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(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim (modulo formatting), including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

It's time for another installment of "SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 related PSA plus traditional begging post hybrid" everyone. Once again I'm partially catching up on Derek Lowe's updates in his blog for Science Translational Medicine. This is a more scattershot look at things that were discussed in late March and early April.

"The Latest Coronavirus Clinical Trials" (late March)

"Known Drugs Being Tried Against the Coronavirus: Runner-Up Candidates" (late March)

"Antibody Tests for the Coronavirus" (early April)

"Covid-19, Blood Pressure Medication, and Ibuprofen" (early April)

"Angiotensin and Coronavirus Infection: The Latest as of April 7"

The latter two were of some importance to me since I and both my parents are on high blood pressure meds.

Following the PSA portion of this post comes the usual begging stuff. As is my wont right now, in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. This is basically copied verbatim, including the fundraising stuff at the end; I *was* posting to GoFundMe after all. Feel free to ignore those bits if you want. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

It's time for the next installment of "SARS-COV-2/COVID-19 related useful links meets the traditional non-photo begging post." I'm going kind of numbers geek on this one, with a couple of links showing why we're doing the whole social distancing thing and everything else related thereto.

The Coronavirus Curve - Numberphile

Mathematics and Coronavirus - Numberphile

And now, some of my own take on all this. First off: we are way past the point where our actions could actually STOP the spread of this virus this year. I don't expect a vaccine to be widely available in the next 12 months, and that would be the only way to actually STOP it once it's become this widespread. We were probably past the point of being able to stop it a month or two (or 3) ago. Second point: the actions that folks are being urged to take probably WON'T change the overall number of people who catch this virus during this cycle of our modern plague. (And yes, there's a chance that this will come back around on the guitar a few times. The 1918 worldwide flu pandemic had at least three distinct waves.) But what these actions WILL do is spread out the infections over a longer period of time.

What does that mean? Two things. One, it reduces how many people are infected with the virus AT ANY GIVEN TIME. This is *directly* related to the ability of the medical system to handle the pandemic. If we keep the active infection levels below the medical system's capacity to handle them, then even if the same number of people catch the disease, FEWER PEOPLE WILL DIE. Two, "flattening the curve" BUYS US MORE TIME to develop effective treatments (and, in the longer run, vaccines) so that, over enough time, not only will fewer people be killed by this virus, but folks who don't catch the virus until later in the year may be able to have their symptoms better mitigated. The moral of this story? Do whatever you can to flatten the curve. Which leads me to my final link of this post:

FlattenTheCurve.com

Following the PSA portion of this post comes the usual begging stuff. As you may expect, in addition to the usual plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES that are still open. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, as and if you can. For example, my parents are taking part in this by getting takeout for dinner tonight. And remember that once the worst of this has passed, locally owned businesses will be struggling to get back on their feet, so please be ready to patronize them as much as you can when it's time for them to reopen.

( Rest of the begging section is behind the cut. )

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

Living during a pandemic crisis does change some things. Not that it's changed much of my personal routine, aside from not having choir practice or church. But it is affecting this not-really-a-blog. For one thing, until now I would only rarely post on a weekend. Posts made during the week got seen more; I suppose it's because people weren't getting online as often on weekends. These days, "normal" Internet use patterns are all at sixes and sevens. So maybe people will actually see this Saturday post.

Another thing that's changing... you may have noticed that this is the FOURTH non-photo post in a month. Up until now it was because I was getting desperate, and in all honesty, that HASN'T changed, so yes, there will be a familiar begging bit at the end. But I am now deliberately going to make non-photo posts a more frequent thing than they had been prior to this month, with the specific intent of posting links to websites or articles about COVID-19 that I find useful.

With that in mind, here's today's link. It's to an article called "What the Coronavirus Proteins Are Targeting", and anyone who's an advanced beginner at chemistry should understand enough of the terminology to know what's going on. This article addresses how existing drugs, or those that were already in advances stages of development, could be repurposed to combat COVID-19, and why. Seems to me that there's also a nod to what NEW drugs just starting development might be targeting. It was written by Derek Lowe, a medicinal chemist by trade, in his blog. If you go and read it and have more time, check out his category of blog posts "Things I Won't Work With". Those posts are HILARIOUS. Mostly about Things That Go BOOM In The Lab. Anyway, here's the URL to the aforementioned article:
https://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2020/03/26/what-the-coronavirus-proteins-are-targeting

Once again, in addition to our aforementioned plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES. Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, if you can. And now, as the prophecy foretold, ;-) here's my shameless and desperate plea for help. Please PLEASE spread the word as much as you feel able; share this fundraiser on lots of social media, by email, even by writing the link on pieces of paper and passing them around. Encourage folks you know to donate and to spread the word themselves. I've long since estimated that I'll need about 1,000 different contributors to make the goal, so getting the word out is important. And IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, please donate, though we know that a few of you have done so already this month (for which A GREAT BIG THANK YOU) and lots of you just can't. But even a spare 5 or 10 clams, if that's all you can afford, is appreciated. Every little bit helps. (Remember, NO FEELING GUILTY if you don't have the means to contribute, or enough spoons to spread the word as far as you'd like.) And just as with the last several of these photo-less begging posts, if you have any job leads for either of us, PLEASE contact us! Relocation is TOTALLY an option.

Again, if anyone here actually is in a position to help out, right now would be a truly awesome time to do so. If you can't, you can't; I understand that better than most... thanks in advance for whatever you can do, and Happy Early Spring and its related holidays (any and all that you choose to celebrate) to you and yours. STAY SAFE. Wash your hands, keep hydrated, boost your immune system by whatever means works for you. Practice social distancing as much you realistically can. Keep in touch with your friends and loved ones from a safe distance. Tell them you care and that you're thinking of them. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

(Originally posted to my GoFundMe, and backdated to the date of that original post. Link to the fundraiser will be provided in the comments and upon request.)

"Last night, I didn't get to sleep at all..." (apologies to the 5th Dimension)

Anxiety is really kicking my butt right now. It's not just my current situation, dire though that is. You've heard me talk about that twice already this month in posts without pictures. And yes, I'll be up front and tell you this is another non-photo begging post. But my anxiety also has a lot to do with the fact that all of a sudden we're playing a scary real-life game of Pandemic, and it doesn't feel like many folks are giving much thought to the medium to long term consequences of it.

Right now, where I am, everything but essential functions are shut down for at least one more week. But I'm enough of a math geek that I ran the numbers a few dozen times myself. If we just start everything back up and go "back to normal" one week from today, or even two weeks from today, we will have only delayed the "spike in the curve" without really flattening it enough. Making enough difference to really flatten the epidemic curve is going to require at least 6-8 weeks of concerted effort. And that means at least of couple of MONTHS of social distancing. That long a pause will wreak havoc on every step of the supply chain for WAY too many items, and business is going to be way too slow for MONTHS. This in turn means that some people will find themselves out of work and out of money. There's a YouTube video I watched overnight that, while focusing on coffee, is easily generalized, and gives a much better summation of what's likely to happen, and what's already happening, than I can manage after my sleepless night. Here's the URL.

So, in addition to our aforementioned plea for help for ourselves, I'm going to ask those of you who can to SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL BUSINESSES. Get takeout from your favorite eatery that's still cooking stuff, buy things from your local places and have them delivered (or pick them up curbside). Help keep your local economy a little bit more afloat, if you can.

And also, as I forewarned you, here's my shameless and desperate plea for help. Please PLEASE spread the word as much as you feel able; share this fundraiser on lots of social media, by email, even by writing the link on pieces of paper and passing them around. Encourage folks you know to donate and to spread the word themselves. I've long since estimated that I'll need about 1,000 different contributors to make the goal, so getting the word out is important. And IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, please donate, though we know that a few of you have done so already this month (for which A GREAT BIG THANK YOU) and lots of you just can't. But even a spare 5 or 10 clams, if that's all you can afford, is appreciated. Every little bit helps. (Remember, NO FEELING GUILTY if you don't have the means to contribute, or enough spoons to spread the word as far as you'd like.) And just as with the last several of these photo-less begging posts, if you have any job leads for either of us, PLEASE contact us! Relocation is TOTALLY an option.

Again, if anyone here actually is in a position to help out, right now would be a truly awesome time to do so. If you can't, you can't; I understand that better than most... thanks in advance for whatever you can do, and Happy Spring Equinox and its related holidays (any and all that you choose to celebrate) to you and yours. STAY SAFE. Wash your hands, keep hydrated, boost your immune system by whatever means works for you. Practice social distancing as much you realistically can. Keep in touch with your friends and loved ones from a safe distance. Tell them you care and that you're thinking of them. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

Lent is here and with that comes the need for rib-sticking food that doesn't require meat or meat products such as chicken/beef broth. I've also been hankering a bit for Indian-style "warm glop over rice" sort of food. So last week I was at the store and saw a couple of insanely expensive jars of what was labeled as "chana masala," a dish I find very yummy and meets the requirements for meatless days, but not at 8-9 bucks per pint. So I perused the ingredient lists (as I have done since kindergarten) to see how feasible it would be to roll my own.

The jars' ingredients included both cream AND yogurt. After a few days I realized that the jars were slightly mislabeled; what they contained was Chana TIKKA Masala. The idea of a tomato and cream/yogurt sauce sounded appealing to me. So off to The Intarwebs I went, looking for ideas about ballpark ratios and proportions of spices. And what I found was a metric $#!+-tonne of VEGAN recipes, which almost universally used coconut milk. Which, aside from environmental issues abut mass production of coconut milk (and soy and almond milks, among others) which is not germane to this post, was emphatically NOT the flavor profile I wanted right now. After bashing the search terms with a 3-pound sledge a few times, I came up with a few examples that used actual dairy products.

I present the recipes here, with my initial thoughts thereon, and an attempt to mash them into something I'd actually like to try. ( Now moved behind the cut. )

It’s been over three years now since my first retina surgery. I missed the actual anniversary back in August because... wait for it... I was sick. I’d been basically incoherent (or sleeping) for two-plus days, and when my immune system finally turned the corner in fighting off whatever virus was after me, I discovered I also had cellulitis in one lower leg. So, not being actually near home, we first located an urgent care that would take out-of-state Medicaid. I then spent over an hour on the phone with a very exasperated insurance clerk -- not exasperated with me, but with the stupid info system she had to work with that just simply isn’t very cooperative. (Please allow me to bid on improving it! My rates are very reasonable.)

After talking to Officer Obie for about -- wait, that’s the wrong story, isn’t it? :-) After the clerk finally convinced the system into doing what it was supposed to do (the threats of violence and any actual violence should have not been necessary, seriously), we came to the truth of the matter and the system coughed up the approvals I needed to take to the urgent care. So off we went, where yet another “this will be funny in a few years when it stops being annoying” story of recalcitrant IT systems occurred. The actual visit with the medics took less time than checking in, and I left with a script for an antibiotic and recommendations to keep the leg elevated as much as reasonably possible. (And another hope that they’ll take bids soon for improving their IT system, because wow is it needed.)

So on the follow-up, the doc said no further antibiotics should be needed, but to keep a close eye on the leg because the swelling hadn’t gone away. And that’s how the latter part of August went. Only it appears the doc wasn’t paying close enough attention. Back home after Labor Day I had the leg looked at again, and was told to get me to the ER for an ultrasound… mostly because the medic wanted it looked at ASAP, and the ER was the only place with ultrasound that could see me that day. Anywhere else and I’d have to wait at least overnight if not until the next day AFTER that. So it was off to the ER, where blood was drawn (the first attempt was a poor stick, OUCH) and ultrasound happened, and all the tests came back negative: no blood clots, no sepsis, but the original infection was still there, so I got a script for 10 more days of a different antibiotic. Even now I’m still needing to keep the leg elevated as much as possible consonant with, y’know, actually getting stuff done.

In the meantime, unavoidable taxes AND insurance premiums are now due in very short order. That’s in addition to certain bills that have gone unpaid, plus the medical bills hanging fire that are simply not going away (as a few dollars a month doesn’t go very far to paying them off). So, because we can't afford shame, here's my shameless plug for help. I have a GoFundMe that has been active since December 2016 for this purpose, which I’ve probably mentioned in this blog once or twice since then. Rather than making anyone hunt for the link, here it is:

Help Save Dave’s Eyesight

We've gotten support from some folks in the past month, and A GREAT BIG THANK YOU to alla youse. Please PLEASE spread the word as much as you feel able; share this fundraiser on lots of social media, by email, even by writing the link on pieces of paper and passing them around. Encourage folks you know to donate and to spread the word themselves. I've long since estimated that I'll need about 1,000 different contributors to make the goal, so getting the word out is important. And IF YOU ARE ABLE TO, please donate, though we know that some of you have done so recently (again, THANK YOU) and lots of you just can't. But even a spare 5 or 10 clams, if that's all you can afford, is appreciated. Every little bit helps. (Remember, NO FEELING GUILTY if you don't have the means to contribute, or enough spoons to spread the word as far as you'd like.)

And just like I’ve said in several previous posts, if you have any job leads for either of us, PLEASE contact us! Relocation IS an option, even more than it was before, though for family reasons it would be good to stay within reasonable distance of my parents. My few good leads this month have been for positions where we would certainly have to relocate. I’ve been telling folks that we’ll be happy to relocate anywhere within the rough triangle of Boston/Richmond/Pittsburgh.

Happy Autumn for those in the Northern Hemisphere, Happy Spring for those in the Southern hemisphere, and Happy Equinox for those in the tropics who are wondering just what this change-of-seasons thing actually is. :-D Happy Jewish High Holy Days for those who celebrate them, as they start in just a few days. And “happy” start of the school year as well for those in the Northern Hemisphere for whom this is relevant. May the upcoming season be happy and prosperous. And as always, thank you for your continued support.

...a pretty amazing feat of technology and human spirit reached an historic milestone. I mostly repeat what I said ten years ago on this date.

In commemoration of Apollo 11's landing on Luna, 20 July 1969 (Eastern Daylight Time), I think a song by Leslie Fish is in order.

You can hear Julia Ecklar perform it on this wonderful video that's up on YouTube.

If humanity is determined, then maybe Time really won't drive us (as a race) down to dust again. (I'm rather less optimistic **overall** now than I was ten years ago, even as spaceflight has advanced so far in that decade.)

Also, check out my story of an encounter I had a little more than ten years ago that touches on one aspect of this amazing feat.

In the first two posts of this series about Thousand Island Park NY, I basically started at the north end of St. Lawrence Avenue and moved south toward the south end, which is also the river front. Now it's time to look at a few things along the river, either next to, in, or across the water.

( Photos behind the cut. )

As afternoon moved towards sunset, I went back over the bridge and made my way south. If I'm lucky it won't be more than 15 years before my next visit.

In this second part of my series about Thousand Island Park, I turn my attention from the Guzzle to the rest of the center of town.

( Pictures et cetera behind the cut. )

Things at, near, in, or across the water will be covered in part 3.

So back on June 30th, after celebrating a HS graduation in Syracuse NY, I resolved that since I was only about 100 miles away (instead of at least 300), I would make a pilgrimage to a place I hadn't been to in over a decade.

There's probably only half a dozen people on Dreamwidth who've ever been to Thousand Island Park, NY, and I know most if not all of that half dozen. But for a half century T.I. Park was my maternal family's vacation spot of choice, and it remains one of my Big Two spots even though I rarely get there anymore. So up I-81 I went, over the American Span of the Thousand Islands International Bridge System, which celebrated its 80th birthday last year.

( Click on the cut for the rest of part 1, including many photos. )

Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 of this photo essay.

...this station will conduct a test...

Oops, I just derailed myself from the original intent of this post to something only vaguely related thereto. Because I just earwormed myself with the notorious "EBS test jingle" from upstate NY back in the 1970s, and the reason the FCC rule exists that EBS (and, later, EAS) test announcements had to be spoken and not sung.

"EBS test" jingle

I first heard this LIVE back in the 1970s, on vacation in the Thousand Islands, a visit to which was actually the initial inspiration for this test post.

( Picture behind the cut. I hope. )

If this works, a longer post will follow later this week.

I don't have the spoons to post anything of actual substance right now. Just letting everyone know I'm not dead. (Preferable as that might seem to me at times.)

It may technically be Black Friday on the US east coast, but I don't care.

Five years ago I posted this, and it's still relevant, only now the video is updated.

The "church nearby the restaurant" was later bought by Arlo himself, and fifty years after the incident that started at the church, he sang the song there...

Alice's Restaurant 50th Anniversary Tour Live at Guthrie Center

Which makes this rendition a real-life example of telling band camp stories at band camp. ("This one time, a- here...")

Happy US Thanksgiving everyone.

(To be crossposted to Diaspora*)

Same tune, vaguely different lyrics, so two earworms for the price of one.

Some folks who read this won't remember the original. Some won't remember the later one either. So links are being provided to Youtube videos (the first one is a single still with the song playing).

We start with the first hit for surf group Ronny and the Daytonas back in 1964:

Ronny & the Daytonas -- G.T.O.

Fast-forward twenty years, and somebody on the VW ad crew came up with the bright idea of adapting the song for a commercial for the Volkswagen (Rabbit/Golf) GTI, with lyrics *in German*:

VW GTI commercial

What I hadn't known is that they actually wrote TWO verses in German, corresponding to the first and last verses of the song (the last verse has two extra lines). Here are the German lyrics, thanks to Hemmings Daily:

German lyric		English translation

Kleiner GTI		Little GTI
Du siehst prima aus		well, you look so fine
Ich liebe, dich zu fahren		How I love to drive you
Hol' die Leistrung 'raus		Let the performance shine
Hoer nur, wie er sich anlasst,		Listen when I start it
Steck' den Schluessel 'rein		Stick the key in the ignition
Er ist bereit zum Start,		And it's ready to go.
Wie Er braust		How it zips
Wie Er saust,		How it zooms,
GTI.		GTI.

Werde bargeld, sparen		I'll save up some money
Kauf' den GTI,		Buy a GTI
Er faehrt mit mir laessig		'cause it drives so easy
An den Andren vorbei,		past the other cars
Ueberholt Benzinfresser		passes all the gas-hogs
Macht mir Spass dabei		Makes me smile a while
Und Jedermann sagt sich dann bloss		And everyone thinks to themselves
"Kleiner wagen - du bist gross"		"Little car - you're grand,"
Er ist bereit zum Start,		It's always ready to go
Wie er braust		How it zips
Wie er saust, GTI.		How it zooms, GTI.

And if I've managed to earworm you, then my work here is done. (For now.)

Long story short: we are back in Allentown, taking care of my parents while Mom is recovering from surgery. (For cancer. Caught very early, they're confident they got all of it.)

The choir sang two services at Mom's church today: the usual 10:30 AM Sunday service, and a 7 PM funeral for a choir member. (A cancer victim, hence the title.) The funeral service ran nearly two hours, for reasons.

Even the morning anthem was scarily appropriate for the tone of the day. Between yesterday's synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh and the choir member's recent death, it was just as well that Mom's church celebrated this as All Saints Sunday. (My No.Va. church celebrates it *next* week since that's closer to November 1st.) "Children of the Heavenly Father" has an urban legend that says the lyrics were a reaction to the lyricist's father's death by drowning, which the lyricist witnessed. (Much later analyses suggest the poem may predate that tragic incident.)

I'm still a bit in shock, and short on sleep, so I'm not doing the words thing at all well. Therefore I'll just say this for now:

Baruch dayan ha'emet.

Like some of the folks who read my posts here, I actually remember when Sesame Street first came on the air, and watched it the very first week ir aired. Perhaps unusually, the first episode I ever saw was number 2. Why not number 1? Because I was in first grade, and as a Catholic going to public school, I had to go to CCD classes once a week. Our parish held them on Monday afternoons, and Channel 13 showed Episode 1 on... a Monday afternoon. I got home from CCD just after the show ended, which I had known in advance would be the case because I had read the TV listings that morning. I wouldn't see episode 1 until a few months later, when Channel 11 (yes, a commercial station!) started airing the reruns a few months behind, and later in the afternoon.

These memories were brought back into focus today when I saw that the last original member of the on-stage cast is retiring, after being part of the show for 50 seasons. His last recorded parts will be aired as part of the 50th anniversary show, presumably to be aired on HBO in the summer/autumn of 2019, and on PBS nine months later.

Original Big Bird, Caroll Spinney, Leaves ‘Sesame Street’ After Nearly 50 Years

A final round of applause to one of the best. My hat's off to you, Caroll Spinney.

4.5 months since my last post here. Missed the entire poeriod between solstice and equinox. Now I must admit that some of that is the usual summer stuff that keeps me mostly offline save for stuff I can do from my not-incredibly-smart smartphone. That's typical. Less typical is spending a lot of the summer in places where, even when there is internet, it's difficult to find a place to set up the laptop.

Currently looking for employment. (FedroSplat not necessary, but am limiting the search to between NYC and Richmond, effectively a rough 250-mile radius of Allentown PA.) Also in search of an actual place to live (in Virginia) until employment dictates where we should live. The search for a place to live is limited by a tight budget, and we don't want to sign a year lease (unless it's REALLY cheap) due to the strong possibility of employment forcing relocation. But if you've got any leads they are appreciated.

When I have a little more brain I'll post about the Yellow Belt Project, which is actually making tangible progress towards completion (on the third or fourth attempt). That's about the only thing I really have worth writing about.

So, in light of one of the commercials from last night, I'm asking folks here: what would you consider a funnier hashtag for a post?

1. #NotATideAd

2. #TieDad

Please comment with your choice. Other suggestions along the same lines also welcome.