Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 12 of 35

Sunday Stealing: 24 easy steps

World Almanac

The premise of this week’s Sunday Stealing seems deceptively simple. Reveal yourself in 24 easy steps.

I am not bored. I’m never bored when I have any control of the agenda.

I hurt when I’m not heard.

I love looking at the section of my bookcase, seeing the array of colors and the variety of popular culture topics represented therein.

I hate that certain politicians can lie egregiously, and people believe them. Dana Milbank of the Washington Post dubbed one of these politicians Das GropenFührer, but I, of course, would NEVER sink that low.

I fear Christofascism.

I hope my daughter goes abroad more often than I did.

I regret? “Regrets, I’ve had a few. ” I have plenty, but many are buried in the recesses of my mind.

I cry over music. It doesn’t have to be sad. Indeed, it could be something that brings me joy.

I care that things seem fair. I think the Americans With Disabilities Act is a wonderful thing, for instance. So, when people obstruct sidewalks for their short-term benefit, it tends to tick me off. (The guy who parks his car to block the sidewalk on my block, making it difficult for blind or infirm people to get by, is extremely lucky I haven’t keyed his car… yet.)

No surprise

I always have music on when I write or clean. Currently, the Mamas and the Papas’ People Like Us album.

I long for more sleep.

I listen to opinions I tend to disagree with in the hope that I’ll better understand a different POV. It usually doesn’t work but I keep trying anyway.

I hide, sometimes in plain sight.

I write because I have to. There is so much information coming at me that I have to figure the world out. Writing slows down the tendency to make instant analyses.

I miss a whole lot of people: Gladys, Mike, indeed, a whole lot of folks from church, especially the choir. Richard, my FIL. Raoul, though it’s been a long time. My parents, of course. But the person I wish I could pick up the phone and call is Norman.

It’s the librarian in me.

I search for information all the time. When I was ten, it was the World Almanac and an encyclopedia.

I learn things that interest me fast, while other things bore me, such as our visits to our financial planner. It’s a MEGO experience.

I feel pain in my left knee. I need to go for physical therapy and hope it helps. Failing that, I’ll have to get a knee replacement. Ultimately, there will be two because they are both bone on bone.

I know a lot of weird stuff, such as all of the presidents by the year they took office, Bob Gibson’s ERA in 1968 (1.12), and the number of MLB career home runs hit by Willie Mays (660).

I want to be kinder to myself.

I worry about my daughter’s future. Global warming is a big reason, but not the only thing.

I wish I could fly. STILL, the most regular dream I have.

I have, generally speaking, a good capacity for listening.

I give blood. I’ve done so about 180 times because I think it’s important. I donated six times yearly for a long while, but it’s more difficult for an inexperienced phlebotomist to hit the vein correctly. When it’s done correctly, I can give it in six minutes or less.

I wait for my wife, though it’s less chronic than it used to be. Too often, she tries to squeeze in “one more thing,” which tends to make her later than SHE says some task will take.

I need to be understood. But don’t we all?

Switch

Then, after I completed the questions on Friday, they changed, so I’m answering these on the fly.

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU…

1 – Handwrote a letter to a friend?

Don’t remember.

2 – Cried?

Yesterday

3 – Fell over?

A few years ago.

4 – Bought a present for someone?

Last month for my wife’s birthday.

5 – Had a pajama day?

6 – Watched a movie that you wouldn’t have gone to the cinema to see?

That is not how I operate. Except during COVID, or when I miss a film at the cinema, my default is going to the movies.

7 – Stayed up all night?

When my sister Leslie sang at Carnegie Hall.

8 – Bought something on eBay?

An Elvis Costello CD a few years ago

9 – Colored in a coloring book?

A few years ago.

10 – Told someone you love them?

Yesterday

11 – Kissed someone?

Yesterday

12 – Went to the doctors?

This week

13 – You traveled by train?

This month (Alexandria, VA to Albany/Rensselaer, NY)

14 – Screamed because you were scared?

Don’t remember

15 – Visited your hometown?

Yesterday

16 – Went on vacation?

This month

17 – Finished reading a book?

Last month

18 – Went to a church service?

Last week.

19 – Wore a hat?

Yesterday. I always wear a hat or cap.

20 – Turned off your mobile phone?

Yesterday, when I was losing power.

Sunday Stealing: Olympic events

training

To the Sunday Stealing list of questions, Bev added a bonus question about the Olympics, which I deign to answer first.

Extra question: Olympic events that I like to watch or follow

I didn’t see much of it when I was home during the first week. But my wife, daughter, and I were away in Alexandria, VA, for the second week. So, I ended up watching more. One series of events involved the relay; passing the baton while maintaining the pace is surprisingly difficult. Another was diving; it’s astonishing how high the best divers get above the board, do several moves, do not hit their heads on the board, and then land in the water without making much of a splash. And the pole vault always amazes me.

1. I am looking forward to …

Being home for a while. Because of the remnants of Hurricane Debby, including tornados, localized flooding, and downed trees on the track, our train from Alexandria, scheduled to depart at 11:08 a.m., did not leave for NYC until much later. Fortunately, enough people canceled their reservations for the 10:24 train, which left at 11:44, so many of us caught that instead. It was a bit stressful, I must say. And we followed the Debby’s downers for hours.

2. Least favorite words

“The late great Hannibal Lecter.”

3. If I ruled the world

I’d ban assault weapons (AK-47) and mandate equitable salaries. Most inequities involve too much for too few, so food, health care, mass transportation, and green energy would be funded. And there would be no billionaires because they have an outsized degree of power.

The Wayback Machine!

4. Favorite websites and blogs

My favorite website may be the Internet Archive, “a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites, and more.” It features the Wayback Machine: “Explore more than 866 billion web pages saved over time.” When working as a business librarian, I was asked to access a document from the Bureau of Indian Affairs website, but for some political reason, the site was down. I found the piece via the Wayback Machine.

5. Things I do for myself

My blog.

6. Weekly rituals

Tuesday: Attend Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library book reviews or author talks. Thursday: choir rehearsal, take out the garbage. Sunday: church. That said, I missed two FFAPL events and four church services because I was out of town, and choir doesn’t rehearse in the summer.

7. DIYs I want to try

Can’t think of one.

8. On my shopping list

I’m trying hard NOT to buy more stuff.

9. Places to see in your town

I’ve answered this before. I read that the city has completed the Albany Pedestrian Experience, which is a terrible name for a band.

10. Road trip must-haves

I bought an item for our trip to France where I can charge multiple phones simultaneously.

11. Guilty pleasures

Doing this quiz

12. Things I’d rather be doing right now

At this moment, I’d be sleeping because I woke up too early

13. Books I’d like to read this year

All of the ones I bought and sit, sad and forlorn, on my bookshelf

14. Lessons learned

There are too many to encapsulate; sometimes, I must relearn them anyway.

15. Vacations to take

Despite what Disney said, “It’s a big world after all.”

Sunday stealing: creature feature

what winter?

The Sunday Stealing this week includes a creature feature.

1. How would your pet describe you

We only have one, Stormy, since Midnight died this summer. I’ve written a post about her that will show up soon. But let me tell let me tell you a related story. One morning this week, I was in my office and heard a rustling sound. Initially, I thought it was the fan blowing against the window treatment or a CD not playing correctly. Eventually, I leaned over to look into one of our garbage cans, and there was a bat. It was a live bat. I don’t mean a baseball or cricket bat, but a mammal. It could not get out. I took another garbage can, covered up the opening, and carried them out to the back part of our yard, where I released the creature.

I’m wondering whether the bat came into the house via the chimney or possibly the basement or attic. Perhaps Stormy saw the bat and attacked it and the bat flew into the garbage can and couldn’t get out. Or did Stormy place the bat into the garbage can? I do not know the answer to this question.

What’s the Story?

2.. Tell us a story

This week, I gave a book talk about The Undertow by Jeff Sharlet, a tome I will eventually review in this blog. Interestingly, when the conversation about the book ended, it launched into a very interesting discussion about the political process in the United States and what democracy is. As a political science major, it was very interesting to me. I posited that I HATE when people don’t vote.

3.. What do you pack in your beach/hiking bag

I have no such bag, but if I did, it would probably have something to read, probably some newspapers or magazines to read. A hat, sunscreen, and water.

4.. How do you like to spend great weather weekends

I’m not a guy who hangs out a lot outdoors. I don’t say, “Ohh, it’s nice out. I’m gonna hang up at the beach,” or “I’m gonna hang out at the pool.”

I can walk under ladders

5.. Describe a time when the circumstances fell in your favor

I’m sure I told this story before, but I will repeat it. I was in Corporate (frickin’) Woods, where I used to work. Most know I hated working there. I had to get to an appointment for some reason, but I just missed the bus and was very upset. It was cold and windy. I needed to walk up the hill to get out of the complex. I was wearing a red Santa Claus hat with a white ball, I had a beard, and I was heavy enough. Somebody who I did not know, a young woman, stopped to give me a ride to the next place where I could catch a bus, on the Northern Boulevard. She said she picked me up because she couldn’t stand to see Santa Claus walk.

6.. Which summer sounds do you enjoy

it tends to be summer songs, especially Sly and the Family Stone’s Hot Fun In The Summertime and Summer In The City by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

7.. It’s not really summer until …

I turn on the air conditioner, which involves my wife and me placing it in the front window. Considering the number of times we have installed the behemoth, it seems like we’ve never done it before. Where does that piece of wood go? Is it level? Where should we put the padding? It’s always a drag.

8.. What music are you listening to these days

I always listen to lots of music, but currently, I’m listening to people whose birthdays are in August. That would include Elvis Costello, Tori Amos, Count Basie, The Clash (for Joe Strummer), Robert Plant, John Hiatt, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, Tony Bennett, and Louis Armstrong.

In The Summertime

9.. How much has changed since last summer

The difference between last summer and this summer is that my wife didn’t take off any time last summer. She was working all the time, and we didn’t do a whole heck of a lot. She took off for eight weeks this summer, so we went to Chautauqua Institution. But we also worked on many household chores which had fallen by the wayside.

10. What are your favorite things to wear in summer

Hats, specifically caps, sunglasses, and, oddly enough, long-sleeved shirts, because I fear getting sunburned.

11. What do you miss about winter

Winter in Albany, NY, is wussy. We haven’t had a whole lot of snow or cold. It’s not very impressive. We had one very cold winter in the past decade. Our snowfall has been pathetic compared to our average norm of about 5 feet (1.5 m) for the season. People elsewhere tell me, “Oohh, it snows a lot up there.” Well, it did, but for the most part, it doesn’t, and of course, it’s largely a result of global warming.

Summertime

12. How would you spend summer vacation as an adult

I would travel a lot based on money, but I’ll probably want some downtime and my laptop ready to keep track of everything.

13. Describe your ideal get-together/party

We so seldom throw parties that it’s a hard question to answer. Lots of people are eating food and have a place to talk. I liked the party that one of our choir members held. It was on their back deck. Part of it was covered so I could stay out of the sun while others stood out on the outside deck.

14. What makes you feel like part of your community

Church. The library. Talking to my neighbors. I am looking out for things that are a little askew in my neighborhood and noting it to whoever might be able to do something about it.

15. How was your July 2024?

I’m overly busy and barely have time to write about it.

Sunday Stealing: My favorites

a Binghamton theme emerges

Smilin' Ed complete The Sunday Stealing asks about my favorites. I find these difficult because “my favorites” suggest things I do repeatedly.

1. What’s your favorite animal?

Conceptually, it has to be the duck-billed platypus, “a semiaquatic, egg-laying mammal. The platypus is the sole living representative… of its family Ornithorhynchidae and genus Ornithorhynchus.”

I could say cat, although we just lost one of ours. Abstractly, I like golden retrievers because I like OTHER people’s dogs. I’ve never had one, and I’m not planning on getting one.

2. What’s your favorite book?

Oh, gosh. It’s often been the last book I’ve read, including Life Itself by Roger Ebert, Soulville, USA by Rob Bowman, The Heart Of Christianity by Marcus Borg, and How To Be An Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. So I’ll pick Smilin’ Ed Comics: De Complete collection by Raoul Vezina and Tom Skulan because it brings me back to a certain time (1980s) and place (FantaCo, where I worked then.)

3. What’s your favorite color?

It’s odd. I’ve said greens or blues. But I remember getting a piece of furniture in the late 1990s, a mini-sofa in a Southwestern motif; it had warm colors. It was the first real piece of furniture I ever purchased, but I had to give it away because there was no room for it.

4. What’s your favorite dessert?

Fruit pie (apple, blueberry, cherry) a la mode (with vanilla ice cream)

5. What’s your favorite drink?

Diet Cherry Pepsi, but I can’t drink it too often because it wacks out my sleep pattern.

6. What’s your favorite food?

Things I tend not to eat very often: duck, steak, lamb.

7. What’s your favorite hobby?

Do I have a hobby? I’d say genealogy, but I’ve spent precious little time on it lately.

Cinema

8. What’s your favorite movie?

No clue. It tends to be the last movie I saw that I really liked. Casablanca is a candidate, but I’ve only seen it once. It had been Annie Hall, the Woody Allen movie I’d seen four times, though not this century. It did mirror a couple of aspects of my relationship at the time.

9. What’s your favorite restaurant?

Frank’s is an unassuming ice cream place that also serves decent Italian food.

10. What’s your favorite sandwich?

A spiedie because I’m from Binghamton, and there is no other answer. I had a TERRIBLE one at the New York State Fair in September 2019.

11. What’s your favorite season?

Spring. I’m not fond of heat, cold, or falling leaves.

12. What’s your favorite series?

The Dick Van Dyke Show or The Twilight Zone, both of which have a Binghamton connection. Both Richard Deacon (Mel Cooley) and Rod Serling lived in my hometown for a time.

13. What’s your favorite snack?

Ritz crackers and cheddar cheese

14. What’s your favorite sport to watch?

American football. Last season, I recorded nearly two dozen games, then watched them, fast-forwarding them through the huddles, replays, and commercials. I got through a 60-minute game in about 75 minutes.

15. What’s your favorite thing to have for breakfast?

Pancakes or waffles, fried eggs, sausage, and/or bacon. I don’t EAT that very often, alas.

Sunday Stealing: Catalyst quartet

99X

Here’s another Sunday Stealing. But before that, I want to plug the Catalyst Quartet, a barbershop quartet in my area. I got to see the relatively new group perform on Friday at my church. They were cool even though the room was rather warm. You can see the program on their Facebook page for June 21, 2024.

They recently qualified for this year’s international barbershop quartet competition in Cleveland, OH and they are thrilled. The competition is in the first week of July and between hotels, travel costs, and registration fees, the expenses are adding up. So they have a GoFundMe campaign.

I should note that two of these guys are regulars in my church choir and a third has sung there occasionally.

Here are a couple of their tunes I found on YouTube from the 2023 NextGen Varsity Finals:

Good Luck Charm

Surfer Girl

I’ll admit to be enough of a sucker for barbershop that I attended the Sweet Adelines competition in New York in April 1976.

Now back to our regular quiz.

1. Are you double-jointed?

No.

2. Are you ticklish?

Decreasingly so.

3. Cookies, cakes, or donuts?

Well, it depends on the item at hand. Oatmeal raisin cookies. Carrot cake. Donuts are okay, but I liked them more as a kid. Specifically, Spaulding Krullers. The linked post is one of this blog’s most popular ever.

But the choices do not include the OBVIOUS answer, which is PIE. It is well documented that PIE rules.

4. Did you go to prom?

I went to two proms, as noted here.

5. Do you bite your nails?

No, but I used to.

6. Do you enjoy dancing?

There are rare periods when I do. Most don’t even involve alcohol.

7. Do you forgive easily?

Yes. But I rarely forget. There are people I keep at arm’s length because they’ve so wounded me decades ago. I suppose forgetting involves apparent remorse on their part, and the people I’m thinking of unfortunately don’t appear to be capable of that.

8. Do you prefer to bathe or shower?

I haven’t taken a bath in this millennium.

9. Does your name have any special meaning?

Roger means spearbearer. I think it’s Germanic. Green is a color, which I’m sure I wrote about several times, including here. I found a guy named Owen for his interpretation of his name.

10. Have you ever gone camping?

Yes. Hated it.

I am a winner!

11. Have you ever won something?

Back in the days of calling into radio stations to win prizes, I had a pretty good track record. I’ve gotten several LPs; Hunky Dory by David Bowie, with Changes immediately comes to mind.

When I lived in NYC in 1977, I was the ninth caller with the phrase “99X is my radio station,” and I had to name the last song played which was She’s Gone by Hall and Oates; I received twice my age, so $48, and I’m pretty sure I took my sister Leslie to a New York Mets game.

In the early 1980s, I scored tickets to see Judy Collins in Glens Falls, NY.

The only trophy I ever won was for racquetball.

I ‘ve been on a trivia team that once was victorious. Oh, and there’s that JEOPARDY thing.

12. What did you last eat?

Red grapes.

13. What’s your longest relationship so far?

The person I’ve known the longest is my sister Leslie. If we’re talking romantic relationship, that’d be my wife. Interestingly, both are born in July and are left-handed.

14. Have you ever been on a diet?

I’m often on a diet. That’s why I’m eating grapes.

15. Do you enjoy DIY or crafts?

Let’s say no.