birthday Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Pope Leo XIV is 70

born Robert Francis Prevost

I have been fascinated by the fascination with Pope Leo XIV, the first American pontiff. Even though I’m endlessly fascinated by the papacy and even watched the movie Conclave early in its release, I did not foresee that Cardinal Robert Prevost of Illinois and Peru would be selected.

Here are some of the analyses I’ve read. He’s the first Augustinian pope. Noblemen, enslaved people, freedom fighters, slaveholders: what the complex family tree reveals. The DC Report on the issues as of his ascendency. He studied under a pioneer in Jewish-Catholic relations, the Rev. John T. Pawlikowski, when he attended seminary in Chicago.

From Catholic Social Teaching in Action (CAPP-USA): “His chosen name puts Him in a particularly close relationship with the Social Doctrine of the Church and our Foundation’s activities at a time when the Church is called upon to provide hope and moral leadership in a world of divisions, conflicts, and disorder.”

Is he hiding his light under a bushel? Lost in translation: Should US-born Pope Leo XIV speak in English more often? When he “praised migrants on July 25 amid… mass deportation policies, causing unrest in Southern California and throughout the country, few Americans knew what he was saying. Until his comments were translated into English.”

But the remarks WERE translated, and quickly. Still, “there are an estimated 1.5 billion English speakers in the world, compared to 68 million Italian speakers… Like his predecessor, Leo has preferred to speak Italian in public settings. “

At least early on, “He is keeping his cards close to his chest.” The Augustinian emphasis on unity, listening, community, and collaboration appears to guide the new pontiff. Still, he has condemned the brutality of the Gaza war.

It matters little, so far.

The fact that he’s from the Chicago area and roots for the baseball Chicago White Sox has won over most Americans. He’s getting unsolicited deliveries from Windy City pizzerias.

“‘Our new pope has aura’ read one comment on a Tik Tok video about the newly elected pope.

“‘I’m an atheist and I started liking this guy,’ wrote another user.

“And with tens of thousands of spectators gathered in front of the Vatican with social media posts, reporters’ notebooks, and vlogging cameras in hand, awaiting the Conclave’s decision, Pope Leo XIV has already gone viral.

“‘As the first-ever pope born in the United States, Leo has especially garnered attention among U.S. spectators. While the number of religious folks in the country has consistently dropped over the past couple of decades, it seems the Conclave revealed an underlying interest in religion — even among the nonreligious.'”

At the end of July, he gave content to Catholic Digital Missionaries and Influencers (!). Then, in early August, he held a Youth Mass, telling the gathered, in English, “The Lord is gently knocking at the window of your soul.” He told a million Catholic youths they were a sign that a “different world is possible.” He is a rock star!

So it is not surprising that Leo has made Carlo Acutis the first millennial saint, although it should be noted that if Francis had lived long enough, he would have elevated him.

How long will the glow last? I have no idea. But I can wish Pope Leo XIV a happy birthday.

Marcia: my niece’s mother

Mecklenburg County

Last December, I received a notification from Ancestry asking whether this person named Marcia was my niece’s mother. Well, yes. I found it really funny that it didn’t ask me whether Marcia was my sister, which she is, as well as Alexandria’s mom.

The site gave me a lovely color picture of her graduating from high school in Charlotte, NC, in the ’70s. However, I can’t show you that one because it’s linked to many other people’s pictures with their names. So, it won’t allow me to show you the individual photo. Instead, I share another picture from around that same time.

I was always jealous of her ‘fro. I could never grow one like that. In fact, my hair started receding around the time of this picture or probably even earlier.

Interestingly, there is a Marcia Green, who graduated from Binghamton Central High School, my alma mater, in 1978. She is NOT my sister.

NC

It was 50 years ago last year that my parents and Marcia moved to Charlotte, NC, from Johnson City, NY, near Binghamton and in Broome County. My father went south first, Marcia, and then my mother.

Marcia had a different high school experience than our sister Leslie and me. She attended Johnson City High School briefly and then graduated from a school in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina.

When we have conversations on our Sunday ZOOM calls, we naturally have many similarities from growing up as a base of experience. But Leslie and I both attended Binghamton Central for three years, though she spent ninth grade at West Junior High School after they closed my K to 9 schools, Daniel S. Dickinson.

One of my random favorite thoughts is that I once sang for Marcia’s kindergarten class at Dickinson, though I’m not sure how that happened. Her teacher was Mrs. Burroughs, whereas Miss Cady taught Leslie and me.

Happy birthday, Marcia!

Writer/artist Steve Bissette is 70

more than Swamp Thing

I first met writer/artist Steve Bissette in the backroom at FantaCo Enterprises, 21 Central Ave., in Albany, NY, probably in 1987. Steve had come from Vermont to talk with Tom about contributing to the comic book Gore Shriek. I worked primarily on shipping the publications and mail orders.

I tried to be cool because I didn’t want to appear like a fanboy. “Oh, I love your Swamp Thing!” even though I did love his Swamp Thing. He also does some great dinosaurs.

We developed an easy rapport, partly because of his genial nature and because I was impressed by his intellect. He has a historian’s and librarian’s mind.

Steve showed up at FantaCo maybe a half dozen times before I left the company in November 1988. He also worked on a horror magazine called Deep Red, founded by the late Chas Balun (d. 2009), who was as wonderful as Steve said.

I lost track of Steve for a bit, but I started regularly commenting on his blog around 2008. Then, I would link to posts Steve wrote in my blog. I found over 100 references to Bissette, some of which were comments on his Facebook pages.

“If you work in a brick-and-mortar retail establishment, and if you tell me when I ask if you have something that I can only get it online, then you have lost me forever as a customer at said brick-and-mortar retail establishment.” I quoted that verbatim because I agreed with the sentiment.

“I always thought Bob Marley HAD to have seen or heard the BANANA SPLITS theme. Compare Bob’s ‘Buffalo Soldiers’ riff; —c’mon, don’tcha think so, mon?” I had never given any thought before, but he may be right.

IP

His thoughts on intellectual property tended to align with mine.: digital music; Disney/Marvel, SONY, and copyright overreach; can you defend public libraries and oppose file sharing?

Likewise, “As my buddy, Steve Bissette ranted – I think it regarded a policy by Adobe or Microsoft: ‘We can afford them once, and that’s what we can afford. We want to own almost all the things we buy. With few exceptions, we don’t wish to buy or support those things that do not wish to be purchased outright. We do not need more monthly bills. We do not wish to interact with you regularly for permission to be permitted to use what we purchase to use.”

His comments on boycotting Marvel/Disney movies, such as The Avengers, because of the treatment of Jack Kirby, HERE and HERE, informed my thoughts, which is why I didn’t see the Marvel movies from 2012 to 2019.

Stephen Bissette‘s open letter to DC on Facebook about NBC’s Constantine.
“My friend Steve’s dissection of DC is so deliciously understated and addresses the issue of common courtesy.”

He solved a movie mystery for me!

FantaCo

Our overlap with FantaCo is important. Even though Steve stopped working with Tom in the early 1990s, Steve and I need to ensure the record is straight. We spent some time trying to fix the FantaCo Wikipedia page, which contained much egregious misinformation, some of which has been rectified.

When I wrote about FantaCo, Steve would link to me, and vice versa, such as here.

Steve drew the cover of a book called Xerox Ferox, which debuted at the FantaCon 2013 in Albany. I got him, Tom, and several others to sign the book. Maybe I am a fanboy.

Bio

You can read his frankly meager Wikipedia page, but he worked on much more than is noted, some of which I own.

Steve attended the Kubert School and wrote the lovely To Joe, With Love: A Sad Farewell to the Man Who Opened All the Doors. He taught at the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction, VT, for about a decade and a half.

There are several Steve Bissette interviews I linked to:

You can NOW hear him blather [his word] with Robin at Inkstuds: PART 1 and PART 2.

Stephen R. Bissette: comics pioneer & evangelist from Radio New Zealand

Deconstructing Comics Podcast: #500 – Stephen Bissette: Comics, Movies, and Creator Credits.

The Stephen Bissette Shoot Interview! A Career-Spanning Chronicle!

Interview with Swamp Thing Comic Artist Stephen Bissette.

Stephen R Bissette – CCS instructor, monster-maker for Next Up Vermont.

Steve is one of 21 individuals selected to be inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Awards Hall of Fame for 2025.

He’s written a LOT of pieces, particularly in the past several years, some of which are catalogued here. However, this Facebook page is a better source of his recent work.

On his Facebook page, he’s mentioned life difficulties, such as the devastation caused by the Vermont flooding in 2011, HERE, HERE, and HERE, and other stuff, which I won’t go into.

For some birthday of mine, I swiped this from Steve’s Facebook page at least a decade ago – he’s a fellow March Piscean, of course – and I thought it both appropriate and true, though I’ve never seen the film:

“You think grown-ups have it all figured out? That’s just a hustle, kid. Grown-ups are making it up as they go along, just like you. You remember that, and you’ll do fine.”
– Lawrence Woolsey (John Goodman), MATINEE (1993)

Peace and joy and love to my friend Steve Bissette.

The blogger turns 72

eastern part of St. Lawrence County

The blogger turns 72. He likes the number 72; it’s 2 ^3 * 3 ^2. Who can’t love that, arithmetically speaking? So, of course, this means that 72 is divisible by 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 18, 24, and 36.

“New York State Route 72 (NY 72) is a 15.36-mile-long (24.72 km) state highway in the North Country of New York. The road is an east–west highway located entirely within the eastern part of St. Lawrence County.”

I will remember how old I am. Probably. Remembering 71 was hard, 70 was easy, and 73 will be terrible.

As I’ve hinted at, I’m working on a project. I won’t tell you what it is yet.

One of the things that fascinated me was that when we were working on getting the daughter to go to South Africa, we had this god-awful list of things to do before she could get her visa. I realized that it took up an inordinate amount of psychic energy. It wasn’t just the time it took directly. Other tasks fell by the wayside even when I wasn’t doing anything about the visa.

Double-billed

At the beginning of February, I had two different Medicare supplement policies in effect, which I couldn’t have. When I applied through an intermediary, I thought they would tell the earlier one that I was no longer interested in using them. That was not the case, so money for both policies came from my checking account, making me feel very poor. I had to write a letter to the old company saying, “I don’t want you anymore. Give me back the two months of payments I made.”

There were bills I was late in paying. I was working on getting speakers for the Albany Public Library book reviews/author talks right up to the very last minute, and I hate doing that. Newspapers, which don’t take that long to read the newspapers, went untended.

So January was pretty much a bust in terms of what I wanted to achieve, but life is semi-normal – whatever the heck that means.

The picture I took on January 31st is a selfie, and I hate selfies. I despise them, particularly when I needed a haircut, but there was no time. I suppose I could take another one, but meh!

Grisham, Daniels, Grammer turn 70 in Feb ’25

Ferrer, Jobs, Gottfried

Here are some folks who turn 70 in February 2025, plus a few who did not make it.

Criminal lawyer-turned-author John Grisham (8th) has written a slew of legal thrillers. I haven’t read any of them, though I did see two of the nine movies made from his books, The Firm (1993) and A Time to Kill (1996).

But I’m most interested in his recent non-fiction book. “From a moral perspective, it is imperative for a society to face and correct injustice… We decided to write about and focus on the ten most astonishing cases, and publish them as Framed. There are hundreds of others.” Grisham wrote this with Jim McCloskey, “the godfather of the innocence movement.”

Jeff Daniels (19th) is an actor I’ve seen in many films, including Terms of Endearment, Purple Rose of Cairo, Heartburn, Speed, Pleasantville, The Hours, Because of Winn-Dixie, and The Martian.

He has also appeared on Broadway, most recently originating Atticus in the reimagined To Kill A Mockingbird. (I did not see him, but I did catch Richard Thomas in the touring show.)

“In 1991, Daniels founded a not-for-profit organization called The Purple Rose Theatre Company, which offers an attractive apprenticeship program for youngsters looking for a career in theatre.”

Kelsey Grammer (21st) is most notable for his two-decade-long portrayal of Dr. Frasier Crane in the hit series Cheers and its spin-off, Frasier. I watched virtually all of those episodes. The reboot of Frasier, which I had seen infrequently, recently concluded after a two-season run. He has also done a great deal of voice acting, most notably as Sideshow Bob on The Simpsons.

RIP

Then there were these folks that WOULD have been 70 had they made it to 2025.

Miguel Ferrer (7th) was an American actor who broke through after portraying Bob Morton in RoboCop. I knew him from the movies Traffic and The Manchurian Candidate, as well as the TV procedural Crossing Jordan. His parents were the performers José Ferrer and Rosemary Clooney. He died on January 19, 2017, from throat cancer at the age of 61.

College dropout Steve Jobs (24th) founded or co-founded Apple Inc., Pixar Animation Studios, and NeXT Inc. He was responsible for developing “the iMac, iPod, iTunes, iPad, and the iPhone, which ushered in a new era in the computer, music, and film industries.” Here’s all about Steve.

He died on October 5, 2011, from pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer at the age of 56.

Gilbert Gottfried (28th): While I saw him on several programs, including The Cosby Show and Beverly Hills Cop II, most know him for the voice: the wise-cracking parrot “Iago” in Aladdin (1992) and the AFLAC duck.

In the documentary Life, Animated (2016), about a child who learned to communicate by watching Disney films, the young man Owen had a fan club. He invited Gilbert to one of their events, and Gilbert gladly showed up.

He died on April 12, 2022, from recurrent ventricular tachycardia, complicated by type II myotonic dystrophy, at the age of 67.