Partnering with the infection

I’m getting a late start to writing this evening because my performance group had a Zoom chat. We were last together on March 10, doing final rehearsals for a concert three weeks later. We, of course, didn’t know that would be our last rehearsal for a while and that our spring concerts would be canceled. I enjoyed hearing from all of them about how they are coping with being at home and what they’re doing. Fortunately, none are sick.



My sister sent me an email suggesting I look at the late night talk shows and what their hosts are saying about the situation and the nasty guy through their jokes. She ended by saying:

A minor reason I point these out is your blog has gotten so depressing that waiting to vote in November seems like too long to make a change about things. By suggesting these guys, I am wondering if you can find some humor in the commentary and share it so we all can survive until January when The Nasty Guy is out of here.

Yeah, a great deal of what’s going on in the world is depressing. It’s enough to cause a gut clench when one is awake in the middle of the night.

Thanks for the suggestion. However, I’m not a fan of these guys, so don’t watch. I do, on occasion, try to include something fun in my posts.

Such as this half-minute video. A guy had planned a ski trip, but it was canceled. So he created one while in quarantine. Enjoy.



Wisconsin voters went to the polls today. We may not know the results for a week due to all the legal wrangling going on. The Democratic governor switched the date, citing the virus. The GOP controlled legislature sued to keep the original date. The conservative state supreme court agreed with the GOP. Many poll workers who are elderly or have other health issues refused to work. Which meant lots of polling places couldn’t open. Lots of others were manned by the national guard. Along the way the governor pushed vote by mail with a delayed time to return them. But not everyone who requested a mail-in ballot got one by today. And the Legislature didn’t approve the return extension. Though there are Democratic presidential candidates on the ballot along with lots of local elections, the important one is the state supreme court where conservative supreme court justice Daniel Kelly is being challenged. I heard many people were determined to vote in spite of two hour waits and the chance of getting infected. Alas, I didn’t keep the link to the article that suggested one reason why the GOP did this is GOP voters are less inclined to believe the virus is real and more likely to vote in spite of the hazards. So, yeah, let’s kill off our voters to make sure we win this election, even if it has an effect on the next election.



I found the Twitter feed for Limericking, described as “The news gets verse.” The limerick for yesterday (followed by the news article it is based on):

Wisconsin will hold its election
Despite overwhelming objection.
The GOP sadly
Wants power so badly
It’s partnering with the infection.

You can click on the author handle to read the whole feed. I like this one from February 24 on the death of Katherine Johnson. She was one of the black women computers (the term applied to people before the machines took over) at NASA. Her story was told in the movie Hidden Figures.

With math, Mrs Johnson could trace
Trajectories spinning through space,
Propelling Apollo
And missions to follow—
Work nobody now can erase.

We’ve been appalled that the nasty guy has been pushing chloroquine as a way to beat the coronavirus, even though there is no evidence that it helps and plenty of evidence that the side effects could be fatal. We’re not surprised that the nasty guy has a personal stake in the company that makes the drug. It appears some of his cronies do too.



As a guy who enjoys my bicycle (maybe tomorrow?) I appreciate this bit of news: Vala Afshar tweeted that the median of a highway in South Korea is a bicycle path that is shaded by solar panels. However, I agree with commenters that being that close to the noise and exhaust doesn’t sound like fun. I’d probably go for an alternate path from here to there.

Then scroll down to a cartoon of a climate summit. The speaker shows a long list of advantages: preserve rainforests, clean water and air, healthy children, and more. Someone in the audience says

What if it’s a big hoax and we create a better world for nothing?

Mark Sumner of Kos discusses several ways in which the number of cases and number of deaths from COVID-19 are being undercounted. Some of it intentional.

* Deaths that happen at home because the virus progresses to acute respiratory distress within hours. Once the person has died, no need for tests.

* Deaths in a nursing home instead of a hospital.

* People who have a stroke or heart attack that aren’t getting treatment because hospitals can’t handle them. In a sense they also died because of the virus.



In another post Sumner reviews a research paper that shows the virus is spread most by people who have no or very mild symptoms.

However, it’s hard to get people who feel fine to stop engaging with other people, who also feel fine. The better solution is the one that was a part of bringing the disease under control in South Korea—widespread screening and extensive testing of even those not showing symptoms until there is adequate isolation.

Which no state in America is doing. Best to act like everyone, including yourself, is infected.



Elie Mystal tweeted:

My 7yo is doing a math worksheet and it's telling him that the eraser (37 cents) costs more than the pencil (18 cents) and he's OUTRAGED.

“If you're poor and you can't afford the eraser, you can't correct your mistakes. BUT IF YOU'RE RICH you can erase ALL your mistakes.”

To those who say but a pencil has a built in eraser, Jenn Gray has a response: Yeah, it’s small, which means poor people can erase only a certain number of mistakes for free. But they have to pay to erase more mistakes.



Actor John Krasinski, who is now working from home, create SGN, Some Good News. This week, the second episode, he talked to Aubrey, whose trip to see Hamilton was canceled. So Krasinski got the cast to sing to her, each in their own home.

Is this post a little less depressing?