"where is the dispense pizza crust button?"
— Starfish Who Is Frankly Freaking Out Right Now (@IRHotTakes) March 21, 2020
Happy #Caturdaypic.twitter.com/lw9OXCqE5t
— Larry the Cat (@Number10cat) March 21, 2020
Random musing: They should make "coronavirus retail veteran" hats for the people holding down the fort at pharmacies and grocery stores and whatnot so we can open doors for them and thank them for their service when they are old people.
— Starfish Who Is Frankly Freaking Out Right Now (@IRHotTakes) March 21, 2020
Three-year-old Madison took to her porch to dance in her jingle dress.
The member of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation in Alberta wanted to cheer those feeling down about the COVID-19 pandemic.
Video: Lorianne Chowace / Facebook pic.twitter.com/q2XncOGajY
— APTN National News (@APTNNews) March 19, 2020
For the non-Natives among you, the Jingle Dress Dance is a healing dance. It originated during the Flu Pandemic of 1918.https://t.co/Qk2EK5YVgG https://t.co/jPEDgvjxEQ
— M. Kei (@kujakupoet) March 19, 2020
WereBear
Now I want a jingle dress and the ability to dance like that little girl :)
NotMax
Silence perhaps sometimes too oppressive? In need of innocuous background music which won’t divert your attention?
Seeburg to the rescue.
evodevo
You go, Madison! The jingles were originally made out of repurposed tobacco tins in the old days…
Brachiator
The Jingle Dress Dancer is incredibly cute. Thanks.
It’s a really lovely day out today in Southern California. And so just weird that so many people are staying inside or close to home.
This morning I went out to get breakfast. There was only one other person outside, a guy walking his dog.
debbie
@WereBear:
I could feel she was just waiting for that slower section to rest her legs a bit!
debbie
@Brachiator:
I took a walk. The day was pretty chilly (less than 40 degrees) and lots of people were out, but there were no friendly smiles or hellos.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Well, Madison cheered me up, so her dance worked!
ThresherK
@NotMax: Seeburgs are okay, but I’m Wurlitzer man. Make mine a Peacock 850.
(I hope I haven’t started a jukebox war.)
eemom
drone walking doggie in Cyprus for man in lockdown
Doggie looks happy.
Jeffro
I’m only going to watch that cat jump another 20 times or so, I swear…
lamh36
Sitting here watching Princess and the Frog on Disney + and tweeting bout it. Nice, simple way to wind down from a day full of microbes in the Micro lab.
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/1241492138954764289
Omnes Omnibus
I have a request. Could we get a couple of non-Covid=19 threads during the day that aren’t specifically themed like the Leto/Avalune military ones? And if we do, could commenters please refrain from posting Covid-19 stuff in them? I know that some people deal with their fear and worry by gaming everything out, but others could use a break from the relentless horror. The people complaining about gloom porn could very well be as close to the edge as everyone else and need an outlet too. Not everyone can be a steely-eyed realist about the potential deaths of shitloads of people for 24 hours a day. And this is purportedly a full service blog.
Ohio Mom
I should be happy because after several months of unemployment, Ohio Dad starts a new job on Wednesday. But I have very little confidence that the bottom of everything won’t fall out. He thinks the new place will stay in business, well I hope so too, but…
Until now, I truly believed this country would eventually right itself after Trump. I don’t think that anymore. We are too far gone.
I don’t see how we get out of the hole we’re digging. My governor illegally cancelled the primary. Is it going to be reschedled, supposedly. But how can you have a democracy if elections are so easily cancelled?
A very good friend who moved to a different state called today. She’s been sick for two weeks so she dragged herself to the doctor, who was clad in her PPE and stayed far away from Friend while Friend described her symptoms.
Could Friend get tested? No, not even a regular flu test, the doctor did not want to expose her nurses. Go home! The doctor shrieked. And stay home!
So Friend went home.
Quiltingfool
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes! Yes! Yes!
dexwood
Madison dances for all of us. Thank you, Madison.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Seconded. With gusto.
Ohio Mom
Sorry Omnes for my gloom. I got it out, I’ll focus on the positive now. I mean, it *will* be nice to have money coming in and Ohio Dad is very excited about whatever it is he’ll be working on (some kind of software beyond my level of understanding). That really is good news. I shouldn’t down play it.
hells littlest angel
Let’s be realistic. “Orphan child of coronavirus retail veteran” hats for their kids.
WereBear
@Ohio Mom: I don’t blame you for feeling down. That is one sad story.
dexwood
@Omnes Omnibus: With you on this request. Nothing wrong with breaks from we’re doomed.
chris
Very British news.
Brachiator
The Daily podcast had a short, 7 minute episode on the little things people are doing to come together on the Internet since they can’t hang out in person. Internet happy hours and other little ways to maintain connections. You can listen here.
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Not to make light of it, that’s a fabulous opening paragraph for a novella.
WereBear
@chris: I can’t imagine that without smiling. Thanks.
WereBear
Oh, and if anyone needs a Respite Kitten Video, here’s Lou Costello with a brand new pot of oat grass.
Twitter Link
scav
@debbie: Too bad you’re not in this neighborhood. We’re getting about twice the usual walkers and most wave but a good half stop to chat (well, usually more of a prolonged shout at each other across the street). We do benefit from a big cow pasture in the middle and they’ve calving. CNN is CowNewsNetwork here. (Dahlia had a little black one today, so that’s four down and a few more to go). When the cows calm down, there’ll be the eagle nest to watch.
Social Distancing so far has been pretty social. As an introvert, I could do with a little isolation soon — except that the weather is so good and that’s where the garden is.
Peale
Tic tac cat
lamh36
Well this is good news
dmsilev
@debbie: I was out walking yesterday and met a neighbor with her dog. We stopped to chat, keeping the now-approved several feet of distance between us. The poor dog kept wanting to come over to me to say hello properly, and just didn’t understand why he was being kept on a short leash.
White & Gold Purgatorian
@dexwood: I third that request. It is hard for me to look away from the train wreck, but it would be healthier to do so. Non plague threads now and then might make that possible.
Omnes Omnibus
@Ohio Mom: It wasn’t aimed at you. I understand the doom and gloom. I am not trying to talk anyone off the ledge any more either. Everyone needs to handle this the way they need to handle it. But some of us need a break once in a while.
Kent
@lamh36: It’s a private company using their propriety testing machines. They don’t expect to start making them until April.
But yes, good news. These things should be public at this point though
dmsilev
@Omnes Omnibus: Nothing wrong with asking for a respite.
I’m thinking of starting up a new game of Stardew Valley; nice and calming and low-stress. Well, except for fishing. Screw that.
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
I’ve been noticing the opposite here in CA — people are smiling and making friendly comments to strangers, though from a suitable 6-foot distance. It feels like when you’re riding a bike and you chime your bell at other bike riders you don’t know as you pass each other.
But I think we’ve known for at least a week that the lockdown was coming, so people had some time to get used to the idea.
debbie
@chris:
There’ll always be an England!
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Did I remember to brag that I got to go to the 10th anniversary Academy event where they had a bunch of the cast and the artists? It was awesome, and Jenifer Lewis is a ?.
lamh36
@Mnemosyne: would love to have been there for that!
Sounds awesome.
Quinerly
@Omnes Omnibus: ❤️????
lamh36
this counts as bad news, but also things that make you go hmmmm
All in their NYC offices…soooooo does that mean everyone as Faux news gonna have self-quarantine????
Ella in New Mexico
Thank you so much for this sweetness!
BTW I can’t decide who’s pissing me off more on Twitter today: dumb MAGAT’s repeating “Corona virus is a hoax from a lab in ‘Gina to keep Trump from getting re-elected”or “OMG I used to work in a lab 20 years ago and healthcare workers need to be wearing airlocked double hazmat suits like they’re working at Ft Detrick’s Anthrax lab or it’s all over for everyone”
Meanwhile my friends and I are “Just get us enough N95s, gowns & gloves FFS
@Ohio Mom: and that doctor is such a GD wuss
Barbara
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes, it would be nice. King Arthur Flour posted 10 easy breads to make including 2 no knead ones. Had no difficulty finding ingredients for a few of them and spent most of the day making bread. I am okay with digesting bad news but I find negative speculation — dire what ifs expressed as certainties — increasingly hard to bear.
Ella in New Mexico
@dmsilev: wait, wait, now I can’t pet the neighbor’s cute doggos anymore WTF is this some kind of martial law
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
I’m hoping that the Academy will start putting some of these events streaming online, because they’re really cool. They don’t even have to show the movie, they can just show the discussion! But there might be a copyright issue since they also had some musical performances.
MoCA Ace
@Omnes Omnibus:
Now might be a good time for artists in our midst no? Although I consider myself more of a craftsman. Could we send pics to a F.P.er? It might be inspiring to see what others are up to. I know my woodworking is one of my few escapes right now.
Kent
My kids and their friends are learning how to break the internet. They are now all on multiple group chats with their school friends. One is 8th grade and one is 11th grade. The 8th graders are doing stuff like 20-person face-time chats and other crazy stuff. Super laggy but they are having a blast pushing Apple to its limits. Middle school and High School society had already largely moved online before this. Now they are taking it to a whole new level. My kid says there is MORE middle school drama than when she was actually in middle school
Oh, and if you are a teacher, just assume that every one of your assignments will be a group assignment. They are all collaborating already with what little work is being assigned.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
As I keep saying, they all seem to have blown off reading “The Masque of the Red Death.” Plagues don’t care who you are or how rich you are. They just go where they please. ?
Omnes Omnibus
@Barbara: I talked with my mom this morning. She and my dad are going to experiment again with baking bread. As she said, they’ve little else to do.
debbie
@Ella in New Mexico:
Tweet right back, “Your MAGAt hats won’t protect you.”
MoCA Ace
@hells littlest angel:
Don’t say that… my wife is a pharmacy manager.
WereBear
@lamh36: They were bragging about not washing their hands.
Mnemosyne
@Ella in New Mexico:
I have a set of plain ol’ surgical masks I bought at Daiso right before this all hit. Wondering if I should put one on before we go pick up dinner tonight since I have asthma. ?
I’ve been taking my temperature twice a day and it’s steady as a rock, so I’m trying to not freak myself out that my asthma is acting up. Stupid pollen.
Omnes Omnibus
@MoCA Ace: I don’t disagree about the artists in our midst thread, but I consider that a themed thread. OTOH, the next one up is very much what I had in mind.
MoCA Ace
I hope they used the Monty Python version
Ella in New Mexico
@WereBear: I see videos like that and want to run out and adopt 5 more kittens
Then my three boy cats start attacking our new young female stray and spraying everywhere in the house because they’re disrupted by us being in their grill all day thanks to social distancing and I ask myself why the FUCK do I love cats so much
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
Spring is very delayed here — we’re well behind New England, for chrissakes — and it’ll be a real bitch on the lungs when every flower and tree bursts forth in unison (I’m picturing those singing flowers in, I think, Fantasia).
dexwood
@debbie: Damn! I love that. Bumper stickers, t shirts, comments everywhere.
Anne Laurie
@Omnes Omnibus: Okay — as a start, I’ll announce the Sunday Morning Garden Chat is (should be) a COVID-news-free zone. We can all look at pictures and discuss nature, yes?
debbie
@MoCA Ace:
They did.
Amir Khalid
I found this moving: radio stations in 30 European countries played You’ll Never Walk Alone simultaneously, as a gesture of solidarity in these times of enforced isolation.
When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high
And don’t be afraid of the dark
At the end of the storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of the lark
Walk on through the wind, walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart
And you’ll never walk alone
You’ll never walk alone
Ella in New Mexico
@Mnemosyne: Not sure where you live and thus your odds of encountering a positive person, but even though they’re saying general population won’t benefit, if you have a suppressed immune system or pre-existing lung disease it’s not a bad idea. I’d wear one–even if only because it’d keep me from touching my nose and mouth until I got home.
Omnes Omnibus
@Anne Laurie: Karma is a peculiar thing. I am not really a garden person. But, yes, that would be good.
opiejeanne
@Brachiator: Yes, a darling child.
It’s been really gorgeous here most of the week, and people are outside walking their dogs. We’ve been cleaning up the garden after the winter, picking up fallen branches, repairing the greenhouse, pulling weeds in the raised beds. People see us and stop and talk across the fence, and we’ve met people who have lived a couple of houses away for about six years, and never seen outside before. Everyone was busy with their own lives, including us. We do interact with a couple of families in the neighborhood. The new guy on the corner across from us offered us some eggs, since he has chickens, and he has 7 dozen eggs right now.
It snowed here very recently but didn’t stick, but it rained for about 8 days straight, and starting Monday we’re slated to get another 8-10 days of rain. I think people had cabin fever even before being told to stay home if at all possible.
Ella in New Mexico
@Kent: Super cool! I can imagine we’d have seen the same here if our kids were their age. Love it!
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Good suggestion, and thanks for reminding us.
I’m probably the most guilty about the COVID-19 porn.
trollhattan
I can watch Larry the cat all day.
Cheryl Rofer
@Omnes Omnibus and others: Noted. I will try to post more open threads that specificially are noted as NO-PLAGUE ZONES. And will enforce them with deletion.
I find the constant reference to Covid-19 on EVERY thread depleting too.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
The Thin Black Duke
@Omnes Omnibus: Thank you.
Elizabelle
@Omnes Omnibus: Yesssssssss!
opiejeanne
@WereBear: EWWW!!! Even if we weren’t in this epidemic, I am grossed out.
JMG
Follow-up to a morning post. My son proposed and was accepted as expected. Place he picked was Soldier’s Memorial at Grand Army Plaza, walking distance from their apartment. Said he’ll never again see it empty. On way back, stopped at local liquor store to purchase a bottle of champagne. Store wouldn’t open door, pickup phone orders only, so he phoned and they came out with the bottle. Then the manager said, “could you two pose with this so we can a picture for our Instagram page?” Love in the 21st century.
Another Scott
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
Elizabelle
@opiejeanne: I kind of wish we always had a COVID 19 thread going, too, although guess we can use Annie’s overnight post — which are excellent.
So much we learn and want to share.
Elizabelle
@JMG: Wonderful news.
And it cheered the wine sellers, too.
Omnes Omnibus
@JMG: Woohoo!
Another Scott
(via RepDonBeyer)
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as the tweeter says, anybody wanna guess where this happened?
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Oregon?
chris
@MoCA Ace: Of course they did, there’s video!
Another Scott
@Omnes Omnibus: They have palm trees in Oregon??
If Dollar Tree lets them buy out the store, I’m not going to blame the buyers…
Grrr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: oh, there’s plenty of blame to go around for Dollar Tree and Hoarding Helen
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: or : Profiteering Patty?
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@Jeffro: me too! I keep watching it thinking I will get bored. Nope still funny! It doesn’t hurt that I have two 9 month old kittens who do stuff like that constantly.
Zelma
OK, in the “never rains” category: my furnace just stopped working and my furnace guy might be in Alabama. It’s a pretty old furnace that he is trying to keep going because it has a stainless steel heat exchanger and the new ones don’t and are, in his opinion, a piece of shit. It’s in the 40s here and I have one space heater. So not only can’t I go out, but I’m basically stuck in one room.
OTOH, my favorite Italian restaurant is doing take out and I had wonderful gnocchi for dinner. Also wine.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@JMG: awwww!?so romantic..That’s awesome
minachica
@Omnes Omnibus:
YES THIS PLEASE. I’m just a lurker but I’m this close to losing my sanity. I bet I’m not the only one who could really use some more relief from the horror.
opiejeanne
@Elizabelle: Well, I also wish that, in a way. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion as it happens. Impossible to look away.
I just got this in my mailbox from the Seattle Times and I need to unload, sorry Omnes:
State preparing to make life-or-death decisions if coronavirus overwhelms health care system
Washington state and hospital officials have been meeting to consider what once was almost unthinkable — how to decide who lives and dies if, as feared, the coronavirus pandemic overwhelms the state’s health care system. The triage plan would assess factors such as age, health and likelihood of survival in determining who will get access to full care and who will merely be provided comfort care, with the expectation that they will die.
opiejeanne
@JMG: Yay! That’s a day-brightener.
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Florida? l see palm trees, could it be California?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@opiejeanne: You got it!
opiejeanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Southern California? I didn’t hear an accent that would make me think otherwise.