November 2023 - Page 2 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

Sunday Stealing – Surveys

L.L. Bean

This week’s Sunday Stealing is Surveys. But isn’t it Saturday? Why yes it is.

Before that, I want to do some light kvetching. There’s a walkway between our house and the neighbor’s. Two Wednesdays ago, there was a bunch of trash on the ground. I figured it might have blown over – it has been occasionally windy – and it would be picked up by Thursday night with the city garbage pickup on Friday morning.

But it was still there Friday afternoon when I took this picture. Fortunately, it was disposed of by Saturday morning, but now there are TWO shopping carts, one from Whole Foods, the nearest one of which is four miles away. Since there are at least four apartments in the building, I don’t know who to ask, and there’s enough turnover there that I don’t know anyone there presently.

I can’t talk to the absentee landlord because he is a piece of work. He scraped my wife’s vehicle with his rusty pickup truck last month, white paint from our car on his rust bucket. Moreover, there are two witnesses to this.

Where were we?

. How long was your last phone conversation?

About a half hour, with my baby sister.

2. Have you ever dyed your hair?

Not ever.

3. What do you have on your feet?

Slippers. It’s always slippers if I’m at home. Maybe socks if I’ve been out covered by slippers.

4. Do people ever mispronounce your name?

It’s a pretty easy name. Still I’ve been called Robert and, most often George; I think it’s the consonant thing. When I was waiting to read at the Ironweed marathon reading, I heard the announcer say, Next up:, Roger Breen” or something that wasn’t my name.

5. Where did you get the shirt you are wearing?

My wife bought it from L.L. Bean, which was the Final JEOPARDY response in the game I lost; I was the only one to get it right, taking me from third to second place.

6. Does any part of your body hurt right now?

My feet. My knees, which are bone-on-bone. The left one is particularly exhausting.

7. Do you drink hard liquor?

Very seldom. But I have a LOT in my house for guests. But we don’t havce a lot of guests, mostly because we have a demented cat.

8. Have you ever read a book in one sitting?

Other than children’s books, perhaps many years ago.

Felines

9. Do you like cats? Why or why not?

As noted, our male cat is demented. The female cat is skittish but nice. I tend to be pleasant to the neighbor cats. There was a calico cat on the front porch this week and I talked nicely to it. Related: there was a dead mouse on the walkway to our sidewalk this Wednesday; I kicked it onto our lawn, intending to pick it up on Thursday night for trash night, but it was gone. Friday morning, there was that dead creatrure on our front porch and ANOTHER dead mouse on the back porch, presents, I believe, from the calico cat, who was in our backyard. Oh, cat, you SHOULDN’T have – really, you shouldn’t.

10. Do you like the ocean?

Sure. Looking out from the San Diego area is particularly lovely.

11. Ever think you might have seen a UFO?

Perhaps.

12. Do you type fast?

Not at all.

13. How long are you usually in the shower for?

Ten minutes, maximum.

14. Chinese food or Mexican food?

Yes. But I’ve had Mexican food recently, whereas it’s been possibly pre-COVID since I had Chinese food.

15. Do you read and believe your horoscope?

A friend of mine got me a very detailed horoscope probably four decades ago or more. It took into account my time of birth, the location, etc. It seemed pretty accurate It’s around here SOMEWHERE, but it certainly has not informed the way I lived my life

More music from 1966/1967

Song referencing Long Island

Here’s more of my mixed CD for 1966/1967.

Somebody To Love – Jefferson Airplane. Surrealistic Pillow was the first Airplane album with Grace Slick.

I’m Ready For Love – Martha and the Vandellas—a Holland-Dozier-Holland song. On my greatest hits CD, “I’m ready” in the bridge repeats, then “right now” does the same. It’s a failure of the pressing process, not a skip; it’s too precise.

I Second That Emotion – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. Smokey explains that the title line was a mistake. Some of the guys were in a store deciding something, and one wanted to say, “I that that motion,” but misspoke.

Mercy, Mercy, Mercy – the Buckinghams. I heard the Cannonball Adderly version much later.

(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher – Jackie Wilson. Some of the Funk Brothers, who played on the Motown hits, went to Chicago to play on this track to make more money.

My Baby Must Be A Magician – the Marvelettes. The first voice you hear is Melvin Franklin from The Temptations. This song was written and produced by Smokey Robinson.

Wang Dang Doodle – Koko Taylor. It’s a Willie Dixon song.

Big Noise From Speonk – the Lovin’ Spoonful. This is the final cut on the group’s Daydream album, which I got from the Capitol Record Club when I failed to return the postcard in time. I love the collection. Speonk is a hamlet in Southampton, Suffolk County, NY.

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Otis Redding. A cover of a British band’s song.

19th Nervous Breakdown – the Rolling Stones

Obscure Motown

No More Water In The Well – the Temptations. Written by Warren Moore, Bobby Rogers, and Smokey from the Miracles. From my all-time favorite Temps album, The Temptations With A Lot o’ Soul

Love’s Gone Bad – Chris Clark. I found this Holland-Dozier-Holland song on two Motown compilation albums I own. Here’s her IMDb page.

The Mission: Impossible television theme. This was one of my father’s favorite shows at the time. I have at least seven albums with TV theme songs.

Five O’Clock World– the Vogues. This was the theme for the second season of The Drew Carey Show.

Boris The Spider – the Who. Because I like to say, “Boris, the Spider.”

At The Zoo – Simon and Garfunkel. I wrote a blog post about it.

Thank you

Dionne Warwick’s twin

Thank you. If you’re reading this, I want you to know that I appreciate that.

I’m thankful to see the folks at church. Singing in the choir is excellent. I attend weekly library book reviews. These might seem mundane, but after COVID, I’m not taking anything for granted.

There are lots of stories about people feeling isolated. They may be working remotely, or the busyness of life precludes them from seeing their friends and colleagues. I watched one of the morning news anchors pledge to see a friend once weekly because she doesn’t see her buds nearly enough. One needs to be intentional about these things, if at all possible.

I’m happy that I seem still curious about some things I don’t know about. At the same time, I can appreciate whatever small victories I’ve achieved in life without becoming that guy in the Springsteen song Glory Days.

Discovering and often rediscovering music I play on my CD player continues to bring extraordinary joy beyond what I can coherently describe.

I’m thankful I saw many movies, concerts, and theatrical performances this year. I didn’t mention that my wife and I saw Tennesssee Williams’ Glass Menagerie at the Bridge Street Theatre in Catskill, NY, in early October. The Times Union review headline called it “shatteringly good.”

That’s What Friends Are For

Thanks to those I’ve loved who have passed on. Particularly the one who shared a birthday with Frank Sinatra, Dionne Warwick, Sheila E., and Dan Baird. I doubt she knew who the latter two were, but she hated Sinatra, probably for that Rat Pack vibe. Somehow, I never realized until recently that she and Dionne Warwick, who was OK in her book, were born on the very same day.

Thanks to my blogger buddies, especially the Kiwi and the Bison, and condolences again to the latter upon the death of his mother. Also, thanks to my terrestrial friends, acquaintances, sisters, favorite daughter, and wife.

That is all. Well, except for some Sly. I need to prepare to eat some turkey. Happy Thanksgiving.

JFK asassination: second shooter?

NARA

I like to think of myself as not prone to conspiracy theories. After President John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963, I was obsessed with the killing of the 35th President, especially after watching Lee Harvey Oswald being shot by Jack Ruby on live television two days later.

The Warren Commission Report was released in September 1964. It was designed to clarify what happened ten months earlier in Dallas, TX. The report was excerpted in the local Binghamton, NY, newspaper then, and I cut out the articles, taping them into a three-ring binder. It may be somewhere in my attic, even now.

For that 11-year-old, that was definitive. A single assassin, no second shooter. The end.

Except, of course, it wasn’t. The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of JFK and Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1963 and 1968, respectively. Concerning the former, the committee determined… that the probable conspiracy did not involve the governments of Cuba or the Soviet Union. The committee also stated that the conspiracy did not involve any organized crime group, anti-Castro group, nor the FBI, CIA, or Secret Service.” But it could have involved mob players, or others, acting without organizational authorization.

Lone gunman?

Oddly, the JFK Library seized on one aspect of the HSCA report. “The committee had found ‘a high probability that two gunmen fired’ at the president. This conclusion resulted from the last-minute ‘discovery’ of a Dallas police radio transmission tape that allegedly provided evidence that four or more shots were fired in Dealey Plaza. After the report appeared in print, acoustic experts analyzed the tape and proved conclusively that it was completely worthless—thus negating the finding in Point 1B.”True enough about the sound, but Point 1C suggests “another gunman,” though it cannot identify who.

Based on this article in New York magazine’s The Intelligencer, it’s become increasingly apparent that “the CIA lied about Oswald and Cuba.” Early on, it also explains how the Oliver Stone 1991 movie JFK, which naturally, I saw, was largely dismissed.

Sunlight

Documents are still being released, as recently as 2023. “The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is processing previously withheld… records to comply with President Biden’s Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies on the Temporary Certification Regarding Disclosure of Information in Certain Records Related to the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, requiring disclosure of releasable records by June 30, 2023. NARA worked in concert with agencies to jointly review the remaining redactions in 3,648 documents in compliance with the President’s directive. Between April and June 2023, NARA posted 2,672 documents containing newly released information.” This means roughly a thousand records still have not been revealed.

Paramount + released JFK: What The Doctors Saw on November 14. “Previously unreleased footage unveils an extraordinary reunion involving seven doctors who were present in the Parkland Hospital Emergency Room where [JFK] was rushed after being shot on November 22, 1963. Their testimonies divulge unsettling medical details surrounding the assassination, raising doubt about government investigations that found Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.” It is compelling. Why would these physicians, in concert, lie about the events of six decades ago?

I don’t know THE answer to the story, but the questions have not gone away.

Couldn’t find my wallet again

DMV

It became a devastating event when I couldn’t find my wallet again nine days after I had misplaced it.

Losing track of it once was annoying enough. When I thought I had repeated the behavior, it was frankly debilitating.

I began to doubt my cognitive abilities. So I could do almost nothing. I couldn’t read the newspaper, write a blog post, or focus on much of anything.

The only thing I had the energy to do was to watch some recorded TV programs. (I was away in Las Vegas for one week. How have I been THREE weeks behind on JEOPARDY, 60 Minutes, and CBS Sunday Morning?)

The good news is that I didn’t misplace my wallet. The not-so-good news is that I had lost it outright. I last had it on a Wednesday, but it wasn’t until Saturday that someone tried to use my credit cards. Since I had frozen my DISCOVER card, which is extraordinarily easy, they emailed me very early Sunday morning, declining a $6 purchase at a Sunoco station.

The guy who found, or stole, my wallet also tried to use my Visa card for $122 and $222 purchases at Speedway, a gas station that took over the Hess stations operations around here. The theory is that he wanted to buy either gift cards or lottery tickets. But the purchases were declined. (So there, schmuck.)

Sunday afternoon, I filed a police report. I woke up that morning thinking that if this @$$4013 wanted to frame me, he could leave behind my ID at a crime scene. In addition to credit cards, ID, and $80 in cash, I also lost some gift cards, including one from the Spectrum movie theater, alas!

Repairing the damage

Monday morning, my wife dropped me off at the CDTA so that I could get ANOTHER bus pass. I know the fool used my Navigator card on the #905 (Central Avenue) bus and twice on the #18 (Delaware Avenue). Then I went to the DMV, the first time I’d been to the Central Avenue location; it was not onerous.

I went to the bank to get cash. This was only the second time this year I – ready for it? – WROTE A CHECK. It’s a good thing I had my passport because it was an acceptable form of ID.

Oddly, when I spoke to the teller, and they wanted to verify my phone numbers, one was my current phone. The other I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t a work number. I Googled it and discovered it was my phone number for a previous Albany address… in 1983. My bank has changed hands twice since then. How bizarre.

It continues to be a PITA. Some automatically paid items were not paid, so I had to contact the vendors with my new credit card info, which I could not do until some of the cards arrived yesterday.

Notwithstanding, let me reiterate this. Dealing with the lost wallet was a LOT easier than not knowing where I might have put it again. Once it was established that it was indeed gone, I knew what to do. BTW, the wallet pictured belonged to Ernest Hemingway. It is shown on the JFK Presidential Library and Museum page.