Ramblin' with Roger

This is the reason, in large part, why I have a system of music playing that I know I’ve described in this blog, but cannot find. In brief, I play music around artists’ birthdays (Springsteen now, Emmylou in April), compilers’ birthdays (Motown compilations in November, in honor of Berry Gordy), events (movie soundtracks in February and March, in honor of the Academy Awards), etc. Which reminds me: when’s your birthday? I like to play your compilations around then.

This is not to say I’m limited to these times; when I get the new Dylan album for Christmas (someone pleeeeease tell my wife she’s getting this for me), I’ll get the sense that I’ll be playing it a lot in January and February, even if his birthday’s not until May.

Of course, you don’t HAVE to play them all annually. There are those albums you keep around for a few songs to put on compilation discs. (So why don’t I just put them all on mp3s? Because I’d miss the information on the package.)

So my answer, for me, is 3000, and I’m only (a little more than) halfway there.

2. What does a guy have to do to get your summer mix, considering he was theoretically part of the exchange?

Well, theoretically, I wrote you an e-mail on this very topic that said I would send you a copy when I finished the crime CD in Gordon’s exchange. But then, I got, curiously, a number of e-mails unsendable from two bloggers: my friend Lori in Florida, one of the few bloggers I actually know, and you. (Did you know I can see stuff such as on your page?)

So, for your trouble, my next package to you will contain the summer mix, the crime mix, and a mix that’s totally randomly selected from a pile I put together when I was only exchanging with Hemby. And not so incidentally, I received your package on Friday. Boy, I hope Lydia doesn’t turn out like the Lydia in that song.

Great groveling to Lefty, BTW.

And speaking of the southpaw:

1. Would you vote for a African-American Presidential candidate if they were conservative?

I suppose conservative in what way? Prior to 2003, I would have considered Colin Powell. He seemed to be a man of integrity. And truth is, maybe he bought that bill of goods about Iraq he spoke about at the UN in February 2003. Certainly, I appreciate his position on opposing torture.

Whereas his successor as Secretary of State, Condi Rice, I would NEVER vote for. At least Alan Keyes seems to have a consistent moral position, even if I oppose most of it.

2. Will we ever see a non-Christian presidential candidate?

Sure, he’ll be Jewish (and it’ll be a he) in 2016. Or 2020.

3. Can you remember that last time you heard a piece of music that made you nearly weep (for joy or sorrow)?

Sure, happens all the time.
Joy: the vocalization at the end of Surf’s Up by the Beach Boys
Sorrow: there’s a suspension at the end of a dramatic crescendo about 6 minutes into an 8 minute version of Barber’s Adagio that almost never fails to get to me. (Anyone want to explain this better than I just did, please feel free.)

BTW, re: your question about going blind or deaf, sometimes I can recreate in my own mind a piece of music. If I would still have that, that’d be great.

4. What was the worst vacation you ever went on?

Undoubtedly it was some damn camping trip my father foisted on us. One place, north of Binghamton on the way to Syracuse actually had laundry facilities, but it was so fly-infested that I ended up killing dozens, including – and this is true – seven with one blow.

5. What website could you not live without?

At work, I use the Census Bureau page a LOT at work.
Personally, right now, it’s my own page, or links thereon. What great insight has Gay Prof provided for us? What pop culture wisdom will Tom the Dog share? How’s Nigel?

6. What did you think of my Circle of Friends mix?

I liked it, especially that middle section with Duran Duran and the Hall & Oates cover and that song that swipes, among other things, the Miracles’ “Tears of a Clown”.

7. So is Bush dumb, ill-informed, greedy, crafty, or evil?

I DON’T KNOW. Maybe all of them. Surely, he’s crafty enough to have surrounded himself with people who could make him President. Early on in his administration, he was clearly ill-informed; you’ll recall during the 2000 campaign how little he knew of world affairs. I don’t care how many books he reads, but some of his comments in this area – I’m too lazy to look ’em up – sounded just dumb.

O.K., that was unnecessarily self-effacing. I do have some skills. I can get her to squueze her medicine thingy into her nose, usually. I can get her to stop crying by doing something extraordinarily silly. (Don’t ask.)

I’ve been taking my bike on the bus when I take her to day care. What pleases (and frankly surprises) me, and the people in the bus, is that I’ll say to her, “Stay on the sidewalk until I put the bike on the bus” and she does, saying “Bike on bus and then get me”. Then I carry her onto the bus. Then I take her off the bus, ask her to stay on the sidewalk until the bike comes off, and she complies again.

Good news: Lydia has ONLY a peanut allergy. That’s good, because I pretty much knew that anyway, and that she DOESN’T have an allergy to anything else, according to the blood test, such as tree nuts, grasses, milk, cats, dogs, or any number of other things that might have affected her.

Lydia only a month ago used to say she was two, but now says she’s two and a half, something neither her mother or I taught her. I blame her day care.

I love her a lot. When I get home from work, she’ll quit what she’s doing (eating, playing) to greet me. She is a good hugger.

He worked at a florist – arranging flowers for events, drove a truck, worked nights at IBM for six years, worked for a social service agency called Opportunities for Broome, then Associated Building Contractors, and finally J.A. Jones Construction.

He taught himself to play guitar around 1959, and billed himself as the “Lonesome & Lonely Traveller”, which was his theme song, even when joined by his son (me) and daughter (Leslie).

Now this is what else I know. You may not be able to read the document above, so I’ll share. It’s my father’s birth certificate.
[Name] Leslie H. Green
Male. Single birth [as opposed to twin, etc.] Sept 26 [19]26 1:30 a.m.
[County] Broome [City] Binghamton
[Mother’s maiden name] Agatha Walker [Age] 24 [State of birth] PA
[Residence: state] N.Y. [City] Binghamton [Street and number] 18 East St.
[Father] McKinley M. Green [Age] 47 [State of birth] Pa.
[Local filing date] 9 30 26 [Date] 9 13 44

One thing I’ve long known, and my sisters have long known, from my mother was the fact that McKinley was not my father’s biological father. I also know that McKinley wasn’t 47 when my father was born, that he was probably 47 in 1944, when this certificate was re-issued.

I went to the 1930 Census. I needed help from Alan and others at the New York State Library.

Listed
Samuel E. Walker-Head-56-Age at first marriage:25-Born in VA, father born in VA, mother born in VA. Janitor in public building.
Eugeni [sic] M.-Wife-52-Born in PA, father born in PA, mother born in PA.
Agatha H.-Daughter-27-Born in PA, father born in PA, mother born in PA. Housekeeper for a private family.
Earl S.-Son-25-Born in PA, father born in PA, mother born in PA. Caterer for hotels.
Stanley E.-Son-20-Born in PA, father born in PA, mother born in PA.
Vera C.-Daughter-17-Born in PA, father born in US, mother born in PA.
Melissa C.-Daughter-15-Born in NY, father born in VA, mother born in PA.
Jessie G.-Daughter-13-Born in NY, father born in VA, mother born in PA.
Morris S.-Son-11-Born in NY, father born in VA, mother born in PA.
Wesley H.-Son-3 6/12-Born in NY, father born in VA, mother born in PA.

Samuel was the patriarch I knew as a little kid. He was a stern old man, and Agatha (my grandmother), Earl, Stanley, Vera, and Jessie all seemed to fear him, especially the older ones, who would have been in their fifties at the time. (Melissa was not around.) And Wesley? He would have been born in September 1926. So, Samuel and Eugenia feigned that Wesley was their son. But my father’s name was Wesley when he was born? Or was this a clerical error on the part of the Census taker?

Another curiosity: Agatha, Earl, Stanley and Vera all had a father born in PA, so since Samuel was born in VA, he’s not their biological father. So who was? Or is this another error?

When did McKinley Green marry Agatha Walker and adopt Wesley H. Walker? When did Wesley’s name change to Leslie H. Green? From research my sisters did, the Walkers were all in the same house on Court Street in 1936, while McKinley was elsewhere. So, it would seem that McKinley adopted Wesley/Leslie sometime between 1936 and 1944. But then I hear from one of my father’s younger cousins – all of my father’s cousins were younger than he – that McKinley and Agatha had a rough go early on, so it’s possible that McKinley adopted my father after 1930, was married to Agatha and cared for my father for a time, but not in 1936.

And, of course, the prime question I want to know: who was Leslie Green/Wesley Walker’s biological father? The apocryphal story is that it was some minister from the AME or AME Zion Church, and that it was a great scandal in the Scrantonian, a newspaper, now defunct, that served the Scranton, PA area, about a hour south of Binghamton. Or maybe it was a Baptist church in Binghamton.

My next task was going to be to get microfilm of the Scrantonian, which is located at the University of Scranton, Penn State University, and at the State Library in Harrisburg to see if I can find any mention of this tale of a rogue pastor, but my father’s cousin has already done this, with no success.

I mention all of this now, with the permission of my sisters Leslie and Marcia, and my mother, in an attempt to find the truth of the matter. It was a topic my sisters and I never broached with my father, because we knew it was painful for him.

The only time it was even noted in passing is when McKinley died in 1980. My father stepped up to take care of things. McKinley’s brother sneered, “Oh, yeah, he (Mac) DID adopt that bastard, didn’t he?” Never before or after that moment did we see my father so wounded.

If you have any information – if you knew my father or his family, if you have some ideas how to proceed further – please let me know. At some point in his youth, my father also lived on Tudor Street in Binghamton.

Thank you.

Professional Carwashing & Detailing magazine wants to know if pet washes and car washes are a good mix.

Contingency Planning wants you know the answer to this question: Of those people who refused to evacuate their homes during Hurricane Katrina, what did 44% of respondents give as the reason?
Answer: 44% of people who did not evacuate their homes during Hurricane Katrina said they stayed behind because they did not want to leave their pets.

My boss wants you to have fun with geography with this.

About.com wants you to know about the Psychology of Color, especially green, and The Meaning of Color, especially green.

The TV show JEOPARDY! is looking for better ratings. Of the top 10 syndicated shows -it’s #2 – it took the biggest drop in ratings from 2004-05 to 2005-06, 13.3%. That’s going from 10.9 million to 9.4 million daily viewers.
1. Wheel of Fortune down 5.9%
3. Oprah down 5.9%
4. Entertainment Tonight UP 1.8%
5. Dr. Phil down 0.1%
6. Judge Judy down 4.4%
7. Inside Edition UP 3.5%
8. Millionaire down 4.9%
9. Regis & Kelly down 2.6%
10. Judge Joe Brown down 7.6%

My colleague Lenny from the SDC wants people know about the Association of Religion Data Archives (ARDA)’s recently created online feature called QuickStats. “Drawing on a select group of nationally representative surveys, QuickStats provides easy-to-read tables and graphs with a single click on the topic of interest… The topics include religious affiliation, beliefs, behaviors, attitudes, and experiences, and will continue to increase as more of the ARDA’s holdings are integrated into the new program.”

A pastor on a listserv I monitor wants people go here and take action to condemn torture. He writes: “We have two Christian commands to follow here: ‘Do unto others…’ and ‘Love your enemies’. Either we stand up for Christ or we don’t. Our choice. To do nothing means to condone torture in our name.”

A librarian on another listserv commented on my tagline, “The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well meaning, but without understanding.”- Justice Louis Brandeis, 1928
He wrote: “Don’t think in today’s world your tag line is for the X generation?” Can someone explain to me what the heck that means?

Jeanine Pirro, Republican candidate for NYS Attorney General, wants this story to go away.

The Times Union, the local paper, reported on the victim of the pedestrian accident in Saratoga on Sept. 14 who had not been identified. The paper wanted their readers to tell them if they thought it was OK to publish a photo of the man. The paper wanted to know if the newspaper should publish the images to help authorities identify the victim of an accident? (I didn’t think the photos were too graphic.) They did print one, and other media also showed one or both of the photos, and as a result, the man was identified the next day.

My sister Leslie wants you to know about the jury duty scam. It’s not new to me, but it IS true, and is another method of identity theft.

Meanwhile, some of the dialogue about Pope Benedict remarks which inflamed a number of Muslims has been addressed in one of the blogs that the local paper has posted, Perspectives on Islam for September 18. I find myself largely agreeing it, but also sympathetic to one of the replies:

Although it is true that Mohammad did conquer the Arab world by the sword, (as did the Catholic Church I might add – – they took religion seriously in the old days), I don’t see the relevance in using this quote by Benedict. Wasn’t he trying to “open a dialogue” between Christians and Muslims?

Actually, I believe was trying to do just that. But it seemed injudicious to assume that people are going to recognize the nuance he seemed to be attempting to achieve, and naive to think that the inflammatory language wouldn’t be the lead story, rather than the speech as a whole.

Also, his “apology” referred to being sorry for the “reaction” to his quote, not using the quote itself!

And why did it take four days to even respond at all?