Lostin76

I love literally everything about this post.

I REALLY don't miss my commute - especially in the summer. Was not fun to be standing in a hot subway after a 10 minutes walk to our stop. There were some days when I would be practically be sweating through my suit before even getting on the sub. And yeah, the environmental impact could be one silver lining to all of this.

Yup. I was watching a show last night and someone was blowing out birthday candles in a large group of people. Gave me the willies!

I think there will be significant and lasting changes, especially the acceleration of online shopping and working from home. We've both been working remotely since March 13th and it's fine. I have roughly 50 people in my group and we've adjusted well. I just can't imagine wasting time walking to the subway stop and commuting into Manhattan anymore - and then doing the same thing on the way home. It's just a waste of time. Big chains are fleeing NYC (good riddance!) and we are losing lots of smaller places/independent shops. But, some independently owned restaurants/bars/shops here are flexing to meet this new reality. Not sure if it's enough to keep them going, but life is moving on here in Brooklyn. Is it different? Yeah, but things do change. I know there are articles about people fleeing the city, but I honestly do not know a single person who is leaving the city permanently. Not a one. Many of us are actually hoping that rents/real estate prices fall - that's not happening yet. I do now that someone who lives in LA that is moving here though, b/c they found a great deal. I think Manhattan may be in trouble - all of those empty office buildings mean the people who supported all of those workers are also in trouble. The outer boroughs will survive though. I know that you know the city better than most on here, but too many think NYC is only Manhattan. Manhattan has been a rotting, fetid mess of wealth inequality and chain stores for a long time before COVID. Landlords were doubling and tripling rents, pushing small businesses out and leaving vacant storefronts. It's been a waste of space for years. I see no reason to ever step foot in Manhattan now if I don't have to commute to work.

I love Simon and Garfunkel. It's funny, one of my staff - with the very common last name of Simon - after like two years of working together mentioned that "Uncle Paul and Aunt Edie" sent her a special birthday greeting message. She played it for me from our phone and I was like, "Wait, Uncle Paul is Paul Simon and Aunt Edie is Edie Brickell?" Yup, blew my mind.

I know you are a sensitive, my friend! I should have known that I could have damaged young sensibilities! That's why my mind didn't even process it as a swear word. F*#$-ery is a word my wife sometimes uses when she's annoyed with somebody doing something stupid or dangerous in public.

Sorry, didn't even think of that. Deleted the post.

Yeah, I'm a big fan of George and Ryan. Glad I'm not the only one. Love their Tool ones and the time they finally listened to Master of Puppets after starting with the newer stuff from Metallica.

One of my favorite Dire Straits song is Sultans of Swing (duh). I recently purchased the new 45rpm two album set from Analogue Productions and I've never heard this album sound so good. Then I saw that the Lost in Vegas guys did a reaction video for the song. I love how they slowly realize how incredible this song is. By the end, after the guitar solos, they are all in.

You state that you are not worried about it, but you're also aware of it and wear the mask and keep a wide birth of others. I honestly think that's the perfect place to be at this point. Not worried enough to let it consume you, but also aware enough or smart enough to know that there are steps you can take to protect others and yourself. It's kind of where we are now. At first, we were terrified of our groceries in late March/early April. Looking back, that was a bit insane. Now we know that you don't have to wash down every bottle of wine you bring in the house or let your deliveries sit for three days before opening them. Sure, we realize we probably overreacted, but with everything happening around us, we were genuinely worried about catching it and getting really sick. My wife has had lung collapses and surgeries, so I was terrified that she would catch it. We know a handful of people who have had it and recovered - two that had a rough time of recovering from it. We also know a few people who have died from it, and there was a person in our building who we now know died from it. That makes you think twice before hopping in the tiny elevator in your building (I've been taking the stairs to our fourth floor apartment regularly). Thank goodness that no other place will go through that. No other place in the US has the density or will be caught unawares like that. We know a bit more now, not enough, but more. It may be bad in other places - the FL daily deaths have not been great - but it's not going to be 800 deaths a day bad in one location. I look at IN (family) and MD (go there a lot) data a lot and IN does worry me a bit. Luckily my Dad and grandmother (she's 90!) in Southern IN take it very seriously. My Dad remembers the phone conversations we had in late March/April when things were bad here in NYC.

We knew so little back then and the number of deaths every day was just staggering. I recall walking around the block at night in April and not seeing a single person. All of the grates of businesses were pulled down. No traffic on the streets. Just sirens. It's not funny or PC to say this, but my wife and I often said this while sitting on the terrace at night, "I guess we'll just sit here and watch the world burn." We didn't know if there would be mass hunger, riots, violence. Just so much unknown at that point. Totally relate to your clients and it does show why we here in NYC (most of us) are still super cautious. The barely avoiding a car accident analogy is super apt!

"Shook to their core" is a good way of putting it. I also saw a tweet yesterday that really captures how people who were here in NYC might see this whole thing in a different light. I would definitely put us in the "extremely cautious" camp. Something about those 24/7 sirens and eerily empty streets just stays with you. I'm also seriously concerned about the economic fallout and other aspects of this, but it's just hard for me to take COVID-deniers, anti-maskers, or people that belittle this thing seriously. The virus will do what it does, we can only hope to mitigate it with our actions. https://twitter.com/angpal/status/1291232038452891648?s=20

For fave live clips, this is the correct answer.

My wife and I both read Tara Westover's Educated last year and both thought it was incredible. What a unique perspective and life. Also impressive that she got where she did with everything that happened. Highly recommended.

100%, man! Am such a huge fan of Russian Literature and history. And not sure about now, but IU's Russian program was one of the best in the biz back when I attended IU. I'm familiar with Smith's work, but it's been awhile and I don't think I've read anything outside of Gorky Park. I'm in the middle of a huge Chekhov biography right now., but it's not exactly light summer reading. I try to read Brothers K and/or Crime and Punishment at least once a year, but I've been slacking this year. It's not like I don't have the time during COVID!

Don't keep us in suspense, how did the brandywine do?

Ha, George is the man. All Things Must Pass alone is just insane. And then his later stuff joining the Traveling Wilburys. I like John, but there's Yoko. And Paul had Wings and Linda was cool, but so poppy. And let's not talk about Ringo much. 😂

It's a bummer, b/c I feel like tomatoes are the plants that we put the most love and time (and so much water) into most cases. Hopefully, you are are right and they get better as the season goes on.

Our peppers and cherry tomatoes are producing really well this year. Our slicer tomatoes not so much. Not many tomatoes so far - only a few on each of our three plants. We finally had one that was ripe and ate it today - boring and almost tasteless. Tasted like a grocery store tomato. Hope this was an outlier, b/c of all the work and watering put into them. These are what we had to get this year, b/c pickings were slim. I would have been better off with the standard Better Boy of Beefsteaks that are consistent growers with good flavors. https://www.burpee.com/vegetables/tomatoes/tomato-madame-marmande-hybrid-prod099554.html My absolute favorite slicer tomatoes are Giant Syrians, but they are always harder to find. Guess I learned my lesson this year.

Yep, that's a pretty big difference in obesity rates.

Agreed. I had to recently replace my "All Things Must Pass" album. Wore the damn thing out over the years. I still remember my parents listening to it all the time.

We are constantly going back and forth on stuff like that. We desperately want to know what factors are contributing and so far obesity seems to be a really strong one. The strongest here in NYC in our studies at least. Also, I wish I had good things to report on our HCQ as prophylaxis study, but we are having an issue with low recruitment. The cases have dropped that drastically here! Which is good, but we worry about not having enough power for a convincing result. It's also not my faculty, but faculty from another division. I just have some Research Assistants on it.

It really is a great album and George is still my favorite Beatle.

I do think that we in the US are less considerate of others and more concerned with our own freedoms. We still have a decent-sized part of our country refusing to do the things necessary to lessen the spread. Another thing I wonder about that Fouls touched on is dietary. We have consistently seen in our cases that obesity and heart conditions make this more deadly. I haven't checked the numbers, but I'd imagine that we have much higher levels of obesity than Bangladesh. Also I can't type Bangladesh w/o thinking of George Harrison and that album. If you are old, you know.

I kid and all, but seriously during this would be the best time. The city is much better w/o all the people! I always tell people that you have to walk over the Brooklyn Bridge (from the Manhattan side) and not look back towards Manhattan until you get at least halfway over. The view is so great. BUT, you normally have to do it really early in the morning b/c it's so packed with people. Now, not so much! All of the the parks and outdoor dining also make things kind of nice.