“In consideration of the health and safety of our employees and guests who have not been fully vaccinated, Masks are Required AT ALL TIMES Inside the Cheese Shop.”
Vaccinations have been widely available for two months here in Maskachusetts. There will always be those who aren’t vaccinated, however, either because they #DenyScience, have an unusual medical situation, are infants (though maybe the vaccine can be given right as a baby is coming out?), etc. Therefore, doesn’t this sign translate to “masks now, masks tomorrow, masks forever”?
#AbundanceOfCaution was the general rule for the shopping district. Although the governor’s 69 orders no longer require masks, the merchants have stepped in with their own unconditional mask requirements:
The ultimate expression of caution is to close the retail store altogether:
All photos from June 8.
A few sights on the way to/from this shopping experience… a group of preschool children, age 2 and 3, marching outdoors in masks. It was 93 degrees out. A neighbor with a zoning-minimum 2-acre lot (welcome the undocumented so long as they can afford a $1 million vacant lot on which to build a $1 million structure) riding a lawnmower… in a surgical mask.
The democratic party is finally catching up with science & allowing Calif* to go maskless, in another week. Lions never shop anywhere but grocery stores so small businesses who still require masks may just need more economic stimulus packages.
I think you’re just catching up. California has been “maskless” for the vaccinated for almost a month now. That, however, doesn’t stop private businesses from imposing their own guidelines.
“riding a lawnmower… in a surgical mask”… Can’t fix stupid.
Actually, this one may not be so ludicrous. I used to wear a dust mask when I rode my lawn mower because I would have suffered from oak pollen allergy otherwise, especially in June in MA.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Acme-United-Adjustable-Nose-Clip-Dust-Mask-5-Pack-ACM13259/206322970
So, the fellow may be killing many proverbial birds just with one mask.
You probably used N95 mask… surgical masks do nothing against dust.
From a friend today in another big Northeastern state. He took the family on a trip where masks are still required. At at least they warn people not to wear them in the pool, because the risk of drowning trumps the risk of getting COVID while in the pool.
https://i.ibb.co/DW25F4s/FACE-COVERINGS-DROWNING-RISK.jpg
Thank you for the photos. Now when I think of “Cheesy” and “Ridiculous” the terms will be neurosynaptically glued to the Concord Cheese Shop. That’s just my mind, other people will “think different.” I’m sure they have really nice cheese. It’s too bad they have to live their lives like this – but they’ve done it to themselves, so there’s no convincing them otherwise. They’re the New Revolutionaries, as the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will proudly attest.
https://i.ibb.co/TKwsYhr/The-Battle-of-Lexington.jpg
Also, I’ll take a wild guess and say that the patrons and owners of the Concord Cheese Shop are birds of a feather with a certain kind of high IQ who listen to NPR, and they’re hearing the advertisements about the shops in New York State and in Great Barrington who also sell boutique products like this, to upscale and educated “anti-consumer” connoisseurs who also talk about how they’re still wearing masks.
As you know, there’s nothing like peer review and approval as a positive feedback mechanism to enshrine mediocrity.
Mask signs are up everywhere here in New York, but a lot of people ignore them. The snootier the place, the more strict the enforcement. Bars still make a cage, no matter how brightly gilded.
Have you tried not wearing a mask, until someone asks you to put one on? Such petty scofflawing is what revolutions are made of.
M: Not wear a mask?!?! Whenever there is an opportunity to display virtue, to the contrary, I double down! If a person says “there should be more women doing X”, I attack them for their gender binarism (what about people of 50 additional genders doing X?) and their cisgender-normative assumption that the people currently doing X actually identify as “men”. Similarly, since I spend only about 15 minutes per day in environments where a mask could potentially be required, donning the hijab of the Church of Shutdown gives me a chance to show that I am doing my share to #StopTheSpread.
If only we’d followed the #Science-informed examples of the Czech Republic (https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2020/04/04/czech-government-implemented-face-mask-requirement-help-combat-coronavirus-column/2940393001/ ) and Peru (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/24/820085325/opinion-im-an-american-stuck-in-peru-glad-to-be-on-lockdown-to-avoid-covid-19 ) so many lives could have been saved.
(See https://www.statista.com/statistics/1104709/coronavirus-deaths-worldwide-per-million-inhabitants/ for where these Church of Shutdown exemplars are today.)
Mask usage is down to 40% at Mall of NH in Manchestah, down from 60% over Memorial Day. Only four stores still have mandatory masking: Apple, Xfinity (Comcast), Victoria’s Secret, and Old Navy (Gap).
I tested my hypothesis that Trump-voting Salem would have lower rates of mask usage. Wrong! Mask usage was closer to 70% in that border town. It turns out that proximity to Maskachusetts is more important than the local voting patterns. Come for the low taxes, stay for the muzzles!