What to do about omicron, a COVID-19 variant that is monstrously more infectious than delta, its predecessor, yet somewhat milder in symptoms? I have no idea. As the recent target of this slippery foe’s unwanted advances, I can tell you this: Don’t catch it. After countless weeks of skyrocketing case numbers, new data shows sharp declines over the past week. The omicron surge, like you-know-who’s hairline, is receding. Omicron. Sounds like an underground progressive metal band, around since 2014, based in Hong Kong. Which, it is. (Truly. I don’t always make stuff up.) Says the quartet’s guitarist Li Heng Chan in Rolling Stone: “Whether for the right or wrong reasons, we’ve…
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Positively optimistic
This week, I planned on blogging about Betty White, who would have turned 100 years old on January 17. She died peacefully in her sleep on New Year’s Eve after suffering a mild stroke on Christmas Day. A sad way to end yet another tough year. Seemed everyone was hoping she’d hang on just a little longer. Ahead of her centennial year, Betty opened up to People magazine on how she was feeling about turning 100. It was weird seeing the magazine’s gushing cover grace store aisles after she had passed. No. 1 rule of good journalism: Don’t write something as if it has happened when it actually hasn’t. (See Chicago Tribune, Nov.…
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Dreams, daggers and democracy
“Did you have any bad dreams last night?” Whenever I get asked that question by Rebecca before our first cup of coffee, I already know the answer: “No. Maybe. Yes. Why?” “Because your yelling scared the heck out of me and the dog, for that matter. Again. So, was it about the chase thing this time?” asked my beloved “CSI” fan, feared by all criminal minds who dare to pixelate her 60-inch TV screen. This time. Meaning it was not the first time. She’s Lt. Columbo with lipstick. The only missing prop was a dusty lightbulb dangling from the ceiling. My recurring dream was back. It’s always about the same thing:…
