Roger O Green

My wife: suddenly working from home

untenable

working from home

Many people are now also using a virtual office like this London one to show a different address on their web site and other locations as it just offers such good privacy and looks great too.

My wife is a teacher of English as a New Language. The word came down on Friday, March 13 that schools in New York State would not meet the following week. But a previously scheduled teacher conference would take place the following Monday. Then they spent Tuesday making packets for the students.

Thus it wasn’t until that Wednesday that she actually began working from home. Any thoughts that she would have a lesser workload were quickly dashed. Between the online meetings and the one-on-one phone calls to her students, she was giving even more effort than she was in person.

Initially, her “office” was at the end of our dining room table. That was only because that’s where a laptop happened to reside. Soon, however, this became untenable, at least to me. The dining room is connected to both the kitchen and the living room. So, pretty much every time I’d come downstairs, I felt as though I were invading her space. If I wanted to wash the dishes or get something to eat, I was in her “office.” Ditto, vacuuming the living room or watching television.

A new venue

I suggested that she set up a station in the spare bedroom, which she did. In my mind, she too immediately saw the wisdom of the move. Later, I was surprised to discover that it was only after a week or so in the new enclosed space she recognized the value of it for all of us.

Among other considerations, she was always complaining about the messiness of the house, which certainly included the dining room table/her workstation. Now she can leave her papers as needed. She could have private conversations without my daughter and me avoiding the entire first floor.

And she now appreciates looking out on the backyard, seeing the trees and grass. The view from the office, where I tend to blog from, is to the street. I can see a few branches among the utility lines.

I mention this for two reasons. One was that a friend of mine was telling me about a prominent local couple who are really getting on each other’s nerves. They have a house large enough to have their own working from home spaces. Yet they have not, to the detriment of their relationship.

The other is that today is the 21st anniversary of our wedding. A little bit of territorial boundary-setting is a good thing in a marriage, especially during a pandemic.

Uncommonly Blue Eyes: John Powell

John David Powell, May 14, 1960- February 12, 2002

Dan.Tracy.wedding.19960914 Before discussing the poem Uncommonly Blue Eyes, let me tell you about this picture. It’s from the wedding day of Dan, now my brother-in-law, and Tracy, in September 1996. I’m on the far right and Carol is second left. We had been going out for about a year and a half, but by the time of the wedding, we were not.

Carol’s older brother John, right next to Dan, was my biggest cheerleader for his sister and me getting back together. He was one of the groomsmen in our wedding in May of 1999.

I once made a list of Bruce Springsteen CDs I would like, so John could pick among theme, and he gave me all six or seven of them. I’d never owned The River or the twin 1992 albums, Lucky Town and Human Touch before. He was very generous.

His wedding to Cindy was postponed by a day due to a massive snowstorm. They were married 1/1/2001, and it became a very small wedding. My, they had far too little time together, having only met a couple of years earlier.

John David Powell would have been 60 today.

It was so unusual. Soon after my brother-in-law John Powell died in New Jersey in February 2002, my wife started busily scribbling… something. It turned out to be this poem.

Uncommonly Blue Eyes

In honor and memory of John David Powell – February 14, 2002

Uncommonly blue eyes
Arresting us with their clarity

Sky blue eyes
Piercing through clouds of darkness,
Demanding honesty,
Delivering truth.

Steely blue eyes
Shielding the sensitive idealist
Who saw the world in deeds and individuals
As the ought to be.

Bright blue eyes
At age four looking like a precocious professor in his bowtie;
Years later, respected like a professor
For his knowledge of all things technical.

Royal blue eyes
Earnestly seeking the heavenly kingdom of God,
Ready to serve as a child of God.

Light blue eyes
Twinkling in anticipation of his own light-hearted puns and punchlines,
Sparkling while watching for opportunities
To surprise us with spirited generosity.

Sapphire blue eyes
Searching for his beloved and discovering her;
With every tender gaze
Adoring his bride’s long, curly locks and radiant being.

Baby blue eyes
Reflecting the innocent perfection of his infant nieces,
Each one truly treasured by him.

Deep blue eyes
Viewing the sea change in his last year of earthly life,
Staring down profound pain with steadfast faith and stubborn resolve,
Embracing profound love with boundless joy.

Uncommonly blue eyes.
Soulfully blue eyes.
Joyfully blue eyes.
Uniquely John.

Pictures from May 15, 1999- John Powell (d. 2002), my college friend Mark, me, and Norm (d. 2016).

Musician Stevie Wonder is 70

Do you want some candy?

When you’ve written about Stevie Wonder at 60 and at 65, featuring songs he wrote for other people, then what?

I suppose I could note his Carpool Karaoke with James Corden from 2015. Or point out a YouTube page called RareWonderMusic. It features Stevie singing I Can See the Sun in Late December, a song he gave to Roberta Flack, plus I Think I’m On The Right Track, Spread The Love, and Good Light.

But I’ll just list 25 songs. I could have listed 25 other songs. The last two are my top two, but the rest of the list is fluid.

Do I Do. For a 1982 greatest hits double LP called Original Musiquarium I, he added four new songs. Dizzy Gillespie and a stoned ending. “Do you want some candy?”
Do Yourself a Favor – from the transitional Where I’m Coming From album
Another Star – first of the songs from Songs in the Key of Life
You Haven’t Done Nothin’ – from Fulfillingness’ First Finale. Features the Jackson Five.

He’s Misstra Know-It-All – from Innervisions
Blame It On the Sun – from Talking Book, the first of those great 1970s albums
You Are the Sunshine of My Life. I love the fact that Stevie’s vocal doesn’t appear until the verse after the chorus.
Nothing’s Too Good for My Baby

That was a hit?

Fingertips, Part 2, and for a bonus, Fingertips. An article from WNYC: That Was A Hit?!?: Little Stevie Wonder, ‘Fingertips’
Sir Duke. If you’re going to namecheck, this song is exemplary.
We Can Work It Out. One of my all-time favorite Beatles’ covers. A live version.
Living for the City – album version and single version. The former has the better storyline -“Skyscrapers and everything!” but the latter is more danceable.

Boogie on Reggae Woman
I Wish
Higher Ground
For Once In My Life – a ballad turned into an uptempo song

Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours. “I’ve done a lot of foolish things..”
Pastime Paradise. My daughter discovered, in order, Amish Paradise by Weird Al, Gangsta’s Paradise by Coolio, then the original
I Was Made To Love Her
Master Blaster (Jammin’)

Superstition
Love’s in Need of Love Today. After 9/11, he sang this song on a television benefit.
Uptight (Everything’s Alright). Sonically, for me, the demarcation from post-Little Stevie Wonder
As – until the day that 8 times 8 times 8 is 4

Risk in the midst of a pandemic

There is a cost/benefit analysis in opening up the country in the midst of a pandemic. Donald Trump (R-now of FL) and Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) both acknowledge it. We’re dealing with a risk assessment. The more people go out, the greater the risk. So the logical person would be engaged in what is known as risk mitigation.

But because the people in the United States seem to live in different realities, this has become very difficult. As an editorial in Axios noted: “Far from being the unifying force other catastrophes have been, the COVID-19 pandemic is tearing a divided America — and world — further apart.”

Former President George W. Bush released a video urging national unity in fighting this coronavirus pandemic. “Let us remember how small our differences are in the face of this shared threat… We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise.” While I personally applauded the effort of someone I never voted for, it wasn’t universally appreciated. The tweeter-in-chief, for instance, whined that W should have spoken up to defend him during the impeachment event.

Mask averse

Governor Mike DeWine (R-OH) has been a reasonable voice in this discussion. He has recommended masks, but won’t require them because he says it goes too far for his citizenry. Also in Ohio, a lawmaker refuses to wear a mask because God?

Stillwater, OK rescinded its mask requirement because of the pushback. And a restaurant in Texas FORBIDS masks being worn by their employees.

I understand the tension between being safe and going back to normal, between complete lockdown and or doing nothing at all. Perhaps the restrictions have made people crazy. In what civilized society does someone wipe his nose on an employee’s shirt? Or push someone into a fountain? Or shoot someone in the head? The victims’ crimes? Asking people to engage in physical distancing behavior such as wearing a mask! A couple of teenage employees were shot because the McDonald’s dining room was closed. We’re in screwed-up territory. And we’re screwing ourselves.

I had foolishly, it appears, believed that when people went out, they would engage in appropriate social distancing and take reasonable precautions. Pictures of crowded beaches belie that theory. Polling suggests that many people rejected the number of the sick and the dead, including a significant one. They certainly dismiss as untrue projections a month out. Perhaps, as a result, anywhere between a sixth and one-third of the populace are already deciding not to get a vaccine when it becomes available.

Like it’s 2016

The Boston Globe reports that it’s memes, text chains, and online conspiracies that have fueled coronavirus protesters and discord. This is similar to what took place in 2016. “Only this time, the online manipulation campaigns… could be deadly.”

We can have disagreements about what’s the appropriate course of action. My friend David Brickman makes a modest proposal about New York’s reopening. “Where will art museums and galleries fit into this plan?” He thinks they should be among the first businesses to reopen, in part because many small museums or galleries could easily maintain social distancing protocols.

But these are not just differences of opinion I’m seeing in America. It’s nearly civil war at a time when we should have a common enemy, COVID-19. We’ll see very soon how the virus is winning, and we’re all losing.

More COVID Linkage

CDC Guidance for Reopening Is Deep-Sixed by the White House.

More Cases Among Viewers Of Fox News Host Who Downplayed Pandemic.

Not An Emergency Once He Found Out Who Was Dying.

How He Left the Country Dangerously Unprepared.

To understand the danger of outbreaks in meatpacking plants, look at the industry’s history.

Does Anyone Still Want to Be a Doctor?

A Guide to Reading Facial Expressions Behind Protective Masks.

‘Sadness’ and Disbelief From a World Missing American Leadership.

How to Avoid Burnout in the Middle of a Pandemic.

7 Ways Travel Will Change for the Better in a Post-Pandemic World

Read NOTES FROM THE PANDEMIC.

Plandemic: one of those Internet things

Can’t I just ignore it?

techniques of science denial — From a Creative Commons license

Recently, I repeatedly kept seeing a reference to a video called Plandemic. I have not viewed it. Mostly, the message is “See it before THEY take it down again.” The video has reached cult status. It’s like the outlaws in the Wild West. Or the gangsters like Bonnie and Clyde in the 1920s and 1930s America. Plandemic has achieved, it seems, folk hero status.

So much so that Forbes has posted a piece by Tara Haelle called “Why It’s Important To Push Back On ‘Plandemic’—And How To Do It.”

Plandemic interviews a scientist who was appropriately discredited for scientific misconduct and fraud. [Judy Mikovits] is a known, established anti-vaccine advocate (despite her denial in the film), and she presents a long list of unsupported statements that involve COVID-19, various vaccines, HIV/AIDS, Anthony Fauci, pharmaceutical company collusion and other elements of an elaborate, long-running cover-up. It’s a doozy, checking nearly every box in the long list of conspiracy theories and disinformation circulating about the coronavirus.

Politifact fact-checked eight of Mikovits’ most misleading claims in the film. It’s one of several links debunking the video in the Forbes piece.

Ubitquitous

Forbes asks: “Why is this video suddenly everywhere? Why are so many drawn to it?” And answers it:

First, it taps into people’s uncertainty, anxiety, and need for answers—common reasons anyone is attracted to a conspiracy theory. Second, it is packaged very professionally and uses common conventions people already associate with factual documentaries. Third, it successfully exploits ancient but extremely effective methods of persuasion.

Oh, and why is it being removed? YouTube keeps taking it down because it violates community guidelines for false and misleading information.

Someone named ZDoggMD reacts to the “crazy” viral video. He says, “Don’t waste your time watching it. Don’t waste your time sharing it. Don’t waste your time talking about it.”

Forbes takes a different tactic: “Why should I bother saying anything at all? Can’t I just ignore it?”

Conspiracy theories like those in this video are actively, directly harmful, and dangerous. They can influence people’s behavior in ways that harm those people and public health—including you personally—in general. We can’t afford to let these ideas run unchecked.

If you don’t push back on them, even to those you love or don’t want to upset, you’re enabling them. You’re allowing people to spew harmful, dangerous nonsense that kills people and demoralizes the millions of health care providers trying to save lives.

And the writer has some tips on how to debunk, ideally without alienating the people. She points to the Atlantic article by Liz Neeley, How to Talk About the Coronavirus.

See also, from Politifact: A documentary full of false conspiracy theories about the coronavirus.