a little levity amidst a serious situation is never stupid.

i would in fact argue that it's vitally and essentially human.

the other option is to completely lose our damn minds.

and fuck that.

See also: Comic relief

I don't think any reasonable person isn't aware that there will be more deaths tomorrow, more infections tomorrow, more people out of work, more unpleasant societal changes... Or that the bigger tragedy is that a great deal of it could have been prepared for, if not prevented.

So yes... we can make a joke or two about cruise ships.

11 AM at Bay and Bloor in Toronto - basically TO's equivalent to Chicago's Magnificent Mile

https://twitter.com/cbctom/status/1240296857051504641

Most doctors/nurses aren't in hosptials, though. Why wouldn't those reservists be made available? Of course they aren't "just sitting around doing nothing" but their dermatology practice in Ohio probably isn't essentially to the current fight. Wouldn't the armed forces have the right to call them up?

The Max Brooks and Mel Brooks social distancing public service announcement is good.

Sure the armed forces has a right to call them up. But if you tell a dermatologist he's going to have to provide primary care or, worse, care of acutely ill virus patients, he'll tell you, "Sorry. No way. I don't have those skills," and in many cases he'll be correct.

Specialists are not interchangeable. These days, general and rotating internships where future specialists learn about things they'll never do again are pretty uncommon. And even if a dermatologist learned how to take care of an accutely ill person, they likely remember little of it.

The point is that there's literally nobody to work in new hospital capacity we might create except people already working in existing hospitals.

What may be useful is developing the ability to segrgate virus patients from everyone else. I saw one proposal to use the hospital ships to provide continuing "regular" medical care--appendectomies, strokes, heart attacks and all the rest--while we turn one or more hospitals ashore into exclusive use for virus patients. That, along with suspending elective hospitalizations for any reason, could make a lot of sense because it keeps hospitals from being places where peopkle who don't have coronavirus can catch it.

But I'm not sure the politicians understand the distinction.

One additional point: I saw reports that the Chinese brought in thousands of "military doctors" to work in their temporary hospitals. That might be true because in China, if reports can be believed, the disease was remarkably localized to Hubei and, somewhat, to Beijing so medical personnel may have been available in the rest of China to use in Wuhan. America is not so lucky. The disease here (and in Europe) seems much more widespread around the country (and getting more so--it's in every state now) so there aren't medical people in unaffected places to move to affected places.

London will lock down on Friday. Heading to the country.

so what are people's thoughts on carry-out from restaurants?

my wife mentioned possibly ordering dinner tonight from the corner bar and grill at the end of our block (they're open for carry-out/delivery only).

on the one hand, i want to help and support them.

on the other hand, i'm scared.

I've begun an intimate relationship with DoorDash. I'm going to support all the local restaurants I can right now because God knows they'll need it.

We've done takeout all week. People touched your (fresh) food from the supermarket too.

If you want to support them, but are scared of eating food you didn't cook, you could just buy a gift card or contribute to one of the myriad GoFundMes.

An article I read earlier today suggested sticking to places that you already know: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coron...b6eab7793cb07b

We did carry-out yesterday... we got too lazy to cook.

It was kind of bizarre, because the restaurant that we picked up from is usually very busy and crowded. I called our order in, then a half hour later, picked it up myself. All the chairs were up on the tables, and there was only 1 customer ahead of me paying for his order. I picked up our order, paid, and promptly left.

I've never used a 3rd party food delivery service; I don't know why I'm so leery of them. I'd rather pick up the food myself.

thanks for the article link.

it was informative and helpful.

I've used Waitr before, but they aren't around here anymore, so I moved on... It's pretty convenient. You do everything online and you can even request, basically, that they set the food down on the mat, ring the bell, and sprint away in a panic reminiscent of that of startled deer. I'm just trying to do as much as I can for as many people as I can... The restaurants, the DoorDash drivers... My job is secure, I'm in no danger of being fired or furloughed, and so I feel a need to support everyone and everything I can right now.

Lol.

I think I would extra tip just to witness their miming a startled deer while my wife and I flash on to do the headlights...

Careful, now. Don't try to be too funny or you might get scolded.

Yes, I am aware of that. Not to minimize the situation, but I think that levity can help a little bit and I see irony in everything humans do.

Doesn't that usage also exist in English though? For example, a person being "economical" meaning being practical with one's finances or an "economical" thing being a good deal or bargain for the money spent. Also, "economy class" for instance, for the cheapest travel options on a plane.