Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 19 of 40

Sunday Stealing: if you like art

the new orange

1. If you like art, who is your favourite artist and why?

I love seeing art. The Clark Art Museum and MASS MoCA are just two venues not so far away. That reminds me that last week I wrote about the Nell Stokes exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art being cut short. It is now scheduled to end on December 31, 2024, as initially promised. This is good because I had not had a chance to see it.

I think Rodin sculptures are sexy as all get out and much more so in person than in photos. Speaking of photos, I’d go with Dorothea Lange. As for painters, there are too many to name.

2. If you were able to learn any three skills or talents instantly and with success, what would they be?

Computer repair, typing, and square dancing.

3. If you were to live in Ancient Times, where – in what country – would you want to live in?

Nigeria, probably because I have ancestors there.

4. What is something you’re embarrassed to admit to liking? Whether it be a guilty pleasure show, or unusual hobby, etc.

I’ve given up on guilty pleasures. I mean, I used to collect comic books. I still have comics-related books and Hess trucks.

Worst job

5. What is the worst job you’ve ever had?

I worked in a box factory, but that was only two weeks. Empire Blue Cross was pretty terrible but it was only 13 months. Possibly my last job because it was so often disappointing; it wasn’t terrible all of the time, but most of the last four years were awful, and there were periods before that.

6. What is something that you wanted to do as a child that you would still like to do now?

Be a trial lawyer. I was a sucker for Perry Mason, Judd for the Defense, The Bold Ones: The Lawyers, et al.

7. What do you hate being judged for more than anything else?

Appearance. It seems so shallow.

8. What is your life’s mission?

To make people’s lives suck less.

9. If everyone walked around wearing warning labels, what would yours say?

I have a very long fuse, but I will likely scream at you if I tell you I’m reaching my limit, yet you keep pushing it.

10. At what age did you first feel like you were an adult?

I think it’ll be next year. Or the year after that.

Speak up

11. When did you not speak up, but wish you had?

I actually talked to someone about this in May 2024. In my last job, the organization was taken over for a couple of years around the turn of the millennium by a corrupt yet idiotic political hack named Felix, who eventually was indicted and went to jail for a time.

I was in charge of a committee tasked to hire someone to be a business advisor, which was all done by the book. Then one of the committee members, who I’ll call Holly, said we had to select someone else as well, a person who had not gone through the vetting process. I said I wouldn’t sign off on it, so SHE did.

I didn’t think complaining up the chain would have mattered – the chancellor’s wife worked for Felix. But maybe I should have found a mid-level bureaucrat to complain to, who might have been more isolated from the chain of command. Still, I was so taken aback by Holly’s action that I didn’t remember the name of the mystery candidate, though maybe the bureaucrats could have found the person by their work start date. But the political corruption was so bad at the time that nothing would likely have happened.

12. What is something that makes your skin crawl?

Bad liars. Orange is the new orange.

13. What was the last thing to give you butterflies in your stomach?

Doing a book review.

14. What’s your favorite type of media to work with? (Paint, clay, pens, etc.)

I’m not an artist. But I used to love Play-Doh.

15. What question do you hate answering?

I might have said talking about racism. But one of the comments to a recent post reminded me that people are at different places in their awareness of the phenomenon.

Sunday Stealing: Nell Stokes

strawberry

Before I get to this week’s Sunday Stealing, something hyperlocal, curious, and time-sensitive. There is an exhibit called “Nell Stokes: Stories of an Education Advocate” at the Albany Institute of History and Art, an entity my wife and I have supported financially. The exhibit was mounted by Lacey Wilson on December 19, 2023, and was scheduled to be up until December 2024. (Here’s an interview with Lacey from January.)

However, by chance, Nell, a local treasure, learned on May 19, 2024, that the exhibit will be taken down in a few days (i.e., tomorrow, May 26.) She posted about it on her Facebook page and received questions on why it was being removed five months in when twelve months was promised. She believes, and I agree, that it should stay up as promised until December, and we need to know, if not, why not.

Her request to you is to call Diane Shewchuk at 518.463.4478, Ex 441, and ask the Question.

And now back to our regular quiz

1. Have you ever been stung or bitten by an animal?

I’ve been stung by bees, or probably wasps. While my dog, an Alaskan husky, bit me when I was a kid, it was the fact that my parents (probably my father) thought it was no big deal until Lucky Stubbs bit one of the pastor’s daughters, that really irritated me. Only then he gave him to one of his co-workers who had more property to allow the dog to roam.

2. Do you have a favorite bird? Do you feed the birds at your house or park?

Of the ones I never see: ostriches, penguins. In the I’ve seen them category: blue jays, cardinals, et al. And eagles. Frankly, if it weren’t for neighborhood standards, I’d never mow the lawn so the creatures could forage. BTW, the question reminds me of the song My Conviction from the musical Hair.

Specifically: “There is a peculiar notionThat elegant plumageAnd fine feathersAre not proper for the maleWhen actuallyThat is the way things are in most species”

3. What is the last thing you said to somebody before replying to this email?

To the Daughter: “Take the Zyrtec first.”

I remember sleep

4. How do you get yourself ready to sleep at night?

This probably requires its own blogpost. Short answer: there’s no consistent pattern in terms of when I go to bed, or how long I’m off my computer, or whether I watch television first. Usually, I watch a recorded episode of JEOPARDY, because I get teases on my phone which reveal TMI. I have what they call bad sleep hygiene, and it’s gotten worse in the last several months. I do take a battery of Rx pills and brush my teeth.

5. When was the last time you wrote a proper letter?

“Proper” is an interesting term. I did write a Christmas letter at the end of the year and even snail-mailed it to several people who had sent me cards over the past two or three years.

6. What is the worst injury you have ever sustained?

Our contenders: June 1972 – I was getting out of a car when it was rear-ended. I spent a day and a half in the hospital, then six weeks in physical therapy. 1994 – I tore the left meniscus sliding down a mountain in Utah. 2009 – I broke a rib while on my bicycle, trying to avoid a car. We’ll go with the knee, which troubles me to this day.

7. If you could choose your career based strictly on what you think would be fun instead of your qualifications/salary/etc., what would it be?

I wish I had been a public librarian rather than working in a closed environment.

An alternate Earth

8. You can live on another planet, which one and why?

There’s probably a planet somewhere in the universe that has to have a similar ecosystem as Earth. Maybe the people there haven’t mucked up the environment as much as we have.

9. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Strawberry. There was a place in my college town, New Paltz, where I’d have a sundae, and it’d be strawberry ice cream and strawberry sauce.

10. What do you think of tattoos? Do you have any?

I’ve mellowed on tattoos. From not liking them at all to finding some quite appealing, though usually not the full-body jobs. But I’m never getting one.

11. Are you very active or do you prefer to just relax in your free time?

I don’t have any free time. Some items sit on my to-do list for months while more pressing items muscle their way onto my calendar. This is related to my bad sleep patterns. Maybe when my wife retires.

12. If you could bring back one TV show that was cancelled, which one would you bring back?

There are plenty of shows. But a lot of reboots, even with the same cast, they are lesser efforts. Murphy Brown was a prime example.

No surprise

13. Do you prefer to watch movies in the theater or in the comfort of your own home?

In the cinema. I simply have no patience/discipline to watch a movie at home and watch it in the way it was meant to be viewed, which is straight through.

14. If you opened a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?

First, I would never open a restaurant; it is way too much of a hassle. That said, something like Sabor a Campo, which is “an eat-in buffet, carry-out style restaurant, specializing in value-driven multicultural foods, and set in a relaxed, homey, and familial environment.”

15. What do you think is a common thing that is shared between countries despite language barriers?

Most people just want to be left alone to work, raise and feed their families, with respect, civility, and peace.

I see there’s a new final question:

15. If money were no object what would you do for your next birthday??

Right now, I have no idea. It’s in the middle of my wife’s work year and my daughter’s school year. Under the right circumstances, I’d travel somewhere I’ve never been, maybe Ireland and Nigeria.

Sunday stealing: liturgy of the Word

LOUD

Here’s this week’s Sunday Stealing. I looked at the questions, and many of them seemed very familiar. In fact, look at these answers from two months ago.

But there is something in a lot of church worship called the liturgy, which is “a customary repertoire of ideas, phrases, or observances. The liturgy of the Word consists of Scripture readings, repeated in a three-year cycle. The theory is that as one revisits them, one has new insight.

So I will answer all the questions, even the repeats, but answer them differently.

1. Write about the best decision you ever made. How did you make it? Was it reasoning or gut instinct?

It was moving to the Capital District of New York State in late 1977. As you can tell, it was definitely not reasoning. And it wasn’t gut instinct. It was desperation.

2. What ONE thing would you change about your life? How would your life be different?

I honestly cannot answer this. If I did this, then I wouldn’t have done that. I can think of a good half dozen choices that would have changed my life if I had said, or didn’t say, X. Think the multiverse.

Mom

3. What is the hardest thing you have ever done? Why was it hard for you? What did you learn?

It wasn’t watching my mom die. It was a few minutes before that when I thought she was suffocating to death. I freaked out and rang the nurses, even though she had a DNR. This is a natural devolution of end of life, I learned. Do I need to explain why it was difficult? It’s added to my pool of information for Death Cafe courses I have helped to facilitate. I’ve since embraced the topic of death, learning about death doulas, for instance.

4. What is your greatest hope for your future? What steps can you take to make it happen?

Someday, my wife will retire. I can make oatmeal for us almost every morning.

5. If you can time travel, what will you tell your teenage self?

Not a damn thing because I wouldn’t believe it anyway. If I did believe my Future Self, it would alter what I might have experienced.

6. Write about the most glorious moment in your life so far.

One would be when my church choir performed the Mozart Requiem in March 1985, then a handful of us crashed Albany Pro Musica and performed it on September 11, 2002; afterward, it was the only time I wore a tuxedo to work.

7. What did you struggle most with today?

Time management. the more I NEED to do, the less likely I have the focus to do so,

8. What made you happy today?

Takeout Indian food.

Grandma

9. What did you dislike most about growing up?

The deaths of my paternal grandmother, Agatha Walker in 1964, when I was 11, and my great aunt Adenia Yates in 1966, when I was almost 13. They were great.

10. Write about 3 activities you love the most and why you love them.

Music (singing), music (listening to recordings), and music (hearing live music). Because joy.

11. What has been your best trip so far?

There have been a few. The first best trip as a family was probably a 2008 trip to colonial Williamsburg, pictured above.

12. Write a list of 3 things (physical or personality-wise) you love about yourself, and why they make you unique.

We’re all unique, with specific recollections and skills. Mine tend to be with numbers. I had to exchange some tickets for a musical, and they would cost more. In my head, I figured it out before the person with the calculator could. Math is everywhere. Why? Because it’s useful and fun.

Unfairness ticks me off. Cars that park in crosswalks, making it difficult for pedestrians, who might be blind or have a walker or a shopping cart are selfish jerks. Unfortunately, I’m too civilized to key their cars, But I think about it way too often.

And music. I hear it, even when it’s not playing. I listen for the tones of fire trucks, vacuum cleaners, or chainsaws. Why? Because music. Renée Fleming has edited a new book called Music and Mind, which someone ought to get for me.

Openish book

13. Discuss 3 things you wish others knew about you.

I’ve been writing a blog for 19 years. Whatever I haven’t told you I either don’t think I can share, at least not yet, or I don’t remember anymore.

14. Write about your top 3 personal strengths.

I can be VERY LOUD when I have to be, a useful skill when someone tries to announce amid a noisy room. My go-to: “OYEZ!! OYEZ!”

I observe a great deal, looking for people in certain settings who seem new or shy.

I have that curiosity gene that a good librarian needs. It’s been used in the blog dozens of times per year.

15. Is social media a blessing or a curse?

My general observation is that there’s a LOT of information, too much to keep track of. I saw this post about a woman leaving the reality show Real Housewives of the Potomac. There’s a show called Real Housewives of the Potomac. And it’s been on since 2016?! I spend more time skipping things than reading them.

Occasionally, I will indulge myself by watching three or four reels on Facebook of billiard shots. I love billiards, but I suck at it, so the game interests me.

Sunday Stealing: SwapBot again

movies at the theater

Mark.Roger

This Sunday Stealing was swiped from SwapBot again.

1. Who is your best friend and why? What do you like to do together?

I have a handful. One, who I’ve known since 1958, is four hours away and we go out to eat breakfast every time they’re in town. Another, also from 1958, lives in Texas and I see them every chance I can when they’re in the state. We were texting about the one four hours away this week.

A third, who’s about an hour and a half away, whom I’ve only known since 1971 I was texting about genealogy when I saw the quiz. We went to Las Vegas together in September 2023 and chased a solar eclipse in April 2024.

2. What is your town like? What are your favorite places to go?

I’m sure I’ve described Albany sufficiently. That said, in the city proper, I like going to the Capital Rep theater and various restaurants; Sabor a Campo has an eclectic menu. But I probably spend most of my time away from home at the library and church.

3. What is your favorite meal? Where and when do you eat it?

I like Italian food. Frank’s Ice Cream & Restaurant, a very unassuming place on Albany-Shaker Road in Loudonville, is quite decent. The first time we went there, it was only because D’Raymond’s, essentially across the street was booked for the next 90 minutes.

Not working

4. What is your job like? What do you like about it?

I’m retired, and glad about it. I liked the day-to-day work, doing research for potential entrepreneurs, and I learned new stuff almost every day. The advisors in the field were generally wonderful. But the organization at the Central office was… inadequate.

5. What is your favorite place to go on vacation?

I don’t think I have one. The place we’ve gone most often is a timeshare in western Massachusetts.

6. What country would you like to visit one day?

Too many to list: I have relatives in Ireland and Nigeria, though I don’t know who they are yet. Italy, Cuba, and New Zealand.

7. What bores you the most?

Meetings. The only things worse than in-person meetings are online meetings.

8. What are you looking forward to this summer?

My wife is actually taking six weeks off this summer, unlike in 2023. So ANYWHERE we go will be fine.

9. What is your favorite film?

I don’t know that I have one or a dozen or a hundred. That said, I’ve liked almost every old movie I’ve seen in the theater: Rear Window, Casablanca, and Cabaret, to name three. When I saw The Wizard Of Oz, I saw, during Ding! Dong! The Witch Is Dead, a female munchkin spinning the wrong way. I’ve watched that movie two dozen times on television but I never saw that.

Of course, I do

10. Do you sing in the shower?

Invariably. The songs are determined by whatever the water is speaking to me.

11. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?

I always try to answer this question differently each time. I’ll go with the 1999 Hess truck that Santa brought me. I’ve gotten them every year since then.

12. Do you prefer being indoors or outdoors?

Indoors. I worry about sunburn because of my vitiligo. Allergy season seems to be nine months a year for me. And carrying groceries while walking with a cane makes holding an umbrella a PITA, as I experienced this past week.

13. When was the last time you cried, and why?

It was something sad on TV. Or it could have been a song that brought me tears of joy. I cry a lot easier than I used to.

14. What do you keep in your bag or handbag?

When I walk out the door, I need three things, and I recite: wallet, keys, and phone.

15. Can you play a musical instrument?

No. Well, kazoo.

Sunday Stealing: the best thing

irrational

Once more, Sunday Stealing is purloining from How Far Will You Go?

1. What’s the best thing to inherit other than money?

Good health, I suppose. I would say a long life, but if one’s health were awful, that wouldn’t be so great.

2. What one thing would you most like to happen tomorrow?

I’d like to write a blog post. I’m falling behind and my reserves are rapidly shrinking. What should I write about?

3. Who is the person with whom you’ve been most infatuated?

I wrote a whole blog post about this in 2008. And I’m sure there were others, not to mention the ones I knew personally; we won’t get into THAT!

4. In what part of the day does time go slowest and fastest?

It ALL goes pretty fast. My list of things to do doesn’t seem to shrink.

5. Whose thoughts would you most like to read?

djt. What’s really going on there?

6. Who is the person you’d least like to touch?

Odd question. What are they, lepers? I suppose the person others think they ought not to touch would be the person I would be most compelled to touch.

Genes

7. What is the best quality you inherited from your parents?

My father had a good musical ear. My mother was very kind.

8. Who is the friend you most often disagree with?

There is one, who I am not going to name. This week, I shared what I thought was an interesting upcoming musical release but it was pooh-poohed. Whatevs.

9. What’s the best ritual of your daily life?

It’s playing Wordle (485-game streak) and Quordle.

10. What is the most useful job you’ve ever had?

I’ll pick working at FantaCo (May 1980-November 1988), a comic book store/publisher/convention place that became a “third place” for many patrons. I balanced the checkbook, helped order products, wrote and edited a few magazines, et al. A lot of things I learned were useful in being a business librarian (1994-2019).

11. In which year of your life did you change the most?

Lessee, 1972. Or 1974, 1977, 1978, 1983, 1991, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2004. If pressed, I’ll pick 1978. 1977 was the year I bounced from New Paltz, NY to Charlotte, NC to NYC, and back to New Paltz to Schenectady, NY. In 1978, I got a job I liked at the Schenectady Arts Council in a metro area I have lived in ever since.

12. What’s the best thing you’ve ever gotten for free?

A trip to Barbados, courtesy of the game show JEOPARDY! It wasn’t totally free in that I had to pay taxes on the value of the trip; the trip’s value was $2100, if I remember correctly.

13, What is the thing you are best at?

I can connect numbers with events, such as those years in question 11.

I can walk under ladders

14. What was the luckiest moment in your life?

I don’t know about THE luckiest, but I thought of this event recently. As a college student in New Paltz, NY in the 1970s, I often hitchhiked from my hometown of Binghamton to school and back. Once, I walked just outside New Paltz village and found a white and orange metal sign with 17 on it. To get home, I would take NY-299 W to US-44 E to NY-52 W to NY-17 W to Binghamton. I put up the sign, and about five minutes later, a guy from the CIA picked me up and dropped me at Exit 72 just above my grandma’s house in Binghamton. BTW, the guy was from the Culinary Institute of America, not the Central Intelligence Agency.

15. What is the single most important thing you have ever learned?

People are irrational, motivated by factors they don’t always understand themselves. This week, a person in my neighborhood drove past a Road Closed sign. They must have thought, “Surely, if I can drive past the sign, I should be able to get down the block.” Nope, the road construction was at the end of the road. They had to turn around in someone’s driveway and return to the main street. I got just a soupçon of delight from this.