For today’s Sunday Stealing, here’s Swapbot redux
- What did you do today?
By “today,” I will answer for yesterday since I’ve done nothing consequential today. Or maybe I have. In any case, I washed all of the dishes and vacuumed the first floor. Then my wife and I went out and had dinner with old friends.
2. What are the must-sees in your area?
Discover Albany has a page for this very thing. The Capitol is cool, but I haven’t been there in decades. One of my favorite underappreciated treasures in my county is the Overlook Park with the waterfalls in Cohoes. The Underground Railroad Education Center is cool and will be more so in the next few years. I’ve visited Schuyler Mansion, Thatcher Park, and the USS Slater. My wife and I are members of the Albany Institute of History and Art. I understand that the New York State Museum is getting a needed facelift.
3. What is your favourite quote?
It’s probably from Here and Now: Living in the Spirit by Henri J.M. Nouwen, a Canadian theologian who died in 1996. Here’s a piece of it: “Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people’s birthdays every day, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection.” A longer version I posted on my 60th birthday and probably subsequently.
4. What was the last thing you cooked or ate?
I prepared oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries, and bananas. My regular breakfast.
Grands
5. What is something you learned from your grandparents?
Playing cards. From my paternal grandmother, canasta. From my paternal grandfather, gin rummy.
6. What makes you happy?
Friends, music, learning stuff, leisure
7. What is your best travel memory?
Unexpectedly, we flew first class from Barbados to JFK in NYC from our honeymoon in 1999.
8. What’s the weather like today?
9. Share an interesting fact that you’ve learned
Almost anything I learned as an adult after college that I feel I should have learned in school. The Red Summer of 1919 and related activities, e.g.
10. What is your favourite book, movie, or band?
I’m going to go with The Temptations. I saw a musical about them called Ain’t Too Proud in May 2023. The group is still going with one original member, Otis Williams.
Poemlike
11. Write your favorite poem or haiku.
I’m sure I don’t have one. So, I decided to think of something by Bob Dylan or Smokey Robinson. But then I saw the book Finishing The Hat by Stephen Sondheim on my bookshelf. I leafed through the table of contents and came across Anyone Can Whistle from 1964. At my previous church, I sang the title song at a cabaret.
Anyone can whistle; that’s what they say-easy.
Anyone can whistle, any old day-easy.
It’s all so simple. Relax, let go, let fly.
So someone tell me, why can’t I?
I can dance a tango, I can read Greek-easy.
I can slay a dragon, any old week-easy.
What’s hard is simple. What’s natural comes hard.
Maybe you could show me how to let go,
Lower my guard, Learn to be free. Maybe if you whistle, Whistle for me.
Here is Patti LuPone singing it.
12. What is a local festival or tradition from your area?
There are several, but my favorite may be the Tulip Festival in May, which I’ve attended at least two dozen times. The Dutch colonized New York before the English took over.
13. What was the best thing you learned in school?
The most interesting fact I learned is that if you add up the digits of a long number and it adds up to be 9, and that number is divisible by 9, the larger number is divisible by 9. For 123,456,789, the digits add up to 45, divisible by 9. When I learned this in 4th grade, it was MASSIVE.