Tag: LisaF

Art, science, Bible, baseball

You have this +1 sodium just hanging out when it hooks up with the -1 chloride.

josephhenry
More from New York Erratic:

Who is your favorite visual artist? Favorite director?

I tend to be rather catholic about these things. Here’s the best way to recognize the artist of paintings, BTW.

My church has Tiffany windows, which I like; the one above is one of them. Gordon Parks is a favorite photographer. Always though Frank Lloyd Wright’s buildings were interesting, if not always practical. Van Gogh I enjoy, but there are so many more; I love going to the house in the Hyde Collection in Glens Falls, NY because it’s so eclectic. Did one of those Facebook things where you should live, and it came up with French Polynesia, which reminded me that I like Gauguin too.

But I guess my favorite visual artist is Rodin, whose work I find sensual as all get out, even if it isn’t all his work.

I took this list of a list of the 50 greatest directors of all time. Of all the directors whose films I’ve seen more that three Continue reading “Art, science, Bible, baseball”

Lisa thinks I’m a Liebster?

Honesty, integrity, and sleep.

So Lisa decided that I “deserve an award for being darling; beloved, liked very much, favorite, pre­ferred above others, liked or loved above others.” And who am I to argue with her?

The rules are simple … post 11 random things about myself, and answer 11 ques­tions the sender asks, then tor­turetag 11 blog­gers and give them a set of 11 ques­tions to answer. The goal is to drive each other crazy help others dis­cover new bloggy friends. And we all need more friends, right?

11 new random facts that haven’t already been cov­ered (as far as I know):

1. I know lots of odd facts. But The Wife will almost always ask something about it and I’ll have no idea. For instance, I read about a couple married 81 years, and my wife will ask, “Where are they from?” I have not a clue. But I remembered he was over 100 and she under. (He’s 102, she’s 98, and they are from Connecticut.)

2. I don’t complain about the cold. But I don’t put myself in situations of being out in the cold – skiing, sledding – beyond the necessary stuff, such as shoveling snow, clearing the car off.

3. The Wife, the Daughter, and I like living near the bus route, even though we do have a car. When we got snowed in one Sunday, we got to church anyway.

4. I hate doing webinars. Talking in front of people is OK, but talking to headphones with no sense of how people are reacting is not my thing. Probably why I won’t do a podcast, besides my inability to learn the technology.

5. I try to seek out people at parties and similar events who seem not to have people to talk with.

6. I prefer having a watch to looking up the time on some electronic device I have to pull out of my pocket. Faster, more elegant, IMHO.

7. Having been on food stamps in the late 1970s for a few months – back in the days they had the actual paper coupons, not a plastic card – cuts to food stamps, leaving the food pantries even more to do, rather ticks me off.

8. I tore the meniscus in my left knee 20 years ago. STILL hurts.

9. My work computer was replaced in October, and it was disastrously installed by some techie, and I had buggies that made work hellish for a few months until our internal techie fixed it.

10. When I get back to a database I haven’t used in a while, I can never remember the password.

11. In fact, there are databases I’ll join and forget I’ve done so until I try to register for it again.

11 ques­tions to answer from Lisa

1. What’s been your biggest sur­prise about blog­ging?

People I know personally don’t read my blog. People from halfway around the world DO read my blog.

2. What is your favorite book and why?

Top Pop Singles from Billboard. I read the titles and I can recreate the tunes in my head.

3. What do you do to relax and recharge your internal bat­teries?

On the last Monday of the month, I take off from work. I pay my bills, catch up on the newspaper and/or TV, write a blog post or three, then go to the monthly meeting of the Friends of the Albany Public Library. If I’m caught up, see a movie. Actually, when that is disrupted, as it has been too often recently, I feel like I’m constantly behind.

4. What do you miss about being your child­hood?

I miss very little about my childhood. The geographic closeness of a couple of friends, and my sisters, but I wouldn’t want to go back.

5. What is your most favorite smell in the world and why?

Baking bread, and that does not need a reason.

6. Have you ever done a random act of kind­ness? If so, what was it?

Ever? I hope that I do so regularly, whether it be a surprise back massage, or help push someone’s car that’s stalled out of the middle of the street, or buy some hungry guy a slice of pizza. But I’m not really keeping track; I hope that it has become second nature.

7. If you could design a tee-shirt/coffee mug/bumper sticker saying, what would it say?

Happiness runs in a circular motion.

8. What did you learn about your­self last week?

That, at least on Facebook, I can avoid being baited by some schmuck.

9. Are you a planner or more spon­ta­neous in your approach to your day?

Well, ya know it depends. I like to plan to get to the movies, take public transportation on time, or early. But I don’t plan out much else, except as it applies to other people i.e., the schedules of The Wife and The Daughter.

10. What is the biggest obstacle you’ve over­come in life?

Don’t know that I’ve overcome it as much as learned to fake it, but acute shyness

11. What are the three most impor­tant things in your life?

Honesty, integrity, and sleep.

I’m supposed to come up with questions for other people and tag those others. Ain’t doing the latter – but do it if you would like – and I have no inspiration of questions. So hey, YOU, answer the questions Lisa answered.

1. What is your dream vaca­tion spot and why?
2. Where did you come up with the name of your blog?
3. How do you define blog­ging suc­cess?
4. What is your favorite type of “going out” enter­tain­ment?
5. How many states (name them) have you lived in?
6. What is your favorite hol­iday and why?
7. What’s your favorite number and why?
8. What would be your dream vehicle to own?
9. What is your favorite hobby?
10. How do you try and keep your blog fresh?
11. Where do you do your best thinking?

Opps – I mean, oops

Some people want to have corrections noted so that they may fix them.

NOT opps

One of the inevitable things about writing a daily blog edited by no one is that, now and then, I’ll get something wrong. (I know you are shocked, from that gnashing of teeth I’m hearing.)

Occasionally, it’s something that is substantial. I wrote about the Electoral College recently and said that Maine and Missouri were the two states that had a proportional allocation of EC votes when it was Maine and Nebraska; obviously, I had the Missouri Compromise of 1820 stuck in my mind, in which Maine joined the Union as a free state and Missouri as a slave state.

More common, though, are typos. Not typos, per se, but a word or a letter left out so that the spellcheck wouldn’t catch it. One time Arthur, who had also caught the previous mistake, found THREE errors in one of my pieces. I was SO angry, not at him, but at me. I was only mildly comforted when I could find a mistake of his.

I have discovered out is that some people like being corrected. Let me say that a better way: some people want to have corrections noted, so that they may fix them. I don’t LIKE being corrected, but I NEED the blog to be as write as it can – wait, as RIGHT as it reasonably can be. So do Arthur and Lisa.

I’ve made it a practice to e-mail folks with corrections whenever possible, rather than leaving it on the page, though it depends on the circumstances. Brian Ibbott has the podcast Coverville, and Arthur a couple of podcasts. If they write something in the description that’s incorrect, I’m going to e-mail them. But if they SAY something that’s incorrect on the podcast itself, I’m more likely to write something in the comments section.

Then there are those people who I NEVER correct. They may write well content-wise, but they make the same spelling errors over and over again; I won’t name names. Pointing out their mistakes, only to see them there the next time is too Sisyphean.

 

Flying v. reading minds; talking about racism; baseball

My daughter has developed a pretty good sense about HISTORICAL racism.

Chris from Off the Shore of Orion starts off the Ask Roger Anything jamboree with:

You can only have one of these three powers: infinite strength, the ability to fly, or the ability to read minds.

Which one would you pick, why, and what would you use it for?

I decided to deconstruct this. How often have I said, “Boy, do I wish I were stronger so I can do X?” Not that often, in the grander scheme of things. Maybe during my many moves, but many hands make light work. Besides, I’d probably end up schlepping stuff for others far too often

I’ve wanted to fly since I was a child, had flying dreams and everything. It would save time, and time is a finite, not a fungible, commodity. Thought that would be it.

However, the idea of the ability to read minds was too intriguing to pass up. How often have I wondered, “What did he REALLY mean when he said that?” or “What does she REALLY want?” I can imagine trying to finally broker peace in the Middle East by knowing what the REAL bottom line is on each side! It would also come in handy when dealing with my daughter, who is not always as forthcoming about her feelings as she might be.

Then I wondered about how obtrusive it would be, to hear everyone’s thoughts, to hear the truth behind all of those white lies. Would I be able to turn OFF the noise of everyone’s mundane or petty thoughts? It’d be kind of spooky – violation of privacy and all that.

So I believe I would fly.

What would I do with the ability? Depends on the particulars: how fast could I go? If it’s hovercraft speed, then it’d just be a time saver. If I could go fast enough, I’d be inclined to visit my sisters in California and North Carolina, maybe travel to places around the world I have never seen. Hey, do I have temperature-resistant garb, or in the alternative, will the wind chill not affect me? THAT would DEFINITELY be a factor!
***
Tom the Mayor, who I know from the Albany YMCA and FantaCo wondered: Have you ever had a talk with Lydia about racism? It is a tough subject for a parent to talk with their children about.
To which Lisa from peripheral perceptions added: I think your answer to Thomas’ question would be very interesting. Count me in on that one.

I don’t think you have a talk with kids about racism, any more than you would have a talk about sex. You look for opportunities to point out situations where racism exists, even today – shocking, I know, but they do present themselves – and discuss what might be the motivating factors.

Now, my daughter has developed a pretty good sense of HISTORICAL racism. She came home from school one day and asked if she would have been a slave; I had to articulate that not all black people in the US were slaves and that different states had different laws. She’s amazingly well-versed in the Negro Leagues of baseball.

In some ways, racism these days is harder to explain compared with what it used to be like. Colored-only water fountains and the back of the bus are simpler to describe than banks redlining districts so no blacks can move into a given community, or Driving While Black.

Sidebar: we have been fortunate that she has gotten to go to preschool and elementary school with a wide range of types of people.
***
Scott, who seems to have unfortunately given up blogging for the nonce, asks a time-sensitive question:

(As always ask in the spring) Who do you think will win the World Series this year, and who will they beat?

In the AL West, the whatever-the-geography-is Angels over the Oakland As. In the AL Central, Detroit going away, though KC could be a distant second. In the AL East, Toronto over Baltimore. In the NL West, the LA Dodgers over SF Giants. In the NL Central Cincinnati Reds over the St. Louis Cardinals. In the NL East, the Braves will come in second.

I’m seeing an all-Canada WS. Toronto Blue Jays over the Montreal Expos.

What, you say Montreal moved? Several seasons ago? OK, Toronto over the FORMER Expos, the Washington Nationals.
***
My buddy Charles O wrote on Facebook: If time flies like the wind, do fruit flys like the fruit?

I want to fly like an eagle.

My annoying friend Broome, who I’ve known personally for over 30 years, wrote on Facebook: “You DO realize what a dangerous position you have just placed yourself, don’t you? Hmmm let me think……. “.

To which I wrote something about getting out of my comfort zone.

Then a short time later: “When did you stop beating your wife?”

May 31, 1952. Not a random date on my part, BTW.

Have more questions to answer, including for Scott. Still taking questions, too, and answering them, as well; but note: GIGO.

Roger Answers Your Questions, Tom, LisaF, Arthur, and Scott

In May 1980, when the semester was over, Tom nagged me to work at the store.

Lisa from peripheral perceptions, who has very nice toes, writes:
You may have already been asked and answered this one, but…How and why did you get into blogging?

The HOW question I answered, among other places, here, specifically in the fifth paragraph; curse you, Fred Hembeck! The WHY I’m sure I’ve answered, but, to reiterate, it’s mostly because I was composing things to write in my head, I didn’t have a place to put them, and the subsequent noise in my brain got too loud; I blogged to stay (relatively) sane. Now it’s so I can “meet” people like you.
***
Thomas McKinnon, with whom I worked at the comic book store FantaCo, said:
Hey Roger
Tell us the story of how you met Tom Skulan and started working at FantaCo.
I have never heard the story.

Well, those are two very different things. I’m going to go back to the old days of comic book collecting when you had to get your comics off the spinner racks at the local convenience store. I started collecting comics by early 1972 (Red Wolf #1 was cover-dated May 1972, Luke Cage, Hero for Hire June 1972). My friend and I were at college in New Paltz, NY but we had to go to some little hole-in-the-wall store on 44/55 in Highland, the next town over, to get our four-color fix.

At some point, maybe as early as 1973, a guy named Peter Maresca started a comic book store called the Crystal Cave, buying from a direct market distributor (Seagate? Bud Plant?) It was right across from a bar called Bacchus. It later moved a couple of blocks.

The chronology fails me here, but at some point, Tom Skulan, Mitch Cohn, and Raoul Vezina all worked at the Crystal Cave, so I met them all there. Tom also put bicycles together at Barker’s department store just outside the village limits.

At some point, Peter closed the store and sold the comic inventory, I believe, to Tom. In any case, I would see Tom at these little comic book shows up and down the Hudson River periodically. Then on August 28, 1978, he opened FantaCo at 21 Central Avenue in Albany, with Raoul as the front guy/graphic designer in residence, the same function he served at the Crystal Cave.

I was living in Schenectady by that time, and lost my job at the Schenectady Arts Council in January 1979; the federal funding was cut off. So I couldn’t afford to buy comics for a while. I’d take the hour-long #55 bus from Schenectady to Albany, sometimes do some work in the store, and get store credit in return so that I could feed my addiction.

I did some work on the first FantaCon in 1979. I know I helped schlep stuff into the Egg convention center, and worked the front door and/or the FantaCo table.

In August 1979, I moved to Albany, to attend grad school at UAlbany (or whatever it was called at the time) in public administration. It was a disaster, in no small part because I developed a toe infection two days before registration and literally almost died; I spent nearly a week in the college infirmary and never really caught up. But it was also very cutthroat competitive, unlike my later time at library school, which was very cooperative, and it did not suit my personality at all.

So in May 1980, when the semester was over, Tom nagged me to work at the store. I told him that I didn’t want to work at the store; I needed to go back to college in the fall. But I COULD use a summer job. So I was hired on that basis, primarily doing mail order, and didn’t end up leaving until November 1988.
***
Scott from the on-hiatus Scooter Chronicles – come back, Scott! – wonders: What is your take, if any, on the DC relaunch, with 52 new storylines and rebooted famous characters?

First, I know it’s inevitable that characters will get reimagined from time to time, in part a function of them not aging as the rest of us do. Still, the whole renumbering and reinventing the whole line smacks of both a frustrating disrespect for its own history and commercial desperation. If I hadn’t stopped buying new comics, this ploy might have motivated me to scrap the entire line. In other words, I HATE it.

That said, it appears that a couple of titles featuring female characters are specifically problematic.
***
A fellow political science major in college, Arthur@AmeriNZ, asked about a story. AP Reporter Responds To Chris Hayes Panel Debate On Racism Of Droppin’ G’s From Obama Speech
On Sunday morning’s Up with Chris Hayes, the panel discussed the contrast between the way Politico reported President Obama’s speech before the Congressional Black Caucus and the Associated Press‘ reporting. Unlike Politico, who used the official transcription to pull quotes, the AP’s article reflected the President’s folksier delivery by quotin’ him without the dropped g’s. Karen Hunter called the AP’s treatment racist, John McWhorter disagreed, and Hayes got a laugh by saying, “I can go both ways on this.”

My first instinct was to say that, if that same news organization would drop the G when quoting, say, George W. Bush (which seems to be the case), it’s a non-issue, but would be if Obama were dealt with differently. However, it is NOT because, as McWhorter argued, “Black English is becoming the lingua franca of American youth, and that ‘America, including non-black America, loves that way of speaking.'” Yuck.

Hunter says she teaches “a journalism class, and I tell my students to fix people’s grammar because you don’t want them to sound ignorant. For them to do that, it’s code, and I don’t like it.” That was an interesting point. I’ve seen literal transcripts in the newspaper, often in criminal cases, sometimes with the (sic) or “as stated” designation, and I’ve been of two minds on that, how that might color the public’s perception of the case.

I guess I agree with Hayes when he suggested, “journalistically speaking, the AP’s transcription gave a more accurate impression of the flavor of the speech.” Especially when the President clearly intended to be dropping his Gs for the particular audience to whom he was speaking. Or speakin’.
***
You have more questions? Just ask away!

Art from Sold Out #1 by John Hebert; story by Skulan, Green, and Hebert

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