Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 29 of 40

Sunday Stealing: Pinterest

555 feet

This Sunday Stealing cue comes from Pinterest. I have an account, but I never use it. BTW, the graphic came from Pinterest.

1. Would you rather trade some intelligence for looks or looks for intelligence?

Easy. I’ll always take intelligence. Looks are transitory. Intelligence is sexy.

2. If everything in your house had to be one color, what would it be?

I guess I’ll go with the obvious. There’s such a range in any color. Here are 134 Shades of Green Color With Names, Hex, RGB, CMYK Codes

3. What animal would be the most terrifying if it could speak?

Humans. Some of them say the damndest things.

4. How do you procrastinate?

I don’t see it as procrastination. I play backgammon, spades, and pinochle on my phone as a break from a given task.

5. If you had a warning label, what would yours say?

Prone to tell you some obscure fact that you have no interest in.

6. Would you rather go 30 days without your phone or life without dessert?

I could easily survive 30 days without my phone if I could commit my appointment to a paper calendar first. I’ve determined that others can’t deal with me not having a phone. Doctors’ offices. Anything involving two-step verification. THEY want me to have a phone.

7. If one animal was made the size of an elephant, which would be the scariest?

An ant. Have you ever looked at those mandibles?

Obelisk

8. If you were reincarnated as a famous landmark, which would it be?

The Washington Monument. At 555 feet, it has such a great view of history. (I didn’t have to look up the height; I told you I know obscure stuff.)

9. What celebrity chef would you like to make you dinner?

The first living one I could think of was Nigella Lawson because she seems genuine and not a schmuck. If we could resurrect Julia Child or Anthony Bourdain, then one of them.

10. How much would someone have to pay you to eat a spider?

The annual budget of the charity of my choosing.

11. If you joined a circus, what would your circus act be?

Cat tamer. I’m talking about domesticated felines.

12. Do you have any superstitions?

None come to mind.

13. What cheesy song do you have memorized?

The great thing about getting older is that if there were cheesy songs, I’d since forgotten them. Of course, it depends on the definition of “cheesy.” Okay, Be Kind To Your Parents, which my sister Leslie and I used to sing as kids.

14. What’s something weird that you recommend everyone tries at least once?

I don’t think it’s “weird,” but sitting quietly for at least five minutes daily.

15. What do you think is the most unpleasant-sounding word?

Schmuck. Or at least the worse one I’m willing to post online.

Sunday Stealing: Mantelligence?

ethical zoos

This Sunday Stealing is by someone called Mantelligence. He writes: “Why should everyone want to know random questions to ask that can be found in this post? Because random things to talk about work so well. They throw your audience off-balance in a discussion, often making people give more honest and genuine answers.” Occasionally, that’s true; other times, some of those folks shut down.

1. If You Had The World’s Attention For 30 Seconds, What Would You Say?

I don’t think there’s a thing I could say in 30 seconds that would be that significant. That’s true of most people unless they can change the trajectory of events. Declaring war, e.g.

2. If Your Food Is Bad At A Restaurant, Would You Say Something?

If “bad” means I didn’t enjoy it, then no. One of the recent times my wife and I went out to dinner, we didn’t think the food was all that good and overpriced. However, the host was delightful, and the waitstaff was efficient. Also, my meal was better reheated than as initially served. Weird.

If “bad” means the milk is sour or something unidentifiable in my soup, then yes.

3. What Is In Your Fridge Right Now?

Besides the usual items, leftovers from a different restaurant.

Not a car guy

4. What Are You Freakishly Bad At?

Identifying automobile makes and models. I’m pretty car blind. A good friend picked my wife and me when my wife had several medical procedures last fall. I could only identify the vehicle by the license plate number.

5. Where Do You Not Mind Waiting?

I’m good if I have something to read and preferably a place to sit. The DMV? No problem. Of course, I only go there every eight years to renew my ID.

6. What’s Something You’ve Tried, That You’ll Never, Ever Try Again?

Probably square dancing. I don’t hate it; it’s just that I’m horrible at it. There are steps that I can keep track of when the caller is giving them out. But when they stop… You don’t want me to do-si-do with you.

7. If You Could Dis-Invent One Thing, What Would It Be?

Obviously, war. I’ll go with any assault rifle (AK-47, AR-15, et al.)

8. If You Could Be A Member Of Any TV-Sitcom Family, Which Would It Be?

When I was a kid, it would have been The Dick Van Dyke Show.

9. What Would Be The Best Thing About Not Having A Sense Of Smell?

I’d avoid tobacco odor. I can smell a lit cigarette from ten meters when the wind direction is right.

10. Would You Rather Live (Permanently) In A Roller Coaster Park Or A Zoo?

A zoo, for sure. When I was growing up, zookeepers didn’t seem to know (or care) how to tend to some animals properly. Here’s a piece called Ethical Zoos: How to Determine the Good from the Bad

Tweet and retweet

11. When Scrolling Through Social Media, Do You Prefer Posts From Celebrities Or Your Best Friends?

I don’t care about celebrity musings. This is particularly true on Twitter when some “influencer” was speaking obliquely about… something I had not heard about, assuming that EVERYBODY already knew of it.

(Eventually, I discovered it was about Kid Rock – whose opinion about SO many things has proven tedious – and Travis Tritt boycotting Bud Light. Whatever.)

Also, I likely don’t know most “celebrities” who are under 35.

12. What Makes Someone A Hero?

Mostly, the opportunity to do what’s right when that is difficult to do. Then doing it.

13. What Is The Stupidest Thing You’ve Done Because Someone Dared You To?

A Halloween costume I wore many decades ago.

14. What Is The Stupidest Thing You’ve Done On Your Own Free Will?

I was swimming in the Susquehanna River in Binghamton by myself when I was in high school. I almost drowned.

15. Would You Rather Have Unlimited Sushi For Life Or Unlimited Tacos For Life?

Tacos, assuming they’re soft, and they come with a variety of options.

I’ve come to realize… Sunday Stealing

fire

This week’s Sunday Stealing is what I’ve come to realize…, maybe because we’re in the midst od Ramadan, Passover, and Holy week.

1. I’ve come to realize that my chest size…

Really? It’s not anything I spent much time thinking about except as part of the general “I still need to lose weight.”

2. I’ve come to realize that my job(s) …

I’m SO glad I no longer have it. That said, if it had been as flexible as it became due to the pandemic, it probably would not have irritated me so much over the final four years.

3. I’ve come to realize that when I’m driving …

I’m probably breaking the law because I haven’t even had a driver’s permit since 1988.

4. I’ve come to realize that I need…

A lot of Roger time is required, listening to music, reading newspapers, blogging, getting rid of the excessive amount of email, and generally chilling out.

5. I’ve come to realize that I have lost…

My ability to always remember the correct noun is slipping. I’ve referred to my retirement account as my credit union and possibly vice versa. Hey, they’re both money entities. You know what I mean, right?

6. I’ve come to realize that I hate it when …

Scammers, schemers, and hucksters try to call me, spoofing a local phone number and even a real name. I’ve gotten many calls from “Hi, this is your electric company,” without identifying the entity.

7. I’ve come to realize that if I’m drunk …

I should go home because I will need to go to sleep soon.

8. I’ve come to realize that money …

It does not define a person’s value. I’ve known that for a long while.

Heroic

9. I’ve come to realize that certain people …

Some of them are pretty cool. A story this week featured two City of Albany sanitation workers helping people escape from a massive blaze that destroyed four Grand Street buildings early Wednesday morning. “The fire broke out in a building… around 1:52 a.m., and it took city firefighters four hours to bring the flames under control… The pair began kicking in doors, trying to wake residents to the danger they faced. When the two men got there, no one from the buildings had evacuated.”

10. I’ve come to realize that I’ll always …

Listen to music. (Currently, Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Orbison, whose birthdays are this month.)

11. I’ve come to realize that my sibling …

They seem to like me.

12. I’ve come to realize that my mom …

She was more complicated than I gave her credit for when she was alive.

13. I’ve come to realize that my cell phone …

It’s both the bane of my existence and utterly necessary, less for me than for others who want to text me. Two-step authentication, e.g.

14. I’ve come to realize that when I woke up this morning …

I actually slept through the night. That almost NEVER happens!

15. I’ve come to realize that last night before I went to sleep …

I must go to bed before falling asleep in my office chair. I wake up with a backache, which has happened thrice this calendar year and never before.

Sunday Stealing:Tuesday 4

summer vacation

Whatever Tuesday 4 is – Ruby Tuesday?- Sunday Stealing is stealing.

1. Are you currently reading a book you’d like to tell us about? Maybe a TV program you can recommend to us?

I’ve circled back to The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet by John Green (no relation). I bought it when it first came out, signed by the author, but then I got distracted. Fortunately, it’s a compilation, so each essay, even as it reflects how John’s mind works and how he pays attention to his surroundings, stands independently.

I suppose the only newish TV show I could recommend is Abbott Elementary, in its second season. It’s a comedy about an elementary school in a poor section of Philadelphia, PA.

2. Are you a Jane Austen fan? So many seem to be. If you are, what is your favorite book, and who is your favorite character? If you aren’t a fan, is there an author you especially like to read? Favorite character, etc.

I tend to read mostly non-fiction, but I don’t have a favorite author, though it was Russell Baker.

However, I have seen quite a few movies based on Jane Austen books, such as Clueless (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Bridget Jones’ Diary (2001), Pride and Prejudice (2005), and Emma (2020).

3. How do you spend your time during the day? Do you set apart time to read, watch TV, and study?

Wordle, Dordle, Quordle, Octordle, blogging, working on things for my church and the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library. I don’t have a designated time to read.

My wife and I tend to watch the recorded NBC Nightly News after dinner. I view JEOPARDY and try to tackle the recorded but not watched episodes of several shows, mostly the CBS news programs Saturday Morning, Sunday Morning, and 60 Minutes, plus Finding Your Roots on PBS.

I never change?

4. Have your beliefs changed in your lifetime?

Of COURSE! Everything from the nature of God to my understanding of science. How could they not?

5. What are your interests and hobbies? Reading? Writing? Collecting?

Genealogy. I have some coins I’ve collected but have not been diligent about it. I listen to music, and I have a lot of it.

6 How much time a week/day/month do you devote to your interests?

I have no idea. For one thing, I tend to tackle things in chunks of periods based on the running time of my CDs. So I’ll work on my word games and start my blog. Then I need to change it up, so I wash the dishes or clean the kitchen counter. Next album, I’ll check my email and return to the blog post. When I have set events- Bible study, book review events, doctors’ appointments, trips, that’ll affect things.

I’m retired. I don’t punch a clock.

7. Do you share your interests with anyone?

Genealogy with my sisters. Book review with those folks. Choir with the choir. In the words of Yul Brynner, “et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.”

8. Tell us why you enjoy your hobbies, pastimes, or interests.

They bring me joy, especially choir and blogging.

9. What emotions and feelings does summer conjure up for you?

I’m not primarily a summer guy. As a kid, it was baseball or softball at Ansco Park, trips to Eldridge Park in Elmira, Corning Glass Works, and visiting my mother’s aunt Charlotte.

10. What’s summer weather like in your neck of the woods?

Variable. While it doesn’t usually get above 90F, it can be hot. Or unexpectedly not.

11. Got some special summer meals you and your family enjoy?

Other than corn on the cob, not really.

Vacation

12. What do you enjoy doing in summer? Sports, trips… Do you go on vacation?

My mother-in-law’s kin has had a family reunion each summer near Binghamton, NY, for the last three-quarters of a century except for COVID and a year during WWII. Our nuclear family had extended vacations on the way to and from the Olin international reunions in 2011 (Ontario) and 2016 (Ohio). I wrote about my favorite vacations last year.

13. Did your parents have things better than you today?

Absolutely not. Because my mother was much fairer than my father, they were perceived as an interracial couple, which they were not. As a result, they could not find a place to rent in their hometown, and they lived in a rental property owned by my maternal grandmother for over two decades after they married.

14. What time period would you rather live in… or are you okay with today?

On the one hand, advances in technology. On the other, climate change. It’s difficult to peg a specifically better period. I don’t romanticize the past. IDK.

15. What changes would you make for our time to make it nicer/better to live in?

The improvement in freedom, even in ostensibly free nations.

Sunday Stealing: YouTube entry

sports, cilantro

This week’s Sunday Stealing is called YouTube. “This came from a YouTube entry that no longer exists.”

1. Working on anything exciting lately?

Our daughter is having her birthday soon, and we’re planning a trip for her and two of her best friends.

2. What was the highlight of the day today?

Seeing my oldest college friend and maybe their significant other.

3. What is your favorite thing to do on the weekends?

Singing in the church choir.

4. What are your favorite restaurants?

I’m pretty catholic. Italian, Indian, breakfast food, a burger joint, whatever, as long as I’m not cooking it.

Ballgames

5. Do you follow any sports?

I used to follow them far more than I do now. For instance, this past year, I saw no regular season games during the National Football League. Yet I watched all the playoff games I recorded because I can fast forward during instant replay, challenge flags, and halftime.

I vaguely follow Major League Baseball, but nowhere near what I did from the 1960s until 2010. Once, I had hundreds of baseball cards from which I could cite various statistics.

Here’s a specific example. Eight National Basketball Association players have scored 70 or more points in a game: Wilt Chamberlain (six times between 1961 and 1963), Elgin Baylor (1960), David Thompson (1978), David Robinson (1994), Kobe Bryant (2006), Devin Booker (2017), Donovan Mitchell (2023), and Damian Lillard (2023). I know precisely who the first five are, but I have no idea about the last three.

The only current players I know are Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo (who I saw on 60 Minutes!) Also, a handful of former Oklahoma Thunder players, James Harden and Russell Westbrook, only because my late blogger buddy Dustbury used to write about the games.

What did FDR say again?

6. What is your biggest fear?

Dementia, I suppose.

7. What is your biggest regret?

As I’ve answered before, I have experienced many regrettable things. But I’ve learned from all of them eventually, or so I believe.

8. When you were growing up, what was your dream job?

A defense attorney. That is until I took a pre-law course in college.

9. Do you say ‘sherbet’ or ‘sherbert’?

When I’m awake, sherbet. When I’m half asleep, sherbert.

What WAS that?

10. Have you ever had a paranormal experience?

Almost certainly, there are things I’ve seen and experienced that I cannot explain, from serious deja vu to specifically answered prayers to speaking in tongues once to something that broke the glasses that were on my face but did no harm to me, that defied reason.

11. What is your favorite food at a cocktail party?

In terms of taste, cheese, and crackers. In terms of controlling calories, fruit, such as grapes.

12. Who is a book character most like you?

This is a total cheat because it’s a real person, but Roger Ebert, specifically in his autobiography Life Itself Itself. He describes himself with warts and all. I relate to warts especially.

13. Do you read reviews before you go to the movies?

Enough to know if it’s generally favorably received but not enough to know anything about the plot details.

14. How do you feel about cilantro?

I have no feeling whatsoever about cilantro. My wife, on the other hand, really loves it. She thinks it enhances the flavor of chili we had recently. Since I was unaware it contained the seasoning, I have no basis for comparison.

15. Have you ever cried in public?

Sure. At work, more than once. It is reasonably often at funerals, though it may not be as apparent to an observer as it is to me.