Roger O Green

“You’ll know when you know”

the damn left knee

Several months ago, my ortho doctor noted that I would eventually need knee replacement surgery since both knees are bone-on-bone. But when should I decide to go under the knife? He said, “You’ll know when you know.”

Well, now I know.

As I’ve mentioned, I tore my left meniscus on a mountain in the autumn of 1994. For a time, I started wearing an elastic knee brace, which was helpful enough that I continued to play racquetball until the local YMCA closed in 2010. I’d wear it periodically after that when I knew I’d be doing extensive walking, such as attending the county fair.

My knees always hurt. the right knee is probably 1.5 on a scale of 10. My left knee is usually at 3, and occasionally 4.

Sunday, I went to bed extremely early for me, at about 9 p.m. I woke up in extreme pain around 2 a.m. The best way to describe it is that my left knee had a massive cramp. And not a “boy, that’s uncomfortable” thing but an “OMIGOD I’M IN AGONY!!!” thing. It was at least an 8.

Bracing

When my wife got up, I asked her to get me the elastic knee brace. But I couldn’t move my leg to put it on. I had to pull my leg up by my pajama bottoms to try to steer my leg into the brace. My wife also got me a cane. But getting downstairs required sliding down a step at a time. I used a walker we had to get around the first floor. I didn’t get much done.

The next day, wearing the brace, I could walk OK in the house. The only challenge was the steps in the house, specifically going down them. There’s a railing for the top two steps, but at the curve, there’s about a meter drop, and then the railing continues. I needed the cane. Going up, I can grab the upper steps at the turn.

I used the cane when I went outside. Sidewalks can be uneven. Grassy areas I avoid altogether.

I’m seeing my ortho next week. He’ll probably give me a cortisone shot. I had one a decade or more ago. I had eschewed them subsequently, but I’m leaning into it now. We’ll talk about surgery, which will likely take place in the summer, mostly so that my spouse can take care of her gimpy husband.

So when you see me with the cane, you’ll know why.

Hey 19: that’s Roger’s blog years

in my not so humble opinion

Hey 19?! It seems unbelievable to write, but this is the 19th anniversary of my blogging for Ramblin’ with Roger. And I’ve posted daily, which is insane. Or I’m insane.

I’ve noted in the past how I started blogging. However, I may not have written why I keep on writing. It’s all about Aristotle. And Socrates. Of course.

Per this article: “Aristotle writes, ‘It is owing to their wonder that people both now begin and at first began to philosophize.” Philosophy and psychoanalysis alike began in wonder, wonder about the nature of reality and being, about the self, about knowledge, and about the meaning of our experiences.'”

That’s an excellent way of putting, “I’m just trying to figure it out.” The more I do it, the more it’s satisfying. I might list some songs that were hits in a given year, which you could find elsewhere. So, I try to explain why I think those songs captured the public attention and are interesting, weird, or disquieting.

“Socrates famously said, ‘The unexamined life is not worth living.’ Both psychoanalysts and philosophers are committed to examining and giving meaning to human experiences. By keeping a sense of wonder alive, we are all engaged in thinking about how we might live and what makes life worth living.”

Keep learning

I come to an issue with my history and my biases. But I try to leave room for the possibility that there is another way to think about a topic. At the turn of the past millennium, I worried that perhaps Black History Month, which sometimes became hoary recitations about Rosa Parks and MLK, Jr., was not all that interesting.

But a quarter century ago, I didn’t know about Tulsa or Wilmington or the Red Summer. Or pilot Bessie Coleman, the women in Hidden Figures, or half the people on this list. So, the movement to stifle people learning about this history because someone might feel bad about racism confounds me. (One is SUPPOSED to feel bad about racism, IMNSHO.)

To some degree, I see this in a theological light. There’s something called the liturgy, which the church gets through a portion of the Bible every three years. The idea is that you’ll hear scripture from 36 months earlier and, because of your lived experiences, perceive it in a new way. “Love your neighbor as yourself” might mean your friends and family in one reading, but you might cast a wider net in a subsequent perusal.

Returning to some mythical “good old days” is unappealing. Maybe you want the US in 1984 when the country won many medals at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles (because the Soviet bloc boycotted in response to the West’s refusal to participate in Moscow in 1980.) But would you want to go back to 1984 technology?

Writing this blog is an education to me. I hope it’s of some use to you as well, at now and then.

A Steely Dan song

Play: Three Mothers

playwright Ajene D. Washington

On a very busy Saturday, my wife and I saw the new play Three Mothers at Capital Rep in Albany, NY. If you’re of a certain age, as I am, you may remember the names James Chaney, Michael Schwerner, and Andrew Goodman and even recall their pictures in the newspapers.

It’s a piece of American history that is baked into my brain as much as the 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham, AL in 1963 or any number of atrocities of the era.

But if you’re somewhat younger, you may not recall that on June 21, 1964, the three young men, were tortured and murdered by the Ku Klux Klan near Philadelphia, Mississippi. They had the audacity to help Black Americans to register and vote. Chaney was Black and local, from Meridian, MS, the others Jewish from the New York City metro area.

Three Mothers is inspired by a 1964 photo of their bereft mothers leaving the final funeral together. The play imagines the conversation afterward, “in Carolyn Goodman’s home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan when the three women forged an unbreakable bond and commitment to the Civil Rights Movement.”

Before the 90-minute production of Three Mothers with no intermission, Producing Artistic Director Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill noted that she, playwright Ajene D. Washington, and director Petronia Paley continued to tweak the piece as late as opening night, the day before we saw it.

The cast, Judith Lightfoot Clark, Trisha Jeffrey, and Cheryl Stern, was excellent. Even though the production is heart-wrenching, it was also occasionally, and surprisingly funny, as the three women portrayed negotiate how to move forward.

Freedom Summer

I spoke briefly to local thespian and former news anchor Benita Zahn. She mentioned how she had moderated a pre-play talk with author Julie Kabat about “her new book ‘Love Letter from Pig,’ based on her brother’s personal journals, which describe 1964’s Freedom Summer and the Freedom Schools.” Unfortunately, my wife and I missed that.

But I’m seriously considering attending the pre-show conversation with “Kabat, Andreesa Coleman, and Dorothy Singletary about their experience within the 1964 Freedom Schools in Mississippi” on Sunday, May 12 at 12:30 p.m.

Incidentally, I looked at the government page for Meridian, MS, and discovered that most of the current city council is Black. The mayor of Philadelphia, MS is black. That would have been unimaginable six decades ago.

He Was My Brother – Simon and Garfunkel. Andrew Goodman was a classmate of Paul and a friend of the duo.

April rambling: when democracies fall

Sporadic Acts of Journalism

History shows there are no “one-day” dictatorships. When democracies fall, they typically fall completely.

A Different Take on Retro Conservative Fantasy

Mike Johnson Is No Hero

Anita Hill on Harvey Weinstein Reversal: “Our Movement Will Persist”

John Oliver Confesses to “Sporadic Acts of Journalism.” Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Medicaid and UFOs and Executions

Republicans Scramble to Contain Their Abortion Disaster. William Claude Jones (c. 1815 – March 3, 1884) was an American politician, poet, fabulist, and “pursuer of nubile females,” who authored the 1864 Arizona abortion bill.

The Manhattan case against djt is strong but The Supreme Court is breaking America’s faith in the law

Census Bureau: Wealth by Race of Householder

The endless quest to replace alcohol

On the Romance of Old Maps

The Cloud under the Sea (Internet Cables)

Williams-Sonoma Will Pay Record $3.17 Million Civil Penalty for Violating FTC Made in USA Order

The Average Body Temperature Is Not 98.6 Degrees

Linear, streaming, AVOD, and beyond: What do common TV terms mean?

Updated charity ratings from Charity Watch

American Legion National Headquarters
Livestrong Foundation
March of Dimes
Meals on Wheels America (National Office)
Special Olympics
World Central Kitchen

fillyjonk and the brick

16 Fascinating Historical Artifacts Stored In The Library of Congress

Step into the chilling world of CBS Radio Mystery Theater—with nearly 1400 episodes from 1974 to 1982, guaranteed to give you goosebumps, hosted by the commanding voices of E.G. Marshall and Tammy Grimes

Fantastic Trina Robbins remembrance by Andrew Farago

Kelly does a quiz

Now I Know: The Wife, Husband, and Ex-Husband Nuclear Family and The Environmental Intervention That Backfired

MUSIC

Spiegel im spiegel (Mirror in the mirror) by Arvo Pärt and how he tintinnabulates

Better Oblivion Community Center – Dylan Thomas

Favorite Songs By Favorite Artists: Fairport Convention

St. Vincent – Broken Man

Coverville 1484: The Soul Asylum Cover Story and 1485: The Cure Cover Story V

Deep Field by Eric Whitacre

Margo Guryan: Moon Ride (1956)

Peter Sprague Plays You Won’t See Me and Serrado, each featuring Allison Adams Tucker

Chappell Roan – Good Luck, Babe!

Against All Odds – Phil Collins

The Analogues – The Beatles tribute – Salle Pleyel – ARTE Concert

Arthur’s Law and Taylor Swift

I can say my jeans are long, but I can’t say …

Jerry Seinfeld is 70

Nothing

Likely, the first time I saw Jerry Seinfeld was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. I thought he was rather funny.

I relate to a bit from his IMDb page: “A recent survey stated that the average person’s greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. Somehow, this ranked even higher than death, which was third on the list. So, you’re telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give a eulogy?”

“I’ve learned that “his father was of Hungarian Jewish descent, while Jerry’s maternal grandparents… were Syrian Jewish immigrants (from Aleppo).” He got married the same year as I did but on Christmas Day.

I was a fan of the TV show Seinfeld early on. I’m probably an outlier in that I enjoyed the first seasons when it really WAS about “nothing.” The quintessential show was about being unable to find the car in a parking garage. The Chinese Restaurant, The Boyfriend with Keith Hernandez and the “second spitter,” and The Contest are classics.

I suppose I got tired of these people who, as intended by co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David, never really evolved. The episode in which George’s finance died irritated me greatly. The shows about trying to make a sitcom out of their lives might have been too meta for me. Constanza working for Yankee owner George Steinbrenner was funnier in concept for me.

And yet I kept watching, thanks to the VCR, through the unpleasant ending.

Commercials

Oddly, given my general disdain for ads, I liked the American Express commercials that Jerry did. I could relate to failing to open the plastic bag in the produce section or trying to hit the exact dollar amount at the gas pump. And I haven’t watched them since they first aired.

I enjoyed the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee series, and I don’t care about cars or coffee. I didn’t catch every episode, but I enjoyed the ones I saw, especially the show with well-known comedian Barack Obama.

If I get a chance, I’d like to watch the film Unfrosted, a fictionalized development of Kellogg’s Pop Tarts.

Happy birthday, Jerry (said in the voice of Newman!)