Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 3 of 33

Sunday Stealing Pretends It’s Wednesday

Every lock that ain’t locked, when no one’s around

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here we will steal all types of questions from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

This week, all eyes turn to Mary, who long ago played Wednesday Medley, which she credited to Terri D (Your Friend from Florida), who originally came up with the questions.

A Wednesday meme on a Sunday (Sunday Stealing Pretends It’s Wednesday)

1. Name five songs that you have completely memorized.

I’m sure there are hundreds of them from when I was growing up, kids’ songs, Christmas carols, hymns, and the like.

The Boxer—Simon and Garfunkel (but not that “after changes upon changes, we’re more or less the same” part that was excised and later re-added). This song fed right into my teenage angst.

Help! – The Beatles. I belonged to the Capitol Records Club from 1966 to ’68, in large part to get all of the Beatles’ albums. I owned none before this. Help, BTW, was a song that my daughter and a friend sang at a church musical.

King Of The Road -Roger Miller. One of the CRC items sent to me because of the negative option—you get the item unless you let them know in a timely fashion—was Roger Miller’s Golden Hits on Smash Records. I liked it. It helped that he had a great first name.

So Soon In The Morning – Joan Baez. This song was on the Green Family Singers’ repertoire from this album. I sang it once at my former church with a soprano named Laura.

Go Where You Wanna Go – the Mamas and the Papas. It was also in the Green Family Singers song list, but it was just my sister Leslie and me.

Time Has Come Today

2. What takes up too much of your time?

I’m whittling down my emails. My email triggers me to work on booking speakers for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library every Tuesday, writing blog posts, paying bills, and engaging in personal interactions.

3. What TV show or movie do you refuse to watch?

I generally avoid movies and television shows with a lot of violence. I can’t give you names because if I don’t watch them, I don’t remember them. However, I made an exception this year for the movie Sinners, which my daughter recommended.

4. What’s worth spending more on to get the best?

The first thing that came to mind was some breakfast cereal. I bought a box of ersatz Cheerios 30 years ago, which tasted like cardboard.

5. Share something you did last week.

Yesterday, I went onto my front porch to pick up the morning newspaper. Yes, we read a daily physical periodical. I saw this cool spider web. I’m not a guy who takes a lot of pictures, especially on my phone, but this called to me. So I got closer, but the sun washed out the look. I tried from the street side, but that didn’t work either.

Finally, I returned to the entryway, snapped the photo, then trimmed it by about 90%. (The picture below is similar to the shot above before trimming; see the spider in front of the tree.) I’m glad I took it when I did because, a half hour later, the spider was gone.

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Sunday Stealing Makes the Grade

schmucky people

It’s fall, kids are back in school, and we’re asking you to grade yourself. This was originally posted in 2017 by Kwizgiver, who stole it from Cat.

From A to F (Makes the Grade)

Give yourself a letter grade (A, A-, B, B-, C, C-, D, D-, F) on the following. Just the letter grade is requested, but you’re free to elaborate.

• Happiness: B-. I’m way too hard on myself. “Hey, you should have done this when you did that.” Blah blah blah

• Being a decent human being: I’ll say an A-. I try really hard to be that.

• Being serene (calm, peaceful): C. I would not expect that except in specific settings.

• Kindness: A -. That is desperately important. Tom Lehrer described it in the intro of National Brotherhood Week, and how he hates those who don’t love each other.

• Anger management: I’d give myself a B, especially if I ignore the stupid political choices made in 2025 by certain parties. Generally, I don’t get that angry about most things. In fact, I will go as far as to say that when I get angry, especially in a public setting, it’s because I have been pushed beyond my limits. I mentioned one of those situations in a recent quiz.

Define “creative”

• Creative thinking: B-. It depends on what manner of creativity. If we’re talking about art or doing technological stuff, I’d probably give myself a D. For instance, I sucked at woodshop and ceramic shop. I’m constantly reminded of when I was in 7th grade and my parents came to a school open house and saw some of my artwork. My father asked how I was getting a B in art. The teacher said I worked as hard as possible and produced as well as possible. But I can figure out historical, intellectual, and math things.

• Modesty: A- Drawing attention to myself is a bit cringeworthy. (And yet he blogs.)

• Being an original: A. I don’t think there’s anybody who’s exactly like me: somebody doesn’t drink beer, doesn’t drink coffee, doesn’t drive, knows ridiculously obtuse pieces of information, keep secrets very well, hears music in his head all the time, observes situations of seeming injustice – even small things like branches that somebody broke down that were strewn onto someone’s sidewalk and I will move them because some person who’s either vision impaired or physically impaired could trip on them (I did that this week.)

• Knowing yourself: A – I’m pretty much unsurprised when doing things I do.

• Being true to yourself: A-

• Getting along with others: B+. I’m not that good with schmucky people.

• Liking yourself: B – I suppose I like myself well enough.

• Admitting your flaws: A

• Self-improvement: C. My office is a mess, I weigh too much, blah blah blah. There’s always something more important.

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Sunday Stealing — 2×4

office space

Dr. Medusa is an associate professor who stole this meme from her friend Clare. Since Clare no longer blogs, it’s unknown whether she originated it or stole it. But that doesn’t matter. What’s important now is how you answer these questions.

The 2×4 Meme

TWO foods you can’t stand

Peanut butter: What’s odd is that, as a kid, I LOVED peanut butter. But I must have ODed on it because the smell now makes me nauseous.

2. Black olives

FOUR foods you love

Lasanga, possibly the only thing I make using the oven

2. Strawberry ice cream

3. Carrot cake

4. Deviled eggs

Location

TWO places you never want to see again

A truly awful motel in Ashtabula, OH, where we stayed for the 2016 Olin Family reunion.

2. A cockroach-infested apartment I lived in Kingston, NY for two months in late 1972.

FOUR places you’d like to revisit

Toronto, ON, Canada, where we went to just ahead of the Olin Reunion in Peterborough , ON in 2011. It was combined with a stop at Niagara Falls. I can always go to the Falls.

2. Barbados, where we spent our honeymoon in 1999.

3. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, OH. I’ve been there twice, in 1998 (the Carls Perkins and Wilson had recently died) and 2016.

4. Paris, France. We were in France for a few days, but not nearly enough in the capital

TWO musical artists who make you want to change the station

I don’t know a musical act well enough to hate. There are aspects of various music that I don’t enjoy: misogyny, hyperviolence.

FOUR musical artists you love to listen to

The Beatles (what a surprise)

2. Sly and the Family Stone

3. Beach Boys – Sly and Brian died recently

4. Talking Heads

The past

TWO moments you’d like to erase

Oddly enough, this came up in conversation recently. Trying to get moved from a horrendous office space in August 2017 involved yelling (not just by me), and I needed to leave to cool off, but I was physically blocked. There are more details, but suffice to say: 1) I did get to move, but 2) it took WAY too much effort.

2. One morning in June 2009, I was trying to get back from Charlotte, NC, to Albany, NY. Because of a conversation too inane to repeat, I was late for my plane and had to switch items while in the TSA line.

FOUR moments you’d like to relive. OK, I’m not sure the premise is correct for me. Do I want a rush of nostalgia? No. Do I want to “fix” the past? Maybe, but THEN what? Do I want to re-remember stuff? Well, maybe.

I’m told that, when I was in third grade, I got so angry because some kids were playing keep-away with my hat that I went home. I can totally believe it. I don’t remember this, but my friends tell me I then hopped a Crowley’s milk truck to get home. I’d only want to relive to clarify the narrative.

2. When my maternal grandmother would ramble about relatives, which she called “relations,” I would take notes the next time.

3. I would put my childhood photo album in a safer place.

4. When I took apart the front door lock when I was a kid, I would have taken notes so I could put it back together.

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The ABCs of Sunday Stealing

Wordle

**A logo from a now-defunct group I used to participate in**

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Here, we will steal questions from every corner of the blogosphere. We promise to work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent questions. Cheers to all of us thieves!

Creative Bold inspired this week’s meme. She used the alphabet to tell us a little something about herself. Now it’s your turn.

Let’s Do Our ABCs. J5. The Look of Love. Sesame Street.

A. Auto—it’s a white hybrid that looks like every other vehicle of its size. I’ve gone to the wrong car. Occasionally, so has my wife, and she bought it and drives it.

B. Bed size – Queen.

C. Cats – Stormacita

D. Dogs – I wrote about this a couple of years ago. Quoting me: In my life, I had only one dog. He was named Lucky Stubbs. I believe he was an Alaskan husky we had when I was a tween. He would nip at me, but my parents, specifically my father, seemed unconcerned. That is, until he bit one or maybe both of the minister’s daughters. THEN they got rid of him, ostensibly to a farm in the area.

E. Essential start to your day—I’m afraid it’s Wordle. My win streak is over 955; maybe when I finally blow it—I’ve had two sixes in the last 50 games—I’ll give it up. Or not.

Well, you should be able to guess one

F. Favorite color – Green. Or blue

G. Gold or silver -eh, either. Whatever.

H. Hand you favor (righty or lefty) – Right-handed

I. Instruments you play – kazoo

J. Job title – retired business librarian

K. Kids – one

L. Live (rural, suburb, city) – medium-sized city

M. Meal plans—Okay. We usually have oatmeal with blueberries and a banana for breakfast. Lunch and dinner are relatively varied. Sometimes, when my wife is busy, I buy takeout; the Indian takeout usually lasts four meals.

N. Nicknames – I’m not partial to them.

O. Overnight hospital stays. When I was five and a half, I remember having a bloody nose so severe that I was admitted to the hospital; it was great because I got to see the Hanna-Barbera cartoons, such as Huckleberry Hound and Yogi Bear. There was a car accident in June 1972. Then, there was the heart thing in 2013.

P. Pet peeves. Lots. Drivers who don’t yield to pedestrians when they have the right of way. People who say “do your research” when they mean, “Listen to the lunatic I listen to.” But I have been less fussy over spelling errors because English is weird.

The movie quote should be about movies.

Q. Quote from a movie. My favorite quote about cinema: “That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” Grand Canyon (1991), spoken by Steve Martin’s character

R. Regrets. “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.” This line from the song My Way, popularized by Frank Sinatra, is a fiction in my life.

S. Siblings: Two sisters, one less than a year and a half younger, and one a little more than five years younger.

T. There’s no T! So Television: I just got a Roku, and I’m still figuring it out.

U. Underwear. Yes.

V. Vegetable you love. Spinach

W. What makes you run late? Often, other people

X. X-rays you’ve had. Teeth, left knee, and various other parts.

Y. Yummy food – spinach lasagna, fried chicken leg, strawberry shortcake, carrot cake.

Z. Zoo animal; At The Zoo

Sunday Stealing – Let’s Blog about Blogging

alternative facts

This week’s meme is swiped from If By Yes, a Canadian blogger who describes herself as a “left-wing left-hander with two left feet.” It’s a shame she doesn’t update her blog anymore. Anyway, she participated in a meme that she tells us was popular way back when.

About Blogging

1. When are you at your blogging best – a.m. or p.m.?

Absolutely in the morning. At some level, if I have an idea about a post, I sleep on it, and often I have at least an approach mapped out in the morning. The only time I work on the blog after about noon is doing something mechanical, such as adding links to articles and music posts.

2. How many blogs do you have? Please include the links in your answer.

This is it, at least publicly. The rogerogreen.com blog content morphed from the rogerowengreen.blogspot.com on May 2, 2010. The old content from those first five years is here, but not all comments have been moved, so there’s that. My old work is defunct, as are a bunch of others I’ve participated in. I had a blog on the Albany Times Union from 2008 to 2021, but that ended; the content is uploaded here.

The rest is silence

3. Do you prefer silence when you compose your posts and write your comments?

Absolutely not. I write to music, and it doesn’t matter if it has words or not. I am listening to Rossiniana by Ottorino Respighi, which Kelly posted. But usually, I listen to compact discs of artists whose birthdays are in the current month, such as John Hiatt, Joe Strummer (The Clash), and Robert Plant (Led Zeppelin). Indeed, I can’t do very much without music. I use it when I’m cleaning or filing.

Conversely, I can’t listen to talk, such as the NPR news shows my wife likes to listen to. Sidebar: I’m very sad/angry about the death of the CPB— the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

4. What’s the grossest thing you’ve ever spilled on your keyboard?

Probably Diet Coke.

What’s the use of getting sober…

5. Ever posted while intoxicated?

I don’t generally write on Facebook immediately. I might write a blog post and then post that, but that requires time, thought, and a cooling-down period. The only immediate things I have posted on FB and BlueSky lately are public service announcements about accidents and severe weather.

I don’t even post immediately when ticked off, but let the thoughts simmer. These recent examples bother me as a librarian because they are not fact-based decisions. The FBI redacted djt’s name from several references in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein files. The Smithsonian said it restored a display to an earlier version, which notes that “only three presidents have seriously faced removal.” djt accused the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Erika McEntarfer, of faking jobs numbers, directing his team to fire the former President Biden appointee. These are, to quote a former White House staffer, “alternative facts,” which are bad for democracy.

But see how c-c-c-alm-m-m-m I am? And sober.

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