SL 831

~ Laura

I want to sip wine here, while watching other diners arrive on their boats on Lake George below. Following CDC rules, we did a lot of local travel last year. Travel was healing for us and for the kids. I’m already planning this weekend’s day trip. I think we might do a bike trip along the Hudson River in Manhattan, so I’m going to need to get us all helmets.

Does Andrew Yang have a shot at becoming New York City’s next mayor? My grad school stats professor thinks so. “This guy’s a happy warrior,” Sherrill said. “People may well just be craving happiness. And I’m not talking about a comedian. I’m not talking about a clown. I’m not talking about a demagogue — just somebody who likes people and likes life.”

Reading: I’m super interested in reading “Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe. For fun, I’m reading the latest romance novel by Eloisa James. I just bought Nomadland.

Clicking: This is an oldie, but a goodie — Irish girl want to go to the pub, because she’s six.

Cooking: Ian asked for home cooked wings and BBQ ribs for his birthday on Friday, so I’m googling recipes.

Working: I’m ironing out the sample chapter of a book proposal and interviewing the director of Jersey-based organization for disabled people.

Published by Laura

23 thoughts on “SL 831”

  1. I moved out of the city last year, but anecdotally my friends who still live there seem to like Yang. I think he also benefits because a lot of NYC residents feel like the city could be doing better with things like schools, transportation, sanitation, etc., and non of the other candidates seems to be seizing the mantle of ‘NY pol who has a track record of making things work better’.

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  2. https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

    The US has somehow pulled slightly ahead of the UK for vaccine coverage: the US has done enough shots to fully vaccinate 30.5% of the population, whereas the UK has given enough to fully vaccinate 30.3%. This is a kind of synthetic number, though–the number that counts the most is that the UK has given at least one dose to 48.4% of their population, whereas the US is only at 37.3%.

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  3. I think we have to be careful about comparing the broad vax stats because of the issue that the vax is not available for 16 year olds. It might matter that kids aren’t vaccinated for spread, so it’s a relevant number. But, if we’re using it to judge whether a country or state is doing well, it can be misleading. The UK has 21% under 18, while the US has 24% under 18. So, correcting for just that (a little bit of math), the US is at 40.1% v UK’s 38.5% (using your numbers, corrected).

    When we compare US states, the states range from Utah (29%<18) to Vermont (18%<18).

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    1. I like the fact that the US is closing in on 40% of the whole population having a first dose.

      https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/covid-vaccine-tracker-global-distribution/

      Here are the states with 40% of the population having had 1+ today:

      –CA 40%
      –NY 40.4%
      –PA 40.7%
      –NJ 43.5%
      –Massachusetts 45.3%
      –MD 40.1%
      –Wisconsin 40.2%
      –Minnesota 40%
      –CT 45.7%
      –New Mexico 45.4%
      –New Hampshire 53.9% (!)
      –Maine 45.9%
      –RI 42.1%
      –SD 41.6%
      –Vermont 43.9%

      That’s a lot, and there will be more in a few days..

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      1. I’ve mentioned this before and it’s still true:

        Even with very moderate vaccination levels, people have nearly stopped dying of COVID in our county. People are still getting COVID (10-14 per 100k per day), some of them are winding up in the hospital (about 5% of hospital beds are being used by COVID patients), but the death totals are barely moving at all. COVID is suddenly a lot less deadly.

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  4. I sometime click on the “suggested posts” on your current posts. Today’s is about reading and boys and Jonah, when he was 7. Very amusing. And, the glory days of blogging, when a wide array of folks posted. In addition, I think, people are more judgemental?

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    1. Jonah is still not a reader in a traditional sense. He never picks up a novel, even though I buy them for him. So, all those efforts yielded no results. Instead, he spends hours reading stuff — politics, sports, survivalists — on Reddit.

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  6. FWIW my second dose of Pfizer wiped me out today! Plus-101 fever for most of the day, and one of those light-sensitive fever headaches. The doctor’s office said not to take ibuprofin but said tylenol would be okay, and I’m much better tonight. Hopefully that means it worked!

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    1. Yeah. I’ve had that for the last couple of days with no vaccine. Just a random virus doing the rounds.
      Be wary of assuming that all symptoms are vaccine related.

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  7. The “flulike symptoms” happened almost exactly 12 hours after the vaccine, as it does with most who get the reaction. My sister works in medical research and says they’ve been told this is quite common with Pfizer and Moderna second doses, especially with women, and to not be surprised when it happens. About 26% of people report chills/fever after the second dose, which is pretty substantial. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/well/live/covid-vaccine-side-effects-faq.html Completely agree about post hoc reasoning in general, but this was almost certain lya response to the vaccine.

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    1. Yes! I got my second Moderna at 1 pm, and as I was trying to fall asleep around 1 am, the chills started. I never took my temp (I left the thermometer downstairs and was too achy to go get it) but I definitely had a fever.

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      2. Define better. 😀

        Last 3 weeks of the academic year. I won’t be better till I submit final grades. But I am going on campus for the first time since November, so there is that.

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      3. I just got my second shot this morning. I didn’t have any significant side effects on the first. Hopefully, that continues.

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      4. I had the J&J vaccine and had fever/chills after less than 12 hours. Made for one horrible night’s sleep but I was fine after that and happy to be protected.

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    1. From the depositing piece:
      “And nobody goes into police work because they want to be loved.”

      That is untrue. Or rather, the writer seems to be using the word “loved” as a synonym for the word the original speaker used: “appreciated.” The word “appreciated” is much more appropriate. By using the word “loved,” he is making it seem silly. But what cops want is something that is not silly.

      Cops desperately want to be appreciated. They take any slight on one cop as a slight against them all and against what they do, and they feel unappreciated. The appreciation is the whole point. They do this job specifically because this appreciation and “respect” (which they don’t mean the same way you or I might) is an important part of the job to them.*

      It was a shock to me when I realized that the positive feelings cops get from their job are very different than the ones I get from my job (teaching). I don’t get respect, per se. I don’t walk into a classroom demanding respect or appreciation. I am much more concerned that the students in my classes respect each other.

      (Case in point, I am typing this right now while a Zoom window is open waiting for a student who set up an 11 am appointment. In other words, I am not being shown a lot of respect, but I will eventually meet with this student and smile and move on with what we need to talk about. There is no “appreciate that I showed up at this meeting or else I will punch/tase/shoot/downgrade you.”)

      (OMG, can you imagine what it would be like if teachers acted like police?)

      *Interestingly, they demand appreciation for risking their lives, but they also demand the right to avoid any risk on their lives by shooting suspects. Your life is not at risk if you just shoot anyone you come into contact with on the job. So, either you can get appreciation for risking your life by not shooting everyone you come in contact with, or you can shoot everyone you come into contact with and get no appreciation. You have to choose.

      Also, source: I know many cops.

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  10. Laura tweeted, “My college kid is waiting [to get vaccinated] after finals. He can’t risk making an error, because it’s too damn hard to get a professor to return an email. I can’t imagine trying to get permission to delay a final because of a fever.”

    We’ve got our high schooler getting the second dose on a Friday, the college student on her last day of exams, and my husband is doing his on a Thursday (last day of teaching in the week), which I hope will be good enough.

    I wouldn’t say that my second dose effects were especially nasty–but there was a fair amount of malaise and I did as much nothing as I could get away with.

    Some of vaccine hesitancy is people hearing these stories and feeling that they don’t want to deal with one more thing. (I have an older relative with advanced cancer who seems to feel that way.) Aside from school and work, a lot of people have home responsibilities that they can’t get out of. Even having to walk the dog might feel like a lot.

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  11. https://mobile.twitter.com/jbarro/status/1384263347235811329

    Josh Barro tweets:

    “The handful of European destinations opening to vaccinated Americans are getting nonstop flights from the US: Boston-Reykjavik, JFK-Athens, Newark-Dubrovnik, etc.”

    WHOO!

    I see the French are also making plans to open up to vaccinated American visitors:

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emmanuel-macron-covid-restrictions-france-face-the-nation/

    “France is finalizing plans to lift restrictions for Americans traveling to the country who have received their COVID-19 vaccines, French President Emmanuel Macron said, as the nation grapples with another surge in coronavirus cases.”

    They’re still having a pretty bad time, but hopefully happier days await?

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