Tag: Ask Roger Anything

If you can read this, Ask Roger Anything

I allow the reader to ARA, and R must respond, usually within the month, to the best of his/my ability. Obfuscation is allowed, but it’s not generally required.

questionAs you may know, I’ve had various technical difficulties with this blog over the past couple months. First, the site was down over six hours in January, a result of two plugins – Really Simple Cache and W3 Total Cache – clashing; I kept the latter.

Ever since then, however, I’ve had a different problem. It involves folks landing on the same page as they were on the LAST time they were there, even though I’ve updated the site daily. As a result, the number of visitors to the site has dropped by about 80%.

It probably would have shrunk to nothing had I not posted the specific link to my daily post on Facebook. This is disappointing, of course.

And time-consuming to boot, as I contacted various folks for advice. This back-of-the-blog stuff, which also involves emptying the spam folder, e.g., cuts into the time and joy for my front-of-the-blog thing, i.e., writing the posts. I only have about 75 to 90 minutes a day to work on the blog, usually half the first thing in the morning and the rest scattered throughout the day, such as the last 15 minutes of lunch.

I’ve decided to be sanguine about it. The posts exist. If/when I get the problem fixed, maybe people will find the pieces. And, as I keep telling myself, I started this thing almost 14 years ago for an audience of one.

For those of you who can read this, it’s time to Ask Roger ANYTHING. Masochist that I am, I allow the reader to ARA, and R must respond, usually within the month, to the best of his/my ability. Obfuscation is allowed, but it’s not generally required.

As always, you can leave any of your questions, no matter how obscure, in the comments section or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine, but you need to SAY so. E-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

Ask Arthur Anything; then Ask Roger Anything

Arthur Schenck

Arthur the AmeriNZ does his Ask Arthur Anything every year in the autumn. Wait, November is SPRING in New Zealand. I’m so confused.

Arthur’s a smart and interesting guy, and another old political science major to boot. So you can AAA. Then you can Ask Roger Anything. Heck, it can be the same questions; I’m not proud. (Note to Michael Rivest: that was a proper use of a semicolon.)

You can ask us both about our late parents. I already asked him about his favorite Republicans, and that’d be a fair question to ask of me. Ditto favorite composers (classical), artists (painters, sculptors, et al).

You can’t ask me about being a preacher’s kid, because I wasn’t one, but I can ask Arthur. Request that he explain the New Zealand parliamentary procedure, but my knowledge is extremely limited. Don’t ask him what it was like to grow up as a black kid in America.

I was thinking about this a LOT actually because of something I saw on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah the first week in December. Trevor went to South Africa to host an event honoring Nelson Mandela. He went back to the United States and developed laryngitis. So the correspondents spoke, sometimes saying they were Trevor, while Trevor sat beside them. The disconnect was very funny.

In case you’re new to this, you can AsK Roger ANYTHING. For reasons unknown, I must respond, usually within the month, to the best of my ability. I allow for obfuscation, but it’s not generally required.

As always, you can leave any of your questions, no matter how weird, in the comments section or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine, but you need to SAY so. E-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

Ask Roger Anything: Bernard Webb edition

Woman should not be confused with the much later John Lennon song with the same title,

questionAbout twice a month, I link to a bunch of articles. I’ve SAID that I would say more about them if I had enough time, but that’s not entirely true.

When I write anything, I need an angle, a POV that isn’t exactly the same as everyone else’s. I shan’t be posting, “I too think that murder is bad.” I mean, I DO think so, but it seems self-evident and not really adding to the conversation.

At some level, I think that’s why I gently follow Quora, in case I can answer a question, assuming the query isn’t so inane that it’s not worth the effort.

I’ve even corrected people on that platform. Someone asserted that the writing credits for A World Without Love, the #1 hit by Peter and Gordon, was attributed to the pseudonym Bernard Webb. No, it was Lennon–McCartney, though Paul was the writer.

On the other hand, Woman, not to be confused with the much later John Lennon song with the same title, WAS credited to Webb, “to see if the song would be a success without the Lennon–McCartney credit.” I did not need to look that up, BTW; the weird stuff that’s stuck in my brain…

Anyway, my Quora experience led me to the conclusion that y’all COULD ask me inane questions for Ask Roger Anything, such as… well, I won’t help you with that. Or you could have me explain what I was thinking when I included a particular link. Did I agree with it, or did I just think it was interesting?

By my self-imposed standard, I would be required to respond, generally within the month, to the best of my ability. Obfuscation is allowed, though, truth to tell, not used very often.

Per usual, you can leave any of your questions, either inane or cogent, below or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s OK, but you need to SAY so; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

Ask Roger Anything – well, not THAT

I SUPPOSE I don’t mean ANYTHING anything.

The limitations to what I shall, or shan’t, write in this blog is determined by some inner gauge. What I will write about myself has been increasingly not an issue, although I generally don’t indicate, “Hey, here I am in Times Square,” more as a matter of privacy and security than anything. This restriction insures that I will never be one with the zeitgeist, and I’m actually quite good with that.

But I seem not to be particularly concerned about paring my topics. My politics are what they are, and I don’t see them changing anytime soon. Indeed, writing about them helps define my feelings. It’s quite liberating.

Writing about others is trickier. The Daughter, I decided, I would tell her what I was going to write about her. Some stuff she actually WANTS me to post, such as the letter she wrote to the building contractor that our next-door neighbor used. If I mention I want to acknowledge how well she did in school, she rolls her eyes and sighs. But if she were to truly object, I wouldn’t let it see the light of day.

Every three months or so, I ask you all to Ask Roger Anything. I SUPPOSE I don’t mean ANYTHING anything, but, to date, you haven’t made that an issue. I AM curious what you have in mind. In fact, I’ve already received a couple questions.

When you ask anything of me, I am required by my internal code to respond, generally within the month, to the best of my ability. I have not had to use obfuscation very often, though it is allowed – my blog, my rules. You are indeed a polite people.

Per usual, you can leave your questions below or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine, but you need to SAY so; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

Ask Roger Anything: overthink my responses?

When you’re 65, you pretty much know you’re not going to hit 130

Interesting, at least to me: sometimes, when I ask y’all to ask Roger Anything, I really need your input on topics to write about. But it isn’t the case at present.

It’s partly because there’s a lot of political fodder. Surely it’s a function that, as I creep toward 70, there are more folks in the public eye turning three score and ten that I seem to think warrant commenting about.

My revived interest in genealogy will eventually pay dividends for this blog. But the looking can take a while and, as often as not, leads me down unexpected rabbit holes. Interesting and relevant, yes, but it doesn’t always translate to 350 words here.

I suppose mortality may play into this. I might be freer to write about things I might not have before. When you’re 65, you pretty much know you’re not going to hit 130, or even 120. And my eye doc’s assessment that my eyesight is deteriorating at a level “consistent” with my age means there are some old papers I better peruse and write about sooner rather than later.

Still, I openly welcome addressing what you might have on your mind. Among the reasons is that I tend not to overthink my responses, usually.

When you ask anything of me, I am required to respond, generally within the month, to the best of my ability. Obfuscation is allowed on my part, though I have not had to rely on it very often, much to my surprise. Maybe you are very polite folks.

Per the usuals, you can leave your questions below or on Facebook or Twitter; for the latter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck. If you prefer to remain anonymous, that’s fine, but you need to SAY so; you should e-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to remain unmentioned; otherwise, I’ll assume you want to be cited.

Ramblin' with Roger
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