#163 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Thursday October 7)
Good morning,
Today is a potpourri.
AN UNFORTUNATE MILESTONE
We have now crossed 700,000 dead Americans from the COVID pandemic. For those who believe this was just the same as the annual flu, that simply is not the case. The COVID pandemic death toll surpassed the deaths in both World Wars months ago. It now has now exceeded the total deaths from the Spanish Flu pandemic and total deaths from the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The pandemic has yet to exceed total deaths from the Civil War, estimated at 750,000, but we sadly should be there before the end of this year. At that point, it will represent the greatest death toll of any single event (war, disease, or natural disaster) in the history of the United States.
By the way, over 200,000 of these deaths have occurred since the vaccines became available.
A BASEBALL ANECDOTE
It is not an everyday occurrence that one attends a ball game and is fortunate enough to catch a foul ball or a ball tossed into the stands at the end of an inning. When it happens, it is a special treat. There is nothing quite like a child’s face when they clutch that ball.
Quite a few years back at a Dodger game against the Angels, one of the players tossed a ball to Brad as the players trotted in off the field. Lauren, not known for her shyness, commented that she wanted a ball as well. I explained to her that she would have to rely on the happy happenstance of catching a ball going into the stands. That wasn’t a good answer to her.
Lauren then proceeded to walk down to the visitors’ dugout, stuck her head in and tried to “talk her way” into one of the coaches giving her a ball. Even then she had the gift of gab. I thought this was a futile effort but after several trips down there and getting some chatter in the dugout regarding her tenacity, the coach eventually relented. He agreed to toss her a ball but even that wasn’t satisfactory, as she indicated she might drop it. Having been worn down and laughing out loud, he reached out and handed her a ball. That’s my girl!
A MEME I ENJOYED
“DO NOT BUY THE IPHONE 13. THEY DEVELOPED IT IN JUST ONE YEAR. THE ORIGINAL IPHONE TOOK BILLIONS OF YEARS TO MAKE. HOW CAN WE TRUST AN IPHONE THAT WAS DEVELOPED SO QUICKLY?
NOT ONLY THAT, BUT I’VE HEARD IT CONTAINS MICROCHIPS AND GPS TRACKING SOFTWARE.
A NEIGHBOR OF A FRIEND OF A COUSIN OF MY CO-WORKER WENT TO TRY TO PRE-ORDER THE IPHONE 13 AND HIS GIRLFRIEND’S BEST FRIEND IS NOW PREGNANT WITH HIS BABY.”
So, there it is in one meme. The absurdity of the commonly held view that the mRNA vaccines were just created out of whole cloth in a year (failing to appreciate the years of research behind them) and the attenuated anecdotal story of something that is simply coincidence, being held out as directly related.
MORE ON TAKING PICTURES OF EVERYTHING
I wrote a week ago about how we take so many pictures of so many things and lamenting that this often detracts from living in the moment.
Glenn Raines notes that people often are “capturing those moments of disingenuous altruism – ripe with the selfish goal to document “do good” to build followers, get more likes, etc. Where, as a society, we forgot the true measure of our humanity, “Who am I and how do I act when no one is looking…”
Amen. He said it better.
AND THIS, TO CELEBRATE THE WEEKEND
From James Bond himself, Daniel Craig, introducing the weekend:
Have a great day,
Glenn
From the archives: