November 2023 - Page 4 of 7 - Ramblin' with Roger

November rambling: can we talk?

Apollo 13

per Bizarro.com – https://www.bizarro.com/faqs

Behind the Curtain: Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab.

Takeaways from the November 7 elections

Israel-Hamas War War: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and Can we talk about Israel and Palestine?

A settlement marks a step toward ending abuses at for-profit immigrant prisons.

Sesame Street Getting “Reimagined” for Season 56

Hollywood Reacts to Tentative SAG-AFTRA, AMPTP Deal

Anonymous Strike Diary: A Writer’s Back-to-Work Hangover

Why the Dying DVD Business Could Be Headed for a Resurrection

US Census Bureau: Interracial Couples More Common Among Same-Sex Couples and U.S. Population Projected to Begin Declining in Second Half of Century

Health and more

COVID Immunity in 2023: Guide to Weathering the Winter Resurgence

Vision Impairment May Raise Your Dementia Risk, Research Suggests

In a Comment Submitted to U.S. Copyright Office, FTC Raises AI-related Competition and Consumer Protection Issues

Stand Up To Cancer and the Trebek family have launched The Alex Trebek Fund to accelerate critical research with the goal of better treating pancreatic cancer, which has the highest mortality rate of all major cancers.

Astronaut Frank Borman was the commander of the Apollo 8 mission, humanity’s first mission around the Moon in 1968. He passed away at the age of 95.

Thomas K. Mattingly was originally part of the 1970 Apollo 13 mission but was bumped 72 hours before takeoff due to his possible exposure to rubella. He helped to guide the Apollo 13 crew as they returned to Earth after an explosion compromised their lunar mission, then flew on Apollo 16. He died at age 87.

Peter S. Fischer, ‘Murder, She Wrote’ Co-Creator and ‘Columbo’ Writer, Dies at 88

Condolences to Kelly and his family upon the passing of his mom, Theresa Sedinger

Trevor Noah Sort Of, Kind Of Misses ‘The Daily Show

Why note-taking apps don’t make us smarter

Hey, writers! It’s NaFaDoYBIMSCoM

How Netflix Conquered Hollywood — And Then Broke It

The 2023 Gold Glove Award winners

CDTA’s New BusPlus Purple Line BRT commenced on Sunday, November 5, 2023. Service along the Washington & Western corridors will be enhanced from downtown Albany to the University at Albany and Crossgates Mall.

Now I Know: The Man Who Sued Himself (and the IRS) and Won and The Girl With Two Twin Sisters and New Jersey’s Fake Sister and The Problem With 500 Pounds of Pennies and The United States/North Korea Alliance of 2007 Am I happy about Christmas television ads starting on November 1st? I am not.

MUSIC

A friend wrote about Now and Then, “It’s a trap! It’ll get us marveling at how cool it is to hear The Beatles again and use that feeling to lull us into ‘AI complacency.’ I am deeply suspicious.” AI is so suddenly ubiquitous that I understand the confusion. I saw Tony Dokoupil raise similar concerns on CBS Mornings, with his co-anchors explaining the process, which you should see on the Beatles website. Rick Beato’s reaction to the recording is similar to mine: I’m glad it exists.

Now and Then – the MonaLisa Twins

Sweet Sounds of Heaven – The Rolling Stones & Lady Gaga (Live from Racket NYC)

Eve Was Black-Allison Russell

Quiet City by Aaron Copland

Cast Iron Skillet – Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit

Another Wasted Life – Rhiannon Giddens

El Dorado – Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Work Until My Days Are Done – Blind Boys of Alabama

De todas las flores – Natalia Lafourcade

K-Chuck Radio: The cheapest knockoffs.

Dymaxion – Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society

Woven Song – Ólafur Arnalds (Hania Rani Piano Rework)

Dracula OST by John Williams

What Now – Brittany Howard

Coverville 1463: The Johnny Marr Cover Story II and 1464: The Joni Mitchell Cover Story IV

18,000 strangers sing Africa by Toto

Jenny– The Mountain Goats

Goodnight, My Someone – Voctave from Meredith Willson’s The Music Man

Dumb Guitar – Mount Kimbie

Decimal – Tom Lehrer

When You Wish Upon A Star – Dave Koz

Another sighting

lookalike

Roger.cartoon There was another sighting.

I was waiting for a bus on Northern Boulevard, across the street from Memorial Hospital. A guy comes up to the bus kiosk and sits next to me. I told him the #182 bus would arrive in about ten minutes.

We get into a conversation about the value of mass transit. He said something I’ve expressed to my wife, that he would HATE being isolated outside of access to bus lines. I noted my support for public transportation.

It was a pleasant simpicato conversation. We both got off at Washington and Lark. He introduced himself, and I told him my first name. Then he said, “You look just like…” I get that a lot. It’s often a former teacher at Albany High School.

Bingo!

He said, “You look just like a guy who worked at a comic book store.” Ha! I said, “You mean the comic book store that was over there,” pointing in the general direction of 21 Central Avenue.

“I was around 12 when I went there!” He went to the store when Matt worked there, so in the 1983-1988 period. While I understand why people thought FantaCo was great, I’m surprised anyone remembers me. I only worked the front when the new comics arrived, the store was busy, or covering lunch periods. Mostly, I was in the back room doing the mail order, balancing the checkbook, or writing.

I conveyed this story to someone at choir rehearsal, where I was heading. “That can’t happen too often,” someone said. “You’d be surprised,” I replied.

About a year earlier, I was at the Readers’ Theater, sponsored by Wizard’s Wardrobe, taking place in the new Capital Repertory building. A guy helping set up said, “You used to work at FantaCo!” This was not a question but a statement.

I suppose it helped that my hairline hasn’t appreciably changed. The picture of the duck represents my look in 1983.

It’s so weird. Pleasant but weird.

The Raoul Vezina Chronicles

I am calling these the Raoul Vezina Chronicles because these are bits and pieces about the life of Raoul Vezina. He worked at Crystal Cave on Main Street in New Paltz, NY which I frequented, in the mid-1970s. He was working on New Paltz Comix and other artistic and musical pursuits.

Then he worked at FantaCo at 21 Central Avenue in Albany, NY from 1978 until his untimely death in November 1983. He co-created Smilin’ Ed Comics, made the store signs, and other creative work. Not incidentally, you can find Smilin’ Ed Comics: da complete collection on Amazon.

I had sometimes a great notion of creating a Wikipedia page for Raoul, but I now realize, after a decade of trying on and off, that wasn’t going to happen soon, if ever.

Still, I have gathered a lot of material from several of his friends. In honor of Raoul’s passing 40 years ago, here are some bits, in no particular order except being the oldest in my email. There will be more pieces soon. I will try not to replicate what I wrote here or elsewhere. (Most of my links here still work.)

Here’s Naturalist At Large, a book by Don Rittner and Raoul.

Raoul created cover art and/or lettering for some records. here’s his comics bibliography.

Bio

The bulk of this will come from Raoul’s younger sister, Maria, the Chief Nursing Officer at a major hospital and a keeper of the Raoul flame.

Raoul Francis Vezina was born on January 12, 1948.

His father was Raoul E. Vezina MD (1913-1975), a General Practitioner physician in Troy NY. He grew up in Springfield, MA. He went to The College of The Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, and Tufts School of Medicine in Medford, MA.

His mother was Elizabeth Pitaro Vezina (1912-1999) was born in Calabria, Italy and came to the United States when she was 12 years old, settling in Troy, New York. She graduated as an RN from the Samaritan School of Nursing in Troy, NY, in 1935. [I really liked Betty.]

Raoul went to St. Peter’s Grammar School, graduating in 1961, and Catholic Central High School in Troy, NY, graduating in 1965. He drew and sketched his way through school, always leaving behind many notebooks filled with original artwork rather than schoolwork.

He attended Le Moyne College in Syracuse, NY, in 1965 and then transferred to the State University of New York at New Paltz, majoring in art. Raoul was a naturally born artist and musician who never formally trained in art or music.

Art

Once the front of 279 Fair street in Kingston, NY, owned by the late Bruce Talbott, of New Paltz. Provided by Jim Abbott.

A natural born artist , as a young child, Raoul used to draw on the TV set at home during “Squiggle Time” for the rabbit Freddie Freihofer on the “Bedtime Stories” TV show hosted by Uncle Jim Fisk. Later, as an adult, Raoul drew advertisements for the Freihofer Bakery in Lansingburgh, the northern section of Troy, New York. In 1987, Friehofers was sold to General Foods.

Raoul was fascinated by animal art and super heroes and science fiction early in life while composing many sketches of Mighty Mouse and Superman at a very young age. Never taking any art or music lessons, Raoul had a natural inborn talent for both art and music.

Raoul’s art matured to cartoons and political satire, publishing “Naturalist at Large” environmental cartoon with Don Rittner. Raoul admired Lenny Bruce, a social critic and satirist. Watching That Was the Week That Was (TW3), Laugh-In, The Twilight Zone, and the Smothers Brothers in the 1960s became his weekly favorite TV shows. Raoul’s early childhood exposure to animal art influenced his original creation of Smilin’ Ed Smiley, the rascal rodent who became the mascot for FantaCo.

Music

Raoul played electric piano and harmonica for several local bands in upstate New York, including Love’s Ice Cube with Paul “Piper” Rafter, John Randall, Paul Sadowski, and Gary Grimaldi. Original Art showcasing this band’s logo, designed by Raoul, was last seen in the River Street Beat Shop in Troy, New York.

He also performed with Witz End in New Paltz, NY, writing original music and jamming with many local musicians, again playing electric piano and harmonica. He became an early music aficionado of blues and rock n roll admiring Bob Dylan, The Band, The Byrds, Theolonius Monk, Randy Newman, Paul Butterfield, Mopy Grape, Canned Heat, Spirit, and local upstate band -NRBQ, to name a few.

Raoul tragically died of status asthmaticus, a severe acute asthma attack, on November 13, 1983. He was 35 years old.

Sunday Stealing – Food questions

K-E-double L-O-double good

This week’s Sunday Stealing is a bunch of food questions. I’ve eaten food now and then, as I recall.

1. If you were a vegetable, which one would you be, and would you ever let yourself be smothered in cheese?

Obviously, it would be a GREEN vegetable, and it would be spinach. But if it were to have cheese sauce on it, it’d have to be broccoli because.

2. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be, and how long do you think it would take before you got sick of it?

I answered this recently, and I said either pie because there are many different pies (chicken pot, cherry, etc.) or sandwiches. But if I had to narrow it, it’d be eggs. They can be scrambled, fried, poached, hard-boiled, or soft-boiled. I could probably do that for a year unless I could put things INTO the eggs. Then possibly forever.

3. Would you rather have fingers made of licorice or spaghetti noodles for hair?

Ick. Noodles for hair.

4. What’s the most unusual pizza topping combination you can think of that might actually taste surprisingly good?

I want to try Spam, which is a thing in Hawaii.

Hero of our nation

5. If you were an ice cream flavor, what would be your name, and what would the ingredients be?

Ramjet, with fresh blueberries, strawberries, and peaches in a vanilla ice cream base.

6. If you could make a smoothie out of any three foods, which ones would you choose, and what would you name your concoction?

I’m not a smoothie kind of guy.

7. What’s the funniest thing you’ve ever seen someone do with food?

We were playing baseball with heads of lettuce. Or maybe it was cabbage—aluminum bats.

8. If your favorite food could talk, what do you think it would say about you?

You’re finally eating your veggies besides me, Spinach would say.

9. If you were a chef, what outrageous names would you give to your dishes to make them more interesting?

I would go through my bookshelf and pick random titles. String Music of Black Composers, which would be spaghetti and various meat products. The Book of Virtues, which would have to be some veggie thing.

10. If you could have dinner with any historical figure, who would it be, and what food do you think they’d be surprised to see on the menu?

Thomas Jefferson and it would be anything that was microwavable.

11. What’s the weirdest or grossest thing you’ve ever eaten just to impress someone else?

Not my style. I’m not a food dare kind of guy.

The battle for Battle Creek

12. If breakfast cereals were characters in a TV show, which cereal would be the comedic sidekick, and which one would be the evil villain?

Tony the Tiger, who’s great, with the Froot Loops toucan. I know that Snap, Crackle, and Pop are engaged in criminal enterprises. They keep their safecracking tools under those caps. Incidentally, I own a set of the bowls shown above because of course I do.

13. If you could turn one vegetable into a superpower, which one would it be, and what could you do with it?

The vegetable doesn’t matter. Whichever one can transport me like they do on Star Trek. But it’d have to be small enough to carry but large enough not to get lost. A radish? A peapod?

14. What do you think aliens would say about our strange Earth foods if they came to visit?

If they travel to Earth, I assume their food might be reduced to pills or another easily storable commodity. So it is the wide diversity of foods that would awe them. Then they’d become disgusted by how much of that food went to waste and how some people didn’t have enough to eat. Undoubtedly, they would be very judgy.

15. If foods had personalities, which two foods would make the weirdest couple, and why?

The potato would have the personality of the Potato Heads from the Toy Story movies, perhaps a bit stodgy. Meanwhile, if you’ve seen those wind dance air puppets, they remind me of celery. They’re flapping all over the place.

Samuel J. Patterson, Civil War ancestor

Samuel>Mary Eugenia>Agatha>Les

For my Veterans Day post, let me introduce you to Samuel J. Patterson, my great-great-grandfather. Like another second great-grandfather, James Archer, he fought in the American Civil War on the Union side. Also like James, he survived the war.

He was born on June 28, 1844 in Berwick, Columbia County, PA. His parents were Anthony J Patterson (1818-1894) and Elizabeth Snyder (1811-1883). The 1840 Census list Anthony, Elizabeth, and a girl (Mary) and boy (Simon), both under 10, as “free colored persons.”

However, the 1850 Census lists the whole family, including Samuel, his slightly older sister Catherine, and 20 year-old Joseph, a “boatman,” as mulatto. Elizabeth Snyder, possibly formerly Schneider, may have been Pennsylvania Dutch (Deutsch). My father’s gene pool was 18% from England and northwest Europe.

The book African Americans in the Wyoming Valley 1778-1990 by Emerson Moss describes the Pattersons as one of the first African American family in the area. In a page 2 story in the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader on March 24, 1930, it states that he worked on the canal as a young man.

The war

Samuel’s enlistment date was January 8, 1864, in Boston. He was listed as 5’4 1/2″ tall with black hair and eyes, and had been working as a laborer. Times Leader: “Being enthused with the desire to liberate his enslaved fellow countrymen, Mr. Patterson seized the first opportunity to enlist and joined” the 5th Regiment, Massachusetts Calvary (Colored). He was a private in Company C. The unit was “organized at Camp Meigs, Readville. The battalion moved to Washington, D. C.. then to Camp Casey, near Fort Albany in early May, 1864.”

Why is this significant? “During the American Civil War’s final years, a Union base in Northern Virginia trained hundreds of African American soldiers to fight to end slavery, one of only a few such bases inside a Confederate state. But, Camp Casey has nearly disappeared from history…”

The 1930 Times Leader story: “He was in the Battle of Petersburg, Va. from June 14 to 29, 1864 and was detailed as an orderly for gallantry at the capitulation of Richmond on April 3, ’65.” In June 1865, his unit was “ordered to Texas and duty at Clarksville till October. Mustered out October 31, 1865.”

Postbellum

In the 1870 Census, he had been married to Henrietta Jane Long since December 5, 1867 and they had two children.

By 1880, they had six kids, including Mary Eugenia (1878-1944), commonly called Jean, my great-grandmother. Eugenia would marry Samuel Walker in 1899 and have several children, the oldest of which was Agatha (1902-1964), my father’s mother.

Times Leader, 1930: “In 1880, [Samuel Patterson] took up bicycle repairing and boasted of having been the first negro in Wilkes-Barre to have ridden a bicycle.”

By 1900, Samuel is a tile setter, “one of the finest in this and Lackawanna County,” which he did for 30 years. He was also a plumber “being connected with the firm of B.G. Carpenter” for 20 years.

His Wilkes-Barre, PA, home was owned free and clear. Henrietta, his first wife, died in 1896. He married Sarah Jane Towns on November 29, 1899, but she died in 1904. Four children were home from ages 8 to 26 in 1900.

In 1910, Samuel was still setting tile, living with his new wife Sarah J. “Sadie” Bunley (b. 1868), who he married on May 31, 1908, in Pittsburgh, PA. Only his youngest child, Samuel George, 18, is still at home. By 1920, Samuel was retired and living with only Sadie.

Passing

Samuel J. Patterson died on March 23, 1930. He was 85 years, 9 months, and 25 days old, and listed as Wilkes-Barre’s “oldest Negro citizen.” He died from chronic myocarditis and was buried in Wilkes-Barre’s City Cemetery four days later.

The aforementioned newspaper article “Death Claims S.J. Patterson, G.A.R. Veteran” was subtitled “Former Well-Known Tiler and Plumber Answers Final Summons.” He was survived by his widow, six children, 25 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

I am told by a cousin of mine that there was an American Legion Lodge named after him back in the 1920s thru the ’40s. “For some reason it ended.”

The photo above is an undated of Samuel and his family, tweaked by Arthur.