Month: April 2006

We befriended this waitress, an older woman, probably younger than I am now. We discovered that she was a singer with the Sweet Adelines. It’s “barbershop quartet” singing by women.

CY and I decided to see her perform in Manhattan. Hitchhiking from New Paltz to NYC was easy in 1976. CY was going to be in Florida for spring break, but would meet me there.

I saw the performances, which were entertaining enough. And I even got to hang out with our waitress friend and her colleagues for a time. But no CY.

Here’s the deal: I didn’t have enough money to get home, as I was expecting to ride back with CY. I didn’t own a credit card at the time, and I was too proud to ask my waitress friend for a loan.

Hitchhiking from midtown Manhattan to New Paltz in the middle of the night was impossible. (I must not even have had subway money, for if I had, I’d have taken the subway uptown, to the northernmost point -I think it’s the 4 train.)

So now it’s 1:30 in the morning and I’m walking around 42nd Street and 8th Avenue, when this waif of a young woman says to me. “Wanna go for a ride?”
I said, “Beg your pardon?”
She scurries into the subway entrance she’s standing in front of.

But over the next few blocks, the women I ran into weren’t so shy at all, offering me…well, all sorts of things. This was Times Square before the cleanup, before the Disneyfication.

Of course, I wasn’t interested, but even if I were (and I wasn’t – I think I mentioned that), I ddn’t even have money to go home, let alone to go off with one of these ladies.

I crossed the George Washington Bridge. If you ever find yourself walking across the narrow walkway of the GW, please note that there were, at least at the time, gaps in the path, not big enough to fall to one’s death, but large enough to get one’s foot caught in the many gaping holes. It was a tedious and nervewracking part of the trip.

Finally, I get across, and now I’m in New Jersey, and I eventually hitchhike home, but it’s an indirect route and the trip took about 7 hours, including the walking, compared with the hour and a half to get there. CY was delayed on the way back from Florida, and now I have at least a credit card that would avoid a similar situation.

The date I got home was 30 years ago today. I didn’t remember that, but rather figured it out, for what I DID recall was that it was the night the clocks changed to Daylight Saving Time, which, in those days, was the last Sunday in April.

What reminded me of this was that that last month, I had taught a class on Marketing Resources in Schenectady, the neighboring city to Albany. I went out to State Street (Route 5) around 9 p.m. to wait for the #55 bus that would take me back home. I could see that the bus was about four blocks away. This young woman in her car motions to me. I thought that perhaps she was seeking directions. Instead, she asked me, “Do you ride?” Not “Do you want a ride?” but the very peculiar phraseology “Do you ride?” Had it not been for the previous experience, I’m not sure that I would have understood her intent, but as it was, I said, “No thanks, my bus is coming.”

“We’re looking for people who have preserved moments from their own histories as told through the pages of the Times Union. Have a scrapbook of newspaper clippings? Saved a memorable copy of the Times Union? We’d like to hear from you.
“We’d also like to hear from collectors, historians and former employees who can help us tell our story.”

You know I do have some clippings SOMEWHERE, and one whole newspaper (more on that anon), but I never got around to going up to the basement and scouting out what they wanted.

In an act of contrition, I went to their website and found all of the references to me in their archives. Ths was not as easy as it seems, for there is a member of the State Assembly named Roger L. Green, so I had to wade through clippings about him – and there were a lot, especially because he was forced to resign his seat over a travel reimbursement scandal, then got elected again.

Also, the archives don’t start until 1986, so it is missing almost all of the stories for which I was quoted talking about the comic book store at which I worked, FantaCo. They used to do one of those “Pow! Bam!” stories about every two years, so there are at least two, and probably three or more stories from 1980-1985 not represented here.

Here’s what I found:

ALBANY BUSINESS STAKES FATE ON FRIGHT FANS
MONDAY, May 2, 1988 Page: D1
Zeroing in on the zombie market, Screamin’ Products Inc., a company that develops and sells model-figure kits, has found its market niche among fright-film fanatics. The company – incorporated in October – was founded by Albany natives Daniel Fay and
Richard Hamecher.
Complete article, 721 words
This is the one FantaCo story I did find. We sold a LOT of Freddy Krueger stuff, and I noted the character’s popularity in our store/mail order.

AND NOW, THE READERS’ CHOICES FOR AMERICAN TELEVISION AWARDS
Friday, May 28, 1993 Page: C10
Talk to me, folks. That’s what I asked you to do, and you came through.
Complete article, 794 words.
I think I wrote a lot of stuff but they only used this:
Supporting Actor, Comedy — Michael Richards of “Seinfeld” (“I realized how gifted he was in a commercial for NBC’s Thursday night lineup when he was just being Kramer in his underpants and it cracked me up.”). Variety — “Saturday Night Live” (“got me through the election.”)

YESTERDAY ORIGINAL FANS REMEMBER THE FUN AND FRENZY OVER THE FAB FOUR THE BEATLES.
Sunday, November 19, 1995 Page: I1
The Beatles, AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!
Complete article, 2206 words
I talked about my sisters, our neighbor and me lipsynching to Beatles VI.

‘FREE AS A BIRD’ GETS GOOD REVIEWS
Tuesday, November 21, 1995 Page: C1
Callers to Times Union’s SourceLine overwhelmingly approved of the Beatles’ reunion recording “Free as a Bird.” The count was 123 to 10.
Complete article, 1166 words
I said nice things about it.

REMEMBERING ELVIS RECOLLECTIONS OF THE LIFE AND MUSIC OF THE KING ARE SWEETENED THROUGH THE AGES FOR LOYAL FANS
Saturday, August 16, 1997 Page: C1
Thanks to everyone who sent in reminiscences of Elvis and helped us pay homage to him today, the 20th anniversary of his death. We regret space limitations prevent us from running everyone’s accounts. Elvis may be gone, but long live the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll!
Complete article, 3437 words
My section began, “My father hated Elvis.”

‘DHARMA & GREG’ HAS HIDDEN MESSAGE
Wednesday, October 1, 1997 Page: D7
The new TV season is only in its second week, but already there has been a noteworthy sighting of minutiae — an insider’s joke during the end credits of ABC’s “Dharma and Greg.”
Complete article, 753 words
I was going to watch this new ABC show at 9 pm, but just as I was getting ready, my friend Lillian called. So I quickly videotaped the show and played it back at 9:30. As I came to the end credits, I saw some words on the screen for about two seconds, too fast to read it all. I noted this to the TU TV reporter at the time, Rob Owen, and made a point to tape it the following week. My discovery was in the paper a full two weeks before I read about it in Entertainment Weekly. My claim to fame.

SOME FLAKY TALES ABOUT A REALLY FLAKY TIME
Saturday, October 4, 1997 Page: A6
It was more than a storm; it was a touchstone. The Capital Region has endured its share of severe weather, from blizzards to severe windstorms to even the occasional tornado and hurricane. This one wasn’t even the worst.
Complete article, 2014 words
There was a freak snowstorm in Albany on October 4, 1987. Remind me to write about it on October 4, 2007. The TU could not be printed at their plant because they lacked power, so they took the files to the Troy Record and printed the paper there, in the Record’s font. I have this paper SOMEWHERE.

FANTACO WAS ONE TO COIN `SPLATTER’ TERM
Sunday, December 21, 1997 Page: I2
To the Arts Editor: Amy Biancolli’s story about John McCarty (“Mad About Movies,” Arts, Dec. 7), was especially interesting to me.
Complete article, 102 words
The book Splatter Movies, written by McCarty, was published by FantaCo in 1983. When St. Martin’s Press reprinted it a few years later, Tom at FantaCo told me that we had registered the term Splatter Movies TM, so we got money for the St. Martin’s edition.

“HIGHWAYS” TAKES TEACHER TO EMMYS
Friday, August 14, 1998 Page: D1
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The Emmy Award nominees this year are the usual batch of glittering names. David Duchovny. Helen Hunt. Jack Lemmon. Tom Hanks. Thomas Lewis. You heard right, Thomas Lewis. The racing crowd aside, Saratoga Springs and the campus of Skidmore College is about as far removed as you are going to get from Hollywood, but this professor is becoming a regular in Emmy circles.
Complete article, 723 words.
The sidebar piece was TU TV guy Mark McGuire following up on ‘the worst TV shows ever question he had posed the previous month.
No consensus emerged, although ‘Jerry Springer’ received the most votes. However, the most inspired submission came from Roger Green of Albany.

“After the movie ‘Animal House’ came out in 1978, all three of the networks put out dopey college-kids-as-hedonists shows,” Green wrote. “The worst, as I recall, was ‘Co-Ed Fever’. (CBS) broadcast but one episode.

McGuire noted ‘Brothers and Sisters’ (less than half a season on CBS), and ‘Delta House’ (three months on ABC, with Michelle Pfeiffer).

A: ‘JEOPARDY!’ CITY; Q: WHAT IS ALBANY?
Thursday, November 12, 1998 Page: D7
Maybe it’s the water. Maybe it’s because of the many colleges around town. Or maybe we don’t have a clue. Whatever it is, Capital Region players do well on “Jeopardy!”
Complete article, 741 words.
This was about a woman named Linda Zusman winning $12,000 a couple months earlier, and, er, me winning $17,600 on a show that aired a couple nights before this article appeared.

GUILTY PLEASURES RECORD COLLECTIONS FILLED WITH MUSICAL SECRETS
Thursday, July 1, 1999 Page: P4
OK, OK, I’m overwhelmed by all of the secret Abba fans who have come out of the closet in the weeks since my “guilty pleasures” column.
Complete article, 1442 words
Don’t remember what I wrote! But I do like ABBA in limited doses.

A ‘JEOPARDY!’ WINNER
Wednesday, September 15, 1999 Page: D5
The Capital Region has this “Jeopardy!” thing knocked. A software engineer who is also a paramedic in Guilderland won $3,400 on “Jeopardy!” in a show that aired Monday night.
Complete article, 185 words
I called this guy, as I probably mentioned before. He was very disappointed that he didn’t win more. But I told him that at least he can always say he was a J champ. Of course, the article had to mention Linda and me.

STRIKE MAY HURT TV PLOTS
Friday, April 13, 2001 Page: D1
First, the good news: There could be no “Two Guys and Girl” next fall.
Complete article, 717 words
Yet another local JEOPARDY! winner, and another recap.

HBO FINDS PAYDIRT IN ‘6 FEET UNDER’
Friday, June 1, 2001 Page: D1
Complete article, 889 words
Ditto.

EXTREME CAUTION NEEDED TO CROSS STREET DOWNTOWN
Friday, April 12, 2002 Page: A10
As someone who works downtown, I was wondering what that bizarre noise was. Ah, the audible Albany crosswalk signals! (I did eventually figure it out.)
Complete article, 252 words
Letter to the editor about the new crosswalk WALK signs at Pearl and State Street in Albany. I also wrote about the dangerously stupid walk sign sequence just below the state Capitol, at Eagle and State Streets. Not long after that – maybe a couple months – they changed the WALK lights to a much safer sequence. Did my letter make a difference? I don’t know.

MEDIA
Thursday, May 16, 2002 Page: P39
BEST LOCAL COLUMNIST (NOT WORKING FOR THE TIMES UNION, NATCH) Al Quaglieri, Metroland. Every week, Quaglieri finds a new way to incisively highlight life’s absurdities and annoyances. What annoys us is that he does it so well writing his column only as a part-time gig. BEST GAME SHOW FOR CAPITAL REGION CONTESTANTS What is “Jeopardy!”? (7:30 p.m. weekdays, WTEN Ch. 10).
Complete article, 550 words
Yet another Jeopardy! recap, this in a “Best of” column.

POET’S CORNER HAIKU WRITERS SHOW THEY’RE WELL VERSED IN THE MUSIC SCENE
Thursday, August 7, 2003 Page: P4
A few weeks ago, this column featured a collection of musician haiku poetry, and I invited readers to weigh in with a few of their own — sticking to the traditional Japanese form of five syllables in the first line, seven in the second and five again in the third. As expected, the resulting poems were wonderfully diverse.
Complete article, 1140 words
Sarge Blotto, er, Greg Haymes has a column in the Preview (arts) section of the paper and wrote: “Roger Green captured the eternal hope of local bands with:
Where’s the record guy?
Said he’d catch our gig tonight,
Make us all big stars.“

CALENDAR
Sunday, March 7, 2004 Page: C3
MONDAY MEETINGS Women in Business Committees WHERE:Kimberly’s, A Day Spa, Route 9, Latham WHEN: 5:30 p.m. COST: Free CONTACT: 456-6611 or 785-6995 NOTES: The Guilderland, Bethlehem, Latham Area and Southern Saratoga Chambers of Commerce groups will hold a joint evening of relaxation and networking.
Complete article, 926 words.
I taught a class in marketing at the Learning Network that month; didn’t know it was in the paper until I looked this up.

WHICH ‘JEOPARDY!’ CONTESTANT SEEMS UNSTOPPABLE?BY MARK MCGUIRE STAFF WRITER
Tuesday, July 6, 2004 Page: D1
We don’t blame Ken Jennings for what he’s done to “Jeopardy!” But we do hate him.
Complete article, 664 words.
The Times Union TV critic Mark McGuire, had tired of the reign of Ken Jennings, so he called me for some quotes. (I noted that I was “bored” with him.) He told me later that he took some heat from some J viewers over that column, Ken fans who thought Mark was jealous, or worse.

ALL THOSE BAD SONGS SAY SO MUCH
Wednesday, May 12, 2004 Page: D8
“Sister Christian,”
Complete article, 755 words
I remember I made special mention of “The Men in My Little Girl’s Life” by Mike Douglas, which went to #6 in ’66 (666- sign of the devil). Also dissed “We Bilked This City” by Starship.

BIRTHS
Sunday, May 23, 2004 Page: B3
Complete article, 1142 words
About two months after the fact.

STATE WILL CALL THE TUNES IN SETTLEMENT WINDFALL
Friday, March 5, 2004 Page: B1
Complete article, 41 words
I got some REALLY small check ($2.99 or so) for some record industry malfesance.

Glorious music ready for most joyous day
Churches will resound with sacred Easter sounds
Friday, March 25, 2005 Page: A1
A soaring trumpet note. The rumble of a timpani. The soulful flow of ancient lyrics chanted in Latin. For the Christian faithful, nothing expresses the joy of Easter’s message of resurrection and light at the culmination of Holy Week as powerfully as making glorious music.
Complete article, 862 words
This is last year’s Good Friday story I aluded to recently. Don’t think I was mentioned, but the picture was captioned. Incidentally, a picture of several choir members, including myself, also appeared in the paper about three Advent seasons ago, but the individuals were not specifically identified.

Region gets a census surprise
Number of Hispanic-owned businesses drops 9 percent locally while growing in nation
Wednesday, March 22, 2006 Page: E1
The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the Capital Region fell more than 9 percent from 1997 to 2002, even while it surged 31 percent nationally, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Tuesday. Local business officials expressed surprise at the findings.
Complete article, 477 words.
I’m quoted in this, as I’m sure I mentioned.

But the Presbyterians are more bottom up, with the Session, elected by the members, much more in control of selecting a pastor than any congregational board on which I served in the Methodist church. And I served for about 7 years in the 1990s.

My current church called a pastor about five years ago. It didn’t work out, and he left after a year. I didn’t know WHY it didn’t work out until the pastor sent out a letter, explaining it. I found this all very fascinating. In my old church, there was always a massive rumor mill, but here, nothing. The Session took its responsibility in dealing with this personnel issue professionally and seriously.

So, then there was a year of reflection, and then we got an interim pastor. Interim pastors in the Presbyterian tradition are just that, a pool of folks who go from church to church filling in while the church gets ready for a new pastor.

Well, in this case, that involved doing a survey, and not a simple survey either. My wife was on the committee to select the survey tool before our daughter was born. Then they gave the survey to the members, had the survey tallied by the company that designed it, then the committee members set up times to discuss the results of the survey, not just one congregational meeting, but 6 or 8 weeks of neighborhood meetings in people’s homes. (We missed most of these, being sleep-deprived new parents at the time.)

Only then can the Session put together a Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) to seek a new candidate. (There’s a couple other little steps in there.) The PNC has been working feverishly hard, and confidentially. It was only last Sunday that the congregation learned the name of the candidate, who will preach at both the 8:30 and the 10:45 service today. After the latter service, there will be a congregational meeting to decide whether to accept the nomination of the PNC. If they don’t, there will be a new PNC, and a new search. Or the candidate can choose not to accept the offer.

Last night, there was a pot luck supper, where the members got to meet the candidate, and the candidate introduced him/herself. (Since it’s still confidential until the church and the candidate come to an agreement, I’m using the type of language the PNC has been using for months.)

Our interim pastor, Joe, has been here three years, and if the church accepts the candidate, and the candidate accepts the church, he’ll likely be staying on until the transition this summer. In my time there, he’s been in the pulpit more than anyone. I’ll be said to see him and his wife Claudia go. If they go – won’t know until later today.

I think Presbyterians really should be called Methodists, because they are so METHODical.
***
Steve Barnes, a reader of this blog, pointed me to his new political blog, Empires Fall. I told him: “Your website is mean, spiteful, and bitter. I’ll be adding it to my weblog this weekend.” He said, “Oh, I’m not bitter. This is the feeling formerly known as bitter. Now it’s called schadenfreude.”

1. How do you celebrate Earth Day, if you do? Did you used to? Was it an enforced thing, such as a school project?

2. Can what the individual does matter environmentally, or does industrial disease leading to global warming make the effort pointless and hopeless?

The very first Earth Day in 1970, the students at my high school, Binghamton Central, decided to pick up the grounds. For whatever reason, I concentrated on cigarette butts, maybe because I knew they were NOT biodegradable. In one day, I picked up over 1300 of them. My great pet peeve is people throwing cigarette butts out of moving car windows, for cigarette butts, according to this source, constitute the most common source of litter. It’s also a drag to be hit by one while riding one’s bike. And of course, there’s a potential fire hazard, since we’ve been in an Elevated Fire Awareness Alert pattern for a while around here.

I was a janitor, twice, once at a New Paltz department store, once in Binghamton City Hall.

When I was at my previous church, I was very active in doing litter pickup around the building. Since I lived nearby for a number of years, it was part of my self-appointed neighborhood litter watch.

In anticipation of our (unwelcome) office move next month, I spent much of yesterday wading through years of paper items I’ve accumulated over 13 years, filling a recycling bin.

So, the fact that my desk is a mess – and worse now than usual – does not contradict the fact that I would never throw even a gum wrapper on the sidewalk.
***
I love this, Albany:

Free Shredding Day
Saturday April 22
9 am – 2 pm
6 Brown Road
Albany, New York
For information, call 518 459-2222

Directions:
Coming from downtown Albany on WASHINGTON AVE.:
Turn RIGHT onto FULLER RD. 0.6 mile
Turn LEFT onto WAREHOUSE ROW. 0.1 mile
Turn RIGHT onto BROWN RD. less than 0.1 mile.