No person is an Island.

Today's Tids Issue 4,615

Reachng Out:

Life goes on. It’s just that now it is in a different place. Younger people still need to prepare for futures. Older people still have concerns for younger people. People still accomplish astonishing feats. People still clean out garages and basements. People still discover and the fight serious illnesses way beyond the virus. People still comfort other lives interrupted by tragedy. People still fall in love. Everyday children are born and every day parents and relatives stand there wide eyed, watching every infant action, feeling the indescribable emotions of seeing a new life. Nothing changes in life, just the surroundings.

The Monday morning quarterbacks have all the answers and are fast to find blame. But what are they going to do about things they have never seen before? Write letters? Do they ever really create anything except friction?

I think we all are beginning to feel the effects of the rapid spread of email jokes. This is one of the first prevalent results of a pandemic isolation. Peeps need a release, yet there are no means at all to quarantine against them, except to darken your computer to everything. Decisions, decisions.

Also spreading rapidly are false rumors and internet or telemarketing CV Scams. Be careful! Really careful. In addition to not touching anybody, don’t say yes to anything.

The supermarkets and drug stores are especially crowded, But I believe a lot of it is because people just like shopping as always.

Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you are wrong. Who, me? Wrong?

The ugly reality of a Pandemic. You can be declared a non-essential worker.

Will the Repubs be losing their Senate majority through illnesses requiring quarantine? Will Mitch allow voting from home? I have these depressing expectations this morn that last evening’s failure to pass the CV assistance bill will push the markets lower. But, who really knows how tis fidgety market will respond to anything.

The Question:

How big is Long Island NY? Bonus: Who was the first NBA player to score 50 points in a game? Extra Bonus: Who was the player with the most over 60-point games?

The Headlines:

--Globe Shudders AS Italy Death Toll Tops 5,000.

--Stock Futures Bleak.

--Senate Fails To Pass The CV Assistance Bill; Mitch To Try Again Today; Dems Obstruct While Repubs Quarantined.

--Dems Now Concerned Over Joe Biden’s Young Voter Problems.

--France Says That Some Older Drugs Work Against Covid.

--Some Major Supermarkets And Food Outlets Temporarily Raising Salaries For Workers To Keep Supplies Moving.

--Curfews In Nation And Around The World Getting Tougher; US Officials Across The Country Blast Young People: “Time To Grow Up…Wake Up”

--Various Groups Pressuring Olympics’ Management To Cancel; Track And Field Organization Joins Swimmers.

--Afghan Peace Deal Hanging On.

President Trump just has to learn when it is time to get off the stage.

The Block Island Police force, one uniformed officer and two fishermen, are guarding the local power station. That is because of some rumored threats that unknown citizens are planning to destroy it. Block Island is 12 miles off the coast of its state, Rhode Island, and it has no cases of the C-19. But hey have lots of summer homes owned by wealthy families from NY and Connecticut. The idea is that if there is no power, it is highly unlikely people will come to stay and fend for themselves. But authorities are calling this a terrorist action and have called the FBI. And yet, it just may have been one drunken remark in a local tavern. Which they say is illegal, a TUI like perhaps a DUI.

There is a great need for a sarcasm font.

I hear the whales are unhappy because humans are using their conversations to help put them to sleep.

One of the bigger problems is that being locked inside magnifies small concerns.

Well at least Charlie Brown is playing baseball again.

A line for the times: “I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.”

But liquor stores will be designated as essential.

I live on an island Aquidneck, that measures 37.80 square miles. Manhattan Island is 33.77 square miles. Every day I am happy that the developers moved south.

Now, that above is a good example of the consequences of life’s fork in the road decisions. Aquidneck and Manhattan are both similar sized islands in the Northeast. The cities of Newport and New York on those islands were both major seaports and commercial centers in colonial items. Both were invaded, taken and occupied by the British during the Revolutionary War. George Washington spoke to the people of those cities after the war. Newport’s island decided to become agricultural. New York’s opted for stocks and bonds. In the late 19^th century, New York people came to Newport to relax.

Without all of the tourists, there will be a lot less food strewn around for the seagulls. I may start a seagull crowdfunding site.

What will the ruckus sound like among highly paid athletes when the big networks and cable companies start clawing back monies from professional leagues, and the teams say the cupboard is bare.  The possible doomsday scenarios for sports are beyond imagination.

How many of you would like to win the lottery, but don’t think you are lucky enough to od so. Let’s hope the bad luck holds for the Covid lottery. Wash your hands. It will help.

Personally, I think some of these search engines like Google and Bing are getting dumber and dumber. I think they are being corrupted by commercialism.

Sometimes I will listen to an entire symphony just to enjoy one or two passages.

Years ago, friends and I would sail to Block Island and sleep on the beach. We’d waken to cool breezes and brightening skies, watch crabs fighting seagulls for territory. Our small wooden boat bobbed in the soft ripples of a barren cove. That would have been about 50 or so years ago. Today, you can barely fit another large yacht in the once somewhat secluded New Harbor. 

As I look out, I basically see us sacrificing wealth for health.

The Answer:

Long Island is 1,401 square miles. The entire state of Rhode Island is 1,212 square miles. A large percentage of the first English settlers of Long Island were from Rhode Island. They should have annexed it.  Bonus: Bob Cousy the remarkable ballhandling magician of the Boston Celtics was the first player to score 50. But he did it with several overtimes. How that local Holy Cross All-American got to the Celtics is an interesting case itself. The great Red Auerbach called him “a dime a dozen guard,” a “local yokel,” but wound up with him as a booby prize, when after the Chicago Stags folded and their players were distributed, Boston got the short straw and the Cous. It is said that Red loved eating that crow. Extra Bonus: Wilt Chamberlain was the dominate scorer of our times. Nobody came close to his record of the most over 60 games. Not Michael, not Kobe, not Kareem nor Harden, Baylor, West or David’s Thompson and Robinson. Or Larry Bird.

I have always been fascinated by islands. Maybe it’s because they are typically harder to reach and it feels better when you finally get there.

Isn’t it interesting that the deeper we get into quarantine the harder we work to reach out to people?

Maybe one of the great outcomes of this quarantine will be people finding out how much fun it is to create and cook great meals and having the entire family there to eat them.

Or as one reader writes: “When we come out of this quarantine, half of us will be amazing cooks, and the other half will have a drinking problem.”