I’ve seen this scam before

“a bit of discretion”

I’ve seen this scam before. I got an email from a First Presbyterian pastor. But not one of MY First Presbyterian ministers, but a guy in another city.
Good Morning,
I hope you’re doing well. I wanted to ask if you’re open to communicating via email.  I have a task I’d like to entrust to you, and it requires a bit of discretion. Please let me know as soon as you’re able. I’ll be waiting to hear from you.
Many blessings in Christ,
{name and title, plus a thumbnail photo]
Out of curiosity, I reply:
Warily, I’m saying OK.
The “pastor” writes:
Thank you for your response. I’m a little busy this week, and I have been working on incentives. I aim to surprise some of our members with gift cards today. This should be Confidential until they all have the gift cards in their email, as it’s a surprise, and you will keep one for yourself too. Please, let me know via email if you can help purchase them now, so I can tell you what to get in the next email.
Many blessings in Christ,
Warm regards,
{name and title]
I looked up the church. There was a pastor by that name there, and it is his picture, but the URL included the church name.org rather than Gmail.com.
I wrote to them:
Hello. I am a member of First Pres Albany, and I received this obviously fraudulent message.
Not coincidentally, some of our parishioners received a similar message, purportedly from our pastors.
The real church replied:
Thank you!! I will be sure to report to our team.
BTW, in an e-blast, my church noted that our pastors “would never reach out that way randomly for assistance. Thanks to all who notified them of the problem.”
Previously

I got the exact same email a while ago, but I forgot who it was from. 

A few years ago, I received an email from another preacher I know. This message suggested that “he” had been traveling – which he, in fact, did often – and he was stuck out of the country after being robbed.
I contacted a mutual acquaintance, who assured me the message was bogus. While I expected as much, the verification comforted me.
The Royal Scam – Steely Dan

Patrick Stewart (1940-2026)

more than Jean-Luc Picard

David Shankbone (1974–) wikidata:Q12899557

The death of Patrick Stewart on October 28 saddened me more than I expected. It’s not just that Jean-Luc Picard was MY Star Trek captain – copping the term from blogger buddy Nik Durga – though he was. James T. Kirk was my father’s captain, even after I watched the first five movies, not to mention the cartoon series.

I started watching The Next Generation early on and followed it regularly throughout.

But it was the backstory of his casting, which I learned about early on, that intrigued. Though I had never heard of him, he was a well-regarded British stage veteran. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry wasn’t enthralled by the idea of a bald guy from the UK as a starship captain.

While Stewart won him over, the actor figured he wouldn’t last. “When it first started, I didn’t think that I would survive beyond the pilot. I did not unpack; I didn’t see the point.

“‘Every single person I spoke to…  said, ‘Oh, don’t worry about six years. You’ll be lucky to make it through the first year,’ Stewart recalled in 2010. So, on the basis of that advice, I signed the six-year contract.” He ended up on the show for seven years, 1987-1994, plus movies (which I didn’t see). 

After 17 years away, he returned to a familiar world to star in [streamer]Star Trek: Picard, which debuted in January 2020; I did see a few episodes and liked them a lot.

American TV actors

He also had to learn that the American way of television was different than English theatre. “Stewart and his cast of Americans became known as one of the closest in television, but in the early years, the theater veteran had trouble accepting the jokes that accompanied a typical 14-hour day on the set.

“‘Those guys taught me that you can do good work and have a good time at the same time,’ he said in 2013. ‘Before that, I had always thought the two were unconnected completely.'”

He brought one specific linguistic item to the show. “According to Brent Spiner, Stewart largely affected the way Americans pronounce the word “data”. On ST:TNG, the name of Spiner’s character, Data, was intended to be pronounced ‘dah-tuh,’ as was commonly used in American English at the time, but Patrick Stewart used the British pronunciation ‘day-tah’ during the first table read, and that was subsequently used for the series.”

But what I really enjoyed about the man: he could be uproariously funny. “No Celebrity Has ZERO Filter Like Patrick Stewart.” I could have picked a couple dozen clips that proved that. 

Poor Patrick 😉

Here’s a self-deprecating story he’s told more than once. “Every now and again I sit in a hotel room, watching the show on television and I go, ‘Hello. I don’t remember this episode.’ I’ll be sitting there watching and forgetting that I ordered room service, and there’s a knock on the door. I let the guy in, and he comes and sees that I’m watching the show. He’s going to go back to the kitchen and say, ‘I’ve just seen the saddest thing ever. This guy is sitting there watching his old show.'”

He was worried about being typecast when he took the role of Charles Xavier in the X-Men films. However, he loved working opposite longtime friend Ian McKellen, who played the villain Magneto, and Stewart appeared as Xavier in several films, including the forthcoming Avengers: Doomsday, which I’m more likely to see.

Son of a soldier

Patrick Stewart was born on July 13, 1940, in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England, to Alfred and Gladys Stewart. His father worked as a semi-skilled laborer and was a World War II veteran, among the last men evacuated from Dunkirk. I recently saw an episode of Who Do You Think You Are, in which he learns a lot about how the war had affected his father.

“I managed to find my own refuge in acting. The stage was a far safer place for me than anything I had to live through at home — it offered escape. I could be someone else, in another place, in another time,” he wrote in 2009. Here’s his IBDb page. 

According to IMDb: “The three things that I am most proud of doing in my life are firstly, Extras; secondly, my appearance on The Simpsons and thirdly, appearing on Sesame Street (1969). Here is Soliloquy on B.

There were SO many tributes; I’ll post only two. Ian McKellen Pays Tribute to Close Friend Patrick Stewart: ‘He Wore His Heart on His Sleeve’ (Variety).  William Shatner Says Patrick Stewart, Like Picard, ‘Stood for the Best of UsBest of Us’ (Parade). The NYT obituary. Wikipedia. Some music. 

 

Doing it twice or more

Sometimes you feel like you have to do it twice or more

ITEM: Last Tuesday evening, my wife, daughter, and I went to a Moth-type event at Cindy B’s. It is a new cafe on the former campus of the College of  St. Rose. We had a nice time.

A few days later, my wife said we should go back for breakfast on Friday morning, and I agreed. But a bit later, she said she couldn’t because she had to pick up some shoes for her mother at the podiatrist’s office. I felt a bit melancholy that we weren’t going on a date. We don’t do that that often enough.

But a little while later, she said she couldn’t figure out which of the doctor’s offices she was supposed to pick up the shoes from. Apparently, the doctor’s office couldn’t give her the info either, so she canceled that, and we rescheduled our date.

We had a nice sandwich. As we walked back home, I noticed it was kind of chilly.  A couple hours later, one of the organizers of the Moth talk, who I had known for years, said Cindy B. texted her to ask whether I had left my coat; sure enough, it was me.

Later on that day, I had to go back and get the coat.

ITEM: I had an oral surgery in mid-October, and then on Thursday the 29th, I went back to the surgeon’s office. They looked at the fixture, and it seemed fine.

When I went out to lunch with my wife on Sunday afternoon, the piece came out. I’ll have to go back there. Oy. Oh, and though it wasn’t immediate, the pain turned out to be quite exhausting. 

It’s a gas, gas, gas

ITEM: Our First Presbyterian church choir was starting our regular Thursday night rehearsal on October 29. The choir director wasn’t there because he was working on casting a musical for next semester at the University of Albany. So the organist was going to run the rehearsal, which had happened before.

When we entered the church, we heard a beeping noise, but it wasn’t loud or annoying, and one couldn’t hear it in the sanctuary. We completed our warm-ups and then were going to go to the music for Sunday. About 7:15 p.m., a couple of people from the fire department came in and said we had to evacuate the building. After a time, the building was deemed likely safe, but the FD was waiting for the power company, National Grid, to give the all-clear.

A couple of us had a nice chat in the church parking lot with a neighbor who wondered what was going on; we really didn’t know. We encouraged one of the neighbors who had been curious about the goings-on to attend the First Friday events this week and in December, the latter, the Benjamin Britten Ceremony of Carols. At this point, about 7:45, the organist decided (correctly) that we would cancel rehearsal.

Change music

On Saturday, the choir director explained that the CO2 issue on Thursday was due to an external piece of equipment being used by the folks working on the building (see Updates). We’re in the midst of some renovation. Everything was checked thoroughly on Friday and is back to normal for Sunday. The choir director swapped out the most difficult piece for a simpler one; we got a music track to listen to and a copy of the music.

But on Sunday, the cello accompanist brought their instrument. So we went back to plan A. It seemed to have worked well enough.

Songs:

Do It Again – Steely Dan

Do It Again – The Beach Boys

Selection day

Vivek Ramaswamy may have lost himself the election

It’s Selection Day, and I’m not taking anything for granted. Here’s the Weekly Sift’s 2026 election-watching guide. And The Republican Party & The Far Right: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. 

There’s a danger of counting on a blue tsunami. “Republicans are winning over late-deciding voters by 9 percentage points in seven battleground Senate races, according to a new poll suggesting the GOP is gaining momentum ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections.

“The New York Times/Siena University survey, released Sunday, found that voters who made their choices within the past month favored Republican candidates, even as Democrats maintained leads in six of the seven contests.

“‘There are still some undecided voters, and voters who decided only in the last month favored Republicans by a nine-point margin,” the Times reported.”

More broadly, Are Polls Overstating Democrats’ Midterm Leads?

MI

Haley Stevens, Abdul El-Sayed’s opponent in the Michigan Senate primary, endorsed  Mike Rogers, Dr. El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in a race critical to control of the Senate.

In his blog The Farce, Jason Sattler offers a message for any of his fellow Jews who happen to live in Michigan: Religious bigotry, even if it takes the form of Islamophobia, will eventually hurt Jews. He asks them to reject Mike Rogers’ campaign of hate and vote for Abdul El-Sayed.

AK

My buddy Jim pointed me to Explaining the Case of the Two Dan Sullivans on Alaska’s Ballot. 

OH

Vivek Ramaswamy Attack Ad Backfires As Ohioans Switch Votes to Amy Acton. Expect this to blow back on J.D. Vance, who supported the ad, if he runs for President.

FOTUS

I think it is readily apparent that 47 is a wackadoodle.  Or in more specific NYT language, “he is more profane, more absolutist, longer-winded and less coherent than he was in 2016.” So, per Weekly Sift, “you watch any significant chunk of his speeches, read the increasingly bizarre rants he posts on Truth Social, or listen to his ridiculous self-aggrandizing fantasies (‘I would have won the Vietnam War in a week.‘ He would have won the Afghan War in three weeks — ignoring the fact that he had troops in Afghanistan for his entire first term and didn’t win.), it’s obvious that this man is insane.” I’d settle for him ending the Iran War, a conflagration of choice, NOW.  

That said, DOJ plans 1,000 election monitors in all 50 states for Election Day. The Justice Department told a court no FBI or ICE employees will serve and monitors will not carry firearms; the NAACP calls the plan voter intimidation.

Already done

My wife and I cast our ballots on Sunday past. I voted straight Working Families line, folks who had been cross-endorsed by the Democrats, except for the comptroller, which I passed on. I voted for a few unopposed Democrats. For Albany County,  was a YES on the coroner/medical examiner issue, and NO Establishing Additional Qualifications for County Legislators because I felt the procedures for investigating and disciplining County Legislators for violating these rules was a bit too fuzzy for me. 

Anyway, go vote. If We Ever Needed To Vote! | Rev. Dr. William J. Barber (2012); 

Getting out of the car

roots

As someone who doesn’t drive, I recognize the variables drivers face when getting out of the car. They have to watch for cars, bicycles, and the occasional jaywalking pedestrian.

Unless they’re parking on a one-way street with parking on both sides, they don’t have to worry about uneven curbs, trees, and the like.

In front of the houses both north (pictured) and south of our house, large shade trees stand. They do a wonderful job keeping the street a bit cooler in the summer. I would hate for them to go.

But each of them pushes the curb into the street and slightly upward, no more than a few inches, but enough to make it difficult for someone on the passenger side to get out of the car. And walking over the roots is an adventure in balance.

You say verges, I say berm 

I’ve become very, I say very, cognisant of uneven road verges. What?  It is “a strip of ground cover consisting of grass or garden plants, sometimes shrubs and trees, located between a roadway and a sidewalk. Verges are also known by other names such as parkway, grass strip, nature strip, curb strip, berm, park strip, or tree lawn, the usage of which is often quite regional.” There are other terms.

Recently, I was getting out of the car, and the verge was at least a 30-degree angle. I don’t usually need my cane to get to the sidewalk, but I did that day.