Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"If you're going through hell, keep going."

attributed to Winston Churchill

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

We are in the midst of National Nurses Week.

Nurses are begging us to stay at home and stay well.

Last week we were told we had moved beyond the need for the Coronavirus Task Force.

Tonight three members of the task force - Dr Fauci and the heads of CDC and FDA - are in some form of quarantine after virus exposure in the White House.

Are we listening to our frontline nurses' plea?

We're in a public health crisis.  
Coronavirus is in the White House.

Protect yourself and others:

Stay at home (if you are able).  
Wear a mask and social distance when you must be out.

Stewart Myrent

I just wanted to wish all the Mothers & Grandmothers out there a very Happy Mother's Day.  It wasn't typical May weather today, as I actually witnessed snowflakes coming down earlier today.  I also wanted to add that I am so glad that it's the women who bear the childen, as they are uniquely predisposed to not only bear the children, but also to give them all the nurturing & love that we all need.  I am fairly certain that if men somehow were the ones to go through gestation & bear the chidren, that 0 couples would have more than 1 child, as I can certainly envision pretty much every man saying, "I am never going through this ever again & to ensure that outcome, you are NEVER touching me again."  I have heard for the longest time, though, that women, after going through the pain of childbirth, have relatively short memories of their agonies, and, consequently, families with multiple children exist.  It is, I believe, because of the natural presence of empathy in women, that makes them specially qualified to be not only parents, but specifically, mothers.  Happy Mother's Day to you all - hope you had a great day!

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Thanks, Stewart, for a beautiful Mother's Day greeting.

I didn't notice snow in Oshkosh, but it was brisk. I spent a great deal of time outside hiking with four of my grandchildren.

I can vouch for the memory of the pain of childbirth fading fast.

Lotsa air hugs today... the pandemic and social distancing may well be a vivid memory.

Jack Edmund Bookwalter

OK all you Chicago art lovers. After the "Farmer With a Pitchfork" painting (which Janis showed us the revised social distancing version) this is the SECOND most famous piece of art in the Chicago Art Instiute. But wait a minute..its different..missing something....Oh.. Yeah...right   (sigh)

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Happy Birthday, Jack.

Were you born on Mother's Day, 1946?

Georges Seurat painted a Sunday afternoon quite unlike yesterday.

Thanks for including us in your birthday of social distancing...

...wonder how long 'til we can gather on La Grande Jatte.

Happy Birthday, dear Jack. Happy Birthday to you.

Enjoy your day.

Vic Stroetzel

Lots of dots on the Seurat, I also wondered what the Minkey( you have to say it as Inspector Clousseau) was up to.

Hope you're all well, and stay that way for a while. I was at the Lowes I worked at last Saturday. No more than 10 percent wore masks. If I hear 1 more person say it's their 1st Amendment rights...........

Vic

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Vic, I too have had it with all the talk about 1st Amendment rights... from people who carry guns to protect their lives, but won't social distance or wear a mask to protect others' lives. Hope you read David Bantz's post #1719: "angry-looking folks shouting inches away into the faces of silent troopers, who brandished no weapons ... this is violence designed to intimidate and to intentionally injure or kill others by spread of coronavirus and COVID-19."

"Lots of dots on the Seurat... "
are you wondering about the "Minkey" on a leash in Seurat's La Grande Jatte on a busy Sunday afternoon?

Here's to wearing our masks and staying well.  
Janis

Jack Edmund Bookwalter

By gosh there IS a "minkey" in the original Suerat. 'Never noticed. I never got past those bustles.

As far as the screaming nutcases who won't social distance, I call them free-dumb fighters,

Stewart Myrent

Jack, loved the "free-dumb fighters" epithet.  I am looking for humor wherever I can find it.  Keep it up.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"The Lady With the Diagrams"

Florence Nightingale, born May 12, 1820

Florence Nightingale knew that data is only as persuasive as the graphs that illustrate them; she was a pioneer in data visualization who made the polar area graph famous. She showed that soldiers in Scutari died of preventable diseases rather than their battle wounds, and that their mortality rate plummeted when a sanitation commission cleaned up the hospital's infected water supply. She used the information to save countless more civilians and soldiers from dying because of poor living standards and sanitation at home.

In 1858, Florence Nightingale, who was not allowed to attend university because of her gender, was elected the first female member of the Royal Statistical Society.  
Mathematicians and data scientists revere Florence Nightingale as one of history's most important statisticians.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The numbers of Americans who have suffered with COVID-19 and died from the virus far exceed any other nation in number or by percentage. A large portion of our populace has apparently decided either they are not subject to the coronavirus or they don't care about those who are. People are crowding into Wisconsin bars without masks and congregating with no regard for social distancing. Have we forgotten the pleas of nurses who put themselves at great risk to care for the hundreds of thousands of very sick people who have crowded our hospitals? Ironic that nurses have been forced to beg for masks while others proudly disparage wearing them. Do we believe essential workers are sacrificial workers? The people who are dying have names, children, spouses, parents, and friends.

Give me the grace to wear a mask and social distance to do my part to stop the spread.

Stewart Myrent

Janis, I have been doing my calculations every time I see the latest stats on total U.S. cases & total deaths from virus & the death rate has been consistently over 5%, closer to 5.5%, but I heard that the death total might be underestimated, so it could be higher.  On the other hand, w/o adequate testing, the total cases may be substantially higher & consequently, the death rate lower.  But, we easily have both the highest infection rate & the highest death rate, in the world.  USA!  USA!  I think I mentioned to you that I saw on TV yesterday that WI was open for business on Fri. & I saw lots of people in the restaurants & bars, crammed together, but no one was wearing a mask & I was wondering how long it would take for WI to experience an uptick in Covid cases, but I didn't have to wait long for an answer, as during the same broadcast, they announced that WI was experiencing a major surge in Covid cases, already.

Stewart Myrent

Relative to my post of yesterday, stating that the day WI opened up bars & restaurants, they immediately experienced a surge in new Covid-19 cases, by the next day:  I mentioned this fact to former classmate Bob Lawrence (nee Fimoff) & he said he heard because of the incubation period for the virus (apparently, 1 to 3 wks.), this (supposedly) immediate surge in Covid cases had 0 to do with opening up the bars & restaurants for business & was just a matter of coincidental timing, w/o the added dangers of doing without social distancing & mask-wearing.  So, I am now guessing that WI will experience a huge surge in cases, in the next few weeks.  Could IL be far behind?

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

   "Should I keep back my opinions at

       such a time, through fear of

    giving offense, I should consider

   myself as guilty of treason toward

                   my country."

           -- PATRICK HENRY

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

Government matters in these times.

Government must be fair (non-partisan) and effective.

Stewart Myrent

Thought it was time for another excerpt from Seymour Morris Jr.'s, "Americant History Revised: 200 Startling Facts that never made it into the textbooks", which I am now reading for the second time, as the local library is still closed.  From Chapter 9, "Not What You Think" & a section titled "Muzzling the Radical - 1787", "Jefferson, in a moment of reflection, had gone on record that a new constitutional convention might be necessary every twenty years or so.  His fellow constitutional delegates, struggling in the heat of a long Philadelphia summer to produce a lasting document, were less than thrilled.  Cool it, they told Jefferson, and so Jefferson never said a further word about what would have been the most interesting insight of the entire summer (our loss, certainly).  But worse was still to come.  From Benjamin Franklin they heard that 'our people would drift into so deep a corruption that only despots could rule them.'  Horrors! Standing high in the name of righteousness, the Convention members ordered that Franklin be followed at all times, and be accompanied by a chaperone to 'make sure he held his tongue'.  So much for free speech in the founding of America.  Political correctness was the byword even then."  The more things change, the more they stay the same.  Hope you liked this nugget. 

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

New test indicates hydroxychloroquine causes delusions.

Marvin Irving Blusteln

Does anyone really believe 45 is taking it.  

Marvin Irving Blusteln

Going to London for free.  I walking all the way on Pinocchio 45's nose.

Stewart Myrent

Marv, relative to your question, it might depend on if you're asking it "hypothetically", or if you're asking it "substantially".  If you're asking hypothetically, my answer would be "No!".  If you're asking substantially, my answer would be "Hell, no!"  Although, regardless of which of my answers you prefer, there is always that sneaking suspicion that the CORRECT answer might be "Yes", regardless of the nature of your question.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"I love sports; without sports all we have to talk about is reality, and reality isn't so great these days."

-- Charles Barkley

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

"An age is called 'Dark' not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it."

-- James Michener

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

The Power of a Name.  
If it's easy to ignore the guidance given by public health officials to wear a mask and social distance when the words are directed to nameless, faceless audiences, it is something else to tell a friend or loved one that their health is not important to us.  
We wear masks to protect others.  
At a time like this when we are all under attack from the coronavirus, if we recognize that it's people we know by name, our family, friends, and neighbors who are at risk, our conversation and actions are more likely guided by compassion, kindness, and humility.  
That's the power of a name.

Do the right thing.  
Wear a mask.

Janis Kliphardt (Emery)

A friend sent me a Jewish story about people on a boat.  
One passenger decided to dig through the floor of his cabin. Water flowed in.  
The other passengers were furious.  
"But it's my cabin," the guy said. "Why should it matter?"

Personal choice only goes so far when we're all on the same boat.