A couple of photos from a hotel in Houston, which just recently voted for a gubernatorial candidate who promised California- and Maskachusetts-style lockdowns and mask/vaccine orders:
(Most Texans are Republicans and anti-lockdown Governor Abbott won reelection, but Houston is majority Democrat and voted for Beto.)
I’m wondering how it is possible that a group of humans who recently cowered in place for years can celebrate their own boldness even as quite a few of them long to return to cowering in their bunkers, or at least behind the cloth masks that Dr. Fauci said would preserve them from a deadly aerosol virus.
A photo from the NYT article, showing the two Mxes and their P100 masks:
If everyone at the board game group would commit to wearing well-fitting, high-quality masks — they prefer elastomeric p100s — and the group invested in a HEPA filter, Mx. Cherry says the couple could safely attend. Mx. Nerode’s 90-year-old father, for instance, a math professor at Cornell, has taught all semester with the same equipment.
(The group could also sand a fiberglass boat or airplane as long as they all have their P100 masks on!)
The hold-outs in the article wanted to be referred to as “Mx.” instead of Mr/Mrs. That tell you all you need to know about their mental state of mind.
You know, I’m pretty open minded, and I’m willing to help support/entertain a small subset of the population that finds itself trapped in the wrong body. I think the estimates were like 0.1% of the population? Anyway, so sure if I encounter someone like that, what’s the harm? I try to be understanding and open. Back in the ol’ days, those people faced a lot of maltreatment and discrimination and misunderstanding. And yes, some are driven to suicide by their predicament.
But if every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants the special treatment then we have to ask ourselves is this really about helping people or is it just a political fashion? and some people are taking advantage of it?
Thanks for pointing this out, D-man. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/26/us/covid-masks-risk.html uses “Mr.” only twice and near the end. Here are the first four paragraphs:
Bitsy Cherry had been bracing for the question ever since most of the members of a board game group that had started meeting online during the pandemic began attending in-person meetings a few months ago.
Like many of the dwindling group of Americans still taking precautions like masking indoors and limiting face-to-face interactions, Mx. Cherry, who uses gender-neutral courtesy titles and pronouns, had been fielding nudges to return to pre-Covid routines from all corners. Doctors’ offices that have dropped mask protocols encouraged Mx. Cherry to come in for a physical exam. Friends suggested repeatedly that gathering on the porch might be safe enough. And there was President Biden, who in remarks on CBS’s “60 Minutes” had declared the pandemic “over.”
But when the board-game organizer finally asked this month if Mx. Cherry was ready to go back to gathering on the Cornell University campus, Mx. Cherry fumbled for an answer. The online gaming group on Saturday afternoons had become a key social outlet for Mx. Cherry, who has remained largely confined at home with Nathanael Nerode, Mx. Cherry’s partner, since March 2020 because of an autoimmune disorder that raises the risk of a severe outcome from Covid.
“I found that one upsetting,’’ Mx. Cherry said in an interview. “I’ve been worried in the back of my mind the whole time: When are they going to decide they don’t want to do this anymore?’’
In the US “boldness” has come to mean letting other people know about your non-traditional sexual orientation. Meanwhile talking about traditional sexual preferences to the opposite sex is likely to be considered “sexual harassment” instead of following your [biology driven] dreams…