Month: June 2020

Halfmoon and White Rocks in the Great North Mountain area – Face masks to be worn at the Republican Convention after all – Quarantines for visitors to New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut – Minneapolis’s irresponsible city council – Evening statistics

The weather continues to be sultry, although not quite as breezeless as it was on Sunday.  It was just as well to be on the mountains today – specifically, in the Great North Mountain area, where the Vigorous Hikers traced a route that included the lookout points of Halfmoon Overlook and of White Rocks just off of the Tuscarora Trail.  It was somewhat less hot in the higher elevations – though in fact it is not as high as many parts of the Shenandoah National Park area or the top of the ridge in the Massanutten range.  We started from Waites Run just outside Wardensville.  The climb up the German Wilson Trail – 732 feet in 0.8 miles – was strenuous, but the remainder of the hike had fairly gentle ups and downs.  It was shorter than usual, only 13.5 miles long and with 2500 feet of elevation gain.  One aspect of the hike that surprised us:  the remains of the mountain laurel blossoms still in bloom were frequently to be seen, even though they have completely disappeared by now from the Massanutten and the Blue Ridge mountains to the east.  The overlook at Halfmoon provides expansive views of the Trout Run Valley, Mill Mountain to the south, and the ridges of Great North Mountain. It was a bit of a scramble to White Rocks, where we saw the Massanutten range running alongside the Cedar Creek Valley, and the Blue Ridge Mountains (where Shenandoah National Park is located) further east in the distance.  Although the areas in both valleys were farmed in the past, the inhabitants have left little trace; the trees have taken over every acre of the land that was once used for crops and it is quite possible to imagine oneself in the midst of virgin forest.

My total mileage at this point, just halfway through the year, is 1,080; so it seems likely that I will be ending up with 2,000 or more hiking miles by the end of December. 

Many of Florida’s cities have now issued a mandate to wear face masks in public settings, and Jacksonville is among these.  President Trump has, of course, moved the Republican convention from Charlotte to Jacksonville to avoid the face mask mandate in place at the former location, but the health guidelines that he has been so determined to flout have caught up with him.  Even with this injunction, it seems likely that the convention will receive a mixed reception from its host city.  The doctors in the area have expressed concern about the prospect of 40,000 people descending upon Jacksonville for the event, even with the face mask mandate in place.  Trump has been anxious to make a show of pre-virus normalcy at other events, such as the recent rally in Tulsa, although his attempts to do so have led to the quarantining of his campaign manager, others on his staff, and several members of the Secret Service.  He has since been forced to cancel a rally in Alabama, reportedly at the request of the state’s Republican governor.  Trump is beginning to resemble the self-deluded Merlin in Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court:  “His stock was flat again.  Somehow, every time the magic of fol-de-rol tried conclusions with the magic of science, the magic of fol-de-rol got left.”

Originally the Northeast states of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were considered the national epicenter of the virus and visitors who traveled from these states to others were expected to self-quarantine; in some cases they were banned altogether.  But “the whirligig of time brings in his revenges.”  At this point these three states have flattened their curves and their daily death rates from the virus are minimal.  It is they that are now imposing quarantine regulations on visitors from the following states where the case counts and death tolls have skyrocketed:  Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Nevada, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

The city council of Minneapolis has voted unanimously to disband the city’s police force and replace it with “a transformative new model.”  It is impossible to believe that they sincerely wish this resolution to come to pass.  Jacob Frey, the city’s mayor, has denounced the resolution as vague and unsatisfactory, and business leaders are understandably reluctant to continue working in a city that would offer them no protection against marauders.  The death of George Floyd was certainly abominable – no one is arguing about that – but this effort to curry favor with the more vocal of the protesters is, to say the very least, ill-judged.  The career of a policeman entails great personal risk and is not especially well-paid; if we succeed in making it disreputable as well, no qualified person will wish to join a municipal police force, and we will end up with cities as unlivable as war zones. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,574,110; # of deaths worldwide: 513,139; # of cases U.S.: 2,726,773 # of deaths U.S.: 130,102.  We have had nearly 45,000 new cases today and nearly 750 virus-related deaths.  Canada, by way of contrast, has had 286 new cases and 25 virus-related deaths.  Even taking into account that Canada’s population is about one-ninth of that of the U.S., the figures are proportionately much lower.  About one in every 3,600 white Americans have died from the virus.  For black Americans, the death toll is considerably higher; their mortality rate is about one in 1,500.  Spain and Italy, once the object of so much pity from the remainder of the world, have now almost completely flattened their curves.  At this rate they will be edged out of the list of the top ten countries with the greatest number of cases within two or three weeks. 

A routine Monday – Ripe wineberries – Supreme Court decision – Anti-abortion lobby – Asymptomatic coronavirus cases – Evening statistics

Mondays tend to signify beginning a new week for me, even during retirement.  For one thing, the refuse collection in my neighborhood occurs on Mondays, which means that I must get up early enough to place the garbage containers, recycle bins, and lawn cuttings outside of the house before the trucks come by to pick them up.  I prefer not to leave these outside overnight, especially under the current circumstances, when the wildlife has become considerably emboldened. 

Other than that there is not much to record on a personal level, except for rambling through trails that run through the neighborhood and taking advantage of the fact that the now-ripe wineberries are plentiful.  They are actually considered an invasive species, but their fruit is too appetizing to resist.   They are less tart than raspberries, a trifle more tangy, and even more fragile; the only way to transport them is to put them loosely in bags.  If one uses plastic containers they disintegrate in next to no time at all.  Nor do they store well; if they are not eaten the day that they are picked then the only way to use them at all is in preserves.  For these reasons one never finds them in the stores.  The only way one can eat them is to gather them in the wild or to cultivate them in a garden.

My aunt has been rejoicing about the Supreme Court decision today that has ruled against the Louisiana law regulating abortion clinics – specifically, the one that requires that a physician who performs abortions must have admission privileges to a hospital within 30 miles of his office, which imposes significant limitations on a state with a substantial rural population.  Indeed it is somewhat surprising how emotionally invested the religious right are in this issue.  I am, admittedly, not an expert in these matters.  But even as a mere male it seems apparent to me that an abortion is, shall we say, a somewhat invasive procedure, usually entailing a degree of pain and not without a certain amount of risk as well.  I cannot believe that any woman undertakes such a step lightly.  If the anti-abortion lobby were truly serious about realizing its goals, they would do well to try to reverse the Hollywoodian (or hollow-wooden) standard that glorifies exploitation of women.  And if anyone disbelieves the claim that such a standard prevails in our country (and of course we are scarcely unique in this), I challenge him or her to go to any high school or college campus in the country, select a young male student at random, and say to him, “I understand that you’re quite the stud.”  I guarantee that he will regard that remark as a compliment, not an insult. 

There are indeed certain enclosed societies that make a conscious effort to discourage the notion that promiscuity is a quality to be admired, in men as well as in women.  I will take, as an example, the one that I know of best from personal contact – that is, the Orthodox Jews.  They have their skirt-chasers and would-be Casanovas like everyone else.  But these are regarded as buffoons, triflers, people of no consequence socially.  The result is that the majority of Orthodox Jewish women do not feel particularly flattered by their attentions and that the rate of seduction and unwanted pregnancy is therefore significantly lower than the national average. 

So it is with the Amish; so it is with the fundamentalist Muslims.  One reason that young women from relatively affluent and even liberal households are enticed into conversion to fundamentalist Islam – which does not, on the face of it, offer much scope for any woman – is that they are impressed by its claims to forestall the possibility of women being impregnated and then deserted, thereby having to cope with bearing a child and bringing it up without assistance, as is frequently the case in our society. 

It is certainly a social evil to have a large number of women carrying prospective children whom they cannot possibly support on their own.  If the anti-abortionists were sincere in their professed protective attitudes towards women, they would be concentrating their efforts on combating the social attitudes that bring such a situation about – the sort of humorous indulgence, for example, that is so frequently accorded to our Don Juans in real life.  But they do not.  They prefer to let the tail wag the dog.  Instead of trying to forestall the predators, they focus on penalizing the victims.

Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the CDC, said that “Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections.”  This statement highlights one of the issues of the coronavirus:  the asymptomatic cases.  No one really knows why the virus affects some cases severely, some fatally, and others not at all.  Underlying factors certainly aggravate the ravages of the virus but that is not the entire story.  Some perfectly healthy young people have contracted the disease, and some have succumbed to it, in increasing numbers.  I simply have no idea from one day to the next whether I have the virus or not, even though I’ve not had any symptoms to date.  Nor is it clear whether or not the asymptomatic cases can transmit the disease, but at this point the most prudent course is to assume that they can.  That is one reason that my visits to my mother’s facility have been relatively brief and infrequent. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,401,162; # of deaths worldwide: 507,499; # of cases U.S.: 2,681,406 # of deaths U.S.: 128,774.  Our country has seen an increase of over 44,000 new cases today.  Florida accounts for over 5,000 of these, Texas for nearly 6,000, California for nearly 7,000.  Virginia’s increase was relatively low and the number of daily new cases is declining, but it was still over 450 today.  The death toll today for the country was 338, which represents a decline from earlier days.  But it is unknown at this point whether the recent spate of new cases will reverse this trend. 

Reunion with several Wanderbirds – Post-hike socializing – Wineberries and blackberries – A local fruit stand – Cancelation of Fourth of July events – Youtube illogic – Dangers of relying on polls – Evening statistics

Up to this point the weather, although warm and humid, has been relatively easy for activities requiring some exertion because the breezes provided a measure of cooling and dispersed the moisture.  In the shade it was quite comfortable.  But today there were few breezes and one felt the heat more readily than before.  Nonetheless several people from the Wanderbirds, including me, met with AD at the American Chestnut Land Trust and we hiked along the trail that runs between the north parking area and Prince Frederick.  At the start of the hike we were a group of seven.  AD had to return early in order to attend to her husband, who is still convalescent.  Three others, who were getting tired as a result of the heat, returned with her.  I went with MB and RH to the end of the trail and back.  We covered ten miles in all. 

AD left behind some fruit and drinks for us to snack on after we returned to our cars.  This was a pleasant reminder of old times.  Before the virus prevented our riding together in a chartered bus, the Wanderbirds would eat and drink and chat with one another after we hiked while waiting for everyone to assemble.  I have also been on numerous trips that small subgroups of the club took together and on the hikes we completed during those trips we would do the same.  During the time of the pandemic I have felt reasonably confident to risk hiking together with others, provided that we keep at a distance from one another.  I have been hiking with the Vigorous Hikers throughout the last several months, and in the past two weeks I have taken advantage of the current arrangement to see some of the other members from the Wanderbirds again.  The Vigorous Hikers have always been a somewhat less cohesive social group; it was never their custom to spend much time with each other once the hike of the day was completed.  The fact that we traveled in different cars to the trailhead and could depart at different times meant that there was no need for everyone to wait until the last hiker had arrived at the endpoint.  I have done some hiking with various members outside of the official club hikes, but very far from the same degree that I have done with other members of the Wanderbirds.  This afternoon gave me the first opportunity I have had since March to eat and drink and converse after a hike with some of my companions.  It represents a distinct advance in the resumption of social life.  At this point people are resuming interactions with each other, but tentatively and for the most part out of doors; it will be quite some time before any of us feels comfortable conversing with one another in an enclosed room.

Another pleasant factor about this hike is that the wild berries are ripening.  The wineberries are displaying the beginning of fruits ripe enough for eating.  Only a few isolated blackberries here and there were ripe, but they will be available within another week.  The blackberries fresh off of the bush are much more flavorful than the ones bought in the store; as for the wineberries, one cannot eat them any other way, since they are too fragile for transporting. 

After the hike I went to a fruit-and-vegetable stand that AD recommended, and there I picked up some plums and cherries.  It has been many months since I’ve had a good plum – again, the ones bought in the stores tend to be disappointing compared with the ones bought locally.

As has been happening so often lately, the placidity of my personal activities forms a vivid contrast to what has been going on regionally and nationally.

Various local Fourth of July events have been canceled, including the parades and the fireworks displays at the various towns and cities in the area.  It is a disappointment, of course, but we cannot ignore the warnings we have seen in other states that rescinded the lockdown restrictions too early; we do not wish to undergo a second wave of the virus here. 

As a follow-up to my observation about our reliance on euphemisms yesterday:  anything sillier and more absurd can scarcely be imagined – I have no doubt that many people who read this will not believe it – but it is a literal fact that Youtube forcibly removed a podcast yesterday about the progress of a chess tournament on account of the commentator’s overuse of the words “white” and “black.”  Such are the Hercules’ pillars of insanity that can be reached by craven kowtowing to malevolent zealots and the use of a computer algorithm as a substitute for a governing intelligence.

The polls at this point are very much in Joe Biden’s favor, but It actually would be better for them if the polls at this point were more evenly balanced.  The Democrats must not rely on the polls at this point if they hope to win.  That was the mistake they made in the last election:  they were lured into complacency.  I hope that at least some of the strategists operate on the assumption that Trump’s winning the election is a genuine possibility, and that they must work strenuously to avert that outcome.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,237,543; # of deaths worldwide: 504,075; # of cases U.S.: 2,636,550 # of deaths U.S.: 128,426.  Our case rate is just under 0.8% of the population, or one in every 120.  Florida has had more than 8,500 new cases today.  It will be interesting to see whether the state will be able to get its rate of increase under control by the time of the Republican National Convention, which is to be held in Jacksonville less than two months from now.

Face masks becoming less frequent – Florida resumes restrictions – Mike Pence in Texas – Euphemisms then and now – Evening statistics

It’s been fairly uneventful – going to the Farmer’s Market this morning and working on the lawn later in the day.  Alas, not many people were wearing face masks at the Farmer’s Market; I even got a few stares because I had mine on.

Florida has closed down its bars after their re-opening on account of the exploding number of new coronavirus cases.  Yesterday alone saw an increase of nearly 9,000 new cases, and the highest percentage of these occurred in the 25-to-34 age range.  Governor DeSantis has resisted issuing a statewide mandate for people to wear masks.  He has said that it is not necessary because the state has plenty of hospital capacity available to deal with the surging number of cases.  It must be reassuring for any Floridian to know that if he is stricken with a potentially mortal illness, there will always be a hospital bed available for him on which he can expire.

Texas has also closed down its bars, having undergone a similar increase in new cases.  Mike Pence will be coming down there to better understand, in his own words, the ongoing pandemic.  To that end, he will be speaking at the First Baptist Dallas megachurch to an audience of 3,000, who will be packed in without any attempt at distancing, nor will face masks be required.  Perhaps, after the number of new cases surges as a result of such an event, Mike Pence’s understanding of the nature of the virus will be increased.  He can hardly be more ignorant of its effects and its communicability than he appears to be now.

There is currently some sort of discussion circulating within the IT community to abolish the “master/slave” terminology used to describe models of asymmetric communication in which one device controls several others.  The Victorians have often been ridiculed for their reliance on euphemisms, but these are no less prevalent in our era than in theirs.  The terminology is a convenient one and has been in use for decades, without any thought of giving offense.  To pretend that slavery never existed and to try to cover up all references to it in the manner that one especially sensitive 19^th-century lady put clothes on snowmen to conceal their lower parts does no favors to the descendants of ex-slaves.  The only reward these would-be purifiers of our language will receive is the derisive laughter of future generations.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 10,073,814; # of deaths worldwide: 500,608; # of cases U.S.: 2,596,364 # of deaths U.S.: 128,152.  It has taken only a week for the case count to increase by one million.  The worldwide death toll is now over 500,000; however, the mortality rate has become lower over the past several weeks.  It is about 5% worldwide and in the U.S. it is slightly over 4%.  Spain and Italy, where the virus formerly seemed the most virulent, have been decelerating in the increases of cases and deaths.  Spain lost 3 people today and Italy lost 8 – the death tolls were in the hundreds daily not very long ago.  Soon they will be displaced in the list of the top ten countries with the highest case counts.  The case counts in various non-European countries continues to accelerate; Brazil, Peru, Chile, Russia, Iran, Mexico, and Pakistan have all seen large spikes in their case counts.

A funeral – Delivery robots – Two books that are best-sellers before publication – Trump predicts his own defeat – Biden (apparently) attempts his own defeat – Evening statistics

The weather over the past several days has been warm and fairly humid, but there has been a sufficient amount of breezes to make walking reasonably comfortable in the shade.  Even along the streets as I was performing errands this morning it was not tiring to walk in the streets in direct sunlight.  At one point I passed by the Fairfax Cemetery, where I saw a funeral service being conducted.  It appears that the limit of ten people at such an event has been lifted.  It was heavily attended.  The greater part of the mourners wore face masks, but by no means all of them; nor were they keeping apart from one another.  It appears probable that more funerals will be conducted in this manner, and one can only hope that this tendency will not aggravate the spread of the virus too much.  It was held out of doors, of course, and in warm weather; but I would not have been altogether at my ease had I been one of the attendees under such circumstances.

I also came across several of the little robots that are used for transporting food.  I have not mentioned them before, but they have become quite commonplace over the past two months.  Previously I had seen them only on the George Mason University campus, but at this point many restaurants and food stores offer delivery service to local residents in this fashion.  The food is packaged within the robot and it is programmed with the cell phone number and address of the customer.  When it arrives at the address, it sends a text to the cell phone number.  After the customer responds, the robot’s compartment where the food is stored can be opened.  It is equipped with cameras and alarms to guard against theft.   These robots are useful for deliveries over short distances, although at this point the technology is not sufficiently advanced for them to cover more than a mile or so.  They store up to 22 pounds of food (the equivalent of about three grocery bags).  They constitute yet another example of how automation will displace jobs currently performed by humans, and the special needs imposed by the coronavirus are accelerating their popularity and future development.  In all probability this description of the device will seem incredibly limited and primitive in the course of a few years, just as we might currently look upon an older microprocessor that had to be booted by means of floppy disks.

Yesterday’s entry was something along the lines of what W. S. Gilbert recommended for hyper-aesthetic poets:

You must lie upon the daisies
And discourse in novel phrases
Of complicated state of mind.
The meaning doesn't matter
If it's only idle chatter
Of a transcendental kind.

I wasn’t exactly lying upon daisies yesterday (although I did see a number of large yellow water-lilies while going along the boardwalk at Neabsco – does that count?) and others will have to decide whether the phrases I used were novel or not, but I certainly was discoursing a good deal about my complicated state of mind.  So I suppose I should concentrate today on matters of greater concern to the public at large.  I don’t know, though – that may be rather depressing.  But, to do my best:

President Trump has attempted to block a book by John Bolton, the former National Security Advisor; and Robert Trump, the President’s brother, has attempted to block a book by Mary Trump, the daughter of their deceased elder brother.  In all probability it is the publication of the latter that the President dreads the most.  If a man’s character is to be abused, after all, there’s no one like a relative to do the work.  And it must be admitted, as far as Donald Trump is concerned, that the mere truth about his past activities is enough to cover him with discredit and that any invention of scandal would be unnecessary exertion on his niece’s part.  At all events, the lawsuits brought about to stop the publications have backfired in a rather ridiculous manner.  The suits were summarily dismissed, and the only tangible result is that both books were given a great deal of free publicity.  Even though they haven’t been formally released yet, they have become national best-sellers, with numerous advance orders via Amazon, and will be read all over the country as soon as they are published.

One of the people who predicts that Biden will win the upcoming election appears to be his opponent.  The President has said on Fox News that Biden “is going to be president because some people don’t love me.”   It is difficult to be certain whether he realized that he was undergoing a television interview at the time or imagined himself to be indulging in a session of free association on the psychiatrist’s couch.  One almost expected him subsequently to lament about his unhappy childhood.  Well, well – if he isn’t going to win any prizes for stoicism, I suppose that points must be awarded to him for accuracy:  he certainly is unloved, and on that account those may pity him who can.

On the other hand, there are times when Joe Biden seems to be working for his own defeat.  Just yesterday he claimed that over 120,000,000 Americans died from the pandemic – about a third of the country’s population.  There was absolutely no need for such a ludicrous exaggeration.  The death toll at the time that he made the remark was about 122,000, which is sufficiently appalling.  All he had to do was to provide the correct figure and emphasize the fact that the rate of the death toll has been accelerating ever since the lifting of the lockdown procedures in various states.  Even his policy of conducting much of his campaign at this stage through videos rather than in live encounters is suspect.  He is probably correct on medical grounds, but we would like to be sure that his staffers are not recommending this method to him in order to rein him in and be able to perform some timely editing whenever errors of this nature occur.  At one point he will be forced to address crowds in person, whether he likes it or not, and it is an open question of how well he perform under such circumstances.  At this point the image he projects is that of a sleepy old man who would greatly prefer dozing by the fireside to the rigors of administering the government of a nation. 

I may be imposing my own personal reactions onto the staffers of the Republican and the Democratic campaigns, but I cannot rid myself of the notion that members of both groups are shaking their heads behind the scenes and are desperately contriving methods to forestall their candidate’s propensity for embarrassing himself and his party at large.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,896,953; # of deaths worldwide: 496,045; # of cases U.S.: 2,552,446 # of deaths U.S.: 127,619.  Several dismal milestones have been passed today.  The increase in the worldwide case count today was nearly 200,000.  Our case count increased by over 46,000.  Brazil’s case count is now over 50% of our own.  India’s case count is now over 500,000.  Mexico’s case count is over 200,000 and its death toll is over 25,000.

Neabsco Creek – Why hiking predominates these entries – Effects of limited contact with others – Plans for the future remain tentative – The trials of solitude – Donald Trump on tour – Evening statistics

I mentioned to WN and KJ, the organizers of the Potomac Heritage Trail Association, that the segment of the trail across Neabsco Creek and the adjoining wetlands was now complete, and they asked if I could take some photos there and post them to the PHTA Facebook page.  I certainly needed no urging to revisit this beautiful area, so I went there today.  It was a good day for it; the recent warm and relatively dry weather meant that there was hardly any mud on the trail, and most of it was bridged by wooden planks.  I took photos of Neabsco Creek, the wetlands, and Powells Creek, as well as of various flora and fauna in the Neabsco area.  I thought that I would never be able to get a photo of any of the numerous red-winged blackbirds that fly about in that area, but on the return back to the car one bird obligingly rested on the rail of the boardwalk and stayed there long enough for to me to take its picture.  The birds are starting to revert to their usual shyness now that traffic is resuming normal levels.

One acquaintance who has been going through the journal said to me, “I like your hiking blog.”  It is not a hiking blog specifically, although I can understand why people might look upon it as one.  I try to include a mixture of personal activities and public ones, which frequently form a great contrast.  Certainly it is true that I hike a good deal – it is my main leisure activity.  But the main reason that hiking looms so largely in these accounts is that there is little other activity to report.  We are very far from this stage at being to resume normal social intercourse.  The following example will illustrate what I mean:

A man living in Dallas hosted a surprise birthday party for a relative at a time when he was unknowingly infected with the virus.  Twenty-five people attended and shortly afterwards eighteen of them came down with the virus, including two children, two people in their 80s, and a cancer patient.  For the most part the infected people are recovering, but the two people in their 80s are in grave danger and are not likely to survive.

It’s easy to deride such people.  But the months of social distancing are taking their toll.  When I was conversing with RK last night on the telephone, she noted that she had been reading my blog and suggested that one reason I’ve remained healthy to date is that I’ve had contact with very few people.  And she is correct.  Being retired, I’ve never had to associate with fellow-workers in an office at any time during the pandemic; living on my own, I do not have to worry about infections from other inmates of my household.  My interactions with others have been very limited.  There are two families whom I know well, to whom I’ve paid an occasional visit, and on these visits we spent most of our time out of doors, sitting well-apart from one another.  There have been hikes with RS, with members of the Vigorous Hikers, and, lately, with members from the Wanderbirds; again, these encounters are out of doors and we walk apart from one another.  There have been visits to my mother, which have been fairly brief, for which I submit to a temperature scan before going into my mother’s room and during which I do not come very close either to my mother or her care-taker.  There have been excursions to stores, for the most part to obtain groceries, and I’ve been buying in bulk to make the need for such excursions as seldom as possible.  There have been excursions to the Farmer’s Market, which occur in the open air.  For every shopping excursion I wear a face mask at all times.  There has been the occasional service required for the upkeep of the house, in which both the serviceman and I wear face masks and keep at a distance from one another.  There was the trip to the barbershop yesterday afternoon.  There are occasional chats out of doors with my neighbors.  And that is the sum total of direct encounters with other people that I’ve had for the past three months. 

It has not been easy to cope with this enforced solitude, and I believe that I’m better-equipped to handle such isolation better than most, as I am not especially gregarious by nature.  I greatly miss seeing my relatives face to face.  I greatly miss going to other people’s houses to visit and to have people as guests in my own.  I look back with yearning towards the weekly hikes with the Wanderbirds, where we would all eat and drink and converse while we waited for everyone to complete the route – it was like having a party after the hike.  There were also the visits I paid to friends who live outside of the area, with whom I would stay for a few days at a time and visits of friends out of the area to me on the same basis.  And there were the trips that small groups of friends would take together, renting a cabin so that we could set up hikes in various regions (mainly to cover sections of the Appalachian Trail) and still other trips where we would fly together to a region in the West or in Canada or in Great Britain or in continental Europe, and from there stay in hotels or cabins and then ride in vans together to explore a national park or a well-known scenic area such as the Bavarian Alps or Banff.  There have been concerts, theatre events, dining out with others.  These are all out of the question now.

It is simply unknown at this point when it will be possible, for example, to accept visits from friends to stay overnight or to host friends on my own; or when it will be possible to organize any kind of event that involves a substantial group of people together.  My aunt will be 90 in July, and many of us wish to celebrate this event appropriately – but it is uncertain at this point whether we will be able to.  I am currently scheduled to travel with friends to Rocky Mountain National Park in September, where we are to stay at lodgings in Estes and hike the trails together there; but it may have to be canceled, as all of my other travel plans this year have been.  Even eating together with people has become problematic; the past 100 dinners I have eaten at home and in solitude. 

I do not make these observations in the spirit of complaint.  I know very well that I’m one of the lucky ones.  My health and vigor have remained intact, and I am not dependent on others for delivery or preparation of meals.  There have no shortages of any significance and I have always been able to get the supplies that I need.  I simply observe that the longer they last, constraints of this nature become more difficult to follow.  Ambrose Bierce, in The Devil’s Dictionary, gave this definition for the word “alone”:  “In bad company.”  It is easy, under these circumstances, to know what he meant.  Sooner or later people are going to chafe at the continual solitude, and other episodes like the one in Dallas will occur again and again.

However, I don’t mean to depress the readers’ spirits too much by these remarks.  There is always the spirited reaction of our Fearless Leader against the virus-related restrictions to cheer us up.  Undaunted by the disappointing results of the Tulsa rally, Donald Trump has been organizing similar events across the country and demanding that he grace every one of them with his physical presence, which – despite the fact that he is as unwieldy as a porpoise and red as a boiled lobster – he evidently feels to be irresistible.  Nor will he wear any kind of face mask on these occasions.  In this he may be showing a degree of wisdom; for if he were to conceal his nose and mouth and cheeks and chin, the onlooker’s attention would inevitably be riveted to his cold, porcine eyes, which are possibly his least prepossessing feature.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,697,646; # of deaths worldwide: 490,910; # of cases U.S.: 2,501,689 # of deaths U.S.: 126,720. 

A long-deferred haircut – The Tulsa rally and its results – Visiting the Northeast – The Hajj – Evening statistics

I was disposed to take things a bit more easily today after yesterday’s exertions.  I did go with RS to explore a little around White’s Ford for possible extensions of the Potomac Heritage Trail, but we did not get very far – there are numerous private properties adjacent to the riverbank and it will require considerable negotiation with the various owners.  So we completed our investigation fairly early in the day. 

However, I completed one activity that some authorities would consider important – Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, for instance, whose attentiveness to personal grooming when everyone else was barred from salons has already been remarked upon.  I got a haircut, the first one I’ve received in over three months.  The experience made quite a contrast to the usual routine of barbershop visits.  I had to make an appointment beforehand.  But this was actually an advantage, since I did not have to wait for a barber to become available when I entered the shop.  I wore a mask, of course, and the barber did as well.  I underwent a temperature scan and signed a register before I was ushered to the chair.  The barber left the cutting of the hair just over the ears to the last, and I was curious to see how he would manage it.  He showed a good deal of skill in cutting around the straps of the face mask, and I suppose he has had a lot of practice in doing so by now.  There was one point when the strap over each ear had to be lifted temporarily, but it was for a short time only.  The haircut had a surcharge, which was only natural, since they have had to purchase scanners for the temperature scans and disposable plastic sheets to replace the reusable cloth sheets that were in use before anyone had heard of COVID-19.  My hair has been perpetually disheveled for weeks and getting frizzier by the day, so the haircut is a great relief to me.

The Secret Service has ordered all of its employees who were at the Tulsa rally – several dozen officers and agents – to self-quarantine after two of their colleagues tested positive for the virus.  Also, the number of confirmed cases rose 92 percent in the week leading up to the event. Hospitalizations rose 133 percent among people ages 18 to 35.  It is uncertain whether the rally was a direct cause of this increase, but the Tulsa Dept. of Health is recommending that anyone who attended the event get tested for the virus.  If the rally turnout was somewhat disappointing to Donald Trump, he can at any rate comfort himself with the reflection that it has not been entirely without effect.

For several weeks people who visited New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut were expected to self-quarantine upon their return; now the situation has been reversed.  Visitors to these states from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, Utah and Texas are expected to self-quarantine for 14 days.  Governor Cuomo insists that quarantine scofflaws could be found by hotel clerks, colleagues at business meetings, and police who pull over motorists to find they’ve come from one of the states on the quarantine list.  I don’t see how it will be possible to monitor people who are staying with friends or relatives and who (as is the case for a large number of vacationers in New York) are not driving in their own cars during their visit.

The Hajj has been, if not canceled, at any greatly restricted.  It is closed to overseas pilgrims and only 1,000 Saudis may attend.  It is not the first time in its long history that such restrictions have occurred; indeed it has been canceled outright on nearly 40 previous occasions.  One cannot help contrasting the response of the Muslims in general to the coronavirus with that of our home-grown evangelical Christians.  This decision entails considerable sacrifice both on the part of the pilgrims and of Saudi Arabia.  The pilgrims planning to attend this year will have to postpone their project for another year at least.  It takes a great deal of coordination with the authorities of the sites to visit as well as the airlines, hotels, visas, etc., to make such a trip, an effort that makes obtaining a reservation to climb Half Dome in Yosemite seem trivial in comparison.  Those plans have all gone to waste and will have to begin anew.  The Saudi Arabian government, also, stands to lose a significant portion of its GNP as a result.  All of the people affected deplore the events that led to such a decision, but no one is challenging its necessity.  Here is an object lesson in the avoidance of spiritual pride that would be of great use to Tony Spell and preachers of his ilk, but of course they are incapable of learning from it.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,516,008; # of deaths worldwide: 483,905; # of cases U.S.: 2,462,711 # of deaths U.S.: 124,273.  Where does one begin?  Our case count has increased by more the 35,000 today, which is a new record.  Brazil’s case count is just under half of the U.S.’s by now.  The case counts of Peru and Chile exceed that of Italy, which has a larger population than either.  Chile’s case rate for its population is now over 1.3%, about one case for every 75 people.   Iran, Turkey, Mexico, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bangladesh, and South Africa have all had exceptionally high increases; at this rate all of the European countries except Russia will be superseded in the list of countries with the highest case counts. 

Hiking in the South Massanuttens and Fridley Gap – Adventure with a rattlesnake – Freeway traffic – Dust from the Sahara – David McKinley – Mexican earthquake – Evening statistics

It was a good day to be away from home.  Temperatures in the DC metro area were in the 90s and the air was extremely humid.  But three of us from the Vigorous Hikers group were hiking in the Southern Massanuttens over 100 miles away, where the temperatures were lower and where several breezes mitigated the humidity.  At one part of the hike, along Morgan Run, we felt cool air emanating from below, possibly from a network of caves.  It was a frustrating hike in some ways; several parts were either muddy – the sort of mud that goes down several inches and nearly pulls your shoe off after you step in it and lift your foot out – or strewn with wet rocks that were extremely slippery.  But it was a varied hike, alternating between the scenery of the ridgeline and the scenery of the river valley, and it ended with our taking a dip in a swimming hole, which was certainly cold (mountain streams hardly ever get above 70 degrees in this area, even during the hottest seasons) but fresh and invigorating, and deep enough to enable one to swim a few strokes at least.  It was a fairly secluded hike.  Only three of us attended, as I mentioned, the others probably being deterred by the length of the drive to get to the trailhead – it takes over two hours.  We saw only three other people during the entirety of the hike, although it was 16½ miles long:  one hiker with her dog whom we saw in the distance (but she went one way and we went another before we could actually meet) and two people pulling up in their car to park near the swimming hole just as we were returning to our cars.  We ascended about 3350 feet in all, but the slopes were moderate and in the shade for the most part.

We had an adventure during the last part of the hike.  On the Fridley Gap Trail we saw a rattlesnake.  I caught a glimpse of It stretched out for its full length on the trail – but only for a moment.  As we approached it, it instantly wrapped itself into a coil, and hissed and rattled at us.  It was, as I remarked to the others, best for us to be friends at a distance.  We bushwhacked a bit to go around the area in the trail that it occupied but the undergrowth was not very dense and we managed it without difficulty.  There are not many venomous snakes in our area and for most of the time they are as little desirous of encounters with us as we are for encounters with them.  I have come across snakes in the trails on a number of occasions but I have never felt seriously threatened by them.  I will admit, however, that I did have a rather alarming encounter with a venomous reptile once.  The one in the Armani suit with the fluorescent-lamp suntan.

Traffic is becoming denser.  When I drove west to the trailhead in the morning I saw a traffic jam on I-66 going in the opposite direction, towards Washington.  Similarly, on the way back I saw a second traffic jam of commuters returning from DC to their homes.  These were relatively small compared to the amount of backed-up traffic I would see while I was still commuting to Herndon (in the opposite direction of rush-hour traffic both in the morning and the evening) but it is an indication that the days of easy driving in the area during rush hour are over.  Restrictions are easing throughout the area, and the number of commuters has greatly increased on the past two or three weeks.

We shall be getting a plume of dust from the Sahara Desert this weekend.  These plumes occur every year but the concentration of dust particles is said to be the highest observed in the past 50-60 years.  It will lower the air quality – whether only slightly or severely depends on which experts one consults.  However, the resultant haze will actually intensify the colors of dawns and sunsets.    

David McKinley, a Republican Representative from West Virginia, tried to embarrass Dr. Fauci by asking whether he regretted discouraging people from using face masks during the early stages of the pandemic.  Dr. Fauci immediately responded that he had no regrets whatever, because in the early stages of the virus face masks were at a premium and the main priority was to ensure that health-care professionals had access to them.  Fauci and his colleagues are doing their utmost to help the country confront and tame the pandemic. It is difficult to say whether the efforts of Trump’s catspaws to disparage the medical experts make them and their patron appear immoral or merely fatuous.  Dr. Fauci did not mention whose blunders made face masks so difficult to obtain at that stage; in his place I don’t believe that I would have been as tactful.

There has been an earthquake in southern Mexico, 7.4 on the Richter scale.  Five people have been killed, but the total number of casualties will probably be localized and not exceed 100.  But it is going to be an additional strain on the resources of the Mexican government, especially since a number of hospitals have been damaged by the quake.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,342,588; # of deaths worldwide: 478,904; # of cases U.S.: 2,424,074; # of deaths U.S.: 123,472.  Our country, which contains a little over 4% of the world’s population, accounts for over one-quarter both of virus cases and of deaths from the pandemic.

How much can one record? – Uncertainty of medical data – Claims of daily life – Walking in hot weather – College football – Evening statistics

A journal can be an interesting project, but it is also rather a discomfiting one.  It’s simply impossible to cover everything that is happening; too much is going on at once, and out of the hundreds of articles that appear on a daily basis there is no telling which of them will ultimately turn out to be important and which will not.  Those more familiar with political matters than I am will not necessarily have any better luck with their selection of issues than I have with mine.  With regard to our unfortunate President, for instance – I have no doubt that he regards the disappointing turnout at his rally this weekend as one of the greatest catastrophes imaginable, whereas in all probability it will scarcely receive any mention in future histories of this era.  I actually feel a kind of pity for him at the moment, since he has been forced to spend an entire day without hearing any praises for his virtues or intelligence or leadership other than what he is kind enough to bestow upon himself.

I can’t even be certain about the figures I note down.  EB, who is a medical professional, has shared with me a link to an article that indicates the death toll is higher than the official figures, based on comparing the number of expected deaths from all causes with the actual number of deaths that have occurred.  The difference between these two numbers – that is, the excess number of deaths – is indeed considerably higher than the amount of deaths attributed to the COVID-19 virus.  And that is only in our country alone.  I have indicated in other entries the unreliability of data in certain other countries:  Russia has a suspiciously low mortality rate, China may have fudged its data from the beginning of the outbreak, the data obtained from many Latin American countries are almost certainly under-reporting – and there are many other examples.

Amid all of this turmoil I try to emphasize the daily activities that must go on no matter how intensely the pandemic is raging:  shopping, upkeep of one’s house or apartment, commuting, education of children, preparation or provision of meals, and so on.  And also – as is perhaps natural to someone living in an area with marked seasonal changes – the activities outside of the human plane.  The weather is now almost continually sultry.  The foliage has become rich and green, the leaves have darkened slightly in color.  The mountain laurel flowers are nearly gone by now, even in the higher elevations – theirs is a brief bloom.  In the marshes and streams water-lilies are opening their petals.

One of my favorite passages from Trollope’s Barchester Towers, when the author speaks of the difficulties experienced by the wife of a poor vicar in trying to visit the bishop’s palace in order to plea for her husband’s promotion:

“A journey to the palace was not quite so easy a thing for Mrs. Quiverful as for our friend at Plumstead.  Plumstead is nine miles from Barchester, and Puddingdale is but four.  But the archdeacon could order round his brougham, and his high-trotting fast bay gelding would take him into the city with the hour.  There was no brougham in the coach-house of Puddingdale Vicarage, no bay horse in the stables.  There was no method of locomotion for its inhabitants but that which nature has assigned to man.” 

Many of my compatriots, regrettably, would find a four-mile walk on a hot summer day as impracticable as poor Mrs. Quiverful does.  Today was in fact very humid and in the high 80s, and since I was doing various errands and walking on the streets I was not able to stay in the shade most of the time.  Wearing a face mask becomes a bit more uncomfortable in these circumstances; and many, I’m afraid, are not willing to tolerate it.  Most of the other people I encountered during my walk were not wearing them.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association allowed football workouts to begin on June 1^st.  By now more than 100 players have tested positive for the virus.  These cases occurred among students playing in empty stadiums at a time when the students are not living on the campuses.  It is uncertain whether the schools have reported all of the known cases and the probabilities indicate that they haven’t.  No one knows what the results will be when games are conducted in stadiums crowded with thousands of spectators.  “Sports by their very nature, for the most part, don’t have social distancing,” as Jeremiah Donati, the athletic director for Texas Christian University, noted.  But the pandemic is already creating an upheaval in college sports.  After the NCAA canceled its tournament, less than two dozen athletic departments in the Football Bowl Subdivision were able to turn a profit this year.  And football accounts for about 80% of the budget for student athletic departments.

Is it possible that people will return to the idea that colleges should be places of learning and that games should be played by students on their own time?  The pandemic has shown clearly what many people have vaguely realized earlier:  that the transformation of college sports into mega-businesses is a baneful one – that its movers and shakers are perfectly preferred to sacrifice the health of both players and spectators to their financial interests.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,179,919; # of deaths worldwide: 473,461; # of cases U.S.: 2,388,050; # of deaths U.S.: 122,609. 

Reunion with some hiking friends – Possible developments for keeping a hiking club intact – The Presidential rally – Travel in Spain – Ghana invites black Americans to relocate – Evening statistics

AD, my friend from the Wanderbirds, invited several members of the group to accompany her in hiking the American Chestnut Land Trust (ACLT) today.  She lives quite close to this delightful regional park and since she is currently aiding her husband, who is convalescing from chemo and radiation treatments for cancer, she has only a limited amount of time at her disposal.  I met her, along with a few other friends from the group, and we went along the North-South Trail to Parkers Creek, which we crossed by using a raft that we pulled from one bank to the other by means of an overhead cable.  Despite the overcast skies I observed at the beginning of the drive to the park, it turned out to be a splendid day, clear and not overly hot, with many fresh breezes and plenty of shade to mitigate the humidity.  AD eventually had to turn back because she could be away from her home for only three hours, but I and two others continued to hike for a while, and we ended up by completing about 11 miles.  The ACLT is close to the Chesapeake Bay, but it is much hillier than one might imagine, and we probably climbed about 1500 feet cumulatively.  We saw three box turtles, including one whose black markings emphasized the brilliant yellow of its carapace.  Frogs were chorusing in the streams and marshy areas bordering the trails. 

AD is a member of the Wanderbirds’ Board of Directors, and she and I discussed the future of the club while we were hiking together.  Transporting a group of forty or fifty people in a bus is not likely to occur for some time to come – possibly only after a year from now.  At this point even carpooling remains inadvisable.  For the present the club will continue to operate rather in the style of the hike we did today.  A member who is familiar with a certain area will invite a group of other members to meet at the trailhead and hike together, but such groups will remain small and will consist of people about whose state of health the organizer feels comfortable. 

We completed the hike in about four hours and the drive back home was little over an hour, so I arrived at about 4:00.  The grass, which had still been wet in the morning as a result of the recent rains, had dried out by then and I was able to mow the lawn without any of the difficulties I would have encountered if I had attempted it yesterday.

It was thus not a particularly action-packed day for me (although seeing several old friends again after a three-month hiatus was certainly enjoyable) but it appears that others have spent their time in a manner less eventful than anticipated.  For example:

“We’re going to be in Oklahoma. And it’s a crowd like, I guess, nobody’s seen before. We have tremendous, tremendous requests for tickets like, I think, probably has never happened politically before.”  The presidential rally, which began with such high expectations, appears to have been a gigantic fizzle.  The news yesterday morning did not focus on the rally attendees but rather on the dismissal of Geoffrey Berman, a prominent prosecutor from the Manhattan U. S. Attorney’s Office.  Attorney General William Barr told Berman to resign after the latter had prosecuted one of Trump’s lawyers, investigated another, and even probed the activities of the President himself.  Berman made it clear that he would not go quietly, which led to Barr firing him; and thus Berman’s dismissal, which was expected to create little fanfare, received more media attention than the rally itself.  Mike Pence’s presence was delayed, since his flight was caught in thunderstorms that rolled over Andrews Air Force Base.  In a further blow to his swiftly dwindling composure (never very firmly in place to begin with), six of Trump’s staffers committed the gross solecism of testing positive for the virus; and, what was even still worse, failing to conceal the fact from the press. The crowds Trump had predicted did not materialize.  The overflow area, which was supposed to accommodate thousands of people and which contained a stage to enable Trump and Pence to make speeches, was nearly vacant.  Only about 6,200 supporters were attending the event in the Bank of Oklahoma Center (BOK), which has a seating capacity for 19,000 people.  For some inexplicable reason, the prospect of listening to the President bestowing praises upon himself and abuse upon everyone else, in the midst of torrential thunderstorms and 95-degree heat, did not appear to be as alluring as he could have wished.

Spain has lifted various restrictions.  For the first time since mid-March, its inhabitants can travel freely and visitors from the U.K. and 26 European countries can enter without having to undergo a two-week quarantine.  Tourism accounts for about 12% of Spain’s GNP, so it is understandable that the Spanish government wants to restore it quickly.  Nonetheless Pedro Sanchez, the Prime Minister, said that hygiene controls must be maintained to prevent a second wave of the virus from occurring.

Ghana has issued messages encouraging to black Americans to settle in their nation – which is a bit curious, for when several freedmen in the 19^th century emigrated to West Africa (specifically, to Liberia), they were rather resented than otherwise.  Nonetheless, over the past several decades the government since the days of Kwame Nkrumah (the first president of Ghana when it became independent) has promoted “pan-Africanism” and has indicated that black Americans settling in would be welcomed.  These messages have increased in frequency since the death of George Floyd.  I’m in two minds about this.  In general I’m suspicious of the claims of pan-Africanism.  Africa contains over 3,000 different tribal cultures, with widely differing traditions and beliefs.   The only African union that seems to me at all practical is something on the lines of the European Union:  a political convenience, used to facilitate trade and travel without making the slightest pretense that the nations it contains are not very disparate entities.  Frederick Douglass, the great abolitionist orator and author of one of the finest auto-biographies in any age or language, for a time considered the possibility of relocation to West Africa, both for himself and his fellow freedmen, but in the end he emphatically rejected that option:  “We live here – have lived here – have a right to live here, and mean to live here.”  I am Jewish and, like many Jewish Americans, I have not the slightest inclination to move to Israel; and I imagine that most black Americans feel the same way about the western part of Africa. 

Still, Ghana is fairly safe and has a growing economy; and if any black American feels that he or she would live more comfortably there I cannot honestly argue against it.  I can only hope that not many choose this alternative.  It would be a great national humiliation if it proves that the attempt to assimilate the descendants of former slaves, which began over a century and a half ago, has failed.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 9,037,950; # of deaths worldwide: 469,603; # of cases U.S.: 2,355,799; # of deaths U.S.: 122,246.  The worldwide case count is now over nine million; it has taken only a week for it to increase by over one million.  Chile and Peru have some of the highest case counts in the world; both have surpassed the case count of Italy, although their populations are considerably lower.  Brazil’s official death toll from the virus is now over 50,000 and may well be much higher.

Morning statistics – The Farmer’s Market – Face masks – The local Post Office – Rainstorm – The rally at Tulsa – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:30 AM — # of cases worldwide: 8,794,566; # of deaths worldwide: 463,250; # of cases U.S.: 2,297,642; # of deaths U.S.: 121,414.

To market, to market!  To the Farmer’s Market, specifically.  It is gratifying to see it active again, after its enforced hiatus in May.  Here I can pick up varieties of onion not available in the stores, obtain fresh tomatoes and squash and cherries and peaches (store-bought peaches in particular are almost invariably disappointing).  There was one peculiarity, however; outside of myself and one other customer, no one else was wearing a face mask. 

In the period following the time when the pandemic is under control, just as influenza is today, commentators may ask with wonder why people were so reluctant under the circumstances to take this elementary precaution.  I can offer a few reasons.  Conversation becomes more difficult when speaking to one another with a covering over the mouth.  No matter how carefully they are designed, the straps of the face masks pinch the ears; mine are always throbbing a little after I return from a walk on the streets.  Then, too, upon ascending a hill one tends to breathe more deeply, causing the mask cover on the mouth and nose to expand and contract in an annoying manner.  Finally, as the temperatures become warmer, they can absorb perspiration from the cheeks and brow, and become disagreeably sweaty.

But these are trifling inconveniences and I’m prepared to put up with them if it reduces the chance of infection.  I don’t want to pass the virus on to anyone and I certainly don’t want to catch it myself.  One of the worst aspects of this virus is that one might have it without being aware of it.  This statement might seem paradoxical at first:  if one has contracted the virus but is not feeling any adverse symptoms and has no cause to be dissatisfied with his state of health, isn’t that a good thing?  That is true enough, but it also means that anyone without symptoms is potentially a walking transmitter of the disease and a source of infection just as dangerous as the unfortunate Mary Mallon (“Typhoid Mary”).  In my own case I need to be particularly careful on the days that I visit my mother in the assisted-living facility.  Elderly people living in such buildings are particularly vulnerable, and several such institutions have been devastated by the introduction of the virus from a carrier who has experienced no symptoms himself.

I went to the Post Office to drop off a few letters.  It is odd to see it nearly empty.  The Fairfax City Post Office is very efficient and I have never had to wait a long time on line even during the busiest holiday season; but usually there were always at least a few customers in line at any given moment, and particularly so on a Saturday, when it is patronized by many people who work on weekdays..  Today there were only a couple of people waiting in line and voices were strangely muted there, as if at a funeral.

Today is the first day of summer.  It rained a great deal this morning, making it impossible to mow the lawn as I had planned.  Even after the rain stopped, the grass remained too wet for cutting.  I will have to hope for better things later this coming week, assuming that the rain holds off long enough so that the grass can become reasonably dry.  There was a fair amount of yard work to do nonetheless:  picking up and bagging various small branches that had fallen to the ground and clearing the ditch that runs alongside the edge of the backyard to ensure that water is flowing properly to the drain system. 

The rally at Tulsa is ongoing even as this is being written; but what the results will be, outside of sore throats as a result of shouting for hours on end (which is the sort of adulation that Donald Trump prefers for his followers to display), no one can guess.  Six staffers of the President who were active in setting up the rally have tested positive for the virus, but we are assured that they are in quarantine and that none of them will be present at the rally itself.  Other than that the rally is being conducted as planned, with no face masks required and little attempt at social distancing made.  Attendance is said to be somewhat sparser than expected and it is certain that there is at least one notable absentee:  G. T. Bynum, the city’s mayor.  He has not gone so far as to heed the recommendations of Bruce Dart, Tulsa’s health department director, to have the rally postponed, but his lack of enthusiasm for the entire affair is palpable.  The black communities in the city have not organized any significant protests but have – as I think, very wisely – called for people to stay away and, in effect, to draw as little attention to it as possible. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,905,939; # of deaths worldwide: 466,250; # of cases U.S.: 2,329,817; # of deaths U.S.: 121,979.  The number of new cases worldwide has decreased slightly since the amount reported yesterday but it’s still over 150,000.  I must amend one statement from yesterday’s entry:  there is one African nation whose case count exceeds 0.1%:  South Africa. Restrictions are easing there even as the rate of new cases is steadily growing.  At this point the seven countries with the greatest amount of increases over the past two weeks are India, Brazil, South Africa, Iran, Mexico, Russia, and the U.S.

The Appalachian Trail in Swatara Gap – Beltway traffic – Phase 3 in Virginia – Update from Florida – Brett Crozier, scapegoat – Juneteenth and the Presidential rally – Evening statistics

I had to cut my planned hike short today.  I had planned to cover the Appalachian Trail between the Cold Spring trailhead (which I had reached approaching from Rte. 325 earlier) and Swatara Gap.  But when I went along the AT I eventually came to an area that has been flooded by a beaver dam.  It covers about 200 yards of the trail, ranging (as far as I could judge from appearances) from ankle-deep to knee-deep, and it was very marshy as well, with coffee-colored water and silt underneath.  I would have turned back even if I had brought water-shoes (which I had not); crossing it would have been a very disagreeable experience under any circumstances, and I could not be certain that the bog did not contain leeches.  Even though I had to turn back before I had intended, I hiked an appreciable distance.  All in all I covered 11 miles (including a side trail in Swatara Gap State Park to reach the AT), with 1500-1600 feet of elevation gain – not an especially strenuous hike but not negligible either.  The weather forecasts were beautifully wrong; it did not rain at all while I was on the trail, and the shade from the dense foliage and the occasional breeze moderated the temperature; it never went above 80 degrees.  It is a good deal more pleasant than the previous section that I covered (the planes from Lancaster Airport do not go over this section of the trail) and it featured Waterville Bridge, a historic bridge built by the Berlin Iron Bridge Co.  in 1890.  The bridge is a graceful structure, of the type known as a lenticular truss bridge, so-called because the top and bottom chords of the truss are arched, forming the shape of a lens. 

The drive back was more difficult than it had been on previous occasions.  Although traffic on the Beltway was still lighter than it had been before the coronavirus made an impact, there were patches of gridlock here and there.  I found it expedient to take the “hot lanes” after crossing the river and to use I-66 only as far as the first exit so that I could reach Fairfax by means of back roads instead of going by way of Rte. 123.  Activity is getting back to normal levels and this is of course greatly to be desired, but we must expect to see the usual traffic issues return as more and more people start commuting to work.

Virginia is tentatively scheduled to enter Phase 3 of the easing of the lockdown restrictions.  The state has had a continual decline in new cases for 16 days, followed by 3 days of daily case count with no change, so the data are encouraging.  The date is now set at June 26^th, but it may change if there is a new spike in cases.  The new phase would allow child-care centers to re-open, remove the limits on the capacity of restaurants and non-essential retail (although tables in restaurants still have to be set sufficiently far apart to conform with the social distancing criteria), and entertainment venues would be allowed to admit audiences at 50% capacity, with a maximum of 1,000 people at any single event.  

One of my cousins, who lives in the greater metro area of Palm Beach, tells me that I was mistaken in repeating the report that Florida’s bars and restaurants are closed.  (One should be wary of believing the leading articles too readily, it appears.)  Only some in certain areas (such as Jacksonville) have been asked to close, and this guideline appears to be very feebly enforced.  My cousin, who is in the health care profession, is understandably concerned.  About 82% of Palm Beach County’s ICU beds are now occupied.  Nonetheless, except for Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, the state is currently in the second phase of reopening. Bars and restaurants can operate at 50% capacity, and gyms, retail stores, museums, libraries and professional sports venues can operate at full capacity.  Today Florida has seen an increase of nearly 4,000 new cases, bringing its total to nearly 90,000. 

The Navy has decided not to re-instate Brett Crozier, who was relieved of his position after issuing a memo trying to alert authorities about the virus infecting the man on the ship under his command.  And what was the reasoning behind this decision of Admiral Mike Gilray, the chief of naval operations, it may be asked?  He said that Crozier did not do enough to stop the spread of the virus on the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt.  That is to say, he faulted Crozier for the failures of the Navy itself, acting under the prompting of the President; and when in desperation Crozier issued a memo pleading for a more helpful response, he was found to be very much in the wrong for so doing, on account of the damage it inflicted upon President Trump’s reputation as Chief Executive.  One must give our President credit for this much:  he has shown uncommon acumen in selecting toadies and bootlickers for crucial positions, both in the military and in his cabinet. 

Today is the anniversary of the end of the Civil War – “Juneteenth,” as it is called – at which point news of the Emancipation Proclamation was brought by Union soldiers to the last group of enslaved blacks in Galveston, TX.  This year may have seen the most widespread celebrations in the country.  But there were many protests as well, in wake of the demonstrations earlier set off by the death of George Floyd.  Since the rally for President Trump in Tulsa takes place tomorrow, he has taken a pre-emptive move in case the protestors continue their activities:  he has announced that they will not receive “gentle treatment” if they make any disturbance at his rally, and it is admitted on all sides that threats of this nature are among the few promises he may be relied upon to keep.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,746,693; # of deaths worldwide: 461,788; # of cases U.S.: 2,296,058; # of deaths U.S.: 121,402.  When I looked these figures up, I couldn’t believe them at first.  The worldwide case count has expanded by over 175,000 in the course of a single day.  Brazil’s case count now exceeds 1,000,000 – that is less of a surprise, admittedly.  Over 5,000 people have died worldwide today on account of the virus, and Brazil accounts for nearly a quarter of the total.  Many countries are reporting new spikes now, especially those from Latin America and the Mideast:  Peru, Chile, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Colombia.  Chile’s case rate is now over 1.2% of its population.  India’s case count is the fourth highest in the world, but in light of their huge population the case count is less serious than it may appear; its case rate is still less than Australia’s or New Zealand’s.  Africa, interestingly enough, is presenting the brightest picture so far:  most of the nations on the continent have a case rate of well under 0.1%.

Morning statistics – Rain and the water supply – “Sumer is icumen in” – Bread-making – The PHT has a setback – Sighting of some Karens – The oncoming football season – Cases in Florida soar – And they do so worldwide as well – Difficult choices for national governments – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 8,467,155; # of deaths worldwide: 451,954; # of cases U.S.: 2,234,963; # of deaths U.S.: 119,943.

Dusting, vacuuming, cooking, changing bedsheets, laundry – these do not go away during a pandemic.  Indeed they perhaps assume a greater importance than usual, being critical for health maintenance.  I had have had to wash clothes with greater frequency, in accordance with the CDC recommendations, and I have also been washing face masks by hand and washing my hands more often.  So it is hardly surprising that the water bill for this year’s quarter is higher than the previous ones.  It is reassuring to know that the necessary water is available.  Not only am I in a prosperous country that has the facilities for collecting and purifying a steady water supply, but I happen to live in an area that receives about 40 inches of rainfall annually.  So I must not repine if the weather forecast calls for rain every day over the next week.

It rained last night as well.  I have already noted that the aftermath of rainfall can take two forms:  the rain can wash away the humidity or intensify it.  It was, alas, the latter outcome that occurred today.  It was like a steam-bath outside this morning.  Later in the day a few breezes alleviated the humidity to some extent and the temperature remained below 80 degrees, making it less oppressive.  Summer is approaching, the most difficult season from the hiker’s point of view.  One must always be on the alert to the possibility of dehydration.  I have been careless from time to time about drinking enough water, and I’ve had to pay for it on occasion.  A water bladder is a great help in this respect, since it enables the hiker to take a drink at any time, instead of being forced to stop and remove his backpack in order to access the bottles of water it contains. 

Since I was running low on bread I devoted part of the day to bread-making as well.  I have some sourdough starter in the freezer still, but this time I made use of the yeast I was able to obtain through the efforts of my aunt and my own purchases.  I am bound to say that it is much easier to work with store-bought yeast than with homemade sourdough.  There is no need to coax the dough into rising with the addition of baking soda or yogurt, and it rises much more quickly. 

I have been attending the meetings of the Potomac Heritage Trail Association, an advocacy group for the PHT.  Today the group was invited to a review (via tele-conferencing) of a feasibility study that was conducted earlier this year for methods of connecting the PHT across the gap that currently exists along Georgetown Pike between Scott’s Run and Great Falls National Park.  The study had been undertaken with the input from various government groups and citizen representatives, and the previous meeting that was held just before the official publication of the study seemed to have the concurrence of everyone involved.  But the meeting of today was somewhat disappointing. The conclusions of the study showed four alternatives and recommended one as being the least expensive and involving the least amount of distance walking alongside Georgetown Pike itself.  That recommendation, as may be imagined, was welcomed by our advocacy group.  However, at this meeting we were informed that there were yet other agencies that needed to be consulted in order to obtain the necessary funds, and the indications are that one of the other routes that favor walking directly alongside Georgetown Pike will be used instead.  We have to be prepared to struggle in order to get the trail along the route originally recommended, and in any case it will take much longer than anticipated to get the project started.  

It will be seen that today’s activities were primarily domestic.  Tomorrow I intend to get out on the trails again, let the skies rage at me as they might.

A term has been floating about the Internet for some time now:  a “Karen,” meaning a pampered suburban woman who thinks herself entitled to every privilege available, as well as several that aren’t.  Today I encountered two prime specimens on Main Street.  The area of Main Street that borders the shopping area known as the Marketplace has a sidewalk broad enough for four people to walk abreast.  And there strolled this precious pair, conversing side by side, busily engaged by the imperative claims of gossip and oblivious to the fact that they were sprawled across the entire width of the sidewalk, making it all but impossible to get around them.  To be fair, I had approached them from behind, so they could not have seen me unless they chanced to look back.  But had anyone else approached them from plain view in the opposite direction, there can be little doubt that they would have not moved closer together to allow the other pedestrian to pass, nor would they have gone into single file.  They would have remained engrossed in conversation, never acknowledging the presence of any other person, and have marched on with the imperious indifference of queens – as no doubt they were, in their own eyes at least.

“We are going to social distance, but play football?! I don’t get it!”  That probably reflects the sentiments of a number of people, including several health experts; what is remarkable is that these words emanated from Sean McVay, the football coach for the Los Angeles Rams.  Common-sense indicates that it may be just as well to shorten the football season for the coming year until the virus subsides or even to cancel it altogether; but then again common-sense and football devotees are barely on speaking terms.

Florida has shut down its bars and restaurants just one week after allowing them to re-open.  It had over 3,200 new cases of the virus just today and its total count exceeds 85,000.  Governor DeSantis had previously brushed aside concerns about the COVID-19 on Sunday in response to critics worried about the impact of the upcoming Republican Convention in Jacksonville, but he evidently has been forced to reconsider over the past few days.

In fact, this has been a bad day worldwide.  There has been a global increase of 166,000 cases yesterday, the highest amount of any single day since the pandemic began.  It has come just as many states here and many nations besides ours are easing their lockdown restrictions. 

At the same time, it’s easy to see why governments are easing the restrictions.  They have a grim choice between allowing the virus to expand in scope or presiding over the collapse of national treasuries.  If our economy has suffered, many countries are much worse off.  Colombia’s GNP, for instance, shrank by over 20% in the month of April, the biggest decrease on record.  The tertiary sector (retail, public services, restaurants, bars, accommodation and transport) shrank 9.2%,; these account for 67% of the economy.  Extractive industries, including oil and mining, collapsed 13.75%, while manufacturing and construction fell by 50.12%.  And Colombia is being relatively conservative; their lockdown restrictions will not be lifted until July 1^st. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,567,280; # of deaths worldwide: 455,558; # of cases U.S.: 2,262,602; # of deaths U.S.: 120,687.

Morning statistics – The upcoming election – Hiking in Sky Meadows – Illness of a fellow-hiker – Suspension of flights from Beijing – Heads of state affected by virus – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 8,288,344; # of deaths worldwide: 446,690; # of cases U.S.: 2,208,787; # of deaths U.S.: 119,145.

 “When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wanders a little from the truth.”  (Antoine Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince).  I have to plead guilty to that myself when I look back at some of the entries I made in this record.  Satire, I’m afraid, is rarely altogether honest.  Even those motivated by sincere indignation, like Juvenal and Swift, cannot conceal the pleasure they take in their own incisiveness.  If the evils they deplored had disappeared, they probably would have found their lives dull and boring. Like Gilbert’s King Gama, they have to have something to grumble at.

In particular, I’m thinking of some of the remarks I’ve made to date about our President.  I have made no attempt to conceal my feelings towards this man, for whom I have long conceived a great aversion.  Yet I become indignant, all the same, when I hear him compared to Stalin or Hitler.  As someone from a family that has lost seven relatives to Hitler’s regime, I feel angered when such comparisons are made so glibly.  I certainly find fault with Trump, but it is for his incompetence but not for murderous viciousness.  I think it can be said, without animus, that he has failed to meet the demands imposed by the pandemic chiefly on account of his personal insecurities; the perpetual craving for admiration is a running theme throughout all of his actions and every other consideration is subordinated to that end.  I do not suppose that he takes pleasure in the increase of illness and death that we have seen over the past several months.  I have no doubt that he is as distressed as anyone else by the deplorable results of his administration, is quite puzzled to discover how unsuccessful he has proven to be, and is greatly worried about the effect that the COVID-19 crisis is having on his reputation. 

The upcoming election is probably the first of its kind, inasmuch as both parties must be contriving to have each of their candidates to speak for himself as seldom as possible.  Neither Biden nor Trump excels as a public speaker.  They each, in their different ways, appear simultaneously confused by the responsibilities of their position and arrogant in their assumption of automatic support from various demographic groups.  One cannot help contrasting them with their predecessors in this respect.  Looking at them from the point of view simply of the image that they projected as speakers (regardless of what they actually did as politicians) – while it is true that the Bushes, both senior and junior, were somewhat too typical of the prep school to inspire much confidence, Reagan conveyed an impression of warmth and geniality, Clinton appeared homespun and down-to-earth, Obama was almost always calm and dignified.  Biden and Trump both lack the quality that the Romans called gravitas and this appears true, unfortunately, of the greater part of our contemporary politicians in general.

The tone I take whenever I speak about public life invariably becomes gloomy, particularly in light of how our politicians have been behaving in response to the pandemic.  Yet my private life remains remarkably trouble-free.  Today, for instance, was very enjoyable indeed.  RR, one of my hiking friends, texted me earlier in the week to tell me that she was camping with a few people in Sky Meadows and to ask whether I was interested in meeting them for a hike today.  I readily agreed, in spite of the exertions of yesterday.  Sky Meadows is less than an hour away from Fairfax and the hike was to occur in the Lost Mountain area, which is less strenuous than the part of the park on the other side of the road.  I thus would be able to sleep late and still be able to join the others at the appointed time of 10:00.  I felt confident that it would be a good way to wind down from the more arduous hike in Shenandoah National Park yesterday.

And so it proved.  It was a delightful hike, despite the overcast skies and threat of rain.  We went up Lost Mountain and completed a loop around the east side of Rte. 17, covering some trails I had never seen before, though I have hiked in the park for years.  All of the trails in the park are beautifully maintained.  The wineberries, which grow in great profusion here, are just beginning to bear fruit; they will be ripe in another week.  Afterwards we went to the campground where RR and her friends were staying, and we had a late lunch there.  They had some wine left over from their supplies and I was encouraged to drink as much as I could so that they would have less to carry back to their cars.  It would have been churlish to refuse, would it not?  I was quite surprised, incidentally, to find that the trail from the parking area to the campground is over a mile and that there are no carts or wagons for transport; one has to bring up all supplies on one’s back.  Today was the last day of their stay, so I helped with the transport by carrying their tent back to their car.  I left the parking area just before the rain began.  All in all we covered between 9½ and 10 miles, with perhaps 1000 feet of elevation gain. 

There is some distressing news from BL of the Vigorous Hikers.  His recent illness turns out not to be the coronavirus after all but pneumonia, and unfortunately it has adversely affected his kidneys.  He is in the hospital now, on oxygen.  One is in danger of forgetting that the virus has come upon us as an addition to currently existing diseases,  not as  a substitute; it is by no means the only threat that confronts us.

China has suspended two-thirds of its domestic airline flights out of Beijing.  Residents are warned not to leave the city as the efforts to contain the new outbreak redouble.  All of which casts doubt upon the figures that it officially releases to the WHO.  It is true, however, that the number of cases reported as currently active has been increased to 252, whereas previously this number was below 60.

The virus is affecting heads of state and their new relatives.  Juan Orlando Hernández, president of Honduras, and his wife Ana Garcia have tested positive for the virus.  Hernández says that his symptoms are mild and that his wife is asymptomatic.  Olena Zelenska, wife of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has been hospitalized after testing positive for the virus but is in stable condition.  Sophie Trudeau, the First Lady of Canada, tested positive for the virus earlier but isolated herself for two weeks and has recovered.  Two weeks ago, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said that he and his entire family got infected with the coronavirus.  He said a week afterwards that he has recovered without having had any symptoms. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,391,788; # of deaths worldwide: 450,437; # of cases U.S.: 2,233,854; # of deaths U.S.: 119,940.

Hiking in Shenandoah National Park – Car traffic – International travel restrictions – Plans for a rally in Tulsa – Brazil continues to spiral downwards – Evening statistics

The weather continues to be relatively cool and dry for this time of year.  The members of the Vigorous Hikers group were grateful for this circumstance, for the hike in Shenandoah National Park that we completed today was somewhat more arduous than we expected.  No one was very much surprised, for the member of the group who devised the route has a reputation for under-estimating the scope of his projects.  In this particular case the route he devised was advertised to be 15.5 miles in length with about 3500 feet of elevation gain; in the event it proved to be 18 miles, with 4600 feet of elevation gain.  It involved two troublesome descents (the descent, as I frequently tell people whom I have coached through long hikes, is the most dangerous part of any hike) through patches of wet rocks, stream crossings, and intermittent marshes.  But we were rewarded when ascending the Hazel Mountain Trail by encountering an extensive grove of mountain laurel in full bloom.  For those who have not seen densely-grown thickets of mountain laurel bushes all flowering at the same time, the effect is not easy to describe.  The full-grown bushes can reach a height of 9 meters (28 feet) and in full bloom the brilliant white flowers edged with pink grow closely together – frequently less than a centimeter apart from one another – from about a foot from the ground all the way up to the top of the bushes.  We took the ascents at a brisk but not an exhausting pace and we possessed our souls in patience as we completed the final climb along the Hannah Run Trail up to Skyline Drive – it has a large number of “false summits,” or points in the trail that appear to signify the end of the climb, only to reveal a loftier point further on when the apparent high point is reached; the designers of the trail have contoured it thus, apparently, “to annoy, because they know it teases.”  In the colder months the actual high point of the trail would be more readily apparent, but we are approaching summer now and the density of the foliage provides a very effective screen for optical illusions of this nature.  There were nine of us in all, but we encountered only four other people during the entirety of the circuit we completed.

Traffic remains denser than it was when the lockdown restrictions were initially introduced but is still considerably lighter than normal.  I could discern no appreciable difference in the traffic today and the traffic that I encountered during the drive to and from Shenandoah National Park last week.

Travel restrictions remain in force for people who wish to visit Canada or Mexico.  The restrictions had been scheduled to be lifted several times, but at each date they have been extended.  The most recent expiration date was set at June 23^rd, but that has now changed and we can expect to see the restrictions last for at last 30 days longer.  But oddly enough, restrictions are loosening on flights to and from China.  The Department of Transportation has allowed four flights weekly between the two countries.  It must be added that the number of cases in China, officially at least, is less than that of either Canada or Mexico and that proportionately it has affected a far lower ratio of its national population. 

Preparations are underway for the rally on Saturday in support of Donald Trump at Tulsa.  Various medical experts are understandably alarmed at the prospect of an event that plans to crowd 19,000 people packed into an indoor arena with an additional overflow seating for 9,000 more.  Face masks will be encouraged but they are not required; and in any case it is unknown how effective they will be when the wearers are shouting.  Shouting and screaming at the top of one’s lungs is an essential component of any Trump rally; not only does he exhort his auditors to rant like maniacs but, like the best philosophers, he reinforces precept with example and he may be depended upon not to utter a single sentence at this event in a normal conversational tone.

Brazil is now projected to overtake the U.S. in its number of cases and virus-related deaths by the end of July.  There has been no national lockdown, no national testing campaign, and no agreed-upon plan for mitigation.  Some of the governors have tried to institute such measures for their own particular states, but they have been getting no support nationally.  The current health minister is a military man with no medical experience.  At this point the hardest-hit cities are now deciding to open up, opening the doors to malls and churches, while the country is routinely posting more than 30,000 new cases a day — five times more than Italy reported at the peak of its outbreak.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,251,064; # of deaths worldwide: 445,185; # of cases U.S.: 2,208,240; # of deaths U.S.: 119,129.

Morning statistics – Continued boldness of wildlife – Pipelines across the Appalachian Trail – FDA repudiates use of anti-malarial drugs for COVID-19 – Yet another Trump delusion – Outbreak in Beijing – News from Latin America – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 8,020,138; # of deaths worldwide: 436,167; # of cases U.S.: 2,162,406; # of deaths U.S.: 117,859.  The case count has increased by over a million within eight days.  And it took only nine days before that for the case count to increase by a similar amount.  Also, the world population is about 7.8 billion, which means that more than one person per thousand has been infected with the virus worldwide.

Even though traffic has increased over the past few weeks its density is still fairly low and as a result the wildlife is more venturesome than before.  Today while strolling through a residential area I saw a fox going through the back yards of some houses and then crossing the street as it passed in front of me.  It was indeed rather closer to me than I liked; for a moment I wondered whether it was rabid. It was not, however; it had simply become so accustomed to crossing streets that it had previously shunned on account of cars that it no longer was as timid as before. 

Some bad news for hikers, at any rate hikers of the Appalachian Trail:  the Supreme Court has decided that the federal government has the right to build a pipeline across the trail.  The Atlantic Coast Pipeline will actually go below the trail, but it will take several months of construction for completion and of course it will affect the appearance of the area, and not for the better.  There is actually a second pipeline, the Mountain Valley Pipeline, whose construction was halted until a decision on the Atlantic Coast Pipeline was reached, and it too will cross the AT. 

The FDA has revoked emergency authorization for anti-malarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine.  Our President has repeatedly touted them as effective treatment for the virus and he has as repeatedly been challenged on this point by medical experts.  They have no demonstrable power to mitigate the effects of the virus, but they do have several undesirable side effects, such as heart arrhythmia and nerve damage.  

The President has displayed similar acumen in another recent claim.  “If we stop testing right now, we’d have very few cases, actually,” he said during a roundtable event for seniors.  And our credulous public continues to rally around him in droves!  I don’t believe most people would care to enter a taxicab whose driver believes that if he shuts his eyes while driving, he’d never see any red lights and thus never be forced to stop for traffic lights. 

Beijing is bracing for a second wave of the virus.  A new outbreak of 79 cases to date occurred in the vicinity of the Xinfadi wholesale market, which has been shut down.  Tests are being performed to determine how far the cluster has spread and more lockdown measures may be instituted over the next few days. 

The situation in Latin America continues to deteriorate.  Brazil’s case count is nearly 900,000; it will increase to over a million by the end of the week.  Mexico’s case count is over 150,000.  Peru’s case count will soon overtake that of Italy, and Chile’s case count will soon overtake that of Turkey.  If the trend continues, Mexico, Peru, and Chile will eventually overtake all European countries and will be exceeded only by Brazil, Russia, and India. 

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 8,108,581; # of deaths worldwide: 438,581; # of cases U.S.: 2,182,864; # of deaths U.S.: 118,280.

Morning statistics – Gutter cleaning – Flocking to the bars in New York – Gone With the Wind (sigh) again – Indian cures worse than the disease – Rabbinical diktats – Cutting down the idols in high places – Old horrors in the Congo – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,898,392; # of deaths worldwide: 432,901; # of cases U.S.: 2,142,515; # of deaths U.S.: 117,533.

With the spring being so cool and wet I did not get a chance to clean the gutters in April and then the matter slipped my mind, so I had to attend to it today.  It was high time; one gutter runs under the shade of a large oak tree and it was covered with twigs and acorns.  I suppose eventually I should engage some sort of service for this purpose – clambering over the rooftop is probably not the most prudent activity for someone in his mid-sixties – but matters are under control for the moment at any rate.

My cousins in New York have been sending me links to articles about people flocking to bars in New York City, although Phase 2 (the designated stage for the re-opening of bars and restaurants for outdoor seating) is not supposed to begin until June 22^nd at the earliest.  Hundreds were crowding East Village until it became “like Bourbon Street” without a face mask in sight.  “For three months I followed every rule, did everything they said,” said one of the revelers, “but now I’m just like, I’m done.”  But three months is not a very large amount of the lifespan of a pandemic.  The Spanish flu epidemic took over two years to subside and the outbreaks of plague in the Middle Ages lasted still longer.  It will be seen over the next week or so whether the combination of the recent protests and of the party-goers anticipating the relaxation of the various lockdown restrictions have initiated a second wave of the virus.

There is continued debate about the removal of Gone With the Wind from HBO streaming.  I would not have said any more about the matter otherwise (it is not a subject that I care to dwell upon especially) but I should note in passing that, as far as the novel is concerned, even its advocates must concede that its use of dialect is not merely condescending but wildly overdone.  Just imagine what effect it would have if this technique were applied to the upper-class characters in the novel:

“’Ah wuz goin’ ovah right affer suppah,’ she said. ‘Now dat Capt’n Butlah’s muvver has kum, Ah s’pose de fune’l will be t’morrow mahning.’

“’The funeral. That’s just it,’ said Mammy. ‘Miss Melly, we’re all in deep trouble and I’ve come to you for help.  It’s nothing but weary loads, honey, nothing but weary loads.’

“’Is Miz Scarlett c’llapsed?’ questioned Melanie worriedly. ‘Ah’ve ha’dly seen her since Bonnie– She bin in her room an’ Capt’n Butlah bin out o’ ter house an’—‘

”Suddenly tears began to flow down Mammy’s black face. Melanie sat down beside her and patted her arm and, after a moment, Mammy lifted the hem of her black skirt and dried her eyes.

“’You’ve got to come help us, Miss Melly. I’ve done the best I can but it doesn’t do any good.’

“’Miz Scarlett—‘

“Mammy straightened.

“’Miss Melly, you know Miss Scarlett as well as I do. What that child has to stand, the good Lord gave her strength to stand. This has broken her heart but she can stand it. It’s Mister Rhett I’ve come about.’

“’Ah’ve so wahnted t’ see him but whenevah Ah bin thar, he either bin downtown or locked in his room wid—An’ Scarlett has looked lak a ghost and wou’dn’t speek– Tell me quickly, Mammy. You know Ah’ll he’p iffen Ah kin.’”

This dialogue between Melanie and Mammy occurs towards the end of Chapter 59, when Mammy makes her plea for Melanie to comfort Rhett after the death of his daughter.  Observant readers will notice that I’ve altered scarcely a word of it.  All I’ve done is to make a trifling change in their intonations.  Mammy in this version speaks standard English while Melanie uses the “funetik aksent” that Margaret Mitchell sees fit to lay upon every single one of the black characters, often when it’s completely unnecessary (what’s the difference between “was” and “wuz,” for example?).   It alters our perception of the two characters, doesn’t it? 

It appears that other nations besides our own have issues with fundamentalist so-called “healers.”  Aslam Baba in Ratlam, India, offered “COVID exorcisms” by kissing people’s hands; the “kiss-cure,” as he called it, supposedly had the power to drive away all ailments, including COVID-19.  He was diagnosed with the virus on June 3^rd and died on the following day – but not before he infected at least 20 other people with his treatment, including seven members of his own family.  At least 29 other holy men have been offering similar so-called cures, forcing all of their clients into quarantine.

On a similar note, in Israel five senior Orthodox rabbis are objecting to temperature checks for people entering hospitals on Shabbat, when work is forbidden – heat measurement and the display of writing on the monitor coming under the definition of “work.”  This is actually a violation of Jewish law:  the concept of “pikuach nefesh” states specifically that the preservation of human life overrules virtually any other religious obligation.  There are at least a few other rabbis challenging these hierophants’ judgment, so perhaps common-sense will prevail – or possibly the Israeli government will develop sufficient will-power to tell the rabbis not to meddle in matters that do not concern them.  This last alternative is not to be counted upon, however.

The indignation expressed in Europe over the recent protests in our nation concerning race relations have had at least one unexpected (but thoroughly beneficial) consequence.  The statues of Leopold II in Belgium are being taken down – finally!  It is a wonder that they had stood there for such a long time.  His exploitation of the inhabitants of the Congo is sometimes referred to as the “forgotten Holocaust.”  The number of deaths attributed to his rule may be as high as ten million.  There was widespread indignation in his day – Mark Twain, for instance, wrote a devastating  pamphlet called “King Leopold’s Soliloquy “ in which he has Leopold raving madly about the benefits he had conferred on the Congolese by converting them (by force) to Christianity – but his wholescale campaign of pillage and murder was virtually forgotten in the course of a few years.  Originally he acquired the Congo as a colony for himself as a private citizen; criticism of the forced labor he imposed on the inhabitants for the purpose of extracting rubber from the land (laborers were beaten, mutilated [severing of hands was a standard punishment], and frequently murdered when certain production quotas were not met) eventually forced him to transfer ownership of the colony to the Belgian government in 1908.  Matters became a little better after that, but the unfortunate Congolese were virtually living in a conquered territory until 1960. 

To be fair, King Leopold was far from being the sole exploiter.  European nations generally during the 19^th and early 20^th centuries looked upon Africa as a kind of gigantic cash cow and arbitrarily split it up into huge colonies without the slightest regard towards the preferences of the people who actually lived there.  Many of the tribal conflicts that escalate into civil war in the modern-day African countries are due to the boundaries that were laid down more or less at random around the territories that later became independent nations.  Nigeria, for instance, is home to more than 300 different tribes that speak over 500 different languages and dialects among them.  The three major tribes are the Hausa, the Igbo, and the Yoruba, and they feel little more connection to one another than the average American feels towards Guatemalans or Panamanians.  England, France, Germany, Holland, and Italy all maintained colonies for the express purpose of draining wealth from the area and diverting it to their own lands, while maintaining a feeble pretense of conferring “civilization” upon the inhabitants who asked for nothing better than to be left alone.

Considerable argument rages about the pros and cons of the colonialization of the African territories, which I do not propose to delve into here.  It wasn’t, after all, as if the various tribes were living together in idyllic harmony.  There was frequent warfare among them and plenty of atrocities occurred during these conflicts.  Furthermore, the Arabs were doing a good deal of exploitation on their own account.  It is possible to contend, for instance, that a Kikuyu (in what is now modern-day Kenya) was better off when the territory was under British rule than he would have been in earlier eras when his village was subject to continual raids and even massacres by the neighboring Maasai and Somali. 

But whatever one might think about colonial rule in general, there can be no question that King Leopold’s regime in the Congo was easily the worst in the history of the entire continent.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,982,822; # of deaths worldwide: 435,166; # of cases U.S.: 2,162,054; # of deaths U.S.: 117,853.

Morning statistics – The local Farmer’s Market – New hiking boots – An afternoon visit – Ominous indications in North Korea – Donald Trump at West Point – Shutdown in Beijing – Restoration in France and Australia —  Pierre Nkurunziza – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,765,878; # of deaths worldwide: 428,753; # of cases U.S.: 2,117,027; # of deaths U.S.: 116,831. 

More stalls were open this morning at the Farmer’s Market than there were last week.  Customers and vendors wore masks, but we were able to pick out produce by hand.  One vendor said that even the regulations for directing the flow of pedestrian traffic would probably be retired by the following week.  I’m a bit apprehensive of the potential result.  Peru, it may be remembered, took extensive steps to circumvent the spread of the virus, but the ubiquitous open-air markets defeated this objective; people went to the markets every day, and as a result they were infecting one another continually.

I went to the REI in Woodbridge, which is open to customers (the ones closer to home are still restricted to curbside pickup only).  At long last I was able to get hiking shoes.  The salesperson told me that many people have been ordering shoes in different sizes online.  For example, a person who normally might wear a size ten boot would order pairs of the same boot in sizes 9½, 10, and 10½, try them on, and then either mail back the two pairs that did not fit or arrange with a store to return them at the curbside.  It was, as she herself admitted, a cumbersome process, which is why I prefer to try footwear on directly in the store.  In the event I got the boots I needed; they don’t pinch the toes, as some brands do, and at the same time they do not slide off of my heels.  From there I proceeded to break them in, and what could be more natural than to do so at Rippon’s Landing, which is only a mile away from the store?  I went to the parking area and walked down the Neabsco Creek boardwalk and through part of the Metz wetlands.  It was a lovely day: clear skies, fresh air, low humidity, slightly breezy.  Red-winged blackbirds flitted over the reeds and lilies, while a blue heron soared overhead.  The water-lilies are not yet at the peak of their bloom, but I saw many large yellow flowers just on the verge of opening out. 

At the parking lot someone left various bulbs for free that people could pick up to take home.  I selected four of the daffodil bulbs and planted them when I returned.  We shall see next spring whether they will take root. 

After lunch I visited my friends DC and JC.  Their daughter FC has just returned from California.  She and her husband will be staying in the area until July 30^th, when they will be moving to Providence, RI.  She had a position at the university in Santa Barbara, but when she told me her reasons for giving it up and moving back East I whole-heartedly entered into her point of view.  Santa Barbara is very expensive, being notable chiefly as a retirement area for those in the upper middle class and beyond.  Moreover, it is not easy to walk comfortably there, similar in Los Angeles in this respect – it is very sprawled out and unless one lives in the center of the town (i.e., the most costly area), it is difficult to access either stores or parks on foot.  Finally, she prefers the climate of the East to that of the West Coast, a preference that echoes my own; the marked seasonal changes of this area are more congenial to my mind than the oscillation between the “wet” and the “dry” months of the Pacific Coast. 

We sat in the garden, where JC has grown a great variety of produce.  The mild weather was very comfortable for sitting outdoors in the shade.  We drank the Taiwanese tea that she always has on hand (and she gave me some out of the surplus in her kitchen to take back home, and some fresh oregano as well) and chatted leisurely about both past memories and current events, while observing the wildlife activity in the yard:  squirrels darting here and there in search of food, and various birds migrating to the bird feeder, including a species of woodpecker that I have never seen so close to human habitations before. 

As with my previous visit, my experience of today has been very different from the state of affairs described by various headlines.

North Korea is being heard from again.  The state of Kim Jong-un’s health is still rather murky; but his sister Kim Yo-Jong has recently undertaken the role of attack dog, slamming South Korea for its inability to control the distribution of anti-Pyongyang leaflets by two defectors from North Korea and rattling the sabers in the typical style of the regime.  Up to this point Kim Yo-Jong has maintained a low profile, although she is estimated to be the most important person in the country after her brother and his most likely successor if he dies.  If appearances are any indication, she is much more self-controlled than he, whose over-indulgence of his appetites is fairly easy to discern from his photographs.  He is puffy and flabby, with sunken eyes and leaden complexion, the very picture of a man who eats and drinks to excess without taking any exercise.  She is slim, well-groomed, self-possessed; her features are fairly regular, but the cold stoniness of her eyes suggests that she will be an even more implacable dictator than her brother whenever she assumes the reins of power.

Kim Jong-un is not the only national leader whose health is a matter of speculation.  Donald Trump delivered the commencement address at the 2020 US Military Academy Graduation Ceremony in West Point, and during that ceremony he appeared unable to lift a glass of water with one hand to his lips and to have difficulty walking down a short flight of stairs.  He insists that he is in perfect health but he does turn 74 tomorrow and medical observers suggest that these lapses indicate serious neurological issues.  Then again this may be wishful thinking on their part.

China has shut down the largest wholesale food market in Beijing and has put lockdown restrictions in the surrounding neighborhood after several dozen people tested positive for the virus.  This is especially troubling because the last local case there occurred 50 days earlier.  China does not report asymptomatic cases as part of its total case count, which means that its official figure of 74 cases still active is greatly under-reported.

There is some good news from abroad.  France’s death toll has been under 30 people for four consecutive days; at one point the daily death toll was more than 800.  And Australia, after having undergone the most intense drought in living memory, has had above-average rainfall over the past several months.  The crops of numerous farms have been restored and many areas are now much less desiccated. 

It has been confirmed that the death of Burundi’s President, Pierre Nkurunziza, is the result of the coronavirus, making him the first state leader to succumb to COVID-19. Burundi has officially reported 94 cases and one death; but again, it is almost certainly under-reporting.  It is highly unlikely that a man who has access to the best medical treatment that the entire country can afford is its only fatality.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,855,258; # of deaths worldwide: 431,728; # of cases U.S.: 2,142,017; # of deaths U.S.: 117,526.

Morning statistics – Tucker Carlson and Fox News – A possible new trend in romances – Precautions against a second wave of coronavirus – The Republican Convention – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,624,618 # of deaths worldwide: 424,383; # of cases U.S.: 2,090,115; # of deaths U.S.: 116,052. 

Yesterday’s entry was fairly scanty.  I was rather tired that evening, not so much from the hike as from the drive afterwards (the parking area is well over two hours away and because the rush hour traffic is beginning to pick up again I was obliged to circumvent the Beltway by returning down Rte. 15 by way of Leesburg).  Today I had several errands to run, but there is more leisure now to have a look at the various headlines, and I find, among other things, that Tucker Carlson of Fox News has attracted notice from his fellow-journalists once again.  It may be recollected that about a week ago he actually voiced a tiny breath of criticism towards Donald Trump, causing me to scan the astrological charts anxiously in order to determine whether there had been any unusual sidereal portents that I had overlooked.  I am happy to state, however, that despite this one lapse he remains that faithful lapdog of Trump whom we have hitherto known.  He has been denying that George Floyd’s murder was unjustified, denying that any of the lockdown measures over the past several months were necessary or even useful, lauding Trump’s pose of Bible in hand with truly pious fervor, and, in short, has been attempting to smooth away any circumstance that might reflect discredit upon the idol of his heart.  It is reassuring to know that there are certain constants in this world, such as that the circumference of any circle equals the length of its diameter multiplied by π,  that the length of a triangle’s hypotenuse is always equal to the square root of the sum of the squares of the lengths of the other two sides, that e (Euler’s number) is always the limit of (1 + 1/n)ⁿ as n approaches infinity, and, similarly, that Fox News will always be ready to inform the world that Donald Trump is justified in anything that he says or does, even as others are questioning his sanity.

The purveyors of that particular branch of fiction aimed at feeding the fantasies of young and not-so-young women are going to encounter some challenges if the practice of covering one’s face in public becomes more universal.  Whatever will become of the concept of love at first sight, that literary convention so essential to the genre?  Office romances will be especially problematic in a setting where workers never see one another except during video tele-conferences.  Perhaps our authors will be writing passages like this:

“The lazy, drawling, slightly sardonic voice responding to the chairperson’s curt acknowledgement announced that Harvey Heartthrob had just joined the meeting, and in the next instant the image of the late-comer appeared.  Lucy Truelove gasped in amazement upon seeing this vision.  Her blood began to course wildly through her veins.  Her pulses were pounding as fiercely as a tidal wave.  She hastened to squirt some cleaner onto the monitor of her laptop and then to wipe it free of dust to be certain that she had not been the victim of an illusion; but no – there he was onscreen, his bold blue eyes gleaming with mischief, highlighted by the rugged, outdoorsman-like tones of his tan-and-russet face mask.”

We now have to think about the prospect of a second wave of the coronavirus as the lockdown restrictions are being lifted in every state and new cases are increasing.  Certain guidelines have been posted for minimizing the outbreaks, some of which seem fairly obvious:  don’t drink bleach or disinfectant (despite the advice of our President), don’t act as if bright light is an effective preventative or cure (despite the advice of our President), don’t think social distancing will be ending soon (despite the advice of our President), be wary of going to the beach (despite the advice of our President), don’t attend large gatherings (despite the example set by our President), don’t forget your face mask (despite the example set by our President), don’t give up exercising (despite the example set by our President), don’t share bogus information (despite the example set by our President), don’t avoid going outdoors (despite the example set by our President), don’t take chloroquine phosphate (despite the advice of our President), don’t blame others (despite the example set by our President), remember that you can’t predict the future (despite the example set by our President), don’t spray Lysol on yourself (despite the advice of our President), don’t take anti-biotics unnecessarily (despite the advice of our President).  Is anyone noticing a pattern here?

It is now official that the Republican Convention will take place in Jacksonville, FL instead of Charlotte, NC; and Governor Cooper of North Carolina must be heaving a sigh of relief, although he is too polite to admit it in public.   Governor DeSantis of Florida has triumphantly negotiated the deal with the President and the party to hold the convention in his state; though he might consider the pleasure dearly bought now that he has the headache of planning how to accommodate 19,000 people in a city with limited hotel resources and a case rate that continues to spike.  The governor said the RNC will make sure measures are in place to prevent the spread of the virus.  Sancta simplicitas!

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,725,583; # of deaths worldwide: 427,683; # of cases U.S.: 2,115,554; # of deaths U.S.: 116,819.  Qatar, Chile, and Kuwait now have the highest case incidences of over 0.8% or more than one in 125 of the population.  In Qatar the incidence is over 2.5%.  This suggests that other countries in the Arabian peninsula must be heavily affected and that they are under-reporting their virus data.

On the Appalachian Trail in Pennsylvania – Under-reported deaths in Russia – Troubling news from India – Evening statistics

After a rainstorm on a warm day like the one we had last evening, there are two possible outcomes:  the rain’s passing through can either clear the air of humidity or reinforce it.  We enjoyed the first of these today.  Even though today was warm, it was significantly less humid.  In addition, I spent the day hiking in Pennsylvania; the combination of higher altitudes and dense shade managed to keep the temperature down to less than 80 degrees.  I needed much less water than I did on Tuesday.  I was on the Appalachian Trail again, starting from Rte. 325 (Clark Valley) and going to the Cold Spring trailhead and back:  about 9 miles each way, or 18 miles total, with 1500 feet elevation gain. In truth it is not the most entrancing section of the trail.  It has only minor ups and downs after the first climb up Sharp Mountain, but much of this segment is quite rocky and in addition it is close to Lancaster Airport, where planes were continually emerging to fly overhead.  Still, there were numerous sections bordered by mountain laurel bushes in full bloom and fresh breezes were blowing for most of the day, which replenished my energy when I began to flag. 

The case count in Russia has surpassed 500,000 today.  Its official mortality rate is just over 1%, but data released by Moscow healthcare officials indicate that the figure is much higher in reality.  Moscow has had nearly 5,800 “excess deaths” for the month of May, i.e., deaths over and above the projected number based on data of deaths in Moscow during the month of May during previous years.  The officials believe that 5,260 of these are related to the virus, even though the figure given out by the government is only 1,895.  If this pattern is similar in other regions of the country, the death toll from the virus is being under-reported by a factor of nearly three. 

India’s case count is steadily rising.  It has the highest count after the U.S., Brazil, and Russia.  Nearly a fifth of these have occurred in Mumbai, India’s wealthiest city – about 50,000, which is greater than that of Wuhan.  Maharashtra state, home to Mumbai, has confirmed more cases than the whole of China.  Part of the issue is that, while it may be wealthy, its wealth is concentrated in the hands of a relatively small number of people.  Up to 60% of the city’s population live in the slums with little water or sanitation.  India is currently relaxing its lockdown restrictions, so it remains to be seen whether or not there will be a second surge of the virus there.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,583,521; # of deaths worldwide: 423,082; # of cases U.S.: 2,089,402; # of deaths U.S.: 116,029.  Bad as our totals are, Brazil is still worse.  It is steadily catching up to the U.S.  Already its case count is nearly 40% of ours; it had only 20% of ours less than four weeks ago.

Morning statistics – Private tranquility amid public turmoil – A morning visit – Visit to my mother – Increase in traffic – Shenandoah National Park, Phase Two – Republican Primary – The irksome case of Gone With the Wind – Evening statistics  

Today’s statistics as of 10:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,356,287; # of deaths worldwide: 414,436; # of cases U.S.: 2,046,577; # of deaths U.S.: 114,189. 

It will be seen from the foregoing entries that any personal privations I may have experienced as a direct consequence of the virus up to this point have not been great.  Many have died; many more have fallen gravely ill; many have lost their jobs; many have endured economic hardship; there has been rioting in the streets of several cities and widespread political unrest; it is quite possible that historians will conclude that our country was fractured during this period to an extent that has never occurred before since its inception.  But on a private level I have undergone remarkably little.  There have been a few useful items in the grocery stores and pharmacies that at times I had difficulty in procuring and I have been forced to delay purchases of others until the retail stores had re-opened – and that is nearly all.  Money has been spent and renewed; payments from pensions and investments have been remitted regularly; the shadow of ill health has not fallen upon me – indeed I am physically as active as ever.  It seems likely that amidst every epidemic there are various strata of people who are all but untouched by the turmoil that seethes about them.  When I first read The Decameron I thought that the framework for the tales – that of ten well-to-do young people retreating from the plague-stricken city to a villa and passing the time in feasting and telling amusing stories – somewhat far-fetched; now it makes perfect sense to me.

This morning I visited my friends EG and HG, and we used somewhat less caution than before.  Most of the time we spent outside in the shade of their garden by the fishpond, but I was also inside their house briefly.  We chatted about various topics, the upcoming election in November among them.  We are all desirous for a Democratic win, but we know that the outcome is far from certain.  There is the issue of Tara Reade, which is none the less pressing for having been temporarily shelved; there are the remarks of Biden indicating that he takes the black vote for granted, which he will have to smooth away; there is the fact that Biden himself does not generate much enthusiasm.  And we also spoke about the future of the Republican Party once Trump is no longer a power, either as of November or four years from now.  At this point it contains both moderate conservatives and right-wing extremists even more unbalanced than Trump, and it is uncertain whether these fissures within the GOP can be repaired.  It was very warm today, over 90 degrees, but less humid than it was yesterday, and the breezes in the shade of the garden were cool and refreshing as we sat and drank coffee together.

Afterwards I visited my mother in the assisted living facility in Chevy Chase.  It has a new restriction that all visitors wear face masks – which, however, I had already been doing on previous visits.  It was not a long visit, being made chiefly for the purpose of picking up accumulated mail and verifying that my mother’s condition was reasonable.  She is very frail and spends most of her day dozing, but she is still well physically and is tended with care.  Her caretaker tells me that there have been no cases of the virus to date within the facility, which is very reassuring news.

Traffic on the Beltway was easy by the standards of the time before the lockdown restrictions began, but there is no question that it is heavier than before.  In either direction using cruise control was no longer feasible.  On driving to the facility along the Inner Loop I was not delayed anywhere, but when I drove back on the Outer Loop I saw a long backup on the Inner Loop just half-an-hour after I had used it.  Returning on the Outer Loop also presented no traffic issues, but traffic on I-66 was very slow and I got off of the first exit after the Beltway, using back roads to return home. 

Shenandoah National Park will begin Phase Two of its re-opening tomorrow.  Trailheads at the boundary will no longer be off-limits, which means that it will no longer be necessary to re-route any of the hike routes that begin outside of the park. 

The officials of North Carolina continue to hold firm on their demands that any convention held within their state follow the health guidelines mandated by the virus restrictions and their response to Trump’s withdrawal of the Republican Primary to Jacksonville, FL is essentially “good riddance to bad rubbish.”  In their own words: “If the president is genuinely delusional enough to think that demanding a full-scale convention is reasonable, then Jacksonville is more than welcome to host his acceptance speech. Governor Cooper has made it clear that no political event is worth risking the public health of the Charlotte community and the lives of more North Carolinians. Evidently, President Trump’s calculus is different.”  It is just possible that Trump’s overweening desire to hear crowds of people chanting his praises may come to defeat its own end.  Various state delegates are understandably reluctant to travel to Florida, where cases are increasing at a rate of over 1000 per day.  To complicate matters, the business side of the convention and smaller meetings will have to be held in Charlotte to forestall the possibility of lawsuits for breach of contract. 

HBO Max has pulled the Gone With the Wind movie from its streaming library, at least temporarily.  Both the book and the movie are among the most vexatious in American art.  The movie features at least three brilliant performances (by Vivien Leigh, Olivia de Havilland, and Harriet McDaniel), it is the highest-grossing movie in history (when using adjustments for inflation), and in addition it became a landmark by procuring the first Oscar for a black actor in American film.  The book on which it was based was written by an author of great narrative gifts:  a prose style which, if not particularly eloquent, is swift-moving and uncluttered; a background that was carefully researched without ever becoming obtrusive; vivid characterizations, including a heroine with a fascinating blend of courage and conventionality, generosity and meanness, sexual allure and frigidity; descriptions of a city under siege that may be unsurpassed on American literature; and even occasional flashes of wit (e.g., “Mrs. Elsing was . . .a thin frail woman, who had been a beauty, and about her there still clung a faded freshness, a dainty imperious air”).  But the rose-colored views of the values of the ante-bellum South and their aftermath during and after the Civil War become impossible to sustain, even by the author herself.  Margaret Mitchell is a kind of antithesis of the prophet Balaam:  she comes to bless and she remains to curse.  The more she reveals about the morals and manners of that society, even and perhaps especially by what is intended as praise, the more repellent it becomes.  The putative moral anchor of the book, supposedly representing the best that such a society has to offer, is gentle, shy, self-effacing Melanie Wilkes; and Melanie is a racist through and through.  At one point Ashley Wilkes tries to turn down an offer from Scarlett to work at Atlanta in one of her mills, well-aware that she is love with him despite their both being married to someone else and anxious to avoid the awkward encounters such an arrangement would entail.  He intends to find employment in the North instead, but he is dissuaded by Melanie, who uses the following argument for his acceding to Scarlett’s request and living in Atlanta:

“Beau [their son] can have lots of playmates and go to school. If we went North, we couldn’t let him go to school and associate with Yankee children and have pickaninnies in his class! We’d have to have a governess and I don’t see how we’d afford –”

It follows that the black figures in the novel whose lives revolve around pleasing and protecting their owners and who continue to regard them as their owners even after slavery is abolished evoke a very different reaction than Mitchell intended.  No doubt there were many in real life who continued to hug their chains after the institution of slavery was abolished, but figures such as Mammy, Uncle Peter, and Big Sam inspire pity and even a kind of terror in their resolute refusal to live among their former masters on terms of equality.  Especially chilling is Big Sam’s reaction to the Northerners who make at least an attempt to treat him with civility:

“But all dem Yankee folks, fust time dey meet me, dey call me ‘Mist’ O’Hara.’ An’ dey ast me ter set down wid dem, lak Ah wuz jes’ as good as dey wuz. Well, Ah ain’ nebber set down wid w’ite folks an’ Ah is too ole ter learn.”

In general, the presentation of master/slave relations completely represses the brutality and exploitation that was a commonplace feature of the ante-bellum South.  No slave gets beaten; families are never broken up; the masters are all indulgent parent figures and the slaves are all grown-up children.  Mammy devotes her entire life to being nursemaid to Scarlett even when Scarlett is well into her twenties.  Uncle Peter does the same for Pittypat Hamilton up to and including the latter’s old age.  Nonetheless Margaret Mitchell occasionally gives herself away.  Perhaps the most revealing moment occurs when we see Scarlett’s horrified reaction to the recruitment of several slaves, including some from her father’s plantation, for building breastworks to protect Atlanta:

“Oh, Rhett, if there’s no danger, why are they digging these new breastworks? Is the army so short of men they’ve got to use darkies?”

Scarlett may subscribe, theoretically at least, to the notion instilled by her mother of being kind and affectionate towards her slaves, but nonetheless she regards them as a different and inferior species altogether.

“The first thing that we demand of a wall is that it shall stand up. If it stands up, it is a good wall, and the question of what purpose it serves is separable from that. And yet even the best wall in the world deserves to be pulled down if it surrounds a concentration camp. In the same way it should be possible to say, ‘This is a good book or a good picture, and it ought to be burned by the public hangman.’ Unless one can say that, at least in imagination, one is shirking the implications of the fact that an artist is also a citizen and a human being.”  George Orwell’s comments on the art of Salvatore Dali are equally applicable here.  Unfortunately no one is likely to pull down the walls built by Margaret Mitchell and those who have adapted her work to film.  They are both likely to cast their gloomy shadows on our literature and our film for a long time to come.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,444,644; # of deaths worldwide: 418,126; # of cases U.S.: 2,065,580; # of deaths U.S.: 115,129.  Our death toll from the virus is now more than 100 times that of China, where the virus originated.

On the Appalachian Trail In Shenandoah National Park – Encounters with bears while hiking – Prospect of new boots – Mountain laurel in full bloom – A pitiful tale – President Nkurunziza of Burundi – Evening statistics

There were only six of us on the hike for the Vigorous Hikers today.  The hike was a relatively simple one, going on the Appalachian Trail from Panorama to Elkwallow and back, perhaps 17 miles in all and 3000 feet of elevation gain.  I have been on this segment many times and it would be idle to recount all of the memories it holds for me, but there is one worthy of mention.  In the 1990s, when I was just getting back into hiking and was for the most part navigating the trails on my own, I had my first bear encounter.  Shenandoah National Park has a significant number of bears; the estimates range from 200 to 1000.  When going along the AT from the south to Elkwallow, one hits a turn to the left that is almost 90⁰ and in seasons of full foliage (like this one) it is impossible to see what is around the corner.  As I made that turn I suddenly came in full view of a mother bear and two cubs in the hollow below.  I started back in surprise and, I confess, with some alarm as well.  But that alarm turned to relief when they stepped back likewise.  It was clear that they were no more desirous of an encounter than I was.  After some reflection I decided that the best course would be to continue as I was, neither slackening nor increasing my pace, until they were well behind me.

I reacted purely on instinct but I later learned that this instinct was a sound one.  It is very inadvisable to run from a bear; that is a contest no human can win.  Bears can run up to 35 miles per hour.  The fastest a human can run is 15 miles per hour.  The last thing one would wish is to provoke a chase.  There are a few other defenses one can use as well, which I found out about in later years.  I have sometimes found that the sound made from banging my hiking poles together may cause a bear to retreat; bears apparently find the sounds made by metal objects rather intimidating.  I have had a few encounters with bears since, but none of them caused more than a momentary alarm.  I do not set myself up as an expert by any means.  My encounters were all with black bears, the only kind one sees in the East.  I have sometimes traveled West but up to this point I have had no encounter with grizzlies, which are much more aggressive.

I heard news from my fellow-hikers.  Poor BL was not present; he is still suffering from after-effects of the virus, which are affecting his kidneys, and he will have to refrain from activity for a while.  And apparently BF, the surgeon who was on the hike I led two weeks ago, had been afflicted by the virus as well, although he had (supposedly) recovered by the time he was walking with us again.  Still, I think I can claim that not all of the facts were set before me when I agreed to include him in the Great Falls hike.  On a more agreeable note, I found out that REI will be re-opening later in the week.  I have at this point hiked nearly 1000 miles from January 1^st onwards, and I am bound to admit my extreme gratification that I will be able to shop for new hiking boots soon.  The traction in the boots that I currently use is almost non-existent at this point.

The day was very warm, well into the 90s at lower elevations and only slightly cooler in the mountains, and somewhat humid as well.  But it was reasonably clear, and the momentary intervals of cloud cover were actually welcome because they helped to moderate the temperature to an extent.  The early blooms of spring are gone, but there were many flowering columbine plants and the mountain laurels were at their peak.  In several segments the bushes laden with blossoms flanked both sides of the trail for several yards on end; a hiking friend of mine described going through such a display as “walking the bridal procession.”

”I am heartbroken and lost right now, but I have to have faith. Please give us time to work through this, and please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.”  Such were the poignant words of Rodney Wheeler, after reporting the death of his wife from a fall off of a cliff at Grandview State Park, WV, located along the gorge of the New River.  There was only one little problem:  Julie Wheeler had not fallen at all.  Not only was she not dead, but she was hiding in the closet of her own home, while her husband and her son planted items at the park overlook to fake her death.  It seems that Ms. Wheeler had earlier pleaded guilty to the charge of submitting fake forms to the Veterans’ Administration while she was working as caretaker for a patient.  She faced 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and restitution for ranging from $302,131 to $469,983.  As a result of this ingenious stratagem, she and her husband were arrested on multiple felony charges such as fraudulent schemes, conspiracy to commit a felony, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, false emergency report, obstructing an officer, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and willful disruption of a governmental process. 

Pierre Nkurunziza, the president of Burundi, has died at the age of 55 of what is described as “cardiac arrest,” but what many suspect to be the coronavirus.  Unlike the majority of other African nations, Burundi has refused to implement lockdown measures and has expelled the WHO’s expert team working on the virus from the country.  It has reported that only 83 cases have occurred; the population is over 11,000,000.  It is simply impossible to obtain reliable data from the country; there is no reliable independent authority to verify it.  It would be interesting if the virus were indeed the cause of death of a national leader who consistently ignored it as a threat.  One could wish such a fate on a national leader somewhat closer to home who also ignored the virus for as long a time as he thought he could get away with it.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,311,510; # of deaths worldwide: 413,000; # of cases U.S.: 2,045,399; # of deaths U.S.: 114,151.  We have had nearly 19,000 new cases today.  Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Utah have all seen record spikes.  But Brazil is even worse off, with over 31,000 new cases today.  Belarus, Iceland, Belgium, and Ireland now have a case rate of over 0.5% (more than one in 200).

Morning statistics – Uncertainty about the Hajj – Triumph of New Zealand – Promising news from other countries – Shortages becoming less common – Retail stores – Testing out the new sneakers – Bison attack in Yellowstone – Reminiscence of the elks of Yellowstone – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 7,114,817; # of deaths worldwide: 406,650; # of cases U.S.: 2,007,531; # of deaths U.S.: 112,471.  For several weeks Spain and Italy were the two countries with the highest case counts after the U.S., but that has changed greatly this month.  Brazil and Russia both have hundreds of thousands more cases than Spain and the U.K. has nearly as many.  India, which at one point appeared to have matters under control, has already surpassed Italy in the number of cases, and Peru will soon be doing the same.  Chile, Mexico, and Pakistan have also seen continual large increases of cases.    

Saudi Arabia has also seen a spike in the number of cases, so that its count now exceeds 100,000.  No announcement has been made about the Hajj, but its cancellation is becoming increasingly likely.  Indonesia, which has the largest number of Muslims of any country in the world, has already instructed its citizens not to attend, and India will probably follow suit.  Jeddah, the gateway to the pilgrimage to Mecca, is currently under lockdown.  It has a curfew lasting from 3:00 PM to 6:00 AM, a suspension of prayers in mosques, and a stay-at-home order for public and private sector workers.  Authorities are contemplating similar lockdown restrictions for Riyadh.  The Umrah still remains suspended. 

New Zealand now has no active cases of the virus.  All of the restrictions imposed earlier are being removed, except for border restrictions.  Anyone entering the country must undergo a 14-day quarantine.  New Zealand, of course, has the advantage of being an island nation and can regulate its border somewhat more easily than other countries can.  There is still some economic pain:  thousands have lost jobs and tourism, which accounts for 10% of the national industry, has been particularly hard-hit.  But the New Zealanders are now in the enviable position of having no limitations on public events, weddings, funerals, social functions.  Retail stores are fully operational, as are hotels and public transportation.   

Other countries have shown promising declines.  South Korea was reporting between 700 and 800 new cases per day in March; now the number of daily new cases is between 30 and 40.  Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Vietnam also appear to have tamed the virus.  Hong Kong has averaged one new case per day for the past month.  Taiwan has had only one new case in the past three weeks.  Vietnam continues to astonish onlookers.  It has had only 332 cases, of which a mere 16 are still active, and no deaths.  The other success stories are island nations or territories, but Vietnam has a substantial border with China – a border, however, which the Vietnamese government determined from the onset that no one would cross as long as the virus was active.  

I shopped at Walmart today for certain items that I can buy there at slightly lower prices.  It was not particularly crowded, possibly because I arrived at 7:00, just as it opened.  Some of the shelves were nearly empty but most of them were stocked.  Yeast is available again and I bought some to add to the supply I received from my aunt.  I probably am going to be making use of it soon.  I used to make bread during my days as a graduate student, but I fell out of that habit when I worked at a 9-to-5 job.  I’ve began bread-making again some weeks ago when bread was no longer to be found on the shelves, and I probably will continue to do so even though bread is now obtainable. 

On the whole I think I’ve been managing pretty well during the time of the shortages.  I tried to keep my shopping excursions down to one per week, making out a list beforehand.  I did not hoard items and I do not, at this point, have any large amounts of any items that I cannot use.  I certainly bought some items (paper towels, aluminum foil, etc.) in bulk for the sake of economy, but I used to do this long before the virus had any effect on the store supplies.  And I’ve coped when certain items were unavailable – for example, making a sourdough starter when yeast was off of the shelves, eating more vegetarian meals to become less dependent on meat, and so on. 

I then went on foot to one of the local malls, where several retail stores are newly open.  I am not one of those for whom shopping is an art form, but I certainly was pleased to be able to obtain a new pair of sneakers from a shoe store that had re-opened this morning.  I have worn out a few pairs of sneakers over the past several months (I go through footwear fairly quickly, for obvious reasons), and I’ve been anxious to get new ones.  It’s possible to order them online, but it’s much better to try them out first before purchasing them. 

Naturally I had to break in the new pair of sneakers I selected, so instead of going back the most direct way (which would have been about 2 miles) I went via a more roundabout route that brought the total up to 15 miles for the excursion.  The route went along some of the quieter roads and a network of trails, including a segment of the Cross-County Trail.  We are in late spring now. The leaves have lost the translucent quality that characterizes them when they first begin to unfurl and they are now brilliant green in the sunlight, darkening in the shade to a hue similar to that of the skin of an avocado.  It was a brilliant sunlit day, without clouds, and the portions of the walk that went through woodlands presented that distinctive mosaic in the forest scenery of the eastern U.S.:  chinks of blue emerging among the outlines of the leaves with their various hues of green and of the boles and limbs of the trees, with their subtle shadings of brown and grey.

Yellowstone National Park re-opened recently, and just two days afterwards a visitor was attacked by a bison.  I can readily understand how this might happen.  Bison look placid and slow-moving, but this appearance is deceptive; they do not like people to approach them too closely and they will sometimes make their displeasure known, either by ramming the intruder to the ground or goring him or her with its horns.  And they are much, much faster than they look.  They can run at 35 MPH, make turns very quickly, and jump fences.  I remember when I was visiting Yellowstone with various friends how we sometimes had to drive on roads where the bison were crossing; all we could do was wait patiently until the bison chose to get out of the way of the cars. 

Indeed, encounters with wildlife were fairly frequent on that particular trip.  We happened to be there at the height of the elks’ rutting season, when they lose all appearance of timidity that they might display during other seasons.  There was one time, for instance, when three of us were hiking together and, on the very last mile of the hike, we encountered a cow elk grazing directly on the trail.  One side of the trail was defined by a nearly perpendicular rock wall and on the other was a sheer drop, so we could not go around her.  She did not respond to our attempts to shoo her away, giving us a look of languid disdain as she concentrated on the serious business of feeding herself.  It is possible that she felt my fatal fascination and was riveted to the spot in consequence; what is indisputable was that she was not moving.  At long last she espied a new grazing opportunity further up the hill beyond the trail, and as she went there we trudged by.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,189,800; # of deaths worldwide: 408,240; # of cases U.S.: 2,026,425; # of deaths U.S.: 113,055.

Morning statistics – Songbirds in suburbia – Brazil again – Activity in Fairfax – Colin Powell – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 6,974,721; # of deaths worldwide: 402,094; # of cases U.S.: 1,988,544; # of deaths U.S.: 112,096.

I have been more conscious of the chorus of songbirds this spring than in any other that I can remember, but it appears my impression that they are louder or more active than usual is an illusion.  If anything, they are quieter than normal, because there has been so little noise from traffic both on the ground and in the air.  It is simply that without other background noises to contend against, their calls are more noticeable.  And in this context I am reminded of the time when we first moved to Silver Spring, when my brother and I were small children.  My parents were both born and bred in New York City; and when they came to live in suburban Montgomery County, in a residential area that had just been created on the site of newly-cleared forest, they were greatly taken aback by the bird chorus that erupted every morning – they were neither of them especially early risers.  In some ways they never really adjusted to suburban life; whenever we visited New York to see our relatives, they were always invigorated, and they left it with visible reluctance.  I, on the contrary, cannot live comfortably in a city.  When I was a student in Philadelphia, the noise of the traffic during the nights and the absence of birdsong in the mornings were constant irritants to me.  My emotions upon leaving Philadelphia after getting my degree and returning to suburban surroundings were not unlike those of someone being reprieved from exile.

Brazil is now projected to have at least 1,000,000 virus cases and 50,000 deaths by June 20 (two weeks from now).  But tracking these figures has become slightly more difficult.  Since Thursday, when Brazil’s death toll became second only to the U.S., the government has stopped publicizing cumulative nationwide totals.  It is now reporting on a daily basis only the new virus cases and deaths within the previous 24 hours.  There are plenty of websites, however, that calculate the nationwide case and death totals by simply adding each day’s newly reported cases and deaths to the last cumulative case and death toll reported by the government, so it’s difficult to see what the government gains by this maneuver.  In the past four days alone, Brazil has reported more new cases and deaths than any other country.  President Bolsonaro’s outlook on this matter appears to be analogous to that of the young male commuter who immerses himself in a newspaper to avoid meeting the eye of an elderly woman supporting herself with a cane nearby who might reasonably expect him to give up his seat to her whenever he notices her plight:  “If I don’t see you, lady, you’re not really there!”

The “downtown” blocks of Fairfax City (both of them) were a good deal livelier today than they were last Sunday – chiefly, ironically enough, on account of the protestors, but also because a number of people simply wanted to take advantage of the fine day and the fact that more and more places were opening up.  Most of the restaurants were occupied, or at any rate their outside seating was.  There was a large crowd of protestors at City Hall, but all was proceeding smoothly, with no violent demonstrations and almost everyone present wearing masks. 

Colin Powell, the Secretary of State under George H. W. Bush, noted for his distinguished and honorable career, has endorsed Biden.  Donald Trumpery – er, Trump (I am always making that mistake) has reacted in the way one might expect, showering abuse on Powell for his management of the Iraq War via a tweet steeped in characteristic petulance, despite his previous resolutions to place a curb on Twitter.  Why people continue to support this man, when he behaves like an infant in diapers towards anyone who ventures to criticize him, is beyond me.  Whenever one tests him he invariably rings hollow, like a false coin.

Perhaps not irrelevantly, the Washington Monument was struck by lightning during the rainstorm earlier this week; observers may ascribe whatever symbolism this event may have that they will.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 7,081,594; # of deaths worldwide: 405,074; # of cases U.S.: 2,007,232; # of deaths U.S.: 112,469.  Many sad milestones have come about today:  the worldwide case count has surpassed seven million; the worldwide death toll has surpassed 400,000; the American case count has surpassed two million.  Our case count has doubled in a little over 40 days.  The worldwide case count gained over one million in 10 days. 

Morning statistics – Local Farmer’s Market – Bread-making with the starter – Financial statements – The President’s visit to Maine – Evening statistics

Today’s statistics as of 9:00 AM — # of cases worldwide: 6,880,373; # of deaths worldwide: 398,754; # of cases U.S.: 1,967,155; # of deaths U.S.: 111,405. 

Today I went to the city’s Farmer’s Market, which is open for the first time this year.  Normally it opens at the beginning of May, but the various restrictions have caused vendors to lose a month of their marketing season this year.  The results were about what one might expect.  The market did not have the bustle I have seen in previous years and only about half of the usual stalls had been set up, but there were some customers milling about and making purchases.  The wagon is beginning to roll, although at this point not very swiftly or noisily.

Bread is now generally available again, and in addition my aunt has procured a supply of yeast for me.  But the sourdough starter I developed when neither bread nor yeast were readily obtainable is still fermenting in the refrigerator and it needs to be used.  So today I made some bread whose dough was baked in loaf pans instead of being formed into baguettes.  It turned out very well indeed:  firm crust, crumb with good web, and a hint of the “winy” taste sourdough should have, although not especially pronounced at this point.  There were no problems either with kneading or getting the dough to rise, as there had been in previous experiments.   There is still some of the starter left over, so I will keep it in the freezer to reserve it for use in case another emergency like the one that started two months ago arises.

My monthly financial statements arrived today.  To my astonishment the portfolio values are very little lower than they were this past December, before the alarm about the virus began.  I’m not complaining, of course, but I am surprised.  I would have expected their net worth to be lower on account of the shrinkage in our GNP.  I can only conclude that our stock market must be heavily over-valued.

It is slightly reassuring to know that a few Republicans, at least, are not entirely under the influence of the baneful miasmas emanating from Pennsylvania Avenue.  President Trump is paying a visit to Maine to speak with fishermen and to tour Puritan Medical Products, which is currently manufacturing coronavirus test supplies.  He was greeted by Democratic officials who would have opposed him under any circumstances and by numerous protestors at Bangor.  However, Susan Collins, the Republican senior senator of the state, did not stand by his side or give him any support.  She has, in fact, other things to think about.  She is currently in Washington to attend various federal and non-federal events; and she has made it clear that she considers Trump’s visit to the state to be ill-timed and vexatious.  She herself toured Puritan Medical Products a bare month ago, and she does not appear to wish to associate herself with Trump more than what is absolutely necessary.  The forthcoming senatorial election in November is likely to be hotly contested; and she, being well-aware of Trump’s decreasing approval ratings and the aversion he has inspired among many of her constituents, seems to have concluded that Trump is more likely to be a liability rather than an asset to her campaign.  There are a few similar murmurings among the Republican camp as Election Day draws nearer and nearer, and it just barely possible that Republican leaders are beginning to realize that unswerving allegiance to an egotistical, flighty, purposeless, treacherous flibbertigibbet is a bad idea.

Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM — # of cases worldwide: 6,966,412; # of deaths worldwide: 401,607; # of cases U.S.: 1,988,461; # of deaths U.S.: 112,096.  Our case count is now over 0.6%, or about one per every 160 of the population.