Some time ago, I wrote about the inverted pedal point, yet I managed to forget my two favorite pop examples, both on the choruses: Maybe by Alison Krauss and Richard Thompson’s Dimming Of The Day; this version is by Bonnie Raitt.

I have a great affection for shared lead vocals. Sly and the Family Stone did it a lot, including on You Can Make It If You Try. The Norman Whitfield-produced Temptations were fond of it, starting their second #1 hit, I Can’t Get Next To You. The Jackson Five used it on ABC. Some artists gave the first vocals to others before taking over, such as You Are The Sunshine Of My Life by Stevie Wonder and 1999 by Prince.

Applause

Sometimes, I’m taken by the hand clap, such as Private Eyes by Hall & Oates and Where Did Our Love Go by the Supremes, both of which appear at this link of The Handclaps List, vol. 2. Also, Cinnamon Girl by Neil Young.

Of course, one of my favorite hooks is a great bass line. But there are so many of them it’s hard to pick. The first two that come to mind are Tell Me Something Good by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan and Keep On Running by the Spencer Davis Group featuring Steve Winwood.

Songs not controlled by the metronome please me. Two examples I’m thinking of are starting much slower than they finish. Do What You Want To by Billy Preston. I first heard the song in 1971 while visiting my old high school friend Steve when he was living in Poughkeepsie. You want the Apple version, not the A&M version, which is much more regulated. Another is When You Dance, I Can Really Love by Neil Young. My favorite thing to do is play each of these songs and then go back to the song at the beginning of the song to see just how much it had picked up the pace.