Ramblin' with Roger

I never did replace that stuff in its original form, except (no surprise) the Beatles. So, when I went to buy a used Whipped Cream and other Delights, which I owned along with the first three TJB, I was disappointed that it contained Going Places. It WASN’T just for the cover I purchased it, after all.

I also lost my baseball cards, which I collected rather religiously from about 1963 to 1969.

Naturally, it annoyed me no end for a time. Then I got rather philosophical about it; I mean, there’s nothing to do about it.

That said, my new mailing address will be:

NYS SBDC
SUNY Plaza
Corporate Woods Building, 3rd Floor
Albany, NY 12246-0001

For deliveries from FedEx or UPS or other vendors the actual physical address for the new location will be:

NYS SBDC
22 Corporate Woods Blvd., 3rd floor
Colonie, NY 12211

If you are mailing anything to me, I’ve been told that the items will be forwarded. Still, you might consider NOT mailing anything that won’t reach me by May 8 until after May 15.

I usually give out my work mailing address for packages. It’s not a matter of privacy. It’s the fact that we don’t have a mailbox at the house, we have a mail slot, and a small one at that. Often, packages are left on the porch.

I’m supposed to have the same e-mail address at work, but it will be disrupted at least temporarily at some point. You may wish to e-mail me at home pretty much from May 10 to May 16 if you really want to be sure that I read what you sent in a timely fashion. I tend to look at my work e-mail more, but I will make a concerted effort to pay more attention to the home e-mail that week.

Also, the main phone number, 518 443-5398, will remain the same, but I BELIEVE I’ll have a different exchange, or totally separate number in the new place. Details on this, like so many other aspects of this move, are sketchy at best.
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I was up in the attic bring down stuff we were going to pass on to friends of ours, parents of a daughter about a year younger than Lydia, when I came across a file with newspaper clippings. To my surprise, there was one I missed (!) when I wrote about it recently, the August 14, 1998 item. If you wish, you can answer here the question that the newspaper writer asked, which was about the worst TV show ever.
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A couple interesting posts I read this week both about youth and class distinctions:

Rethinking … The Emerging White Underclass

There are a couple book publishers that provide textbooks for this purpose. This one has a self-proclaimed conservative agenda, while this one claims to be fair-minded.

So, being the curious librarian that I am, I was hoping that you can answer a couple questions for me:

1) Should the Bible, or Christianity, be taught in public schools?

2) Can the Bible, or Christianity, be taught in public schools objectively, without trying to “convert” the students?

I’ve been working in downtown Albany for the past 13 years. This is what I’ll miss:

* Lunch with friends
* The variety of places to go out to lunch with friends: sandwich shops, Chinese restaurants, pizza places, diner-type places, bar food type places, the new sushi place, the place that sells gyros (a Greek woman I knew preferred the 2nd or 3rd pronunciation of the 2nd definition). That doesn’t include the street vendors up by the Capitol half the year, with even more selections.
* Shopping at Lodge’s, Albany’s Oldest Store.
* The Farmer’s Market, about 1/3 of a block away in the good weather, indoors and just up the hill in the winter
* Riding my bike to work when Carol’s not teaching (and she takes Lydia to daycare)
* The gaudy Christmas lights on the State Street median
* My bank and my credit union a block or two away
* My eye doctor and my dentist a couple blocks away
* The vendors in the stores I got to know
* The buskers on the corners
* Watching the folks go to the nearby Arena and try to guess what event they were attending, strictly by the age and apparel of the attendees
* Donating blood every eight weeks, and at a place where everyone DOES know my name, such as Shirley, who runs the canteen
* The easy access to the walking/riding path by the river
* A quick bus trip to my doctor, Lydia’s doctor, or Lydia’s day care
* Several bus options home, rather than one
* The ability to stay later because I had so many options home, rather than one

I should note that I think they mean worst in the sense that either the artists are capable of much more and/or it sold a lot. It’s like when Ebert and Roeper picked Deuce Bigelow, European Gigilo and The Dukes of Hazzard as the worst movies of last year, they not going to pick some C-budget piece, but rather the studio follies.
There is an album on the list –
38. Chris Rea – The Road To Hell Pt2, which I realized I had confused with an album he did called The Road To Hell, which I couldn’t believe was on the list. And it wasn’t.

Albums I own on the list:

17. Bob Dylan & The Grateful Dead – Dylan And The Dead
OK, this IS a really boring album. “Joey” , which seemed long on Dylan’s “Hurricane” album, seems interminable here. As one Amazon reviewer called it, an “unbelievable sloppy mess”. Belongs on the list.

25. The Cranberries – To The Faithful Departed
This one that Greg and I both own. While not my favorite of the three Cranberries’ albums I have, I thought there were some good, powerful tunes. Doesn’t belong.

28. The Rolling Stones – Dirty Work
I have this on cassette. This isn’t even the Stones’ worst album, has a couple hits. Not great, but doesn’t belong on the list.

31. Stevie Wonder – Woman In Red
I own most of Stevie’s albums since 1970, but I must admit I seldom play this one I have on vinyl, which features the treacly “I Just Called to Say I Love You” and actually, I have no idea what else without actually pulling it out. Oh, there’s one decent song, but it probably belongs on the list.

41. Paul Simon – Songs From The Capeman OST
I also have lots of Paul Simon, and this piece, a Broadway musical which tells the story about a murder, is one that I play the least, because it doesn’t really have Paul’s voice. It just didn’t work for me. In its favor, some of the doowop and Latin rhythms. The song “Killer Wants to Go to College” refers to my alma mater, New Paltz. That said, probably does not belong on the list.