Month: July 2006

Another weekend out of town, this time at the Olin Family reunion, which I described last year. Been so busy with family stuff that I totally forgot the 65th birthday of one Ringo Starr back on 7/7 until I read it in Johnny B’s column a couple days ago.

We’ve also been dealing in our household with ants, not to be confused with aunts, which we’ve also had, but that be another discussion. We were told that if one puts skins of cucumber near the entryway (in our case, the wall next to the back door), the ants will die. Don’t know how this works, but it does.

Oh, anybody want to tell me (because someone asked me, and I haven’t had a Comic Book Price Guide in years): what is the value of a Fawcett Publication, Jackie Robinson, No. 5 comic, which somebody found while cleaning out her parent’s attic? Yeah, I know about condition and all that.

Meanwhile, I was having this small debate with a friend about the term meme. On this site FULL of memes called I Am Pariah.com, I get this definition:
meme n (mëm): A unit of cultural information, such as a cultural practice or idea, that is transmitted verbally or by repeated action from one mind to another. From the Greek mimëma, something imitated, from mimeisthai, to imitate.
also
“A dispensary of… topics for bloggers.” –The New York Times

But this one I actually got from here:

Act your age? I think having a two year old at 53 probably makes one younger and older, pretty much simultaneously. Before that, probably younger.
Born on what day of the week? Saturday, I believe, at 3:15 p.m., EST.
Chore you hate? Cleaning the toilet. I actually did it for a living for six months, among other tasks.
Dad’s name? Leslie Harold Green. One of my sisters is Leslie Ellen Green. It caused some confusion.
Essential makeup item? Sunblock.
Favorite actor? Denzel Washington, Albert Brooks, Robert Redford, Nicholson when he isn’t phoning it in, Bill Murray, John Malkovich, Laurence Fishburne, Samuel L. Jackson, Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman. Just one? Robert Duvall.
Gold or silver? Gold, I suppose.
Hometown? Flood-weary Binghamton, NY, where I’ve been in successive weekends.
Instruments you play? Kazoo, comb.
Job title? Information Specialist. I’m special.
Kids? One daughter, age 2 years, 3 months and a couple weeks. I keep forgetting to mention her on these pages. Maybe someday, I will post her picture.
Living arrangements? Old 2.5 bedroom house in the heart of the city.
Mom’s name? Gertrude Elizabeth Williams, named after her mother. She hates Gertrude, goes by Trudy.
Need? The memer who wrote this said: “Intellectual stimulation. Without it, I’m dead.” Probably true for me as well.
Overnight hospital stays? Uncontrollable nosebleed when I was five and a half, car accident when I was 19.
Phobias? There is this Civil War gum card set (rather like baseball cards) that depicted one soldier impaling another with a bayonet. The pained look on the dying soldier’s face has always stayed with me. So people playing with knives, swords.
Quote you like? Too many. Here’s just one: “Anyone can make the simple complicated. Creativity is making the complicated simple.” – Charles Mingus
Religious affiliation? Christian. Currently a Presbyterian, though I was a Methodist for far longer.
Siblings? 2 sisters, Leslie from San Diego and Marcia from Charlotte, both of whom I’ve seen in the past couple weeks.
Time you wake up? Way too early. The alarm goes off at 5:30; I’m usually awake before that.
Unique talent? The ability to make a kazoo/comb sound WITHOUT a kazoo or comb.
Worst habit? Leaving dishes in the living room.
X-rays you’ve had? Left knee, 1994. Teeth, of course.
Yummy food you make? I have made spinach lasagna, but not recently. I used to make deviled eggs for every pot luck occasion, but I’ve stopped.
Zodiac Sign? Pisces; nothing fishy about THAT.

A couple weeks ago, when I was home with Lydia, I was walking her home from the grocery store. Someone on the corner asked when the next #30 bus was – it turned out that it would be a while.

There was a garbage truck right in front of my house, picking up my trash (thank you, city Department of General Services). Heading in the opposite way was a tractor trailer from Eckerd’s Drug Store. The courteous truck driver moves somewhat to his right to give the garbage truck (and himself) more room. And the cliche proved to be correct – his good deed did not go unpunished.

A low-hanging branch gets caught, actually wedged, between the cab and the trailer, and the strength of the truck actually dislodges the tree from its roots! The moving tree pulled out the cable TV line from the nearby house.

So when I get home – I was only a block away when this occurred – there’s a garbage truck stopped in one direction and the drug store truck stuck in the other, right in front of my house. The garbage truck guy calls DGS and they show up with about 12 guys, assessing the situation. They bring chainsaws, a couple wood chippers and other paraphenalia.

The truck driver had a camera, for which he wanted to take pictures to show to the powers that be at Eckerd’s but it wasn’t working, so I, accompanied by my photo assistant Lydia, took pictures, which I subsequently mailed to the company.

Eventually, the police arrive, take the truck driver’s statement. What they WEREN’T doing, though, was noting that traffic coming down my street heading north couldn’t get through even to the side street, mostly because a CDTA bus was stopped. The bus wasn’t allowed to back up and couldn’t make a right turn because one of the wood chippers was in the way. So, I took Lydia ad directed traffic, which is to say, I got a bunch of people to turn around and go back the other way, lest they be parked there for what would have been up to 40 minutes.

Finally, some CDTA supervisor arrives on the scene, gets the DGS to move the chipper, and allow for traffic, including the stopped bus, to turn off the street.

All that’s left.
Carol and I had complained that those branches were too low. Guess we were right.
Oh, and Eckerd sent me a $40 Eckerd card to pay for my expenses, which seemed fair.

My high school reunion is coming up. The last one I went to was 25 years ago, and I didn’t enjoy it much, though the afterparty was great. But this one I’m looking forward to, in large part because my oldest friends from kindergarten, Karen, Carol (not my wife Carol), and Bill will be there. Haven’t seen Carol since 2000, and had been largely out of touch until I got an e-mail from her out of the blue a couple weeks ago, with her apologizing for being a poor correspondent. Wife Carol is going to the first night informal mixer, but not to the next night’s festivities.

I went to the high school reunion of Carol (my wife) a few years back, and it was, as I described to my friend Karen recently, lethally boring.

So:

1) Do you go to high school or college reunions? Why or why not?

2) Do you bring your spouse/significant other (SO) to these events? If so, are you a sadist?

3) Do you go to your spouse’s or SO’s reunions? If so, are you a masochist? How did you cope?

Your replies are most welcome.

Well, not really. I have this pile of things I’d like to write about – family and floods and other things. But time has been limited lately; I’ve been away. Maybe next week.

Meanwhile, a buddy of mine was a plaintiff in the NYS gay marriage ruling, which appears here in a 70-page PDF. On to the legislature, where it looks promising in the Assembly, I think, but unlikely in the Senate.
***
JEOPARDY! a few weeks ago, a category called Superhero Before and After. If you’re not familiar with Before and After from JEOPARDY! or Wheel of Fortune, the clue links two answers with a common word, such as:

Kimberley Locke hit song, as done by Diana Prince.

What is 8th World Wonder Woman?

I’ve hidden the answers, but if you block over the space, the replies will become evident.

$200
1970’s body-building documentary and Avengers member whose secret identity is Tony Stark.

Who is Pumping Iron Man?

$400
1991 Madonna pic highlighting her “Blond Ambition” tour in which she fights crime as a blind Marvel acrobat.

What is Truth or Daredevil?

$600
Whitman “Leaves of Grass” poetic entry that with patriotic shield in hand battles the Red Skull.

What is Oh Captain, My Captain America?

$800
Flubberful Fred MacMurray film that leads the X-Men, albeit from his wheelchair.

Who is the Absent-Minded Professor X? (I assume Xavier, or Charles Xavier would have been acceptable for X.)

$1000
Judas’ named biblical betrayal price was hanging ten and being confined to earth by Galactus, the planet eater.

What was 30 pieces of Silver Surfer?

No one got the last two replies.
***
How Kryptonite Works
***
I wasn’t planning on commenting on the passing of comedian Jan Murray, but I’m now forced to.
It started with me walking into the office of one of my colleagues at work yesterday. He wasn’t there, but his computer had a screensaver picture of Jan Murray! Apparently, it has to do with a conversation he had with another office mate about some dialogue on the TV show Taxi between Louie DePalma (Danny DeVito) and Alex Rieger (Judd Hirsch), something about wearing a coat. The punchline is Louie saying, “Rieger, you’re a regular Jan Murray!” After which, the second office mate somehow posted Murray’s picture on our bud’s computer.
I found this so peculiar that I told a couple other co-workers about it. They had no idea who Jan Murray was. He was this funny, nice-seeming guy who always seemed to be on TV when I was growing up, that’s who he was.
***
Brandon Routh Talks About Superman returns.

A certain Commander-in-Chief turns the big 6-0 today. And I’m trying to find a way to say something non-inflammatory. The problem is that I’m increasingly convinced that in a country as polarized as ours, it’s hard to say anything anymore that won’t tick off someone. And according to last week’s 20/20 on ABC News, this President’s merely the latest proponent of divisive politics over the last quarter century or so.

Here’s something I’ve given up: references to his “alleged” Presidency. Do I think crooked things happened in Florida in 2000? Most assuredly. How about in Ohio in 2004? Probably. (And I’m surprised it suddenly became an issue in 2006, given the information available much earlier. But history won’t remember President Sam Tilden from 1876, even though he got ripped as badly by the Hayes supporters as Al Gore was six years ago.

Here’s the thing, though: aside from his policies, most of which I disagree vigorously, I have a hard time with the speech patterns (and the SMIRK!) of the current American President. This linguistic style is such a distraction that I can barely stand watching and listening to him talk. I avoided the State of the Union and the Inaugural Address in 2005, the first time I had deliberately done so since I started watching these things more than 30 years ago. I never had the same reaction to Presidents Nixon or Reagan, even though they both promulgated policies that I abhorred.

Indeed, I had (minor) hopes for the Prez, figuring that he couldn’t be THAT bad. I knew a lot about his (draft-)dodgy past, and the finagling involved with buying the Texas Rangers with pretend money but getting real bucks in return. Still, I’m a Christian, so I believe in the possibility of change.

In fact, at the point of his first crisis, I totally forgot that he WAS the President. REALLY. There was an issue involving a Chinese aircraft, and I thought, “I wonder what Clinton is going to do about THAT?” Forget the fact that I actually saw W.’s inauguration. Then I said, “Wait. Clinton’s not President. Who’s President?” The drama of the Florida recount and the Supreme Court ruling about the same, and I actually couldn’t remember who was in charge. Something about it made it so unreal that I never internalized his ascendancy into the Presidency.

His next significant act was to limit federal funding for embryonic stem cell research in August 2001. He’s spending his political capital on that? It was a bit confusing, as it seemed to come out of nowhere.

Of course, 9/11 came. I was not one of those who complained that he was moving around a lot on that day, rather than rushing directly back to Washington. He had that one moment of “looking Presidential” in NYC, then we waged war in Afghanistan. His response to try to capture Bin Laden seemed obvious, although his rhetoric sounded like the schoolyard. Yet what really surprised me was how quickly he abandoned focusing on the killer of 3000 in favor of..Iraq?

Then the Patriot Act, which MUST have been sitting in someone’s drawer, given the speed in which it was passed. The litany of erosions of freedom subsequent to that will be noted by others, I’m sure.

Nevertheless, as 43 turns 60 today, I wish him wisdom and courage to lead the country over the next 2.5 years with the compassion he promised us at the outset of his administration, but has largely failed to deliver.