Stop singing in choirs

It may be that singing in choirs has contributed to the spread of coronavirus in some communities. Two examples: In Los Angeles, three-quarters of the members of one choir fell ill and two died. In Berlin, 59 out of 78 singers from the choir of Berlin’s Protestant cathedral went down with the virus. 

Germany is contemplating allowing churches to begin conducting services once more. The head of the German government’s disease control agency has warned  that singing was ill-advised. He said, “Evidence shows that during singing, the virus drops appear to fly particularly far.”  And, virologists believe singers could absorb many more particles as they tend to breathe deeper into their diaphragms than they would during normal breathing.

A very strange garden

This is Spring!

Serving the neighborhood

Something survived Hiroshima

Callas and Un Bel Di

Sinatra sings Sondheim

Keeping busy these days

To keep occupied, Chris Woodhead, an Englishman, creates a new tattoo on his body every day of the lockdown. 

He fell in love with tattoos when he was 18; he now has more than 1000 on his body. It's hard to find an area that does not have a tattoo.

"College campuses must reopen in the Fall"

That's the message of Christina Paxson, the president and a professor of economics and public policy at Brown University. Remote learning is bad for the students - especially lower-income students; they "face financial, practical and psychological barriers as they try to learn remotely."

Remote learning is also bad for the economy. Colleges and universities "employ about three million people and as recently as the 2017-18 school year pumped more than $600 billion of spending into the national gross domestic product." And they also "drive innovation, advance technology and support economic development.The spread of education, including college and graduate education, enables upward mobility and is an essential contributor to the upward march of living standards in the United States and around the world."

Paxson argues that the colleges must develop public health plans now that build on three basic elements of controlling the spread of infection: test, trace and separate.

They have the problem of controlling the disease in a college world which is not very open to social distancing. Plus, unlike our situation today, they "must be able to conduct rapid testing for the coronavirus for all students, when they first arrive on campus and at regular intervals throughout the year. Testing only those with symptoms will not be sufficient." While contact tracing is a valuable asset, it needs to be expanded as "students may not know who they sat next to in a lecture or attended a party with."  And then, you have the question of quarantining those who become exposed to the virus.

A 21st century version of Wimoweh

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

The virus affects the world

Dancing with the trash

Kangaroos helping conservation

One of my favorite singers

Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwoʻole died at a fairly young age.

The Hubble in action on its 30th birthday

This photo - taken by the Hubble - shows a star-forming region close to our Milky Way Galaxy, about 163,000 light-years from Earth. The larger object is the nebula NGC 2014; its companion is called NGC 2020. But astronomers have nicknamed the scene the "Cosmic Reef" because it resembles an undersea world.

Should we use contact tracing?

Life in the 1950s

Important information about masks

Looking for a book?

Anna Netrebko as Tosca

Advice from the really senior

Exercise is vital

Another senior survivor

Should you close your clothing store?

A new type of conductor

The Three Tenors

Can you sing this as well as she?

Everybody must wash their hands often

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Father and daughter

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

National Youth Orchestra gives thanks

Will this improve your memory?

Or is it BS?

Where were you in the '60s?

I like Sondheim

Another kid musician

Beating the virus at 106

A garden walker

Come to the Cherry Festival

A Duncaster Resident Performs

Another child musician

An 80-year-old ballerina

Some jokes

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Until further notice the days of the week are now called thisday, thatday, otherday, someday, yesterday, today and nextday!
>
> - Can we uninstall 2020 and reinstall it again?... I think it has a virus ...
>
> - Just asked a 6 year old if he understands why there is no school.  He said yes because they are out of toilet paper.
>
> - On the bright side, I am no longer calling this shelter-in-place. I am an artist-in-residence.
>
> - After years of wanting to thoroughly clean my house but lacking the time, this week I discovered that wasn’t the reason.
>
> - Where is your next travel destination?
>      - Las Kitchenas
>      - Los Lounges
>      - Santa Bedroomes
>      - Porto Gardenas
>      - Los Bed
>      - Costa del Balconia
>      - St Bathroom
>      - La Rotonda de Sofa
>
> - You’re not stuck at home, you’re safe at home. One word can change your attitude and one cough can change your life.
>
> - Coronavirus has turned us all into dogs. We roam the house all day looking for food.  We’re told “no” if we get too close to strangers and we get really excited about car rides.
>
> - If you thought toilet paper was crazy ... just wait until 300 million people all want a haircut appointment.
>
> - 2020 is a unique Leap Year. It has 29 days in February, 300 days in March and 5 years in April.
>
> - Wearing a mask inside your home is now highly recommended. Not so much to prevent COVID-19 but to stop eating.
>
> - If you keep a glass of wine in each hand, you can’t accidentally touch your face.
>
> - This cleaning with alcohol is total b.s. NOTHING gets done after that first bottle.
>
> - Kinda’ starting to understand why pets try to run out of the house when the door opens.
>
> - Does anyone know if we can take showers yet or should we just keep washing our hands???
>
> - You think it’s bad now? In 20 years our country will be run by people home schooled by day drinkers….
>
> - Day 7 at home and the dog is looking at me like, “See? This is why I chew the furniture.”
>
> - My Mom always told me I wouldn’t accomplish anything by laying in the bed all day, but look at me now! I’m saving the world!
>
> - I miss the days when we were terrified of Romaine lettuce. Ahh, the good times….
>
> - I swear my fridge just said: “what the hell do you want now?”
>
> - Whoever owes you money, go to their house now. They should be home.
>
> - Homeschooling Day #3: they all graduated. #Done. 
> 

 

Some creatures like the lockdown

Leonard Cohen & WWII

YoYo Ma - Dvorak and "Songs of Comfort"

Remembering

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Saying Thanks

Where are we

Ella and Louis

Sinatra, Crosby, Lee, Armstrong

Did they do this at Duncaster?

Alexa may talk too much

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Bocelli solo

Interesting data

Will Trump try this?

Will we continue to get our mail?

The U.S. Postal Service is telling us that it will "run out of cash" later this year unless the White House and Congress act. The problem is that the volume of mail has declined a lot due to the virus; ergo, their revenue is nowhere near budget. It needs $75 billion in cash, grants, and loans in order to avert financial ruin by the fall.

Doing a good deed

Easter Hymn from Cavalleria Rusticana

Do you like Mahler?

Is this you?

Andrea Bocelli & Celine Dion

Was there ever a greater German tenor?

That's the question asked at Slipped Disc. What do you think?

Ravi Shankar

Should we use Contact Testing

Could you have done this at age 20?

Wedding Dance

Some beings like the lockdown

Another negative of the virus

Would you fly with her

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Advice about wearing a mask

From the NY Times:

DON’T: Wear the mask below your nose. 
DON’T: Leave your chin exposed. 
DON’T: Wear your mask loosely with gaps on the sides.  
DON’T: Wear your mask so it covers just the tip of your nose. 
DON’T: Push your mask under your chin to rest on your neck. 

DO: Wear your mask so it comes all the way up, close to the bridge of your nose, and all the way down under your chin. 
Do your best to tighten the loops or ties so it’s snug around your face, without gaps. 

And once you’ve figured out the correct position for wearing your mask, follow these tips to stay safe: 
 Always wash your hands before and after wearing a mask. 
 Use the ties or loops to put your mask on and pull it off. 
 Don’t touch the front of the mask when you take it off. 
 For apartment dwellers, put the mask on and remove it while inside your home. Elevators and stairwells can be high-contamination areas. 
 Wash and dry your cloth mask daily and keep it in a clean, dry place. 
 Don’t have a false sense of security. Masks offer limited protection, and work better when combined with hand washing and social distancing.

This is Wuhan

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

Nina Simone sings and plays

Nina

The lockdown in Russia

A song for these times for we seniors

Courtesy of Duncaster staff

Classical Guitar

How long will this one last?

Providing a temporary home for the helpers

One good thing from the pandemic

The Self Quarantine Life

Thoughts after a 3 week quarantine in Duncaster

by Lee Goodfriend 

My hair’s turning gray – but it would anyway!

For me it is wrong to let it get long! 

My weight’s on the rise, with no exercise. 

Food remains good. We eat what we should. 

The meals, lunch and dinner, are always a winner. 

When we have considered, our mail is delivered - -

No cause to complain, so we choose to refrain. 

The halls are so silent, we’re always compliant. 

Walking outside, breathing fresh air, or wearing a mask 

 might be a sign to show that we care. 

Daffodils are greeting us but no one’s out there meeting us 

The trees are in bud but Spring will be a dud. 

Our juices are flowing, we want to get going! 

All sounds normal except we know what is real 

A PANDEMIC IS AN UNWANTED DEAL

Clinical Trials

There are a couple I found interesting. But who knows what the results will be.

The one that interests me the most is Leronlimab. It is an experimental HIV drug that has been used to successfully treat COVID-19 patients. It has been approved to enter its second phase of testing by the FDA. The developer of the drug thinks that it could potentially be approved for use in four weeks. It has been used to treat a handful of severely ill patients in New York City hospitals; a couple were able to be removed from their ventilators.

INO-4800 was developed by Inovio Pharmaceuticals, which has received funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.It has been approved by the FDA and will start trials this week.

And then there is the drug that began the country's first clinical trial in March - Moderna, a Massachusetts biotech. It has received a grant from NIH. The biotech said it expects to have early safety data by late summer and aims to produce 1 million doses by the end of 2020.

This chorus both sings the lyrics and plays the instruments

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

We solved this unique problem

Was he the violinist of the 20th century?

The wonderful English language

From a Duncaster Memoir Writer

The B.C.G. vaccine may be of value re coronavirus

A hundred years or so ago the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin vaccine was invented to fight the TB epidemic of those times. It is still being used today, especially in the developing world. And,it is being used to fight more than TB. The vaccine prevents infant deaths from a variety of causes, and reduces the incidence of respiratory infections, viral illnesses and sepsis. Countries that did not implement or had abandoned universal B.C.G. vaccination have had more coronavirus infections per capita and higher death rates. Scientists believe that the vaccine seems to “train” the immune system to recognize and respond to a variety of infections, including viruses, bacteria and parasites. “We have really strong data from clinical trials with humans — not mice — that this vaccine protects you from viral and parasitic infections.”

A major clinical trial is underway in Australia. The trial is being held with health care workers (physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists). The goal - “What we want to do is reduce the time an infected health care worker is unwell, so they recover and can come back to work faster.” The Netherlands is in the midst of a clinical trial of 1,000 health care workers.

A recent review by the World Health Organization concluded that B.C.G. had beneficial “off-target effects.”

Following the rules

Courtesy of a Duncaster resident

From the old days

Remember Nelson Eddy and Jeanette McDonald? They were a constant in my childhood,as my sisters idolized them. And "Trees" was one of the first poems I learned.

A poem by Englishman Matthew Kelly

Checking that people are staying home

Remember Glenn Gould

Tour a few states

The Atlantic magazine is building a series of photos of the fifty states. Thus far they have done twelve, each of which has about 30 photos.  Vermont, where some of us have a house, is included. Here is a view of Montpelier. For the other states click here.

A picture says a thousand words

From a Duncaster resident

Dressing properly

Let's go for a horse ride

Some cute animals

From our Florida correspondent

New residents in a Welsh town

Wild Kashmiri goats have moved in. They are eating shrubs and flowers, running through the streets, hanging out on lawns, and generally giving "free entertainment" to the townspeople.

A note from Garrison Keillor

A note to my peers: Let us disappear

After a week in Corona Prison with my loved ones, I must say — if I were to croak tomorrow, I’d look back on the week as a beautiful blessing. Feeling closer than ever to friends, the complete loss of a sense of time, the intense gratitude for the wife and daughter. We should make it an annual event. A week of isolation. Call it Thanksgiving. The one in November we can rename Day of Obligation. 

The news from Washington is astonishing, each day worse than the day before. The con man at the lectern, the trillion-dollar re-election bailout. Satire is helpless in the face of it. Nothing to be done until November.

 I’m an old man, I don’t worry about myself, I worry about the millennials and Gen Z and those little kids eating supper with their parents at our family Zoom conference the other night. Growing up with GPS, will they ever appreciate the beauty of a map? Will they bother to learn to spell, given spell-check, and doesn’t the love of language begin with forming the letters? Thanks to Netflix and a thousand other things, they’ll keep boredom at bay, but isn’t it boredom that brings out the creative urge in a person? Meanwhile, Greenland is melting, the sea is rising and warming, and the clock is ticking, and Washington, D.C., has become utterly foreign, like a moon of Uranus, pun intended. The millennials’ charismatic spokesperson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is five years away from running for president, and will America be ready to elect a hyphenated person in 2028? It’s doubtful.

It struck me as weird to see millennials enthused about a 78-year-old student radical from the Sixties. My generation has hung on too long and we need to be overthrown. We consider experience to be a prime requirement for public office and we’re wrong. Biden and Sanders have far too much experience, most of it wrong. The U.S. Senate is no qualification for higher office whatsoever. None. Look around — it’s governors who are doing the work of dealing with the Situation. The Senate is an echo chamber. Two years ago, Ocasio-Cortez was waiting on tables and tending bar at a taqueria in lower Manhattan, a natural doorway to politics, much better than law school. 

 My generation is over. The world belongs to the young and we geezers are tourists. (Have I said this before? I think so. My wife is nodding. I guess I have.) Do we allow tourists to vote in America? And here is an issue nobody in public office will touch with a ten-foot pole: why not establish polling-place testing for voters over 60 to eliminate those suffering from dementia from obtaining a ballot? 

 And so I am proposing that the right to vote cease at age 70. An arbitrary age, I admit, but so is 18. I know plenty of 12-year-olds who’re better qualified than some people my age. Face it, intellectual acuity declines with the passage of time and the ingestion of animal fats and malted beverages, and if it’s low to begin with, a person comes to a point where you need close supervision. I speak from personal experience. My knowledge of basic math peaked in the 11th grade, my science literacy long before that. I made my career in the field of fiction, a useful trade but not so conducive to good citizenship. I am a Biden supporter for the same reason Trumpers support Trump — because my man does not make me feel inferior: I listen to him speak and I think, “I could’ve said that, or something like it. I don’t think he’s going to do too much damage. And he’ll surround himself with smart people, just as I have. Right? Right.” Is this the sort of reasoning our country needs right now? 

 Personal admission: I was in New York during the Minnesota primary and so, for the first time in my adult life, I didn’t vote. It felt good. Why bet on a game when your team isn’t playing? 

 At 77 I am on a glide path and enjoying my days and don’t have so much at stake as that little family eating supper. The dad is a journalist, the mom is a nurse, two crucial lines of work. I am an old man with a good wife and daughter, whom I’m now going to ask if they can see where I put my glasses. Thanks for reading this far. Be well. Keep in touch.

Courtesy of a boyhood friend

Happy Birthday