April 2023 - Page 5 of 6 - Ramblin' with Roger

Library and data geek stuff

universal broadband

Suddenly, I had a whole bunch of data geek links. These involve sources I used, primarily when working as a business librarian. While at it, I figured I’d plug in some local library events.

ITEM: New York State is approaching universal broadband through both access and adoption—and recognizes that affordability is a crucial barrier to adoption.

Late last month, I attended a meeting hosted by the local United Way and other entities, including the Albany Public Library, as part of a “listening tour” to identify shortfalls in broadband access.

You can guess some folks affected- poor communities, rural communities, and the elderly. The day I went to the meeting, I saw this story on CBS News about teens helping seniors learn to use technology. This type of innovative partnership could be replicated across the country.

ITEM: Discovering the American Community Survey – A comprehensive guide to survey information, data access, analysis, and statistics for America’s most extensive survey. If you know the history of the Census, you may realize that the current decennial census asks very few questions. The ACS gathers some of that more detailed data formerly collected from the Census long form.

Also, the new and improved Census Business Builder? Version 5.1 is “A Powerful Tool to Help Guide Your Business Decisions.” I know one of the people who developed this free product.

More tools: These NYS GIS Clearinghouse: Discover free public data, maps, apps, and other resources

Atlas of Urban Areas in New York State

How Can You Help the Internet Archive? This site includes the Wayback Machine, a means to find defunct or changed websites

Local library info

The National Library Week Soiree is on Wednesday, April 26 at 6 pm at the Bach branch of the Albany Public Library, sponsored by the FFAPL:get tickets here.

Book reviews and author talks at the 161 Washington Avenue branch of the APL in the large auditorium Tuesdays at noon.

April 11 | A tribute to the late poet Charles Simic, who published over 60 books, won the Pulitzer Prize, & was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, by Gene Damm of FFAPL.

April 18 | Author Talk | Patricia A. Fennell, MSW, LCSW-R, scientist & clinician, discusses her book, Managing Chronic Illness Using the Four-Phase Treatment Approach: A Mental Health Professional’s Guide to Helping Chronically Ill People.

April 25 | Book Review | Number One Is Walking: My Life in the Movies and Other Diversions, a graphic autobiography by Steve Martin & Cartoonist Harry Bliss. Reviewer: John Rowen, former president, Friends of APL.

I want to plug Patricia Fennell’s talk, as she’s a buddy of mine.

More library stuff

May 2 | Book Review | Milkweed Smithereens by Bernadette Mayer.  Reviewer: Bob Sharkey, poet & member of the board, Hudson Valley Writers Guild. (Rescheduled from 14 March, when a snowstorm closed the library.)

May 9 | Book Review | Myth America: Historians Take On the Biggest Legends and Lies about Our Past , edited by Kevin M. Kruse & Julian E. Zelizer.  Reviewer: John McGuire, PhD, attorney.

May 16 | Book Review | Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers.  Reviewer: Carl Strock, author & prize-winning journalist.

May 23 | Author Talk | Israel Tsvaygenbaum, artist, discusses & reads from his memoir, My Secret Memory.

May 30 | Book Review | Poverty, by America by Matthew Desmond.  Reviewer: Anita Thayer, attorney.

June 6 | Book Review | The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence by Stephen Kurczy.  Reviewer: David Guistina, “Morning Edition” anchor & senior producer, WAMC.

June 13 | Book Review | The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  Reviewer: Andrea Nicolay, director, APL.

June 20 | Special Program | Dave Kibbe, an authority on Broadway musicals, will present From Oklahoma to the Austrian Alps: The Music of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

June 27 | Book Review | A Conspiracy of Mothers, a novel by Colleen Van Niekerk.  Reviewer: Miki Conn, author, poet, artist, storyteller.

Worthy is the Lamb

Hallelujah!

In 2020, our church choir planned to sing the last piece from the Handel Messiah, Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain, with the Amen on Easter Sunday. The text is from Revelation 5:12-13. While I had heard it many times and loved it, I had never sung the piece.

Then COVID happened. What a killjoy. It literally killed my joy of singing.

In 2023, our church choir will sing Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain with several instrumentalists on Easter Sunday. The trickiest part for me is the melisma in the Amen, especially starting at measure 110 when the four parts interweave. What has been helpful is a video at Chord Perfect. I’ve been studying the bass part, but here are the soprano, alto, and tenor. CyberBass is a similar service.

Then at the end of the service, as we did every year I’ve been a member, except for 2020 and 2021, the choir will finish with the Hallelujah chorus. And once again, members of the congregation who know the piece will come forward and join in. It is a joyous celebration.

Speaking of which…

Every week at 8 pm ET, someone in the choir looks at the community level in Albany County. In 2022, to the best of my recollection, it was green (low) for only one week, just before Easter.

In 2023, it’s been green (low) for THREE weeks, which may be meaningless for all unconcerned about the virus. For those of us who still care, it’s excellent news. I should note that one choir tested positive for COVID this week, so I took my first test this week in a few months. It’s negative, just the seasonal allergies.

By the way, Rensselaer County (Troy) has been in lockstep with Albany County, COVID-wise, since I began tracking the results weekly in late 2021.

So it will be a very happy Easter for this group of singers and the community.

Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain – VOCES8 & Academy of Ancient Music

Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain -| The Tabernacle Choir

(Grammarly wants me to change it to The Slain Lamb)

Hallelujah – with vocal score

Hallelujah – Choir of King’s College, Cambridge

And what the heck

Hallelujah – A Soulful Celebration

I’ve come to realize… Sunday Stealing

fire

This week’s Sunday Stealing is what I’ve come to realize…, maybe because we’re in the midst od Ramadan, Passover, and Holy week.

1. I’ve come to realize that my chest size…

Really? It’s not anything I spent much time thinking about except as part of the general “I still need to lose weight.”

2. I’ve come to realize that my job(s) …

I’m SO glad I no longer have it. That said, if it had been as flexible as it became due to the pandemic, it probably would not have irritated me so much over the final four years.

3. I’ve come to realize that when I’m driving …

I’m probably breaking the law because I haven’t even had a driver’s permit since 1988.

4. I’ve come to realize that I need…

A lot of Roger time is required, listening to music, reading newspapers, blogging, getting rid of the excessive amount of email, and generally chilling out.

5. I’ve come to realize that I have lost…

My ability to always remember the correct noun is slipping. I’ve referred to my retirement account as my credit union and possibly vice versa. Hey, they’re both money entities. You know what I mean, right?

6. I’ve come to realize that I hate it when …

Scammers, schemers, and hucksters try to call me, spoofing a local phone number and even a real name. I’ve gotten many calls from “Hi, this is your electric company,” without identifying the entity.

7. I’ve come to realize that if I’m drunk …

I should go home because I will need to go to sleep soon.

8. I’ve come to realize that money …

It does not define a person’s value. I’ve known that for a long while.

Heroic

9. I’ve come to realize that certain people …

Some of them are pretty cool. A story this week featured two City of Albany sanitation workers helping people escape from a massive blaze that destroyed four Grand Street buildings early Wednesday morning. “The fire broke out in a building… around 1:52 a.m., and it took city firefighters four hours to bring the flames under control… The pair began kicking in doors, trying to wake residents to the danger they faced. When the two men got there, no one from the buildings had evacuated.”

10. I’ve come to realize that I’ll always …

Listen to music. (Currently, Ella Fitzgerald and Roy Orbison, whose birthdays are this month.)

11. I’ve come to realize that my sibling …

They seem to like me.

12. I’ve come to realize that my mom …

She was more complicated than I gave her credit for when she was alive.

13. I’ve come to realize that my cell phone …

It’s both the bane of my existence and utterly necessary, less for me than for others who want to text me. Two-step authentication, e.g.

14. I’ve come to realize that when I woke up this morning …

I actually slept through the night. That almost NEVER happens!

15. I’ve come to realize that last night before I went to sleep …

I must go to bed before falling asleep in my office chair. I wake up with a backache, which has happened thrice this calendar year and never before.

1933 #1s: Stormy Weather

Forty-Second Street

There was stormy weather politically in 1933. From A Century of Pop by Joel Whitburn: “Adolph Hitler’s rise to power as Chancellor of Germany coincided with FDR’s inauguration.”

Meanwhile, the Great Depression raged on. “Mirroring the national economy, the record industry underwent an almost total collapse.” It sold only “six million discs in 1932 – compared to the peak of 140 million just five years earlier. The opportunity to hear all popular songs on the radio for free… also contributed to the desperate slump.”

The Last Round-Up – George Olsen with Joe Morrison on vocals (Columbia), nine weeks at #1

Stormy Weather – Leo Reisman with Harold Arlen on vocals (Victor), eight weeks at #1, from Cotton Club Parade. Arlen co-wrote it with Ted Kohler.

Love Is The Sweetest Thing– Ray Noble with Al Bowlly, vocals (Victor), five weeks at #1. From the film Say It With Music

Lazybones – Ted Lewis (Columbia), four weeks at #1. Purportedly written in only 20 minutes by Hoagy Carmichael and young Johnny Mercer.

You’re Getting To Be A Habit With Me– Guy Lombardo with Bing Crosby, vocals (Brunswick), four weeks at #1. From the movie musical Forty-Second Street

Forty-Second Street – Don Bestor with Dudley Mecum, vocals (Victor), three weeks at #1. From the movie musical of the same name.

Stormy Weather (Keeps Rain’ All The Time) – Ethel Waters (Brunswick), three weeks at #1

The Last Round-Up – Guy Lombardo with Carmen Lombardo, vocals (Brunswick), three weeks at #1. From The New Ziegfeld Follies.

Did You Ever See A Dream Walking? – Eddy Duchin with Lew Sherwood, vocals. (Victor), three weeks at #1. From the film Sitting Pretty.

Shadow Waltz– Bing Crosby (Brunswick), two weeks at #1. From the movie Gold Diggers of 1933.

Repeating Top 3 hits

The charts showed a lot of repeating songs. Stormy Weather also got to #2 by Guy and Carmen Lombardo and #4 as an instrumental by Duke Ellington. The Last Round-Up reached #2 by Don Bestor/Neal Buckley and separately by Bing Crosby. Did You Ever See A Dream Walking? reached #2 with the Lombardos.

Who’s Afraid Of The Big Bad Wolf made it to #2 by Don Bestor with Florence Case, Frank Sherry, and Charles Yontz, vocals. It got to #3 by Victor Young. Yes, the song from the 1933 Disney cartoon The Three Little Pigs was reused often.

Finally, Shuffle Off To Buffalo reached #2 with two different recordings: Hal Kemp/Skinny Ennis and Don Bestor/Maurice Cross. It was also from Forty-Second Street

My JEOPARDY malaise

Cliff Clavin

Lately, I’ve been experiencing what I’m calling a JEOPARDY malaise. Even as people continue to bring up my experiences on the show 24.5 years ago – the last time was two weeks ago – the show is giving me less joy.

Some of it is reflected in this story. “Executive producer [Michael] Davies said that he was considering allowing contestants who had previously competed on the show to come back and compete again. And he wasn’t just talking about special competitions; he meant regular episodes. This would mean that hopefuls who have been trying for years to get on Jeopardy! could find their way blocked by a previous contestant getting a second chance.”

And it’s already happened to some extent. Before the last Tournament of Champions, the show had two weeks of a Second Chance Tournament. People had the misfortune of playing against some of the recent “super champions,” i.e., players who won ten or more games, got a chance to play again. Two of them got to play in that ToC, where they were quickly eliminated.

More recently, there was the High School Reunion shows. Kids who played as high schoolers plus an eighth grader four years ago got to compete AGAIN. Who was clamoring for that? Not only did that minimize the opportunity for new hopefuls, but it also went on so long that I’d forgotten who the returning champion was.

As one of those schlubs who somehow made it on the program, I’m in favor of maximizing the opportunity for my fellow hopefuls to make it onto the Alex Trebek stage.

Arrgh!

Now, a “‘Champions’ Wildcard’ Tournament will be instituted as part of this fall’s postseason play, between Second Chance… and the Tournament of Champions. Every single player who wins a game in Season 39 will be invited to the event (if they haven’t qualified for the Tournament of Champions)… It is anticipated that the full postseason schedule is intended to take ten weeks.”

The JEOPARDY Fan editorialized: “While it is great… to see a lot of these players again, I can certainly sympathize with those fans who enjoy being able to watch 190–200 regular-play games per season…. Maybe it’s time for the show to move to 52 weeks a year of production if it wants a 10-week postseason every year. That way, both the fans who prefer regular play and the fans who prefer seeing favorites return both get what they want.”

OR have six weeks off, per usual, during which they rerun the Tournament of Champions and other events. I do NOT love this.

Sloppy

JEOPARDY fandom has rightly complained about inconsistent acceptance of answers. Worse, the show has accepted some wrong or at least dubious responses.

For instance, many fans, including me, heard Ewan Gregor as the response to this clue: The force of Lasse Hallström was strong to pull in this Scot to play a fisheries expert in “Salmon Fishing in the Yemen” -it should have been Ewan McGregor, and that non-call may have affected the outcome of the game.

While hosts have some responsibility, the producer and the judging staff can “go to the film” and correct errors.

A more significant blunder for the viewers happened on the March 8 program when an editing error showed the final scores in a cutaway shot during host Mayim Bialik’s monologue. Jeopardy executives have profusely apologized.

Fan base

I try to avoid the jEOPARDY commentary on certain websites. These can be quite harsh in their assessments. Frankly, I’m bored with people watching the show at home pronouncing a Final Jeopardy “too easy,” or conversely, “impossible to figure out.” I’ve been stumped on the “simple” clues and nailed the “difficult” ones.

I’m SO happy there were no social media when I was on in 1998. One’s every mistake magnified forever. I feel particularly sorry for one recent contestant in the March 22 game.

With just five clues left, Karen landed on the last Daily Double. She had $21.8K; Melissa had $7.1K; and Zach had $6.4K. And the remaining clues, one $800 and four $400, totaled $2,400. A safe bet would have been between $5, the minimum, and $2,799. But she bet $10,000 and missed.

Karen’s score dropped from an assured victory. Going into Final Jeopardy, she had $11.4K, Melissa had $8.7K, and Zack had $7.2K, which made it anyone’s game. Karen missed the Final and ended up in third place, but Melissa got it right and returned as champion.

THEN Karen, who was compared to Cliff Clavin– she didn’t understand the reference – felt required to explain her strategy. I wouldn’t have made that wager, but I’m not her.

“Ultimately, I did what I did,” she said, “and I had THE MOST FUN and at the end of the day… it’s a game, and it’s a show, and it’s a game show.” So be it. But she could have had more fun with $20,000 and another chance to compete. Instead, she’ll show up on snarky YouTube videos like this one from 2017 forever.