Sunday Stealing Archives - Page 8 of 35

Sunday Stealing — Odd Little Meme

Eugene Ionesco

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. This odd little meme was stolen from Singularity, who originally posted them in September 2010.

But before that, here’s a picture of my backyard on Monday, April 7, at about 8 a.m. If you look very closely, you can see snow falling.

1. Do you own a pair of cargo pants?

No. I feel as though I did once upon a time.

2. Which of these gifts from a romantic partner would please you most: a) jewelry, b) wine, c) a book, d) something grown in his/her garden?

Definitely not wine. I have several bottles, undrunk. I’d say a book, though my list of unread books is long and getting longer.

3. Who was the last person to toss a harsh word or phrase your way? Do you think that maybe you had it coming?

I don’t recall unless we’re talking online. And to be honest, it wasn’t all that. In response to a Facebook post: “Just more left-wing propaganda. Anybody who can’t see it by now simply chooses not to.”

Theater

4. Did you appear in any plays back when you were in school? If yes, what role(s) did you play? Earn extra, non-existent points for sharing any of your dialog.

One was The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. “In this haunting and blistering play, a wealthy woman offers financial help to her struggling hometown – in exchange for the life of a man who wronged her years before.” I was the train conductor, trying to get the rich woman to comply with the rail line’s rules. My entire dialogue: “But madame…”

My most significant role was in The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco, his first one-act antiplay (1950), which “inspired a revolution in dramatic techniques and helped inaugurate the Theatre of the Absurd. I played the Fire Chief. “Since you don’t have the time here, I must tell you that in exactly three-quarters of an hour and sixteen minutes, I’m having a fire at the other end of the city.”

5. Which Osmond do you like better: Donny or Marie?

I might have said Marie because I hated the Osmonds’ One Bad Apple, a ripoff of the Jackson 5ive. But I saw Close Every Door from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and it’s oddly fascinating.

6. Who is your favorite radio host or podcaster?

Brian Ibbott of Coverville, which is “a podcast, produced every Wednesday, that focuses on cover songs – a new rendition of a previously recorded song.” In fact, every month, I suggest musicians whose birthdays are divisible by five.

7. Is your personal workspace filled with fluffy, plastic, wind-up, rubbery, or edible items? Or are you all business and clutter-free?

Well, my home office is mightily cluttered.

Sunday Stealing — Manic Monday

Welcome to Sunday Stealing. Cheers to all of us thieves! This is from Manic Monday, stolen from a blog that, alas, is no more.

1) What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?

I believe it was my freshman year at college at New Paltz. Previously, I had always been good at math: arithmetic, algebra (97 on the final), geometry (86, only because I refused to memorize theorems), and trigonometry (98). But I never “got” calculus. I got a 73 on the 1st test, 56 on the second, and 37 on the third, and needed a decent score on the final. So I spent two days cramming and managed to get a 73 in the final, and I got a C for the course. I never took another math course. Moreover, I looked at the calculus book about two weeks later but understood nothing. (BTW, all those scores are the actual ones, which I inexplicably remember; I don’t know my scores in any other high school or college course.)

2) What was the highlight of your last week?

I visited my cardiologist – I have this congenital condition – and the news was good. We had a lovely banter back and forth. He was impressed that I knew the meaning of the word interrobang, which he used in a sentence. It’s probably because I wrote about it in this blog last year.

It’s all about me

3) You have to give a 10-minute speech to a group of high school students. What’s your topic?

My circuitous path to my career, starting at undergrad and then to grad school, dropping out, working in a comic book store, then going back to a different grad school and becoming a librarian.

4) What is the single best decision you’ve ever made in your life?

Going to library school. It fits the way my brain works. I was conversing with somebody at church recently, and they noted that I have a wealth of sometimes arcane information, such as the history of the Lincoln penny (1909). You can pull that off a bit better when you’re a librarian.

5) If you could ask a coworker, friend, or family member a question and be guaranteed an honest answer, who would you choose and what would you ask?

When I was in high school, sometimes I disappeared. I’d be at a party and feel overwhelmed and go home. Sometimes, I’d hide someplace. There was somebody I knew at the time and still know, and I wanted to see if they remembered this and, if so, if anyone missed me.

6) Do you cook for yourself when you’re home alone?

Goodness, no. When I’m by myself, I eat canned tuna, rotisserie chicken, leftover takeout, or cold cereal. I might fry a couple of eggs.

7) Do you most often access the internet from your computer, your phone, or your smart watch?

My computer. I was a late adapter using my phone, and I don’t even know where my smart watch is, although it’s probably in this office.

Text me if you must

8) Do you have more email addresses or phone numbers?

Far more e-mail addresses. It wasn’t until my most recent phone, which I think I’ve had for a couple of years, that I realized I could put the emails into the phone. I’m not a big texter; I text because it fits the needs of others. If I’m home and somebody texts me, there’s a less than 50% chance that I’ll know I’ve gotten the message, whereas I always hear the landline phone ring.

9) What’s the biggest source of anger in your life right now?

FOTUS, based on a variety of issues, but near the top is the fact that folks in my county have been apprehended without due process. The Rev. Dan Clark (he/him), Director of Organizing, Faith in Public Life, posted on Cesar Chavez Day, March 31, about Rubén Castilla Herrera, an activist inspired by Chavez. “All people impacted by injustice are human beings with innate dignity and the breath of the divine within them. But they are not a nameless mass, an anonymous crowd. Rubén taught me that they are personas… personas con nombres.” People… people with names.

10) Mondays make me feel _________________.

As though I’m going to get a lot done this week. Then Friday proves me a liar.

Prince

Bangles

Green Day

Sunday Stealing from Shannon

drinking all day

Regular Sunday Stealer Shannon W. from Moments of Introspection took on 43 questions. The Gal Herself purports to be lazy, so she pared it back to 15. Actually, 14.

1. What book are you currently reading?

60 Songs That Explain the ’90s by Rob Harvilla. Actually, I read it a while ago, but I will be rereading it because I’m doing a book review of it on June 3 at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.

2. Have you ever smoked?

Yes, but probably one pack in my whole life, mostly in Charlotte, NC, in the first third of 1977 when I was pretty miserable; I wrote about it here.

3. Do you own a gun?

No, and I categorically will not. On Tuesday, March 25, I attended a book review about Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution by Priya Satia. Jonathan Skinner, PhD, retired statistician and amateur classicist, reviewed it.

During the Q&A, there was a question of who in the audience would own a gun. I commented about the Good [Black] Guys With Guns phenomenon and how E.J. Bradford ended up dead for trying to do the right thing. As I wrote in 2017, the Philando Castile homicide wrecked me; I reread it, and it still does. So, hell no, it would not make me feel safer and could get me killed.

I Want Candy

4. What is your favorite candy?

A Mounds bar. Fortunately, I only got one for Christmas and my birthday. The second fave would be York Peppermint Patties.

5. Hot dogs: yay or nay?

Yay, but I tend to only have them – with mustard, of course – on July 4 and Labor Day.

6. Favorite movie?

This is always difficult. If it is my favorite, oughtn’t I see it more often? I loved Casablanca but haven’t seen it in half a century. Here’s a list I made in October 2024. I might add Conclave, which I liked well enough to recommend it highly to my wife.

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

Every morning, I pass the refrigerator and see bottles of wine. I have a lot of booze in the pantry, yet it’s 1% milk that I consume most often.

8. What do you drink throughout the day?

Water, ginger ale, occasionally orange juice.

9. Do you do push-ups?

No, and I never really did, especially as a kid.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?

My wedding ring, though honestly I can’t think of another.

11. Current worry?

Authoritarianism

12. Current annoyance?

My messy office

13. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

Not especially. They seem slippery and cold.

15. Can you whistle?

I was at a talent show at my old church, and I got to sing Anyone Can Whistle from a Sondheim musical I’ve never seen. So anyway, yes.

Prompts and more prompts

jazz

The Sunday Stealing for this week are Prompts and more prompts.

1) How do you show others love? What makes you feel loved?

I thought about this for a long time. I think it’s trying to suss out or observe what makes somebody feel loved. It’s not the same thing from person to person. Some people appreciate you cleaning, making food, remembering birthdays, listening to them, sharing music: I don’t think there’s a universal thing.

I feel loved when I feel heard, when I tell somebody something, and they acknowledge it, or when I write something and they understand what I’m trying to say. The closest appropriate song here is “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” by The Animals.

2) Who is someone you admire? Why?

My mother’s mother’s mother’s father, James Archer, is one of three great-great-grandfathers of mine who fought in the US Civil War and survived. He then worked to buy a home that was where four generations lived. I even renamed the Gulf of Mexico after him!

3) Do you have the qualities you value in a friend?

For the most part. I listen well. Yes, I know how to keep secrets; I keep a LOT of secrets. I know a few things to offer advice, but I don’t assume my advice is always accurate or even requested. Sometimes, it’s just showing up. Being a friend is like jazz.

Missing Rball

4) What is something you enjoyed doing when you were younger but don’t do anymore? Why did you stop doing it?

At the beginning of 1983, I played racquetball regularly, first with one or two people and then with a coterie of about a half dozen people. We played at the Albany YMCA in Washington Ave. until it closed in 2010, much to our great disappointment. I tried playing a few times at Siena College, but it never clicked. So racquetball, which I got to be surprisingly good at, has gone off the table for the last decade

5) What is something other people think is fun but you don’t?

Arguing online, watching reality television, and shopping, for instance.

Don’t Cry! It’s Only Sunday Stealing.

Frosty

moon 3/14/2025 Don’t Cry. It’s only Sunday Stealing. This week, we’re stealing from Steph, aka Cry Baby. She loves Taco Bell and asks questions like these.

1) Think about the last person you forgave. How long did it take you to forgive them?

I don’t know. I can’t remember the last time I was in a situation to forgive somebody. The last time I had a lengthy disagreement, they were upset with me much more than I was upset with them. Let’s say we had a political difference of opinion for about four years. Eventually, they decided that they wanted to see me after all.

2) Steph’s favorite fast food is Taco Bell. What’s yours?

It’s been a few years since I’ve been there, but it is probably Wendy’s. I like the burgers, and they have an ice cream-related thing called the Frosty. I saw in a segment on CBS News that they are mixing Frosties with Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies. It sounds weird; I wouldn’t mind having one to test it out.

3) Who was the last friend you hung out with? What did you do?

Over half a dozen people played hearts at my house yesterday to honor my birth month. I wrote about the tradition of the hearts game here. I wanted to have a hearts game at my house at least once a year, and, for the most part, since I turned 60, it’s happened.

Lunar eclipse

4) Did you do anything this past week that will still seem important a year from now?

“Important” might be a strong word, but significant, I would say yes. Going to see the solar eclipse in April 2024 was fun, but visually disappointing. Others, even in my area, have seen the Northern Lights in 2024, but I could never find them.

I stayed up until 3 a.m. on March 14th to look at the moon, which was primarily orange during the lunar eclipse. Unfortunately, I don’t have a very good camera—in fact, I don’t have a real camera at all. I took a picture with my phone, which is unimpressive, to say the least, but I blew it up, and it appears in this post. It doesn’t look like the moon, but it’s cool or at least interesting.

5) Will this coming week be better than last week? How so?

I keep making a list of things I need to do next week, and the items remain on the list as I go through the week. Will next week be better? I thought last week would be better, so next week COULD be better, but there are no guarantees. Other things pop up and take me off in another direction.