March 2015 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

J is for Office JEOPARDY! #3

I’ve been participating in an e-mail version of JEOPARDY!, the TV game show that has been on the air in its current incarnation for over 30 years. Earlier versions makes the run more like four decades.

There has been some interdepartmental game of the TV show Jeopardy going on around here. I was invited to join by this guy, not in my department but in my building, who told the organizer “Alex” that I’m really smart; thanks for the pressure. I wonder if “Alex” knows I was was once on the real JEOPARDY?

Here are some of the rules.
* All the answers and questions come from the Jeopardy Desk calendar of the current date.
* Don’t cheat. NO looking at the desk calendar, NO looking up the answer anywhere (i.e. internet, dictionary, etc), NO discussing or giving it away with anyone.
* The Answer must be in the form of a question or you will lose points
* Only those with positive points can play Final Jeopardy.

I won the first round, and tied for first the last round, so maybe I was feeling a tad cocky. BTW, no real money changes hands.

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Theater Lingo
The Jeopardy game answer is: To be “Born in” one of these suitcases means you’re born into an acting family.

My first instinct was to say in a trunk, but I wasn’t sure, so I passed.

Six people got it right, two got it wrong, 11, including me, passed.

What is a trunk?

Nuts, didn’t trust my instincts.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $400 and the category is: Hey, Sailor!
The Jeopardy game answer is: On September 20,1519, this Portuguese navigator headed West on a trip around the world.

Not only did I know this straight off, I knew he didn’t make it, but died in 1521. Talk about your useless trivia.

Who is Ferdinand Magellan?

There’s a five-way tie for 1st place, and I’m in a three-way tie for 7th place.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: Hey, Sailor!
The Jeopardy game answer is: He served at the Civil War Battle of New Orleans before becoming a naval hero of the Spanish-American War.

My first guess was David Farragut, who fought in the Gulf of Mexico during the Civil War. Fortunately, I wasn’t confident enough to guess, and a good thing: Farragut died in 1870, long before the 1898 war.

Who is (Admiral) George Dewey?

The leader has $1600, and I’m in a three-way tie for 6th, still with $400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Notable Places
The Jeopardy game answer is: Two battles near this “Springs” city of upstate New York are often called the turning point of the American revolution.

This should have been a gimme for everyone, for this was only 30 miles from here!

What is Saratoga (Springs)?

The leader has $2200, and I’m in a three-way tie for 6th with $1000.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $400 and the category is: Title Role Playing
The Jeopardy game answer is: Dr. Strangelove

I have actually never seen this 1964 film – for shame! – but feel I ought to. Seen a lot of clips, though, and knew right away.

Who is Peter Sellers?

The leader has $2600, and I’m in a two-way tie for 5th with $1400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: Title Role Playing
The Jeopardy game answer is: The Great Gatsby (2013)

Never saw the movie, but I remember reading that one actor had good roles in two films that year, the other being The Wolf of Wall Street, which I ALSO did not see.

Who is Leonardo DiCaprio?

I have $2600, still tied for 4th.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $200 and the category is: Words & Their Meanings
The Jeopardy game answer is: This is the indentation on the bottom of a wine bottle, or a kick on fourth down in football.

That’s AMERICAN football.
I think EVERYONE knew this.

What is a punt?
***

Today’s Answer is worth $600 and the category is: Words & Their Meanings
The Jeopardy game answer is: As well as a summary or account, it can mean an explosive noise, as from a rifle.

I got this straight away.

What is a report?

Leader with $4600; I’m in a three-way tie for 3rd with $3400.
***

Today’s Answer is worth $1200 and the category is: “Aire” Time
The Jeopardy game answer is: The Physiocrats, 18th Century French Economists, were in favor of this, the government staying out of economic affairs.

I wonder if “Alex” penalized for misspelling, since “aire” is in the clue?

The question to Friday’s answer was: What is Laissez-Faire?

A new leader at $4800, and I’m in a tie for 2nd with $4600.

That was the last question before the Final Jeopardy. Based on this category, we wager with the amount of money you have, but we don’t know the question.

The Final Jeopardy Category is: Annual Events

I bet it all, because the person I’m tied with will bet it all, based on previous experience.

The next day:

Your answer to this category is: Forefathers Day, December 21, celebrates the 1620 landing here.

Really? I suspect EVERYONE will get this right.

What is Plymouth Rock?

Sure enough, the winner had $9498, with me tied for second at $9200.
***
From the REAL JEOPARDY!
What’s it like to be one of the Jeopardy! clue writers?

The episode of March 12, 2015 was just awful. And very lonely for one contestant.

ABC Wednesday – Round 16

Put a women on the $20 bill

His face on our money implies an honor that Andrew Jackson’s legacy doesn’t deserve.

Only very recently, I came across the website Women On 20s, which “aims to compel historic change by convincing President Obama that NOW is the time to put a woman’s face on our paper currency… With at least 100,000 votes, we can get the President’s ear. That’s how many names it takes to petition the White House for executive action.”

I got here late, so participants have already winnowed down the list from 30 to 15 candidates.

The process is quite self-explanatory:

1. Primary Voting. You may vote for three of 15 candidates…

2.Final Round Voting. When the Primary winners are announced, return to the voting booth to cast your ballot for one of the top three finalists.

3.Decision Day. On Decision Day, we will announce the people’s choice for the woman we’ll propose to President Obama for the new face of the $20.

Why the $20?

“The year 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment that granted women the right to vote. So it seems fitting to commemorate that milestone by voting to elevate women to a place that is today reserved exclusively for the men who shaped American history. That place is on our paper money. And that new portrait can become a symbol of greater changes to come.”

Why boot Andrew Jackson from the $20?

As this Slate article from 2014 put it:

Andrew Jackson engineered a genocide through the “Indian Removal Act and the Trail of Tears, [his] campaigns to force at least 46,000 Cherokees, Choctaws, Muscogee-Creeks, Chickasaws, and Seminoles off their ancestral lands.”

Moreover:
“He was a fierce opponent of paper money and the central banking system, and would probably be horrified to see his face on our national currency. Leaving him on the bill as a form of mockery could be the best insult. But complicated historical slights don’t translate: His face on our money implies an honor that Jackson’s legacy doesn’t deserve. Worse, it obscures the horrors of his presidency.”

Here are the candidates:

ALICE PAUL (1885 – 1977) – women’s suffrage movement leader
BETTY FRIEDAN (1921 – 2006) – author of the Feminine Mystique
SHIRLEY CHISHOLM (1924 – 2005) – first black woman elected to Congress
SOJOURNER TRUTH (C.1797 – 1883) – famous for her journeys on the underground railroad
RACHEL CARSON (1907 – 1964) – writer of the important environmental book Silent Spring

ROSA PARKS (1913 – 2005) – civil rights activist
BARBARA JORDAN (1936 – 1996) – first black woman in the South to be elected to the US House of Representatives
MARGARET SANGER (1879 – 1966) – opened the first birth control clinic in the US
PATSY MINK (1927 – 2002) – first woman of color elected to the House, and the first Asian American elected to Congress
CLARA BARTON (1821 – 1912) – the founder of the American Red Cross

HARRIET TUBMAN (C.1822 – 1913) – women’s rights activist and abolitionist
FRANCES PERKINS (1880 – 1965) – Secretary of Labor under FDR, first woman appointed to the US Cabinet
SUSAN B. ANTHONY (1820 – 1906) – women’s suffrage movement leader
ELEANOR ROOSEVELT (1884 – 1962) – human rights activist and former first Lady
ELIZABETH CADY STANTON (1815 – 1902) – women’s rights activist and abolitionist

The organizers claim they have mechanisms in place to prevent “stuffing the ballot.”

The Washington Post noted that “the group has been ‘sort of surprised at the lack of opposition’ to the campaign, and… hopes it will ‘get this conversation going.'”

Women on $20s executive director Susan Ades Stone added, “We wanna be the hashtag that says #sorryAndrew.”

Lenten Music Friday: Fauré Requiem

Fauré’s Requiem is noted for its calm, serene and peaceful outlook.

Of all the Requiems, and I have participated in the singing of quite a few, one of my two favorites, along with Mozart, is the Fauré. I know I sang this in both 2000 and 2002, and perhaps later.

He composed the Requiem between 1887 and 1890. From Classic FM:

Traditionally, at its heart, [a requiem] is a prayerful lament for the dead. Fauré’s Requiem was altogether different, though, because here was a composer who, unlike many of his contemporaries, had no clear religious beliefs.

By contrast, he was very much a doubter, described by his own son as ‘a sceptic’. In place of the sombre nature of many requiems that had gone before, Fauré’s is noted for its calm, serene and peaceful outlook.

The best recording may well be one I own, the iteration with Robert Shaw (Conductor), Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus (Orchestra), Judith Blegen (Soprano), James Morris (Baritone). It also contains the Duruflé Requiem. I bought that CD for my sister Leslie, who will be singing it in the San Diego area this Lenten season.

LISTEN to Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, Op. 48
1. Introït et Kyrie (D minor) 0:00
2. Offertoire (B minor) 6:24
3. Sanctus (E-flat major) 14:36
4. Pie Jesu (B-flat major) 18:07
5. Agnus Dei et Lux Aeterna (F major) 21:48
6. Libera Me (D minor) 27:55
7. In Paradisum (D major) 32:16

3.1415

This is really only Pi Day, and a very special one this year, to those somewhat backwards countries who post the date in neither descending nor ascending order of significance.

Today is Pi Day, pi being the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. But you knew that. You probably were even aware that pi was a very old number, and, of course, an infinite decimal, roughly equivalent to 355/113.

But did you know: “Pi (rather than some other Greek letter like Alpha or Omega) was chosen as the letter to represent the number 3.141592… because the letter π in Greek, pronounced like our letter ‘p’, stands for ‘perimeter’.”

Of course, this is really only Pi Day, and a very special one this year, to those somewhat backward countries who post the date in neither descending nor ascending order of significance, but rather Month, Day, Year.

The primary country using this system is the United States, so it gets noticed. The others, as far as I can tell, are Belize and the Federated States of Micronesia, though Canada, Kenya, and the Philippines use multiple designations, including MMDDYYYY.

Since pi and pie are homophones, some people seem to think that today is Pie Day. But Pie Day in 2015 was January 23.

Still, all sophisticated folks, understandably, recognize the pie as the perfect food, available as dinner (pot pie, e.g.) or dessert, and will use any excuse to eat, or get hit in the face with, pie.

Here’s Dustbury’s pi post from last year, which shows that I’m very pi; either I go on forever, or I’m irrational. Take your pick.

Born this date: Albert Einstein in 1879, who undoubtedly used pi in some calculations; and Quincy Jones in 1933, who recorded and produced many albums that were shaped like a circle.

Both my sister’s boyfriend Mike and my friend, artist Stephen Bissette, turn the big SIX-OH today. Happy natal day to them.

A New York Newspapers State of Mind

With any recording, there are two copyrights: one for the song, the composition, and another for the performance of that song, the recording.

There’s a line in a classic Billy Joel song New York State of Mind:
“But now I need a little give and take
The New York Times, the Daily News.”

Back in the late 1970s and 1980s, I used to read those two New York City papers, even though I lived 150 miles away. The New York Times, “All The News That’s Fit To Print,” I’d read nearly every day. Even into the 1990s, I was at least devour the massive Sunday Times, which might take all week. In the earlier period, I also read the Daily News, a tabloid publication, on Sunday, mostly for the funnies and the sports.

I almost never read the other tabloid in New York City, the New York Post, which was terrible even before Rupert Murdock bought it in 1993. (Certainly, one of its low points was in 1980, when they showed a slain John Lennon in the morgue.)

It’s nice to see my old friends of the news IN the news:

Former President George W. Bush and his wife Laura participated in the reenactment of the march 50 years ago in Selma, Alabama on March 7. They were on the front line, but do not appear in the photo above. The narrative from some is that they were cropped out.

But in viewing several pictures of the event, it was clear that the picture was not wide enough to include the Bushes without making the shot far too small to see from the newsstand.

Moreover, Times photographer Doug Mills notes: “As you can see, Bush was in the bright sunlight. I did not even send this frame because it’s very wide and super busy and Bush is super-overexposed because he was in the sun and Obama and the others are in the shade.”

Nevertheless, there will be people who will find political motivation in this.

There are some who thought Bush should have stayed home, since his Supreme Court justices have weakened the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the very law signed by President Lyndon Johnson as a direct result of the original march. I’m glad Bush was there.

Here’s a poignant Selma story.

A couple of days later, I was astonished to see THIS headline in the Daily News go viral, with the paper blasting the 47 US Senators for sending a letter to Iran.

As Vox.com puts it, “The mere act of senators contacting the leaders of a foreign nation to undermine and contradict their own president is an enormous breach of protocol. But this went much further: Republicans are telling Iran, and, by extension the world, that the American president no longer has the power to conduct foreign policy, and that foreign leaders should assume Congress could revoke American pledges at any moment.”

Now, Arthur explains this situation more than I’m inclined to. Read also links to several other newspaper editorials.

Whether the letter, signed by four men (Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio) who have suggested a desire to be the Republican nominee for President, is actually traitorous is open to debate. That it was a brazen, gratuitous, and plainly stupid action is pretty clear. And some Republicans agree.

Humorous responses: Iran has offered to mediate talks between congressional Republicans and President Obama and An Open Letter to 47 Republican Senators of the United States of America from Iran’s Hard-Liners.: “You have opened our eyes. We are brothers.”
***
In other news, Jurors hit Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams with $7.4-million verdict over the song Blurred Lines.

I was surprised by the results. A couple of weeks ago, intellectual property lawyer/drummer Paul Rapp, a/k/a F. Lee Harvey Blotto, wrote this:

The…case, in which Marvin Gaye’s kids are trying to shake down Robin Thicke, Pharrell and TI, is…not going very well for Team Gaye. The judge knocked the stuffing out of the Gayes’ case last month by ruling that the jury would not be allowed to hear the Marvin Gaye recording of Got To Give It Up [LISTEN] the song allegedly infringed by Thicke & Co. in writing Blurred Lines.

Why, you ask? Well it’s like this. With any recording, there are two copyrights: one for the song, the composition, and another for the performance of that song, the recording. What constitutes the song is typically limited to the melody and lyrics, and sometimes a unique chord or song structure. Everything else is embodied in the performance.

Here’s a side-by-side snippet. Oh, and here’s the UNRATED, NSFW Blurred Lines video (don’t say I didn’t warn you.) Incidentally, I’m one of those people who found Blurred Lines’ suggestion of possibly non-consensual sex very creepy.

There is concern that the verdict could be bad for music, “possibly lowering the bar for what’s considered creative theft.” While I hear the similarities, I’ve found other songs, not litigated against, with far greater parallels. I think the decision was wrong, per this New Yorker article.

But after the “Blurred Lines” victory, the Gaye family takes another listen to “Happy”. They should take Stevie Wonder’s advice.

Since these things will get further litigated, it’s too early to know the final outcome. But my first thought was, “What will happen to the Weird Al Yankovic song, Word Crimes [LISTEN]? It’s credited to Williams, Thick, rapper TI and Yankovic.