I kinda hoped that I could wrap this series all up by now because the virus was over and it was safe again but, uh.
The good news is that we performed nearly 650,000 tests yesterday. That’s good news! The bad news is that we found 37,000 new cases. Lookee here.
So, yep.
I’m sitting here wondering if we can build a moat around Maryland. It’s not very big. We do have equipment. If anyone wants to come in from Florida, we could make ’em swim. Because except for the Jerk King of Jerk Mountain, we’re getting free of THE PLAGUE. It’s down 24% in MD. The cases are flat. But we’re in driving distance from the epicenters so I’m thinking moat. Or maybe Trump’s wall, but along the Maryland border. But moats are nicer to look at. So, moat.
Moat.
OOF
Anyway, yeah, this is absolutely terrible and yet absolutely predictable. As someone who has been screaming for weeks, right here on this here blog of blogness, that this would happen, because people with fancy hats who read and know things said as much, and it was predicted in every pandemic mathematical model, I’m feeling a little frustrated with it all.
Thus the OOF painting. I am descending into the OOF painting.
The last thing I got to do before the pandemic hit was attending a software architecture conference in Midtown NYC right across the street from MoMA. I got pretty bored of the talks near the end of the conference so I took myself for a stroll through MoMA with a goal of taking pictures of all the paintings that are just squares of white nothingness (my favorite) and pictures of Starry Night creeping over my shoulder. (It’s just, you know, there, on the wall. Hanging. Like a painting does.)
There’s so much in that museum that absolutely delights me, and the POP art section is my favorite. Edward Ruscha’s POP Art “OOF” painting as an exploration of comedy in graphic design was hanging right next to Warhol’s Campbell Soup. I love Campbell Soup, I do, it’s great, one of the cans contains cheese you know, you gotta watch for that, but I loved the OOF painting more.
Right now, it feels like the bat signal for our times. Hey, coronavirus is going out of control again! OOF. Trump decided to have some big arena thing anyway! OOF. Another million people are out of work because the virus keeps whacking the economy. OOF. People keep pretending there’s no link between public health and economic stability. OOF.
Once this is all over, I want to do nothing but sit in MoMA. (Also, wow, have I lost fat in the pandemic and replaced it with muscle. In my selfies, my face is all puffy and jowly and that is gone gone gone.)
Meanwhile, if you want to follow something super fun, I recommend you follow Rob Donoghue’s live read through and commentary on Sword of the Serpentine. (Click through to twitter, look for the giant threads of posts.) I’m finding it a delightful read.
Happy Friday, folks. If you’re going to go out, please, wear a mask. Please.
Stats:
- 29,207,820 completed tests.
- 2,449,901 infected, with 40k+ found in the last 24 hours alone.
- 126,740 confirmed dead.
- 66,402 cases in MD with 3,217 dead
We are still finding 300 cases a day in MD but it’s nothing like other places in the country. See? Moat. I’m going to go grab my shovel.
Also, big big big jump in the death counts.
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