Mandates over choice.

Today's Tids Issue 5,617

Who will be Salk?:

Hope everybody out there is existing well. It’s one of those things. I have sat in my home typing, watching TV, taking naps, avoiding chores for years. But it seems different when you are told you have to do what you have always done naturally. It’s not unlike somebody telling me I can’t have avocado anymore. I might actually crave it solely because of restriction. Nah, avocado will never be in the cards for me. That’s’ going to far.

Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“Some of your hurts you have cured,

And the sharpest you still have survived.

But what torments of grief you endured

From evil that never arrived.”

I wonder how many people who just had to have a gigantic expensive kitchen with the most expensive appliances for their new homes are actually now using them? Learning the fun of cooking again could be one of the great benefits of this mess.

Tom Friedman writing in the NY Times about not throwing out the economy with the defense against spread, likes the suggestions in a NYT Op-Ed piece by Yale U Dr. David L. Katz, Founding director of Yale’s CD Funded Prevention center. Friedman says Katz may have a good, common sense ideal. Katz says we are currently trying to limit the spread by attacking horizontally, locking down everything that walks and talks. Kats suggests we can attack the key goals of eliminating the two most serious consequences of infection, death and debilitation, awhile persevering an economy by vital to the health and wellbeing of everybody else, by attacking the problem surgically, vertically. In another time it would be called profiling, where we attack the known most vulnerable – “That is,” he says, “the elderly, people, those with chronic diseases and the immunologically compromised.  In a nutshell, let the rest work and go to restaurants. and keep the nation moving along. But, he also warns that those in the work place and in colleges should also wash and observes established sensible rules for safety And he says that before we turn off the stay-at-home rules, everybody should endure a 14 day personal isolation. And stay away from the surgically blocked categories. Google “A plan to get America back to work: -- Tom Friedman".

6 feet or 6 feet under.

The Question:

What was the name of the real-life boxer who inspired Silvester Stallone to write and produce Rocky? Bonus: Who are considered the most influential fashion designers of the past 100 years. Extra Bonus: The Salk Vaccine for Polio was considered the salvation, hailed by all. But it was replaced by a vaccine developed by another brilliant doctor. Who was the doctor?

The Headlines.

--Senate Passes Two Trillion CV Salvation Bill; Wall Street Jumps Up For Second Day Following Passage Of Stimulus Bill; Dow Opens Higher And Remains Up Over 600 In Late Morning; Nasdaq Struggling..

--Coronavirus: 4017,405 Cases World Wide, 18,227 Deaths; Italy Showing Signs Of Easing; NY Center Of US Infections; Spain Overtakes China In CV Deaths..

--Prince Charles, Heir To Throne, Tests Positive For CV.

--Trump Suggesting Reopening Economy By Easter: Critics Abound.

--Travelers Flying Into RI Met By National Guard; Their Information Recorded For Quarant8ine Follow-Up.

--Turkey Indicts 20 Saudis In Khashoggi Killing.

Therapeutic solutions is one thing, but vaccinations is everything.  We maybe able to come up with therapeutics to heal the stricken faster, but the virus does not diminish entirely until we start inoculating. That is the long-range problem most affecting a future economic stability, and of course the continued good health of people.

I remember the Polio spread as being one of the scarier moments of my young life, and for society in general. And everybody took a gigantic big breath of pure hippieness when the vaccine was discovered by Jonas Salk. (Note: In 1952, the scary Polio infection in the USA infected 58,000 people, killed 3,145 and left 21,269 with mild to disabling paralysis.,

When Indian women gather, it is a sari sight.

Could it have been that the real sticking point in agreeing to the big stimulus deal was finding a way to bar Trump’s un-divested businesses from receiving bailout money? It certainly could be that, no doubt. The bill also bars funds to businesses controlled by VP Pence, Cabinet Members and Congress.

Last night’s highly touted, two hour interconnected FBI and FBI Most Wanted TV programs was little more than an anti-Trump Commercial. Pretty blatant example of Hollywood at work.

Actually, in general I find that FBI series, which I had originally looked forward to, it more preachy than interesting, only using minimal case investigation and action to move long an ideological side-story.

People some parts of the country are being told that they will be arrested if they violate “stay at home” rules. Yet, criminals are getting out of jail so they don’t get the coronavirus. Say what?

For two of the most hard-hit areas of the world, Milan Italy and southern Connecticut and NYC, the virus has been traced directly to larges social events. In Milan it was the Fashion Week Show. In Conn and NYC it was a 40^th Birthday soiree in Westport CT with crowd including NYC’ers and others as far away as South Africa. Diminished gatherings is a sensible rule.

Grammar 101:

Using punctuation: “I’m giving up drinking for a month” “I’m giving up. Drinking for a month.”

The Answer:

Rocky was inspired by the valiant effort of Mr. Everyman boxer, Chuck, “The Bleeder” Wepner who lost an amazing fifteen rounder on a technical knockout to the heavily favored Mohammed Ali. Bonus: Number One fashion designer on my list is Coco Chanel followed by Christian Dior and then Gianni Versace, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld, Giorgio Armani, Ralph Lauren, Hubert de Givenchy and at #10 Valentino. The next five are Calvin Klein, Cristobal Balenciaga, Miuccia Prada, Tom Ford and Donatella Versace. Going to the top 25  we have Oscar de la Renta, a team Domenica Dolce & Stefano Gabbana, Marc Jacobs, Thomas Burberry, Christian Loubitin, Jean Paul Gaultier, Vera Wang, Salvatore Ferragamo, Roberto Cavalli and at #25 Pierre Balmain. Last on this list of 70 is Lil’ Kim. Others are Tommy Hilfiger (27), Elsa Schiaparelli (29), Kate Spade (31), Donna Karan (34), Pierre Cardin (38), Halston (39), Diane Von Furstenberg (42) and Mary Quant and Renee La Coste at 52 and 53. Extra Bonus: Albert Sabin continued with Salk’s work to develop an oral vaccine. Salk’s by injection is actually a little stronger, but both have virtually eliminated “world” cases, from 350.00 in 1988 to 33 in 2018.

Let’s hope the new stimulus bill pours several tons of greenbacks into finding a vaccine. Because the is the both the health and the financial solution. wishing it were so just isn’t going to work.

This just in: Early reports said that John Travolta had symptoms of corona virus, But Doctors have now found that it was just Saturday Night Fever and that he was Staying Alive!