February 2016 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

F is for fear

Fear is natural, instinctual. It “is a vital response to physical and emotional danger—if we didn’t feel it, we couldn’t protect ourselves from legitimate threats.”

What we do with fear is what matters. Living in fear can negatively affect our health. As I recall, FDR said something on the subject.

I notice the Capital District Transportation Authority’s rotating messages on the buses. They often tout the energy efficiency of public transportation, or occasionally root for local college teams in the NCAA tournament, or wish us happy holidays. Right after the massacre in San Bernardino, CA, in which 14 people were killed, the buses read, “If you see something, say something.” Sad, but understandable, I suppose.

Less comprehensible was the call from one of the Presidential candidates to ban Muslims from entering the United States. Not only was it abhorrent, and of dubious Constitutional standing, it played right into the hands of DAESH. As Ted Koppel, former anchor of the ABC News program Nightline, noted: The “tough talk” made Donald Trump “in effect the recruiter in chief” for the terrorist organization.

In the introduction of the anthem We Shall Overcome, on the seminal 1963 album Live at Carnegie Hall, Pete Seeger says, “The next verse is ‘We are not afraid’… Like every human being in the world, We HAVE been afraid. But we still sing it. ‘We are not afraid.'”

One of my pastors explained Seeger’s exhortation in terms usually associated with scripture. It is the “prophetic present tense,” a future hope stated as if it has already come to pass. Think the Pledge of Allegiance’s “with liberty and justice for all,” more goal than achievement.

The Transitional Presbyter for Albany Presbytery, Rev. Shannan Vance-Ocampo wrote: “Our fears are the things that hold us back.” There may be fearless people out there, I suppose. But most of us have fear, afraid to do certain things; optimally, we find a way to do it, fear notwithstanding.

ABC Wednesday – Round 18

Presidents Day 2016

Woodrow Wilson was extremely racist — even by the standards of his time.

Presidents Day quiz

From JEOPARDY!:

PRESIDENTIAL MOMS
Rose Fitzgerald
Janet “Jessie” Woodrow
Dorothy Walker
Jane Knox
Hannah Simpson

PRESIDENTS’ MIDDLE NAMES
Hussein; Gamaliel; Abram; Earl; Alan

PRESIDENTS BY WON-LOST RECORD
The only one who went 4-0
2-0: He was twice too much for Adlai
2-1: 1-0 vs. James G. Blaine & a split with Benjamin Harrison
1-0, in a split decision over Samuel Tilden
One of the 2 who went 0-1

PRESIDENTS 101

The most recent left-handed president.
The first president to be born in a hospital; it was in October 1924.
The first to hold an Internet chat with the public.
The first born outside the original colonies, in 1809.

ABC News ‘This Week’ Powerhouse Puzzler
Which four sitting Vice Presidents have been elected President?

ANSWERS BELOW

It’s a Scandal, It’s a Outrage

President Harding’s mistress wasn’t kidding, DNA tests show; see also this and this.
The Nan Britton affair was the sensation of its age, a product of the jazz-playing, gin-soaked Roaring Twenties and a pivotal moment in the evolution of the modern White House. It was not the first time a president was accused of an extracurricular love life, but never before had a self-proclaimed presidential mistress gone public with a popular tell-all book. The ensuing furor played out in newspapers, courtrooms and living rooms across the country.

At Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, a Heralded Alum, Is Recast as an Intolerant One. And Woodrow Wilson was extremely racist — even by the standards of his time.

More fun

Original acrostics on all the states and presidents of the United States, and various other subjects (1868). Click on text to turn pages.

Behind the Lens: 2015 Year in Photographs By Pete Souza, Chief Official White House Photographer.

Quinnipiac poll: Jimmy Carter Surpasses Reagan on Post-White House Work. In December, Carter Said Cancer in Brain Is Gone. The 2016 Presidential $1 Coin Release Schedule excludes the 39th President because he’s still alive.

I went through my draft posts and found this, which I may never have used:

For the premiere episode of Season 7 of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld takes President Barack Obama for a spin in a 1963 Corvette Stingray Split Window Coupe but finds it hard to spirit the leader of the free world off the White House grounds.

The Atlantic magazine had a list of The 100 Most Influential Figures in American History, from 2006. One could argue about the content. Naturally, it’s filled with Presidents:
99: Richard Nixon
55: John Quincy Adams
50: James K. Polk
44: Lyndon B. Johnson
28: Dwight D. Eisenhower
21: Harry S. Truman
18: Andrew Jackson
17: Ronald Reagan
15: Theodore Roosevelt
13: James Madison
12: Ulysses S. Grant
10: Woodrow Wilson
04: Franklin D. Roosevelt
03: Thomas Jefferson
02: George Washington
01: Abraham Lincoln

Another “found” graphic:

Political playing cards, including 2012 Re-Elect Barack Obama Playing Cards.

Now I Know: The President’s Pants (LBJ) and grave robbing (Lincoln) and Triskaideka-Dinner Party.

Friends of the Jensen family of Washington, D.C., know they shouldn’t expect Christmas cards. “Instead, each year Marisa Jensen, her husband, Jeff, and their daughters, Matilda, 15, and Franny, 12, take part in a much more unusual tradition: Presidents Day cards.”

What IS the purpose of Presidential libraries?

Mister, we could use a man like Calvin Coolidge again.

Quora: Who was the first U.S. President?

Obituary: Aaron Shikler, 93; painted portraits of presidents.

Answers

PRESIDENTIAL MOMS
John Kennedy; Woodrow Wilson; George H.W. Bush; James Polk; Ulysses Grant

PRESIDENTS’ MIDDLE NAMES
Barack Obama; Warren Harding; James Garfield; Jimmy Carter; Chester Arthur

PRESIDENTS BY WON-LOST RECORD
Franklin D. Roosevelt; Dwight Eisenhower; Grover Cleveland; Rutherford B. Hayes; Millard Filmore or Gerald Ford

PRESIDENTS 101
Obama; Carter; Clinton; Lincoln

PUZZLER:
John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Van Buren, George H.W. Bush

Music Throwback: Valentine

Introduce your heart to mine
And be my valentine

One of my very favorite albums of the 1990s, and indeed in my top 100 or so all time, is Across the Borderline by Willie Nelson, a 1993 release, produced by Don Was, Paul Simon, and Roy Halee. It is filled with a bunch of covers by Paul Simon, John Hiatt, Peter Gabriel, Bob Dylan, Lyle Lovett, plus songs by Willie himself, including Valentine.

It’s a very simple lyric:

Valentine, won’t you be my valentine
And introduce your heart to mine
And be my valentine

Summertime, we could run and play like summertime
With storybooks and nursery rhymes
So be my valentine

Candy heart, if anyone could, you could have a candy heart
You’re the sweetest of all sweethearts
Won’t you give your heart to me, can’t you see

This was not a terribly successful album commercially, getting only to #15 on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums, and #75 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200, though it fared better in Norway and Canada, where it was a Top 5 album. It had only one charting single, Graceland, a duet with Paul Simon, that only got to #70 on the country singles charts.

The album was, I thought, out of print for the longest time, but now is currently available on Amazon at a reasonable price. I found that the more I listened to it, the more I enjoyed the collection; it washed over me, emotionally.

Less romantic is Heartland, written and sung by Nelson and Bob Dylan, where an “American dream fell apart at the seams.”

Listen to
Valentine here or here.
Heartland here.

Also, read (and listen to)
Is an ex’s photo worth ten chicken wings?

Music Throwback Saturday: Cool Jerk

“Look at them guys looking at me like I’m a fool
Ah but deep down inside they know I’m cool… “

For whatever reason, I just never much a singles (45) buyer when I was growing up. I preferred albums, LPs, some of which I have to this day. The infrequent 45 purchase was of songs by groups I didn’t know, when the song was SO infectious, I just HAD to have it.

Such was the case with the song Cool Jerk by the Capitols, a group out of Detroit. One thing I did not know: “The backing track for this song was actually recorded (secretly) by the Motown house band The Funk Brothers.”

It was released on tiny Karen Records and was likely distributed by Atco (Atlantic Records) because it was the group’s only Top 20 record. “Released in 1966, it reached No. 2 on the American R&B chart, No. 7 on the pop chart, and No. 9 on the Canadian Singles Chart.”

But what did it MEAN? “Per one of the Funk Brothers, the song was originally to be called ‘Pimp Jerk.’ This was taken from watching neighborhood pimps, who would dance in the clubs, but were too ‘cool’ to do the jerk [a popular dance] like regular folks… The producer was afraid that a song with the word pimp in the title would be banned or not receive much positive attention, and had the title changed…”

There’s some disagreement about the lyrics, but one source says:

“When they see me walkin’ down the street
all the fellas they want to speak
on their faces they wear a silly smirk
‘cause they know I’m the king of the cool jerk”

“Look at them guys looking at me like I’m a fool
Ah but deep down inside they know I’m cool… “

The song was written by the trio’s guitarist Donald Storball, and was later covered by several artists. Unfortunately, lead singer Samuel George was stabbed to death in 1982 at the age of 39.

I have this CD collection of soul oldies that is quite disappointing, actually. It’s the original artists, but it’s mostly rerecordings. Cool Jerk, though, is the original track.

Listen to Cool Jerk:

The Capitols; The Capitols; The Capitols

The Go-Go’s, whose version hit #60 on the UK charts

Todd Rundgren, in 7/8 time, of course

Human Sexual Response

The La De Da’s

The Creation

The Tremeloes

The Coasters, with a Latin flavor

Bootsy Collins and the Funk Brothers, from the film Standing in the Shadows of Motown

A version of the song with different lyrics (“Do the Cool Whip”) used in Cool Whip commercials, c. 1999

What is the information?

When I could not blog the last week in December, my brain got overloaded with stuff I wanted to offload.

Mark Evanier noted an article about information:

Anne Pluta says that the trouble with Donald Trump voters is not that they are uninformed but that they are misinformed. Biggggg difference. Uninformed people just plain don’t know. Misinformed voters think they do but they’re wrong — and they’re usually determined to never admit it.

Then Alan David Doane pointed to Frank Santoro, who wrote:

I asked my editor and comics scholar, Dan Nadel, about this occasionally quoted sentiment of younger makers
towards older makers and he said, “Here’s the thing about ‘knowing your history’ (you can quote me): It’s soooo easy. It’s a short history, there’s less than like 50 essential works that would take you about a week to digest, and, y’know, if you’re ambitious as an artist in the sense that you care about making good art (as opposed to making books, making Twitter, making a persona etc. etc.), it’s useful to know what was done before you in the medium of your choice. Only in comics (seriously) can one find a streak of self-hatred so strong that people would proudly talk about not knowing the history of the medium.

I realized why ADD’s rant about Facebook, on Facebook, made sense to me. A lot of those misinformed, or deliberately uninformed, people seem to gravitate there. “I am trying to wrestle it to the ground and preserve its usefulness while eliminating as many annoyances and aggravations as possible.” At the same time, I get less the value of, as one of his friends noted, “like a good cocktail party. You want interesting, stimulating conversation and a wide range of opinions.”

Chuck points to something Pat Robertson said about David Bowie. Except he didn’t say it. (And if he had, who cares? But that’s another issue, about online OUTRAGE.)

Some people are just mean, usually trolls, which is why SamuraiFrog doesn’t allow anonymous comments on any of his social media. “Mean” is a kinder word than what I’m really thinking.

I posit that if there’s a story about a firefighter saving a cat from a tree, it’ll be attacked by trolls. Some will think government money shouldn’t be spent on such minor activity, someone else will suggest the tree was harmed, some dog owner will suggest preferential treatment for felines, a person will note that it was a white cat and ask whether a black cat would have gotten equal treatment, and yet another person will declare that there must have been a payoff by the evil cat lobby.

Plus Facebook is just a time suck. I don’t even comment as much because, even when pleasant, is a degree of back-and-forth I don’t seem to have available. Some people seemed to get ticked off with me when I haven’t caught all their latest news, much of which is some boring memes.

Beyond FB, there’s a LOT of social media I have joined, such as GoodReads and Pinterest, which I find benign at worst, but simply cannot fit into the calendar. Those things that reward you for writing on your blog every day: I do the writing, but can’t be bothered to let “them” know.

But the blog stays. When I could not blog the last week in December, my brain got overloaded with stuff I wanted to offload. And it is, as as Arthur notes, an aid to memory. My memory. It is an information resource for ME. And, optimally, you too.
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The Novel is Dead, Celebrity is a Disease, and More