I owe the title of this post to Alissa Walker of the always informative LA Podcast. Alissa was stating what we all know: we’re heading into the fall with the prospect of cancelled holidays, disappointed grandparents and worse: evictions and unemployment. Rather than the usual roundup of links that I post on Saturday I thought I’d put up just a few, three serious and one a lark. They all need a brief introduction.
This first link is an interview with two Harvard epidemiologists Katherine Yih and Martin Kulldorf, “We Need a Radically Different Approach to the Pandemic and Our Economy as a Whole.” If you’d like to dig deeper in this particular pandemic hot take there’s another interview with Sunetra Gupta, a theoretical epidemiologist at Oxford University. Not being an epidemiologist I’m not in a good position to evaluate what these folks are saying but I they are worth listening to. It’s unfortunate that dialog about the pandemic in this country has devolved to the point where we all can’t seem to sit down and figure out what’s best. Or maybe it’s just as Hegel said, “The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.”
Another contrarian piece, also in the Jacobin, is a review of the Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, “No, Social Media Isn’t Destroying Civilization.” I can 100% endorse this hot take. I intend to blog more about the media diet Kelly and I are on right now that’s informed by both the Netflix documentary and this review.
Not to leave you all in a heavy mood I thought I’d link to George Hahn’s pandemic lament “I Can’t With The Sweatpants.” Unfortunately, I can with the stained sweatpants. I promise to break this habit once the vaccine kick in.
Quarantine definitely drove a love-loathe transition with the yoga pants. I started to dread them, but wearing nicer clothes seemed equally pointless. As a massage therapist, I am currently wearing pinstripes (albeit stretchy pinstripes) with a belt, a collared shirt, and decent shoes every day and it feels so good. When we eventually start going out again, I will definitely no longer be wearing yoga pants and a hoodie to dinner. I’m understanding the fashion pre-1970s much more these days.
I am confused by the interview with Sunetra Gupta. Maybe I just don’t understand what she’s saying but it sounds like she’s advocating we should just let nature take it’s course and to forget about the vaccinations, washing your hands, social distancing or coughing into you elbow – if your immune system can’t handle the infection then just consider yourself as a sacrifice for others.
Being an Australian, I have no idea what pumpkin spice is. Here pumpkin is used as a vegetable, usually roasted