Tom the Mayor Archives - Page 3 of 4

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.

Obama v. Romney

Sometimes I want to just take on the system, sometimes I want to write in quiet contemplation; much of the time, I worry about the fate of the planet.

Answering more Ask Roger Anything questions:

Tom the Mayor, who I know personally, pondered:
Here is a hard one Roger! Who do you think will win the presidential election?

I went to 270towin.com. The map there suggests that Obama has 217 likely electoral votes, and Romney with 191 electoral votes, with 130 electoral votes listed as a tossup. Three states in that latter category are hugely important – Florida (29), Pennsylvania (20), and Ohio (18). I suspect that whoever wins at least 2 out of 3 will probably win the White House.

Some statistical piece – I can’t find it presently – states that the Republicans were far better controlling the argument in the media than the Democrats regarding the presentation of the healthcare law dubbed Obamacare. The GOP was able to stay on message, using the same keywords, while the Dems were more diffuse. This tends to be true on other issues as well.

I mention this because, even when the Democrats have good issues, they don’t seem to be able to capitalize on them. Obama’s support of gay marriage can’t really help him much; those supporters weren’t going to Romney. Obama’s announcement that he wouldn’t go after illegal immigrants who were brought to the US by their parents might have been popular with some Hispanics, but Republicans managed to turn it into a Constitutional overreach by the President.

FOX News blamed Obama for rising gas prices, and incorrectly predicted worse. Now that they are actually falling, FN notes that they are signs of a “looming global economic crisis.” Ya can’t win. And people with selective memory recall that Obama’s to blame for all of it.

Now, I think that Romney has been amazingly non-specific about what he would DO as President on many issues, save for building that pipeline. But if the economy is still weak – and the Dow Jones lost 250 points the day you posted the question…

If the election were held today, I think Romney wins. Of course, the election is NOT today, so things could change. I’m not optimistic about Obama’s chances at this moment.

Tom also asked:
Did you get the new Paul McCartney Album? What do you think of it?

I assume you are referring to Kisses on the Bottom, rather than the reissue of Ram. In general, the less I knew the song, the more I liked it. I don’t need another version of It’s Only a Paper Moon or I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, and I don’t think Sir Paul added much to those. But I liked tunes such as My Very Good Friend the Milkman, Get Yourself Another Fool, and The Inch Worm, plus a couple of original songs. I think my decision to buy a Macca album depends on the reviews.

BTW, there are nice Coverville podcasts for Paul McCartney and for Brian Wilson/the Beach Boys that you might want to check out; for the latter, I made a couple of requests that were played.
***
Chris from Off the Shore of Orion wonders:

Is there a limit on the number?

Yes, no more than 37 at a time. So you’re safe – so far…

What historical figure do you most identify with?

Oh, it varies, depending on the issue, and my mood: Nat Turner, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson. Sometimes I want to just take on the system, sometimes I want to write in quiet contemplation; much of the time, I worry about the fate of the planet.

Something at work reminded me of this: when I was 9 or 10 and wanted to wrap presents, I would get the Sunday funnies from the newspaper and use those. I would be severely mocked, even/especially by my own family. These days, what I did is considered environmentally cool, but then as doofy, a word one of my sisters used A LOT in describing me.

Who do you think was the most evil person who ever lived?

Oh, there are so many. The obvious ones such as Genghis Khan or Hitler.
So, I’ll pick US President Andrew Jackson, whose support of slavery, and especially his Indian removal policy should get him removed from the US $20 bill.

What’s the most heartbreaking novel you’ve ever read?

A Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. That said, I don’t read a lot of fiction these days. I was very affected by Maus by Art Spiegelman. I had actually met him a couple of times before that book was released. He was publishing this eclectic, oversized magazine called RAW; boy, I wish I had kept those.

Me as fictional characters, plus Obama, Serling, Cosby

I’ll vote for Obama, in large part because the other guy will be far worse.

Chris from NYADP asks:
Which book/ movie/ TV/ comic book character best represents how you actually are right now?
That would be Bruce Banner. He is the guy who has anger management issues. Fortunately, I was raised well enough that I don’t act on my pent-up rage so I don’t Hulk out. But sometimes, things just infuriate me.

One example is the story of Kenneth Chamberlain, a 68-year-old veteran of the U.S. Marines, was killed in his home by the police in White Plains, NY, on November 19, 2011, after his medical alert device was accidentally set off. According to his son, the audio device installed in his father’s home as part of his medical alert system captured racial slurs – Chamberlain was black – and after the door was knocked down, being Tased before being shot dead.

You’ve probably heard about shooting death of unarmed 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of “neighborhood watch” vigilante George Zimmerman on February 26. There may be disagreement over just what happened that night, but there’s little doubt that incompetent police work after the fact was involved.

From here: “Zimmerman, who is white, called police from his SUV and told them he was following a ‘suspicious’ character. The dispatcher promised to send a prowl car and told Zimmerman to stay in his vehicle. He didn’t. When police arrived, they found him with a bloody nose and Martin face down on the grass not far from his father’s door, a gunshot wound in his chest.”

The more overriding issue, though, is Florida’s controversial law, which protects from prosecution someone who uses deadly force if that person “reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm to himself or another or to prevent the commission of a forcible felony.”

I was SO enraged for a couple of days that my stomach was in knots. And there have been others who have been victims of the “shoot first, ask questions later” laws in about two dozen US states. The Sunshine State’s version is clearly the worst. I thought President Obama addressed the issue quite well.

On the other hand, I’ve been disappointed in some of President Obama’s policies…which leads to-

Tom the Mayor, my old FantaCo buddy, asks:

Has Barack Obama disappointed you in any way, I feel that he has missed some great opportunities to enact more changes, especially after the election when he had majorities in both houses? I will still vote for him, but it is kind of sad.

I really think that the failure in the first two years of office was tied to his evidently false notion that he was dealing with rational people. In fact, given the vitriol he had to deal with by day 100, it became clear to me that the folks he was working with across the aisle were not playing the same game. He thought he’d have a honeymoon, which, in very many ways, did not occur. I believe he didn’t want to come off as the “angry black guy,” even though some painted him that way anyhow.

He was working harder in the interregnum than I’ve EVER seen a guy not yet President work. But he, like most, underestimated the depth of the recession. So, by saying that the unemployment rate wouldn’t get under 8%, he clearly miscalculated.

Still, there were things I liked (gay rights, e.g.), and a few I don’t like at all. A couple of recent examples of the latter:

H.R. 347 expands the power of the Secret Service and police to arrest protesters near a ‘protected person’ or at special public events like nominating conventions… [It] passed the House of Representatives by a 388 to 3 margin and was signed, shortly thereafter, by President Obama, on Friday, March 9, 2012.

The Obama DOJ’s decision to charge more national security whistleblowers under the Espionage Act than all other administrations combined.

When I probably end up voting for him, it’s only because the guy who will run against him would likely have championed the same things, and far worse.

Chris also asked:
Which book/ movie/ TV/ comic book character represents the person you’d most like to be?

Kwai Chang Caine from the TV show Kung Fu: “The demands of his training as a priest in addition to the sense of social responsibility which was instilled within him during his childhood, forced Caine to repeatedly come into the open to fight for justice. He would then leave his new surroundings in a further search for anonymity and security.” He had a certain calm, as well as skills to turn the fight back on the attacker.

I was so impressed with Democratic Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, who, in response to those men wanting to legislate woman’s reproductive health, introduced legislation that would introduce new hurdles for men who want Viagra: proof that they have sought sex therapy, and a sexual partner’s notarized statement verifying their impotency. Very much turning the aggression back on itself. Brilliant; very Caine.

More from Amy at Sharp Little Pencil:

1. Do you think that when our hometown boy Rod Serling said, “Everybody has to have a hometown; mine is Binghamton,” he was being in any way sarcastic?

Absolutely NOT. I read his biography by Joel Engel last summer. Rod LOVED Binghamton, felt safe there. Here’s the fuller quote:
Everybody has to have a hometown. Binghamton’s mine. In the strangely brittle, terribly sensitive makeup of a human being, there is a need for a place to hang a hat or a kind of geographical womb to crawl back into, or maybe just a place that’s familiar because that’s where you grew up. When I dig back through memory cells I get one particularly distinctive feeling-and that’s one of warmth, comfort, and well-being. For whatever else I may have had, or lost or will find-I’ve still got a hometown. This nobody’s gonna take away from me.

BTW, did you see that story about Binghamton being the least hopeful city in America?

3. What is your favorite single cut of all time – 45 or album cut, and by whom?

Amy, you’re a cruel woman, you know that? I have so many tunes running in my head at any given time. Still, I’ll go with God Only Knows by the Beach Boys; incidentally, Brian Wilson turns 70 in June. Although there is a woman in my choir who’s having a baby in July; his code name is Rufus, and I’ve had Tell Me Something Good stuck in my head ever since.

4. Why is there air? (Haha, know you dig Cosby)

And I still have that Cosby LP, Why Is There Air? BTW, take this test to see how well you know that album. But going off from that, the air is there so politicians can make it hot; probably the REAL reason behind global warming.

Mr. Parrot’s & Tom the Mayor’s Moral Dilemma Questions

At every stage, I try to pressure my friend to do the right thing, while keeping to the letter of our agreement.

Shooting Parrots, from across the pond, as they say, decides to try to confound me.

Okay, here is one of those moral dilemma questions for you:

Your closest friend wants to talk to you about something, but you have to promise that it is just between the two of you. They then tell you that they ran someone over with their car last night and drove off without stopping to see how they were.

The following day you read that the person died and their body had been hit by several other cars. One of those drivers has been arrested and charged with causing death by dangerous driving. Worse still, it appears that the driver may have been drunk.

You don’t know whether it was your friend that killed the person or the cars that came later, but at the very least it was your friend who put the person in a situation where they would be killed.

You try to persuade your friend to turn themselves in, but they flatly refuse. Meanwhile, an ‘innocent’ driver may go to jail because of it and carry the guilt of it forever.

You have no idea how good I can be at laying on guilt when there is actual guilt to be laid on. I find out as much as possible about the other driver. Hope he or she has a family, which, I could tell my friend, would be without a father/mother, etc.

If that fails, I tell my friend that I will contact the defense attorney, and, I hope without specifically implicating my friend, and ideally anonymously, point him/her to the possibility of another theory of the crime.

Finally, if the prosecution has rested – the prosecution presents its case first in courts in the United States – I would tell my friend that I will make myself known to the defense, then do so. The defense could call me as a witness, and I’ll tell my friend that. At the end of the day, the defense might call me, and I would, under oath, be willing to testify to what I know. Now, the prosecution might likely object, wishing my testimony to be deemed inadmissible, as hearsay, and the judge might agree. But this would still aid competent defense lawyers and perhaps the police to look elsewhere for a suspect.

Note that, at every stage, I try to pressure my friend to do the right thing, while keeping to the letter of our agreement.

Did I ever tell you that, after I gave up the idea of being a minister, I decided to be a lawyer? Gave up that idea in college, but I was always a sucker for the law shows such as The Defenders (E.G. Marshall, Robert Reed), Judd for the Defense (Carl Betz), and, of course, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr).
***
Tom the Mayor says:
How about another Moral question? Would you kill someone to protect your daughter and wife, if their lives were at stake?

I would think so; I’m assuming no other options available. Still, there are factors that make the scenario trickier. For instance, unless he’s already killed or injured, how would I know he was going to kill, rather than just threaten?

And what circumstances would be involved where I would be able to potentially kill someone without endangering my family? Use of a gun? Never fired one, save for my grandfather’s hunting rifle when I was 7. I’d feel even worse if, in trying to save them, I harmed them or a bystander. As the physician says, First do no harm.

The most likely situation I envision would involve hand-to-hand fighting, where taking the would-be assailant out a window or into traffic or off a cliff, even if it meant taking me too. I could better imagine that.

But if I were to kill someone, even in self-defense, or in the defense of others, and survived, I would mourn that loss for the rest of my life.
***
Still taking questions.

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