I’m glad the human-wolf partnership worked out so well.
Can you imagine how much different life would be today if humans had taken a liking to the snake that slithered up closer to the campfire?
About Coronavirus
I posted this message in response to a friend who is among the more vulnerable to coronavirus, and modified it slightly to post it on my own Facebook page:
I’ve been hearing some try to minimize the precautions we’ve seen thus far against the coronavirus. Some have even ridiculed it all.
I would ask you to consider that some of these precautions are not so YOU won’t get the coronavirus, which you figure you’ll handle just fine. It’s so you don’t act as a vector for COVID-19 and SPREAD it to someone who is more vulnerable than you. Keep in mind that the best information we have now says YOU ARE CONTAGIOUS before you start showing symptoms YOURSELF.
Sorry for your inconvenience, but this is more than just “all about you.”
And, by the way — why weren’t we all washing our hands and employing reasonable social practices minimizing the spread of things like this — AND THE FLU, which has been killing tens of thousands EVERY YEAR — ALL ALONG?!?
Some of the news coverage has been shallow and sensationalist. But if you listen to it, some fairly shocking facts emerge. You are several more time more likely to die of coronavirus than the flu if you’re over 60, especially if you have “compicating medical conditions.” Like heart disease. Or respiratory disease. Or diabetes. Or high blood pressure. A LOT of people over 60 have high blood pressure.
And I just learned something new yesterday. The pneumonia that older people are getting as a complication of coronavirus? It’s not bacterial pneumonia, as initially thought. It’s ARDS – acute respiratory disease syndrome. The Wikipedia pages states that OF THOSE WHO SURVIVE (my emphasis), a decreased quality of life is relatively common.
And ARDS is what killed so many, so quickly, during the Spanish flu of 1918. The mortality rate of ARDS is 36-52%.
This is NOT the flu. It’s both more communicable and several times more deadly. It’s worth taking it seriously.
Valentine’s Day (and Lupercalia) planning
In 2020, the February full moon is on Sunday, February 9, so if you have a date for February 14, they’re probably not a werewolf.
Not a lunar werewolf, anyway.
(If YOU’RE the werewolf, you’ve already taken this into account on your calendar.)
Automobile name recycling
I was hearing an ad on the radio for Lincolns, and as they rattled off the model names, one sounded familiar – and I made the connection. In 2019 there’s a Lincoln Corsair, but in 1958 and 1959 – there was an Edsel Corsair. I guess sixty years was a safe distance.
Other Edsel model names have since been reused. There was an Edsel Citation (Chevrolet), an Edsel Pacer (American Motors), an Edsel Ranger (Ford), an Edsel Viilager (Mercury), and an Edsel Comet (Mercury).
The Edsel Bermuda and Edsel Roundup are still waiting to be used again as car model names.
Happy (belated) anniversary to me!
I was just reminded that it’s been a year since I started this web site. A bit more — it was February 20, 2018. There have been a smattering of posts since then, but I’ve also posted a lot here from other sources from years predating the establishment of this site. You might enjoy looking through them. I enjoyed writing them.
Welcome!
It’s been a month since I launched this web site, and today I announced it to friends and Facebook and Twitter, so welcome, and thanks for coming over to check it out. I may not have a new post every day, but I have a fair amount of material that I’ve been looking to create a home for. This is it.
It’s Alive!
Yes, it is.
(This is the day I launched the web site, and this was the first post. There are other, earlier posts posted here that I’ve given the day they were created in other places such as Facebook or a Twitter.)