Let me take the tiniest break from rightfully criticizing [excuse me, I really meant obsessively and totally unfairly and needlessly bashing] my least favorite country on planet earth to bash my benighted hometown.
Like some I have been skeptical about some of the things we have been asked/mandated to do in this period.
I got no problem with social distancing : I am not by nature an outgoing person, but more importantly, I prefer to stay way more than 6 feet away from the overwhelming number of the denizens of Gotham.
I m curious about the facial coverings : as Covid-19 is a virus, many of the masks you see hawked these days will screen out bacteria, but not viruses, which are smaller. No doubt there is some emotional placebo effect here, and I really can't get too worked up over it. I mean it's not as outrageous as loan guarantees to the spoiled children of US foreign policy.
I wear a mask in public, I have succumbed to peer pressure. I didn't care for the numerous dirty looks I was getting from fellow denizens of the city when I went about w/o one, and sad to say, many Gothamites are dangerous indeed. and require very little indeed to summon their multiple murderous impulses. I now have 12 things seriously wrong with my body - every single organ is in slow decline, every single thing bio-mechanical has seen better days. But there's nothing wrong with the immune system ; I think of it as the cyberspace of the human body. it's everywhere and nowhere.
Apart from age, I have no COVID risk factors [though a dear co-worker last month lost her husband to COVID - but that guy had multiple risk factors but was almost 20 years young than this prodigal poster].
My longtime dedicated reader know that I frequently try to find the silver lining. It's a stretch, but let's give it a try :
Social distancing would be A-OK with the anti-social types [the normal anti-social types, not the sociopathic criminally inclined types, of which NY boasts a real embarrassment of riches.] Introverts ought not to have a problem with it. People inattentive to routine measures of personal cleanliness become less apparent and their presence less difficult to suffer.
Turning to masks : folks with an obvious need for reconstructive/cosmetic dentistry can be grateful, as well as those afflicted with halitosis. Those whose looks are nothing special to write home about get to cover up a bit and mask it. Those folks whose eyes are a striking feature get to accentuate their most positive attribute. Even the Middle Eastern cultures get a tiny benefit. If we have to restrict our ogling of women to checking out their orbs, can that possibly create some minutes sympathy for the peoples and cultures and countries of the ME? Personally I doubt it ; but if it did happen no doubt masking would be denounced immediately as anti-Semitic and a mortal threat to Guess Who. Armed robbers, and bank robbers mostly obviously love this policy. And, alas, I must repeat that NY has no shortage of the sociopathic predators.
Yeah, it ain't much, silver lining-wise. The final point - sheltering In Place compelled me to take keyboard in hand and return to this most august of forums. Just when I thought I was out, I was dragged back in. Thank you Middle Kingdom for having absolutely no clue about BASIC public heath procedures and epidemiology, subjects whose body of work date back to the middle of the 19th century. Too busy with the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, Tienamen Square. the occupation of Tibet [that one is in memory of Priapus53], the Gang Of Four [NOT the musical group] and other crimes to numerous to name and too exhausting to list.
It is frightening to believe that for several decades these inept Commies were being touted as the coming economic hegemon of the 21st century. Maybe - just maybe this will open some people's eyes about our friends the Celestials. Cheap, slave-labor wages has it's uses - that that's pretty much all that country will be good for under the beneficent rule of the Commies.
Well, gonna go talk a walk - lemme find my mask!
