Arthur Archives - Page 2 of 2 - Ramblin' with Roger

Dec. rambling: Guiding Principles

Christine Perfect

Forbes’ list of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women

Two Glimpses into the Future

Trump fiscal legacy

Final House Covid Panel Report Exposes ‘Reckless’ Trump Pandemic Response

“F*** Biden,” “Don’t Tread on Me,” and a Wisconsin Death Trip for Our Times by Jeff Sharlet

Virginia’s “Guiding Principles” are a Right-Wing Fantasy of History

Sean Spicer Makes Pearl Harbor Blunder Which Will Live In Infamy

Heritage Under Fire: Native Americans fight for culture, history, survival

Bill protecting same-sex, interracial unions clears Congress

I’ve come to the same conclusion. Save Your Brain: Don’t Watch TV on Election Night

‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine

North Korea tells parents to give kids patriotic names like ‘bomb,’ ‘gun’, and ‘satellite’

Bob McGrath, Original, Longtime Resident of ‘Sesame Street,’ Dies at 90

Grant Wahl, American Journalist Covering World Cup in Qatar, Dies at 48

Kirstie Alley, Actress on ‘Cheers’ and ‘Veronica’s Closet,’ Dies at 71

Carl Kleinschmitt, Writer on ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ and ‘MAS*H,’ Dies at 85

The U.S. Census Bureau recently announced the release of Census Business Builder version 5.0, which combines the Regional Analyst Edition and the Small Business Edition into a single, convenient tool.

Librarian and author earns a following after venting about a book signing

DeMane Davis on How Ava DuVernay’s Decision to Hire All Female Directors Offered “Life-Transforming Opportunity

Trevor Noah Urges Viewers to Remember the “World Is a Friendlier Place” Than It Seems in Emotional ‘Daily Show’ Farewell

A U.S. Track Star and the 30-Foot Long Jump That Didn’t Count

The State — and Future — of Free Ad-Supported Streaming

ME

On December 11-12, Albany, NY, received about 6.5 inches of snow, the biggest snowfall of the 2022-23 season. It’s only about six feet (1.8 meters) less than what fell in western New York during last month’s storm.

J. Eric Smith put me on his Best Of My Web 2022 list. I’m fairly blushing.

Arthur answers my questions about Congress

JEOPARDY

Most of the JEOPARDY “controversies” I see online aren’t all that. But this question in Final Jeopardy, during the Tournament of Champions, no less, did irritate me. In the category The New Testament:
Paul’s letter to them is the New Testament epistle with the most Old Testament quotations

From here: “The internal evidence presented by the book of Hebrews itself indicates an author other than Paul.” So Amy’s answer of Hebrews is suspect, and Sam’s choice of Romans – my first answer upon reading the question – is more likely correct. The question cost Sam the game. If the question read: This letter to them… would have been acceptable.

Now I Know

The Zoo That Made Itself Look Like a Donkey
Why The Government Hid Billion of Dollars Worth of $2 Bills
How an Oddball Saved an Island of Little Penguins
He’s The Type That Likes Numbers?
The Best Medicine is… A Room With A View?

MUSIC

Homeward Bound: Christine McVie (July 12, 1943 — November 30, 2022); 5 Great Fleetwood Mac Songs Written by Christine McVie

Coverville 1422: Joe Walsh Cover Story and Christine McVie Tribute and 1423: Covers, Actually

A suite of Max Steiner’s music from Casablanca

Look at Miss Ohio – Welch, Rawlings, Isbell, and Shires

How Ticketmaster Is Destroying Live Music

Nov. rambling: language of lying

GLYPH, DRIVE, FEAST

**Since I have unknown ancestors from County Cork, it is reasonable that some of my unknown cousins are putting this out**

Weekly Sift: When can I stop writing about Trump?

Trump shied away from criticizing white supremacist Nick Fuentes, fearing he’d alienate supporters

I received an email poll on November 24, 2022, asking me, “Who Is Your First Choice For President In 2024?” The choices I was given were Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Joe Biden, or Mike Pence. My answer is, “Stop sending me stupid surveys! I’m still getting through 2022.”

Citing Orwell, Judge Blocks ‘Positively Dystopian’ Censorship Law Backed by DeSantis

Unforgettable: The Kari Lake Story

SPLC releases new Community Guide to address Online Youth Radicalization

Monuments to the Unthinkable; America still can’t figure out how to memorialize the sins of our history. What can we learn from Germany?

The Ferguson Brothers Lynchings on Long Island (Book Review by Alan Singer)

U.S. prison labor programs violate fundamental human rights, a new report finds

Four States Voted to End Slavery — But Not Louisiana. Here’s Why.

Oklahoma’s “Child Abuse” Law Doesn’t Protect Children — It Criminalizes Mothers

Two pro wrestlers developed ‘The Progressive Liberal’ to be the bad guy at matches. Then the atmosphere turned far darker

The Monarchy: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver

A PSA From an Exhausted Emergency Physician — Avoid sending us your patients until the dust settles

Tom Brady, charity, and business don’t mix

Homeownership by Young Households Below Pre-Great Recession Levels

Types of Water Pollution

More features

The language of lying (TED-Ed)

Preserving Black Heritage: Florida activists fight to save the historic site and their culture

‘Atlanta’ and Making Disciples of All Nations

4th grader uses Heimlich to save a fellow student from choking

Twenty hours on the Dog (Greyhound bus)

20 Best Places to Visit in Upstate New York

Inside Trevor Noah’s Decision to Leave ‘The Daily Show’

In honor of what would have been Charles M. “Sparky” Schulz’s 100th birthday on November 26, 2022, syndicated cartoonists across the country have paid tribute to the Peanuts creator in their own comic strips published on the date.

Inside the Disney Board’s Decision to Swap Bobs

Robert Clary, Corporal LeBeau on ‘Hogan’s Heroes,’ Dies at 96

Irene Cara, Oscar-Winning Singer, and Actress, Dies at 63

Clarence Gilyard, ‘Walker, Texas Ranger,’ ‘Matlock’ and ‘Die Hard’ Actor, Dies at 66

Amahl and the Night Visitors – the Christmas special almost lost to time

Ask Arthur Anything

Ambient Noise!

I almost picked FEAST as my first Wordle word on Thanksgiving. About 1% of players DID make that correct choice. This was the day after DRIVE was the selection. Earlier this month, GLYPH was the selection. November 2022 was the centennial of the discovery of King Tut’s tomb by the expedition led by Howard Carter. The new Wordle editor is having fun.

Now I Know: Why Aluminum Foil Has a Shiny Side and a Not-Shiny Side and The Problem With, and Solution to, Too Much Turkey and Let’s Talk Turkey! and The $5 Million Comma and Proof That Trivia Can Save Lives? and How to Make Corporate Holiday Parties Even More Awkward?

MUSIC

You can still vote for Rebecca Jade as Smooth Jazz Network’s 2022 “Breakout Artist of the Year” DAILY through December 2nd! Vote HERE. Also, she is joining Dave Koz and Friends for a very special 25th Anniversary Christmas tour through December 23. Tickets HERE.

Elton John Takes Final US Concert Bow at Dodger Stadium

Singer Roberta Flack can no longer sing after ALS diagnosis; hear Why Don’t You Move In With Me

40 years later, Solid Rock and an autographed treasure

Midnight Train To Georgia – Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Coverville 1420: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees 2022 and
1421: The 19th Annual All-Beatles Thanksgiving Cover Story

Rikki Tikka Tavi by Alfred Schnittke

Goodnight, My Someone from The Music Man – Voctave

Journey To Blofeld’s Hideaway from John Barry’s score to On Her Majesty’s Secret Service

My (sort of) brand-new iPhone 8!

He MAY text

For the longest time, I wasn’t really all that fond of cellphones. Part of it was an aversion to being available all of the time. Is this a societally GOOD thing?

And now that almost everyone has a camera, they all feel the need to share the most mundane content. I will acknowledge that it is has been important in pointing out abuse and injustice. But it has so distorted what news is. Is a cat falling, but caught by people holding a flag, newsworthy? It is as if there’s an amateur video. Otherwise, it doesn’t exist, or so I’m told.

Still, the real issue apparently is that I have managed to acquire a series of duds for Android cellphones. They were unreliable. My most recent one would drain the battery by 5% from the time I turned it on until it was fully functional. And then it would continue to lose power so rapidly that it’d be pointless to leave it on. It was passive/aggressive behavior on my part towards the phone that I’d misplace it so often.

Then months ago, I bought an iPhone 8. It wasn’t the latest and greatest, but it had to be miles better, didn’t it? And it was reasonably priced, so if it didn’t work out, the investment wouldn’t have been too bad.

I started the process of setting it up, but I was interrupted and didn’t get back to it for a couple of weeks, by which time I couldn’t remember my two-step authorization number. Or something. Anyway, I just gave up on it for a few months.

Help!

Finally, I went to the Apple store in the mall – I hate the mall – and they reset it to the original mode. I was able to set up a better authorization process. And it was all good.

Well, except that I didn’t have a SIM card. My previous phone always said No SIM card, yet worked; not so on this phone. So I waited for the new card to arrive. I called my carrier to get my service switched to the new device.

I couldn’t get the card on this little tray, and my carrier’s customer service guy couldn’t talk me through it. So I went BACK to the Apple Store, and five minutes later, voila.

This means that now, probably, I’ll text! You can send photos to me by phone instead of emailing because that’s been so onerous for some people. I’ll add apps, which I was shedding on the old phone – and I didn’t have that many – because it didn’t have enough memory.

But I’ll still use my watch to tell time because pulling out my phone while riding my bicycle doesn’t seem like a good idea.

My fear now, of course, is that I’ll become so enamored of my new phone – it’s at least like at first sight – it’ll be disappointing if I break/lose it.

Mostly unrelated: Arthur is doing something, and I have no idea what he’s talking about.

Blogging easier or harder in retirement?

eight hours on the front porch

Arthur – you know Arthur – asked:

Now that you’ve had a bit of time to adjust, do you find blogging easier or harder to do now that you’re retired? Anything else stand out as being harder or easier to do now?

It’s a bit of a rollercoaster, actually. The summers have always been tricky because one doesn’t want to be shut off in the office while the family is around.

Fall 2019: it was quite productive, actually. Time to do those pieces that might take a little longer.

March 2020: At the beginning of the pandemic, my wife was teaching school from the dining table. This was really awkward; if I wanted to do anything downstairs, such as washing dishes in the kitchen, or watching TV in the living room, I felt that I was intruding on her classroom. Meanwhile, my daughter was sequestered in her bedroom. So I pretty much HAD to be in the office or the bedroom. This was advantageous for blogging.

When I petitioned for her to use the spare bedroom for her teaching, she initially resisted. But she soon found its advantages, not just teaching but for ZOOM church meetings, and the like. The daughter then would go downstairs and listen to her classes on the living room sofa. Again, I retreat to the office, which was good for blogging.

Blogging on the road is easier when I’m alone, virtually impossible when I’m with others. Back in the day, I’d go down to the “business center” and use one of the public machines. But now, I’m not able to remember to gather up all the things I need (clothes, room key) before leaving in the dark. Typing in the bathroom is not only suboptimal to me, but audible to the others.

Quit the blog?

But, and this might be an age thing, but I really can’t blog at night anymore. The best time on weekdays is from when I get up until my daughter leaves for school, with certain regular interruptions. They would be making sure my daughter’s up, watching 90 seconds of news at 7 a.m., saying goodbye to my wife, feeding the cats, and not hovering (as she puts it) when my daughter leaves.

And when I was having major problems with the technology of the blog, when it was down for 28 hours, and when it was assaulted by malware, it was really difficult. I dithered between quitting blogging and going back to my arcane Blogger blog that I used for the first five years. Unlike you, I never had a technological mentor.

The melancholy means it’s been much harder recently to blog. And NOT blogging makes me MORE melancholy. So my pieces in the queue have shrunk to about three dozen when six months ago, it was about five dozen. Given many are evergreen pieces I’ll only use if I’m desperate, or dead, I’m not all that far ahead.

Time is on my side. Yes, it is.

On non-blogging issues, I’ve found I have the capacity to actually access my bank, the credit union of my wife and me, and my primary credit card, all online. I check them all about twice a week, move money from our savings to checking on the joint account, and pay off the credit card each month. It wasn’t difficult, it just required time.

I know I say this a lot, but it’s no less true for that. I’m too busy to work. No way I do the ZOOM event for the library, for which I got an award if I’m employed.

Of course, this means that some people think I’m readily available. Not really. I did spend eight hours sitting on the front porch with my oldest friend from college. But I had to find a day I wasn’t working on something or going to the doctor or doing the shopping I promised to do, or…

Hypnotized at the county fair

The event was so surreal that I probably DIDN’T talk about it.

Here’s a story I didn’t tell you, about being hypnotized, because it didn’t convey enough. But suddenly, it does.

In August of 2015, The Wife, The Daughter, The Daughter’s good friend and I went to the Altamont Fair, which is the joint fair of Albany and Schenectady Counties in upstate New York. I don’t go every year – my family went without me in 2016 – but it’s enjoyable enough.

At one of the stages, a hypnotist was looking for subjects to come on stage. The Daughter nagged and pleaded with me to participate, and I ended up being the last of eight or ten people to volunteer.

He put us “under”, saying whatever he said. I’m aware that I’m on the stage, but follow his commands to:
slur my words
make my most romantic face (Head tilted, doe eyes, pursed lips, I’m told)
play an instrument (electric bass I was surprised he knew I was playing the bass rather than a guitar)
drive fast around curves

Later, The Wife said that he dismissed a couple of people that he was unable to hypnotize. She thought I was just acting, faking, but I was not.

About my story Baptized Again, about me speaking in tongues, Uthaclena asked, and Arthur agreed:

How do YOU interpret your experience of glossolalia?

That is the thing: I didn’t interpret it. No one slipped something in my drink. The event was so surreal that I probably DIDN’T talk about it, not out of embarrassment, but because I guess I wanted it to have more of an impact. But no, a week or two later, I was busy leading my debauched life.

Maybe it was God’s sense of humor; if there’s an afterlife, that’ll be one of the things I’ll have to ask Her. “What the heck WAS that?” And “How did one of my glasses lens shatter when I was a kid, while I was wearing them?” Hey, THAT’S what I should ask youse guys: “If there’s an afterlife, what earthly experience would you want to be explained?”

Then Chris asked:

Was it like a trance state?

I then realized that my speaking in tongues was very much like “a state of consciousness in which a person apparently loses the power of voluntary action and is highly responsive to suggestion or direction,” which is the textbook definition of being hypnotized. And I must be susceptible to it.