Mostly Apolitical Thread for Discussing/Venting our Rational/Irrational COVID-19 Fears and Experiences in 2020

a friend just mentioned that her niece is now starting university, and as a singer the latter is very cognizant of the dangers of covid.

but also she is, and i quote, zaftig (a risk factor)

anyway at the risk of getting too deep into broadway lore, let us protect the zaftig kids. not only are they good people but we'll need them if crosswords are to carry on <3

In the world of sanitizer assault, this Moxé stuff at the Uhaul joint is weird and sorta awesome tho I dont know what it’s meant to “be.”

this is making the rounds and I hate it:

Steve Doocy, who lives in New Jersey: "If you live in New York City, aren't you thinking twice about 'do I really need to walk to the grocery store today?'" pic.twitter.com/jOccJa21cf

— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) September 3, 2020

like, I do happen to live in new york, and I do have these thoughts regularly, in these exact words, not because I'm afraid I'm going to get shot, but because WE'RE STILL IN A FUCKING PANDEMIC, it is impossible to distance either while walking to the grocery store or inside it, assuming people are wearing masks, which they frequently aren't; and my craving for fresh pears or whatever does not outweigh my responsibility to unnecessarily endanger others.

this whole new wave of "going to restaurants is good actually because it owns the repubs and if you are still socially distancing you are the problem" is absolutely fucking infuriating

christ please tell me that's not a real circulating take

I do have these thoughts regularly, in these exact words, not because I'm afraid I'm going to get shot, but because WE'RE STILL IN A FUCKING PANDEMIC, it is impossible to distance either while walking to the grocery store or inside it

i had a guy come by for some repairs in my apartment that have needed doing since February and it was weird and scary just to have a stranger in my home. but my sink has been leaking for half a year and when he tried to rebalance my ceiling fan it FELL OUT OF THE GODDAMN CEILING and exploded so I'm at the pick your poison stage

i went to the TJs in union sq and chelsea in the last week and it was so bonkers calm and spread out inside.

I love going to Target midweek and midday: it's almost Zen.

they had these tables set up outside on the sidewalk in chelsea so if you want to bring your own bags, you bag it up outside.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=6&v=tjkRd288caQ&feature=emb_logo

just to underline my schizophrenia about this, I went to the Met on member opening day and found it surprisingly okay! Everything is weird.

Saw an article about that.

I'm far less paranoid about big interior space than smaller ones -- if everyone's required to mask, that is.

this whole new wave of "going to restaurants is good actually because it owns the repubs and if you are still socially distancing you are the problem"

what the fuck tell me there is not really a "wave" of this

ps "getting takeout from local restaurants and/or eating outdoors there is good because it's good to support local businesspeople and employees" is a wholly different and better take but is not new and is not about owning republicans

I'm noticing a lot more people in supermarkets recently only having their mouth covered by the mask they're obliged to wear. Wonder if taht's just a question of timing and has been going on all the time just not coincident to me but seemed like eerybody wearing a mask was wearing it right. NOw seeing people's noses all the time when I consciously wasn't before.

Oh well, kids are back at school etc and flu time is just down the road. next wave is on the way anyway innit.
Oh yeah tourists and students and things all over teh place when I'm downtown.

How fun.

met museum was mostly good though i saw SEVERAL docents with masks down talking to one another in galleries and a few old school retiree-weirdos of the kind familiar to any nyc art scene habitues doing typical batshit stuff. one guy was, i swear, walking around with a dinner napkin tucked under his glasses and pretending that was a mask. i'm presuming they're being more stringent after a week of adjustments.

It's depressing to see the now weekly news articles in our town listing all of the businesses and restaurants that are closing.

And it's so frustrating to see that so many of the ones closed are the ones simply unfortunate enough to either not be positioned for a sidewalk cafe or having had their requests to take over adjacent parking areas denied.

one point not well covered by ny media (shockers i know) has been the prioritization of highbrow entertainment over populist events. We've got a roaming Philharmonic in a pickup truck and most museums opening but free outdoor shows or socially distanced parties in parks are somehow unmanageable? It's better to put people in a gym than to have them dance in Central Park? it's political bullshit and it refuses to take into account the very real need for non-college educated people to have access to social existences and daily art.

what the fuck tell me there is not really a "wave" of this

ps "getting takeout from local restaurants and/or eating outdoors there is good because it's good to support local businesspeople and employees" is a wholly different and better take but is not new and is not about owning republicans

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, September 3, 2020 11:19 AM (forty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

it is the very obvious subtext of most of the pieces, as well as tweets etc., pushing back against the gop narrative, which tend to go like "don't leave new york, look at all the people enjoying restaurants and museums and socializing together!" the other day someone claimed that mask-wearing is widespread in new york city, which is simply not true.

(for what it's worth, most restaurant workers I've seen are more OK with takeout I've seen but hate everyone dining at the restaurants themselves, even outdoors, since they still have to come into close contact with hundreds or thousands of unmasked people per day)

i feel like i see 90% people masked up while I am walking around lower manhattan and queens in the last 3 weeks.

wait so Miami-Dade has a mandatory mask ordinance (you even gotta wear them outside) and NYC doesn't?

so far I've been in my neighborhood, as well as midtown (I had to pick up a package from a store, and delivery wasn't possible), the bronx terminal market (had to emergency pickup a new keyboard for work) and the east village (visited someone outdoors, even that feels like having breached the rules), and across the board, the rate of mask wearers to non-mask wearers is about 50%, not counting people outdoors at restaurants and bars. if you do count them, the rate drops well below half.

There is. When I don't see people wearing a mask it's usually outside and/or when they are eating, talking on their phones, the random asshole.

that was for alfred.

I mean you're still supposed to wear a mask outside

This is all true.

Yes, I feel that 90% of the people i see outside are masking up unless they are outdoor dining or talking on their phone. I think I only saw one person not wearing a mask in a C-town.

The rising gun violence in nyc thing is weird. It is obviously a feast for trumpists but at least where some of my friends are living it is apparently pretty real. NB it is not perceptible in this part of brooklyn on my several hours of dog walk per day.

Here we get the mask-over-the-mouth syndrome on occasion, which bugs the shit out of me because it is that much less irritating if you don't cover your nose? Really?

our mask ordinance allows you to pull your mask off for smoking, which, if you know how Parisians smoke, is lol

i actually don't know how parisians smoke! i suppose...with the cigarette almost always in the mouth?

ha no, I mean...a lot

we all know you were talking about anal.

The rising gun violence in nyc thing is weird.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNrQQNwZegg

I realised taht I tend to put my mask on before i leave the flat so taht I can put on my phone with a podcast on or walkman with music and insert earphones before leaving.

Noticing a lot of people are only putting on masks to enter specific shops or get on buses. Botho fo which go against the earlier guidelines of how you were supposed to keep you r hands clean when touching the mask.

Oh well , sooner the next wave hits the sooner it does or something.
Couldn't everyone feel some angst filled alienation at the same time or something like that.

Societal collapse is taking its time really I would think

I know... it’s not really weird at all and correlates with lack of gun enforcement by nypd...

Xp

Xp yeah i put it on before i go out and try not to touch it again until I am somewhere I can wash my hands or at a destination. I don't know what is up with people constantly deciding to put it on or off besides that people suck.

I’ve been leaving mine on between shops more and more.

I have to go in to our campus a few days a week, fortunately most things I'm doing require me to be outside and I'm always masked. My coworkers and contractors on campus have been really great and consistent about masks, but the general public seems to be fucking awful about it and it infuriates me.

Our campus is technically private, but it's not blocked off at all from the general community and it connects to a lakefront path and to main sidewalks in a few places so we encourage the public using it to bike, walk and dog walk through. Normally, in non pandemic times, this is something I love but it's infuriating how often people just walking their dogs or jogging/biking through campus aren't wearing masks at all. Just this morning I had to hop out of the way of four assholes barreling down the sidewalk on their expensive bikes and not one of them had a mask, not even lowered. It's been worse now too, since our campus is relatively empty with 95% of the students remote learning at home, so joggers and bicyclists don't have the typical crowds to keep their speeds in check.

Anyway, venting, but that's the point of this thread.

people who wear their masks under their nose are not just public health hazards, but it really highlights their nose in an unflattering way. it has a way of making even medium schnozzes look gigantic. and makes me more likely to look at your nose hairs cos I'm constantly monitoring whether you're wearing yours right.

my close friend had one on the other night and it kept sliding down his nose and I just kept thinking "Christ obviously that mask doesn't fit you, so it's not offering you much protection, man!"

I wear a mask for the whole of my workday (unlike most at my work) but I have to take it off when I have a lunch/coffee break and then put it back on - I am obv keeping my hands clean and being careful but the whole taboo about touching the outside of the mask before you are back in your home is a nonsense to me (and like 50% of the working population) so I will gladly take it off when I am outside in a place with no people and put it back on when entering a place with people. I don’t think this means I suck - I know the protection for me is compromised by touching the mask all the time but I can’t like boil it and dry it out every time I take a break, and the protection for other people, the main point of the mask, is not affected

people who wear their masks under their nose

These people are everywhere and almost always over the age of 60. Drives me up the fucking wall whenever I go to the grocery store.

Definitely did not feel good this afternoon when I went to my normal lunch pick-up spot, the owner/main cashier was yakking with a bunch of guys right outside, mask below the chin. The customers sat at a small table together, no masks on. I buy sandwiches from her all the time, or least, I used to.

search tip for the face cages -- they are called "3D silicone mask brackets"
trying to search for stuff i want or need without the correct search terms gives me the worst agita

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, August 27, 2020 11:58 AM

Thank you for this! These are making a big difference for glasses-fogging and comfort.

I had to be in a large medical facility Tuesday and sat glaring at the one douchey guy with his dicknose hanging out as he sat next to a properly masked pregnant person. Mask-policing nurse gave him hell eventually.

wins, you should be getting your coffee and lunches intravenously. How can you be so selfish?

had to go to the ER and felt safer there than anywhere else in town (it was also like 2am and I may have been literally the only patient there)

wins, you suck! jk. I was thinking more of some people i see on the street who put it on when they pass another person on the sidewalk and then take it off as soon as they pass and I am like wtf are you making it so difficult???