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KOOL cigarette ad from the 1960s. via

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The temperature will probably get up past 90 by Saturday. I am looking forward to complaining about the heat as a break from complaining about the cold.

Today on Cory Doctorow’s Pluralistic.net:

  • Denmark is denying bailouts to companies headquartered in tax havens: If you don’t pay taxes, you don’t get to enjoy tax benefits.

  • Zoom claims it uses AI to stop sexytimes. Zoom won’t let you zoom anybody on Zoom. Or so it says – AI has been terrible at detecting nudity, there’s no reason to think it’s gotten better. And why does Zoom believe it has the right to be sex police?

  • Cars, not public transit, are correlated with contagion in NYC. I need to look into this further; it doesn’t make sense. I am 100% pro-public-transit, and it absolutely can be made to work even here in suburbanized Southern California. But public transit, like sporting events, religious services, Comic-Con, and other wonderful things, seems like contagion vectors.

  • 94.5% of “small business” money went to giant corporations. Because Trump’s only skill is grifting.

  • Also, while every President since Reagan has had a terrible record on anti-trust, Trump is the worst. He’s not even trying.

Tales of romance and relationships during the pandemic

Covering Covid [Embedded]

A woman tries dating by Facetime and Zoom, and has stories.

A newlywed couple, married just one year, is quarantined together in a one-bedroom apartment; they’re struggling as he’s an average male slob and she had a terrible fear of death that she was seeking counseling for even BEFORE the pandemic.

A man tells his wife he wants a divorce and then they get locked in together in quarantine, which is awkward.

I loved this episode and am looking forward to the inevitable Richard Curtis movie adaptation.

But it occurs to me that all the stories are about privileged people. Where are the so-called “essential workers” – the Amazon warehouse and Instacart workers? Where are the doctors and nurses? Where are the people who are sick or dying?

P.S. Dating stories from my over-30 single women friends are a guilty pleasure of mine. They’re suffering for my entertainment!

The poop emoji was born in Japan in 1997 and launched a generation of cute poop. This is the cute poop decade.

The poop fad connects with unicorns, unboxing videos, toys, marketing, Apple, the changing role of girls, slime, ice cream, emoji, glitter, Google, and middle-age people’s difficulties having bowel movements.

Unicorn poop: How did excrement get cute? [Decoder Ring]

Cast of Pulp Fiction and Quentin Tarantino, 1994 via

I remember I didn’t want to see this for years because I thought it would be artsy and tedious. Boy was I wrong.

“Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper too?” 1970’s campaign via

A paid testimonial from Basil Rathbone. 1960. via

“Kids are murder!” - Sanatogen Tonic Wine ad with a mail-in coupon to receive a sample [1960s] via

Del Cerro hills, from a few minutes’ walk from home. The air is amazingly clear. 📷

Don’t care what the answer is. I’m keeping mine.

Coronavirus will also cause a loneliness epidemic

COVID-9 exacerbates another long-standing and serious pandemic: Loneliness.

Loneliness can literally cause physical illness. People most at risk from COVID-19 are the elderly and disabled, and they’re more likely to be lonely too.

[Ezra Klein/Vox]

Procrastination is Not Laziness

David Cain at Raptitude:

… procrastinators tend to be people who have, for whatever reason, developed to perceive an unusually strong association between their performance and their value as a person. This makes failure or criticism disproportionately painful, which leads naturally to hesitancy when it comes to the prospect of doing anything that reflects their ability — which is pretty much everything.”

So much here is true for me. Sometimes, when I’m particularly hard on myself, I think I could have accomplished so much more.

And by “sometimes” I mean “often.” Maybe every day.

Why Walking Matters—Now More Than Ever

Shane O’Mara at The Wall Street Journal:

Walking is essential to our nature. Walking upright is one thing that sets humans apart; no other animal does it, but we can’t do without it.

Walking helps the body heal, helps the brain function. Walking, rather than seeing, is how we build metal maps of our environment. And walking protects us against depression.

I walk 3+ miles daily.

How NOT to Wear a Mask [Tara Parker-Pope/The New York Times]

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