The new Sunday Stealing.
1) What is your favorite way to spend a lazy day?
Je ne comprends pas. Qu’est-ce qu’une journée paresseuse ? I’m not feeling “a lazy day” of late. If I did have one, I would watch the Tonys and the National Spelling Bee Finals, in that order, which I have recorded.
2) What do you look forward to every week?
I like seeing folks at church and attending the Tuesday noon book reviews.
3) Name three pet peeves you currently have
Certain people think their way is the only way.
Some people are “all hat, no cattle”; a recent example is Antonio Brown, the braggadocious owner of the Albany Empire Arena Football team, who got his team booted from the league for non-payment. He reminds me of a particular politician whom he said he admired.
Bad drivers, bike riders, and pedestrians.
4) Where would you choose to go if you were to win an all-expense paid vacation for two weeks to anywhere in the world? What are some of the things you would like to experience while you were there?
I need to go to either Asia, Africa, or South America. I suppose I’d go to Nigeria to be on the grounds of my ancestors. I’m 20% Nigerian, almost entirely on my father’s side. Maybe there are some resources there that would help with my genealogical search. And if not, it’d be worth it anyway.
One Man Army
5) What was one of your favorite toys as a kid? Did you save any special things from your childhood that you still have today?
The only toy I can remember is a Johnny Seven OMA (One Man Army), a multi-function toy weapon produced by Deluxe Reading under their Topper Toys toyline and released in 1964.” It was the best-selling boys’ toy that year. I’m fairly sure I used it in antiwar film my friends made five years later. Featured on Law and Order: Criminal Intent. “Detective Robert Goren finds one in a toy store and demonstrates all seven firing modes” (Episode: Collective) June 2006. Because I’ve dealt with collectibles, I remember seeing that scene and howling with laughter.
The things I have from my childhood tend to be books. One in my line of vision is Play the Game: the Book of Sport, edited by Mitchell V. Charnley (1931). This was an anthology of sports stories from American Boy magazine from 1923 to 1931, which I read repeatedly.
6) What is your favorite holiday? What is your least favorite holiday?
My favorite is Thanksgiving, though I’ve had some terrible ones. My least favorite is Memorial Day because too many people don’t know what it’s supposed to mean.
7) Have you ever met anyone famous? What concerts have you attended?
I’ve answered the famous question recently. Here are some concerts I’ve attended. It does NOT include several classical concerts, mostly the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The one that stands out featured Evelyn Glennie, the percussionist.
Not so common
8) Are there any expressions that people use that really annoy you? If so, what are they?
There are several, but I’ve blocked most of them out. “Common-sense” reforms or gun laws or whatever bugs me because it presupposes some agreed-upon definition of “common sense.”
9) Do you like your name? Are you named after anyone? Is there a story how you got your name? Would you change it if you could? If so, what name would you give yourself?
I’ve told this story before, but I can’t find it. My father named me. At some point after I was born, he was over at his cousin’s house furiously writing…something. He was coming up with a name for which the initials spelled out something but nothing offensive or complicated for me to live with. So Roger Owen Green spelled out ROG. It was brilliant. I love the name, and I wouldn’t change it.
I was not named for anyone. Curiously, my sister Leslie was named after my father. I can’t begin to understand that logic.
10) It is said that it’s the little things that make life worth living. Name five of those little things in your life
Music. And not listening to it but math: 4/4, 6/8, 3/2 et al. The inverted pedal point. Modulations.
Math. 0 squared + 0 +1= 1 squared. 1 squared+1+2=2 squared. 2 squared+2+3=3 squared. Figuring out if a number is divisible by 3 or by 9. License plate algebra.
History. Being a keeper of the history of FantaCo, the comic book store where I worked from May 1980 to November 1988. Doing genealogy and having some luck; see tomorrow’s post.
White noise. It helps me sleep.
Electricity.