Hope, strength of
“Hope is more powerful than fear”: Joe Biden, speaking tonight. May it be so.
“Be a hummingbird”
A story from Wangari Maathai, environmental activist, political activist, and winner of the Novel Peace Prize.
“We do language”
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
A baseline preference
Virginia Heffernan writes in the Los Angeles Times about Herman Cain, Louie Gohmert, and opposition to face masks.
Fauci, mensch
This tweet is just one small bit of evidence.
SPA day
SPA is my newly invented acronym: Sparring Passive-Aggressively. My other new acronym: SITEEMO. Shop In The Early, Early Morning Only.
In a parallel universe
“Sir, I’m guessing that you’ve had to much too drink, and if that’s the case, I’m glad that I found you asleep here and not on the road. Tell you what we can do, if you like: I can drive you home in my car. And if you’re willing to give me your keys, my partner can drive your car home for you, and we’ll make sure that you get there safely, because this is really no place to be sleeping, and I’m sure you’d agree with me about that. And in the future, please do not get behind the wheel if you’ve had too much to drink.” And so on. If only.
Staying in one place
A (pre-pandemic) observation from Philip Reed, a professional model maker: “I do not see that just having to stay in one place is a restriction on life. It’s more having to stay in one place in your head that’s a restriction on life.”
Not this time, lady
She yelled at me, or at no one: “I will run over you!” This poor old woman must have been suffering from the delusion that she’s George Wallace.
“Good practice”
Behold, an American president who sees the Secret Service as a violence-hungry death squad and fantasizes about massacres on the White House lawn.
Same as it ever was
remember talking on the telephone with my dad about the death of Amadou Diallo. My dad put it simply: “If he’d been white, he’d be alive.” That was 1999. And now again, with the death of George Floyd, as with so many other deaths: If he’d been white, he’d be alive. I think it really is that simple.
“Vote as if your life depends on it”
Tony Schwartz, Donald Trump*’s ghostwriter: “Understanding what we’re truly up against — the reign of terror that Trump will almost surely wage the moment he believes he can completely prevail — makes the upcoming presidential election a true Armageddon. “Vote as if your life depends on it, because it does.”
John Pavlovitz on how to grieve
“You wear a mask at the damn grocery store and you wash your hands and you keep your distance and you show kindness to cashiers — and you follow the simple rules put in place to keep people healthy and alive because that’s what decent human beings do.”
A memorial day
“An incalculable loss”: the front page of today’s New York Times.
A “lethal aversion to reading”
“It's not a stretch to say that if the president read, thousands of lives might have been saved”: in The Week, Windsor Mann writes about Donald Trump*’s “lethal aversion to reading.”
“There’s no dying in art”
Sonny Rollins: “Humans and materialism die. But there’s no dying in art.”
Meltdown
From the Financial Times, an utterly damning summary of the Trump* administration’s response to pandemic.
A variation on a theme
Trump* equals death.
TRUMP = DEATH
Not too extreme an equation.
Rats in your engine
From The New York Times: “Time to Check Your Pandemic-Abandoned Car for Rats.” No joke.
The perils of inattention
The Washington Post reports that “U.S. intelligence agencies issued warnings about the novel coronavirus in more than a dozen classified briefings prepared for President Trump in January and February.”
“Trust nurses”
“Trust nurses / Go home”: text on a sign held by a Pennsylvania healthcare worker facing off against protesters wanting to “open the country.”
लोकः समस्ताः सुखिनो भवन्तु
Lokāḥ samastāḥ sukhino bhavantu. It’s Sanskrit.
prius starts wont go into gear
An error code in the car’s computer system pointed to a problem with the battery in the key fob.
A first draft of history from TNYT
As efforts to mitigate the effects of this pandemic continue, this administration’s failures must never be forgotten.
Ohio gets it right again
Why you should practice social distancing.
Ohio gets it right
A clear and memorable video about social distancing.
Distance, literal and figurative
Out for a walk, I talked from a distance with an area man who is ready for things to get back to normal. Well, at least a new normal, I said.
The Art of Quarantine
“If the subjects of the world's most iconic paintings can practice social distancing, you can too.”
“Bedtime”
A New Yorker cover for these times, by Chris Ware.