Day 142 Nat'l Emergency: Trump's Dilemmas

What if you hosted a party to celebrate the creation of a COVID-19 vaccine but nobody came?

Having invested so much time disparaging the reality of the pandemic, only to invest billions of taxpayer dollars to develop a vaccine at “warp speed,” Donald Trump will have to confront dilemmas mostly of his own making should a potential cure be discovered.

Having cultivated an image as a disruptor while encouraging similar behavior, including disbelief in government programs and pronouncements, among the legion of his followers, will Trump be able to turn those mavericks into compliant communal-minded sheep? 

What if a coronavirus vaccine is developed but not enough people take the shot to make it effective as a pandemic deterrent?

What if Trump’s past deprecation of science and medical expertise, including support for the anti-vax movement, leaves him with no moral persuasive powers to convince enough people to take the inoculation?

What if he were told by advisors he needed to publicly take the shot to rally the country behind the vaccine. Would Trump roll up his shirtsleeve and do it? Could he trick the public by getting a dummy shot, or would he fear a leak would expose his deception?

Would he have his wife and children and their families publicly inoculated? What about the White House staff and cabinet secretaries? Would he order them to take the shot?

A president is charged with safeguarding the nuclear bomb codes that could destroy the world. As this viral moment in time unfurled a president also had the power to help save the world from a virus that knows no boundaries to its ravaging impact. 

How sad that Trump has squandered opportunities to stem the transmission of the disease. How sad that Trump has championed false remedies. How sad that Trump has set the example that wearing a face mask is not necessary and definitely not mandatory. How sad that Trump has sown doubt about the medical and scientific communities’ integrity. How sad that in almost every public appearance Trump has dispensed lies, fabrications and misinformation. 

How sad that the death toll from the coronavirus in the United States exceeds 152,000 from more than 4.46 million confirmed cases. How sad that those numbers will continue to climb because of Trump’s ineptitude. 

Day 132 of Nat'l Emergency: Lawn Sign for Justice, Petty President, Will Trump Take a Shot

We have proudly joined the woke lawn sign brigade. Designed by Gilda, our sign displays an illustration of eight children of various ethnicities next to a Martin Luther King Jr. saying, “Injustice Anywhere Is a threat to Justice Everywhere.”

Presidential adviser and not-too-secret white supremacist Stephen Miller notwithstanding, Jews have been at the forefront of civil rights activism. We believe in the legitimacy behind the Black Lives Matter movement but have been repulsed by the open antisemitism and anti-Israel stances of some of its leaders and followers, made all the more reprehensible by the organization’s failure to call out repression and discrimination common in Arab Moslem lands. 

Our sign already has won approval from neighbors. We’re at the end of a cul de sac so the sign will get limited exposure. But it’s the sentiment that counts, not the number of eyeballs that see it.

Petty President: The pettiness, the mean-spiritness of Donald Trump continues to know no bounds as it continues to amaze. His latest denigration of the office of the president involves the removal of the official portraits of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush from a public viewing area and their placement in a non public room of the White House.

He couldn’t remove Barack Obama’s portrait because it has not been officially unveiled in deference to the longstanding animosity Trump has toward his immediate predecessor.

One has to wonder how Trump will be treated by his successor, an especially trenchant thought if it is Joe Biden in 2021 or a different Democrat in 2025. Will he be invited to ceremonial functions? Will he be shunned by the members of the exclusive Past Presidents club? 

Will foreign governments welcome him, not that he was an avid jet-setter before his election? As he was not overly complimentary to most foreign leaders while in office, his options for frequent flyer points are limited. Okay, he could visit Turkey, Russia, Brazil. And Israel. Perhaps his good buddy Kim Jong-un will invite him to a deeper visit inside North Korea. Or Xi Jinping might want to show him China’s biological warfare labs that Trump is always talking about.  

Will He Take the Shot? Should an anti COVID-19 vaccine be introduced while he is still in office, will Trump display presidential leadership by publicly taking the shot, or will he punk out and reinforce the cautionary call of the anti-vax brigade that rejects all types of inoculations? Perhaps he will claim an exemption to the injection because of a flareup of his bone spurs.

The current fight over wearing a mask to contain the pandemic’s spread will be child’s play compared to the opposition anti-vaxers will wage, especially if anyone administered the vaccine becomes infected (https://nyti.ms/2OAxMM1). 

It is truly a sad time when the health care system once touted as the best in the world has become a shell of its former prominence. 

Feds vs. States: Where does federal vs. state responsibility begin? States’ rights vs. federal authority. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has chosen to push responsibility for containment of the virus to governors, except when he sees political gain advocating opening up the economy and schools. He is trying to strongarm states to do his bidding even as case numbers and deaths rise. But his bottom line is that states, not he, are responsible for the pain the country is experiencing.

On the other hand, having clearly lost his bid to be a successful wartime general in the battle to beat COVID-19, Trump has shifted gears to be the law and order president by sending in federal troops to Portland, OR, to arrest and control Black Lives Matter and related protesters. No state or local official asked for federal troop assistance. Indeed, they have vociferously rejected their presence.

But Trump doesn’t care because this narrative fits the image he wants to project to his base and to voters who might feel threatened by the protesters. 

Day 128 Nat'l Emergency: Is the Political Pendulum Swinging?

With just under four months till the election the pendulum has given signs it is ready to swing backward.

After more than four months of jabs and haymakers that have left his administration reeling, Donald Trump appears to have regained some energy. 

Conservative voices are saying woke movements have gone too far. A federal judge has strongly questioned the sexual harassment and abuse settlement against Harvey Weinstein. Conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan is leaving New York Magazine. Bari Weiss is leaving The New York Times because she claims a bullying atmosphere that attacks non liberal stances is tolerated by management. Federal executions have begun anew with Trump threatening more. Trump is further threatening to send in federal forces to cities run by liberal mayors he says cannot control violence. He also is said to be supportive of a Missouri couple who pointed guns at Black Lives Matter protesters. The CDC director is blaming visiting Northerners for the pandemic outbreak in the South. Trump administration lackeys are degrading the expertise of Dr. Anthony Fauci. Though Joe Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania polls is double digits pollsters say a majority believe there is a “secret” number of Trump voters who could keep the Keystone State red.

Trump is betting his base enjoys their White privilege even as fence-sitting voters will be repulsed by excesses of ultra-progressive woke groups. Their combined ballots will keep him in the White House for another four years

Trump is like that Philadelphia icon—Rocky. It is hard to knock him down. To keep him down.

Biden so far has played a version of Muhammed Ali’s rope-a-dope strategy against George Forman, keeping mostly to himself. He is letting Trump tire himself and the public out with outlandish tweets on all manner of national affairs alongside public displays of indifference to the personal, human losses from COVID-19, now totaling more than 138,000 lives from more than 3.48 million confirmed cases. Even now that he is wearing a mask in public the glower beneath it comes through.

The race for the presidency is a like a 15-round championship boxing match, not a three-round amateur bout. Polling can be illusory. Hillary learned that lesson four years ago.

Barring an international emergency or another vacancy on the Supreme Court, the election will be settled by three intertwined events: the status of the pandemic, the state of the economy, and the success, or lack of, school reopenings.

The pendulum might be swinging a little more in Trump’s direction but there is plenty time for it to swing back to Biden’s corner. 

Day 126 Nat'l Emergency: Constitutional Rights, COVID and the Sun, Tammy's Time and Teddy's Grandson Speaks

Our basket full of fruits, vegetables, some dairy products and several grocery items, we were about to enter the self checkout lane when Gilda remembered she needed two cans of coconut milk. We zipped into the international foods aisle and picked up two cans of Goya coconut milk.

The next day Gilda read the CEO of Goya Foods was a big Trump supporter, that Latinos and others were boycotting Goya products because of his advocacy, and that he went on Fox News to decry the boycott as an infringement of his right to free speech (https://mol.im/a/8512787).

We have now joined the boycott.

Is it a restriction of free speech? Hardly. A boycott is itself an expression of free speech. It poses no physical harm. CEO Robert Unanue may continue to spout his love of Trump, but at least now he is aware his market share might suffer. 

Lesson to be learned—it is hardly ever wise to mix politics with business. Support nonpartisan programs yes, but endorse specific candidates at your company’s peril.

Is requiring a mask be worn before entering a store or boarding a plane a violation of one’s constitutional rights? Hardly. Private enterprise may regulate behavior within its territory. Just as retailers, restaurants and other service establishments have the right to deny entry if attire codes for shoes, tops, bottoms, and other clothing items are not followed, and may enforce smoking prohibitions, they also can regulate the wearing of a mask by anyone who desires to patronize their private property. 

That’s the key—it is their private property. They are not violating anyone’s constitutional rights by setting behavior standards (https://www.aarp.org/health/healthy-living/info-2020/retailers-require-face-masks-coronavirus.html).

The troubling aspect of the Goya and mask protesters’ protests is that they are emulating Trump’s claims that his constitutional rights are being restricted when Twitter and other Internet sites remove or tag his communications as untrue or inflame violence. Users of Internet message boards do so with the understanding that they must abide by each site’s protocols. There is no law that requires a company to freely spread Trump’s or anyone’s propaganda. There is no law that restricts companies from restricting messages that violate their standards of performance. 

Steam Heat: If we’ve learned anything from our time under Trump’s shadow it is that The Donald rarely remembers what he said the day before, much less months ago. 

But we remember. We remember how he cavalierly told an anxious public not to worry about the COVID-19 virus, that with the coming spring and summer the coronavirus will melt away in the sun and heat. “It dies very quickly with the sun,” he said on April 23. 

I wonder how that forecast is sitting with the residents of Florida, Texas and Arizona as they swelter under extreme heat and a raging pandemic. 

When will Trump’s supporters finally realize he is no doctor, no scientist, no weather forecaster? When will they accept their lives depend on that realization? I cannot really feel sorry for them. They’ve chosen ignorance and bombast over science and sound medical advice.

Trump is the prototype Yahoo envisaged by Jonathan Swift in “Gulliver’s Travels.” He is a non believer in science. Moreover, when science displays his deficiencies he attacks the scientists as Dr. Anthony Fauci is discovering. 

One of the subplots of the November election will be the public’s appreciation of science. Much like wearing or not wearing a mask has turned into a referendum showing anti-Trump vs. pro-Trump forces, the belief in science and medical advice is pigeonholing the electorate in seemingly uncompromising camps.

The same can be said for those who seek a reevaluation of many of our country’s historic figure statues and those who oppose it.

Tammy Duckworth has catapulted into contention to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential running mate with her recent dustup with Trump and Fox News bloviator Tucker Carlson. They criticized her “openness to ‘a national dialogue’ about our founders’ complex legacies.”

Her combative op-ed in The New York Times included one of the best retorts to Trump’s bullying and Carlson’s questioning of her patriotism (https://nyti.ms/3iL97Cg). 

The junior senator from Illinois, a decorated Iraq war Illinois National Guard veteran, who lost her legs from a rocket propelled grenade in 2004, wrote, “These titanium legs don’t buckle.” 

To which my friend Hymie would add, “and they don’t have bone spurs,” a dig at Trump’s alleged medical excuse for evading the draft during the Vietnam War. Carlson also never served in the military. A year younger than Duckworth, he chose not to enlist for the Gulf War or for subsequent action in Iraq and Afghanistan. Duckworth volunteered.

One of the more eloquent commentaries on the debate over statues of historic figures comes from Mark Roosevelt. A statue of his great grandfather, Theodore Roosevelt, astride a horse while an African and a Native American stand beneath him on either side of the horse, is slated to be moved from the Central Park West entry to the Museum of Natural History in New York City. 

The president of St. John’s College in Santa Fe, N.M., Mark Roosevelt supported the move. His words are worth listening to: https://www.facebook.com/CBSSundayMorning/videos/298818314812875/

Day 121 Nat'l Emergency: Disaster for Trump or the Country? The People Will Decide

The letter in Wednesday’s New York Times called the Trump presidency a “disaster, a record he can’t run on.”

I share the sentiment but disagree with the analysis.

One need only look to the Supreme Court and federal judicial appointments to recognize that for conservatives Trump has been a most successful president, defanging consumer and employee protections, undercutting Obamacare, dissolving the wall that separates church and state, providing religious cover for discrimination against women and minorities. It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

Or one could look to a watering down of environmental protections to realize Trump has succeeded in poisoning our atmosphere, polluting our rivers and lifting safeguards on national lands, to know that Trump has handed big business successes they never imagined. It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

One could look at our frayed international relations to see Trump has succeeded in making America a shadow of its once dominant position in the world, just what the isolationists along with Russia and China hoped to achieve. It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

One need only reflect on the universal meaning of the Declaration of Independence and Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address to comprehend that Trump has succeeded in pushing back against the twin drives for equality and tolerance for women and people of color to the joy of white supremacists. It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

One need only listen to the venom within political discourse to appreciate that Trump has succeeded in dehumanizing and demeaning political engagement, reducing it to an exchange of insults rather than ideas. Bullying vs. compromise. It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

One need only close one’s heart to the sorrow seeping through our land from Trump’s failure to act decisively in a timely manner to thwart the spread of the coronavirus, to accept Trump’s dismissal of science and medical expertise as a success against coastal elites. In his failure to express compassion for victims and their families, in his disdain for wearing a mask and shutting down schools and places of work, Trump not only places more importance on dollars over deaths but suggests a variation of his rebuke of John McCain, that he doesn’t like servicemen who become prisoners of war—he apparently doesn’t like anyone weak enough to succumb to COVID-19.  It is a record Trump is proud to run on.

Trump has brought the country to a tipping point.

It is said the only perfect vision is 20/20 hindsight. Four years ago one could only assume the worst based on his rhetoric.

Now, in 2020, Americans must choose if the trail Trump has led us on for four years deserves another four years. Or if the process of reconciliation can begin with a new president committed to our founding ideals no matter how imperfectly they have been realized in the past. 

Polls show Trump has support from less than 50% of the population. It is up to the majority to disavow Trump and his enablers in the House and Senate. Only the majority can turn Trump’s reelection campaign into a disaster—for him or for the country.

Day 104 of Nat'l Emergency: Father's Day Edition

During this time of coronavirus pandemic, Father’s Day is not being celebrated in our household the time honored way with visits with children and grandchildren (for that matter, Mother’s Day fell short as well). Neither is it possible to adhere to our custom of dining out at the preferred restaurant of the honored parent. 

The other day Gilda asked what I would like to do to celebrate. I’d like to be able to play poker with my buddies again, said I. That, too, is not happening anytime soon. 

The silver lining in that is that I have more silver lining my pockets than if the game took place every month. It’s a small consolation.

As for dinner, Gilda is baking fresh hamburger buns to caress her juicy hamburgers. She’s also making fresh potato salad. 

I hope everyone else’s Father’s Day dinner will be as lovingly prepared and delicious as mine.

Down the Rabbit Hole: Stepping outside one morning last week to pick up The New York Times from our driveway, I saw a bit of whimsy I had never witnessed in 36 years in our current home even though our yard is infested with Peters, Flopsies, Mopsies and Cottontails. Four young rabbits were playing a game of tag on our front lawn, scampering this way and that after the leader, not caring at all that I was taking in their playfulness.

The rabbits were clearly family and having fun. Their game of chase was not to be confused with squirrels or chipmunks running after each other. Those pursuits are clashes of territoriality, one animal brusquely shooing off an invader from his or her sphere of influence. 

Farmer McGregor—alias Gilda—spares no love for these creatures. She accuses them of eating her plants just before their flowers are to bloom. She has no proof, of course, though the rabbits do spend lots of time munching grass from our lawn. Guilt by association.

If it were up to me I would snare one and make it a house pet. Before they had kids Dan and Allison had two pet rabbits. Gilda has no intention of humoring my desire.

In case you’re wondering, rabbits are no longer classified as rodents. They are lagomorphs. Has to do with having four incisors compared to two in rodents. 

Promenade: We took a near four mile walk Thursday down Rosedale Avenue. We used to walk before COVID-19 hampered communal activities, but we’ve really picked up the pace since social distancing knocked out most other outdoor pastimes. 

Someone, I’m surmising a young girl and her family, positioned painted rocks on stone fences, at the foot of trees and on the base of a fire hydrant along the way. Each rock had an inspirational message. A turquoise painted rock said, “This will all blow over in time.” A yellow rock with a drawing of a bee intoned, “The bitter comes before the sweet.” Two flower illustrations under a bright yellow sun on a green background accompanied the saying, “Spring has sprung.”

Any passerby could not help but be cheered up. 

Nor could they be anything but dazzled by the life-size moose statue standing guard in the front yard of a recently renovated cottage. 

Camping Ground: Young Judea, our grandkids’ sleepaway summer camp, was cancelled, as most were in New York and New England.

Perfectly understandable given the caution proscribed in this age of coronavirus. Seriously disappointing to anyone who has relished the sleepaway camp experience.

Dagny was to have spent her first such adventure in July, joining Finley for his second season away from home. It also means Dan and Allison will not get to enjoy being empty nesters for an extended period for the first time in 10 years. Ah, well, there will always be next year.

With a little more planning, however, camps could have created a controlled environment, Gilda believes. If campers and staff were tested and screened before arrival in camp, and forbidden to leave the grounds, even for counselor days off, the camp could have been made into a virus sanctuary. Food and other deliveries could be controlled, much the way grocers receive shipments. And there would be no parent visiting day. 

Ah well, it’s too late for this summer, but as sports fans of losing teams are wont to say, “Wait till next year!”

Day 101 Nat'l Emergency: Code Blue, Facebook Follies, Masquerade on Land and Air, Animated Graphs, Fiction or Non Fiction

Code Blue: Defund. Abolish. Deconstruct. Reorient. Reform. Transform. 

The words are plentiful as to what should be done to police departments throughout the land. Depending on your background and experience with law enforcement, they mean different things. 

I’m too ignorant to know which direction policing should go in the wake of the tsunami of mostly unarmed Black deaths at the hands of law enforcement. I agree with what Marian Kaba, director of Project Nia (Nia is Swahili for “with purpose”), wrote in Sunday’s New York Times: “We should redirect the billions that now go to police departments toward providing health care, housing, education and good jobs. If we did this, there would be less need for the police in the first place (https://nyti.ms/2YBa4UG).”

Why would that be?, you may ask. For a partial answer I turn to Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) who recently tweeted: 

“1.7 million students have police in their schools but no counselor.

“3 million have police but no nurse.

“6 million have police but no psychologist.

“10 million have police but no social worker.

“We need systemic change—now.” 

If you don’t see the connection between the presence of police and the absence of social services in schools where childhood character is molded into adult behavior I’m afraid any explanation I could offer would not register with you.

Facebook Follies: Eager to deliver fresh meat to his blood red constituents Donald Trump will embark on his first rally since the COVID-19 pandemic stifled public gatherings. Close to 20,000 will attend an indoor rally in Tulsa on Saturday, June 20, with countless more outside. 

But prior to the self-adulation Trump seeks, here are two recent posts I came across on the Internet:

Surrounding a picture of Trump at an earlier rally, Jim Calvert posted:

June 20 — Tulsa, OK

Coronafest 2020

Come for the racism,

Stay for the plague

Be sure to reserve your

ICU and ventilator!

Under a picture of Trump’s signature Make America Great Again red hat, the following appeared:

“One day the red MAGA hat will be viewed the same way we view the Confederate flag and the swastika.”

Masquerade: It is widely accepted by the medical community that wearing masks can stem the spread of the coronavirus. Yet Republican leaders keep demonstrating their antipathy to science and a cavalier attitude toward their constituents.

The main transgressor is Trump who has disregarded pleas not to hold mass rallies. His ego demands stroking so he is embarking on the first of what no doubt will be many public gatherings of his faithful. 

Though masks for attendees will be provided they are not required to be worn. The arena will become a petrie dish for viral spread. Trump must know this because he is requiring all who come before him to genuflect at the rally to sign a waiver absolving him and his campaign from any liability should they contract COVID-19.

Trump is not alone in dissing medical advice. The Republican governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, Thursday “told local governments they will not receive any federal money to help fight the effects of the coronavirus pandemic if they require people to wear masks in public buildings,” the AP reported (https://www.ourmidland.com/news/article/Nebraska-governor-Mask-requirement-will-cost-15349550.php).

In what rational world do leaders purposely endanger their citizens? 

Not So Friendly Skies: Air travel is slowly making a comeback but its smooth trajectory will be challenged by those opposed to the mandatory requirement many airlines have imposed that passengers wear a mask on board. 

The opening salvo in Trump-inspired civil disobedience came Wednesday when one of his acolytes was removed from an American Airlines flight for failure to wear a mask. The incident happened pre-takeoff (https://mol.im/a/8435857 ).

Next time the unmasking could happen in flight. The airline’s only recourse would be to blacklist the passenger for future flights. Meanwhile, he or she will be compromising the air compliant passengers expected to be breathing. 

Animated Graphs: Ever wonder how COVID-19 deaths stack up against other current scourges of mankind in the United States? 

Using CDC and Worldmeter data, Public Flourish Studio put together an animated graph showing the average number of deaths for the one month period March 15-April 20 for 16 ailments. COVID-19—2,168; Heart disease—1,774; Cancer—1,641; Flu and pneumonia—153. For the complete list, click https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/1830480/. 

For a worldview of COVID-19 vs. other causes of death, from January 1 through June 8, click on this animated graph to view the dramatic rise affecting all humanity: https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/2562261/

Send for a Librarian: Under what genre should we classify John Bolton’s new book, “The Room Where It Happened”? Fiction or non fiction?

Bolton claims it’s all true.

Trump says the book “is a compilation of lies and made up stories.”

The Justice Department says the book contains “highly classified” information.

Never mind asking a judge to adjudicate if the book may be banned from distribution or available to the public. 

What we need is a librarian to classify the tome as fiction or non fiction (https://mol.im/a/8436039).

Day 96 Nat'l Emergency: Tip-toeing to Normalcy

Seventeen weeks, exactly 119 days, from my last residence in a barber’s chair I had my hair cut Thursday. A few days earlier I visited my dentist to complete a crown restoration begun after a root canal procedure in pre-coronavirus lockdown March.

Am I abandoning Dr. Fauci’s safety first guidelines in favor of Trumpian bravado? Hell no, not on your life. My life, actually.

I won’t be dining at restaurants anytime soon, even those with outdoor seating. I will not engage in any activity attracting large groups. Attendance at synagogue services will have to wait. I’m sure God will understand. He or She does not require adherents to unnecessarily place themselves, and subsequently others, at risk.

I wonder about people who act as if they are immune from not only contracting COVID-19 but also unwittingly spreading it. 

I also wonder why people wear masks while driving alone in their cars. 

Makes no sense to me. Then again, there are lots of people out there who lack common sense. Take, for example, those who apparently think swigging diluted bleach could kill the coronavirus, rather than perhaps killing them or scarring their insides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in an online study that 39% of 502 adults surveyed had misused a cleaning product (https://www.statnews.com/2020/06/05/cdc-misusing-bleach-try-kill-coronavirus/). 

Now, there is reason to question the conclusions of such a small study, but it does make one wonder why anyone would subject their bodies to such an out-of-the-box, er, bottle, treatment. 

Medical Update: My full face smile is back. The Bell’s palsy is almost all gone, a remarkably rapid recovery, my doctor exclaimed.

Bear Facts: Four times in the last week a black bear has been sighted within a few miles of our home. Over the years wild turkeys, lots of deer and a coyote or two have crossed our paths as we’ve walked in our neighborhood which is down the block from Saxon Woods Park. 

One of the walks Gilda and I take meanders for a mile up Saxon Wood Road. Several years ago during an early spring afternoon we stopped about halfway up the trek so Gilda could look through the windows of a house under renovation. As she walked around the home I looked out onto Saxon Wood Golf Course. Some 500 or more yards away I observed either a very large, I mean a very large, dog or what I immediately presumed was a bear sauntering across a fairway. 

I called 911. From local to county to state police I was dispatched from one constabulary to the next in a vain attempt to alert authorities. 

The recent rash of bear sightings has not elicited any signs of panic from officials. A spokesperson for the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has advised, “Never run from a bear; stay calm, speak in a loud and calm voice, and slowly back away from a safe distance. Make loud noises by shouting or banging pots to scare the bear away.”

Aside from our water bottle, I guess Gilda and I will have to start toting pots along on our walks. 

NY, NY: I’ve lived in the New York City metropolitan area for 66 of my 71 years. I grew up in Brooklyn. Before COVID-19 I’d go to the theater more than a dozen times a year, usually preceded by dinner in a theater district restaurant. I went to museums. I walked Manhattan and Brooklyn streets. I took the subway. I drove with ease through every borough enjoying the architecture that flew by my windshield.

I consider myself a New Yorker.

But as I read the Thursday New York Times Styles article “Checkout Time Might be Early” (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/11/style/hotels.html), I lost confidence in that appellation. 

Never a hipster (if that is still a moniker used by trendsetters), I at least professed some knowledge of the city that never sleeps. To say I was confounded, astounded, overwhelmed by all that I did not know even existed would be an understatement. 

Well, I guess not too many people enjoying their eighth decade of life are attuned to the shifting “New York scene.” I’m quite content with my bite of the Big Apple and long for a post-pandemic time to enjoy it fully once more.