rambling Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sept. rambling: Murdering 60 Minutes

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

**Lonnie G. Bunch III, Secretary of the Smithsonian, at the Natural History Museum. Marvin Joseph / The Washington Post via Getty Images**

UN rights chief Volker Türk raises alarm over AI’s ‘existential’ risk to humanity

What students lose when they stop writing

“Murdering 60 Minutes” is what it would look like if “60 Minutes” covered what happened to itself after Bari Weiss took over. The film is available to watch for free on YouTube and at www.murdering60minutes.com.

It’s Not Just Flock. Police Can’t Be Trusted With Our Data

Gloria Steinem Dies at 92. She challenged sexist assumptions, helping women develop self-worth and gain a measure of equality at work, at home, and in society at large. Somewhere in the attic is my copy of the premiere issue of Ms. magazine.

Americans Agree on Almost Nothing. Except Data Centers. Three-fourths of Americans oppose them.

As A Teen, I Wrote A Famous Musician A Fan Letter. 23 Years After His Death, I Finally Got A Response.

Bob Mackie, Designer Who Bedazzled Carol Burnett and Cher, Dies at 87

It’s One of Our Greatest and Most Controversial Novels. How Should “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” Be Taught?

He Was a Top Lawn Care Influencer on YouTube. Then Everything Went Haywire.

I Study Successful People. They Have One Habit in Common. The habit is asking for help when you get stuck.

The Glare

The 92-Year-Old Mathematician and the Teenage Apprentice

Any Human Ever

To Protect and Swerve and All Price Tags Go To Heaven, and Denim Dresses Were the Old Black and How Hippos Swim:

Hmm…

‘Beware my power’: White House shares AI-generated video of FOTUS as Green Lantern

EPA Takes ‘Yet Another Sledgehammer’ to Clean Water Act

Vance lies through his teeth about regime’s military missteps

Hegseth vs. the Deep Pentagon

Dozens of Joint Staff members subject to polygraph tests in leak hunt

At $5.85 a Gallon, Diesel Price Hits All-Time High thanks to War on Iran

RFK Jr.’s vaccine lies finally catch up to him

Regime to rescind rule protecting old-growth forests. “The public has until 21 September to comment on the plan.”

Why did FOTUS order up 660 million pounds of mystery meat?

Russian Businessman Paid for DT Jr.’s Lavish Wedding After-Party

U.N. approves Equal Earth map in 164-1 vote as U.S. slams it as ideological

Lonnie G. Bunch III has announced his decision to depart as Smithsonian’s Secretary after 38 years of service to the institution. With a storied career dating back to the 1970s, Bunch leaves a remarkable legacy, most notably the founding of the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which we visited in 2024. I heard him speak in 2019 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

MUSIC

Baseball Walk Up Song Database

You’re Not Alone – Mavis Staples

Canticle of Light by Akira Nishimura

Best Albums of 2026 (Third Quarter) Report

Brahms’ Academic Overture – The Cleveland Orchestra

Coverville 1592: The Dolly Parton Tribute and 1593: The Bee Gees Cover Story V

Sunshine Boots – Johnson Mkhalali

Gumboots -Paul Simon featuring The Boyoyo Boys

Nightflyer – Alison Russell

Joan Osborne issued an album of 12 Bob Dylan covers circa 2017; she performed some of them live. Full Session – 8/31/2017 – Paste Studios – New York, NY

A Song For You – Donny Hathaway

Beautiful Dawn – The Wailin’ Jennys

Harvest Moon – Cassandra Wilson, jazz star, who died at 70, which reminds me of my late friend Donna

Peter Sprague Plays The Wind Cries Mary, featuring Lisa Hightower, and George, Tell It Like It Is, featuring Sinne Eeg

STAR TREK edition

Do You Miss Me Darlin’ – The Guess Who

This Time Tomorrow – Brandi Carlile

Higher Love – Steve Winwood

We Shall Be Known – MaMuse

Venus – Bananarama

Dopamine (Jamie xx Remix) – Robyn

Something To Love – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

October rambling: tax billionaires

everythingistb.com

State Street in ALB between Lark and Willett, 20 Oct 2024

Of course, we can tax billionaires. They disguise their demands (“don’t tax billionaires”) as observations (“it is technically impossible to tax billionaires”).

Find Out Who Funds Political Action Committees

Six Lies Elon Musk Believed (in a 24-hour period)

‘Serious Risk’ of Vital Ocean Current Collapse by 2100, Warn Scientists

One in three tree species at risk of extinction: report

Mifepristone, round 2

Order Your 4 Free At-Home COVID-19 Tests: Every U.S. household is eligible to order 4 free at-home tests.

Traffic Stops: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Will Arthur’s ballot be counted?

Democracy Succumbs in Silence

The Trouble With Tradwives. TikTok’s old-school housewives paint a rosy picture of their lives. Ex-tradwives and Influencer moms tell a vastly different story.

The US Copyright Office Frees the McFlurry

City On Fire: The night during the Civil War that violent anti-government conspirators sowed chaos in the heart of Manhattan.

The game

Wordle 1,214 was the third-hardest ever and the hardest for two years, and people are angry—here’s why. (I got a 6.)

Why Not Shake Up the Olympics?

Field of Dreams: Sometimes Myth and Reality Coincide

Obituary: pitcher Luis Tiant (1940-2024)

Trailblazing pitcher Fernando Valenzuela passes away at 63

Teri Garr died at 79. I saw her in Tootsie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Oh God! and many TV appearances. Oh, and Young Frankenstein (1974) – Put the candle back!

Singer Jack Jones, RIP

Ron Ely, RIP

Tim Urban: Why I Brought My Toddler to Watch SpaceX’s Flying Skyscraper. I can’t shield my daughter from negativity. But I can continually redirect her attention to the rocket—showing her all the ways our species is incredible.

John Green’s new book, Everything Is Tuberculosis, is coming out March 18, 2025

What Really Happens When We Unfriend Someone On Facebook?

The language we speak can change our perception of time.

Mark Evanier’s links to several full-length movies such as Naked Gun, American Graffiti, and Hannah and Her Sisters

Bob and Ray in “The Hobby Hut”

Kelly’s a little stealing on Sunday

Now I Know: The Identity Theft That Went Backward and Is It Illegal To Not Wish Someone Farewell? and Where Everybody Knows Your 6E 61 6D 65 and The Fish That Glow… As a Warning?

Security Updates for the Internet Archive

Starting earlier this month, the Internet Archive faced a DDoS attack. After temporarily taking the site offline to enhance security, they have resumed services to Archive.org, Open Library, Wayback Machine and Archive-It. For ongoing updates, please follow their blog and official social media channels on X/Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon.

FAST COMPANY: The Internet Archive is even more essential than I realized

WASHINGTON POST: The world’s largest internet archive is under siege — and fighting back

WORDPRESS FOUNDATION: WordPress Foundation Donates $100,000 to Internet Archive

COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW: The organization that safeguards the internet’s history is under attack

SF GATE: The random Bay Area warehouse that houses one of humanity’s greatest archives

MUSIC

Mitzi Gaynor sings I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Out Of My Hair from South Pacific; she died at the age of 93

Vale Alan Mansfield of the band Dragon died

Dancing In The Street – Dick Carpenter Trio

Suite from Camelot, original music by Frederick Loewe, and arranged by Robert Russell Bennett

I’m Yours and Puttin’ On The Ritz – Herb Alpert

The Kairn of Koridwen by Charles Tomlinson Griffes

Airport Codes (Big Band Version) – Aubrey Logan

The Pink Panther theme song and the James Bond theme song go well together

The welcome arrival of rain by Dame Judith Weir.

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: The (English) Beat and The Replacements

Coverville 1506: Cover Stories for Natalie Maines and David Lee Roth and 1507: The Katy Perry Cover Story III

Triumphal March from Aida by Giuseppe Verdi

Convection Oven – Peter Sprague

Wichita Lineman – Colin Hay

Inch Worm – Road Work Ahead

The theme from Exodus · Ernest Gold

Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean performed at the World Figure Skating Competition with a routine set to the Entr’acte of the original Broadway production of Mack and Mabel.

Spies – Randy Newman

Sesame Street Cast Crashes The Late Late Show with James Corden

I Just Called To Say I Love You – Stevie Wonder

K-Chuck Radio: Another 10 classic pop songs you barely remember (actually, one I recall quite well)

July rambling: Dr. SCOTUS

Gleichschaltung

Dr. SCOTUS Will Now See Your Next Patient – Ron Harman King fears our healthcare lies with those in black robes, not white coats.

Cory Doctorow: Unpersoned about romance writer K Renee and others locked out of their Google docs

CrowdStrike blames test software for taking down 8.5 million Windows machines.

Teaching the Bible in Public Schools

Disputing Errors on Your Tenant Background Check Report

Succeeding in the Post-Wayfair Landscape: Top 3 Trends in Sales Tax Six Years On (yes, this is interesting to a geeky business librarian)

The Nation’s Data at Risk: Meeting America’s Information Needs for the 21st Century

Why Paper Checks Refuse To Die

A neurological disorder stole her voice. Jennifer Wexton takes it back on the House floor.

Quieting Your Inner Critic – Self-Compassion and Other Methods

Navy exonerates Black sailors unjustly punished in 1944 after a deadly California port explosion.

Bob Newhart Was an Everyman With a Comic Voice Like No Other. The 25 best TV series finales ever. Newhart is #22 and should be much higher. I watched him on Ed Sullivan and his three CBS shows

Whitney Rybeck, ‘Friday the 13th’ Actor and Crash Test Dummy in Seat Belt Ads, Dies at 79

The Worm Charmers: A Florida family coaxes earthworms from the forest floor

Homicide: Life on the Street Finally Gets Streaming Home at Peacock. This was one of my favorite programs.

Oscars: What To Do When You Lose

Now I Know: The Dirty Lyric Snuck Onto The Radio and The Pencil That Told Kids To Do Something They Shouldn’t and A Mountainous Problem With Instant Noodles

Kelly and Sunday Stealing

SSA

“Soon, you will no longer be able to sign in to your online Social Security account using your Social Security username and password. To access Social Security online services, including my Social Security, you will need to create a Login.gov or ID.me account.”

This is a real thing, reported on AARP and CBS Mornings.

“The change affects about 46 million of the roughly 86 million people who have My Social Security accounts, according to an SSA spokesperson.”

POLLYTICKS

How Joe Biden launched his career by beating two unbeatable Republicans

Thank You, President Biden

Weekly Sift: Resolutions and The Two Kinds of Unity, in which I was introduced to the word Gleichschaltung. “It’s an old German engineering term for when you wire a bunch of electrical circuits together under a common master switch. It got applied to German politics in 1933, for reasons that you may recall from history books.” Also, the Kamala surge and Couches, Cat Ladies, and J. D. Vance.

djt Returns to Bad Form — and Gives the Democrats Hope

Immigration, Crime, Politics, and lies and Fact-checking djt’s lies during his RNC acceptance speech

RNC & “Migrant Crime”: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Demagoguery repeats itself

djt Sells Sneakers, Coins, and Trading Cards Imprinted with his Bloody Face

How Kamala’s name is pronounced; even a child can do it

From way back on July 15: ‘Terrified’ – Americans in NZ react to Trump shooting, Biden uncertainty

Borowitz Reports repeats: New Conspiracy Theory Links Wide Availability of Guns to People Getting Shot

MUSIC

Anything Goes – Peter Sprague featuring Rebecca Jade

Look At Me, I’m MTG!– A Randy Rainbow Song Parody

John Mayall, British Blues-Rock Legend and 2024 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductee, Dies at 90. Room To Move

Flivver Ten Million by Frederick Converse, performance is by the Buffalo Philharmonic,

Coverville 1495: Cover Stories for Marc Cohn and Simple Minds and 1496: The Trevor Horn Cover Story II

The Great Curve – Talking Heads

K-Chuck Radio: Gaze into the crystal ball …

Coast -Kim Deal

You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away– Peter Sprague, featuring Allison Adams Tucker.

Patterns – Laura Marling

Several versions of Sit Down, You’re Rocking The Boat here and here and here and here (1992 Tonys – Nicely-Nicely (Walter Bobbie) plus Nathan Lane and J.K. Simmons) and here and here (current London revival) and probably more here

Knee Deep Blues – Caleb Caudle:

Breath Out – Dawn Richard and Spencer Zahn –

This LOST 1986 Song Went Viral…But for Years-NOBODY Knew WHO Sang it—UNTIL Today!–Professor of Rock

June rambling: Earthrise

all of the Tony winners

William Anders, Apollo 8 Astronaut Who Captured Iconic ‘Earthrise’ Photograph in December 1968, Dies at 90 in a plane he was flying

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration: surging CO2 levels in a year that is very likely to have the largest and most extreme series of weather events ever

EU elections: Far-right makes gains in Germany, France, Austria

Indian elections: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

Scottie Scheffler Arrest is a True Crime Documentary

Nine witnesses in the criminal cases against djt have received significant financial benefits, including large raises from his campaign, severance packages, new jobs, and a grant of shares and cash from his media company.

The War on Rule of Law

The Federalist’s Erika Andersen thinks Dolly Parton isn’t really Christian and Newmax’s Greg Kelly worries that Taylor Swift fans are practicing “idolatry”, which “is a sin.”

Beef Days

Eating an 11,000-Year-Old Fruit

How ancient Egyptians tested for pregnancy

Linkage, including Man or Bear

How Many Young and Older Adults Lived Alone

NOW I KNOW: Survey Says: Guilty and Flood For Your Right to Party? and The Problem With Flying With Marshmallows and The House Made Out of Smartphones and especially, The School With Solar Powered Salaries

Kelly’s Sunday Stealing

Opposite snakes

Show Biz

Tonys Roundtable: Rachel McAdams, Kelli O’Hara, Leslie Odom Jr., Sarah Paulson, Daniel Radcliffe, and Eddie Redmayne on Broadway Paths, Parts and Pet Peeves

All of the TONY Winners

Janis Paige, Star of ‘Silk Stockings’ and Broadway’s ‘Pajama Game,’ Dies at 101

Jerry West and the Burden of Being the Logo

An oral history of Roger Corman’s unreleased Fantastic Four movie

Pat Sajak’s Final Spin: ‘Wheel of Fortune’ Host Signs Off After Four Decades

How MAD magazine was written and drawn

SCOTUS

The Supreme Court lets CFPB funding stand. Yay! This allowed the entity to regulate Buy Now, Pay Later companies as credit card companies, create a registry of habitual corporate criminals, and fight “fine print deception”

Fix the Court published a tally of all the gifts accepted by the SCOTUS justices who served during the last 20 years. Of the $4.7 million total, more than $4 million went to Clarence Thomas.

Samuel Alito’s Contemptuous Opinion in a 2022 Christian Flag Case Flies in the Face of His Recusal Refusal

MUSIC

El amor brujo by.Manuel de Falla

Wrecking Ball – Emmylou Harris

Coverville 1490: The Lenny Kravitz Cover Story II and 1491: The Alanis Morissette Cover Story III

Mr. Tambourine Man, music composed by John Corigliano

Scenes from an Italian Restaurant – Middle Aged Dad Jam Band feat “Weird Al” Yankovic

Symphony No. 6, “Celestial Gate” by Alan Hovhaness

Born Under A Bad Sign – Peter Sprague, featuring Leonard Patton

Give Me One Reason – Tracy Chapman

Time After Time – Cyndi Lauper

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Korn and Max Eider

Wide Open Spaces – The Chicks

This Land Is Your Land – Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen

Best Albums of 2024 (First Half)

January rambling: Liar, con artist

Fahrvergnügen

I Love the 20s — xkcd – This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
This means you’re free to copy and share these comics (but not to sell them).

The Decade of Democracy’s Decline.

He’s a Liar, a Con Artist and a Snitch. His Testimony Could Soon Send a Man to His Death. A Twitter summary.

1 Billion Animals Killed in Australia Wildfires Is “Very Conservative” Estimate and Its Government Must Stop Denying Climate Crisis.

Why Is Middle School So Hard for So Many People?

Go Green: Eco-Friendly Products We Should All Be Using.

“If the machine of government is of such a nature that it requires you to be the agent of injustice to another, then, I say, break the law.” Henry David Thoreau

‘Here We Go. The Chaos Is Starting’: An Oral History of Y2K. (You may get a popup asking you for an email address before you can read the story.)

How New York’s Bagel Union Fought — and Beat — a Mafia Takeover.

Why Churches Should Ditch The Projector Screens And Bring Back Hymnals. BTW, I own a hymnal from c. 1850.

I ignored warnings from friends and family not to marry my husband. Was I making a big mistake?

Jan Žižka ‘the One-Eyed’ is one of that elite band of great military commanders.

Football Hall of Fame: Congratulations, Coach Cowher.

I Was Captain of the Team that Loses to the Harlem Globetrotters Every Night.

Buck Henry, R.I.P..

Now I Know: How a Flush Beat a Checkmate and The Astronauts Strike Back and The Best-Selling Volkswagen Doesn’t Have Fahrvergnügen and The Soccer Star Who Helped Someone Else Reach Their Goal and Why Public Toilet Seats are U-Shaped.

Cadet Bone Spurs Wags the Dog

Remember Normal Presidents?

7 Stunning New Pieces of Impeachment Evidence Just released by the House.

How He And Mnuchin Slipped Billions In New Tax Breaks To Corporations.

The Year The Press Tried — And Failed — To Stand Up To Trump.

“Men do not learn much from the lessons of history and that is the most important of all the lessons of history. ” – Aldous Huxley

The cost of deceit over Iran and North Korea.

Noam Chomsky: US Is a Rogue State and Suleimani’s Assassination Confirms It.

Trumpist Evangelicals Respond to Christianity Today.

MUSIC

A decade of pop.

It’s Been a Long, Long Time – Kitty Kallen and the Harry James Orchestra.

Spontaneous – Neil Innes.

Never Gonna Give You Up – The Newfangled Four.

A Week and a Day – Boys II Menorah, with James Corden.

Overture in D Major by Franz Joseph Haydn.

Playing for Change: Soul Rebel, featuring Bunny Wailer and Manu Chao. |

Coverville 1292: The R.E.M. Cover Story.

On the Beautiful Blue Danube.

You Can’t Stop the Beat – Masters of Harmony.

Main theme from Star Wars – Attacca Quartet.

Imagine – MonaLisa Twins.

Uptown Funk – Mark Ronson featuring Bruno Mars.