January 2011 - Page 2 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

The Lydster, Part 82: The Girl Who Mistook A Coat Rack for Her Mother

Lydia tells her jokes(?) with such relish, I can at least appreciate the delivery, if not the content.

Someone told me, when my daughter was an infant, that she would see me as perfect until she was about 12, then turn on me. That has proven not to be the case. On the contrary, the Daughter is really good at pointing out the errors of both of her parents already, though, like most of us, is less perceptive about her own flaws.

So if I leave something on the floor, or don’t hang up my coat or [horrors] EAT IN THE LIVING ROOM, then I definitely hear about it. Yet she is struck blind by the things on the floor that are hers unless I threaten to vacuum them up.

She laughs when I accidentally misspeak a word, but not so much when I am deliberately trying to be funny. Meanwhile, I scratch my head at what passes for humor in kindergarten, though she tells her jokes(?) with such relish, I can at least appreciate the delivery, if not the content.

One day, she was upstairs. I was downstairs vacuuming, but when I had finished, I had not yet put back the coat tree in the corner, so it was in the middle of the living room floor. Her mother and I were talking at the dining room table when Lydia came downstairs. The coat nearest her on the coat tree was her mother’s, so she started talking to her mommy. Then she looked over to the dining room table, saw her mother, looked back at the coat rack, walked into the dining room, and continued telling her (actual) mother her story. No embarrassment, no “oops”; I was impressed, actually, as I would have been mortified at her age.

B is for Brain Blips

On 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl reported on a very rare ability: to remember each day of your life as if it happened yesterday. It’s called ‘superior autobiographical memory’.

A couple of months ago, I came across this interview of Barbara Strauch, author of “The Secret Life of the Grown-up Brain: The Surprising Talent of the Middle-Aged Mind.”

This paragraph jumped out at me: “Strauch notes that people in midlife start experiencing more brain blips. She opens the book in her basement, pondering what she went there for. She asks around, and finds that her middle-aged acquaintances have similar zone-outs.”

I do recognize this. Oh, and this: “Names, in particular, are easy to forget if all we’ve learned is the sound. The more context we have — the more ways something is cross-referenced in our memory banks — the better chance we have of excavating it from storage.”

When we were children, my sisters and I used to razz my grandmother for saying things like, “Oh, that’s the old [such and so] building.” It had never been called that in OUR lifetimes; why couldn’t she call it what it’s called now?

Move forward 40 years. I seriously can’t remember the name of my bank. It used to be Albany Savings Bank, then Albank, then it was purchased by Charter One, then THAT was bought up by Citizens Bank. The brain knows it’s not ASB or Albank, so it settles on Charter One, which, like Citizen’s, starts with the letter C, until I’m trying to look up my bank online.

Likewise, my power company used to be the geographically descriptive Niagara Mohawk, but is now (yawn) National Grid; it DOESN’T help that they both start with the letter N.

Sorry, grandma.

Both Demeur and Arthur have touched on this recently; the latter referred to “holiday brain”. Then there was this piece about adult ADHD, which I swear I experience periodically.

On the other hand, Newsweek magazine had a cover story called Can You Build a Better Brain? Notable is this piece: “taking up a new, cognitively demanding activity—ballroom dancing, a foreign language—is more likely to boost processing speed, strengthen synapses, and expand or create functional networks.”

I was most fascinated by a story on the TV show 60 Minutes. “Lesley Stahl reported on a very rare ability: to remember each day of your life as if it happened yesterday. It’s called ‘superior autobiographical memory’ and scientists have only identified a handful of people in the world who have it. One of them is actress Marilu Henner of ‘Taxi,’ oddly enough.”

I’m not sure I would WANT the ability to remember EVERY day; forgetting DOES have some definite benefits.
***
Roger’s brain:

Arthur may have liberal politics on the brain.
***
Oh, I need to thank Lily at Long Island Daily Photo for a $100 gift certificate!

ABC Wednesday Round 8

The Ninja Meme

Apparently, when I do a meme, I REALLY need to do it, this time a two-parter from Sunday stealing: Part 1 and Part 2.

Picture of Emmylou Harris posted for no thematic reason whatsoever.

1. What do you add to your coffee?

Don’t drink coffee. Drink tea, generally straight or with lemon. Occasionally with cream and sugar.

2. What are you reading now?

A pile of backed-up periodicals with 2010 dates on them, which will get tossed by the end of the month, whether I’ve read them or not.

3. Do you own a gun?

No. But interestingly, my Google alert let me know about Roger M. Green, a gunmaker in Wyoming.

4. Are you registered to vote?

Always.

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments?

Not really.

6. What do you think of hot dogs?

I like hot dogs, especially grilled in the summer, or at a baseball game.

7. Favorite Christmas Song?

Coventry Carol.

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Flavored water.

9. Can you do push-ups?

Not many.

10. What was the name of your first boyfriend/girlfriend?

Martha.

11. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?

Other than my wedding ring, have none.

12. Favorite hobby?

Blogging.

13. Do you work with people who idolize you?

Doesn’t everyone?

14. Do you have ADD?

Probably.

15. What’s one trait that you hate about yourself?

Only one? OK, it’s being dishonest when I meet someone who knows me by NAME and I have no idea who that person is. I try to fake it.

16. What’s your Middle name?

Owen

17. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment.

I’m tired, I’m thirsty, I probably am suffering from Seasonal Affective Disorder.

18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday.

Actually didn’t buy anything.

19. Name 3 beverages you regularly drink.

Water, tea, hot chocolate.

20. Current worry right now?

Finishing this meme.

21. What side do you dress to?

I could look up what that meant, but then it would suggest I cared.

22. Favorite place to be?

Getting a massage.

23. How did you bring in the New Year?

Went to bed before midnight. Went to a movie on New Years Day.

24. Where would you like to go?

Hawaii.

25. Name three people who will see today.

WHAT? Oh, people I will see? My wife, my daughter, my boss.

26. Whose responses to Stealing do you want to read the most?

Probably Jaquandor or SamuraiFrog, who’ve probably already done these ones.

27. What color shirt are you wearing?

Green.

28. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

Not especially.

29. Can you whistle?

Yes, and in harmony. What I can’t do is that loud whistle, sometimes enhanced by one’s hands, to get someone’s attention.

30. Favorite colors(s)?

Green and blue.

31. Could you be a pirate?

Probably not. Damn moral code!

32. What songs do you sing in the shower?

Whatever comes to mind.

33. Favorite girl’s name?

I don’t know, but Isabella is on the list.

34. Favorite boy’s name?

Remington. Actually, none immediately come to mind. If we’d had a son we might NEVER have named him.

35. What’s in your pocket right now?

Lots of quarters.

36. Last thing that made you laugh?

Something I read in my daughter’s Junie B. books. The Daughter did NOT find it funny at all.

37. Best bed sheets as a child?

n/a, no designer sheets.

38. Worst injury you’ve ever had?

Broken rib three years ago.

39. Do you love where you live?

I LIKE where I live.

40. How many TVs do you have in your house? How many HDTVs?

1, 0.

41. Who is your loudest friend?

No one comes to mind.

42. How many dogs do you have?

0

43. Does anyone have a crush on you?

Undoubtedly.

44. What are the most fun things you ever did?

Traveling, seeing new places.

45. What are your favorite books?

Reference books for music, film, TV.

47. Favorite Team?

The pitiful New York Giants.

48. What songs do you want to be played at your funeral?

There’s a piano piece by Chopin called Raindrop. An anthem called I Will Not Leave You Comfortless. A hymn called It Is Well With My Soul.

49. What were you doing at 12 AM?

Sleeping.

50. What was the first thing you thought of when you woke up?

“This is not my beautiful house.”

Honey, I’d like to watch 2 MORE football games today, OK?

Franco Harris and Lynn Swann BOTH have March 7 birthdays, same as mine. And the team had L.C. GREENwood and Mean Joe GREENe.

It happens almost all the time in the last several years: I end up watching more football games in the playoffs than I did during the entire regular season. That’s not all bad; I managed to miss my New York Giants giving up 28 points to the Philadelphia Eagles in eight minutes, a loss which essentially cost them the playoffs. Yet I’ve managed to have seen at least part of all eight playoff games leading to Super Bowl XLV thus far, though by no means all of them. All I saw of the Bears’ shellacking of the Seahawks was the 10 minutes I watched at the Radio Shack, and the Bears were already up 21-0.

Whereas I watched most of both of the Jets’ wins over the Colts and especially over the Patriots. Rooting interests are peculiar things. The sports guy at the local paper has a personal rule that once you pick a team to root for while in your teens, you have to stick with that team for life.

Though not a fan, I must admit that I was happy the first time the Patriots won the Super Bowl, and for that matter when the Red Sox won the World Series in 2004. But when it got habitual, it started getting annoying.

It occurred to me that not only have all four of the remaining teams won Super Bowls, but, not being up on the regular season games, that I tend to associate the present team with those glory days. In fact, other than the quarterback, I would be hard pressed to name more than one or two players on each team.

In rooting interest order:

New York Jets – they get some coverage around here, a little less than the New York Giants, because the Giants summer at the UAlbany, but more than the Patriots or the Buffalo Bills.
QB – Mark Sanchez, who doesn’t feel quite ready for prime time
Only other player I could name before the playoffs – Santonio Holmes, only because he won a Super Bowl with the Pittsburgh Steelers; I also know the coach, Rex Ryan, he of the loud mouth
I’m thinking about: the 1969 Jets. After the NFL-AFL merger, the Green Bay Packers won the first two Super Bowls (which weren’t called that yet), so when the team led by QB Broadway Joe Namath, he of the pantyhose commercials, guaranteed a victory over the mighty Baltimore Colts, it sounded crazy. I still remember the score: Jets 16, Colts 7.
Rooting interest: geography. I mean, they DID play in New York when I saw them play the Houston Oilers in the early 1970s. And their uniforms are GREEN and white.

Pittsburgh Steelers
QB – Ben Roethlisberger, who got into enough trouble off season to warrant a four-game suspension at the beginning of the season. Roethlisberger has already won two Super Bowls, XL, for which he played poorly, but still at 23 years old, became the youngest quarterback to win a SB, and XLIII, where he shone.
Only other players I could name: receiver Heinz Ward (appropriately playing at Heinz Field), who is Korean and black, and went to South Korea after the last Super Bowl victory to help mixed race kids; Troy Polamalu, the linebacker whose hair obscures his uniform number, who is all over the field.
I’m thinking about: the Steelers of the 1970s, with QB Terry Bradshaw. It had a running back named Franco Harris and a wide receiver named Lynn Swann, BOTH of whom have March 7 birthdays, same as mine. And the team had defensive linemen L.C. GREENwood and Mean Joe GREENe. The team has won six Super Bowls in seven appearances.
Rooting interest: geography, history.

Green Bay Packers
QB – Aaron Rogers, who, Buffalo Bills fans are reminded, could have been theirs
Only other player: wide receiver Donald Driver. Just like the name.
I’m thinking of: those first two SB wins with Bart Starr as QB, though they did win one about 35 years later.
Rooting interest: small market team (100,000 population, 300,000 in the metro area), not dissimilar in size to Albany, NY. Also, it IS the GREEN Bay Packers.

Chicago Bears
QB – Jay Cutler, who I know relatively little about except that he used to play for the Denver Broncos
Only other player: linebacker Brian Urlacher
I’m thinking about: those 1986 Bears, with Refrigerator Perry, et al.
Rooting interest: I liked Chicago when I went there in 2008

Ultimately, I’m just happy that that the game that will be played in Dallas on February 6 won’t have the Dallas Cowboys playing. Them I do not like.

Editing literature and the N-word Questions

As usual, The Daily Show addresses the Mark Twain controversy well.

You’ve probably heard about someone wanting to take the works of Mark Twain and republish them, replacing the word N@$$%! with the word “slave”. I think this is pretty lame as I have previously indicated.

Yet, while I’m not crazy about the word, I’m less bothered by it when it’s 1) used in historic context or 2) to make a particular point. Film critic Roger Ebert got into some hot water using the word recently. He didn’t bother me, but some of the comments I’ve seen in response to his use – “well, he has a N@##%! wife” – seems to justify my general antipathy for the word.

Should Huck Finn and other works of Mark Twain be edited to remove a word current sensibilities might find offensive? If so, how should such a book be labeled?

When, if ever, are racially charged words acceptable? There’s a John Lennon song that I believe is making a larger point of social commentary.

As usual, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart addresses this well. NSFW, if the use of N@##$! might get you fired.