Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 21 of 40

Sunday Stealing: Friday Five

the cinema

This week’s Sunday Stealing is from something called the Friday Five. But is it the Dave Clark Five, Jackson 5, MC5, Five Stairsteps, Five Satins, Five Man Electrical Band, or another quintet?

1) What is your favorite thing about winter?

I may live to regret this, but… The winter of 2023/24 in Albany, NY, to use a technical term, sucked. Last I checked, we were two feet below average for the date. My seasonal allergies, which tend to disappear in the winter, occasionally flared up.

I like going to the movies in the winter and catching up on the awards-nominated films, so I’m greatly disappointed that both the Spectrum and the Madison Theatres in Albany closed, at least temporarily.

2) What is your favorite winter sport?

I LIKE shoveling a third of a meter of snow, and I take pride in the good, no, great job I do in clearing the sidewalk.

3) What is the best winter treat?

Hot Chocolate.

4) What is the earliest time in the year it ever snowed where you live?

October 4, 1987. I was interviewed on the local news because of my 2012 blog post recollections.

5) What is the best way to stay warm in the winter?

My head MUST be covered. I’ve been known to wear two knit hats simultaneously. Next, gloves are important, followed by warm socks.

6) What are your favorite things that are paper?

Book pages, especially art books. I did like the movie The Paper Chase.

7) What are your favorite things that are cotton?

Actor Joseph Cotten (1905-1994). Or clothes

8) What are your favorite things that are leather?

Eh? My wallet, I guess.

9) What are your favorite things that are floral?

No idea. The Rose Bowl parade?

or Woody Guthrie

10) What are your favorite things that are wood?

The built-in bookcase in my office. Or Evan Rachel Wood, Natalie Wood, Ed Wood, Norwegian Wood, or Woody Woodpecker.

11) What should you do if you think your house is haunted?

The house is a century old. It’s almost certainly haunted, but I’ve taken no action.

12) When should you investigate a strange noise in your basement?

We once had sewage back up into our basement. I believe we heard it before we smelled it.

13) How do you know if an abandoned building is safe to visit?

When I was younger, I LOVED abandoned buildings. I’m relatively sure I dream of abandoned buildings. Now, my footing is too unsteady to venture into uneven surfaces.

14) How do you decide whether to solve a problem as a team or split up and go it alone?

The last complicated problem was going to France in May 2023. It involved securing land transportation (train and car) and a place to stay in a remote locale that AAA’s affiliate could not accommodate. So much of it was me because 1) I was retired and, therefore, theoretically had more time, and 2) the wedding involved a friend of mine from 1977.

15) Where do you store your knives, and where would you look if one was missing?

The sharp knives are in a block on the kitchen counter. If one is missing, it’s likely in our daughter’s bedroom.

Sunday Stealing, crafty

origami

A background of colored pencils, paints. Workplace designer, artist, concept art

The current Sunday Stealing is about being crafty. If it meant being clever and mysterious, then MAYBE I could pull it off. But I think they’re talking about origami and macrame.

1. What (if anything) are you doing to celebrate St Patrick’s Day?

I always play music by the Chieftains, Clannad, and the Corrs. Unfortunately, I’ve made no progress in identifying my mother’s father’s mother’s parents, so I brood over that. I know that Margaret Collins was born in 1866 and died in August 1931 in upstate New York. But her parents’ names are not listed on the death certificate. I suspect they are from County Cork, Ireland, but Collins is too common a surname.

2. What is your least favorite color (to wear, to craft with, or to decorate with)?

Yellow. Specifically, when people make signs with yellow on white or vice versa, the lettering is very difficult to read.

3. At a yellow light – do you speed up or slow down??

Stop because I’d be on a bicycle, and I’m likely to get myself killed otherwise.

4. How many pairs of scissors are in your craft room?

I can never find scissors. They’re never where I want them.

Gift ideas!

5. What are the first three items you have ‘saved for later’ on Amazon?

If you mean the oldest: Vince Guaraldi at the Piano by Derrick Bang (Paperback) from 2012, The Art of the Simon and Kirby Studio by Mark Evanier, Jim Simon (Hardcover) from 2014, and Cahoots by The Band (Audio CD) from 2016. If you mean the ones on the top, i.e., the most recent: Exodus 40 by Bob Marley & The Wailers (Audio CD) from 2024, Moulin Rouge! The Musical Original Broadway Cast Recording (Audio CD) from 2022, and Six: The Musical Studio Cast Recording (Audio CD) also from 2022, which I hope to get for my birthday since we’re going to see the touring show at Proctors in Schenectady in May.

6. Did you plant any springs bulbs in your garden and if so, have any of them come up yet?

The last time I helped plant anything was tulips over 15 years ago. Not my thing.

7. What book, if any, are you reading right now?

60 Songs That Explain the ’90s by Rob Harvilla. Actually, I organized my office, and I can’t presently locate it.

8. Do you prefer ball point pens, gel pens, or thin tip markers to write with?

Ballpoint. Preferably blue or black.

It is to laugh

9. What is your favorite crafting item – the craft item thing you use the most or can’t live without? (Exclude basic items like scissors and glue).

I don’t craft. I suck at crafts. In the 1990s, I was in a book group with about a dozen women at my church. One month, the book was about origami, and the person reporting on the book decided we should all partake in that activity. Did I mention that I suck at crafts. Very few things irritate me more than when people say, about something I am apparently constitutionally incapable of doing, “Oh, it’s EASY!”

10. What are the first three items on your grocery list, and what is your favorite grocery store?

Bananas, blueberries, low-fat cottage cheese. The Price Chopper/Market 32 is in walking distance so I go there. My wife tends to drive to the Hannaford on Central Avenue. Incidentally, in the past three months I’ve seen armed security guards at both venues, which does NOT make me feel more safe.

11. What unfinished craft projects are you working on (or not) at the moment?

[Doubles over laughing.]

IG

12. What was the last item you pinned on Pinterest? Or hearted on Instagram?

I have accounts for both of them but don’t use them. Recently, my daughter tried selling me on IG because it’s “fun.” It may be, but it’s not me.

13. What is the biggest tourist attraction where you live?

Here’s a list. I’ve been to the first 12, 15, 17, and 19. I practically live on Route 20. I do not consider Crossgates Mall a tourist attraction.

14. What color is your favorite sweater?

Green, like me.

15. How does your family react when you get a big pile of mail??

It must be time for me to pick new Medicare providers or keep the old ones, which happens between October 15 and December 7. This is why God invented the shredding bag.

Sunday Stealing: 10 years of Swaps

smoking

My Sunday Stealing this week is from SwapBot, celebrating ten years of swaps.

1. Have you ever smoked cigarettes?

Possibly a pack in my entire life. The plurality of them was from January to April 1977, when I crashed at my parents’ house in Charlotte, NC. When I went to the sale of the tchotchkes my parents participated in, I was perceived as elitist. I experienced a lot of hostility, and smoking was a desperate attempt to fit in. It didn’t help.

2. What do you think of hot dogs?

I like hot dogs, especially beef, with mustard (onions optional).

3. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Tea if I think of it, ginger ale if I don’t.

4. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry that you own?

Other than my wedding ring, I can’t think of any.

5. Name three drinks you regularly drink.

Water, diet cherry Pepsi, ginger ale.

6. Like to travel?

I like to BE in other places. Getting there is the more challenging part. Going to France last year was worthwhile but exhausting.

Procrastination

7. What should you be doing right now?

Cleaning the house for the hearts party I’m having next week. Paying some medical bills. Getting reimbursed for some previously paid bills. Watching some movies I had not seen to be evaluated before the Oscars on 10 March.

8. Your phone rings. Who do you want it to be?

My daughter.

9. Do you like to ride horses?

The last time I rode a horse was 9 June 1976. I had a hangover. Not recommended.

10. In a social setting, are you more of a talker or a listener?

In my preferred mode, I listen. However, I was in two situations in ZOOM meetings in the past two weeks when I was compelled to speak more than I would have preferred because waiting for others to speak was not working.

11. What’s in your pocket right now?

Key, wallet, used cough drop wrappers.

12. Last thing that made you laugh?

Some banter I had with my wife at breakfast.

13. How many TVs do you have in your house?

One. Or three. I have a screen that isn’t plugged in unless I’m watching a movie on a streaming service. Then I have another that I need to figure out.

14. Who’s your loudest friend?

It’s probably an alto.

15. Favorite sports team? (If you don’t have one, state that …)

It tends to be New York teams: Yankees, Mets, Giants, Jets, and Buffalo Bills.

Sunday Stealing – Music

In the Garden of Eden

Sunday Stealing – Music? But I’m ALWAYS about music!

Name a song that…

1. You enjoy, in another language.

Petula Clark recorded Downtown in Italian as Ciao Ciao. She also did Sign of the Times in French as Si tu prenais le temps. She also sang in German.

2. Recently introduced you to a new singer

I hear many artists on CBS Saturday Morning, specifically the Saturday Sessions—quite a few I like. Brittany Spencer sings If You Say So.

3. You listen to in order to energize

Too many choices! Because Michael McDonald’s birthday was this week, Takin’ It To The Streets by the Doobie Brothers.

4. Is your favorite song from a musical.

Maybe Tradition from Fiddler On The Roof. I’m pretty sure Alexander Hamilton from Hamilton is the most parodied recently.

5. Reminds you of an old love

Harvest Moon by Neil Young still makes me very sad.

6. Make you think of one of your children

Motown Philly by Boyz 2 Men or some other ’90s soul that came out before she was born.

Did not use a metronome

7. Makes you smile when you hear it.

Do What You Want To by Billy Preston. I love that it ends far faster than it starts. This is also true of When You Dance, I Can Really Love by Neil Young.

8. You love but is quite unknown

Hyperbolicsyllabicsesquedalymistic by Isaac Hayes from Hot Buttered Soul

9. That annoys you.

Honey by Bobby Goldsboro. Cloying dreck.

10. That your parents used to listen to.

I thought of this song because of an article about fads. 45 Men A Telephone Booth by The Four Tophatters was a single my father owned. I bought a compilation CD largely because of this song.

11. From your early years of childhood

Bird Dog by the Everly Brothers, which my father also owned.

12. That has a color in the title.

Green Tambourine by The Lemon Pipers, naturally.

13. That needs to be played loud.

I’m So Glad by Cream, the live version from Goodbye, Cream.

14. That is perfect for a road trip.

ONE song? It’s a road trip. It needs LOTS of songs! In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida by Iron Butterfly to start.

15. That reminds you of yourself.

I’ll go with the usual: Bein’ Green by Kermit the Frog

WTIT: Sunday Stealing

Sabor a Campo

Sunday Stealing is per WTIT again.

1. What is a big dream you have for the future?

To go to several Major League Baseball stadiums in the same season. I know some people have gone to ALL the stadiums in one season, but I’ve given up on that. Maybe one year, I will do the Northeast (Toronto, Boston, New York (2), Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Then, another year, tackle the Midwest et al, preferably by train.

2. What are your favorite hobbies?

Genealogy. Do I HAVE other hobbies?

3. If you could change the world, what would you do?

Have news, especially quasi-news, Twitteresque “information” poured through a truth filter.

4. What places have you traveled to? What was your favorite?

Thirty-two states in the US, Mexico, Canada, France and Barbados. The latter was my favorite, partly because I didn’t have to pay for it; I won it on JEOPARDY!

5. What is the weirdest thing you’ve ever eaten?

I don’t eat weird things. Well, not by my definition. My daughter thinks eating cottage cheese and maple syrup together is weird. Nah.

6. What are your favorite places to eat?

The truth is that several eateries have come and gone. It’s challenging to narrow down places. The last place my wife and I ate was Sabor a Campo, 485 Delaware Avenue, Albany, NY, in a half-filled strip mall at Whitehall Road. The name, “which translates to ‘Taste of Country,’ is an eat-in buffet, carry-out style restaurant, specializing in value-driven multicultural foods, and set in a relaxed, homey, and familial environment.” A couple at church recommended it, and the food was excellent.

A friend calls me “Mister Music” – seriously.

7. What kind of music do you like? Talk about a favorite artist or songs.

I can’t do that. Too many choices. Pop music from the mid-1950s to the mid-1990s. A bunch of classical music. Jazz. Search the blog; I write about music almost weekly.

Meanwhile, listen to the William Tell Overture by Rossini. Here are people who have birthdays in February, so I’ve listened to them all recently: Funkier Than A Mosquito’s Tweeter – Nina Simone. I Don’t Remember – Peter Gabriel. Shut Up and Kiss Me – Mary Chapin Carpenter. The Mercy Seat – Johnny Cash. Lay Down (Candles In the Rain) – Melanie (with the Edwin Hawkins Singers).

8. What was the last book you read?

Prequel by Rachel Maddow

9. If you could meet a character from a book, who would it be?

Bartholomew Cubbins, who spoke truth to power in Bartholemew and the Oobleck

10. Do you prefer books or movies? Why?

Movies because I can commit to them more easily. I started reading many books, both paper and audiobooks, but I didn’t finish them. I also like to GO to the movies because watching at home tends to be too hard to focus on.

Fear, and lack of the same

11. What is something you used to be scared of but aren’t anymore?

Embarrassing myself publicly. I may still do it, but it doesn’t fuel anxiety as it used to.

12. What is something you were never afraid of but are now?

The end of democracy is not just in the United States but in several other countries. Global warming.

13. What item is your most cherished possession? Why?

I have a metal box with all my important papers, including genealogy notes. If there were a fire, it’d be the single thing I would grab.

14. What awards or contests have you won?

I won a racquetball tournament in 1989, I think.

15. Do you like working jigsaw puzzles?

Not really. I have no patience for them. And I don’t “see” the connecting parts well.