Sunday Stealing from Shannon

drinking all day

Regular Sunday Stealer Shannon W. from Moments of Introspection took on 43 questions. The Gal Herself purports to be lazy, so she pared it back to 15. Actually, 14.

1. What book are you currently reading?

60 Songs That Explain the ’90s by Rob Harvilla.  Actually, I read it a while ago, but I will be rereading it because I’m doing a book review of it on June 3 at the Washington Avenue branch of the Albany Public Library.

2. Have you ever smoked? 

Yes, but probably one pack in my whole life, mostly in Charlotte, NC, in the first third of 1977 when I was pretty miserable; I wrote about it here.

3. Do you own a gun?

No, and I categorically will not. On Tuesday, March 25, I attended a book review about Empire of Guns: The Violent Making of the Industrial Revolution by Priya Satia. Jonathan Skinner, PhD, retired statistician and amateur classicist, reviewed it.

During the Q&A, there was a question of who in the audience would own a gun. I commented about the Good [Black] Guys With Guns phenomenon and how  E.J. Bradford ended up dead for trying to do the right thing. As I wrote in 2017, the Philando Castile homicide wrecked me; I reread it, and it still does. So, hell no, it would not make me feel safer and could get me killed.

I Want Candy

4. What is your favorite candy?

A Mounds bar. Fortunately, I only got one for Christmas and my birthday. The second fave would be York Peppermint Patties.

5. Hot dogs: yay or nay?

Yay, but I tend to only have them – with mustard, of course – on July 4 and Labor Day. 

6. Favorite movie?

This is always difficult. If it is my favorite, oughtn’t I see it more often? I loved Casablanca but haven’t seen it in half a century. Here’s a list I made in October 2024. I might add Conclave, which I liked well enough to recommend it highly to my wife.

7. What do you prefer to drink in the morning?

Every morning, I pass the refrigerator and see bottles of wine. I have a lot of booze in the pantry, yet it’s 1% milk that I consume most often.  

8. What do you drink throughout the day?

Water, ginger ale, occasionally orange juice.

9. Do you do push-ups?

No, and I never really did, especially as a kid.

10. What’s your favorite piece of jewelry?

My wedding ring, though honestly I can’t think of another.

11. Current worry?

Authoritarianism

12. Current annoyance?

My messy office

13. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets?

Not especially. They seem slippery and cold.

15.  Can you whistle?

I was at a talent show at my old church, and I got to sing Anyone Can Whistle from a Sondheim musical I’ve never seen. So anyway, yes.  

Dinosaurs, candy, kissing, travel

It was this red shoestring licorice we bought about two blocks from the school

T-Rex-The-SliderGot a bunch of questions, great questions. Gracias. I’ve been thinking about them, some of them A LOT, but some are going to require longer answers than others, and I’ll have more time in the next week or two (I hope).

In the meanwhilst, here’s a few from New York Erratic:

Were you ever into fossils or dinosaurs? What is your favorite dinosaur?

Not in any kind of systematic way. I mean they were collectively cool, but I didn’t study them very thoroughly. I got frustrated that several of the ones I knew as a child have totally different names, and theories as to their origins are different. Some are now birds that were thought to have been reptiles, etc. Rather like the planets of our solar system, where I once knew how many moons each planet had, but no longer. I’ll pick T-Rex; always liked Bang A Gong [LISTEN].

Have you ever had your IQ tested? When? What was your IQ?

Yeah, at least a couple of times, but they never told us. Once in fifth or sixth grade, some of my classmates discovered our scores but no names were attached. Someone was in the 140s, and we all figured it was friend Carol (not my wife Carol). There were three or four in the 130s, which we surmised were friends Karen, Bill, and me. But we really had no idea.

Did you ice skate as a kid?

I don’t believe so. I have no recollection of it. And not as an adult except once, and it involved wooing Carol (my now-wife).

How do you memorize skits for plays? (This one is fairly urgent… 😛 )

Repetition, optimally with another person, or persons, reading the other parts. But I HATE doing long speeches, soliloquies because I have a hard time memorizing them. Unless they’re poetic, and I can make a song out of them.
***
SamuraiFrog wants to know:

At what age did you feel like you became an adult?

62. (Not entirely false.)

I suppose it was when I bought a house, and I was 47. Not sure I like this growing-up stuff.
***
Jaquandor, who is in the midst of answering MY questions to him, wants to know:

You’re given enough money for a road trip someplace in the US…not enough to fly anywhere in the world, but enough that you can pay for gas, food, and lodging someplace in this country. Where do you go?

I’d do a bunch of baseball parks by train. But if we’re talking a single location, I’ll pick Juneau, Alaska, because it’s the farthest state capital one can get to by land. If I’m limited to the continental US, then Seattle, WA, or Portland, OR, because I’ve never been to either of them, and they are in states as far from me as possible.

***
Tom the Mayor, my FantaCo colleague, asked:

What was the first comic you remember reading? And the first book?

The first comic I have no idea. It may have been Archie, or Richie Rich, or some other Harvey Comic. The first superhero comic was almost certainly DC, Legion, or maybe Justice League.

I had these Golden Books, but I don’t quite remember them individually. I also had the Golden Book Encyclopedias, and those I remember reading voraciously.

What was the first movie your parents took you to?

Not sure. Can’t remember seeing any movies with my father except for the drive-in. Maybe it was the 1960’s version of State Fair; or did I go without my mother? 101 Dalmatians? Early on, it was West Side Story.

What was your favorite candy as a kid?

It was this red shoestring licorice we bought about two blocks from the school, right across the street from friend Bill’s house.

Do you Kiss your wife and daughter in public? Did your parents kiss you in public?

Yes, and The Daughter still lets me! Not that I can recall, and I don’t know if they kissed my sisters either.
***
You can still Ask Roger Anything.

November Rambling: Candy, Poetry, and 50 Shades

SamuraiFrog, bless his heart, is writing 50 Shades of of Grey, as Summarized by a Smartass.

An Opinion Piece On A Controversial Topic. “Pretty awesome meta.”

Gettysburg Address at 150.

Heidi Boghosian joins Bill Moyers for a conversation on what we all need to know about surveillance in America. “Spying on democracy,” indeed.

The defense should not be permitted to refer to the prosecutor… as “the Government.” It might sound… prejudicial.

Texas Man Sued for Defamation by Fracking Company that Contaminated his Water Supply.

“You could get better if you wanted to.” “You should just try harder.” “You’re being lazy.” “You need to be more motivated.” “You’re so needy.”

Methodist Pastor Has 30 Days to Renounce His Gay Children or Be Defrocked; it’s a matter of right and wrong.

Always Go to the Funeral.

Exclusive excerpt from Art Spiegelman’s Co-Mix retrospective. Some lifetime ago, before Maus Continue reading “November Rambling: Candy, Poetry, and 50 Shades”

Ramblin' with Roger
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