Letter from Detroit – Vietnam All over Again with a Higher Body Count
Steve W homemade gym.
Dear Steve: Upon much shelter in place reflection, CORONA is really a simple problem to grasp. I note with irony here that a lot of my core personality traits have been shaped by similar events.
1: Sputnik which sent me and my ilk – virtually forced – into studying more of the sciences and the scientific method as the U.S panicked by realizing that the so-called Ike and Mami good years (Eisenhower) fifties prosperity had neglected the ability to fight the enemy and that prosperity could evaporate overnight. Sound familiar?
2: Vietnam and Nixon – when I was student deferred as a relatively prosperous white male, which kept me alive until the war ground down. During that time, it became apparent that the presidency and national leadership were lying to save their own political posteriors. Sound familiar?
Thank you Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee for publishing the Pentagon Papers – and with an affectionate nod to Jane Fonda who gave the bravest speech I ever personally witnessed. Fonda was clinging to the podium so as not to visibly tremble amidst the obscene right-wing heckling at Manhattan College event, where I was a student journalist, and as such seated behind the dais. (My bucket list item: get arrested with Fonda at one of her ongoing Friday protests against injustice when they resume in WADC.)
3: And now the Trump mis-administration of high crimes and misdemeanors. This is going to be a rough week for our mad King since his refusal to turn over his financial statements is now in front of the Supreme Court. If he loses, more reality will intrude on his self; Perhaps a reality that his weaponizing of narcissism cannot protect him or his supporters from.
Even so or not, the body count keeps rising and the economy keeps contracting to what could become known as Trump’s Great Depression v2.0 from Corona, which he maintained was going to magically disappear in April. Now, corona is in the White House and Trump still refuses to wear a mask. At least testing is available to the White House. But so is plague and illness and more permanent outcomes that are growing in our divided nation.
The topic of the week aside from those above is reopening. Too soon and we are condemned to repeat our history – but the Trump tax-cuts for the rich have given us +$Trillion annual deficits as far as we can see. With more spending required to protect the less fortunate one failed solution will be to stop helping the less affluent and the newly unemployed. The U.S. has breadlines, alas, but not a Franklin Delano Roosevelt in sight. (We have much more to fear here than fear itself. Our democracy, our Constitutional rule of law, our very way of life are all threatened by our dysfunctional hate-ridden political discourse.)
Through this blessings ensue – a Zoom birthday part for a great-nephew, health for all in my bloodlines or married kin. Ample time for meditation, rumination while gazing at the stars. I can in the silence hear what the medieval astronomers referred to as the music of the spheres. Awakening one morning to a red fox staring at me from my back yard; ending the day at dusk with a 5-foot doe in the same place. The stay home, stay alive protocol has so cut down on traffic that wild-life are walking south down the normally busy, traffic and noise infested Woodward Avenue unimpeded to Detroit’s northern suburbs where – given the lusciously landscaped homes, a five-star Michelin meal awaits them.
There is quiet and there’s quiet hope.
My ancestors didn’t get to choose the wars they fought – whether it be for the Constitution, the ending of slavery as Irish immigrants who fled during the time of the troubles (a generation later, my Irish side grandmother would pour a Guinness stout with the toast “as black as a protestant’s soul.”); My grandfather – first American expeditionary force – was calvary in the War to End All wars in France (I still have his helmet and a picture of him with his first car – a Model T); My father, a combat engineer, who cursed being held at the Rhine while the allies (courtesy of a wily Roosevelt and wise Eisenhower) let the Russians take the casualties in hand-to-hand combat on the way to Berlin during the final days. “They didn’t let us finish the job,” he said. This from a boy stocking shelves at a small New York City A&P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company) turned into a non-com dog-face by the army. So, by my family tradition, by my inclination, I will fight this war. Regards, – Z
Positive Feelings about the Lockdown
English Improv. Steve W homemade gym. for shut-ins.
Ken, I feel like this is the right moment for a personal update from the UK, as something has actually happened. It is sunny and warm and citizens are waking up to newspaper headlines telling us that on Monday, there will be a few changes to the lockdown rules. Of course, that’s the way everything gets announced now – articles in tabloid newspapers telling us what’s going to happen based on anonymous briefings by Whitehall ‘sources’.
So, what are our thoughts on some restrictions being lifted? Well I can’t speak for anyone but myself, my family, and a few close friends, but actually, it’s not quite as you’d imagine.
You see we have got used to lockdown. The rules have been simple, life has been very uncomplicated. In theory we all want to be individuals, conducting our lives in our own unique and sometimes complex and therefore stressful way. This virus and its lockdown have taken away our freedom, but it has also taken us back to a simpler time.
Yes, I’m fed up with not being able to find a quiet spot in the house because there’s always someone doing something noisy, but we’ve had all our meals together as a family for almost six weeks now, but pre-lockdown, I’d almost forgotten the names of our children.
Lockdown has forced us to relax and take pleasure from a stroll down a deserted country road. We’ve learned not to feel guilty about sitting in the sun with a beer when there are jobs to be done, because with no stores open, you’d only make a horrible mess of that DIY job by using the wrong tools and substitute materials you found at the back of the garage. Of course, some people have raced through their list of ‘when I get around to it’ jobs during lockdown, but not having these tasks hanging over them also brings relief and relaxation. Yes, there are people who have tremendous worries as a result of this crisis, and I feel very sorry for them, but overall, I suspect that the majority are actually less stressed.
Yes, there have been well-publicised exceptions, but the older generation of Brits have taken well to the lockdown, evoking in their minds the spirit of the Blitz, although the vast majority are too young to have actually endured it.
The message to stay two metres apart has been taken to heart. It has not only been well-observed but has actually become a ritual that people take pride in performing better that others – a bit like our famous ability to form an orderly queue. So when someone calls on us to collect one of the face masks my wife is busy making, we don’t just stay two metres away from them but we perform an elaborate and exaggerated dance to ensure we are at least twice that distance away at all times. There’s no distance police watching this maneuvering, but it demonstrates to the other party how aware, responsible and courteous you are.
Of course, all this is done for good reason and these reasons are still a reality whatever relaxation of the lockdown rules are announced on Monday. So, will there be people taking these new freedoms and abusing them by holding parties? Yes of course, but it won’t be like that for most of us.
We’ve all seen videos of wild animals that have been tranquillised then later released. I think we’re like that once-fierce tiger that is now peering cautiously out of the now-open door of its crate. They don’t snarl, roar and rush off to kill something for supper. Instead they are confused, fearful and cautious. Above all they are wary and move slowly in what was once the environment where they ruled.
So it will be for the vast majority of us when we are free to move around, socialise, shop and, eventually eat and drink together. We’ll get used to it of course, but actually, I suspect we’re all just a tiny bit scared.
Please send news of the colony. Almost all the news reports we get relating to you guys over there revolve around Mr. Trump for some reason… Keep well Ken. Best regards, Steve W Thu, May 7, 2020 4:30am Sent from my iPhone
Paul and Steve: You know about the story when Churchill was courting Roosevelt? The PM was at the White House and assigned to the chief butler. The aging lion was asked if he would like drink, Winston said a dry martini. The butler, trying to be gracious, asked how do the British define dry?
Churchill said “look at the vermouth bottle while you pour the gin”… Pusser’s was on hand no doubt for a Lord of the Admiralty, – Ken Z
Ken: Indeed – publish and let the world know – we will fight in the back gardens, we will fight in the courtyards of England – we will never surrender…. Paul W – Sent from my iPhone
Ken: Publish and be damned. Although my typo should be corrected – ‘working from home AS a euphemism, not AND a euphemism! Fingers blunted on a ‘hit it harder for bold’ Silver Reed typewriter are not the precision instrument one needs for an iPhone keyboard…. Steve W – Sent from my iPhone 22 March
Paul and Steve: Is it okay if I publish this and circulate… I’m still laughing at Paul H exploring the equations of Principia on a ladder, which was quilled just up the road. Newton stuck to pacing on the dirt, as I recall …
There will always be an England, as to Boris…. Well, people who live man-tan led countries with its own virulent politics of hate shouldn’t throw stones. How about a new Olympic Event: The Pandemic Marathon about the infested areas of Tokyo? The winner gets a free test immediately.
As to Steve’s tax payback via an alternate universe with Keynesian induced demand, well it’s a thesis that deserves testing and verification, perhaps more than once when the time comes. Here’s to imbibing via Skype or Zoom. Cheers – Zett aka Ken Z – AutoInformed
Hello, Ken, One positive aspect of this horror is the Metropolitan Opera’s free streaming (which, if I am a model, will encourage lots of people to subscribe once the freebie period is over). I’ve watched 3/4 of the Ring Cycle in bed. I enjoy the first hour or so, then drift off with only subliminal listening. With utterly no effort on my part, I awake for portions I love: the trip to and from Nibelung and the Rainbow Entrance to Valhalla, each on Robert LePage’s Machine, the Seigs’ romance (I love Eva Maria Westbroek), the Valkyries’ ride, Brunhilde’s slumber party with her dad Wotan, Sieg Jr’s sword making, his famous “Das Ist Nicht Mann!!” and subsequent love scene with Auntie Bru. Damn, I slept through Seig Jr’s killing the Dragon aka Fafner and speaking with the little bird. I have until 3:30 p.m. Pacific to watch the Dragon and little bird before they load Gotterdammerung. God only knows what portions my subliminal will choose. – Dennis S from California
Dear Ken: Aaah – the legend that is the Z: Superb to hear from you – and I’ve also done the whole of Fleabag and The Crown and am now getting hugely emotional at The Handmaids Tale – or is the Housemaids Tale? Either way, I gotta get me one of those hats. Lovely sunny day here in Blighty today meant the cleaning out of the gutters around our courtyard – always a joy as the combination of me, a ladder, a long pole and a hosepipe is a recipe for disaster. And yet again I managed to shoot myself in the face with the hose by failing to understand that a jet of water aimed into a shallow piece of PVC guttering sees it hit the bottom and instantly fly back up again.
I followed this – while still wet and embarrassed – with the hand washing of two cars. Yes TWO. I have employed people to “hand wash” cars for the last zillion years, normally as I sit inside trying not to engage their stares and imagining that their Eastern European banter is good natured rather than saying things like “look at that old bastard in that Ford Focus, I’ll aim this jet wash at the driver’s window when he’s not expecting it and make him jump”. So today was an historic event.
First, the starting up of my old Capri which has lain dormant under a cover in the garage for about a year – the good news being that it burst into life on the second turn and the old Cologne V6 burbled to temp easily once I’d got it positioned on the gravel for its wash and brush up.
The second car belongs to Mercedes Benz and is my son’s current presser – some AMG coupe-like thing that startles the wildlife when it starts up. It was dirty – but once wet, cleaned up nicely until it started to dry and I realised it wasn’t shiny like the Capri. So, either I used wire wool instead of a sponge or there’s something dodgy with the paint. That indeed was the issue. What is it with matt paint? Usually, once I’ve cleaned something I like to see my face in it – no chance with the matt grey Merc….
While I applaud the Steve Woolmington Wonder-Gym inventions, I can’t promise I will be following suit. In fact, a mercy dash to the wine store yesterday resulted in a decent haul, so I’m fine without the bars for a while. It wasn’t exactly hoarding as we tend to drink it quickly anyway, so that’s my excuse.
Stopping briefly to post a letter at a local Post Office on the way home, I watched amazed as person after person emerged from said PO and “convenience store” with packs of beer and cider stacked high and deposited them in their car trunks before heading back in for another few cases. At the same time, the enterprising owner of the convenience store was emptying the back of his Volkswagen Tiguan of more packs of cider and beer into the store presumably after a quick visit to his wholesaler. I couldn’t help thinking he could have saved himself much effort if he just emptied his Tiguan straight into the various family hatchbacks gathered round the store entrance with their lids open as their owners chugged in empty-handed and out fully-laden. Remarkable.
And I did want to shoot at least one of them who had enough Fosters to take a bath in each day for months during lock down. On that happy note, stay safe all – keep the faith, keep in touch, and here’s Rioja in your eye. Cheers! – Paul H on Sun, Mar 22, 2020 – Re: Letter from Detroit
Ken : Well, well. As I live and breathe (at the moment anyway) – clearly the Virus is good for something, as I’ve heard from several ‘blasts from the past’ during the crisis. Hope you are well Ken, and more importantly, will stay that way. Yes, interesting times, but economics and the odd death aside, this will bring some benefits. In the future, employers will no longer see ‘working from home’ as a euphemism for a duvet day. We will all value and use our local pubs more. We’ll be genuinely pleased to see that dotty old aunt that we normally put off going to visit, and hopefully we’ll all be a bit more caring in general. Except the hoarders – let’s shoot them.
Anyway, we’re fine here – gym has closed so we just made one out of some rope, 30-litre water containers and, believe it or not, a unicycle wheel. Still managing to fly to stay current, and despite what I said about hoarders, I confess I have filled every available container with avgas so I have ten hours of fuel in around the now NO SMOKING house.
Biggest impact on my life – can’t lie – it’s the pub closures. I don’t care so much about restaurants as I can cook, but although in theory you can brew your own beer, in the words of Crocodile Dundee, it tastes like shit. I reckon the government will be able to make back the whole £300bn aid package cost in one week’s tax when the pubs reopen. Good health Gentlemen. – Steve W 22 Mar 2020
Letter from Detroit from Ken aka Zett:
Well, we are isolating in place. I have seen all of Fleabag and the Crown, and The Medici, among others. Hoarding here is more contagious than Corona virus. King Trump, as always, is trying to bluff his way out of the crisis he abetted by dismissing the threat and then – even now – refusing to act while self-praising his not quiet, not genius approach and attacking media for using his own words/babble against him.
Some scenarios have us locked down for months, maybe even 18 months or more. Lots of denial evident – look at the Olympics or most sports organizations, to say nothing of Trump supporters (here the more social isolation by them is one good part of the plague ) – and many more deaths to come. I’m reminded of my old New YAWK Broadway days – it’s springtime for Hitler – but I’m not laughing. – Ken Z 22 Mar 2020 – AutoInformed wrote in a Letter from Detroit.
COVID Journal – Our Correspondents on Politics, Policy and Insights in these Medieval Times of a 21st Century Plague
Letter from Detroit – Vietnam All over Again with a Higher Body Count
Steve W homemade gym.
Dear Steve: Upon much shelter in place reflection, CORONA is really a simple problem to grasp. I note with irony here that a lot of my core personality traits have been shaped by similar events.
1: Sputnik which sent me and my ilk – virtually forced – into studying more of the sciences and the scientific method as the U.S panicked by realizing that the so-called Ike and Mami good years (Eisenhower) fifties prosperity had neglected the ability to fight the enemy and that prosperity could evaporate overnight. Sound familiar?
2: Vietnam and Nixon – when I was student deferred as a relatively prosperous white male, which kept me alive until the war ground down. During that time, it became apparent that the presidency and national leadership were lying to save their own political posteriors. Sound familiar?
Thank you Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee for publishing the Pentagon Papers – and with an affectionate nod to Jane Fonda who gave the bravest speech I ever personally witnessed. Fonda was clinging to the podium so as not to visibly tremble amidst the obscene right-wing heckling at Manhattan College event, where I was a student journalist, and as such seated behind the dais. (My bucket list item: get arrested with Fonda at one of her ongoing Friday protests against injustice when they resume in WADC.)
3: And now the Trump mis-administration of high crimes and misdemeanors. This is going to be a rough week for our mad King since his refusal to turn over his financial statements is now in front of the Supreme Court. If he loses, more reality will intrude on his self; Perhaps a reality that his weaponizing of narcissism cannot protect him or his supporters from.
Even so or not, the body count keeps rising and the economy keeps contracting to what could become known as Trump’s Great Depression v2.0 from Corona, which he maintained was going to magically disappear in April. Now, corona is in the White House and Trump still refuses to wear a mask. At least testing is available to the White House. But so is plague and illness and more permanent outcomes that are growing in our divided nation.
The topic of the week aside from those above is reopening. Too soon and we are condemned to repeat our history – but the Trump tax-cuts for the rich have given us +$Trillion annual deficits as far as we can see. With more spending required to protect the less fortunate one failed solution will be to stop helping the less affluent and the newly unemployed. The U.S. has breadlines, alas, but not a Franklin Delano Roosevelt in sight. (We have much more to fear here than fear itself. Our democracy, our Constitutional rule of law, our very way of life are all threatened by our dysfunctional hate-ridden political discourse.)
Through this blessings ensue – a Zoom birthday part for a great-nephew, health for all in my bloodlines or married kin. Ample time for meditation, rumination while gazing at the stars. I can in the silence hear what the medieval astronomers referred to as the music of the spheres. Awakening one morning to a red fox staring at me from my back yard; ending the day at dusk with a 5-foot doe in the same place. The stay home, stay alive protocol has so cut down on traffic that wild-life are walking south down the normally busy, traffic and noise infested Woodward Avenue unimpeded to Detroit’s northern suburbs where – given the lusciously landscaped homes, a five-star Michelin meal awaits them.
There is quiet and there’s quiet hope.
My ancestors didn’t get to choose the wars they fought – whether it be for the Constitution, the ending of slavery as Irish immigrants who fled during the time of the troubles (a generation later, my Irish side grandmother would pour a Guinness stout with the toast “as black as a protestant’s soul.”); My grandfather – first American expeditionary force – was calvary in the War to End All wars in France (I still have his helmet and a picture of him with his first car – a Model T); My father, a combat engineer, who cursed being held at the Rhine while the allies (courtesy of a wily Roosevelt and wise Eisenhower) let the Russians take the casualties in hand-to-hand combat on the way to Berlin during the final days. “They didn’t let us finish the job,” he said. This from a boy stocking shelves at a small New York City A&P (Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company) turned into a non-com dog-face by the army. So, by my family tradition, by my inclination, I will fight this war. Regards, – Z
Positive Feelings about the Lockdown
English Improv. Steve W homemade gym. for shut-ins.
Ken, I feel like this is the right moment for a personal update from the UK, as something has actually happened. It is sunny and warm and citizens are waking up to newspaper headlines telling us that on Monday, there will be a few changes to the lockdown rules. Of course, that’s the way everything gets announced now – articles in tabloid newspapers telling us what’s going to happen based on anonymous briefings by Whitehall ‘sources’.
So, what are our thoughts on some restrictions being lifted? Well I can’t speak for anyone but myself, my family, and a few close friends, but actually, it’s not quite as you’d imagine.
You see we have got used to lockdown. The rules have been simple, life has been very uncomplicated. In theory we all want to be individuals, conducting our lives in our own unique and sometimes complex and therefore stressful way. This virus and its lockdown have taken away our freedom, but it has also taken us back to a simpler time.
Yes, I’m fed up with not being able to find a quiet spot in the house because there’s always someone doing something noisy, but we’ve had all our meals together as a family for almost six weeks now, but pre-lockdown, I’d almost forgotten the names of our children.
Lockdown has forced us to relax and take pleasure from a stroll down a deserted country road. We’ve learned not to feel guilty about sitting in the sun with a beer when there are jobs to be done, because with no stores open, you’d only make a horrible mess of that DIY job by using the wrong tools and substitute materials you found at the back of the garage. Of course, some people have raced through their list of ‘when I get around to it’ jobs during lockdown, but not having these tasks hanging over them also brings relief and relaxation. Yes, there are people who have tremendous worries as a result of this crisis, and I feel very sorry for them, but overall, I suspect that the majority are actually less stressed.
Yes, there have been well-publicised exceptions, but the older generation of Brits have taken well to the lockdown, evoking in their minds the spirit of the Blitz, although the vast majority are too young to have actually endured it.
The message to stay two metres apart has been taken to heart. It has not only been well-observed but has actually become a ritual that people take pride in performing better that others – a bit like our famous ability to form an orderly queue. So when someone calls on us to collect one of the face masks my wife is busy making, we don’t just stay two metres away from them but we perform an elaborate and exaggerated dance to ensure we are at least twice that distance away at all times. There’s no distance police watching this maneuvering, but it demonstrates to the other party how aware, responsible and courteous you are.
Of course, all this is done for good reason and these reasons are still a reality whatever relaxation of the lockdown rules are announced on Monday. So, will there be people taking these new freedoms and abusing them by holding parties? Yes of course, but it won’t be like that for most of us.
We’ve all seen videos of wild animals that have been tranquillised then later released. I think we’re like that once-fierce tiger that is now peering cautiously out of the now-open door of its crate. They don’t snarl, roar and rush off to kill something for supper. Instead they are confused, fearful and cautious. Above all they are wary and move slowly in what was once the environment where they ruled.
So it will be for the vast majority of us when we are free to move around, socialise, shop and, eventually eat and drink together. We’ll get used to it of course, but actually, I suspect we’re all just a tiny bit scared.
Please send news of the colony. Almost all the news reports we get relating to you guys over there revolve around Mr. Trump for some reason… Keep well Ken. Best regards, Steve W Thu, May 7, 2020 4:30am Sent from my iPhone
Paul and Steve: You know about the story when Churchill was courting Roosevelt? The PM was at the White House and assigned to the chief butler. The aging lion was asked if he would like drink, Winston said a dry martini. The butler, trying to be gracious, asked how do the British define dry?
Churchill said “look at the vermouth bottle while you pour the gin”… Pusser’s was on hand no doubt for a Lord of the Admiralty, – Ken Z
Ken: Indeed – publish and let the world know – we will fight in the back gardens, we will fight in the courtyards of England – we will never surrender…. Paul W – Sent from my iPhone
Ken: Publish and be damned. Although my typo should be corrected – ‘working from home AS a euphemism, not AND a euphemism! Fingers blunted on a ‘hit it harder for bold’ Silver Reed typewriter are not the precision instrument one needs for an iPhone keyboard…. Steve W – Sent from my iPhone 22 March
Paul and Steve: Is it okay if I publish this and circulate… I’m still laughing at Paul H exploring the equations of Principia on a ladder, which was quilled just up the road. Newton stuck to pacing on the dirt, as I recall …
There will always be an England, as to Boris…. Well, people who live man-tan led countries with its own virulent politics of hate shouldn’t throw stones. How about a new Olympic Event: The Pandemic Marathon about the infested areas of Tokyo? The winner gets a free test immediately.
As to Steve’s tax payback via an alternate universe with Keynesian induced demand, well it’s a thesis that deserves testing and verification, perhaps more than once when the time comes. Here’s to imbibing via Skype or Zoom. Cheers – Zett aka Ken Z – AutoInformed
Hello, Ken, One positive aspect of this horror is the Metropolitan Opera’s free streaming (which, if I am a model, will encourage lots of people to subscribe once the freebie period is over). I’ve watched 3/4 of the Ring Cycle in bed. I enjoy the first hour or so, then drift off with only subliminal listening. With utterly no effort on my part, I awake for portions I love: the trip to and from Nibelung and the Rainbow Entrance to Valhalla, each on Robert LePage’s Machine, the Seigs’ romance (I love Eva Maria Westbroek), the Valkyries’ ride, Brunhilde’s slumber party with her dad Wotan, Sieg Jr’s sword making, his famous “Das Ist Nicht Mann!!” and subsequent love scene with Auntie Bru. Damn, I slept through Seig Jr’s killing the Dragon aka Fafner and speaking with the little bird. I have until 3:30 p.m. Pacific to watch the Dragon and little bird before they load Gotterdammerung. God only knows what portions my subliminal will choose. – Dennis S from California
Dear Ken: Aaah – the legend that is the Z: Superb to hear from you – and I’ve also done the whole of Fleabag and The Crown and am now getting hugely emotional at The Handmaids Tale – or is the Housemaids Tale? Either way, I gotta get me one of those hats. Lovely sunny day here in Blighty today meant the cleaning out of the gutters around our courtyard – always a joy as the combination of me, a ladder, a long pole and a hosepipe is a recipe for disaster. And yet again I managed to shoot myself in the face with the hose by failing to understand that a jet of water aimed into a shallow piece of PVC guttering sees it hit the bottom and instantly fly back up again.
I followed this – while still wet and embarrassed – with the hand washing of two cars. Yes TWO. I have employed people to “hand wash” cars for the last zillion years, normally as I sit inside trying not to engage their stares and imagining that their Eastern European banter is good natured rather than saying things like “look at that old bastard in that Ford Focus, I’ll aim this jet wash at the driver’s window when he’s not expecting it and make him jump”. So today was an historic event.
First, the starting up of my old Capri which has lain dormant under a cover in the garage for about a year – the good news being that it burst into life on the second turn and the old Cologne V6 burbled to temp easily once I’d got it positioned on the gravel for its wash and brush up.
The second car belongs to Mercedes Benz and is my son’s current presser – some AMG coupe-like thing that startles the wildlife when it starts up. It was dirty – but once wet, cleaned up nicely until it started to dry and I realised it wasn’t shiny like the Capri. So, either I used wire wool instead of a sponge or there’s something dodgy with the paint. That indeed was the issue. What is it with matt paint? Usually, once I’ve cleaned something I like to see my face in it – no chance with the matt grey Merc….
While I applaud the Steve Woolmington Wonder-Gym inventions, I can’t promise I will be following suit. In fact, a mercy dash to the wine store yesterday resulted in a decent haul, so I’m fine without the bars for a while. It wasn’t exactly hoarding as we tend to drink it quickly anyway, so that’s my excuse.
Stopping briefly to post a letter at a local Post Office on the way home, I watched amazed as person after person emerged from said PO and “convenience store” with packs of beer and cider stacked high and deposited them in their car trunks before heading back in for another few cases. At the same time, the enterprising owner of the convenience store was emptying the back of his Volkswagen Tiguan of more packs of cider and beer into the store presumably after a quick visit to his wholesaler. I couldn’t help thinking he could have saved himself much effort if he just emptied his Tiguan straight into the various family hatchbacks gathered round the store entrance with their lids open as their owners chugged in empty-handed and out fully-laden. Remarkable.
And I did want to shoot at least one of them who had enough Fosters to take a bath in each day for months during lock down. On that happy note, stay safe all – keep the faith, keep in touch, and here’s Rioja in your eye. Cheers! – Paul H on Sun, Mar 22, 2020 – Re: Letter from Detroit
Ken : Well, well. As I live and breathe (at the moment anyway) – clearly the Virus is good for something, as I’ve heard from several ‘blasts from the past’ during the crisis. Hope you are well Ken, and more importantly, will stay that way. Yes, interesting times, but economics and the odd death aside, this will bring some benefits. In the future, employers will no longer see ‘working from home’ as a euphemism for a duvet day. We will all value and use our local pubs more. We’ll be genuinely pleased to see that dotty old aunt that we normally put off going to visit, and hopefully we’ll all be a bit more caring in general. Except the hoarders – let’s shoot them.
Anyway, we’re fine here – gym has closed so we just made one out of some rope, 30-litre water containers and, believe it or not, a unicycle wheel. Still managing to fly to stay current, and despite what I said about hoarders, I confess I have filled every available container with avgas so I have ten hours of fuel in around the now NO SMOKING house.
Biggest impact on my life – can’t lie – it’s the pub closures. I don’t care so much about restaurants as I can cook, but although in theory you can brew your own beer, in the words of Crocodile Dundee, it tastes like shit. I reckon the government will be able to make back the whole £300bn aid package cost in one week’s tax when the pubs reopen. Good health Gentlemen. – Steve W 22 Mar 2020
Letter from Detroit from Ken aka Zett:
Well, we are isolating in place. I have seen all of Fleabag and the Crown, and The Medici, among others. Hoarding here is more contagious than Corona virus. King Trump, as always, is trying to bluff his way out of the crisis he abetted by dismissing the threat and then – even now – refusing to act while self-praising his not quiet, not genius approach and attacking media for using his own words/babble against him.
Some scenarios have us locked down for months, maybe even 18 months or more. Lots of denial evident – look at the Olympics or most sports organizations, to say nothing of Trump supporters (here the more social isolation by them is one good part of the plague ) – and many more deaths to come. I’m reminded of my old New YAWK Broadway days – it’s springtime for Hitler – but I’m not laughing. – Ken Z 22 Mar 2020 – AutoInformed wrote in a Letter from Detroit.