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By Roz Rogoff

About this blog: In January 2002 I started writing my own online "newspaper" titled "The San Ramon Observer." I reported on City Council meetings and other happenings in San Ramon. I tried to be objective in my coverage of meetings and events, and...  (More)

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Nora Ephron & Me

Uploaded: Sep 21, 2012
Tom Cushing, who writes the Raucous Caucus Blog in the San Ramon and Danville Expresses, complemented me on my last blog about blogging, "I don't know how you do it twice-a-week -- keep up the good work!"

That reminded me of a something Nora Ephron said in a radio interview about writing a column for a monthly magazine. She didn't know how her friends who wrote newspaper columns came up with something new to write about every week.

I was planning to use Ephron's comment as a lead in to my last blog on blogging, but I couldn't remember where I heard her say it. I usually listen to KQED-FM in San Francisco. Ephron was interviewed on several KQED radio programs which were rebroadcast after her death on June 26, 2012.

Michael Krasney interviewed Nora Ephron on his Forum program in 2006 and 2010. Portions of those interviews were rebroadcast on Forum on July 4th under the title, "Remembering Nora Ephron."

I replayed that show and the two original shows in the Forum archive. Ephron discussed her book, "I Feel Bad about My Neck," in the 2006 interview and her last book, "I Remember Nothing," in the 2010 interview.

Ephron was 1.5 years older than I when she died at 71. I am catching up to her now. I will be 70 in October, and my memory is fading. Some times when I'm writing I have to look up words because I can't remember the word I want to use.

I lose words in the middle of sentences when I'm speaking, which is why I always wrote a script of what I was going to ask for my Blogtalkradio shows. If I was pulled off my script, I lost track of what I wanted to ask and floundered around. That's one reason why I quit doing those radio interviews.

Still it is getting worse. I called my sister in San Francisco last month because a jazz singer I like would be performing at a theater there in August. I called to ask my sister if she wanted to go to the show, but I couldn't remember the singer's name. I have six of her albums and my sister is a fan of hers too. I kept trying to think of her name and it kept escaping my mind.

My sister knew it was Diana Krall. I remembered Krall is married to Elvis Costello, whom I'm not a fan of, but I couldn't remember Diana Krall's name. Memory is a strange thing.

I asked my Doctor if I was getting Alzheimer's. Ephron called it "Oldtimers." My Doctor called it "Recall memory," but these memory lapses are usually called "Senior Moments." Lately I've been having more and more moments.

About the dumbest thing I've done recently is to forget where I put the registration and license sticker for my Focus. At least this year I remembered to send in the renewals on time. For the last few years I missed the deadline and had to pay a late fee.

I received the registration letters for both vehicles in June, and put them in a safe place so I wouldn't forget them. When I went to find them, the one for the Maverick was in the basket where I put stuff I need to remember where to find, but I couldn't find the one for the Focus anywhere. I looked everywhere. Finally I went online to order a replacement from the DMV.

I spent most of the day entering information into the Cartagz website, while stopping several times to see if I could find the registration I knew I had but couldn't find. At 5 pm, I finished entering all the information and charged $50 on a Visa Card to pay for the replacement and the service charge to Cartagz.

As soon as I clicked the submit button I remembered where I put the registration. It was in the same envelope with the Maverick registration. Sure enough I looked in the envelope and there it was right behind the Maverick registration. I phoned Cartagz to cancel, but they had already submitted the paperwork to the DMV and told me I couldn't use the original sticker and had to wait for the new one to come.

So I wasted a day and $50 because I couldn't remember where I put something I knew needed to be in a safe place and was in a safe place, but I forgot where I put it until it was too late to use it.

Oh wait I hear a loud knocking at my door. It's 11:30 p.m. Thursday night, so who could be knocking at my door. I thought it might be one of my neighbors, but It is two San Ramon Police Officers. They told me I left my garage door open and my car door open. Ah, I took a cat tree out of the back seat of my car at 5 pm this afternoon and left the door open and forgot to go out and close it.

I actually remembered leaving the garage door open. I always check to see if it is closed before going to bed, but I completely forgot about the car door! Thank you San Ramon Police.

I will be sure to add a note to my daily to-do list to check all doors including car doors to make sure everything is properly closed before I go in the house!
Democracy.
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Comments

Posted by mloliver, a resident of San Ramon,
on Sep 21, 2012 at 3:22 pm

Don't feel alone, Roz. I'm a few years older than you and if someone interrupts me, I totally forget even the subject I was talking about. I'm at the point where I carry a little notebook and when I say I'll do something, I write it down or make a note on my phone "notes." I used to be able to speak really well "off the cuff" but now if I want to make a point, I'd better have it in my notes. Like you, I need a thesaurus when I'm writing. I know there is a word I need, but just can't think of it. I've never been good with names, but now it's even worse. Ah well. Perhaps in the next phase we will forget we have forgotten stuff, and it won't seem important. What was I talking about again.....?

MLO


Posted by Harry S., a resident of San Ramon,
on Sep 22, 2012 at 8:58 am

Roz- I hope you won't forget to keep writing your columns. My wife and i are constantly forgetting things as we have the three children tornado swirling around us. But alas, as you are firmly entrenched in your golden years, time waits for no one. I didn't know Diana Krall was married to Elvis Costello. Interesting. I like his work and he has taken up orchestra music. Did you make the Krall show?


Posted by Dana Mentink, a resident of San Ramon,
on Sep 24, 2012 at 7:36 am

As both a writer and someone who is forgetting more than she is remembering lately, I can commiserate! In the words of my fellow writer friend, "Chin up! Best pencil forward!" :)


Posted by Roz Rogoff, the San Ramon Observer,
on Sep 24, 2012 at 11:50 am

Roz Rogoff is a registered user.

ML, Harry, and Dana,

Thanks for the comments. I didn't go to Krall's show in San Francisco. Tickets had been on sale for a couple of months and there weren't any good seats left.

As far as writing goes, my worst problem is spelling. I've never been a good speller even when I was much younger. I can never remember which words have two t's or two n's. I use spell check in Word, but even that isn't always foolproof.

I wish (and I have said this before) there was some way to edit these blog messages after posting them. I always find errors when it is too late to change them. I thought chiseling in stone went out after Moses.


Posted by mloliver, a resident of San Ramon,
on Sep 25, 2012 at 9:25 am

I'm not sure I have ever posted anything that didn't turn up with a mistake somewhere. At least computers have made it easier than having to have room on the desk for Mr. Webster or the World Book Encyclopedia.

MLO


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