Tome Tuesday

Here are snippets from an article on the lockdown debate by John Tierney at nypost.com: “When the 50 states are ranked according to the stringency of their lockdown restrictions, you can see one obvious pattern: The more restrictive the state, the higher the unemployment rate. But there is no pattern in the rate of COVID-19 mortality.”… “The number of people killed last year in motor-vehicle accidents in the United States rose to the highest level in more than a decade, even though Americans did significantly less driving than in 2019.”… “There was a sharp decline in visits to emergency rooms and an increase in fatal heart attacks because patients didn’t receive prompt treatment. Many fewer people were screened for cancer. Social isolation contributed to excess deaths from dementia and Alzheimer’s.”

Also from NYP, an excerpt from an article by Melissa Chen, edited by yours truly: “Asian victims are targeted by other races at the following rates: 27.5% black, 24.1% white, 21.4% Hispanic, compared to 24.1% Asian. This seems to suggest that the white supremacy thesis is extremely weak.” My morbid curiosity wonders who the Atlanta shooter voted for on Election Day, if he participated in the process at all. Same goes for the Boulder whack job.

Wokesters have petitioned to stop Dr. Oz from being a guest host on Jeopardy! One of the reasons cited was his defense of the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat Corona. Saving lives is subject to cancellation by some these days.

Let’s lighten the tone with this headline from foxnews.com: “Florida baby born on 3/21 at 3:21 in 321 area code.”

It was a glorious day at the floating book shop in terms of weather, conversation and sales of a lot of large works. My thanks to Ira, who bought a pictorial covering the period from 1920-’30; and to Lynn, who purchased the New Jerusalem Bible; and to young Gareth, who continues to be a great patron and took home the huge August 1914, The Red Wheel a novel by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and the bulky Webster’s Dictionary, Thesaurus & Atlas; and to Candy, who jumped on the Jim Reeves CD collection, of which she recognized several songs to my one - “Put your sweet lips closer to the telephone,” which is not the title (He’ll Have to Go); and to Meryl, who chose a thick collection of American Poetry and what I consider my best work, Killing… Gareth revealed a bit of the history of his granddad, who is 91. He is the lone family survivor of the Nazi slaughter of citizens of his town in Belarus, which was a center of intellectuals and also rich in natural resources. He was taken into the Red Army at 14. Eventually he made it to the USA and is forever praising it… Candy said that Western Caravan, the country swing band fronted by her husband Thirsty Dave, is going to attempt a remote recording. Each member will be hooked up into a computer network and upload his part… Meryl, who works in the psych department of Coney Island Hospital, surprised the heck out of me with her conservative political views. She is not optimistic about America, to which Gareth objected. At 31 he doesn’t want to hear about decline, certainly understandable. They kept it civil. Despite the many times Meryl has made purchases, she never realized I’m a writer. I don’t mention it unless someone asks about one of the books. She has dabbled in poetry and wrote a little book for her granddaughter.

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