May 2010 - Ramblin' with Roger

In Memoriam

It seems sadly fitting that the US death toll reached 1,000 in the Afghanistan war this weekend.

I’ve discovered that there seems to be some confusion about the difference between Memorial Day and Veterans Day. That fact confuses me, frankly, though their previous designations would be much more unclear.

Memorial Day, which falls on the last Monday of May, commemorates the men and women who died while serving in the American military. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

Whereas:
Veterans Day, initially designated as Armistice Day in 1919, after World War I is a celebration to honor America’s veterans.

It seems sadly fitting that the US toll reached 1,000 deaths in the Afghanistan war this weekend, with “more U.S. military deaths in the last 10 months… than in the first five years of the conflict. More boots on the ground than in Iraq.”

Despite my major misgivings about the war(s), the list of war dead always affects me, every Sunday morning on ABC News’ This Week.
Here’s the one for February 10, 2008, which also noted the death of ABC’s former Pentagon correspondent John McWethy, who asked a former Secretary of Defense a pertinent question. This one, for February 15, 2010, also noted the deaths of Congressman John Murtha, who opposed the Iraq war, and former Congressman Charlie Wilson, who was a proponent of US involvement in Afghanistan years before the current conflict.

Oh, yeah, the lie that Obama’s non-presence at Arlington is somehow unprecedented. I’m perfectly comfortable with differences of opinions; deliberate prevarication is something else again.

Celebrity deaths:
Art Linkletter, 97 – I watched House Party when I was a kid, probably up to when I went to kindergarten, but not so much afterward. I always think that the “darndest things” the kids said rather annoying, actually.
Gary Coleman, 42 – I might have watched a half-season of Diff’rent Strokes, maybe less, before bailing. The L.A. Times obit made mention of his “unlikely run for California governor”. As though the state hadn’t elected an actor in the position before. He becomes another cautionary tale, I suppose.
Dennis Hopper, 74 – I remember him from my earliest television watching, though I didn’t know his name. I know him best from Easy Rider, but he was also the villain in the first movie The Wife and I ever saw together, Speed. I was still watching 24 for his villainous turn there. He was an artist and an iconoclast. Damn, died of prostate cancer, just like my father.

Stitching a Meme Together

I was at work, getting ready for a plane trip to Dallas for a conference the next day, when the first plane struck. Lots of confusion about whether it was an accident.

Jaquandor stitched together a couple of Sunday Stealing memes (On speed dating, but he is happily married. I am happily married, so don’t get any ideas).

1. What’s your favorite Dr. Seuss book?

Bartholemew and the Oobleck. Like most of my favorite Geisel stories, it confronts the powerful.

2. If you could live in any home on a television series, what would it be?

The USS Enterprise.

3. What’s the longest you’ve gone without sleep?

About 40 hours. I pulled an all-nighter to study for my calculus exam in my freshman year in college. I was failing calculus but ended up with a C for the semester.

4. What’s your favorite Barry Manilow song?

“Could It Be Magic”, specifically the Chopin-inspired opening.

5. Who’s your favorite Muppet?

Kermit. I mean, he’s green, about which he has sung.

6. What’s the habit you’re proudest of breaking?

I want to say none. There are things I don’t do anymore, but proud? Not coming to me.

7. What’s your favorite website?

For work, the Census site. For pleasure, probably my old blog, because I haven’t finished updating my links here.

8. What’s your favorite school supply?

A compass. No, not THAT kind of compass. THIS kind of compass:

Also, protractors. Always thought they were fun.
You don’t know what a protractor, is, do you?

9. Who’s your favorite TV attorney?

I LOVED TV attorneys! Owen Marshall, the folks on The Bold Ones, the lawyers on the first 13 years of Law & Order. It’s probably Perry Mason, an obvious choice. But I’ll pick D.A. Forrest Bedford, played by Sam Waterston on the 1991-1993 series I’ll Fly Away.

10. What was your most recent trip of more than 50 miles?

Going to Charlotte, NC in early April, arriving on Easter Sunday.

11. What’s the best bargain you’ve ever found at a garage sale or junk shop?

I’m not one to go to garage sales or junk shops. I’m not a “bargain” hunter. I’ve bought LPs I like for cheap, in the day, but nothing specific comes to mind.

12. Where were you on September 11, 2001?

I was at work, getting ready for a plane trip to Dallas for a conference the next day, when the first plane struck. Lots of confusion about whether it was an accident. Someone got a TV and I saw the first plane in the building, but that was not much to see. There wasn’t any reason to stay, so I went back to work. Then someone told me a SECOND plane hit.

So I watched it for a while, listened to the radio for a while. There were wild reports on the radion of a couple of dozen planes that had been hijacked. Went back to see the TV in time to see the first tower collapse, and then pretty much stayed there for a couple of hours.

Someone talked with my boss, who was already in Dallas. He seemed to be trying to reassure us that he didn’t think we in Albany were in danger. (One of the planes had been in Albany air space, and we were in a 12-story building.) It wasn’t that we were afraid; it was that we were depressed (and not getting any work done anyway). Eventually, we went home about noon.

I used to go ride my bike up through the Empire State Plaza roadway, take the elevator to the concourse level and ride home. It was technically illegal, but it beat taking State Street hill. Went past a policeman, who said “Hello,” but then, given the events, started worrying about the guy with a backpack, and called to me, but I feigned not hearing him and went on as usual. (A month later, after the Afghan war began, they started checking my backpack, so I went another way thereafter.)

Inexplicably, I stopped at a record store on Central Avenue, to pick up Bob Dylan’s Love and Theft CD (with two extra songs), which I had preordered, and which was released that day. I was watching the events on the TV there. Went home, watched ABC News for about eight more hours. Have a strong recollection of a film of a plane striking the second building, taken from below, i.e., the street level. Also, recall one of the smaller buildings collapsing around 5 p.m.

Some weeks later, our program was involved with a variety of programs trying to facilitate economic recovery, for which our state director won a prestigious award from SBA.

13. What’s your favorite tree?

The weeping willow. I think they are cool.

14. What’s the most interesting biography you’ve read?

Off the top, the last bio I read was probably the Autobiography of Malcolm X, with Alex Haley.

15. What do you order when you eat Chinese food?

When I was a kid, it was sweet and sour pork. Now, it was some broccoli and beef dish, or maybe General Tso’s.

16. What’s the best costume you’ve ever worn?

This one.

17. What’s your least favorite word?

I don’t know that I have one. I DO hate when a word is misused, such as “ironic” when they mean “coincidental.”

18. If you had to be named after one of the 50 states, which would it be?

Mississippi. I like typing it, and it’d turn me into an old blues singer: Mississippi Roger Green; OK, maybe not.

19. Who’s your favorite bear?

Yogi. When I was five and a half, and in the hospital for two days with an explained and uncontrollable bloody nose, watching all of those Hanna-Barbera cartoons (Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi) made what could have been a scary experience exciting.

20. Describe something that’s happened to you for which you have no explanation.

I was 12, give or take a year. Walking down the street when one of the lenses of my glasses shattered, while I was wearing them. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt my eye. Don’t know if something fell from a tree. I don’t think it was a BB gun. It seemed to have been something that must have fallen from above me, but there was no sign of residue.

21. If you could travel anywhere in Africa, where would it be?

Victoria Falls. I love waterfalls.

22. What did you have for lunch yesterday?

Soup. It’s almost always soup or leftovers on Saturday.

23. Where do you go for advice?

Work advice: it’s my colleagues or the BUSLIB listserv. Personal advice: one of my friends or The Wife, or some friends at church.

24. Which do you use more often, the dictionary or the thesaurus?

Dictionary, mainly for spelling. I used to be a better speller before there was spellcheck.

25. Have you ever been snorkeling? Scuba diving?

Snorkeling, in Barbados in 1999, but I really didn’t take to it.

26. Have you ever been stung by a bee?

Yes, and at least once as a child by several all at once. Not fun at all.

27. What’s the sickest you’ve ever been?

The flu, sometime since I was married, before The Daughter. Out of work all week.

28. What’s your favorite form of exercise?

Since the Y closed, about the only type I get is bicycling.

29. What’s your favorite Cyndi Lauper song?

“Girls Just Want To Have Fun”. Someone made me a mixed tape with a parody: “Boys Just Want To Have Sex.”

30. What did you do for your 13th birthday?

I think it would have been just a family party. (The only big parties I had were when I was 10 and 16.) Strawberry ice cream, for certain.

31. Are you afraid of heights?

Not especially, though being on ladders doesn’t thrill me.

32. Have you ever taken dance lessons?

Once or twice. Not my strength.

33. What’s your favorite newspaper?

Unfortunately, the Wall Street Journal. The op/ed page is awful, but it has a lot of good coverage of business stuff.

34. What’s your favorite Broadway / West End musical?

West Side Story.

35. What’s the most memorable class you’ve ever taken?

At SUNY New Paltz, American Government & Politics with Alan Chartock, back in 1971, when he was young and creative.

36. What’s your favorite knock-knock joke?

My daughter has been trying to tell this joke:
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Orange.
Orange who?
Orange you glad I didn’t say banana ?

But she muffs the punchline but laughs hysterically. No real answer.

37. What’s your least favorite commercial?

I really don’t watch commercials anymore. I catch the annoying used car commercial now and then, but it doesn’t really affect me.
However, all-time, it had to be Wisk detergent commercials. “Ring around the collar,” with the wife looking SO ashamed. Seriously, I haven’t purchased Wisk ever since, and that was on back in the early 1970s.

38. If you could go to Disney World with any celebrity alive today, who would it be?

Kristen Chenowith. She seems like fun.

39. Do you prefer baths or showers?

Baths, but I almost never take one.

40. What’s your favorite newspaper comic strip?

Pearls Before Swine. Also like, to my surprise, Luann.

41. What’s your favorite breakfast food?

Pancakes. My favorite cereal is a Cheerios/shredded wheat mix.

42. Who’s your favorite game show host?

I always liked Allen Ludden, Dick Clark, Bob Barker, and especially Bill Cullen. Probably the only working one is Meredith Viera.

43. If you could have a superpower, what would it be?

Flight. Or transportation.

44. Do you like guacamole?

It’s OK. I’m not a huge fan, but I don’t dislike it, either.

45. Have you ever been in a food fight?

Not really. I might have thrown a donut hole or two.

46. Name five songs to which you know all the lyrics.

“Help!” (Beatles); “Yesterday” (Beatles); “A Day in the Life” (Beatles); “Act Naturally” (Buck Owens/Beatles) “The Boxer” (Simon & Garfunkel)

47. What’s your favorite infomercial?

“Favorite” and “infomercial” shouldn’t be in the same sentence. I did, when they were novel, watch a couple for Time-Life music.

48. What’s the longest you’ve ever waited in line?

1965 World’s Fair in Queens, NYC for the brand-new (to the United States) creation: Belgian waffles!

49. What’s on the cover of your address book or day planner?

Nothing but the words “Address Book”.

50. Have you ever taken a picture in one of those little booths?

ALL the time when I was a kid, at the Woolworths.

The 30-Day Challenge: Day 3- Favorite Musician

He’s not the greatest singer, or guitar player, or pianist, though more than adequate.

Does one have a favorite musician? I mean, I do love:
B.B. King’s guitar
Jerry Douglas’ dobro
Rick Wakeman’s organ
Alison Krauss’ fiddle
Itzhak Perlman’s violin
Pete Seeger’s banjo
Bill Evans’ piano
Hubert Laws’ flute (he plays on It’s Love by the Rascals
Nat Cole’s vocals (the voice is an instrument – and I have an irrational affection for the way he says BEER)

But truly, anyone who knows me for a while KNOWS that the ultimate choice will be John Lennon. I have a picture of him in my office (thanks, Rocco) and a picture of the IMAGINE section of Strawberry Fields in New York City (thanks, honey).

He’s not the greatest singer, or guitar player, or pianist, though more than adequate. He IS a great songwriter, of course.

So, what Lennon song should I link to? WWJD? (What would John do?) It being Memorial Day weekend, he’d probably find an alternative version of
I Don’t Want To Be A Soldier.

May Ramblin’

People DO confess to crimes they did not commit

If I think about the BP debacle, my blood boils. So I try not to, generally unsuccessfully.

***
DNA Clears NY Man Wrongly Convicted of 1988 Murder
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: April 28, 2010
Filed at 3:29 p.m. ET

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) — A New York truck driver who spent nearly 19 years behind bars for a 1988 slaying he didn’t commit walked free Wednesday after DNA testing exonerated him and instead pointed to another prison inmate.
The exonerated inmate, Frank Sterling, 46, was convicted of murder in 1992 based on a confession that he later recanted.
State Judge Thomas Van Strydonck vacated the conviction after Monroe County prosecutors agreed with lawyers for the Innocence Project that DNA evidence obtained from the victim’s clothing excluded him as the killer and pointed instead to
Mark Christie, who was convicted of strangling a 4-year-old girl in 1994.

There’s a couple things about this story that jump out at me;
1) that people DO confess to crimes they did not commit; Sterling “claimed he had slipped into a hypnotic state and parroted details police gave him about the crime”
2) DNA testing can and should be used to solve more cases. Yet there as a disturbing report this month on ABC News about tens of thousands rape kits go unprocessed, some for a period beyond the statue of limitations
3) I continue to oppose the death penalty because sometimes the authorities just get it wrong
***
Info sent me: Thirty years ago, Douglas Fraser, then president of what was still a million-member United Auto Workers union, presciently warned that the leaders of corporate America—in combination with the American Right—were waging a “one-sided class war.” He described it as “a war against working people, the unemployed, the poor, the minorities, the very young and the very old, and even many in the middle class of our society.”
***
A nominee we can all support for the Supreme Court
***
HP takes cue from Dick Tracy to develop a solar-powered wristwatch for the military that can display strategic information.
***
There is a search engine called Clusty. The technology has been purchased by something called Yippy.

From the Yippy MISSION STATEMENT
Oh, we should say that we are a very far-out group of people. Everyone is a certified genius here and we work together for our goals for the love of it all. Good vs. Don’t be Evil … We are too smart to sell out to Porn, Gambling and other things that infect our society for profit. Good always wins, and conservative values will bring us our victory in the marketplace.
God controls all creative thought, it’s what you do with it that defines who you are.
Search Samples: Search of the word pornography
Sorry! Your choice of keywords indicates that you may be searching for a type of content which YIPPY does not allow. Please try another search term.

As someone sarcastically commented on the listserv where I found this: “How wonderful to see a search engine doing God’s will. It’s incredible!”
***
I get bulletins from Los Angeles Times. This past week I see: Big Bear teen becomes youngest to summit Everest, about 13-year-old Jordan Romero, who has been on a quest to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. And what is my first thought? I didn’t know that “summit” was a verb.
***
I get Google alerts for my name. Peculiar title: Indecent assault accused whacked with brolly. This is from Guyana. Then there’s the story about the German driver who narrowly escaped a fiery crash.
Finally, this obit for Roger Green of Nashville, TN. Only 58 – damn.
***
Don’t use a public copy machine until you see this video from CBS News. If you’ve copied your birth certificate, passport, drivers license, social security card, or other extremely personal info on copy machines at places like Kwik Copy, Office Max, etc, you may never do so again.
***
Google Pac Man is a permanent page. So if you missed it on the two days it was the main Google page logo, you’re in luck.
***
This is the 40th anniversary of the Capital District Gay and Lesbian Community Council, which is sponsoring two full weeks of Pride events.
***
Evanier had this: Jonathan Ortloff Plays Springtime for Hitler on the Wurlitzer organ.

An American Need

Listening to the podcast of Arthur@AmeriNZ recently. He noted that Rachel Maddow of MSNBC apologized to US Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) for calling him Bernie. Arthur, an American now living in New Zealand was amused/bemused by this apology. In his adopted nation, the prime minister is first among equals, and is referred to by the first name; the same tends to be true in the UK and in other countries that used to be called the British Commonwealth.

So what do they have that the United States doesn’t have?

They have a queen. Queen Elizabeth II, or her representative.

Whereas the United States, the anti-monarchical nation, has a much formal structure for addressing its leaders, “Mr. President,” and the like.

I had to laugh when Michelle Obama, speaking about Hillary, referred to her as “Senator, er, Secretary Clinton — almost said, President Clinton.” Whereas the UK, NZ, Australia use up their formality quotient on royalty.

Like John Oliver, the Senior British Person on the Daily Show noted a couple of weeks back, “the Brits have actual royalty, which is ‘why we can treat our political leaders like the disposable bureaucrats that they are.'”

So it’s obvious: the United States needs royalty.

Seriously, I thought that Ronald Reagan should have been king. For reasons I don’t need to get into, I was not crazy about his politics. At the same time, I recognized the positive impact his optimism had on certain segments of the populace. I decided around 1984 that I did not want him as President, but that he would be great as monarch. He said warm and fuzzy things about “morning in America”; we could feel good about ourselves without him having to have real power that could turn into Iran contra or the like.

So who should be our royal now? I’m not sure. Maybe Queen of All Media Oprah Winfrey. Perhaps a popular Olympiad from the most recent games. Or the mirror ball winner on Dancing with the Stars.

It’d be like king or queen of the prom. We can get all pomp and circumstancy with a royal. Then Rachel Maddow can call senator Sanders Bernie, like, he told her, everyone else does.