Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 28 of 33

Fill-in for Sunday Stealing

FantaCo photographs

1. I am currently obsessed with old photographs. I used to work at a comic book store in Albany called FantaCo from 1980 to 1988. Specifically, my old boss Tom is looking for old photos from that period. As it turns out, I took a bunch of pictures with cheap cameras. They are in photo albums, in some semblance of order. I will wade through the photo albums and mail them to him. He will digitize them, then send the pics and the digitized files back.

BTW, if you have some FantaCo or FantaCon pics, feel free to email them to me or send them via Facebook. If you can identify any people, that would be great.

Simultaneously, I’ll be hunting for photos of an ex-girlfriend to give to someone who knew her in the same time frame.

2. Today I am happy because I’m going to see some theater, not just today but eight productions over the next ten months.

3. The age I am is apparently inappropriate to some people. The age I feel depends on the part. For instance, my head is about fifty, but my left knee is about 100.

4. My favorite place may be my office. It has 70% of my books, and I have a device on which I can play music.

5. Something I have been procrastinating on is creating a Wikipedia page for my late friend, the artist Raoul Vezina, who worked at FantaCo. I have enough material, but I’ve never done one of these things before.

6. The last thing I purchased was almost certainly recorded music.

Books!

7. The thing I love most about my home is the built-in bookcases in my office.

8. My most prized possession – IDK. Maybe the metal file box with all of my important papers.

9. If I could be one age for the rest of my life, I would want to be 37; it’s a prime number.

10. My outlook on life tends toward the pessimistic. Global warming, gun violence, and certain political philosophies are involved.

11. If you want to annoy me, be a poor listener.

12. I am completely defenseless when it comes to bubbles.

13. The bravest thing I’ve ever done was run out into traffic to scoop up a toddler who had wandered out there.

14. Something that keeps me awake at night is: See 10.

15. My favorite meal in the entire world is lasagna.

Magical Journal for Sunday Stealing

fire

The Sunday Stealing this week is Magical Journal. Do you believe in magic?

1. What’s the best beach or lake day you can remember?

I had torn the nail of the big toe of my left foot when I was about 12. The family went down to Jones Beach, on the south shore of Long Island. I’m not much of a beach person, but I did wade in the water. The saltwater did a remarkable job in healing the nail.

2. Describe your ideal picnic lunch

I’m pretty flexible. Bread that you tear apart. Cheeses of various types. Fried chicken and deviled eggs -the mother and child reunion. Lemonade. Grapes.

3. What flowers are in your bouquet?

Tulips, which we planted one very warm December 1. Lilacs: we had a bush next to our house growing up. Beyond that, whatever.

4. Silly ways to pass the time during a snowstorm

Whatever “silly” things one could do are not coming to me. If I’m snowed in and have things to read and, ideally, some music, I’m fine. With the right people, I’d play cards and/or board games.

5. The most beautiful house you’ve ever visited.

I suppose one of the Newport mansions.

6. Best place you ever dined

When we were on our honeymoon vacation in Barbados in 1999, we could dine at one of three or four establishments as part of our all-inclusive package. All of the food was fabulous.

7. How many layers to your ice cream sandwich?

Sandwich, ice cream, sandwich. What more does one need?

8. Pretty things, which are faux patent leather

Literally, I have no idea.

9. What is the best way to eat chocolate?

Is there a bad way to eat chocolate? I always thought that fondue was wonderfully decadent.

Uni

10. Describe your unicorn’s special magic

The daughter of one of my oldest friends had a large stuffed unicorn. She, the daughter, thought that my daughter ought to have her unicorn. And it became so. Here are my daughter and Uni back in 2010.

11. All the fruits in your fruit salad

Blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, peaches, and mac apples.

12. Describe the soil, grass, trees, flowers, and rocks in your magical forest.

I think we started with perfectly fine soil, grass, et al., but we’re wrecking it.

13. The lyrics which move you the most are:

NUMEROUS. Here are the first that came to mind:

And I need you more than want you
And I want you for all time
– Wichita Lineman by Jimmy Webb

14. What are the best sauces in the world?

Hollandaise, sweet and sour, and marinara are the first to come to mind; there are probably plenty of others.

15. Write a haiku about nature

Climate change is real.
Droughts, fires, floods, catastrophes.
We must act right now.
[Yes, I checked: fire can be one syllable or two]

Personal History: Sunday Stealing

Who Knows Where The Time Goes

**daughter, wife, niece, sister, sister, niece (Feb 2011)**

This week’s Sunday Stealing is called Personal History, an interesting topic.

1. What would you like people to know about your mother?

I was thinking about this a lot this week. My father was the more outgoing and visible member of the couple. But I doubt they would have been been able to pay the bills if it wasn’t for my mom.

She was a bookkeeper at McLean’s Department Store in Binghamton, NY, then worked at Columbia Gas, not even a block away. When she moved to Charlotte, NC, she was a teller at First Union Bank, which eventually was swallowed by Wells Fargo. I probably got my love of numbers from her. When I told her we were learning base 2, which we were told was the basis of computers, she was clearly excited.

2. What would you like people to know about your father?

I’ll be writing about him on August 10, the anniversary of his death. My eclectic taste in music started with him.

3. What was your childhood bedroom like?

HA! After my second sister was born, my father put up two walls in the dining room, built a wooden shelf into the two walls, then put a mattress on top of that. My storage was under the “bed,” though my books were around the corner on a bookcase. My dad painted the solar system on the ceiling.

Ballgame

4. What was your favorite activity as a child?

Alone: playing with my baseball cards. With others: playing softball/baseball/kickball. And singing.

5. What was high school like for you?

When we first got there, there was a certain hostility from some because my friends were identified as against the Vietnam war. But by the time I graduated, most of the school was against the war. I was on the stage crew and president of the Red Cross club. I was also president of the student government, which is how I sort of got to introduce Rod Serling.

6. Write about your cousins.

I have no first cousins. My parents were only children. Well, essentially. My mom had a younger sister who died as an infant. So my cousins were my mother’s cousin’s kids who lived in NYC and were a decade or more younger than I. Still, aside from my sisters and their daughters, they’re the closest relatives outside my nuclear household.

7. What was your favorite food as a child?

Spinach. Totally indoctrinated by Popeye.

8. What was your most memorable birthday?

My 16th was held at the American Civic Association, so it was a real party. Lois, who I’ve known since kindergarten, gave me Judy Collins’ album Who Knows Where The Time Goes. She was afraid it might be too country for me; it was not.

9. What world events were significant to you as a child?

The integration of the high school in Little Rock, AR. Sputnik. The Cuban Missile Crisis – I didn’t really understand it, but I grokked adults all being nervous. The assassinations of Medgar Evers and John F. Kennedy. The massive 1965 blackout was the only time I ever heard my father worry about a possible Soviet plot.

To Starr Avenue

10. What did a typical day look like as a child?

During the school year, walk to school about half a mile, usually trying to vary my route. At lunch, walk home to my grandma Williams’ house for lunch, watch JEOPARDY with her sister, my wonderful Aunt Deana, back to school, then walk home with, in geographic order, Bill, Lois, Karen, Carol, and Ray. I’d walk home.

11. Write about your grandparents.

Gertrude Williams (1897-1982) operated out of making us afraid of the boogie man. I don’t remember her husband, Clarence Williams (d. 1958), though I may have gone to his funeral.

Agatha Green (1902-1964) was my Sunday school teacher and taught me how to play canasta. She was the first person I knew well to die, and I was devastated. McKinley Green (1896? -1980) was a custodian at WNBF-TV-AM-FM and would bring home stuff the station no longer wanted, such s the soundtrack to The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968).

12. Did you move as a child?

I moved from the second floor of 5 Gaines Street, Binghamton, NY, to the first floor when my mother was pregnant with her second child. Until college, that was it.

13. Who taught you to drive?

Several people tried, including the Okie, Uthaclena, my father, and a professional.

14. Which job has been your favorite?

FantaCo, the comic book store/mail order/publisher/convention, where I worked from May 1980 to November 1988.

15. What was the best part of your 30s?

Working at FantaCo, singing in the Trinity UMC choir

Since you asked: Sunday Stealing

music

Since you asked: will I participate in Sunday Stealing this week? Why, yes, I will.

1) What one event from your lifetime would you change if you could, and why?

The outcome of the Presidential election of 2016. It led to the Big Lie and the January 6 riots. It’s also caused a lot of people to lose their bearings. An article in the New York Times asked What in the World Happened to Elise Stefanik? She is a member of Congress in the district adjacent to mine.

“There was a time in 2016 when Elise Stefanik, now the third-ranking Republican in the House, was so disgusted by Donald Trump that she would barely mention his name. Today he proudly refers to her as ‘one of my killers.'” [That’s a good thing, apparently.]

2) If you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, what would it be, and how old would your younger self be when they got it? Do you think your younger self would listen?

To leave a particular job in 1998. Or certainly by 2005. And no.

3) Would you be any good on Survivor?

No, because I haven’t the energy for that level of manipulation and deception.

4) What’s a safety rule that’s very important to you?

Keeping aisles clear of items that might trip someone, and signage for wet floors, essentially anything that might create a hazard in which someone could trip and fall, slip and fall, et al.

We blew it

5) What would you like to say to people in the future?

Are there people in the future? Sorry, we screwed up your planet so much.

6) What’s your favorite dish to bring to a summer cookout?

Deviled eggs.

7) How much time have you spent outdoors this week?

As little as possible because it’s Too Darn Hot. Also, because of my vitiligo.

8) Where do you set your thermostat?

My wife controls the thermostat. It’s too warm in the summer and too cold in winter.

9) How did you learn to swim?

I don’t swim well. But when I was growing up, my grandma’s next-door neighbors had an above-ground pool, so I learned to hold my breath for over a minute and do perfunctory strokes.

10) How do you avoid overheating?

Take a shower and then sit in front of a fan. Or the air conditioner if it’s available.

11) What are you going to do this weekend?

Go to church. Talk with my sisters on ZOOM.

12) What’s your favorite way to spend time?

Listen to music. Always.

13) What’s the most useless thing you own that you would never get rid of?

Mementos of certain weddings I’ve attended.

14) Have you started planning your next vacation?

Yes and no. My wife has this vague notion of going to NYC to see some Broadway shows this fall. But NYC is COVID-red presently, so we are wary of planning anything.

15) Are you very active, or do you prefer to just relax in your free time, or is it one and the same for you?

I’m more active by necessity.

Hodgepodge is named for me?

molasses

There’s a hodgepodge for Sunday Stealing. But first, what is hodgepodge? As far as I can tell, hochepot came from Anglo-Norman French and Old French. So hocher is ‘to shake’ (probably of Low German origin) + pot ‘pot.’

This became hotchpotch in late Middle English, which, besides being an assortment, also means a mutton stew with mixed vegetables. The late Middle English: alteration of hotchpotch is hodgepodge “by association with Hodge (a nickname for the given name Roger ), an archaic British term used as a name for a typical agricultural worker.” Huh! For the record, I’ve never worked in agriculture or in food services.

1. What’s something you’ve recently accomplished solo.

Moving that broken branch.

2. What’s one product you use that never ever fails?

Golden Oreo Cookies never fail to put a smile on a friend of mine.

3. Have you found your place in the world? Where is it?

I think you have to keep reevaluating this, lest you become complacent.

Hated it

4. Worst movie you ever saw?

I’ll go with Fellini Satyricon (1969), which I saw in college. An IMDB review notes. “Then comes along a movie, teetering on the thin line of questionable success where one can not tell whether there is a plot or not. If, while watching Satyricon, you find yourself wondering whether it is going to wrap up finally into an understandable conclusion, after which you can satisfactorily murmur, “Aahh yes, now I got it’. Well, in the end, there is no such luck.”

Rotten Tomatoes gives it 79% positive reviews from critics and 75% from audiences. But Penelope Houston from the Spectator writes: “Satyricon achieves a curious dual effect. It walks all over the audience with its gross, greasy detail, and at the same time, it is deliberately uninvolved and uninvolving.”

T-bird

5. What’s the last fun thing you did?

Went to see the play ABCD at the Barrington Stage in Pittsfield, MA, this past week. Here’s a review.

6. What’s your favorite Italian dish?

Eggplant parmigiana. In fact, if I want to compare Italian restaurants, it’s my go-to.

7. Have you ever been to France? Any desire to visit there, and if so, what site or city would you most want to see?

No, yes, and Auray, because I have a friend I have known since 1977 who lives there.

8. Have you ever been to Disney or any of the parks at all? Are you a Disney superfan or something less than that? They’re open right now, so tell us, would you go if you had the time/money/a free trip?

Never been to any Disney park. My feeling about Disney is complicated. I do like a lot of their cartoons, especially the Pixar films. But the company is too big, owning Star Wars, Marvel, ESPN, and ABC-TV. Still, I’d take a FREE trip.

Rodentia

9. Your favorite place to go when you want to be quiet as a church mouse? Would those who know you well describe you as more church mouse or perhaps more like Mighty Mouse?

I can be quiet in my living room, taking my blood pressure daily. People who see me in venues where I’m comfortable (church, e.g.) see me as more gregarious than I see myself.

10. Do you bake your own bread? Last time you had hot-out-of-the-oven homemade bread? What’s your favorite kind of bread?

I don’t bake bread, but my wife does, and she made several loaves this past winter using the breadmaker. My favorite was oatmeal bread; she used molasses.

11. What’s something you might say is ‘the greatest thing since sliced bread’?

The computer.

12. Share with us five little things you’re grateful for today. Small blessings. One catch-they all must start with the letter T.

Tallness, Tylenol, television, telephone, telemedicine.

13. Tell us where you were and something about what life was like when you were 20- 21.

I was in college at New Paltz, NY. I have diaries of the time which I will have to read.

14. What’s on the menu at your house this week?

Spinach lasagna zucchini.

15. Something you recently purchased where a coupon was involved? Do you regularly shop with coupons?

I used to, but haven’t in decades.