talk Archives - Ramblin' with Roger

I’m stealing Sunday Stealing. It was off for December 2024, so I went back to the questions from March 2013. Why that month? Because that’s when I turned 60 and for no other reason. I took questions from the four posts.

Do you think we will move completely from traditional books to digital ones, and if we do, are you OK with that?

I have difficulty listening to books and don’t enjoy reading books online on a tablet or computer screen. I like the tactile and emotional sense of holding a book.

Do you learn best by reading, listening, or experiencing?

It is experiencing. When I’m given a task, and somebody’s trying to instruct me, telling me stuff, it doesn’t usually take. If I read the manual, I have a better chance, but doing it side by side is almost always more successful.

Do you think teenagers are weird?

Well, duh. I used to be a teenager. They’re definitely weird.

How fast does your mood change?

It depends. I can go from being ticked off to being melancholy about getting ticked off pretty quickly.

What do you always take with you?

It’s a mantra going out of the house: wallet keys, phone.

Is your bed comfortable?

I don’t know. It doesn’t seem to be when I first lie down, but I fall asleep quickly, so there’s that.

Would you say you’re an understanding person?

Probably. I feel as though I am empathetic; I can relate to experiences others have gone through

Talk, Talk

Are you talkative?

It depends on my comfort level and the situation. I can be fairly chatty when I feel part of the entity. But where I don’t, I can say nothing and observe a lot.

Do you sleep with the bedroom door open or closed?

Closed, but that’s pretty much a function of the fact that I go to bed after my wife does, and the hall light, which I need to get to our bedroom, is on until shortly before I go to sleep. I suppose I could leave the door open after she’s already closed it, but I haven’t habituated to that.

How many social media sites are you registered with?

I have an Instagram account, which I have seldom used, but I can see other people’s Instagram stuff. Instagram is not often in my headspace. I have Facebook, which I post daily, usually my blog post, and my wife’s and my NYT Connections. I’m on BlueSky, and sometimes I post my blog there if I think of it. I’m new there, though.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Shawn Colvin’s album A Few Small Repairs. That’s the one that has Sunny Came Home and Nothing On Me.

Do you believe in Karma?

Oh no, if there had been karma, there wouldn’t have been a person who committed felonies and managed to get elected President, essentially negating those felonies and other potential prosecutions. There is no karma.

I Wish

If you could have three wishes…but none of them could be for yourself, what would you wish for?

Sufficient money for certain organizations to do the projects they’re working on: for the Underground Railroad Education Center in Albany, that would be money to build the Interpretive Center, and for FOCUS churches to have a sufficient amount of enough money to feed everybody they want to feed in the Capital District. And to pay off the house my parents owned in Charlotte, NC.

Have you ever been on the radio or on TV?

Radio: When I was in college in New Paltz, NY, I used to read the news on WNPC for a semester, mostly wire service news.

TV: I was kiddy shows thrice. My church choir was on a local telethon several times. I was interviewed for a news segment on a racial reconciliation event in he 1990s. In 2017, five years after I wrote about the surprise October 4, 1987 snowstorm, I was interviewed by Spectrum News. I think that’s it. Oh, wait; I was on JEOPARDY twice.

Have you ever won a lottery or sweepstakes?

I won $50 in a lottery fifty years ago.

Have you ever won a contest or competition?

I won a Class B racquetball tournament at the Albany YMCA. It was the only statue I ever won. In the 1970s, I was pretty good at winning radio contests, usually records, but once won $48.

Is there anything really interesting in your family history?

My mom’s mother’s mother’s father was James Archer.

My dad’s mother’s mother’s father was Samuel Patterson.

And my mom’s father’s father’s father was Daniel Williams.

All of them fought in the American Civil War, and all of them survived.

Chris Honeycutt – wish you were still blogging, Chris – wrote to me, “Totally thought of you on this“:

“If you’re reading this sentence, chances are you’re reading it silently…”

Yup.

“Your lips aren’t moving, you’re not making any sound that other people can hear. But are you making ‘sound’ in your head?”

Absolutely.

“Many people who read silently do so by imagining a voice speaking the words they are reading (and often, it’s your own voice, so there’s even a specific ‘tone’. I wonder if this is what makes people react so strongly to some blog posts).”

Interesting. I usually DO read, hearing my own voice. It’s especially true when I write this blog; I try to have it sound like me talking to you; sometimes I read back what I’ve written and I’ve totally nailed it; other times, not so much. Hey. what do you want from a free daily blog?

“This could be because when we learn to read, we associate symbols with verbal sounds until the association is effortless.”

It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one who loves the sound of his own voice, especially when I’m reading back my own words.

Chris thought the funniest line was: “The authors also comment that few would contest that most of our waking time is spent talking to ourselves covertly.”

Covertly? The Wife will tell you that when I’m composing a blog post, my talking to myself is QUITE evident. It’s especially true when I have an idea for a piece but lack either pen and paper or a word processor.

I was thinking of this because I read some Langston Hughes poems last week at First Friday in Albany. Someone asked if I had practiced reading them at home. No, all my practice was “in my head,” often on the bus. The ones marked # I read. The others were sung by baritone Christopher L. Trombley, accompanied by Todd Sisley on piano. (Pictured, clockwise from top left: Chris; Roger; Gloria Wood, who was displaying quilted wall hangings; and Todd.)

LANGSTON HUGHES (1902–1967)
A CELEBRATION IN SONG AND VERSE
In Time of Silver Rain – Jean Berger 1909–2002)
#The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Death of an Old Seaman – Cecil Cohen (1894–1967)
#The Weary Blues
Genius Child – Robert Owens (b. 1925)
#My People
#I, Too
Lonely People – Jean Berger
#Let America Be America Again
Shake Your Brown Feet, Honey – John Alden Carpenter (1876–1951)
#Montage of a Dream Deferred: Harlem; The Ballad of the Landlord
Litany – John Musto (b.1954)
#I Dream a World
#Wisdom and War
#Wealth
Carolina Cabin – Jean Berger
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