Month: September 2014

10 books that affected me

It’d be pretty easy to come up with ten more books…

ispyLike the other lists, these do not necessarily represent my FAVORITE books, which might be reference books such as Top Pop Singles or The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows, or the World Almanac. Pretty much off the top of my head:

The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales. They weren’t called the brothers grim for nothing.

Growing Up by Russell Baker (1982). I used to love to read Baker’s columns in the New York Times, and this book, which I have signed by the author, captures this wonderfully. Funny, though, I don’t remember WHERE I was when I got it signed.

I Spy: Message from Moscow novelization I read as a tween several times, and learned the phrase, “Hoist by his own petard.” Alas, do not have this book anymore. I Spy was a TV show in the mid-1960s starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby.

In Critical Condition: The Crisis in America’s Health Care by Edward M. Kennedy (1972). Those who think that Obamacare is the best or worst thing to happen to health care seem to have short memories about inadequate insurance policies, selective availability, and the pain of pre-existing conditions. I mentioned that it was my near-death experience in 1979 that defined my feeling about the American way of health, but even earlier, it was more likely this book.

The Methodist Hymnal (1935). This was the black book that I grew up with, which a former girlfriend of mine still refers to as the “real” Methodist hymnal. Holy, Holy, Holy is the first hymn.

O Albany! by William Kennedy (1983). While I never really got into his novels, Kennedy’s non-fiction treatise on New York’s capital city is marvelously insightful, and a great read.

Play the Game: the Book of Sport, edited by Mitchell V. Charnley (1931). This was an anthology of sports stories from American Boy magazine from 1923 to 1931, stories which I read over and over. STILL have the book.

The Sweeter The Juice by Shirlee Taylor Haizlip (1994). I wrote about this HERE.

The Wolf Shall Dwell with the Lamb by Eric H. F. Law (1993). This book is about multiculturalism, written shortly after the Los Angeles riots. My future wife and I attended a conference in Maryland to learn more about the author’s techniques. I think mutual invitation in meetings is definitely the way to go. The mutual invitation explained at length or in brief.

Your Erroneous Zones by Wayne Dyer (1977). I read this in 1978. REALLY helped me in dealing with a particular individual, maybe a bit heavy-handedly, but the book definitely made an impact on me at the time.

It’d be pretty easy to come up with ten more…

I is for inert gases

“Unlike noble gases, an inert gas is not necessarily elemental and is often a compound gas.”

inertgasesThis is true: part of what I liked about high school chemistry is that it was sexy. The idea of the Na hanging out there with an extra electron, hooking up with a Cl lacking one, and voila, salt! Hubba, Hubba, and all that.

But then there were those elements, gases who did not mess around with other elements, and I admired them too. After all, they were “noble” gases, virtuous, chaste.

Evidently, though, I must have mislearned part of this:

The noble gases and nitrogen often do not react with many substances. Inert gases are used generally to avoid unwanted chemical reactions degrading a sample. These undesirable chemical reactions are often oxidation and hydrolysis reactions with the oxygen and moisture in air. The term inert gas is context-dependent because nitrogen gas and several of the noble gases can be made to react under certain conditions.

Purified nitrogen and argon gases are most commonly used as inert gases due to their high natural abundance (78% N2, 1% Ar in air) and low relative cost.

Unlike noble gases, an inert gas is not necessarily elemental and is often a compound gas. Like the noble gases the tendency for non-reactivity is due to the valence, the outermost electron shell, being complete in all the inert gases. This is a tendency, not a rule, as noble gases and other “inert” gases can react to form compounds.

So, those six naturally-occurring noble gases, hanging on the right side (in every sense) of the periodic table – helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), and the radioactive radon (Rn) – may not be as chaste as I had once imagined. Meanwhile, carbon dioxide IS considered inert, even though it’s not noble, and is used in wine bottling.

abc15

ABC Wednesday, Round 15

I hate Primary Day

I’ve gotten my Mark Ruffalo robocall for Zephyr Teachout and my Hillary Clinton robocall for Andrew Cuomo and mostly for Kathy Hochul.

conversationIn the general election in November, the polls are open at 6 a.m.; I’ve often voted by 6:15. The school budget vote in May allows voting by 7 a.m.

But the polls on Primary Day, which is Tuesday, September 9 this year, don’t open until noon, at least in that tiny part of New York known as upstate. In New York City and the counties of Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Putnam (and Erie!) the polls open at 6 a.m.; very civilized.

Worse this year, I don’t think there’s been an inordinate amount of information on the judge races. The Democratic primary race for Albany County Surrogate Court Judge between Stacy L. Pettit and Richard J. Sherwood I know nothing about, other than the minor controversy over Sherwood citing himself as a judge on his campaign posters, and whether that suggests he’s the incumbent for THIS particular position; apparently not. I’m glad that the League of Women Voters has some info on this contest.

Then there’s the race for a seat in the Supreme Court’s Third Judicial District, to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Joseph Teresi. This created a controversy so complicated, involving county Democratic chairman Matthew Clyne’s overreach, that I’m hard-pressed to explain it to people and just send them this TU opinion link.

The candidates themselves do not appear on the ballot, I believe, only their potential supporters, hoping to go to the Democratic Party’s Judicial Nominating Convention in mid-September to help select the party’s candidate for a slot for an area covering Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Schoharie, Sullivan and Ulster Counties.

Currently, all ten judges are white males. Here are the supporters of Margaret Walsh, who fought to get on the ballot. I found the Justin Corcoran for Supreme Court Facebook page; he’s the party leadership’s choice.

In the race for governor, she’ll probably not win, but I have to assume that Zephyr Teachout will do better than the 20% that Casey Seiler predicted. (I also HATED his characterization of her as “Eleanor Roosevelt crossed with Big Bird.” She’s won favor with the anti-Common Core groups, the pro-environmentalists (I got my Mark Ruffalo robocall), and those people who just don’t much like Andrew Cuomo ducking debates, or bullying other politicians away from endorsing Teachout/Wu.

I didn’t even know Randy Credico was also on the ballot for governor until the last two weeks.

If Tim Wu should win the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor – a distinct possibility – Cuomo, if HE wins, will have Wu as his running mate on the Democratic line, but Kathy Hochul as his running mate on the Working Families Party line. (Also got my Hillary Clinton robocall for Cuomo and mostly for Hochul.) As I understand it, the only way to dump Hochul is to find some judgeship to give her, and within a week of the primary. This assumes Wu would accept the WFP designation at this point; Teachout and Wu had sought that party’s endorsement, unsuccessfully.

What have I missed?

The dinner guide to white privilege

They show up to try and calm him down and offer their help (rather than barking orders, screaming threats, and beating him up,)

good-foodI had recently suggested that, because of the new Jim Crow, it is good when white people point out white privilege. But I realized that this was an unfair request since some folk need a nutritionally balanced meal to help in defining and explaining it.

As an appetizer, start with this delectable cartoon.

A most unusual but satisfying salad: What riding my bike has taught me about white privilege. As someone who rides a bike, it’d doubly meaningful for me.

Sample a medley of vegetables in 5 Lessons to Remember as Ferguson Fades into History.

How about a side dish of Explaining White Privilege to a Broke White Person.

For a palate cleanser, try The Economist Admits Slavery Was Pretty ‘Evil’ After All. Almost comic in its tone-deafness.

Here’s the main course: The Daily Show’s Race/Off segments. The heart is at the end of the ten-minute segment when Jon Stewart said that if you’re tired of hearing about racism, imagine living with it.

Then this most unexpected dessert: SamuraiFrog’s reviews of old Marvel comic books, of all things. In his take on Journey Into Mystery #101, he writes:

[Thor’s] so enraged that he’s throwing the Asgardian version of a fit.

It’s so bad that his fellow Avengers–Iron Man, Giant-Man and Wasp–show up to try and calm him down and offer their help (rather than barking orders, screaming threats, and beating him up, which is what they would have done had it been the Hulk, just saying).

Right there, a simple, unambiguous description of white privilege.

Wash it all down with a video can of diet racism.

A scrumptious meal.

My first jury duty voir dire

I was not complaining about doing jury duty, I was frustrated by the TIMING.

courtroomAround August 10, I got a notice in the mail for potential jury selection.

“The law requires you to complete this questionnaire. Please respond within 10 days.
“Your name was selected at random from the voter, Department of Motor Vehicles, tax, social services, or unemployment lists. This is not a summons. You are NOT required to appear for jury service at this time.”

I went through this seven years ago, but it’s modernized in that I can answer online:

Please enter your e-mail address so we may contact you concerning this questionnaire (2-5 is oui, 6-7 is non):

1. Date of Birth: Month: Day: Year:
2. Can you understand and communicate in English? Yes No
3. Are you a United States citizen? Yes No
4. Are you a resident of Albany County? Yes No
5. Are you at least 18 years old? Yes No
6. Have you been convicted of a felony? Yes No
7. Have you been a juror in State or Federal Court in the last 6 years or in Town or Village Court in the last 2 years? Yes No

TWO weeks later, I get the card saying I had to call in over Labor Day weekend to see if I had to report, and with a number 128, I was fairly certain I would, and I did, starting Tuesday.

I noted this on Facebook, and some folks misunderstood; I was not complaining about doing jury duty, I was frustrated by the TIMING. The week before, The Wife and The Daughter are not yet in school. The week after, they are both in school.

That Tuesday after Labor Day, however, the Wife is at work, but the Daughter doesn’t start school until that Thursday. I would have stayed home with the Daughter, but that proved not to be an option. So the Wife had to drive 75 minutes to drop off the Daughter at the home of the Grandparents, and pick her up the next day.

I report for duty. Virtually all the men have to take off their belts to get through the metal detector, which if you’re a “metal detectors for beginners“-level guy – is basically how any court procedure has been done since they invented metal detectors – something about a lot fewer weapons making it through, haha. The Commissioner of Jurors gives the overview of the process and instructs us to fill out the demographic survey.

We’re all sent up to the courtroom, and sit on benches, six or seven people per row, with the bailiff periodically reminding us to turn off cellphones and other electronic devices. We all stand and affirm to do the gig fairly. The judge, Thomas Breslin, one of three brothers who are involved in government in the area, presided.

“All the numbers of the jurors present are put into some device that reminded me of a small version of the BINGO ball dispenser,” says one of the best accident lawyers in Miami. They impanel 21 potential jurors, 7-1, 14-8, and 21-15. They had already taken three of six people on my row, when the clerk announced, “128, Roger Green” for seat 12.

The judge talks quite a bit about the obligations of being on the jury, not being biased for or against the police, presumption of innocence of the defendant, and the like. First, though, he had us give our names, what city we’re from, what we do, what our spouse does, the age of our children.

They asked if we had dealings with the police and whether we had been a victim of a crime. I mentioned bicycles being stolen, but also the assault from 45 years ago. Had I thought it recently? Why yes, I talked with the primary witness just the day before.

The assistant district attorney and the defense lawyer from Toland Law – Domestic Violence Lawyer in Boston, only had 15 minutes each. The defendant’s lawyer asked me about the risk of being a police officer. I suggested that it was riskier than being a librarian. In answer to another question, I wished police officers well in getting home safely from their job.

All the potential jurors were directed out of the courtroom while the lawyers conferred with the judge. There were folks I knew weren’t going to survive, but thought that I might. But when we were reseated, the judge gave out a string of names that would not be serving. One was “Mr. Green.”

In hindsight, I should have known. I didn’t mention the case, but the defendant was accused of assaulting a police officer at 3:20 a.m. nearly a year ago. I was undoubtedly bumped by the defense attorney because I was still thinking about my victimization, AND because I was perceived, I’m thinking as too pro-cop. Not the way I see myself, but there it is.

In any case, I was there for less than three hours. I got my card stamped and signed. I’m off the list for six years. I put myself out there during a less than an optimal week and survived.

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