The unimaginable (re)visits us ... again

As to its size and scale, the corona virus experience mimics 9/11. The notable phrase from 2001 was, if you'd written it as a Hollywood screenplay, it would have been rejected as too outlandish, too preposterous.

Covid-19 gives off that same general vibe. Imagine this plot: a strange new virus emerges in the Far East, and makes its way to America via a trans-Pacific air carrier. It starts to infect and then kill people here. We don't understand it, but we see it spreads quickly. We self-quarantine. We are told "don't go out." The economy starts to shut down and governors begin to ban interstate travel. Meanwhile the president dithers ineffectually in Washington as the situation grows more dire with each news cycle. People are left on their own as doctors struggle to care for the rising wave of new arrivals at the emergency room door.

I mean, that wouldn't, couldn't happen here. We would never run out of essential goods. It's too preposterous a script. Thank the screen writers, and express our gratitude, but tell them it's being rejected as too unrealistic.

And tell them, we'd never have to ask China for help to solve this problem.

And yet here we are. Those who sought this outcome should rejoice. We have arrived.

America is clearly no longer the indispensable nation.

And in other news, Tom Brady leaves on the midnight bus

It occurred to me this morning that Tom Brady, the New England Patriots star quarterback over these past two decades, picked the perfect time to slip out of town. Whether this was by choice or by chance (it was by chance, to be sure), he couldn't have found a more opportune time to exit out the back door while people were looking elsewhere. It's fair to say that most Boston people will be focused on other things over the next six months.

Visual City photos

I have finally started loading up some of my photographs on my website, visualcity.net.

The NY Times missteps online

This combination of headlines/images is jarring. Too jarring.

Like most Americans these days, I have a deeply ingrained bias towards my favored news sources. I have confidence in their reporting and in their judgment. I trust what they say and how they say it. High(est) on that list is The New York Times, the paper of record.

But here, the  Times online editor got it wrong. This combination is wrong. (From early December 2019, NY Times online.)

Beans and Izzy drove across country

My doggy friends Beans and Izzy left Cambridge, Massachusetts earlier this summer and drove to Palo Alto, California with their two owners DiDi and Spencer.

This is what they saw ...

Beans in Badlands, South Dakota

Beans at Niagara Falls, New York

Beans in Half Moon Bay, California

Beans and Izzy in Oregon

Izzy at Crater Lake, Oregon

Beans and Izzy and bison in Yellowstone, Wyoming

Izzy at Grizzly Bear rescue, Montana

Izzy and Beans at Grand Tetons, Wyoming

[all photos courtesy of DiDi and Spencer]

Hezekiah Usher on the Common

On Monday, I received this email from a woman named Dawn regarding the above photo ...

I am a descendent of Robert Usher, Hezekiah’s brother.  I couldn’t tell why you had posted the image, so I thought I would just ping you and ask if you are a descendent and, if so, did you help with installing the plaque?

So I wrote her back ...

I am not related to the Ushers at all. I just thought it was such a Boston thing — among the many historic markers in this town, here was also the first publisher. And he is commemorated by a small plaque on the Boston Common. It was very touching memorial to person most of us have never heard of, who lived hundreds of years ago.
Also, the name Hezekiah Usher is pretty wonderful all on its own.
In addition, in this time of constant assault on freedom of the press, one of the most fundamental bedrocks of our liberty, it’s nice to remember a man who did so much to make sure that this country had a free press, by first making sure we had a printing press! Who knew that a little old printer could be so important?!!

“I forgive you.” An antidote for our times.

When Brandt Jean forgave ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger for murdering his brother, he provided the world with an extreme example of human grace, a true antidote for our times. While our politicians always succeed in bringing us to the underbelly of our souls these days, Brandt Jean’s three simple words and his accompanying thoughts caught on video from a Texas courtroom and shared around the world will always be a high point in this otherwise very low year — a exceptional counterexample to the pettiness and mendacity of our utterly broken public morality. It is a shame that such a good person had to suffer so much to offer us all such a profound lesson in humanity.

Mr. Trump's Fix-It Man

Donald Trump has always needed someone to do extra curricular work for him.

That's why he kept Michael Cohen around for so long. Cohen wasn't a lawyer. He was a Fix-It Man, always trying to clean up the nasty, dirty places Trump found himself in.

When Trump became president, the Cohen relationship soured ... too much dirty work. Too many people watching. Too many consequences.

Many people assume that Rudy Giuliani stepped into that role for the commander in chief, but they are wrong.

None other than our attorney general William Barr has become Donald Trump's dirty lawyer, his ultimate Fix-It Man.

In America, they say you get what you pay for. We all will be paying for this for a very long time.