Tag: Ask Roger Anything

Ask Roger why he hates his cellphone

Ask Roger Anything

Ask Roger why he hates his cellphone. He hates it because he despises long text chains. He had been working on a project with four or five people, and they had to share a lot of information. 

But once the narrative exceeded his screen length, he totally lost focus on what was being conveyed. Moreover, he had difficulty retrieving specific information. 

He recently noted this to one of the participants. “I don’t see/perceive them well, so I can’t find information within them, and they gave me raging headaches. I am just better with email.

“I am old-fashioned (or just plain old) in that I generally use texts to say ‘I’ll be there in 15 minutes’ ot ‘Can we reschedule?'”

Moreover

Also, I was waiting for a callback from a good friend. I had the volume up to the maximum and STILL missed the call. About half an hour later, I saw their text, so I called them back. 

Somehow, I’ve taken pictures I didn’t want to take and sent audio messages to people I didn’t intend to. I can be such a Luddite.   

On the other hand, it lets me take silly pictures like this one. 

This is a preamble to my periodic request for you to Ask Roger Anything. The aforementioned project ate up a lot of his time, and still does occasionally. Your clever, or flippant, or insane questions are just what he needs to alter his focus for a bit. Because he is a noble sort – or so he has deluded himself into believing that he is- he will answer almost any question, no matter how off-the-wall, and in short order.

You can leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.

 

Allergies and Ask Roger Anything

in the contract

I thought I was sick. But then I decided the stuffy head/runny nose/cough/sneezing was probably allergies. It’s primarily because my daughter and I traveled to Charlotte, NC, in mid-May, and then to Prospect Park in Brooklyn TWICE in the first week of June.

They are, of course, south of Albany, NY. And, oh yeah, my daughter has similar symptoms. And I’ve been so busy/tired/loopy that I haven’t even written WHY we went to Brooklyn twice. 

When I told my Wordle buddy Matthew how I was feeling, he sent me a link to the song “Allergies,” a fairly obscure tune by Paul Simon, which had been running through my head as well. 

The ask

So I find it more efficient/lazier to ask y’all to Ask Roger Anything. Like the Sunday Stealing prompt, I generally find it easier to respond to prompts when I’m sick/tired/overwhelmed than to create complete sentences. 

If you would be so kind as to ask me whatever. Because it’s the contract, I will answer almost any question, no matter how off the wall. Moreover, I’m likely to respond fairly quickly, since the reserve of posts has been dwindling this month.
I would like to answer the Colbert Questionnaire – yes, I know that’s not how he spelled it – if someone were to ask. (Unsubtle hint.)

You can leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.

  

Concert survey

Rebecca Jade

In the spirit of Ask Roger Anything, a concert survey. 

First concert: MAYBE Jonathan Edwards at SUNY New Paltz? Did I see Pete Seeger earlier? I THINK Billy Preston was slightly later, but I am unsure.

Last concert: The last pop concert would be the New Edition/Boyz II Men/Toni Braxton concert in the Boston Garden on February 15. But the last concert was on March 14, when my wife and I saw and heard  the Albany Symphony Orchestra play Francisco del Pino: Ritual; Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 4; and Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7.

Next concert: I haven’t bought tickets, but maybe Alison Krauss and Union Station, whom we saw in 2003.

Best concert: I’m convinced it was Talking Heads at SPAC, and seeing (finally!) the Stop Making Sense movie in 2025 codified that. But it could also be the Temptations at the Colonie Coliseum during the Reunion tour, both from back in the 1980s. 

Worst concert: Diana Krall in 2023.

Loudest concert: MxPx opened for No Doubt in Albany in 1997. The sheer constant audio assault was unnerving. 

MOSTEST

Seen the most:  This is a tricky question, because I’ve probably seen Pete Seeger more than two dozen times. Were they “concerts”? Mostly, no. His show at Page Hall in the UAlbany downtown campus in the early 1980s, and possibly his performance on the Clearwater. But most were at political rallies of some sort.

I MAY have seen Lucinda Williams thrice, two times in Albany and once at SPAC. Pete Droge, I MUST have seen at least thrice, once opening for Tom Petty and once (or twice) elsewhere in Albany. I definitely saw him in the Boston area the evening after I had taped my JEOPARDY appearance in September 1998.

But, I’m going to go with Rebecca Jade, whom I saw perform in San Diego in 2018, in Syracuse in 2023, and in Horseheads, near Elmira, NY, in August 2024. Additionally, I saw her perform on Dave Koz’s Christmas shows in 2021 and 2024.  Moreover, during COVID, she performed online more than a dozen times, both at home and with Peter Sprague. This doesn’t count her backup singing for Sheila E. in 2017 and 2019.

Most surprising: I saw Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, and Amos Lee in ALB in 2007. Lee and Costello sounded great; Dylan’s sound was muddy.

Wish I could’ve seen: The Rolling Stones and The Who, both were in town at different times.

Concert where the support act became huge:  I saw Seals and Crofts, November 12, 1971, in New York City, Boz Scaggs opening.

Act you would like to see still touring: n/a

Celebrating the Sestercentennial

also: Ask Roger Anything

Usually, for the beginning of spring, I ask you to Ask Roger Anything. You still may – I encourage it – but I also want to turn the tables a bit. What, if anything, are you doing to celebrate the sestercentennial of the United States? 

No, I hadn’t heard of the word before either. My spellcheck does NOT like it. As far as I know, the prefix is a Latin term meaning “two and a half.” It also has other definitions. I’ve been using semiquincentennial (half of five hundred years) or quartermillennial because I find it easier to use.

Anyway…

I remember the bicentennial in 1976 with much more enthusiasm than I have for this year’s model.  Reenactments and the Tall Ships were events I watched on television.

For 2026, the “United States Semiquincentennial Commission is the congressionally appointed body in charge of promoting and coordinating” the events. The calendar seems rather sparse, but maybe I missed something. There IS a Water Lantern Festival in Albany, NY on June 27. The New York State Museum in Albany will open a huge exhibit this summer to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

The process was a political football for a while. Then the politicization got  worse as FOTUS, in 2025, “created the White House Task Force on Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday to also promote and plan the events.” 

Daily Kos notes the UFC fights on the  White House South Lawn on June 14 and an Indy Car race around DC. Naturally, there will be a lot of Trump 250 merch available.

And yet…

At the point when I might be [might be? That’s understating it!] feeling discouraged, I heard a recommendation for a book. The Beginning Comes After the End: Notes on a World of Change by Rebecca Solnit. It “surveys a world that has changed dramatically since the year 1960. Despite the forces seeking to turn back the clock on history, change is not a possibility; it is an inevitability…

“While the white nationalist and authoritarian backlash drives individualism and isolation, this new world embraces antiracism, feminism, a more expansive understanding of gender, environmental thinking, scientific breakthroughs, and Indigenous and non-Western ideas, pointing toward a more interconnected, relational world.”

On The View, Ken Burns reiterates that his latest project, The American Revolution,  is his most important yet. It dissects how the internal conflicts of “all men are created equal” played out.  And, implicitly, still does.

I think I need to go to the next No Kings rally on March 28. 

Still, you CAN Ask Roger Anything
If you have a question for me, you may just Ask Roger Anything. I’ve yet to reject a query. You can test the limits of my tolerance. Moreover, I’ll likely answer it sooner rather than later.

You may leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.

Blog-specific edition of Ask Roger Anything

SCOTUS

This is the blog-specific edition of Ask Roger Anything. People have asked me general questions, sometimes in person, some via email or Facebook. I’ve often gotten them enough that I should address them.

One is: Why do I do the quizzes, notably Sunday Stealing? There are two basic reasons. One is that they are easy; I can do them quickly. I sort of free-associate when I’m writing, and I don’t have to fact-check them because they’re all from my own experience.

The other reason is that I tend to get more responses to them than to many of my other blog posts. And it’s not just from the people participating in the quiz but also from people who email me and say, “We’re following your posts.” I guess because they’re more relatable.

Another question is Why do I write about politics all the time? As I’ve said repeatedly, I hate talking about it. On the other hand, I don’t want people to think that the stuff that’s going down is OK. I don’t want my silence to signify consent to what Public Citizen calls the “unilaterally, unconstitutionally, and unlawfully dismantling the federal government — our government — from Cabinet-level departments… to smaller agencies that go largely unnoticed as they do the routine, unheralded work that makes for a functioning country.”

Math is everywhere

I had a great time drinking with a friend and their friend last month. We had this wonderful, weird conversation about why math is everywhere. I mentioned this question from Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, which was fun for those who like numbers and terrifying for those who don’t, such as contestants Helen Hunt and Daniel Bucatinsky. The $250,000 question:

“The judicial handshake is a US Supreme Court tradition in which all nine justices shake hands with each other once for a total of how many handshakes.”

The choices were 18, 25, 36, and 57.

The AI says: “You can find the answer by using the formula for triangular numbers, N * (N-1) / 2, where N is the number of people (9 in this case), so 9 * 8 / 2 = 36.” Well, yeah, but that’s too mathy. Since you don’t shake your own hand, one could add 8+7+6+5+4+3+2+1, which also equals 36.   

This is why figuring out fractions should be done with pie charts, or preferably, actual pies, instead of talking about multiplying the numerator and the denominator. (More pies, Kelly!)

The ask

If you have other queries, you can Ask Roger Anything. Roger loves to answer almost any question, no matter how absurd. He will respond in a few weeks. It takes time to be true and accurate! 

You can leave your questions in the comments section of this blog, in my email, referenced elsewhere on this blog, or on my Facebook page (Roger Owen Green); always look for the duck.