As the current crisis unfolds, this blog is intended to serve as a virtual meeting place where readers can share their experiences and observations related to the Coronavirus. These may be long or as brief as one sentence. Life has turned upside down in a way that those of us who lived through 9/11 recall — only this time, it's on a global scale. Let us bear witness. Re the name of the blog: the other more appropriate names were already snatched up. Submit entries to jennakilt@aol.com./ Jenna Orkin
March 15
Jenna Orkin
New York City
Central Park is jammed. No one's observing social distancing protocols; friends hold hands, threesomes and larger groups stroll along together nonchalantly, as though this were an ordinary Sunday afternoon. Presumably, they're not all roommates.
You'd never guess anything was amiss. Only two people wore the masks that not long ago were associated exclusively with the Japanese: A father/son duo, on bikes, the boy about five years old. Well, people with kids are bound to be more cautious — except that they weren't wearing helmets so there goes that theory.
A young father wheeled his infant in the smallest baby carriage on the market with netting across the front and a sign swinging from the hood that read, "Please do not touch." Nothing is safe anymore. Each day reveals a new avenue of transmission: air, surfaces hard, soft and everything in between. The scientists have been busy testing the longevity of the virus on plastic versus metal versus cloth, synthetic and natural. The list is endless.
This thing is going to breed a generation of obsessive/compulsives. People are using anything but their hands to open doors... or wipe their faces. Are they keeping track of which body part they're using to do what? If they reserve one finger for scratching their nose, is there another one whose job is to hook the door handle?
Overheard: "Google was like, 'What?! We're building fucking what?' I was like, 'Oh my god, we're not going to have fucking anything." I'm guessing this had to do with an algorithm Google was supposedly working on to track the virus, according to Trump.
March 16
A guy streaking by on a bike shouted into his phone. Either he said, "Wash it off," or "Martial law." Whichever one it was, the other interpretation reveals something about where my unconscious is focused these days. On the third hand, as a friend of mine says, he may have been talking about something entirely different, in which case both interpretations reveal only the contents of my psyche rather than reality.
When I got home, there was a note posted on the front door by Management about Con Ed. I thought, "Outages already?" But it seems they're just upgrading the meters; some apartments may lose power but for no more than five minutes. OK, I'll believe that, for now....
On the mirror in the lobby was a note from two neighbors in 5F offering to shop for anyone who has to be quarantined. The woman's name sounds Slavic; the man's name could be as well. Did they live through the collapse of the Soviet Union?
March 15
Jenna Orkin
New York City
Central Park is jammed. No one's observing social distancing protocols; friends hold hands, threesomes and larger groups stroll along together nonchalantly, as though this were an ordinary Sunday afternoon. Presumably, they're not all roommates.
You'd never guess anything was amiss. Only two people wore the masks that not long ago were associated exclusively with the Japanese: A father/son duo, on bikes, the boy about five years old. Well, people with kids are bound to be more cautious — except that they weren't wearing helmets so there goes that theory.
A young father wheeled his infant in the smallest baby carriage on the market with netting across the front and a sign swinging from the hood that read, "Please do not touch." Nothing is safe anymore. Each day reveals a new avenue of transmission: air, surfaces hard, soft and everything in between. The scientists have been busy testing the longevity of the virus on plastic versus metal versus cloth, synthetic and natural. The list is endless.
This thing is going to breed a generation of obsessive/compulsives. People are using anything but their hands to open doors... or wipe their faces. Are they keeping track of which body part they're using to do what? If they reserve one finger for scratching their nose, is there another one whose job is to hook the door handle?
Overheard: "Google was like, 'What?! We're building fucking what?' I was like, 'Oh my god, we're not going to have fucking anything." I'm guessing this had to do with an algorithm Google was supposedly working on to track the virus, according to Trump.
March 16
A guy streaking by on a bike shouted into his phone. Either he said, "Wash it off," or "Martial law." Whichever one it was, the other interpretation reveals something about where my unconscious is focused these days. On the third hand, as a friend of mine says, he may have been talking about something entirely different, in which case both interpretations reveal only the contents of my psyche rather than reality.
When I got home, there was a note posted on the front door by Management about Con Ed. I thought, "Outages already?" But it seems they're just upgrading the meters; some apartments may lose power but for no more than five minutes. OK, I'll believe that, for now....
On the mirror in the lobby was a note from two neighbors in 5F offering to shop for anyone who has to be quarantined. The woman's name sounds Slavic; the man's name could be as well. Did they live through the collapse of the Soviet Union?
Thank you4 attempting to provide updated & accurate news in this critical time! Mute opinions & stay with evidenced facts, please!
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