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

Sunday Stealing: Magical

anti-saucist

The Sunday Stealing prompt is stolen from Magical Journal Prompts.

1. What’s the best beach or lake day you can remember?

It was 5 a.m. in Galveston, TX, in 1996 or 1997. I walked out onto a jetty and watched the tides come in.

2. Describe your ideal picnic lunch

Cold fried chicken, fruit salad, macaroni salad, lemonade.

3. What flowers are in your bouquet?

Wildflowers. It really doesn’t matter what.

4. Silly ways to pass the time during a snowstorm

Doing play-by-play. “Mr. Jones is bringing out his industrial-strength snowplow. Will it start this time? He pulls… YES! We have ignition. Meanwhile, Mr. Jones is going old school with a shovel. Let’s hope he creates a wider path than during the last storm.”

5. The most beautiful house you’ve ever visited.

Even though it reflected the Gilded Age wretched excess, it would have to be one of Newport, Rhode Island mansions, which we visited in 2012.

6. Best place you ever dined.

Possibly Yono’s in downtown Albany, NY. It was probably for our 10th wedding anniversary.

7. How many layers to your ice cream sandwich?

I’m old school. Ice cream between two biscuits, wafers, cookies, whatever. Layers?

8. Pretty things that are faux patent leather

This is one of those clothes/fashion questions. I have no idea. Shoes, I guess.

9. What is the best way to eat chocolate?

In a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie. Cold milk is required.

Something highly desirable but challenging to find or obtain

10. Describe your unicorn’s special magic

The very existence of a unicorn is, by definition, magical. It flies. It’s strong and fast. Their horns purify poison water. And Uni entertains children. Here’s that Irish Rovers song, which sent to #7 on the Billboard pop charts and #2 on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1968.

11. All the fruits in your fruit salad

Strawberries, blueberries, bananas, red and green grapes, cherries.

12. Describe your magical forest’s soil, grass, trees, flowers, and rocks.

It’s magical, so I don’t need to describe it. It changes with my mood, my needs.

13. The lyrics which move you the most are:

Oh, this is tough—too many choices. Recently online, I indicated that the most romantic couplet in pop music was from Wichita Lineman by Jimmy Webb, famously recorded by Glen Campbell.

Moving in a very different way: Biko by Peter Gabriel.

Any of this quintet of melancholy songs, though it’s difficult to separate the performance from the lyrics. It’s HOW they’re sung that often resonates.

And scads of others.

14. What are the best sauces in the world?

There’s a vodka sauce we use on our pasta, Bertolli or another brand, the name of which escapes me. In general, almost all sauces meet specific needs; Worcheshire, soy, duck, and honey mustard, e.g. I refuse to be saucist about it.

15. Write a haiku about nature

The earth is on fire

What will the future bring us?

Must fix, yesterday!

Music that’s gone to the dogs

Beatles, Royal Guardsmen, and, of course, Rufus Thomas

Oh, no, I missed National Dog Day on August 26. But we’re still in the midst of Responsible Dog Ownership Month. We can still celebrate National Dog Week, September 20-26. Why Dog Day isn’t in Dog Week, I just don’t know. And here are more celebrations.

Now for some music that’s gone to the dogs. Two things: I own physical copies of each of these songs and not all of them are actually about dogs.

Black Dog – Led Zeppelin

Diamond Dogs – David Bowie. The title song of the album.

Dirty Old Egg Sucking Hound – Johnny Cash, from the “comedy” album, Everybody Loves A Nut.

Hey, Bulldog – The Beatles. The group was supposed to record a promotional film for Lady Madonna but decided to record a new song instead upon arrival. A great song and a joyous video. The recording ended up on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.

Hound Dog – Big Mama Thornton. Reportedly, someone did a cover of this, which was fairly successful.

(How Much Is) That Doggie In the Window – Patti Page

I Love My Dog – Cat Stevens

I’ll Be Doggone – Marvin Gaye

More canine choruses

Jealous Dogs – The Pretenders. I was playing my Pretenders albums in honor Chrissie Hynde (7th) and Martin Chambers (4th), whose birthdays are both in September, and I had forgotten about this song.

Martha My Dear – Beatles. Paul’s English sheepdog, a factoid I’ve known since before the group broke up.

My Dog and Me – John Hiatt

Old King – Neil Young

Quiche Lorraine– The B-52’s. For the second time this year, the song appears in this blog.

A Salty Dog– Procol Harum. The “salty dog” in question is the captain of a majestic sailing ship.

Snoopy Vs. the Red Baron – The Royal Guardsmen. The RGs had a few Snoopy songs, including a relatively dark one, Snoopy v. Osama, which I wrote about here and here.

Walking the Dog – Rufus Thomas. He had several dog songs, including No More Doggin’ Around (from 1952!), The Dog, Can Your Monkey Do The Dog, and Somebody Stole My Dog (all from 1963 and ’64).

The Big Myth: climate change; djt

djt should want a speedy trial, right?

Hank Green said, I Can’t Stop Thinking that People Who Deny Climate Change are Lying.

It’s more insidious than that, I believe. Last week, I attended a book review of The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government & Love the Free Market by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.

The description: “In the early 20th century, business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies set out to build a new American orthodoxy: down with “big government” and up with unfettered markets. With startling archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. “

On ABC News’ This Week for September 3, 2023, meteorologist Ginger Zee describes “how rhetoric around climate change science became so polarizing.” George HW Bush (41) went to Rio de Janeiro to support the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. His son, George W. Bush (43), waffled, listening to voices such as talk show giant Rush Limbaugh, who claimed he could find as many scientists on each side of the global warming “debate.”

Yes, but

While running for President in 2000, W said, “Global warming needs to be taken very seriously… But science, there’s a lot of — there’s differing opinions.” His Vice-President suggested, “there does not appear to be a consensus… as the extent to which as part of a normal cycle versus the extent to which it’s caused by man.”

Pollster Frank Luntz advised Republicans in a memo that climate change was “not a winning issue for the party in the early 2000s” and that they lean into the “lack of scientific certainty.” It’s advice he’s now backed away from.

Were W and Cheney telling the truth about their beliefs?

I think it’s weird that Vivek Ramaswamy, the youngest of the candidates at the first Republican debate of 2023, said, “The climate change is a hoax… Drill, frack, burn coal, and brace nuclear.” Most younger adults accept human-created global warming as settled science.

Was Ramaswamy telling the truth about his beliefs?

The Big Lie

Similarly, most of the sycophants running against djt for President committed to voting for him even if he is convicted in one of these felony trials. Some would even pardon him.

As a poli sci guy, I’m fascinated that “two conservative law professors [are] suggesting that President Trump should be disqualified under Section Three of the 14th Amendment, which bars anyone from office who participated in insurrection or gave aid and comfort to enemies of the Constitution from being on the ballot.” It’s something that will be hashed out in the courts, of course.

The Weekly Sift guy indicates What an innocent Trump should do. “Trump’s people are saying the charges against him are bogus, that it’s all politics waged by overzealous partisan prosecutors. It’s election interference whose purpose is to promote slanders against Trump during the campaign…

“But if that’s what’s going on, then Trump’s lawyers should be chomping at the bit to get into a courtroom, where they can tell the real story, introduce the “complete” and “irrefutable” evidence that clears Trump…”

Vindication?

“So if all Trump’s indictments are nothing but weaponization of the justice system, that’s what he should want: Bring in 12 ordinary Americans who are not part of the vast Biden conspiracy, let them examine all the evidence, and then see what they think. In particular, Trump should want to get as many vindicating verdicts as possible on the record before the election so that voters could put aside all doubts about his guilt…

“But if you look at what Trump, his lawyers, and his cultists are doing, they seem scared to death of him facing a jury. His legal strategy revolves around endless delay…”

So, the defense of the major player in the government for four years is leaning into the Loathe the Government sentiment. It’s brilliant, if bizarre.

1972: fighting against the war

Wading through the diary, my friends, the Okie, and I were involved in various activities fighting against the war in Vietnam. Some of the references are oblique, I acknowledge.

M 2 Oct: Listen in on Barry’s Guerrilla Theatre Committee. This one guy kept pressing Barry on whether he killed people or not. [I take it that Barry was a Vietnam Vet against the war. The others in the room were upset with this inquisition.]

W 4 Oct: Organizing an action against Ed Nixon, Richard’s brother, who was coming to town. About 60 people were at a meeting in Gage Hall planning activities, creating posters, and doing publicity for the action.

F 6 Oct: A group of us, including Michael [with whom I had gotten arrested in May 1972], went to the Poughkeepsie police station and told an assistant to the chief that we would have a protest the following week. We didn’t think we needed permission, but we received it anyway.

M 9 Oct: Richard Nixon said four years ago on this date, “Those who could have had a chance for four years and could not produce peace should not be given another chance.” – Santa Monica, CA, 1968.

Ed Nixon was at a Poughkeepsie restaurant eating with some fur coat-wearing admirers of his brother. Some students from Vassar and Bard protested there. Most of the protesters were kitty-corner from the Nixon re-election headquarters. We were handing out anti-RMN literature. One woman took the piece I handed her and tore it up into a dozen pieces, exclaiming, “How could you do this to this to that man?”

Ed Nixon was surrounded by four or five Secret Service agents as someone from our group presented him with a letter.

Syracuse

I hitchhiked to Binghamton on Friday, October 13, stayed with my parents, and saw some friends.

M 16 Oct: My mom took me to the Binghamton draft board. A bunch of us took a bus up to Syracuse. Got “oriented,” filled out a form regarding crimes and political activities, had a mental test, and received a physical (ears, eyes, back, X-ray, urine sample, blood sample, eye test, and hearing test).

Fill out Form 98, the Moral Waivers document, in triplicate, plus another form. Went back to Binghamton. The next day, I hitched back to New Paltz.

Tu 31 Oct: letter from my draft board: “undetermined status.”

Election

Th 2 Nov: attend McGovern rally. Pete Seeger sings Lincoln Jefferson, Last Train to Nuremberg. Carol Langley (ex-New Paltz student) sings: The Real American Man, Lullabye (Medgar Evers), another song. Fred Sternam (Drew U) sings The Ballad of Spiro Agnew, wiretap the Election, We’ve Got to Get Together. Brother Kirkpatrick, the MC sang Stop the Fires of Napalm and Death Don’t Have No Mercy. Seeger: Wimowek, We Shall Overcome.

I signed up to poll watch from 9 am-noon on Election Day.

F 3 Nov: my friend Mark and I distributed McGovern literature in Woodstock. A dog nipped Mark in the leg.

M 6 Nov: Making calls for McGovern to Democrats with mixed results.

Tu 7 Nov: By the time I had gotten to New Paltz from Kingston, c 7:30 pm, the media had already called the election for Nixon, 322 electoral votes so far) to 17. He’d eventually get 521, including New York, which depressed me. 14 women and 16 black people in Congress.

I watched speeches by Shriver, McG, Agnew, and Nixon. The latter said, “It’s only a victory if succeeding generations look back at the 1970s and say, ‘God Bless America.'”

Sa 18 Nov: Went to an antiwar rally with others from college. Later, I watched the John Wayne movie The Green Berets.

And a whole lot more

There is a lot more detail in the diary, most notably that the Okie and I moved from the roach-infected apartment in Kingston, where we stayed only eight weeks, to the much nicer place at 34 D Colonial Arms in New Paltz at the end of November.

Also, I did more antiwar activities, attended my classes, hung out with my friends, read comic books, and negotiated life with the Okie.

Ultimately, I’d like to get through 1973 before 2024.

Spectrum cable $15 rebate

a “reckoning”

Reading the article Disney vs. Charter Spectrum: The Sticking Points, Where Things Stand, and More in The Hollywood Reporter for September 4, one item jumped out at me.

“Is Charter Spectrum giving customers rebates? Yes, Charter Spectrum is offering customers who call customer service a $15 rebate. If the dispute drags on, it is possible” that the offer will expand.

Hey, I still have Spectrum Cable. Unlike most of the other carriage disputes between cable providers and carriers, this one affected me. I planned to watch at least some of the US Open tennis tournament broadcast on the ESPN networks over the Labor Day weekend.

When I called Customer Service first thing Tuesday morning, I had a 12-minute wait. The first person I talked with had no idea what I was talking about. I was transferred to billing, which took another 14 minutes.

NOW I’m at the right place. After verifying my information, she activated the $15 rebate plus a $5 rebate for the next six months, which they added because they had just raised their rates by about $8. But it won’t affect my August 23 bill, but rather the following one.

Go somewhere else!

Per the article: “In an unprecedented move, Charter [Spectrum] is telling some customers to consider Fubo, the sports-centric vMVPD, and is offering a discounted rate for three months (yes, the cable company is giving its customers an offer to cancel their TV service).”

In my experience, this was correct! The billing person sent me an email. The last line: “For more information about the situation and to see what options are available, visit disneyespnfairdeal.com.” The link eventually directs me to two tiers of Fubo with a Spectrum discount. Alternatively, “Stream with another provider such as Sling or YouTube TV.”

I’m going to have to consider the options seriously. My phone/Internet/cable services are bundled. Currently, the phone service is reasonable, but the phone is high, and the cable is expensive. I could get the phone and Internet service for less from Verizon.

I don’t know if Fubo would work on my “old” (2015) television. The other issue involves getting a DVR, if that’s an option, because I hate watching live TV.

Less than a month ago, TechCrunch noted: “Linear TV viewing [cable and broadcast usage] sinks below 50% as streaming soars to new heights.”

THR quotes MoffettNathanson analysts Michael Nathanson and Craig Moffett: “‘The stark reality is the media and distribution landscape has been building up to this moment for many years. Each media company owns some of the blame…’ Wells Fargo analyst Steven Cahall calls the [Disney/Charter Spectrum] dispute a ‘reckoning’ for the media business.” Is this “the end of the end?”