Roger Archives - Page 6 of 10 - Ramblin' with Roger

Roger, not Roggie (Five Photos, Five Stories #4)

Roger is #558 on the Social Security list of boys’ name in 2013.

When Arthur explained why he’s Arthur, not Art, it reminded me about my aversion to the diminution of my own name, something I clearly inherited from my father.

As I’ve noted, when I was born, my father told his cousins that he was figured out my name, Roger Owen Green, making sure the initials, ROG – pronounced raj – could serve as my nickname. As far as I know, I was not named for anyone.

The name Roger doesn’t lend itself to the common nicknames. William can be Bill, Robert is Bob. Jacob, Michael, Daniel, Benjamin, Matthew, David, and Joseph, to note some boys’ names most popular in 2013, have common shortened forms, though I’m not aware of the same for Noah, Mason, Ethan, or Aiden, for instance.

Roger, BTW, is #584 on the Social Security list of boys’ names in 2014, down from #558 in 2013, and the new lowest ranking, below the #565 in 2012. It’s far from its best showing, #22 in 1945. On the other hand, Owen was up to #38 in both 2012 and 2013, and in 2014, it is up to #36, its highest ranking since the list began in 1880.

Dad was inclined to call me “sport,” which is also what he called his favorite cousin, Sheldon Walker, so that was OK. But that came only from him. Everyone else needed to call me Roger, or Rog. But DEFINITELY NOT Roggie. When some people tried it, especially one of my sisters, it used to make me very angry.

When I was in junior high school, a bunch of us would go by our middle names. I was Owen, Ray Lia was Albert. This guy Walter Sidorenko – not sure of the spelling – who we called Sid, tended to call me Owen Baby. It was oddly OK coming from him.

I was a janitor in Binghamton (NY) City Hall in the spring of 1975, when I dropped out of college, as I’ve mentioned. One of the other janitors -his name escapes me, so I’ll call him Jack – started calling me Flash. It was because I had an eight-hour day, and I got through my routine in about six and a half hours, whereas he and his co-worker Henry would milk their jobs to take the full eight hours by working more slowly. I’d spend the rest of the time, when there was no emergency, reading, or cleaning again the glass doors at the front entrance, which always had fingerprint marks.

Jack, I did not like. In part, it may have been, I must admit because he had two children by two women, neither of which he was married to, and was quite boastful about it. So when he, or Henry, following Jack’s lead, would call me Flash, I would act as though I did not hear them at all.

I DID have a library coworker, Anne, who called me Raji, in which the first syllable sounded like the first syllable in rajah, and somehow, she pulled that off.

But most can’t. So Roger or Rog are my preferences, thank you very much.

Why do people say Roger when they’re talking on their CBs — even though the person they’re talking to isn’t named Roger?

Note: I have been nominated by my buddy Lisa over at Peripheral Perceptions to participate in the Five Photos, Five Stories meme, which simply says I should post a photo each day for five consecutive days and attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction or non-fiction, a poem or a short paragraph and each day nominate another blogger for the challenge.

The problem is that almost all my posts are stories and have pictures. So I’m cheating and writing only one new post. And I’m nominating YOU!

Crummy, we feel

This may shock you, but people related to me have actually suggested that I might be just a touch cranky when I’m sick.

It started with the Daughter a week before Halloween, sluggish going to school, going to her team’s soccer match that Saturday but too weak to play, tired on Sunday, then home sick from school on Monday. She went to school late on Tuesday, but too fatigued for gym.

The Wife, who is never sick – just ask her – was feeling off on Wednesday, stayed home from work on Thursday, and still recovering on Friday.

There’s something unfortunate about being ill on Halloween. The night before, I slept extremely poorly. The Wife, when she’s ill, wheezes audibly so that I can’t sleep. I went down to the sofa, but the cats running around made that not a viable option. Finally, at about 3:20 a.m., I went to live down on the floor in the Daughter’s room. I literally crawled back to bed one minute before the alarm went off at 6 a.m. I thought when I went to work that I was just tired, but realized by midday that I too was becoming ill.

This may shock you, but people related to me have actually suggested that I might be just a touch cranky when I’m sick. When I got home, I schlepped furniture from the front porch to the shed, because The Wife had asked me days earlier to move them, lest the trick-or-treaters use them in their pranks. I was spent after that and could put on a happy face briefly as I handed out the candy before the others took over the task. Home all weekend with various ailments: sore throat, headache, congestion, body aches, and vivid dreams.

The result of which is that I can’t write a cleverly coherent post here, though I wrote TWO posts for my usually neglected TU blog, one on the NYS ballot proposals and Albany School Board election, and one on the governor’s race, which was time-sensitive.

I did watch about a half of (US) football on Sunday, Cardinals over Cowboys – YES! I also saw this unfortunate gaffe on NBC News Saturday night in real time.

Back to work today, but just muddling through…

This shall pass. I hope so.
**
My friend Dan’s story on how fear, nastiness and dirty tricks sideline public discussion of the Albany City budget.

Roger is 61

I love it when my birthday falls on Friday or Monday for that nifty three-day weekend,

Here’s a picture someone took of me at my mother’s funeral in February 2011.

This is the day in the year I get REALLY lazy – way lazier even than Ask Roger Anything, which will happen again soon enough – when I write almost nothing for my birthday.

I love it when my birthday falls on Friday or Monday for that nifty three-day weekend since I’ve taken it off from work for at least two decades. Although it doesn’t matter if it falls on Saturday or Sunday, because I’ll STILL take off Friday or Monday. Maybe I’ll see a movie matinee and/or go out for an Indian food buffet.

How will I remember how old I am this year? Easy. ROGER Maris hit 61 Home runs for the New York Yankees in 1961, eclipsing Babe Ruth’s record. Of course, Maris’ record was demolished in the Steroid Era by Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa. But I still remember Roger’s achievement.

Then there’s that Dylan song.

Bye until tomorrow.

Listen to my theme song.

ABC Wednesday – H is for Happy birthday to me!

R is for Rogers

Note I did NOT use Rodgers, since Rodger is NOT my name, though people have erroneously spelled it that way.

Apparently, I DO take requests. When I wrote R is for Roger, Redux six months ago, Martha asked, “Have you tried using Roger (or Rogers) as a last name? That might be fun too.” Well, I had not. Of course, there are a LOT of them, but here’s the list I thought of:
Non-Fictional:

Fred Rogers (1928-2003) – the beloved host of the children’s program Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood. Well, popular among most people: here are some local FOX News personalities speculating that his positive message of valuing all people was actually harmful to children. (n.b., I believe these people are nuts.) Personally, I thought the man in the cardigan sweater brought a certain calmness to kids’ lives. HERE he accepts the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 24th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in 1997. You might be surprised by the number of times I’ve been called Mr. Roger by parents of children I’m acquainted with.

Ginger Rogers (1911-1995), nee Virginia Katherine McMath – the regular dance partner of Fred Astaire. A musical about her life was called Backwards in High Heels, a reference to the quote Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backward and in high heels, which originated in a 1982 Frank and Ernest cartoon by Bob Staves, and popularized by the late former governor of Texas, Ann Richards.

Kenny Rogers (b. 1938) – I first heard Kenny Rogers with a group called The First Edition, singing songs such as But You Know I Love You and Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) [LISTEN]. He then became a country crooner with many hit songs, notably The Gambler, which became the source of a couple of TV movies. He has sold over 68 million albums in the USA alone. Rogers is a 2013 inductee into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Marshall Rogers (1950-2007) – though he drew stories with both Marvel and DC Comics, I always most associate him for illustrating the stories Steve Englehart wrote about Batman in Detective Comics. They teamed up to do stories of the Silver Surfer as well.

Mimi Rogers (b. 1956) – actress I know best as the costar of the Geena Davis Show (2000-2001), and who you probably know best as an ex-wife of Tom Cruise. No, I never saw her in X-Files, or Two and a Half Men, or Austin Powers, among her many credits.

Roy Rogers (1911-1998), ne Leonard Slye – the singing cowboy, whose closing theme, Happy Trails To You, was written by his wife, Dale Evans. I own a Sons of the Pioneers CD on which he sings. The very first question I got right when I was on JEOPARDY! I knew because of watching Roy’s show; it was about sidekick Pat Brady. The series featured Roy’s golden palomino, Trigger, and his German Shepherd dog, Bullet, and I watched religiously every Saturday morning on CBS-TV. He was also in over 100 movies, none of which I ever saw. He shrewdly had a clause in his 1940 contract with the studio where he would have the right to his likeness, voice and name for merchandising; there was a LOT of Roy Rogers merchandise in the day. Like Kenny Rogers, Roy was also a restaurateur, though not an active participant.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) – an Oklahoma wit full of pithy quotes, who was a cowboy, writer, actor, and radio commentator, giving bipartisan barbs to the politicians. There’s a nice page about him on the PBS website. He died in a plane crash with noted aviator Wiley Post.

Fictional:

Buck Rogers – a 25th-century explorer. Popular on television, though I have no particular memory of it.

Sally Rogers – played by Rose Marie (b. 1923) on the television series Dick Van Dyke Show, she was the female comedy writer on the variety program The Alan Brady Show. Single – except for her cat – and not generally happy about it.

Steve Rogers – in the comic books, scrawny kid not eligible for military service during World War II, but signs up for a secret experience that gives him superior strength. Frozen in a block of ice, he is reanimated in the comic book Avengers #4. In several live-action and animated films.

Note I did NOT use Rodgers, since Rodger is NOT my name, though people have erroneously spelled it that way.

ABC Wednesday – Round 13

Go Where You Wanna Go

I had to work REALLY hard NOT to change the lyrics to ‘with whomever’.

Roger.Leslie — Roger and Leslie, Corning Glass Works

For her 12th birthday, my sister Leslie received her own guitar. With some assistance from my father, a largely self-taught player, she became quite competent with it in about a month. And that really became the birth of the Green Family Singers, when the three of us used to sing around Binghamton, NY together from 1966 to 1971. The program initially was a variation of what my father had been singing by himself. We would sing harmony on some choruses or responses, for instance, though there were a number of pieces that were three-part harmony throughout.

Leslie and I pretty much stole Hole in the Bucket from my father’s repertoire, though. It was much more dramatic with the two of us than him doing both voices. Leslie always sang the Beatles ‘ song Yesterday. And Leslie and I, in our only other nod to then-contemporary music, sang Go Where You Wanna Go. We first heard it on a Mamas and Papas album and listened to it a lot. Here’s their version, which was a 1996 album cut. This is the version by The 5th Dimension, their first hit single, getting up to #16 on the Billboard charts in 1967.

You gotta go where you wanna go,
Do what you wanna do
With whoever you wanna do it with.
You gotta go where you wanna go,
And do what you wanna do
With whoever you wanna do it with.

I had to work REALLY hard NOT to change the lyrics to ‘with whomever’.

Leslie was in Albany for my 50th birthday party, and at some point near the end of the evening, we sang “Go Where You Wanna Go.” In re: some conversation we had earlier this year, my advice to my dear sister is for her to go where she wants to go.

Happy birthday, Leslie. Love you.