Tag: Sunday Stealing

Sunday Stealing Remembers the Good Old Days

Domingo Samudio

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!

We’re going into the new year by looking back. Randy at GeneaMusings encourages us to reminisce. So the group remembers the Good Old Days.

When I Was Young

I used to say that I didn’t really like to wallow in nostalgia. But now it’s more of a mental exercise. Can I remember that stuff anymore? 

1. Tell us about a time when your family got a newfangled invention (your first air conditioner, color TV, VCR, microwave, computer, etc.).

Our family got a color TV in either Christmas 1969 or Christmas 1970.

The only times I remember seeing color TV before that were some summer nights c. 1962/63. My sister Leslie had a best friend, Christine, who lived next door to my maternal grandmother.

They, I, and maybe my baby sister would be at Christine’s house watching this piece of furniture. It was usually the Wonderful World of Disney and Bonanza on Sunday nights on NBC. ABC and CBS weren’t broadcasting in color until 1966.

So when we got our color TV, I remember seeing The Wizard of Oz for the first time in color. I had watched it a dozen times before that, but I never saw Oz that way before. I finally got the “horse of a different color” reference; the equine used to be different shades of gray.  

Pharaohs?

2. Is there a particular song that sparks a childhood memory?

If you have read this blog for any length of time, you know that there are HUNDREDS, maybe THOUSANDS of songs I can identify from when I was 4 to 18.  And most of them generate a memory, many of which I have written about. 

I don’t think I’ve ever written about Wooly Bully by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. I liked the song a lot, especially the countdown: “Uno, dos, one, two, tres, quatro.” Here’s an oddity: per Billboard magazine, it was the number one song of 1965.  However, it never reached number one on the weekly Billboard charts, though it did top Record World.

It wasn’t the song as much as the outfits I was struck by as a kid. These guys weren’t Middle Eastern/Egyptian, were they? No. 

Regarding the lead singer, “most sources refer to Domingo Samudio’s ancestry as Mexican-American. However, a 1998 Chicago Tribune article described Samudio as of Basque/Apache descent. In a 2007 conversation with music writer Joe Nick Patoski, Samudio described his grandparents fleeing the Mexican Revolution and settling in Texas, where his family supported themselves working in the cotton fields.”

Learning

3. What is something an older family member taught you to do?

My paternal grandmother taught me canasta, and my paternal grandfather taught me gin rummy. My father’s cousin Ruth described my father at her home, feverishly trying to figure out my name and initials shortly after I was born.

4. Back in the day, what name brands would we have found in your family’s kitchen?

Joy dish detergent, Kellogg’s/Nabisco/General Mills cereals (I LOVED cereal), Fro-Joy ice cream (a truly inferior product), Pyrex bowls,  General Electric (refrigerator, maybe?) Our stove/oven was ancient, and I have no idea what brand it was. Maybe my sisters recall. 

5. As a child, did you collect anything (rocks, shells, stickers, etc.)?

Stamps, baseball cards, LPs. coins. I was really put out when some kid, the child of my parents’ friends, purloined some of my half-dollars.

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Sunday Stealing Feels Frustrated

Loving You Has Made Me Bannans

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’s meme is inspired by Christina at Call Me Patsy, who turned to answering these questions when she felt frustrated by a project she was working on.

Frustration – Joan Armatrading

Questions to Answer when You Need a Break because Sunday Stealing Feels Frustrated

1. What would you rather be doing right now?

Sleeping, actually. I had oral surgery on Wednesday, and the residual pain, while not severe, is exhausting.

I’m Only Sleeping – The Beatles and I Go To Sleep -Pretenders 

2. What is always on your grocery list?

Bananas. My wife and I usually have them with oatmeal for breakfast. She likes them browner than I. And my daughter would eat them when they are practically green. So you can’t purchase too many at a time.

Loving You Has Made Me Bananas – Guy Marks

3. Have you ever used a fire extinguisher for its intended purpose?

I have a vague recollection of doing so, not in this century, in a kitchen.  But I did, for a very brief time, in the late 1980s or early 1990s, SELL fire extinguishers. I wasn’t very good at it, although I believed in the product, because I hated door-to-door retail sales. Even more, I despised strong-arming my friends.

Fire – Ohio Players

Text

4. How many times did you text yesterday?

Once. I attended a party, and my daughter drove me because the bus runs infrequently on weekends and holidays. My daughter texted me a couple of hours later to see if I wanted a ride home. Since the next bus was in 47 minutes, and the party was starting to break up, I said yes. But my wife ended up picking me up because she had just come home from a different party.

I hate texting. I’m not particularly good at it.  The idea of always being available is appalling to me. If I’m home, I don’t even carry my phone unless I’m playing NYT Connections or contacting a doctor. This is why we still have a landline—that and to call my cellphone when I inevitably misplace it.

Stop Forwarding That Crap To Me – “Weird Al” Yankovic 

5. Would you prefer a slow-paced, relaxing vacation or one filled with new sights and experiences?

I think I need to alternate. One day of busyness, followed by a day of relaxation.

Vacation – Connie Francis and Vacation – the Go-Go’s

Sunday Sunday: F.A.B. winter 2025

January birthdays

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 busy holiday weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. We stole this from a blogger named Idzie, who called this the F.A.B. (film, audio, book) meme.

F.A.B.  winter 2025

F. Film: What movie or TV show are you watching?

I watched the CBS piece Rob Reiner: Scenes from a Life. Mark Evanier said about it: “Someone — probably many someones — did an extraordinary job putting it together in not enough time. They not only got access to a lot of Reiner’s closest friends, but they got them to share very personal, unique insights into the man… 

“I know how easy it is to lapse into clichés and say generic things about how wonderful the deceased was, how the world will never be the same, etc. This was not that. It was a portrait of a real person painted by people who knew that real person and who said things specific to that real person. “

I totally agreed with that assessment. Also, “Remembering the treasured films of Rob Reiner from CBS Sunday Morning by Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz 

BTW, I wrote about the Reiners here.

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

Besides Christmas music, which I will play until January 6 or until I run out, whichever comes first, I’ve been listening to musicians whose birthdays are in early January:

Joan Baez: Simple Twist of Fate

David Bowie: Panic In Detroit

Jim Croce: Operator

Roger Miller: You Can’t Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd

Donald Fagan: The Royal Scam – Steely Dan

Elvis Presley:  Jailhouse Rock

Soupy Sales: Though I’m Just A Clown, On Motown Records!

Rod Stewart: Every Picture Tells A Story

Michael Stipe: It’s The End Of The World As We Know It – REM

Stephen Stills: Woodstock – CSNY

B. Book: What are you reading?

I’m catching up on The Week magazine and the newspapers.

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Sunday Stealing Feels Festive

Maundy Thursday

Welcome to Sunday Stealing, which, heading towards the solstice, Christmas, and other celebrations, feels festive.

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!

Impetua is a blogger who stole this meme from someone named Yello, whom our moderator could not find. While it’s not specifically about the holidays, these questions do have a festive feel.

Stealing Some Fun

1. Describe your favorite cake.

My favorite cake is carrot cake, which I’ve had for my birthday about half of my life. Considering I didn’t have it in the first 18 years means I’ve had it a  lot since. Part of my grand self-delusion is that, since it has carrots, it must be healthy. I don’t  REALLY believe it, but it’s pretty delicious, especially with vanilla ice cream. 

2. Think of the best party you’ve ever attended. Were you a host or a guest?

The best parties I can remember are my birthday, which I suppose seems terribly unimaginative and/or self-centered, but it’s true. For my 16th birthday, my parents held a party at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, NY. I rarely had parties at home because our house was so small, so my parents renting out a place was a big deal.

The next birthday that stands out is actually the 33 1/3rd birthday party I had with my then-girlfriend. We held it in July because my birthday in March is cold, and the weather can be dodgy. I remember the invitation was on green paper, of course, and the design was an LP label with the party information.

My 50th birthday was at my church, and my sister Leslie came up for it.

I’ve had a card party (hearts) at my house almost every year for the past dozen years, and that’s always a joy. We play hearts

Hallmark

3. When you choose a greeting card, do you pay more attention to the words or the pictures?

I always pay more attention to the words. I like a nice picture, but a nice picture with saccharine verbiage will turn me right off.

4. What’s your favorite holiday?

The problem with most holidays in the United States is that they are often fraught. The so-called “war on Christmas.” Thanksgiving carries a lot of baggage from its first celebration. MLK Day and Juneteenth are deemed too DEI. Most people can’t tell the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day.  Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples Day? 

It may be Lent generally, and Maundy Thursday specifically. I love that melancholy music. 

5. Who is your favorite character on your favorite TV show?

That would be Rob Petrie on The Dick Van Dyke Show. He had a good job, a lovely and talented wife, and a pleasant child. They lived in a charming house. He had good friends. What’s not to like?

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Sunday Stealing — Catherine’s Questions

THINK

“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!

“Catherine called her blog Marvel Not a Girl, and while I don’t know for sure, it’s believed she came up with these questions herself.”

Catherine’s Questions

1) What one word describes your personality?

Apparently, it is enigmatic. Certainly not everyone, but some people think they know me better than they actually do, attributing motives to my behaviors that had indeed never occurred to me.

 

2) What’s the best way to get on your good side?

 I believe the THINK Acronym for Kinder and More Effective Communications online definitely applies to dealing with me in person (or online).

Is it TRUE? Don’t spew gossip and theory as fact. Specifically, don’t say bad things about, say, FOTUS that are untrue, thinking this will ingratiate you to me; it will not.

Is it HELPFUL? When I think, “why did you say/do THAT?” that’s what I’m talking about.
Is it INSPIRING? My father used to say A LOT, “It is better to remain silent and appear ignorant than to speak and remove any doubt.” The quote was almost certainly not from Abraham Lincoln or Mark Twain; here is the backstory.
Is it NECESSARY? Some people fear silence.
Is it KIND? I sent a recent email reprimanding someone I thought was being snarkily unkind to me in person a few hours earlier. Some people operate on snark; I find it utterly exhausting.
Elephant Talk – King Crimson
3) What person do you feel most comfortable with?
Someone who doesn’t feel that filling every second with conversation is necessary.

Talk, it’s all talkToo much talkSmall talkTalk that trashExpressions, editorials, explanations, exclamations, exaggerationsIt’s all talk

4) Do you handle criticism well?

It depends on a) the legitimacy and b) the manner of the criticism.

5) Are you the type to tell someone, if asked, that their pants DO make them look fat?

If they REALLY want to know, I guess so.

 

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