Ramblin' with Roger

December rambling: hiatus

an “alcoholic’s personality”

The Daily Show is on hiatus until Monday, January 5, 2026. But here are its hosts (minus Jon Stewart) discussing the year gone by…

Silence, as if by Sharp Little Pencil

Happy Public Domain Day 2026!

Democracy’s Library and 1 Trillion Web Pages Archived

The Oscars Will Be Streamed on YouTube Starting in 2029

Kars4Kids and Oorah Face New Class-Action Lawsuit Alleging Donor Deception

What brought Sears down? 10 mistakes from giant companies

Dear Santa: A Genealogist’s Christmas Wish List (Including That One Elusive Death Certificate We’ve Been Hunting for Three Years)

Best Television and Books of 2025 (J. Eric Smith)

A small fraction of U.S. history (old paper money)

‘Jeopardy!’: Four-Time Champion Eric Berman Dies at 60

Is this the Gumby & Pokey / Davey & Goliath crossover episode?

The Opposite of the Drive-Thru Window? You’re in your car. You get your burger without leaving your car. So maybe it’s the same, but… not? and The Accidental Igloo That Saved a Life and A Planely Bad Way to Quit

Orange

White House chief of staff Susie Wiles: he has an “alcoholic’s personality,” drawing a comparison to her father, legendary NFL broadcaster Pat Summerall, who struggled with alcoholism before getting sober.

Three days in the life of a pathetic man.

Wait, some of the redacted Epstein files can be UNREDACTED??

He’s still obsessed with Greenland.

In March 2023, reporter Hugo Lowell revealed exclusively in the Guardian that a federal criminal investigation was examining TMedia – the company that owns the his social media platform, Truth Social – in connection with its acceptance of $8m in loans with suspected Russian ties. Those loans helped keep the company afloat long enough for him to take it public last year, when he netted an additional paper fortune of about $4.6bn. TM sued the Guardian for defamation and $250m in damages. In late November, the judge threw out the case, pointing out that the plaintiff was required to show that “the [Guardian] either knew the statement was false or acted with reckless disregard for its truth” – but he found no such evidence. This was a victory not only for the Guardian but for journalists everywhere.

Reflections of a Census Bureau Employee: MAGA Callers Share a Common Delusion.

3600 Seconds

CBS News’ new editor in chief, Bari Weiss, abruptly postponed a segment of “60 Minutes” about Venezuelan men who the regime deported to the notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison, known as CECOT, in El Salvador.

Several veteran correspondents questioned Weiss’ decision. In an email to her colleagues, correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi said the team “requested responses to questions and/or interviews with DHS, the White House, and the State Department. Government silence is a statement, not a VETO. Their refusal to be interviewed is a tactical maneuver designed to kill the story,” she said.

Was Weiss’ decision by design? Or was she merely derelict in her job? CBS News’ censorship spectacularly backfires. Terry Moran: She skipped five different screenings of the 60 Minutes story as it was being written and cut…. Finally, on Thursday, Weiss watched a video of the segment and offered a few suggestions, which were integrated into the script.

Postponing the segment did not prevent it from trickling into public view. Internet sleuths discovered that a Canadian network had briefly published the segment, and a bootleg version of the video began circulating on social media.

Someone thought that, for cBS, the c is now silent.

MUSIC

Randy Rainbow’s new parody: It’s beginning to look a lot like f**k this

Obituaries: Remembering The Mavericks Frontman Raul Malo; O What A Thrill; Dance The Night Away

Singer Chris Rea Dies at 74; Steel River; Let’s Dance

Jerry Kasenetz, a King of Bubblegum Pop Music, Dies at 82. With his producing partner, Jeffry Katz, he made lightweight ditties that soared up the charts in the late 1960s by the 1910 Fruitgum Company, the Ohio Express, and others. (Music links within.)

Go Gentle: Max Eider, R.I.P.

The Musicians We Lost in 2025

Message of Love – Pretenders

Arthur’s Weekend Diversion: 1985, Part 27 – The Finale

Coverville 1562 and 1563: The 2025 Coverville Countdown, Parts 1 and 2

Best Albums of 2025 (J. Eric Smith)

10 Songs That Explain My Year from the NYT Amplifier

Time In A Bottle – MonaLisa Twins

Air New Zealand commercial featuring the traditional song “Pōkarekare Ana.”

The Girl With The Flaxen Hair by Claude Debussy

Say You, Say Me – Lionel Richie

Rick Beato’s Top 10 of 2025

Primrose Hill – James McCartney

Mr. Tambourine Man – The Byrds

Sir Duke – Stevie Wonder

Extended interview: Sean Ono Lennon on CBS Sunday Morning. Film: WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko – The Academy Award® winning Animated Short

The health report for December 2025

subclade K

The health report for December 2025: It could have been worse. I felt meh physically at the beginning of the month. On Tuesday, December 2, it snowed enough to close the schools in Albany and much of the surrounding area, a slow-moving storm that eventually dumped 7.2″ at the Albany Airport.

This meant the Albany Public Library was also closed, so our book review was postponed. Wednesday, I felt yucky, and Thursday, worse, so I didn’t attend choir rehearsal. On Friday, I went to the nearest urgent care location. The good news – no flu, no COVID, maybe because I got shots for both in September. Still, I was wiped out enough to forgo attending church on Sunday.

We had rehearsals for our big concert, featuring The Ballad of the Brown King, on Monday night, Thursday night, and Saturday morning, before the program on Sunday, December 14. It went well.

Daughter

Our daughter was scheduled to drive herself home on Tuesday, December 16. But she felt so poorly that my wife ended up driving to western Massachusetts early in the morning to pick her up.

The daughter DID have a diagnosed case of the flu, as did at least three of her housemates. She had influenza A. From here: “The vast majority of cases since the end of September have been flu A, according to the latest CDC data. And of flu A cases, most of those sequenced are H3N2, subclade K.

“The U.S.’s flu season did not start early like it did in [the UK, Japan, and Canada], but subclade K is already showing to be the dominant virus circulating [in the US.] ‘We’re seeing subclade K everywhere we see influenza,’ because subclade K’s mutations allow it to evade existing immunity in the population. It is less recognizable by your body’s immune response, making you more susceptible to infection.”

The daughter had four prescriptions to take. The health clinician at her college suggested that the outbreak was much worse than normal.

Ah, masks. One of the beneficial residual effects of COVID is that we still have half a box of them. My wife and daughter wore them on the ride home. We practiced social distancing; it was good that the daughter had a television in her room. She felt better for a couple of days, but then worse.

It doesn’t matter how old they are; you hate it when your kid get sick, especially during the holidays.

Church

My wife and I got to church on Sunday, the 21st, only to discover that neither of the pastors, Glenn and Miriam, was present. They both had the flu. They called a substitute the previous Thursday, hoping to rest that weekend so they’d be well enough for Christmas Eve, which they were.

But one of the choir members temporarily passed out on Christmas Eve, likely from dehydration. It WAS a heavy music season.

Beacon in the Park and other events

I’m on a panel discussing the movie The Librarians

First Presbyterian Church of Albany is hosting Beacon in the Park, a juried First Friday exhibition and community arts weekend – and we’re inviting regional artists to be part of it.

On February 6–7, 2026, the historic building on Washington Park will become a gallery, concert hall, and gathering space. FPC is looking for artwork that responds to the light, architecture, and neighborhood that make this corner of Albany so distinctive—many more details at the link above.

More pressing: Submit Your Artwork for the Beacon in the Park Juried Show.

Deadline: Monday, January 26, 2026 (5 PM)

Art Show Prospectus: Please read before submitting art.

Artwork must be inspired by First Pres, Tiﬀany windows, or the Washington Park neighborhood.

Panel

ITEM: I received an invitation to be on a panel for the NYS Writers Institute, apparently as a result of participating in the collective reading of Legs by local author legend William Kennedy.

In the email: “We’ve put in a request to screen the new film The Librarians on Friday, Feb. 20^th, at 7 PM at Page Hall.” That’s at the downtown UAlbany campus.

“We’re going to have a small panel of librarians in conversation after the screening. Would you be interested in appearing on the panel?” I know at least one of the other librarians participating.

“Our conversations are informal and fun, and involve audience Q&A.” Sure. I’ve already started prepping; it’s less than two months away.

FFAPL

Book reviews and author talks at Albany Public Library, 161 Washington Avenue between Lark and Dove Streets, Tuesdays at 2 pm in the large auditorium.

January 6 | Author Talk | James Preller, writer of many children’s books, discusses & reads from his book, Shaken.

January 13 | Author Talk | Michael Neagle, professor of history at Nichols College, discusses & reads from his book, Chasing Bandits: America’s Long War on Terror.

January 20 | Book Review | Capitalism and Its Critics: A History: From the Industrial Revolution to AI by John Cassidy. Reviewer: Eugene Damm, former journalist & past president, FAPL.

January 27 | Book Review | These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore. Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U. At Albany, SUNY.

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.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

“Quote a song lyric that sums up your year”

You know that end-of-the-year quiz I do? This one question is taking up too much space.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

It would be easy to stick previous years’ songs on the list.

Logical Song by Supertramp

I said, Now, watch what you say, they’ll be calling you a radicalA liberal, oh, fanatical, criminalOh, won’t you sign up your name? We’d like to feel you’re acceptableRespectable, oh, presentable, a vegetable

Monster by Steppenwolf

America, where are you now
Don’t you care about your sons and daughters
Don’t you know we need you now
We can’t fight alone against the monster

Virtually all of Elephant Talk by King Crimson

And especially The Trouble With Normal by Bruce Coburn

The trouble with normal is that it always gets worse

Resistance?

Then I saw a HeatherCox Richardson video from August 7 titled Forms of Resistance and Reasons to Believe It’s Working. From about three minutes in, she said:

Those sorts of ways of recognizing quietly, of making a statement quietly, matter because people hear them and recognize that they are not alone.

Do you hear the people sing?Singing a song of angry men?It is the music of a peopleWho will not be slaves again

When the beating of your heartEchoes the beating of the drumsThere is a life about to startWhen tomorrow comes

Will you join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?Beyond the barricadeIs there a world you long to see?Then join in the fightThat will give you the right to be free

That was set in France in the first third of the 19th century. Here’s a song set in France, slightly earlier. Marat-Sade as sung by Judy Collins:

Marat, we’re poor and the poor stay poor

Marat, don’t make us wait any more

We want our rights, and we don’t care how
We want a revolution
Now

That brought to mind another tune sung by Judy Collins, Democracy, written by Leonard Cohen. The penultimate verse:

It’s coming to America first
The cradle of the best and of the worst
It’s here they got the range
And the machinery for change
And it’s here they got the spiritual thirst
It’s here – the family’s broken
And it’s here the lonely say
That the heart has got to open
In a fundamental way
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A

Another song I thought of was (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing by Heaven 17. As I recall, someone with the band or the label thought it was a bit overboard to say about Ronald Reagan. I’m not litigating that, but in a 2025 performance, the band said the song was more relevant now than then. And it has a great beat.

Have you heard it on the news about this fascist groove thang

Evil men with racist views spreading all across the land

Don’t just sit there on your ass, unlock that funky chain dance

Brothers, sisters, shoot your best. We don’t need this fascist groove thang

NYT

On July 1, Jon Pareles put together a list for the New York Times

Tracy Chapman, Talkin’ ‘Bout A Revolution
The Isley Brothers, Fight the Power, Pts. 1 and 2
Public Enemy, Fight the Power
Michael Franti & Spearhead, Yell Fire!
Bob Marley & the Wailers, Get Up, Stand Up
Mavis Staples, Eyes On The Prize
Patti Smith, People Have the Power
Björk, Declare Independence
Rage Against the Machine, Know Your Enemy
Antibalas, Uprising

I know I own the ones I linked to. That Isley Brothers couplet has been running through my head even before the list was published:

When I rolled with the punches

I got knocked on the groundWith all this bullsh#t going down

I can’t forget American Idiot by Green Day, which came out in 2004 in response to the knee-jerk reaction to the stupidity of that time.

Don’t wanna be an American idiotOne nation controlled by the mediaInformation age of hysteriaIt’s calling out to idiot America

Welcome to a new kind of tensionAll across the alienationWhere everything isn’t meant to be okayIn television dreams of tomorrowWe’re not the ones who’re meant to followFor that’s enough to argue

The chorus of Tubthumping by Chumbawamba runs through my head a LOT, over and over:

I get knocked down

But I get up againYou’re never gonna keep me down

But the winner

I just saw the 2025 video for the Dropkick Murphys’ Who Will Stand For Us? I’m not a “you must watch” guy, but please watch. Lyrics

Who’ll stand with us?Don’t tell us everything is fineWho’ll stand with us?Because this treatment is a crimeThe working people fuel the engineWhile you yank the chainWe fight the wars and build the buildingsFor someone else’s gain

So, tell me, who will stand with us?

And as time rolls on, not a single thing has changedAnd the wealth gap’s only grown as we all point to blameWe’re at the throats of one another, though we share a single fateAnd the golden few laugh on and on as we all take the bait