Tag: Washington DC

Ask Roger Anything, or 2020 won’t end

Bring on 2021

AskThe Boston Globe listed the 20 best shows on television this year; I have seen NONE of them. I’ve done no sourdough bread baking. How is it that I now have MORE books to read than I did last year at this time?

Earlier this month, the NYS Council of Churches had its Gala, the recording of which is here. There were various speakers and presentations. The CoC sponsored a Youth Leadership Seminar in DC, which my daughter attended. Their info is at about the hour and 25-minute mark of the video. About 10 minutes later, see a pic of a chance encounter with our US Senator, Kirsten Gillibrand.

What’s weird is that the Seminar was in February of THIS year. You know, as people get older, they are always amazed at how fast time goes by. Yet, I would have thought that trip was two years ago, at least. It’s a 2020… what’s the opposite of a miracle?

Or else

In order to purge myself of this particularly infinite year, I’ve determined that you can Ask Roger Anything. You really should. If you don’t, 2020 won’t end. Or so I’m told. If they say it, it must be true. You may ask about 2020, or 2021 if it ever arrives. I’m not a big believer in the apocalypse. But fires, floods, pestilence, strife…

As always, I’ll even answer your queries, generally within the month. You are invited to leave your questions, suggestions, recipes, predictions of end times in the comments section of this here blog, or on Facebook or Twitter. Hey, if you send it to me on Instagram, I might actually have to go there. On Twitter, my name is ersie. Always look for the duck.

If you prefer to remain anonymous, that is permitted. However, let me know if that’s your intent. E-mail me at rogerogreen (AT) gmail (DOT) com, or send me an IM on FB and note that you want to be unnamed. Otherwise, I’ll assume otherwise.

District of Columbia: Washington DC

more people than either Vermont or Wyoming

District of ColumbiaMore postal abbreviations, this time starting with the letter D.

DC District of Columbia – first letter of each primary word. Abbreviation was D.C. or occasionally, Wash. D.C.

As you all know, Washington, DC is the seat of the US federal government. Its existence was mandated in the U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8, Clause 17: “The Congress shall have Power to… exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such Dis­trict (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Con­gress, become the Seat of the Gov­ernment of the United States…

Maryland and Virginia ceded “ten miles square” on their respective sides of the Potomac River, and the government, which had previously been housed in New York City and Philadelphia, finally moved to its permanent seat in 1800.

However, in 1846, the Virginia portion of the original territory of Columbia, encompassing Old Town Alexandria and Arlington County, was “retroceded” by Congress to the Common­wealth. The constitutionality of this act has never been determined.

The District is not a state, so the rights of its people have been contentious for decades. “The 10th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution specifies that all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people. Although the District of Columbia has its own municipal government, it receives funding from the federal government and relies on directives from Congress to approve its laws and budget.

“DC residents have only had the right to vote for the President since 1964 and for the Mayor and city council members since 1973. Unlike states who can appoint their own local judges, the President appoints judges for the District Court.”

Residents (approximately 700,000 people) of the District of Columbia “pay full federal and local taxes but lack full democratic representation in the U.S. Senate or the U.S. House of Representatives. Representation in Congress is limited to a non-voting delegate to the House of Representatives and a shadow Senator. The logo of the DC license plate is end taxation without representation.

In recent years, there have been calls for statehood, since it has more people than either Vermont or Wyoming. The move has been heavily resisted by the Republicans since the district has voted reliably Democratic.

DE Delaware – Abbreviation is first two letters. It was historically Del. It was the first state to have approved the US Constitution.
Capital: Dover; largest city: Wilmington.

For ABC Wednesday

V-A-C-A-TION in the summertime

The last two-week vacation, BTW, was in 1998.

Vacation is one of those vaguely foreign concepts to me. It doesn’t feel light, like that Connie Francis song [listen]. And the idea of taking two weeks off from work somehow became anathema to me, not because I don’t necessarily enjoy the time off, but because I generally end up spending close to a week before the event trying to get ahead at work, and at least a week afterward catching up anyway. Perhaps that’s why I haven’t had one in 13 years, until last month.

So the next couple weeks, or more, I’ll be writing about My Summer Vacation that took place the first couple weeks of August 2011. Frankly, much of it was SO busy that it was difficult to process until after the fact. The first week and a half were jam-packed, possibly more than what was ideal. I won’t be writing about it EVERY day, because that would be too grueling for ME (and probably you).

The last two-week vacation, BTW, was in 1998. I took a week to go to Detroit and Cleveland. In Detroit, I went to where they made the Motown music, a couple of Henry Ford museums, and a baseball game at the now-defunct Tiger Stadium. In Cleveland, I wanted to go to a baseball game, but one couldn’t get a ticket to Jacobs Field; one can now easily acquire tickets to what is now called Progressive Field, the name of which, like most naming-rights stadia, I can never remember. The highlight, though, was going to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; I remember that there were tributes to two Carls who had died recently: Carl Wilson of the Beach Boys (d. February 6, pictured) and Carl Perkins (d. January 19), forever linked in my mind.

The second week was supposed to be a time that I’d catch up on my reading, maybe see a couple of movies. But because my trip to the Midwest conflicted with a trip I had earned to go to Boston to try out for the game show JEOPARDY!, I ended up going to Washington, DC on vacation week #2. In addition to the tryouts, I spent an inordinate amount of time wandering through the halls of Congress; I seriously doubt I could, in a post-9/11 America, have spent so much time in places, many of which far more restricted. Also hung out at the Botanical Gardens, the then-new FDR Memorial (pictured), and a brief time at Arlington National Cemetery.

The good news, of course, is that I got on JEOPARDY! The downside is that I really could have used the downtime just to veg out. I don’t veg out nearly often enough.

My Favorite Years QUESTION

Note that we DIDN’T pick 2004, the year Lydia was born.


Possibly around the time I was writing about nostalgia, the Wife and I were talking about the favorite years in our lives.

I picked 1969, the year I turned 16, and my parents let me have a huge party. I had a girlfriend, I got elected president of the student government, which made me an irritant to the new principal, and I was figuring out who I was politically, especially compared to the transitional 1968. Music was great that year, too.

Then there was 1978, the year I worked at the Schenectady Arts Council, got a girlfriend, and finally stopped my nomadic existence.

1984 was the year after Mitch Cohn was fired from FantaCo and Raoul Vezina died. This made Tom Skulan more dependent on me to deal with the day-to-day stuff, while he worked on publications and the “big picture” stuff. Yes, affairs of the heart played here too.

Carol and I both picked 1998, the year before we got married, for different reasons. Her reasons are her own (she can start her own blog – unlikely). For me, it was going to Detroit (visit friend, Motown museum, Ford museums, Tigers game), Cleveland (Rock and Roll Hall of Fame), Washington, DC (visit friend, take JEOPARDY! test), and Boston (appear on JEOPARDY!) Interesting that neither of us picked 1999, the year we actually GOT married because that first year in that half a house she owned was tricky; buying OUR house in 2000 was definitely a vast improvement.

And we both picked 2003, which was the year Lydia was finally conceived. Carol and I went to Poland Spring, Maine after that. Note that we DIDN’T pick 2004, the year Lydia was born; that took some getting used to.

So what are some of your favorite years, and why?
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My Favorite Year with Peter O’Toole – Final scenes

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