One Day at a Time

One Day at a Time was a TV Series in the 1970s starring Bonnie Franklin, Pat Harrington. Mackenzie Phillips, and Valerie Bertinelli.  It was the first time I heard that cliche which is very meaning, especially with the events surrounding the spread of the coronavirus.  Today it was announced that the New York City School System will continue with distance education until the end of the academic year.  I am certainly familiar with the use of distance education in universities but am not knowledgeable of its effectiveness at the K-12 level.  Hopefully, all students are receiving a good education.

There is some cautious optimism as the number of admissions to hospitals and to ICUs have declined in recent days.  However, death counts each day are still high.  I am sure that everyone wants to return to work and have cultural activities back, but we must proceed with caution.  If we return to "normalcy" too soon, there may be a recurrence of the infections.

Let's take things one day at a time and hope for the best.

Matzoh Brei for Breakfast for the next 8 Days

While I was working I could only have Matzoh Brei for breakfast on weekends.  Since I am now retired, I can have it for all of the 8 days of Passover.  Here is the recipe from the New York Times.  The issue is that Passover food is always very dry.

All Things Must Pass by George Harrison - With Significance to Today's Situation

Without checking, I am almost certain that All Things Must Pass has appeared in Bruce's Journal before.  Very often lyrics of a romantic or anti-romantic song can be applied to another situation.  George is addressing his former lover saying that:

Seems my love is up and has left you with no warning
It's not always going to be this grey

I am applying this to the COVID-19 situation as "it's not always going to be this grey."  There will come a time that people can again gather in movie theaters, museums. libraries,  Broadway theaters, sports arenas, and baseball stadiums.  It won't happen overnight, but we must do what's best for public health.

Keep Safe!

Virtual Meeting of Bob Dylan Fans on Zoom Last Night

With so many people quarantined, many academic and professional meetings have been held using the Zoom app.  I sent an email to the people who attended recent face-to-face meetings at NYU with the information on how to log into the meeting.  I made the mistake of announcing on Twitter, so many undesirables tried to attend the meeting.  We all learn from our mistakes.  Anyway, the only consequence is that we had to start over with individual invitations.

Most of the discussion was devoted to the new Dylan song Murder Most Foul that considered the JFK assassination. We also discussed Dylan's acceptance speech and the subsequent response he sent to  The National Emergency Civil Liberties Committee (NECLC) regarding his seeing things that Oswald felt, in him.

  https://www.corliss-lamont.org/dylan.htm

More virtual meetings will be held.

Where Have You Gone John Bartolotta? A Nation (France) Turns its Lonely Eyes to You

John Bartolotta was a classmate of mine while we were chemistry graduate students at the University of Rhode Island contacted me in 2014.  At that time he sent an email to me at my NJIT address which was deleted after I retired.  Marshall Margolis, another fellow graduate student just contacted me asking if I knew how to contact John.  I looked in the alumni directory and found a phone number that I gave to Marshall who said that it was disconnected.  It turns out that a third fellow student, Ante Krstulovic, now living in France, was trying to contact John.  I had a nice e-mail exchange with Ante as we recalled some of our mutual acquaintances.  Marshall said that through Ancestry.com he found John's daughter and would try to contact her.

We'll see if John, a native of New Britain, CT, can be located and reconnect with us.

Watching Movies on TV These Days

Of course, during this coronavirus pandemic, all movie theaters are closed.  For many years I have subscribed to HBO so I often use their On-Demand feature to view movies.  Spectrum is giving all subscribers access to EPIX and Showtime until April 19 thus I have more choices.  However, it appears most of the movies on these three services are aimed at a younger audience.  Oh well. 

Twilight Zone Marathon Last Night on SyFy Channel

There is usually a Twighlight Zone marathon on the SyFy Channel on New Year's Eve going into New Year's Day.  I was pleasantly surprised to see a marathon last night.  I watched one episode last night and recorded 4 episodes overnight.  I have read on Facebook that some people are binge-watching their favorite TV series and they are staying home.