television Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing Is Artificial

Essential American songs of the last 250 years

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!

Since it’s the 4th of July weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI. Sunday Stealing Is Artificial.

4th of July Questions

1) If you could attend a 4th of July fireworks display anywhere in the United States, where would you choose?

I want to be somewhere with a great sightline, and not a lot of people setting off their own incendiary devices. In Albany, I used to have a great view in my former church’s parking lot on Lark Street. About 12 years ago, my daughter and I loved the view from the field behind Albany High School. But on the way home, only a half dozen blocks away, I felt as though we were going through a war zone. So, sadly, I settled for watching it on television.

2) What book are you currently reading?

Nothing. I’m doing a book review on Tuesday, July 7, at 2 pm at the Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Ave. The book is African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990, by Emerson I. Moss. I picked this book because I have an ancestor, and indeed, a whole family to whom I am related, mentioned substantially in this book. Preparing a book review involves rereading, taking notes, and the like.

CCL

3) What have you been listening to?

Last week, CBS Sunday Morning offered up Essential American songs of the last 250 years. The presentation featured Sara Bareilles singing “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” made famous by Aretha, and Jon Batiste performing “Georgia On My Mind”

Here’s the Spotify roster. Lists like this always generate a certain controversy. “Where’s X? What about Y?” The missed choice I read about most was “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver. A guy named Mike Smith had a list of 15 alternatives; I totally agree with Midnight Train To Georgia, probably 16 Tons, and El Paso.

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

I finally watched Idiocracy, an absurd 2006 film which is becoming more believable by the year. “Corporal Joe Bauers, a decidedly average American, is selected for a top-secret hibernation program but is forgotten and left to awaken to a future so incredibly moronic that he’s easily the most intelligent person alive.” Will stupidity win out? One fan on Rotten Tomatoes wrote: “The most prophetic movie ever created. It predicted Trump’s America in an amazingly accurate and satirical way!”

My wife and I are FINALLY watching The American Revolution. We’re 2/6 of the way through the Ken Burns documentary. It’s amazing how little we knew about the period between Lexington/Concord/Bunker Hill and July 1776.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Sunday Stealing is Artificial

“Americans now experience war more as an economic abstraction than a human catastrophe.”

Since it’s the Memorial Day weekend, we’re going to keep this simple. On us all! The first question came courtesy of AI, so Sunday Stealing is Artificial.

Before that, though, a link to a piece by Jeffery L. Degner titled Memorial Day and Remote War: Has Our Nation Lost Its Capacity to Mourn?

Memorial Day Questions

1) What freedom are you most grateful for?

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” And by extension, the 14th Amendment restricts states from making or enforcing laws that abridge the privileges and immunities of U.S. citizens.

I take my freedom of religion and YOUR right NOT to be forced into religious ideology to be fundamental. This is why I rail against Christian nationalism. This is why I exercise my freedom of speech, my right to protest, and my need to bug my elected officials.

2) What book are you currently reading?

African-Americans in the Wyoming Valley, 1778-1990, by Emerson I. Moss. The Wyoming Valley, BTW, is an area in northcentral Pennsylvania that includes Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. I have a personal connection to the book, which I will discuss when I present a book review on Tuesday, July 7, at 2 pm at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library. Inevitably, I will subsequently post some version of the book review on this blog.

Music

3) What have you been listening to?

Seals and Crofts. Dash Crofts of the duo died in March 2026; Jim Seals had died in 2022. Dash had the less pretty voice, as heard in Dust On My Saddle and Yellow Dirt. I saw the duo in NYC on November 12, 1971.

Beyond that, I’ve been listening to June birthday folk such as Prince (Let’s Go Crazy), Harry Nilsson (Coconut), Kim and Kelley Deal of the Breeders (Cannonball), and Paul McCartney (My Brave Face).

4) What shows or movies have you been watching?

Law & Order: Criminal Intent, which “follows the NYPD’s elite Major Case Squad as they investigate high-profile crimes using advanced behavioral psychology, while also revealing how each crime was planned and carried out from the perpetrators’ point of view.” It ran from 2001 to 2011. Of the 195 episodes, about 70% featured Kathryn Erbe as Detective Alexandra ‘Alex’ Eames and Vincent D’Onofrio as Detective Robert ‘Bobby’ Goren. Quirky doesn’t begin to describe Goren. In the final season, Julia Ormond played Goren’s shrink. Other episodes featured performers such as Jeff Goldblum and Julianne Nicholson.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Sunday Stealing is F.A.B. yet again

More Brilliant Than The Sun

Law and Order Tornto 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!

Since it’s Thanksgiving 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. yet again

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

I stumbled onto Law and Order Toronto: Criminal Intent. Since 1990, I have watched a representative sampling of most L&O programs, enough to anticipate their beats. But the rhythm of this show, while familiar, is fresh enough with its Canadianisms to enjoy.

Wikipedia: “The series premiered on February 22, 2024, on Citytv, and became the #1 prime-time drama of the year in Canada by attracting 1.1 million views on the first episode. The first season ran for 10 episodes; in June 2024, it was renewed for a second and third season.”

It stars Aden Young as Detective Sergeant Henry Graff, Kathleen Munroe as Detective Sergeant Frankie Bateman, K. C. Collins as Deputy Crown Attorney Theo Forrester, and Karen Robinson as Inspector Vivienne Holness. In the first few episodes, the latter two had far too little to do; that’s been rectified a bit.

In the US, the CW has been broadcasting the first season – I just finished episode 9. Season 2, already completed in Canada, will air in the US in 2026.

Music

A. Audio: What are you listening to?

I have finally allowed myself to listen to Advent/Christmas music. Also, I’ve been playing the CDs of Rebecca Jade, who, as it turns out, is the daughter of my sister Leslie; in other words, the first niece. Check out her videos; I’m particularly fond of Peter Sprague’s and her take on Wichita Lineman.

B. Book: What are you reading?

My daughter borrowed a book from a Western Massachusetts college library and insisted I read it before she has to return it in late January. It is titled More Brilliant Than The Sun: Adventures in Sonic Fiction by Kodwo Eshun. Buying the book, which was published in 1998, would cost north of $400.

I can tell you that the Discontents, which you would call the table of contents, namechecks Miles Davis, Grandmaster Flash, Cypress Hill, Funkadelic, Kraftwerk, the Jungle Brothers, Sun Ra, Alice and John Coltrane, and Pharoah Sanders. The index mentions others, such as John Cage, Chic, Queen, Public Enemy, Stevie Wonder, James Brown, and Sly and the Family Stone.

Being an obedient parent, I shall have read it by the deadline.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Continuation of Thankful

fixing the computer, sort of

This is a continuation of thankful, which I started last week. I’m not including the Thursday night choir rehearsals, Sunday morning church services, or events presented in some standalone posts, all of which would qualify.

DATE: Tuesday, the 11th. I was to meet Jim at an Albany restaurant, Ale and Oyster, a guy from far out of town visiting his adult daughter, who now lives in the Capital District. He opened the restaurant door and saw a black guy. He said, “Is your name Roger?” And it was! Just not the correct Roger.

We, including his daughter, ate. He and I swapped stories, some about the Beatles; he remembers the ABC-TV cartoon series better than I. His hometown didn’t have an ABC affiliate until 1970, whereas Binghamton got one in 1962, still later than the bigger cities. Hmm—I know most of the lyrics to Mister Ed, a show his daughter does not recall and I haven’t seen in decades. I was challenged to list the Presidents backwards; yes, I can do it.

Charter schools

Then onto the library. Ryane McAuliffe Straus discussed and read from her book, Divided by Choice: How Charter Schools Diminish Democracy. She based her work on a few dozen interviews involving parents and others in the Albany area. She pushed back on many of the racially tinged tropes about the Albany City School District; as well as being an academic, she’s also a mother of children who are or were students in the ACSD. Read the description on the NYU Press website.

Since she was formerly a professor of political science at Saint Rose College before it closed recently, it was not a surprise, but still that Smallbany thing, when one of the attendees knew people I knew; our church choir director had also worked at CSR.

DATE: Wednesday, the 12th: I went to see my allergist for my annual evaluation at Corporate (frickin’) Woods. While I like the new person – my previous provider warned me last year warned me two years running that she was going to retire – I don’t miss going to C(f)W.

Computer games

Then I went to Best Buy. My keyboard has been driving me crazy for several days. The J, Q, and Delete keys failed to operate. When I got to the Geek Squad counter, a man was berating the customer service rep because he had tried to make an appointment online but was unable to. I noted that I couldn’t either, but said it wasn’t the rep’s fault.

The irate customer said that he had driven two hours. He was told that he could make an appointment for three hours out, which he did.

The rep, addressing me, noticed that there was a cancellation for a slot in ten minutes and that they could try to help me. Though I said that I had owned my laptop for three or four years, he determined that it was built in 2018 – I had bought it secondhand – so they couldn’t help me. If they had sent it off, it would have cost me $85; it wouldn’t have been fixed, and I would have been out the 85 bucks.

Instead, he recommended that I buy a keyboard, which I discovered cost a whopping $12. Incidentally, the sales clerk was a friend of my daughter’s.

Since I had previously found a block to plug into my USB ports, I could utilize not only the keyboard but also my backup stick and a mouse, which I still love to use.

When I want to use voice recognition (Windows + h), all I have to do is unplug the whatchamcallit. It’s a clunky but workable solution.

Old friends

DATE: Thursday, the 13th. I had a 100-minute conversation with my oldest college friend. He may be coming up one of these days.

DATE: Friday, the 14th. I talked for 110 minutes to another old friend, a former comic book store customer with whom I’ve worked occasionally over the years. He subsequently texted me that my penny post led him to a “unique historical moment,” which pleased me greatly.

My wife and I went out to dinner at Suwan Thai on Western Avenue in honor of our lunaversary. We try to go out somewhere once a month. It keeps things fresh. But I should not order the spicy versions, I have determined.

I like going to that location. For years, I patronized the Ginger Man for decades until it closed in 2017. I used to live a block away.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sunday Stealing Tunes In

Dick Van Dyke

This week we’re stealing from Christina at Call Me Patsy. Back in 2008, she said this was the TV meme “that everyone has been doing.” Well, we don’t like to be left out.

Sunday Stealing Tunes In

1. Name a TV show you’ve seen every episode of.

For sure, The Dick Van Dyke Show; I watched the five seasons on DVD with my daughter. Probably I Love Lucy; ditto. The Twilight Zone, which I have on DVD. MASH.

2. On which device do you do most of your viewing (television, tablet, computer, phone)?

I have never been on the phone. A CBS Mornings anchor said they were watching MOVIES on the phone, and I shuddered. I have no tablet. The only time I’ve used the computer is when my wife wanted to watch TV. So television by a vast margin.

3. Name an actor/actress who would make you less likely to watch a show.

Can’t think of one.

I watched a LOT of TV.

4. When you were a kid, what show did you love?

There was a wide range of programs: Wonderful World of Disney, Andy Griffith Show, JEOPARDY, Password, The Defenders, Perry Mason, Ed Sullivan, Top Cat, The Smothers Brothers, The Wild Wild West, the aforementioned Twilight Zone, and the Dick Van Dyke Show.

5. What show do you recommend everyone watch?

I don’t. But I’ve long been fond of CBS Sunday Morning, a magazine of the air, since it premiered in 1979. Since I learned to use the VHS recorder, I generally record it to watch later.

6. What shows do your friends like, but you don’t?

I don’t really talk to my friends about their TV viewing habits. That said, it would probably be something in the horror genre.

7. When you watch TV, do you also busy yourself with something else (jigsaw puzzle, folding laundry, etc.)?

Not usually.

8. Do you eat a meal or snack while watching TV?

Maybe popcorn.

I love the word “genre”

9. What’s your preferred genre (comedy, drama, reality, etc.)?

Probably drama.

10. Do you prefer mini series (shows that tell their stories in a pre-determined number of episodes) or shows that come back season after season?

There are SO many shows that I have seen zero or one episode of that are on streaming services: Severance, Man On The Inside, The Morning Show, The Pitt, The Studio, English Teacher, Shrinking, Dying for Sex, Your Friends and Neighbors, and Hacks. I might like most of them, but I have no idea whether they’re ongoing or limited series.

Ten years ago, I read that there are more television episodes, excluding news, sports, and reruns, every day than hours in the day.