Sunday, January 2, 2022
Late yesterday, January 1st, we got a text message from a relative that caused a bit of a tizzy. We had seen him on December 25th at a small family gathering and he was just offering a friendly follow up. "Oh, by the way, I tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday [December 27th]."
America's Favorite Epidemiologist and I experienced no physical discomfort during the intervening week, but that did not rule out asymptomatic infection. Where had we been, whom had we seen in this time? Additionally, what was planned for the next week or two in case of continuing uncertainty or worse?
By coincidence, I had taken a Covid test at one of the many street kiosks nearby, when out on a stroll with Stony Brook Steve on Monday, December 27th, but had not received the results yet, 6 days later. Fortunately, my ever competent child bride had secured home testing kits as a precautionary measure and we both stuck swabs up noses as instructed. NEGATIVE.
As I considered the alternative, I tallied mentally the number of telephone calls that I would have to make to give notice to the people whom I might have unknowingly victimized.
Monday, January 3, 2022
The tiny, wood-beamed interior of Ratatouille, 154 East 39th Street, looks and feels like it belongs in a Quebec forest, surrounded by sugar maples. Its narrow, chicken-centric menu, however, is French not French-Canadian.
I sat at one of the 4 small two-tops inside. The cold weather kept them and patrons indoors. I had the rotisserie chicken sandwich, a generous amount of pulled chicken with some roasted potatoes stuffed alongside ($11.02 plus tax). It was served on a warm, 8" roll, an effective cross between a baguette and a ciabatta. In all, a good deal.
. . .
Last year at this time, the Murdoch media were proclaiming the death of New York. Everyone was leaving, the world's financial and cultural affairs were moving far away. Woe to the suckers stuck behind. https://nypost.com/2020/08/11/
What might have been true momentarily last year is now as up-to-date as Ivana Trump's fashion line. The current headline is: "In 2021, New York’s Housing Market Made a Stunning Comeback." https://www.nytimes.com/2021/
Enjoy nowhere, suckers.
. . .
I went back to the street kiosk where I had been tested for Covid-19 one week ago, but the guy working in the sub-freezing temperature was only able to give me telephone numbers and e-mail addresses to make further inquiries.
Tuesday, January 4, 2021
Still no report from last week's Covid-19 test, but America's Favorite Epidemiologist assures me that I can trust the at-home test results considering the lack of any symptoms.
Actually, I really shouldn't be worried about the pandemic, that is if David Bateman is to be believed. Mr. Bateman, a tech entrepreneur, the kind of person generally esteemed by Wall Street, chambers of commerce, underemployed space scientists and university administrators in need of major funding, has some significant insights into our present public health crisis.
It's the Jews. Me and my kinsmen are responsible for
"a sadistic effort underway to euthanize the American people." After all, "[f]or 300 years the Jews have been trying to infiltrate the Catholic
Church and place a Jew covertly at the top. It happened in 2013 with
Pope Francis." What more do you need to know?
https://www.fox13now.com/news/
. . .
7:00 P.M. The test results came into my inbox: NOTDETECTED (too harried to even include a space). But, what if it had been otherwise? What if I had been roaming around the Holy Land from December 27th through January 4th infected, though asymptomatic? Given the highly contagious coronavirus variant that we are now facing, delay is obviously dangerous. This time, at least, we avoided the bad consequences of the casualness of our relative and the inefficiency of the (overburdened?) lab.
Wednesday; January 5, 2022
Color blind casting? Kosher blind casting?
. . .
I am unapologetically a sports fan, although I don't believe that all sports are created equal. Team sports interest me more than individual sports. In either case, I prefer that the stars are distinguished by their in-game performance rather than by their idiosyncratic personalities. That's why I was pleased by this story about "the world’s No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player." https://www.nytimes.
Briefly, "Novak Djokovic Is Refused Entry Into Australia Over Vaccine Exemption."
Thursday, January 6, 2022
Another day that will live in infamy?
. . .
Mens sana in corpore sana.
"NPR looked at deaths per 100,000 people in roughly 3,000 counties across the U.S. from May 2021, the point at which vaccinations widely became available. People living in counties that went 60% or higher for Trump in November 2020 had 2.73 times the death rates of those that went for Biden. Counties with an even higher share of the vote for Trump saw higher COVID-19 mortality rates."
https://www.npr.org/sections/Friday, January 7, 2022
16 Across - ID seen at the post office
. . .
If you were around the Holy Land in the 1980s, you may have shared my devotion to the noble efforts of David Liederman, otherwise known as David's Cookies. His main location was on Second Avenue between East 52nd and East 53rd Streets, six blocks from my residence. People would line up to get those chocolate chip beauties right out of the oven. In fact, the store would insist on letting the cookies sit for a few minutes to avoid people barbecuing their tongues.
I loved those cookies, but I had the opposite approach. My cookies went into the freezer and I would eat them once they were cold and hard. It's a practice that I continue, most enjoyably these days with Jacques Torres's chocolate chip cookies (https://mrchocolate.com/pages/chef-jacques-torres), since David's disappeared from the normal retail channels. But, yesterday I had a surprise. On a cross country trip to the enormous ShopRite supermarket in Englewood, New Jersey I found bright packages of David's Cookies. 
There were only two varieties on the shelf, although the package advertised more. I chose the s'mores in the absence of the straight up chocolate chips that once helped me dispose of my disposable income. The s'mores were closer to rocky road, marshmallows and chocolate chips in a chocolate batter, a creditable effort.
I'm a married man with responsibilities now and seek different pleasures, but if this will help make America great again, I'm on board.
. . .
Reminder - You need to register for the January 13th Zoom session with Mike German, former FBI agent, discussing the January 6th Capitol riot.
REGISTRATION HERE
. . .
Answer = IDAHO
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