Sunday Stealing Does Want to Know!

Censorship & Freedom of Speech

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, we’re stealing from Maggie, who claims she stole these questions from Takupon. Alas, neither of them blogs anymore.

Five Things You Didn’t Want to Know but I’m Telling You Anyway because Sunday Stealing Does Want to Know!

1) Has anyone ever told you they would love you forever? 
Oh, I’m sure that’s true. Probably more than once.
2) Who is the last person you were in the car with?
Tim, a tenor who took me home from choir on Thursday night. I talked about my mother-in-law recovering from an eventful week. She’s currently in physical rehab and is doing well.
The day after today
3) Do you have big plans for tomorrow (Monday)?
Well, I did this a day early because I have a specific post to make on the 26th. So, on Sunday after church, our Outreach & Mission Committee is hosting another Lunch & Learn Lecture on Censorship & Freedom of Speech: Understanding the Legal Boundaries, featuring a speaker from the NY Newspaper Foundation’s Media Literacy Program. Also. I’m planning to have an afternoon ZOOM call with my sisters in San Diego, CA, and Charlotte, NC. On Monday, I think I have nothing but to catch up on things I didn’t do the previous week. There are ALWAYS things left on the to-do list.
4) How long do you typically spend in the shower?
10 minutes: the first two involve waking up.
5) What were you doing at 7 AM yesterday (Saturday)?
7 AM Friday, I was sleeping. Since I’m posting this before 7 AM Saturday, if I’m up, I’ll post this blog post, play Wordle and Quordle, and check my email, almost certainly while listening to music, possibly Bob Dylan,  Rosanne Cash, Stevie Wonder, or a movie soundtrack.
Drawing is by one of my nieces from a few years back.

Thank you for playing! Please come back next week.

Rock Hall 2026 musical influences

“a really big shew”

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame will be inducting eight more acts this year in the performer category. But I’m more interested in those selected in other slots.

Rock Hall 2026 musical influences selections include:

Celia Cruz “pioneered Latin pop for the twentieth century and beyond with her contributions to Afro-Cuban guaracha style as well as the creation and popularization of salsa.” She influenced artists such as Sheila E., Gloria Estefan, and JLo. I own one of her live albums.

Quimbara

La Vida Es Un Carnaval

“Multi-instrumentalist and Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti fused music and politics to become a singular global revolutionary voice…  Fela fused elements of traditional West African highlife, jazz, and soul music and dubbed this rhythmic hybrid ‘Afrobeat.'”

Fela! The Musical “played to sold-out houses for nearly eighteen months from autumn 2009 to early 2011… During its on-Broadway run, Fela! won three Tony Awards, and the soundtrack album was nominated for a Grammy. The subsequent US and world tour included passionately well-received performances in Lagos and a sold-out three-month run at London’s National Theatre.”

He was previously nominated for the Hall in 2021, coming in second in the fan vote, and in 2022, when he finished 17th and a distant last. I have an album of covers of the musician, Red Hot + Riot: The Music and Spirit of Fela Kuti (2002)

Water No Get Enemy (1975)

Beast Of No Nation (1989)

Dana Owens

“A powerhouse multi-hyphenate, Queen Latifah is a Grammy-winning musician, award-winning actress, producer, record label president, author, and style icon. Though not the first woman rapper, Latifah is the original female superstar from hip-hop’s golden age – a pioneering artist who was the genre’s ‘first feminist’ and has spent her career breaking down barriers for women in the entertainment industry.” She influenced artists such as Missy Elliot, Lauryn Hill, and Lizzo.

I know her best from her various television appearances and her performance in the 2002 movie Chicago.

Ladies First featuring Monie Love

U.N.I.T.Y.

“Hip-hop pioneer and Vibe’s original Queen of Rap, Lana Michele Moorer, better known as MC Lyte, has spent nearly forty years redefining hip-hop. Rapper, songwriter, DJ, actress, television announcer, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, her career is defined by historic firsts. She was the first female rapper to release a full solo album, earn a gold single, and be nominated for a Grammy.” She inspired Latifah, among many others.

I Cram to Understand U (Sam)

Sweethearts of the Rodeo

Gram Parsons was country rock’s great visionary. With a voice that was plaintive, warm, and vulnerable, he bridged the raw directness of honky-tonk with the restless spirit of rock & roll. Parsons called his sound ‘Cosmic American Music’ – an adventurous mix of country, soul, gospel, and rock that introduced audiences to artists and songs they might never have otherwise discovered.” He influenced, among many others, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, and, of course, Emmylou Harris.

Hickory Wind – the Byrds

Return Of The Grievious Angel, featuring Emmylou Harris.

Musical Excellence Award

These tend to be non-performers, such as songwriters and producers.

“Linda Creed wrote some of the most memorable love songs of all time, helping establish the Philly Soul sound with heartfelt, tender lyrics that resonated deeply with listeners. Creed’s vulnerable, poetic lyrics paired perfectly with the lush production of her long-time partner, Thom Bell, helping define a more orchestral and introspective evolution of 1970s soul music.” She died at 37 from breast cancer in 1986.

Betcha By Golly, Wow – the Stylistics

Greatest Love Of All – Whitney Houston

“Known as the Greatest Ears in Town, Arif Mardin was a visionary producer whose work shaped four decades of popular music. A master of orchestration and arrangement, Mardin was renowned for mentoring artists while drawing out their individuality.”

As an ardent reader of liner notes, I’m stunned that he wasn’t already in the Hall. “With over 150 albums to his credit, Mardin contributed to iconic twentieth-century recordings…[He] won twelve Grammy awards, including Producer of the Year in 1975, and was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Hall of Fame in 1990.

Young, Gifted, and Black – Aretha Franklin

She’s Gone – Hall & Oates

I Feel For You -Chaka Khan

Gimme Shelter

Jimmy Miller helped define the sound of late-1960s and early-1970s rock. As a producer, he emphasized groove and feel over perfection – encouraging loose, jam-based sessions that captured the recording process at its most alive. He set a blueprint that would inspire generations of producers to chase that same magic.

Between 1968 and 1973, Miller produced five albums for the Rolling Stones: Beggars Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., and Goats Head Soup.

I’m A Man – Spencer Davis Group.

Dear Mr. Fantasy -Traffic

I Got The Blues – Rolling Stones

“As the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, the founder of American Recordings, and co-president of Columbia Records, record producer Rick Rubin has had an enormous and lasting impact on American music…. Lauded by MTV in 2007 as ‘the most important producer of the last 20 years,’ Rick Rubin’s legacy is still being created.  He remains an in-demand producer.”

Walk This Way – RUN DMC, feat. Aerosmith

Give It Away – Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Mercy Seat – Johnny Cash

Once again, they need to put Estelle Axton, the co-founder of STAX Records, in this category, as I have been nagging about since 2015. As I noted, her brother, Jim Stewart, was inducted in 2002! 

Ahmet Ertegun Award 

“Television host, newspaper reporter, kingmaker, and civil rights activist Ed Sullivan (1901-1974) had a profound impact on rock & roll music and American culture. With more than a thousand episodes featuring over ten thousand artists across twenty-three years, The Ed Sullivan Show (1948-1971) was a weekly national event – an American family ritual that gave millions their first exposure to Black and international performers.

The Beatles – Ed Sullivan Show full concert (TV Show) February 9th, 1964

The newest standard performer entrants, announced during the live broadcast of the “Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Night” episode of “American Idol” on April 13, are:

  • Phil Collins – a reasonable choice; selected on his first try, finishing 2nd in the fan vote
  • Billy Idol – I had voted for him in 2025, when he came in 3rd in the fan voting; in 2026, he finished 9th
  • Iron Maiden – they had finished 4th in both the 2021 and 2023 fan voting; in 2026, they finished 12th
  • Joy Division/New Order – never the top tier in fan voting, but I always voted for them as they finished 9th in 2023, 10th in 2025, and 16th in 2026
  • Oasis -the fan vote was 10th in 2024, 13th in 2025, and 15th in 2026
  • Sade– she was 11th in the fan vote in 2024, but 7th in 2026; I voted for her
  • Luther Vandross – the late, overlooked artist came 5th in the fan vote, which included mine
  • Wu-Tang Clan – they finished 8th in their first fan voting; I supported them

My big disappointments were that New Edition (#1 in the fan vote, by over 100,000 votes over Collins) and INXS (6th) did not make it.

How I broke my Wordle streak

aglet and odeon

This was a couple days late. I backed out a 3 and a 4 from the calculations.

This is how I broke my Wordle streak on Tuesday, February 17, after 1148 games.

The issue started the day before, when my wife and I were visiting our daughter at college in western Massachusetts. Unfortunately, the speaker for the Friends and Foundation of the Albany Public Library on Tuesday fell ill on Monday. His doctor recommended that he rest for 48 hours.

So for a couple of hours, I tried to get online to contact other possible speakers, but to no avail. It didn’t help that the hotel’s Internet was wonky, which made the process more stressful and difficult. Finally, another FFAPL convener and I and I suurendered. So my wife and I wouldn’t need to rush back to Albany on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, this guy from the local NBC-TV affiliate, whom I did not know, texted me to see if I was still having difficulty with my mail.  I said yes, but he didn’t follow up. Fine.

Tuesday morning, the hotel Internet was still spotty. After breakfast, my wife, daughter, and I went to the Mead Art Center. The daughter had to leave for a school meeting, but we eventually met at the Yiddish Book Center.

News

While my wife and I were leaving town, I received another text from the Channel 13 guy. Did I want to be on the news that night? Well, okay, but I’m a couple of hours away. Also, and I didn’t tell him this, my wife REALLY wanted to stop somewhere to eat.

So, while my wife was driving, I was composing in my head what to say to the reporter. About 15 minutes after we got home, the reporter and cameraman arrived and recorded me for about 6 minutes, 30 seconds of which made it into the piece.

We had to unpack, then watch the news.  I was about to go to bed when I realized that I still hadn’t done Wordle yet. But I couldn’t get on before the midnight hour.

Once I realized that the streak was done, I was a little sad. I mean, if I had gone down because I hadn’t found the word, THAT would have been okay.

But it really bugged me when I got those notices to keep up my single-digit streak. Getting over 50 somehow was oddly gratifying.

In retrospect, I should have expected that I’d eventually forget to play. My pattern each day was to ask my wife whether she had played yey. But she quit playing on February 2, Groundhog, when Wordle repeated a word, which I believe was CIGAR, the first word. She decided to quit right then. I had no one to remind, which would have aided me in reminded myself. 

So it goes. 

The last 100 games

Still, zero ones. 11 twos,  51 threes, 26 fours, 11 fives, 1 six, for a 3.4 average. My current average overall for 1500 games is 3.75.

A few interesting games; the numbers indicate how many words are left.

Wordle 1,758 4/6

🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨AROSE 19

🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜ABLED 1

🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜AGLET 1(!)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩ALLEY

Aglet is too obscure to have been the word, the WordeBot insisted. Do you know the word aglet?

Wordle 1,751 5/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨AROSE 111

⬜🟨⬜🟨⬜BOWEL 13

⬜🟨🟨⬜🟨MENTO 2

⬜⬜🟨🟩🟨ODEON 2!

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩ENVOY

Another too difficult word.

After the third turn: It looks as if you’ve narrowed it down to only two remaining words: swamp or scamp.

Wordle 1,748 2/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨AROSE 4

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩SOBER.

As the old song says, “What’s the use of getting sober when you’re gonna get drunk again?”

I’m going to keep assuming S is the 1st letter

 

Earth Day 2026 is depressing

exemption from Clean Air Act

I can’t be the only one who believes Earth Day 2026 is depressing. This year alone, the regime has repealed the 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, eliminating the foundation of much of U.S. climate policy.
The LA Times noted: “The decision reverses decades of environmental progress despite overwhelming scientific evidence and opposition from health experts, environmental groups, 50 cities and 17 states. Experts warn the repeal will increase pollution, respiratory disease, and planet-warming emissions over the coming decades…

“The repeal of the 2009 endangerment finding — a conclusion based on decades of science that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare — represents one of the biggest environmental rollbacks in U.S. history, and the latest in a series of actions by [FOTUS] to scrap policies and regulations designed to curb the use of fossil fuels and accelerate the transition to clean energy.

“The administration… also dismantled all federal emissions regulations governing vehicle models and engines between 2012 and 2027 and beyond.”

Profit over people

Daily Kos: FOTUS is forcing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon its legal obligation to protect human health and the environment – by granting more than one-third of the nearly 550 polluting facilities nationwide a two-year exemption from Clean Air Act rules, allowing dangerous air pollution to go unchecked.

“The Clean Air Act exists to protect people from harmful pollutants—such as ethylene oxide, mercury, and lead—known to cause cancer and other serious health harms. But instead of enforcing the law, Trump is siding with corporate polluters and putting our communities at risk.

“So far, 188 exemptions have already been granted to coal power plants, chemical manufacturers, commercial sterilizers, and other polluters. Another 366 are eligible for the same two-year exemption.

We don’t need no stinkin’ research

MoveOn: As we mark Earth Month this April, the [regime] is quietly making yet another catastrophic attack on our environment.

“The U.S. Forest Service, housed under the Department of Agriculture (USDA), has announced plans to shutter a staggering 57 of its 77 research facilities across 31 states—that’s almost 75%.1 These are the labs and scientists tracking how wildfires spread, how droughts are deepening, and how the climate crisis is reshaping 193 million acres of American forests and grasslands.

“This is all part of a deliberate, sweeping attack on climate science through defunding research, silencing scientists, and prioritizing corporate interests over the health of our public lands.”

Thus, last month was the hottest March on record for the continental U.S.,  federal data shows.” 

Here are the Executive Orders on energy and the environment, 2025-2026. They include “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry,” and a bunch of other groanworthy titles .

At a point where the US should do more to try a Project Hail Mary to slow the impending ecological chaos, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and others are actively working to make things worse.

Happy Earth Day. 

 

National Library Week 2026: Find Your Joy

APL survey

Since it’s National Library Week 2026, I am required by my vows as a Master of Library Science to celebrate. Find your joy!

ITEM: Albany city residents go to the polls on Tuesday, May 19, to vote on the library’s 2026-2027 operating budget tax levy. Voters will also elect three new library trustees. Note that the poll locations may vary from the primary and general election locations. 

ITEM: Albany Public Library is currently developing a Strategic Plan with the help of Library Strategies to guide its priorities over the next three years. In order to craft this long-range roadmap, the Library must determine what residents need, want, and expect from their libraries – now and into the future. For that reason, this survey was developed to collect your valuable input.

On average, it takes just 8-10 minutes to complete the survey. The information you provide will help the Library and its consultants scope and prioritize areas of focus that maximize the Library’s return on investment. You will remain anonymous unless you actively choose to self-identify.

ALA

ITEM: From the American Library Association-

This month, ALA prevailed in our lawsuit against the government to protect the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). The settlement, alongside our co-plaintiff AFSCME and represented by Democracy Forward, ensures that the only federal agency dedicated to library services will continue to carry out its critical work.

ALA has been showing up for libraries on fronts beyond the IMLS lawsuit and Fund Libraries campaign:

NYSWI

ITEM: Join New York State Writers Institute on Wednesday, April 22, at 4:30 p.m. at Page Hall, UAlbany for a conversation with Heidi Boghosian, lawyer, podcast host, writer, and surveillance and privacy expert, and the author of Cyber Citizens: Saving Democracy with Digital Literacy (2025), which argues that our best chance of thriving in the digital era lies in taking care of our “smart” selves as diligently as we maintain our “smart” devices.

​She will also discuss the looming challenges to democracy posed by AI and other emerging technologies.

Boghosian is executive director of the A.J. Muste Foundation for Peace and Justice, a charitable organization providing support to activist organizations, and the former executive director of the National Lawyers Guild.

FFAPL

ITEM: The Friends of Albany Public Library and, later, the Friends and Foundation of Albany Public Library, have sponsored free Tuesday Book Talks almost every week of the year at the Washington Avenue branch at 2 pm. 

April 21 | Book Review | The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH, & Mark Olshaker.  Reviewer:  Bryon Backenson, Director, Bureau of Communicable Disease Control, NYS Dept. of Health.

​April 28 | Author Talk | David Ricci, from the Berkshires, discusses & reads from his book of photographs, Hunter Gatherer: Salvaged Stories of American Culture, with text by Cheryl Finley.

​May 5 | Author Talk | Jessica Treadway, Albany native & child patron of the Pine Hills Branch, discusses & reads from her short story collection, I Felt My Life with Both My Hands.

May 12 | Book Review | The World’s Strongest Librarian: A Book Lover’s Adventures by Josh Hanagarne.  Reviewer:  John Edvalson, APL librarian.

May 19| Book Review | The Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology by Chris Miller.  Reviewer:  Charles Hailer, Empire State Fellow with the NYS Urban Development Corporation.

May 26 | Book Review | The Fear and the Fury: Bernie Goetz, the Reagan ‘80s, and the Rebirth of White Rage by Heather Ann Thompson.  Reviewer: James Collins, PhD, Prof. emeritus, Anthropology Dept, Program in Linguistics & Cognitive Science, U at Albany, SUNY.

Photos

ITEM: Locally, the show of FFAPL treasurer David Brickman, Neighborhood Abstracts, has been extended through mid-May at McGreevy ProLab and ProPress in Albany (link here for hours and address). 

And David and McGreevy are producing a 30-page book of the show, with all the pictures and a little bit of text. The book will be available in two sizes: 8″x8″ signed, limited-edition softcover ($35, tax included, shipping extra if needed; limited to 40 numbered copies plus 10 artist proofs); and deluxe 12″x12″ hardcover ($100 plus tax and shipping if needed). Write to David: dbgetvisual[at]gmail[dot]com 
Ramblin' with Roger
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