Sunday Stealing Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing Demands the Truth!

comic book conventions

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’s meme was inspired by FOMA. He shared 10 random true statements. Let’s see if they’re true of you, too. You can answer with just true or false, or give a more elaborate answer if you’re so inspired.

TRUE OR FALSE: Sunday Stealing Demands the Truth!

1. I’m married.

Yes, for 27 years

2. I’m raising a teenager.

No. A couple of years ago, I was.

3. I recently vacationed in California.

Not recently. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve been to California since Rebecca and Rico’s wedding in 2005. No, that’s not correct; I went to tend to sister Leslie when she had an accident in 2018. Regardless, it’s the state I’ve visited most often outside the Eastern Time Zone. I’ve been to San Diego Padres games six times, the Oakland A’s, California Angels, and San Diego Chargers once each.

4. I have traveled to Asia.

No, alas. I’d probably go to Japan.

5. I have a dog.

I haven’t had a dog since I was a child.

Not a lot of money

6. I received money from a class action settlement.

I’ve received several really tiny payments. Last year, maybe a half dozen, totaling less than $250.

7. I’ve been in the waiting room when a family member had surgery.

Yes. My wife had foot surgery in 2017, and my daughter had an adenoidectomy in 2007; the latter was somewhat traumatic for parents and child. I swear my wife had oral surgery, but I don’t seem to have written about it.

8. I have attended a convention.

Several comic book conventions, including some local ones. Also FantaCon, in 1979-1981, 1983, 1988, 1989, and 2013. San Diego Comic-Con in 1987 and 1988. Undoubtedly others.

9. I subscribe to my local newspaper (either print or online).

Yes: the Times Union, plus the New York Times, the Guardian, and a couple of others.

10. I recently had work done to the exterior of my home.

Well, technically. We got a new fence connected to our back porch.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Sunday Stealing, before summer slips away

URGENT and IMPORTANT

Since it’s the Labor Day weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI.

Labor Day Questions

1) What’s something you want to do before summer slips away?

Back in January, I wrote to a good friend, “The more I do, the further behind I am. How is this possible?”

He wisely replied, “The financial planner I worked for said it’s because we have two to-do lists in our heads (probably on paper, or your computer, for people like you and me): they are labeled URGENT and IMPORTANT, and new URGENTS always shove the IMPORTANT ones further and further down. Since you asked.”

So the biggest URGENT series – certain of you have some idea what that is- has utterly obliterated the IMPORTANT items on my list since June, such as:

Cleaning my office. Now worse off.

Cleaning my side of the bedroom, the Great Reorganizing. I had a brief window where I made some progress, but it stalled at the beginning of August.

Finding speakers for the FFAPL book reviews/author talks.

Calling a meeting of a genealogy group; I’m the chair, and I meant to do it in August.

What are books?

2) What book are you currently reading?

I’m not reading any books. I don’t even have time to read a daily newspaper. Eventually, I will have to tackle The Spirit of Philadelphia: A Call to Recover Founding Principles by Chris Gibson because I am reviewing it on October 27, but that’s SO far away; he lied.

3) What have you been listening to?

THAT I do because it’s necessary for the soul. Random Dolly Parton videos that pop up on YouTube, often as part of the Trio, with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, such as After the Gold Rush on David Letterman.

Two Beatles covers: the fascinating Blackbird by New York Vocal Collective and Can’t Buy Me Love by Casey Abrams, featuring Haley Reinhart, Charles Jones, and my first niece, Rebecca Jade.

September birthdays: Billy Preston – Do Want You Want To from the That’s The Way God Planned It album produced by George Harrison, which I first heard in Poughkeepsie, NY, in May 1971.

Chrissie Hynde and Martin Chambers of the Pretenders have birthdays this week. That first eponymous album had three or four singles, but the track that caught my attention in my recent play was the penultimate track, Lovers of Today.

Daniel Lanois is a record producer whose first album of his own, Acadie, features The Maker.

Time and Tide – Basia.

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

My wife managed to get through seasons 3 through 5 of Only Murders in the Building. I watched ESPN JEOPARDY, since the regular show is on hiatus for the summer; I knew so little, yet there were things I got that none of the contestants even rung in on.

Sunday Stealing Says Yeah!

rainbow door images

This week’s meme was inspired by F, Yeah Surveys. She admits she does too many of these, but we get it. We do, too. Sunday Stealing Says Yeah!

Yeah.

SURVEY TIME!

1. What will you remember from August 2026?

The truth is that it was a lot of stress for people I know, not family, but friends, involving housing and health. In fact, two different situations are remarkably similar, and these people don’t even know each other. To say more would be inappropriate. This in turn was a bit stressful for me. On the other hand, my wife and I went to NYC and saw a Broadway musical, which I’ve done fewer than half a dozen times.

2. When will you start your holiday shopping?

I don’t know. But my daughter picked out some items she brought home from South Africa as gifts. I shop when I’m inspired. Often, that’s December 23, when the inspiration is panic, particularly when certain parties are LOUSY hinters.

3. Where did you meet the person you fell the hardest for?

I’m trying to suss out “fell the hardest for.” Is there a Geiger counter for that? By my reckoning, it could be an unrequited something from decades ago, or maybe a requited one. I could say second grade, or high school, or the first year in college. The definition is too fuzzy for me.

Friends

Midler, War, John

4. Where did you meet your best friend?

Ah, a concrete question I can answer! I met my two oldest friends in kindergarten, which was a VERY long time ago, and we’re still friends. I saw one earlier this year, and I’ll see the other next month.

5. Share a fact about the last person who texted you.

I’m in a group chat about a situation referred to in Question 1. Without looking, I don’t even know who texted me last, though it’s among four people, because my phone died. Here’s the truth – I HATE texting. It’s become a necessary evil. So poring over the thread is really tedious.

6. EXTRA! EXTRA! Since June’s DIY meme was such fun, let’s do it again. Please close out this post with a question for your fellow Sunday thieves. Hopefully we’ll have enough responses for a September DIY.

What is your favorite Dolly Parton story? I know mine.

Oh, the photos are of the wall just before going up the stairs. The one above is from August 30 at 9:47 a.m.; the one below is from August 20 at 8:30 a.m., both thanks to the rainbow door. I love them both because of their impermanence; they are relaxing to look at. The later shot was gone within an hour, like a sand castle wiped out by the waves.

Sunday Stealing – They Say It’s Your Birthday

Things that happened in history on 7 March

Roger.cartoon Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. We promise to work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Sparky Duck at Philly Transplant learned a little something with this meme, which he stole from his blogging buddy Wylie. Here’s how to play. Search for your birthday (month and day only) at Wikipedia and then share what else happened that day.

Wikipedia Meme: They Say It’s Your Birthday

First, what is your birthday (month/day)? 7 March

Now, go to Wikipedia and list:

Four historic events

1850 – Senator Daniel Webster gives his “Seventh of March” speech endorsing the Compromise of 1850 in order to prevent a possible civil war. This dreadful legislative package, of course, ultimately had the opposite effect. It included the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell is granted a patent for an invention he calls the “telephone.” Here’s my COVID telephone experiment. I have a portable device charging downstairs right now.

1965 – Bloody Sunday: A group of 600 civil rights marchers is brutally attacked by state and local police in Selma, Alabama. Of course, I remember this extraordinarily well, and it pained me greatly.

1986 – Challenger Disaster: Divers from the USS Preserver locate the crew cabin of Challenger on the ocean floor. The disaster had taken place on January 28, which I recall all too well.

Natal day

Three births: this one is really difficult, because, without looking, I’m aware of several, including Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues), Wanda Sykes, Ivan Lendl, Rachel Weisz, Lauren Prepon, Jeff Kent, Michael Eisner, et al

1875 – Maurice Ravel, French pianist, composer, and conductor (died 1937). He wrote much more than Bolero. That said, I recall hearing that piece performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. We got the tickets because our friends had ASO subscriptions but didn’t want to go because Bolero is “boring.” I must say that it is much more interesting live than on a recording.

1950 – Franco Harris, American football player and businessman (died 2022). As a Steeler, he caught the “Immaculate Reception.” BTW, his teammate, Lynn Swann, was also born on that date in 1952.

**1974 – Jenna Fischer, American actress. I was reading this week why she walked away from acting after starring as Pam Beesly on The Office for nine seasons and then a subsequent series.**

Two deaths

1274 – Saint Thomas Aquinas, Italian priest and philosopher (born 1225)

1986 – Jacob K. Javits, American colonel and politician, New York State Attorney General (born 1904). He was my U.S. senator when I was growing up.

One holiday or observance. I know none of these.

Perpetua and Felicity. “Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son she was nursing. Felicity, a slave woman imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.”

Sunday Stealing Plays Favorites

Sondheim

This week’s meme was stolen from Country Dew. A decade ago, she shared these “get to know you” questions she found on Facebook. Let’s use them to get to know you better.

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE …? Sunday Stealing Plays Favorites

1. Flavor? Apparently, it’s strawberry. Strawberry ice cream and milkshakes, strawberry shortcake, strawberry jam, strawberry lemonade. Strawberries in my morning oatmeal. Let me take you down, ’cause I’m going to Strawberry Fields Forever. The Brothers Johnson’s version of Strawberry Letter #23.

2. Movie? Maybe Casablanca, which I saw in the late 1970s in an outdoor venue – a park? – in Rochester, NY, with a former housemate. But I haven’t seen it in total since.

Possibly West Side Story, which I saw when I was ten. Specifically Tonight (Quintet), which just blew me away. A countermelody? I didn’t know you could do that. And I’ve seen a variety of productions of the stage musical since. I own two books by composer Stephen Sondheim; read the “words that rhyme” section.

It may not even be my favorite musical (likely Fiddler On The Roof), but West Side Story has a deeper foundation.

3. Piece of jewelry? Not a real jewelry guy. My wedding ring.

Lots of water

4. Place to be? Niagara Falls, which, now that I think about it, I’ve been to with my family growing up, with my work friends, with my wife, and with my wife and daughter.

5. Boy’s name? Roger. I’ve probably written about my name a number of times.

6. Girl’s name? Isabella, which I mentioned here why it’s NOT our daughter’s name.

7. Candy? York Peppermint Patties or Mounds bar.

8. Sports team? I was much more invested in sports teams as a kid. I have a bias for the NYC baseball and football teams. But there’s only one NFL team that plays its games in New York State: the Buffalo Bills.

9. Color? Green, mentioned here.

10. Month? March. Yes, it’s my birth month and my daughter’s, but it also has St. Patrick’s Day, which is green (see question 9), not to mention my genealogical roots. And it’s spring. Sometimes, it’s Easter.