summer Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

September rambling: Snollygoster

Measles and Polio Down In The Schoolyard

Word of the Day: Snollygoster – A shrewd, unprincipled person, especially a politician.

Pity the Nation, a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti (2007)

Anti-Intellectualism Is Not a Fruit of the Spirit by Rev. Benjamin Cremer

You can’t worship God and money

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.

Are You Ready for Measles’ Wrath?

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.

FOTUS vs. Higher Education and The Baileys: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

The Attack on the Smithsonian Previews His Presidential Library

How math turned me from a D.E.I. skeptic to a supporter

Kennedy Center Ticket Sales Plummet as “MAGA Former Dancer” Takes Over Dance Program. Upcoming ballet performances are between only 4 and 19% sold.

FOTUS steals $400b from American workers

Information

Internet Archive Designated as a Federal Depository Library

The National Archives Recovers Rare Logbook from the Pearl Harbor Attack

The Return of Plundered Belongings Offers a Chance for Healing to a Grieving Lakota Community 170 Years After a Long-Forgotten Massacre

Giorgio Armani, Fashion’s Master of the Power Suit, Dies at 91

CBS News’ Mark Knoller, veteran White House correspondent, dies at 73

Davey Johnson, an Orioles infielder before becoming the manager of the Mets, including their 1986 World Series win, died at 82

High Greens, Chip Ordway– now and forever

The game was perfect. The call, more perfect. Sept. 9, 1965 -Sandy Koufax, Vin Scully

You Know More Finnish Than You Think

Reviews, Ratings, and Pointless Surveys by Seth Meyers

The Beetle Bailey book celebrates 75 years in the funny pages

Spider-Man’s first live-action TV run was on PBS, and I watched it

Now I Know: The Worst Movie Money Couldn’t Buy, The Problem With Faking a Smile, and The Human Traffic Cone?

**The latter box should read: “$893 million in 30 graduated annuity payments”**

MUSIC

Bottle Up Magic – Rebecca Jade (feat. Eric Darius)

Measles and Polio Down In The Schoolyard – Marsh Family parody of Paul Simon’s “Me and Julio” on RFK

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.

Bohemian Rhapsody, isiZulu version – Ndlovu Youth Choir

Everybody’s Song– Robert Plant and Saving Grace

Moonlight, one of Four Sea Interludes from the Benjamin Britten opera Peter Grimes

One Tiny Flower – Jeff Tweedy

Song To The Moon from Rusalka, Act I, by Antonín Dvořák

Better Broken – Sarah McLaughlin

Coverville 1547: Van Morrison Cover Story IV and 1548: The Aimee Mann Cover Story I

Dead – Sudan Archives

Big Money – Jon Batiste

Letter To My 13-Year-Old Self and Lover Girl – Laufey

Am I Born To Die – Billy Strings, 12/13/24 ACL

Surf’s Up – The Beach Boys

The Boys Of Summer -Don Henley

Hot Fun In The Summertime – Sly & The Family Stone

September Morn – Neil Diamond

I Started A Joke – Ruby Leigh

The Power Of Love – Huey Lewis and the News

Thunderstruck + It’s a Long Way to the Top – Goddesses of Bagpipes

Burning Down The House – David Byrne ft. Olivia Rodrigo – Live at Gov Ball 2025

Is AI Ruining Music? | Dustin Ballard | TED, and AI-generated music sparks industry concern, and AI music takes on a life of its own: Walking Away –Sadie Winters

K-Chuck Radio: Billy Joel gets pitchy and The Out-Of-Phase Stereo Series

Stairway, Denied

Sunday Stealing: Summer 2024

74F (23C)

Summer’s here, and the time is right for Sunday Stealing, summer 2024 edition. Of course, this is a Northern Hemisphere-centric quiz. Can those folks in Australia and Argentina remember the weather in January and February?

1. What is the hottest temperature you’ve seen this summer so far?

To my knowledge, 95F (35C) on June 20. Some folks were actually excited about the possibility of hitting triple digits, but we fell short. The last time Albany, NY, reached 100 degrees F was September 3, 1953.

2. What is your favorite summer beverage?

Arnold Palmer. The lemonade cuts the tartness of the iced tea, and the iced tea mellows the lemonade’s sweetness.

3. Have you seen any fireflies/lightning bugs yet? Cicadas?

Fireflies, yes. The cicadas are in Ohio and southwest of us.

4. What are the last three things you bought online?

A Mamas and Papas CD, a green case for my cellphone, and solar eclipse glasses.

5. Where do locals go to cool off?

Pools, the malls, libraries, I assume.

6. Where did you buy your last postcard, and what was on the PC?

Not a clue.

7. What’s your favorite summertime scent?

Other people’s barbecues. All of the enjoyment with none of the work or the calories.

8. What kind of a/c do you have – central, room, fans only, chillers, none and what temperature do you set it to?

First-floor air conditioning, c 74F (23C). Fans on the second floor.

Vacation

9. Do you have a summer vacation planned and if so, where are you really going??

Yes, and I ain’t telling you until it’s over. This has been my modus operandi since forever.

10. What are your favorite summer activities?

Being indoors with air conditioning.

11. What’s your favorite summertime food?

Deviled eggs, which I made for the church choir end-of-season party.

12. Did you ever go to summer school?

Actually, no.

Vacation

13. What’s your favorite summertime memory?

Perhaps the 2011 trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto, and Peterborough, ON. But I wrote about vacations here.

14. Do you like fireworks?

Public fireworks, yes. Private fireworks that go off in my neighborhood about a month before and after July 4, decidedly not. I think those drone fireworks are interesting as it doesn’t terrify pets or some people with PTSD.

15. How do you feel about the longer days of summer?

Actually, the days are now getting shorter. When I started seeing light outdoors before 6 a.m., I was less than thrilled. Summer is probably my least favorite season.

I Feel Love – Donna Summer

Sunday Stealing:Tuesday 4

summer vacation

Whatever Tuesday 4 is – Ruby Tuesday?- Sunday Stealing is stealing.

1. Are you currently reading a book you’d like to tell us about? Maybe a TV program you can recommend to us?

I’ve circled back to The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green (no relation). I bought it when it first came out, signed by the author, but then I got distracted. Fortunately, it’s a compilation, so each essay, even as it reflects how John’s mind works and how he pays attention to his surroundings, stands independently.

I suppose the only newish TV show I could recommend is Abbott Elementary, in its second season. It’s a comedy about an elementary school in a poor section of Philadelphia, PA.

2. Are you a Jane Austen fan? So many seem to be. If you are, what is your favorite book, and who is your favorite character? If you aren’t a fan, is there an author you especially like to read? Favorite character, etc.

I tend to read mostly non-fiction, but I don’t have a favorite author, though it was Russell Baker.

However, I have seen quite a few movies based on Jane Austen books, such as Clueless (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and Emma (2020).

3. How do you spend your time during the day? Do you set apart time to read, watch TV, and study?

Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle, blogging, working on things for my church and the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library. I don’t have a designated time to read.

My wife and I tend to watch the recorded NBC Nightly News after dinner. I view JEOPARDY and try to tackle the recorded but not watched episodes of several shows, mostly the CBS news programs Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes, plus Finding Your Roots on PBS.

I never change?

4. Have your beliefs changed in your lifetime?

Of COURSE! Everything from the nature of God to my understanding of science. How could they not?

5. What are your interests and hobbies? Reading? Writing? Collecting?

Genealogy. I have some coins I’ve collected but have not been diligent about it. I listen to music, and I have a lot of it.

6 How much time a week/day/month do you devote to your interests?

I have no idea. For one thing, I tend to tackle things in chunks of periods based on the running time of my CDs. So I’ll work on my word games and start my blog. Then I need to change it up, so I wash the dishes or clean the kitchen counter. Next album, I’ll check my email and return to the blog post. When I have set events- Bible study, book review events, doctors’ appointments, trips, that’ll affect things.

I’m retired. I don’t punch a clock.

7. Do you share your interests with anyone?

Genealogy with my sisters. Book review with those folks. Choir with the choir. In the words of Yul Brynner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

8. Tell us why you enjoy your hobbies, pastimes, or interests.

They bring me joy, especially choir and blogging.

9. What emotions and feelings does summer conjure up for you?

I’m not primarily a summer guy. As a kid, it was baseball or softball at Ansco Park, trips to Eldridge Park in Elmira, Corning Glass Works, and visiting my mother’s aunt Charlotte.

10. What’s summer weather like in your neck of the woods?

Variable. While it doesn’t usually get above 90F, it can be hot. Or unexpectedly not.

11. Got some special summer meals you and your family enjoy?

Other than corn on the cob, not really.

Vacation

12. What do you enjoy doing in summer? Sports, trips… Do you go on vacation?

My mother-in-law’s kin has had a family reunion each summer near Binghamton, NY, for the last three-quarters of a century except for COVID and a year during WWII. Our nuclear family had extended vacations on the way to and from the Olin international reunions in 2011 (Ontario) and 2016 (Ohio). I wrote about my favorite vacations last year.

13. Did your parents have things better than you today?

Absolutely not. Because my mother was much fairer than my father, they were perceived as an interracial couple, which they were not. As a result, they could not find a place to rent in their hometown, and they lived in a rental property owned by my maternal grandmother for over two decades after they married.

14. What time period would you rather live in… or are you okay with today?

On the one hand, advances in technology. On the other, climate change. It’s difficult to peg a specifically better period. I don’t romanticize the past. IDK.

15. What changes would you make for our time to make it nicer/better to live in?

The improvement in freedom, even in ostensibly free nations.

Sumnmery things for Sunday Stealing

travelogue

This Sunday Stealing has summery things, though a lot of it has little to do with the season.

1. Favorite thing to do during the summer?

Go to the Mac Hadyn Theatre, about an hour away in Chatham, NY. A lot of young adults doing amazing things on a small stage. We hadn’t been since 2019.

2. Favorite cold food/dessert/drink that gets you through the summer heat?

Probably lemonade. Or an Arnold Palmer, which is half lemonade, half iced tea.

3. Gone to a drive-in movie

The last time I went, they were showing all five Planet of the Apes movies. I think I fell asleep during the last one. As a kid, we went to the drive-in a few times. I specifically remember seeing The Dirty Dozen at the drive-in near the Binghamton, NY airport.

4. What are you planning to do this summer?

Now that my wife is retired, get things fixed. Notably, the back porch has a roof that is crumbling. See more theater.

5. Did the pandemic ruin any summer plans? If so, what?

We were supposed to have an Olin family reunion in St. Paul/Minneapolis area in 2021. We did a ZOOM thing, which was better than it might have been, but hardly an adequate substitute.

6. Rode on any water mobile (jetski, ferry, boat, etc)

I’ve taken the Staten Island ferry from Manhattan several times. We crossed the Lake Champlain on two different ferries.

7. Gone to a summer camp

A few times as a kid. Didn’t love it. Worked at one when I was 17; a mixed bag.

Never Been To Spain

8. Been to any Asian country (if not, where would you go and why? if yes, where was your favorite?)

No, but I’d go to Japan because it’s Japan. But I’m fascinated with Singapore. It’s a city! It’s a country!

9. Been to any African country (if not, where would you go and why? if yes, where was your favorite and why?)

No, but I’m interested in Liberia because it was founded by people who once lived in the United States. And if I could figure out my roots, I’d go to Nigeria because I am 20% Nigerian per my DNA test.

10. Been to any North American country (if not, where would you go and why? if yes, where was your favorite and why?)

Well, I live in the United States. I’ve been to Mexico and Canada. And Barbados, which is practically in South America, on our honeymoon, a second-place prize from when I was on JEOPARDY. So that.

11. Been to any South American country (if not, where would you go and why? if yes, where was your favorite and why?)

No. I’d go to Uruguay because the weather seems temperate. And I like saying Montevideo.

12. Been to any Australian country (if not, where would you go and why? if yes, where was your favorite and why?)

What a peculiar question, since Australia IS a country. I’m guessing they’re going for that vast Oceania region. In any case, I’m picking New Zealand. I’d go visit Arthur.

And it appears that the quiz came from someone who is European because they don’t ask about that continent. I’ll pick Ireland because I am 26% Irish. Also, France so I could visit my friend Deborah.

Been Too Long At The Fair

13. Gone to a festival/fair

Often. County fairs, NY State Fair.

14. Gone to an amusement park

Frequently. Coney Island, Eldridge Park in Elmira, NY, and a couple Six Flags locations.

15. Binge watched 5 different TV show series (what were they)

I HATE binge-watching. It makes my brain hurt. I like to watch a variety of programs. Maybe I might watch JEOPARDY, then the news, then a drama. I may have watched three Dick Van Dyke episodes on a DVD once. FIVE? No way. Now my daughter can binge with police procedurals.

30-Day Music Prompt: reminds me of summer

I worked as a customer service representative at Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in from February 1989 to March 1990. I mostly hated it.

steel wheels Continuing with the 30-Day Music Prompt:

A song that reminds me of summer – There are lots. References are to the Billboard (US) pop charts, unless otherwise indicated.

Walking on Sunshine – Katrina and the Waves, #9 in 1985. After the 2005 hurricane, I always thought the group name was most unfortunate.

I Wanna Be A Lifeguard – Blotto. Albany’s own appeared on MTV on its very first day, back when they actually played music videos.

Then there are all the songs with the word “summer” in them:
In the Summertime – Mungo Jerry, #3 in 1970. This skiffle song was Jaquandor’s pick

Summerfling – k.d. lang, 2000. Lots of strings

Summertime, Summertime – the Jamies, #26 in 1958, and #38 in 1962. An irritating little song I loved while growing up.

Summertime – Billy Stewart, #10 pop, #7 soul in 1966. There are LOTS of versions of this Gershwin classic. On one of those Red, Hot, and Blue albums featuring the composer that I own, there are five or six iterations. I picked this one because I really liked it, but my former office mate Anne despised it.

Hot Fun in the Summertime – Sly & the Family Stone, #2 for three weeks pop, #3 for three weeks soul in 1969 – lawd, at the end I feel like I’ve gone to church. One of the reasons I bought that wonderful greatest hits album; an alternate ending

A song that reminds you of someone you’d rather forget

I’m having difficulty with this. But there’s an album that reminds me of a place I’d rather forget.

I worked as a customer service representative at Empire Blue Cross Blue Shield in from February 1989 to March 1990. I mostly hated it. If you don’t know why, I need to write more about that period.

But I got along with the other reps. I discovered that, for the Christmas gift exchange, I was to get something for this woman named Karen. As it turned out, Karen had selected me.

So we talked about music we mutually liked, and we came up with the Rolling Stones. The band had released Steel Wheels in August 1989, so I bought it for her and she for me.

I’m picking the first two singles because the titles reflected my feeling of being at Empire:

Mixed Emotions, #5 in 1989

Rock and a Hard Place, #23 in 1989