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!
This week, we’re stealing from Jess Riley Writes. She puts a unique spin on the “desert island” concept by allowing us three choices in three categories.
The Desert Island Meme
You’re stranded alone on a desert island …
1) Which three BOOKS could you read over and over again?
One would be the Bible. This is less a theological requirement than the fact that it is very long. In fact, I’d probably opt for the Douay-Rheims Bible, since it contains seven Deutero-Canonical books that are missing from most non-Catholic Bibles, such as 1st and 2nd Maccabees.
When I was a kid, I tried to read the whole Bible more than once, but I was unsuccessful. So I’d start over; I read Genesis a LOT. I have read the Bible all the way through systematically at least thrice, c 1977, c 1985, and c 1997. Participating with the Bible Guys at church this century, I may have managed a fourth. I wrote about the vagaries of the Bible in 2013.
The World Almanac. It is not great literature, of course, but it has a lot of stuff. Before I married my current bride, there was a gathering, and we were supposed to answer questions about each other. I didn’t know that 100 Years of Solitude was her favorite book, but she instantly picked the World Almanac as mine. I wrote about it in 2016, but honestly, I haven’t gotten one since 2018, ending a 40+ year streak.
Top Pop Singles by Joel Whitburn. Yes, it shows the chart action, but it also has background info about the artists.
Cinema
2) Which three MOVIES could you watch over and over again?
3) Which three SONGS could you listen to over and over again?
How much may I stretch the definition of “song”? Off the top, I thought of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Dvorak’s 9th Symphony (New World), and the Mozart Requiem.
If I have to pick actual songs? Oh, it is too difficult! Okay. The Boxer – Simon and Garfunkel, which someone described here; Biko – the last song on Peter Gabriel’s excellent third album; and Lullabye (Goodnight, My Angel) – Billy Joel. They are all sad songs.
Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.
I am irrationally fascinated by area codes as a geography. I’ve been obsessed with them for a long time. Indeed, I would look in the front of the phone book every year when it arrived to see if there were new area codes, generally by splitting an existing code. (But then, who didn’t read the front pages of phone books?)
I wrote in 2009: “When I was a kid, I could tell you just what a legitimate area code looked like. The first digit was 2 to 9 (but not 1), and the next two were 01 to 09 or 12 to 19.” This was primarily dictated by some technological limitations I had read about, but My Eyes Glazed Over. This problem was resolved, obviously.
When I worked for the New York State Small Business Development Center, and our Research Network was providing library services for all SBDCs nationwide, I remember getting a call from Cleveland, TN. The area code was 423. 423? It must have been 1995 or later when it was created from a split of area code 615.
I attended college in New Paltz, NY, in the 1970s, with area code 914. Area code 845 was created in 2000, and everything except Westchester County changed to that. It was a pain for businesses in the 845, who had to change their business cards, signage, etc.
American Idol
Oh, a Final JEOPARDY from 10/21/2025! “When area codes were introduced, three very populous areas got the ones quickest to dial: these 3 codes”—correct responses at the end.
Back in 2002/2003, my wife and I were watching the second season of American Idol. The eventual winner, Ruben Studdard, was noted for his shirts printed with ‘205,’ the telephone area code of his hometown of Birmingham, AL. We didn’t know then about Area Codes and Their Impact on Hip-Hop Culture.
With the increase in the number of cellphones, a person’s phone number was no longer where they were in the moment but rather where they grew up. (I noticed this in my last job with people with 203 and 480 area codes from their family plans.)
More parts of a state have area code overlays. Yes, one has to dial ten digits instead of seven, but with cell phones, most people don’t have to dial anything; they just punch in the name. (I remember my friends’ phone numbers from growing up, but not my daughter’s cellphone today.)
Because of more phones, the old-school codes have a specific cache. Houston, after all, is the 713, not the 832 or the 346.
The 212 is a bit murky. The New York Times site is “revisiting New York institutions that have helped define the city, from time-honored restaurants to unsung dives,” that is, the whole city. But Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were split into 718 so long ago, 1984, that the “newer” area code has its own following.
My town
We live in The 518. When you tell people outside of the Northeast that you live in upstate New York (whatever that means), most of them hear New York City. The 518, while physically vast, is more descriptive.
Moreover, as my daughter observed, if you were from Mechanicsville, a small city in Saratoga County, part of the state’s Capital District, you could define yourself as from The 518, which gives some information but not too much.
She recommended the 1990s group 702, who were, I guessed correctly, from Las Vegas.
Answers from JEOPARDY: What are 212, 213, and 312? I knew these were for New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago, respectively, if only because they were the three largest cities. (None of the contestants got it correct.) Eek, I KNEW this.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 23: An excavator works to clear rubble after the East Wing of the White House was demolished on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. The demolition is part of U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to build a multimillion-dollar ballroom on the eastern side of the White House. (Photo by Eric Lee/Getty Images)
Wrackful. Meaning – adjective: Ruinous. In Sonnet 65, Shakespeare laments time’s “the wrackful siege of battering days.” You can almost hear the timbers groan and the sigh of loss.
AWS outage spotlights the global economy’s fragile foundations
American e-waste is causing a ‘hidden tsunami’ of junk in Southeast Asia
The World Is Running Out of Fresh Water. What Happens If We Do? The pace of freshwater depletion is staggering. An area twice the size of California is drying up annually.
Does Brazil have an app that can upend digital finance?
One of 20 Million in the US With Long COVID. RFK Pulled the Rug From Under Us.
Americans remain pessimistic about the country’s direction and the state of the country.
Why So Many Gen Z-ers Are Drawn to Conservative Christianity
Labor Unions, EFF Sue Administration to Stop Ideological Surveillance of Free Speech Online
John Dickerson: What Hamilton warned in the Federalist Papers #1
June Lockhart obituary: American stage and screen actor who enjoyed huge success on the television shows Lassie, Lost in Space, and Petticoat Junction.
The Jewish Prisoners Who Escaped From a Nazi Death Camp
Ernest Shackleton’s journey was most likely doomed before it began
Why Paris Designed Its Peculiarly Popular Grand Graveyards to Evoke a Celebration of Life Amid All the Death
In honor of the 200th anniversary of the completion of the Erie Canal, History of the canal system of the State of New York together with brief histories of the canals of the United States and Canada / by Noble E. Whitford v.1 (1906)
Now I Know: Where the Other Two Musketeers Went and Hackers, Pre-Internet Edition and The $10,000 Blade of Grass (Dali and Ono) and The “Baseball versus Beer” Loophole and Our Anti-Photographic Memories?
Daily Kos: “Normal people looked at the demolition… and asked, ‘Hey, shouldn’t an official body, like the National Capital Planning Commission, have to sign off on the demolition?’
“No, you sweet summer child. According to him and his allies on the NCPC, the planning commission need only sign off on the construction of buildings, not their demolition.
“What kind of person who heads a planning commission charged with the overall planning of the nation’s capital would agree to this?
“Oh, that would be Will Scharf. Scharf is the White House staff secretary, and he is also now the head of the NCPC. Does Scharf have any experience in urban planning or architecture, or anything really?
“Nope. You all get one guess as to why Scharf has not one, but two high-level government jobs? Yes, he was one of his former criminal defense attorneys.”
Borowitz: FOTUS “would continue his father’s proud tradition of gleeful destruction [Steeplechase Park] when he demolished the Bonwit Teller Building on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to clear the site for his Tower. After saying he’d try to preserve the building’s priceless Art Deco friezes so that they could be exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he discovered that it would cost $32,000 to remove them intact. As a clever solution to his problem, he had his workmen smash them to bits.”
MUSIC
Take Me Down To Stewy’s – Jackson Simpson (feat. Azel & Grey Mizzy), a tribute to the many Stewart’s Shops, a chain of convenience stores located in Upstate New York, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Last Time (I Seen the Sun) – Alice Smith and Miles Caton
It’s J. Eric Smith’s fault that I’m doing the Honest Playlist. He is an old blogger buddy of mine—well, he is not that old—who used to live in the Albany area but now resides in Arizona.
He explained the setup, which you can read here. It involves, in part, Flight of the Conchords, which I have never seen, but that is not required for this exercise.
“The premise of the recurring feature is that artists are given a set of song-based questions which they must answer, honestly.” And I have to do this because Eric namechecked me, curse him.
The first song I remember hearing: I don’t really know, but it is likely one of my father’s 45s. It may also be Be Kind To Your Parents. I’ve written about this before, but the previous link is the correct version. It was on a red 45 that my sister Leslie and I played on our record player all the time.
The first song I fell in love with: From my father’s singles, 45 Men a Telephone Booth by The Four Tophatters.
The first album I bought: Beatles VI from the Capitol Record Club, which I paid for with proceeds of my newspaper route delivering the Evening and Sunday Press in Binghamton, NY circa 1966.
The song I do at karaoke: I seldom do karaoke, but it’d be Talking Heads’ version of Take Me To The River.
Party!
The best song to play at a party: I initially thought of songs my daughter and I know and like. The first thing that came up: Motown Philly by Boyz II Men; she was jealous when her mother and I saw the group at Chautauqua in 2024. Then I thought, maybe some Motown, such as the obvious Dancing In The Street by Martha Reeves & The Vandellas or the obscure, though it went to #2 on the pop charts, I Heard Through the Grapevine by Gladys Knight and the Pips. How about Twist and Shout by that Liverpool group? Ultimately, I landed on Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, which is slower than the video suggests.
The song I inexplicably know every lyric to: The Ballad of the Green Berets by SSgt. Barry Sadler. It WAS the song that spent the longest at #1 pop in 1966, at five weeks, when I turned 13 and was listening heavily to the radio. (The Monkees’ I’m A Believer started their run in ’66 but most of it was in ’67.)
The third and final verse and chorus:
Back at home, a young wife waits Her Green Beret has met his fate He has died for those oppressed Leaving her his last request
Put silver wings on my son’s chest Make him one of America’s best He’ll be a man they’ll test one day Have him win the Green Beret
Even then, I wondered about rhyming oppressed with request – I’m pretty sure Stephen Sondheim would not have approved – but after hearing Defying Gravity from Wicked pronounced “gravidy,” I’ve surrendered on the point.
Ick
The song I can no longer listen to: Oddly, I don’t think there is one. After making lists of songs that hit #1 from the first third of the 20th century and listening to songs that are boldly racist, I have tough skin on this.
Now, I do hear songs that have changed for the worse. I’m thinking of The Homecoming Queen’s Got A Gun by Julie Brown, which appears on a Dr. Demento CD I play every April for his birthday. It makes me reflect that it was supposed to be funny in 1990—it really wasn’t—but in the last quarter century of school shootings, it’s even less comfortable.
Back in 2019, Arthur asked: About your Rolf Harris song [Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport] – it raises a question: Are we under any obligation to erase performers or songs we once liked because it later turns out that they were either allegedly or actually terrible humans or allegedly or actually did terrible things, like Rolf?
I was disinclined broadly, though Eric was eloquent in dismissing several artists, notably Michael Jackson. He is incidentally correct that Off The Wall is better than Thriller. I think of all those Phil Spector-produced songs I wouldn’t want to give up. Generally, music is a multifaceted endeavor.
Non-musical sidebar: I STILL remember chunks of Bill Cosby routines verbatim from repeated listening.
But it’s weird because if I were watching films, I might experience a greater ick factor. I’m thinking Woody Allen’s Manhattan or American Beauty with Kevin Spacey.
Guilty Pleasures?
The song I secretly like: I have a soft spot for Seals and Crofts. I saw them with my then-girlfriend on November 12, 1971 in New York City. (Why do I remember that date? Because it was the birthday of Baháʼu’lláh’, who founded the Baháʼí Faith. Anyway, I was listening to them recently, and i think Yellow Dirt is a hoot.
The best song to have sex with: Eric wrote, “I’m a gentleman, yo. That’s none of your business. Sheesh.” Sure. That said, I can’t think of an answer anyway.
The song I’ve always hated: You Light Up My Life – Debby Boone, You’re Having My Baby -Paul Anka, several others. But I can easily avoid them.
The song that changed my life: Quintet/Tonight from West Side Story. Can you do multiple melodies like that? This is why this musical was my favorite.
The song that gets me up in the morning: Never a single album or artist fits the category. Generally, it’s something my wife wouldn’t mind, so John Hiatt/Ella/the Duke/world music (I’ve been listening to Playing For Change a lot)/my wife’s K girls (her designation) Alison Krauss and Diana Krall rather than Led Zeppelin/the Who/the Kinks.
That’s enough because the last question in particular took up a lot of space. I’ll finish it next week.
A.Word.A.Day: kleptocrat – A politician or an official who uses their position to enrich themselves.
United States Boycotts UN Human Rights Review. The move sets “a terrible precedent that would only embolden dictators and autocrats and dangerously weaken respect for human rights at home and abroad.”
SCOTUS ruling allows ICE to use racial profiling in Los Angeles raids.
Israel’s Attacks on Seed Banks Destroy Millennia of Palestinian Cultural Heritage, and Israel Bombs Hamas Ceasefire Negotiating Team in Doha
Lysenkoism Comes to America: As RFK Jr. purges the CDC and cancels billions in research grants, Americans need a refresher course on what happened to Soviet biological research during the Stalin years.
Submit Your Official Comment Against the EPA’s Plan to Rescind Its Ability to Limit Greenhouse Gas Emissions Created By Any Industry and Gut Vehicle Standards Needed to Fight Climate Change
Tax cuts helped health giants dodge billions while patients faced higher costs and denials.
In Memoriam: Mark Volman of the Turtles (1947-2025). From Stuart Mason: The masterpiece of the album The Battle of the Bands was ‘Elenore,’ simultaneously an absolutely deathless sunshine pop classic and a not particularly subtle middle finger to White Whale Records.
Supertramp co-founder, singer, and keyboardist Rick Davies died at the age of 81 after a 10-year battle with Multiple Myeloma. 5 standout Rick Davies tracks by Supertramp.
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!
I am irrationally fascinated by area codes as a geography. I’ve been obsessed with them for a long time. Indeed, I would look in the front of the phone book every year when it arrived to see if there were new area codes, generally by splitting an existing code. (But then, who didn’t read the front pages of phone books?)
It’s J. Eric Smith’s fault that I’m doing the Honest Playlist. He is an old blogger buddy of mine—well, he is not that old—who used to live in the Albany area but now resides in Arizona.
