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SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “No one can look long at the sun or death.”
Published: Mar 27, 2020
Category:
Beyond Classification
La Rochefoucauld: “Le soleil ni la mort ne peuvent se regarder en face.” (“No one can look long at the sun or death.”)
That is, however, exactly what I have been doing — as have many of you — for two weeks now. It’s good to have a purpose and feel I’m being useful, but it’s grinding. And for all we have learned and shared, the bad news seems to outweigh the good. Vastly. Jared Yates Sexton put the bottom line bluntly in a Tweet: “Thousands upon thousands of people are going to die an agonizing death, alone, frightened, their loved ones kept at a distance, because the President of the United States is a broken person who hasn’t a shred of humanity.” Frank Rich calls out the villains — they’re not just in the White House.
Then my friend V. forwarded a note from Linda Greenhouse, who covered the Supreme Court for the Times for 30 years and now is a columnist there.
I had an op ed in yesterday’s New York Times, as usual a deep dive into a pending Supreme Court case — but I felt that I couldn’t pretend life is going on as usual or that all that mattered was the next Supreme Court decision. So I ended the column with a reflection that perhaps might resonate with some of our group:
The first national catastrophe of which I have a vivid memory was John F. Kennedy’s assassination. A conversation from that time, reported shortly afterward, has stuck with me all these years. The night after the assassination, the murdered president’s friends gathered in the Washington apartment of the political columnist Mary McGrory. “We’ll never laugh again,” McGrory said, to which the future senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan replied: “Heavens, Mary, we’ll laugh again. It’s just that we’ll never be young again.”
We will travel again, those of us who make it to the other side of this crisis. We will go to the movies again. We will meet a friend for a drink after work again. But we’ll never again be able to take any of it for granted.
Just where I was going today. Herewith, a potpourri, the evil and the good, the tragic and.. perhaps not laugh out loud funny, but at least ridiculous. [NOTE: I may take the day off tomorrow. Sunday. The day of rest… in ye olde days, anyway.]
BEST LAUGH LINE OF THE DAY
Philip Galanes writes an advice column for the Times. This week’s column is headlined: The Least Our Freeloading Son Could Do Is Practice Social Distancing. Subhead: We do everything for him. Why can’t he do this one thing for us — and for the public? It begins: “My wife and I have a 25-year-old son who has sadly failed to launch…”
TO THE RESCUE: JAMES DYSON
James Dyson designed a new ventilator in 10 days. He’s making 15,000. “This new device can be manufactured quickly, efficiently and at volume, to address the specific needs of coronavirus patients. The core challenge was how to design and deliver a new, sophisticated medical product in volume and in an extremely short space of time. The race is now on to get it into production.”
BOB DYLAN: “THE GREATEST MAGIC TRICK EVER DONE”
“Murder Most Foul” — Bob Dylan’s first new song in 8 years — is 17 minutes of… Dylan. It begins with the Kennedy assassination, and moves on to a capsule history of American culture. (Samples:“Tommy can you hear me, I’m the Acid Queen” and “I’m going to Woodstock, it’s the Aquarian age / Then I’ll go to Altamont and stand near the stage.”). As ever, his announcement of the song is not specific — when was “recorded a while back?” – is laconic in the extreme:
Greetings to my fans and followers with gratitude for all your support and loyalty over the years.
This is an unreleased song we recorded a while back that you might find interesting.
Stay safe, stay observant and may God be with you
As you listen, it may be helpful to have the lyrics. Roger Friedman has thoughtfully provided them. The song starts like this….
was a dark day in dallas, november ’63
the day that would live on in infamy
president kennedy was a-ridin’ high
good day to be livin and a good day to die
being led to the slaughter like a sacrificial lamb
he say wait a minute boys you know who i am
of course we do, we know who you are
then they blew off his head while he was still in the car
shot down like a dog in broad daylight
was a matter of timing and the timing was right
you got unpaid debts we’ve come to collect
we gonna kill you with hatred, without any respect
we’ll mock you and shock you and we’ll put it in your face
we’ve already got someone here to take your place
the day they blew out the brains of the king
thousands were watching at home and saw the whole thing
it happened so quick and so quick by surprise
right there in front of everyone’s eyes
greatest magic trick ever under the sun
perfectly executed, skillfully done
MY TWITTER FEED
– “That moment when you’re looking for an adult for help and realize you’re the adult.”
– “America is a Third World country with a Gucci belt.”
– One thing I’ve learned so far in quarantine is that my husband refuses to microwave anything for 45 seconds, he always does 44. When I asked him why, he said, ‘For Obama.’”
RUSSIAN TROOPS ROLL THROUGH… ROME
“The Italians made a general request for assistance and the Russians are sending military doctors and military equipment by military planes,” a senior EU diplomat said. “That sends a signal.” Russia sent its military, including 100 specialists in “bacteriological warfare” — even though Italian government sources say 80 percent of the supplies are “useless.” The Russians asked to land in Rome on a NATO base, rather than in Malpensa, the nearest big airport. Labelled “From Russia with Love,” planes and trucks bore giant stickers showing heart-shaped Russian and Italian flags next to one another.Then they paraded for 600 kilometers, followed by Russian media. Don’t believe it? WATCH THIS.
WHAT ARE THE ODDS…
… that Gates and Bezos and other billionaires will ask themselves “Poor kids have no access to online classes because they don’t have computers, so I’ll donate $TK millions to buy cheap tablets and give them to school systems across America?”
THIS BUD IS NOT FOR ME
Anheuser-Busch announced the money it normally would spend on sports and entertainment sponsorships to relief efforts for the pandemic. From the press release:
The brewer announced Wednesday it would shift the budget to nonprofit partners, including the American Red Cross. Anheuser-Busch is the country’s largest sponsor of sporting events and concerts.
One of the first tangible effects of the move will be converting arenas and stadiums into temporary blood drive centers. The $5 million donation to the Red Cross will also see the brewer’s tour centers in St. Louis and Merrimack, N.H., converted and Anheuser-Busch donating airtime for public service announcements.
FACT CHECK: According to Forbes, the Busch family was worth an estimated $13.4 billion in 2016, making them one of the 20 richest families in the U.S. Anheuser-Busch gross profit for the twelve months ending September 30, 2019 was $33.729 billion.
QUESTION OF THE DAY
The President wants to re-open the country in time for Easter. When do you think it will be safe to go back to work/resume your old life/meet someone new on Bumble or Tinder, etc? Key word in that question: safe. The right answer: when Dr. Fauci says it’s ok. Send your answer with the date in the subject line to HeadButlerNYC@AOL.com. If you have the right answer, you’ll get a copy, lavishly inscribed, JFK and Mary Meyer: A Love Story
LATE NIGHT
I don’t want these days to end, so I’ve been staying up late — and still don’t want to go to bed. A shot of this, a puff of that, and I turn out the lights, listen to music like this… and drift into sleep, feeling something like peace. This is Van Morrison, “Caledonia Soul Music.” From 1973. 17 minutes. If it were longer, who would complain?
