Ramblin' with Roger

Keeping score in bowling

cognitive prosthesis

I wrote about my mother four years ago on the broad topic, but this will focus on keeping score in bowling. My sisters remember that she was in a league for at least a decade while in Binghamton, NY, and for about five years in Charlotte, NC. Recently, I learned from one of my sisters that my mother got her bank job in Charlotte because she had been the captain of her bowling team, which showed that she displayed leadership qualities! I did not know that!

In Binghamton, she bowled with her good friend Pat Fink, later Jones. But my sisters say she was also on a team with Pat Whitfield Jones, a woman from our church who was a daughter of my godparents; my parents were her son Walter’s godparents.

I don’t specifically remember where my mom and her friends bowled. But I’m sure I went to some of her league games with her.

Keeping score

Moreover, as noted, I learned to keep score in bowling from my mother and/or her friends. But with the current lanes, scoring is automatic. I was mildly saddened when I first experienced this “new” thing.

Here’s a real sidebar, where Cory Doctorow alluded to a phenomenon: “I used to walk around with a hundred phone numbers in my head. Now I remember two, maybe three on a good day. Which is fine!…

“Whenever we adopt a cognitive prosthesis, there’s always someone who overweights the value of the old system of unassisted thinking, while ignoring the cool things we can do with the free capacity we get…

“Versions of this continue to play out. When I was a kid, there was a moral panic that pocket calculators would make us all innumerate (an argument advanced by people who know so little about mathematics that they think it’s the same thing as arithmetic).

“Now I keep hearing about millennials who can’t read an analog clock, a skill that has as much objective utility as knowing how to interpret a slide-rule or convert from Francs to Lire to Deutschemarks. Not actually useless, but entirely bound to a specific time and place and a mere historical curiosity at some later date.” [I’m not sure I agree with the analog clock analogy, but whatever.]

Yet I still can keep scoring in bowling, which has value to me. I love that my mother taught me something of what is now of limited applicability precisely because it links us not only to the task but also to a specific timeframe. My childhood memory is remarkably spotty, so I embrace whatever connection exists.

Family

My father and my sisters would occasionally bowl, but my sisters said they weren’t very good at it. This was before bowling establishments installed barriers to prevent people from throwing gutter balls. I was pretty competent in my few years in a league. I assume the years of my mother’s play made her a decent bowler.

So this was Roger and his mom again, which is cool. Gertrude Elizabeth (Trudy) Green, nee Williams, died on this date in 2011.

Sunday Stealing: Old School Meme

genealogy

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 questions come Kwizgiver, who was invited to play by a blogging buddy named Paula. Now you’re invited to play along, too.

The Old School Blogging Meme

I am passionate about …

Pop music from roughly 1955 to 1995. There are earlier and later pieces I like. Just yesterday, one of my sisters started singing, “Dizzy, my head is spinning, and I instantly said, “by Tommy Roe,” because I knew virtually all of the songs on the charts in 1969.

2) Information literacy, a curse of a librarian

3) Making sure that people don’t take American Christian nationalism as the standard for most US Christians, and certainly not my value system

4) Accessibility

5) Apparently, this blog

I’d like to learn …

It hasn’t changed. I want to know who my mother’s father’s mother’s parents, almost certainly from Ireland, were. Margaret Collins Williams died in 1931.

2) Who is my father’s mother’s father’s parents? Samuel Walker, I still remember, as he died in 1963 at the age of 90.

3) Where was John Olin, who came to what is now the United States in the latter third of the 17th century from Great Britain, born, and when?

4) American Sign Language, though the rudimentary lessons I’ve taken didn’t stick

5) Better time management, or failing that, the ability to say ‘NO’ more often.

Words

Things I say a lot …

Words I intentionally mispronounce. Some of it I find funny, like refrigigator.

2) But others I say because their spelling would suggest a different pronunciation. Epitome is ep-i-tome, facetitious is face-tee-us

3) M-m-m-maybe

4) Math is everywhere

5) A seven-letter word beginning with A, usually while watching the news.

Places I’d like to travel to …

There are so many, and relatively so little time. The places I’d like to go in the US would have to include the Grand Canyon.

2) There are almost 20 states I’ve never been to. I’ll pick Oregon, for no particular reason.

3) Ireland – I have relatives that I don’t even know who they are

4) Nigeria – ditto

5) New Zealand, because

Oh, the picture. It is the remains of my old K-9 school, Daniel S. Dickinson, which they sadly tore down in the early 1970s. Apropos of little, Steely Dan.

I’m rooting for the Seattle Seahawks over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Sunday, February 8, because the Pats have been in a record 11 games, winning 6. The ‘Hawks have been in 3 games, winning 1. New England beat Seattle in SB XLIX, 28-24, in February 2015.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

#1 mainstream rock tracks for 1982

Kookaburra

Here are the #1 mainstream rock tracks from 1982.

Everybody Wants You – Billy Squier, 6 weeks at #1 M, #32 pop

Heat of the Moment – Asia, 6 weeks at #1 M, #4 pop

I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll – Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, 5 weeks at #1 M, #1 for seven weeks pop. Not to be confused with I Love Rocky Road by Weird Al Yankovic

Eye Of The Tiger – Survivor, 5 weeks at #1 M. #1 for six weeks pop. From the movie Rocky III. cf. Weird Al’s The Rye or the Kaiser.

Down Under – Men At Work, 5 weeks at #1 M, #1 for four weeks pop. I have the album. I noted here: “In June 2009, the band was sued for copyright infringement, the allegation being that the flute part was lifted from a 1932 Australian song called ‘Kookaburra,'” a song I learned in grade school. “(This is sad: “Greg Ham took the verdict particularly hard, feeling responsible for having performed the flute riff at the centre of the lawsuit and worried that he would only be remembered for copying someone else’s music, resulting in depression and anxiety. Ham’s body was found in his home on 19 April 2012 after he suffered a fatal heart attack at age 58.”

Centerfold – J Geils Band, 3 weeks at #1 M, #1 for six weeks pop. I have a greatest hits CD

Telephone number

867-5309/Jenny – Tommy Tutone, 3 weeks at #1 M, #4 pop . This song definitely has a story.

Think I’m In Love – Eddie Money, 3 weeks at number one M, #16 pop.

Dirty Laundry – Don Henley, 3 weeks at #1 M, #3 for three weeks pop. I have the album

You Got Lucky – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 3 weeks at #1 M, #20 pop. I have the album.

Oh, Pretty Woman – Van Halen, 2 weeks at #1 M, #12 pop. The Orbison original was #1 pop in 1964; I have that too.

New World Man – Rush, 2 weeks at #1 M, #21 pop

Shock The Monkey– Peter Gabriel, two weeks at #1 M, #29 pop. Not only do I own the LP, but I also own the German CD with Schock Den Affen

All the rest were number one for just one week, Mainstream

Don’t Let Him Know – Prism, #39 pop. Co-written by Bryan Adams

No One Likes You – Scorpions, #65 pop

Stone Cold – Rainbow, #40 pop

Hurts So Good – John Cougar, #2 pop for four weeks. Own it on a greatest-hits CD under the name John Mellencamp.

Caught Up In You -38 Special, #10 pop

January rambling: American Hegemony

Rebecca Jade sings the Beatles

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FBI puts the final nail in the coffin of free speech

Philadelphia is suing the regime over the decision to remove an exhibit at Independence National Historical Park depicting the factual history of slavery in the United States.

FOTUS’s second term delivers massive gains for billionaires as working Americans face cuts and rising costs

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New CDC guidance could revive childhood meningococcal disease, a rare but deadly disease

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The RootsTech 2026 schedule is live. The world’s largest family discovery event will be taking place March 5-7. Register to hear inspiring speakers, watch exciting keynotes, and get expert help discovering your family story.

The Dangerous Power of Predictive Markets

Also

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Releases 2026 Child Vax Schedule, No Longer Endorses CDC’s Version

Dealing with a sudden death or loss

Bruce Bilson Obituary: Director on The Patty Duke Show, Get Smart, Hogan’s HeroesPlease Don’t Eat the Daisies, The Doris Day Show, The Odd Couple, Love, American Style, B.J. and the Bear, Barney Miller, The Fall Guy, Hotel, Dinosaurs, The Sentinel and Viper, among others

Forty years ago, they slipped the surly bond of earth

Baseball HALL OF FAME CLASS OF 2026: Center fielders Carlos Beltrán and Andruw Jones, and second baseman Jeff Kent.

The Trial of the Century: On the hundredth anniversary of Tennessee v. Scopes.

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Element Ball: Letter Gothic

Now I Know: Why Does Toothpaste Make Orange Juice Taste So Awful? and Why Isn’t This Tennis Ball Bouncing? and The Meal That Makes You See Tiny People? and The Panhandle That Failed and Not The Frisco Kids and The $3 Grocery Bag That Became a Global Status Symbol and Every Rose Has Its … Jalen?

ICE

Video Contradicts DHS Claims About Killing of 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Heather Cox Richardson: “Video from the scene shows Pretti directing traffic on a street out of an area with agents around, then trying to help another person get up after she had been pushed to the ground by the agents. The agents then surround Pretti and shoot pepper spray into his face, then pull him to the ground from behind and hit him as he appears to be trying to keep his head off the ground. An agent appears to take a gun out of Pretti’s waistband during the struggle, then turns and leaves with it. A shot then stops Pretti’s movements, appearing to kill him, before nine more shots ring out, apparently as agents continued to fire into his body.It looked like an execution.”

As William J. Barber and Jonathan Wilson-Hargrove noted: “Alex Pretti was killed by people who celebrated his death. They do not need better training. They demand a moral movement to disarm them and reconstruct democracy.”

Legal scholars and political scientists say the regime’s escalating ICE operation, National Guard brinkmanship, and Insurrection Act threats in Minnesota closely resemble conditions identified in civil war simulations, raising alarms about constitutional collapse and violent state-federal conflict. “We don’t need no stinkin’ warrants.”

A photo taken during a protest in south Minneapolis after federal agents killed Alex Pretti encapsulates a story unfolding on America’s streets.

Nurse Alex Pretti’s Death and the Symbolism of the Human Body

Fact Checks

“…when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.” — Audre Lorde

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Pete Buttigieg believes The Ground Is Shifting

Three songs:

Minnesota Anthem – Marc Skjervem

Streets of Minneapolis – Bruce Springsteen

ICE, F**K You – A Protest Song for Minneapolis – Scared Ketchup

All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent
— often attributed to Thomas Jefferson

MUSIC

Got To Get You Into My Life and Roll Over Beethoven -Peter Sprague, featuring Rebecca Jade from the All You Need is Love album, which you can buy individual tracks or the album here

For No One – MonaLisa Twins

Coverville 1564: The New Order Cover Story IV and 1565: The Flaming Lips Cover Story and 1566: The Bob Weir Tribute

From the CBS Sunday Morning archives: The Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir

K-Chuck Radio: A moment of Midnight Oil memory (Rob Hirst)

J. Eric Smith on Bob Weir and Rob Hirst

She’s Not Blind – Roberta Flack

It Ain’t Necessarily So – Ella Fitzgerald · Louis Armstrong

Piece of Denmark – Marsh Family parody of “Piece of My Heart” by Erma Franklin re Greenland/FOTUS

John Fogerty: Tiny Desk Concert 16 Jan 2026

Poseidon and Amphirite: An Ocean Fantasy by John Knowles Paine

I Zimbra – Talking Heads

Third movement from Bach’s Partita No. 3 for solo violin

More music

These Are The Days – the cast of All In The Family (1975)

Stand By Me – The Buzztones

Superman [1978] by John Williams, Opening Titles/Credits Sequence

50 Ways To Leave Your Lover– Postmodern Jukebox

Da Doo Ron Ron – the Crystals

Jeux d’eau by Maurice Ravel

The Man I’m Supposed To Be – Bill Callahan

Popular – Lemon Squeezy with a song from Wicked

Mercedes Benz – Mari Gazen (Janis Joplin cover)

De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da – The Police

I Just Might – Bruno Mars

That’s What Friends Are For by Dionne and Friends (Dionne Warwick, Elton John, Gladys Knight, and Stevie Wonder)

J. Eric Smith’s Genre Delve #9: Hip-Hop/Rap and #10: Reggae

McKinley Green, of his generation

The Les/Mac relationship was…complicated

A high school classmate forwarded me a Facebook post of a guy named Roy Sova:

“How the world has changed. Talking with a co-worker at WBNG-TV in Binghamton [NY], we got on the subject of McKinley Green, or ‘Mac,’ as everybody called him.” Channel 12 was WNBF-TV, the CBS affiliate, when I was growing up.

As my classmate well knew, Mac was my paternal grandfather. Well, technically, my step-grandfather. This is a fact my sisters and I learned pretty early on. I don’t recall HOW we were told, let alone WHY, but it was out there.

My father’s biological dad was the infamous Raymond Cone, who died in 1947, before I was born, and who I couldn’t name until 2019. Clarence Williams, my mom’s dad, was not in my life and seldom in my mother’s, though I attended his 1958 funeral; I was five.

So, Mac was my only REAL grandfather, taking me to Triplets minor league baseball games, especially when my father was working nights at IBM for about six years in the 1960s. Here’s something I wrote back in 2005.

An interesting perspective

Roy Sova posted: “Mac was in his mid-70s when I knew him, which would have been around the early 1970s. [That tracks; he was likely born in 1896.] He was the maintenance guy at the TV station, and although his eyesight was failing, he was on our bowling team. [And according to Roy, Mac was a better bowler than he was.] The TV station told him he had a job there as long as he wanted it.” [I had heard that elsewhere.]

“His father was born in Maryland in 1848 and had been a slave”. [This I cannot verify; I thought his father was born in 1862, though in Maryland, but maybe I discovered the wrong John Green.]

“Mac was very old school. He always called me Mr Sova. One day, I asked him to please call me Roy. He was about 50 years older than me. As he continued to call me Mr Sova, I again asked him to call me Roy, or I was going to start calling him Mr Green. I’ll never forget his response.

“This is paraphrased, but pretty much what he said. ‘If you call me Mr Green, it will hurt me. I was brought up to call my betters Mister.’ I never felt I was Mac’s better, and after that, barely his equal. But from that day forward, I was Mr. Sova, and he was Mac.” Roy notes that he was probably a news reporter and a weekend news anchor.

When I first read it, it weirded me out a bit. But it did track consistently with who Mac was.

An unexplored line

I never spent much time talking to Mac, whom we called Pop, about his birth family. I’d met his brothers a handful of times. My father’s relationship with Mac was… complicated. Still, Mac adopted (the term they used) him in September 1944, about 3 weeks before my dad turned 18. (Dad’s mom/Pop’s wife since 1931 was still his mom.)

Roy Sova: “Yes, your dad’s relationship with Mac was a little strained. Mac was content to live as in the past, your dad wanted change. I interviewed [Les] several times about his work with the Urban League. [Actually, the Interracial Center that eventually became the Urban League at 45 Carroll Street.] Mac was a great guy. Liked and respected by everyone at the radio and TV stations. “

I may talk with Roy Sova again — someone who knew Les and Mac separately, which is fascinating to me.