Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!
Back in 2007, Sparky Duck at Philly Transplant took a crack at this meme aimed at those of us of a certain age. Now it’s your turn.
The Grown Up Meme, for Adults Only
1. Do you have a college degree?
Yes, a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY New Paltz (1977), and a Masters of Library Science from UAlbany (1992).
2. What was the amount of your last electric bill?
I want to say $235; it’s autopay and I’m too lazy to check.
3. Do you have life insurance?
Yes, which I took out some. My wife knows where the papers are, which is good.
4. Do you check your cholesterol on (at least) an annual basis?
Yes, just before my annual physical in October. My primary care physician is retiring at the end of 2026, alas. But I’m meeting my new one, who is also my wife’s PCP, in January.
5. Have you ever attended a high school reunion?
Yes. Mine for my 10th, 35th, 50th, and 55th. The class before mine’s 20th. My sister Leslie’s 45th and 50th; I know a lot of the “kids” from her class because they are the youngr sibs of some of my classmates.
6. Do you have a will or estate plan?
Yes, but only in the past decade or so, which was grossly irresponsible, given the fact that we had a minor child at the time.
I want my MTV
7. Do you remember when MTV played music videos?
Not only that, it shaped my musical tastes in the 1980s and early 1990s. In graduate school, I wrote a paper about how Michael Jackson made MTV what it was, and vice versa. From here:
“The former president of CBS Records, Walter Yetnikoff, remembered with scorn that MTV would not play “Billie Jean” or “Beat It” because it billed itself as a rock station.
“Looking back on that era, a 1991 Los Angeles Times article quoted MTV founder and then-CEO Robert Pittman as saying the channel’s format didn’t lend itself to other musical styles, including R&B and country. And Pittman accused his critics of attempting to impose their musical pluralism on the channel’s die-hard rock fans.
“Yetnikoff said he threatened to pull videos of his other artists unless MTV played Jackson’s videos.” Those other artists included Springsteen, Billy Joel, et al.
I was a sucker for videos like “Would I Lie to You” by Eurythmics, “Sledgehammer” by Peter Gabriel, and a bunch of songs from the book 60 Songs That Explain the ’90s. And, of course, I Wanna Be A Lifeguard by Albany’s own Blotto; the video appeared on MTV’s very first day, August 1, 1981, but I didn’t get my MTV for another year, because my cable carrier nixed it.
8. Is there a bottle of wine in your refrigerator?
No, but there’s a wine rack next to the refrigerator. Is there wine in it, or does it just have liquor? I’d have to go downstairs to see.
9. Have you been divorced?
Yes.
10. When you were 16, did you play music on vinyl, cassette, or CDs?
Vinyl. And I still have most of them, except for the ones purloined in the Great LP Theft of 1972.
Here’s a space oddity: David Bowie was only 69 years and two days old when he left us on January 10, 2016. That is not old at all, especially if you are a sexagenarian.