Beneath Masks

Today's Tids Issue 4.640

Still us:

In today’s masked society, is all about the eyes. Light them up!

In case you think we have lost everything normal, lobster off the boat is still fresh and delicious.

If true, this Kim death thing will be the big Chess match of the decade. Yes, NK watchers are warning of a fa possible internal fight that we want to avoid until the dust settles. The USA should just sit back and let NK’ers fight it out for power. Apparently there maybe another faction who will not allow Kim sister Kim jo Jong just walk in and take-his seat. Smart NK observers believe that there is a group who may make a power play with the alleged leadership vacuum, but NK transparency being what it is, there are not a lot of details yet. Kim jo Jong is Switzerland educated and Kim’s closest advisor, she is said to have a “firm control over key party functions.” She has a lengthy official title, but basically it’s OP - “Overseeing Propaganda”. But regime changes make people nervous, and the Chinese may be one of them. So, doing nothing by us may be the right tactic as long as we keep an eye on China who may try to do too much. Something to ponder other than death by a disease.

The big difference between Sunday and the rest of the week’s days is that on Sunday you don’t get to take a trip down to your mailbox. So, I spend an hour trying to think of something ese to do. Today I rearranged my bathing suits.

From Frazz: “The worst things in life aren’t as bad as the good things are good.”

Do you think that animals, mammals, fish and avians drifting into or near villages and towns and cities are thinking, I guess those two-legged creatures have giving up?

Virtue has a veil; vice a mask. -Victor Hugo

The virtual, no frills NFL Draft for Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week was the highest rated draft show ever – by a lot. It just shows you how hard up sports fans are for anything approaching live action. BTW, the Draft raised over $100 Million to aid in the Covid efforts.

I’m super friendly with 25 letters of the alphabet. I just don’t know why.

The Question:   

Throughout history, political wives have overshadowed their husbands. Name the top ten of these dominant wives.

The Headlines:

--Talk of Reopening Plans Could Have The Markets Higher Today.

--Euro Stocks Syrge

--White House To Scale Back Daily Press Meetings.

--Boris Johnson Returns To Work At 10 Downing; Avows That Strong Isolation Measures Will Continue; New Zealand Says It Has Eliminated Covid; Italy May Gradually Ese Lockdown.

--New List of Biden VP Possibilities: Amy Klobuchar, Gretchen Whitmer, Liz, Kamala, And Now Stacy Abrams of Georgia Looming Hot; Other On Expanding List Aare Two Tammy’s – Baldwin and Duckworth, Catherine Cortez Masto, Michelle Lujan Grisham; Michelle Obama/Biden Still A Dream Team For Many Dems.

--NK Media Offers Letter As Proof That Ki Jong un is Still Alive; South Korea Says KJu Still Alive And Well; Other Evidence Points To Leader Among The Missing.

--Nursing Home Industry Pushing For Immunity For Law Suits.

Is it a natural law of the universe that things with your body and your stuff always go wrong on Friday night and you have all weekend long to worry about them until plumbers, electricians and doctors return on Monday? Well, that’s something to do – worrying.

In the military, social distancing is called tactical diversion. Is there a military thesaurus?

Did you know that Robert E. Lee received the “Most Likely to Secede” Award in High School?

Well, it appears that in many tourist towns the world over where local citizens have been getting more and more concerned over rampaging tourism stealing the soul of their home towns and countries have gotten their wish. The tourists have stopped, but the new visitor, is worse.

Have you ever heard real animal lovers talking in a way that gives you an impression that they firmly believe that humans are not necessary at all? I have.

In any normal society, the vast majority of Americans would have been kind enough to sing “Happy 50^Th Birth day to Melania. But unfortunately, hatred trumps reasonable, typical good nature.

Wearing a mask wears you out. Faking is fatiguing. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you know you aren’t.  –Rick Warren

According to data from the CDC National Health Center, total US deaths for the first three weeks of March are down 10% from the same period average of the previous 4 years. That average was 170,555 deaths. This year during the first 3-week period we saw only 153, 015 deaths. Although the 4^th week was tending lower too, I expect the rate of deaths from CV since then has surely accelerated. It will be very interesting to see all of April against past same-period averages.

Whiteboards are remarkable.

I think everybody knows why the WH is scaling back daily CV briefings. Less opportunities for slips of the tongue.

Last week our governor of SSRI was praising the efforts of a well-known artist for a poster celebrating the work of peep in the medical devices. When I first saw it, I thought immediately that it looked exactly like a poster for communist party workers. I have since heard many RI’er comments almost all likening it to Mao standing before the frightened kowtowing Chinese or Kim Jung il of NK fame. I guess the artist thought the shutdown looked like communist regime takeover.

I can’t stop watching those non-stick frying pan commercials.

Any man in duress would be given comfort if he didn’t try to continually elicit it.

An overengineered building is a complex complex complex.

Restaurants will have a hard time coming back if they are forced to give up a quarter to half their seat capacity for social distancing. Here’s a possible idea that could help on two fronts. After the CV shutdown slows, even more mall retailers will be going out of business. Mall owners will be aching for new renters. Use those larger spaces for restaurants which would now be able to serve up to former capacity, while achieving sensible spacing. As long as they serve entrees with 6-foot pizza paddles.

It was a job well done by the chef who overcooked the meat.

The Answer:

Number one is Queen Victoria. For 63 year as she ruled a vast empire that was dominant throughout the world. And, people liked her. Her Husband was in a can) Next is Eva Peron followed by Betty Ford, Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Edwards, Michelle Obama, Barbara Bush, Rosalyn Carter, Laura Bush, Carla Bruni and Arianna Huffington.  

Children born in a whorehouse are brothel sprouts.

You’d think I’d be able to come up with a better ending than that.

“People seldom change. Only their masks do. It is only our perception of them and the perception they have o themselves that actually change. –Shannon L. Alder

I might say though, that wearing mask today, your eyes still tell the same story.

I tried to mask a so-so Tids by adding quotes from others.

Everybody who counts, not me.

Today's Tids Issue 4,639

Humility is good:

To get Today’s Tids going, I decided to leaf through the pages of a book about trees.

Yes, it is going to be that kind of a Friday. 

There’s a lot of gambling going on around on Coronavirus related stocks.

This is crazy. The President of the USA yesterday tried to suggest that people could kill the disease with injections of disinfectants. Say what? This actually turned out be a jobs initiative as Lysol’s Layers rushed out to squelch the idea.

According to Coronavirus financial stress tests, here’s fifteen companies that could file for bankruptcy. When reading the list, consider the industries they represent. They are Nordstrom , Kroger, Children’s Place, Best Buy, Lowes. Airlines Asiana, Avianca and AeroMexico, JC Penny (It’s always in danger), AMC Theaters, Nieman Marcus, 24 Hour Fitness, J. Crew, and Rite-Aid. It is said that the court system is gearing up for a rash of them. Unfortunately, this time more may have to drop into the Chapter 7 bucket.

What will normal look like when it returns? In 2022?

That really is a serious question.

The Question:

There are many good movies that deal with the “Skin crawling” sensation of being stuck indoors or in confined quarters. Name the top ten

The Headlines:

--Oil Prices Rise; Stocks Open Higher.

--Negative News Out Of China On Gilead’s CV Drug Said To be Inaccurate.

--Trump And Key Task Force Officials Disagreeing On Reopening Issues And Mystery Treatments.

--Biden Predicts That Trump Will try To Postpone November Election Day.

--Yahoo/YouGov Poll: Poll Of Former Trump And Clinton Voter s Shows That Trump Voters Less Likely To Stay In Home For Duration Than Clinton Voters; Demographics Show Trump Voters More From Less Affected Rural Areas While Clinton Voter Much More Urban.

--Georgia Opening Hair Salons, Gyms And Bowling Alleys; CV Deaths Rise Statewide.

--California Faces it’s Deadliest day.

--Muslims Preparing To Face Coronavirus Limited Ramadan.

The joke going around is that in three weeks there will be 88% fewer blonds. But, there could also be a lot of hippie menand woman with roses in their hair.

Hebebeegees: An irrational fear of disco bands retiring to grow flowering evergreen shrubs.

I thought the virtual NFL draft last night worked quite well. Except that I fell asleep early, and only awoke just in time to see Bill Belichick trade away the 1^st round pick for my beloved Pats. But it was a very good move for a Pats team that really needs to stock up. There were not many surprises or trades at all. Most teams got high A’s or B’s for their picks except the Jets and I thought Miami did well.

It’s really the same old story. Distance learning works as well as in-school learning for those who want to learn.

If Trump were to fire everybody who disagrees with him, there would be no White House CV task force.

There hadn’t been much news about the awful shootings in Nova Scotia, where the death toll is now up to 22. There were 16 crime scenes. A lot of Tory, Colonial Americans were forced to move there after the Revolutionary war. And many New England families have deep roots in NS. So, it is of more than casual interest around here. It has been revealed that the rampage was the result of a domestic dispute. The killer Wartman owned Atlantic Dental Clinic which had ben closed due to CV, and had been in counselling for anger management. It is said at first he targeted victims and then just went on shooting and killing randomly. I’m thinking now that this is another Coronavirus story.

If you think about it, the President and the Repub Senate joined with the House to pass the equivalent of the Green New Deal. Shut down the country, inhibit the power of big business, takeover health care, forgive debts and pay everybody for not working.

43 Million people work in retail. But it is apparent that when the bankruptcy filings flow following this CV catastrophe, most will be in that area. This industry will be carved up by the likes of Amazon, Walmart, Costco and Target.

Did you know that before the Coronavirus, Wuhan was the Fentanyl capital of the world? Yikes. From Wuhan? Return to sender!

Department stores big and small may be on the way to nostalgia land.

And while many, many retail businesses are in fragile territory, they may have more hope than the vaccine dependent restaurant industry -- small locals or large chains. It will be nearly impossible introduce effective social distancing to a point where many of these thin margin companies can successfully execute to their business plan.

As bars start to open in this new world, Social distancing will deteriorate rapidly with each drink.

The Answer:

Number one is an all-time chiller – The Shining. Then next nine are The Thing, Moon, Requiem for a Dream, 10 Cloverfield Lane, Night of the Living Dead, Saw, Das Boot,12 Angry Mne and The Descent. The rest of the list includes Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, The Lighthouse, Gerald’s Game, The Hateful Eight, Bug, Barton Fink, Rosemary’s Baby and Eraserhead,

I have this video a reader sent. It is of a young girl, 11 to 13, with an amazing, mature voice singing, And she sang words I wish I had written. And I thought of these words as I considered people throughout the word coping with so much more than I am.

“Before I lay me down to rest, I ask the lord one small request. I now I have all I could need; this prayer is not for me. Too many people on this day, don’t have a peaceful place to stay… Let me always try to believe, that we can feel the hearts that grieve, Please help us not ignore the anguished cries of the poor, or their pain will never leave… that we can heal the hearts that grieve.”

(I don’t know how to attach the video to this Tids, but if you’d like to see it and hear this beautiful voice, I can email it to you.)

Happy Weekend, E-v-e-r-y-b-o-d-y!!

Weekend, schmeeknd. What’s the difference.