A new food market – The Age of Euphemism – Wildfires in the West – Execution of an Iranian athlete – Evening statistics
Yet another supermarket has recently opened in the Fairfax area. The open-air mall at Fairfax Circle was in a very shabby state for several years and then was dismantled altogether. For a while – that is to say, for three or four years – the buildings were unoccupied and crumbling into ruins; finally, construction began, the old buildings were torn down, new ones were built. Just a few weeks ago the most elaborate of the buildings was taken over by Giant (a food store chain widely distributed in the mid-Atlantic states) to perform the function of “anchor” for this emerging combination of shopping center and condominiums. I went there today and found it to be quite elaborate. It was not crowded as food stores were crowded during the early days of the virus, but it was far from deserted. While I’m certainly not complaining, I continue to be surprised at the number of food stores that have opened in this area – especially in recent months, when one would have expected the current economic climate to be unfavorable to such enterprises. This is the second large food market store that has newly opened within three miles of my house in less than six weeks.
In driving to the store I passed by an intersection with the road that skirts along one side of Fairfax High School. The name of the road used to be called “Rebel Run” but it has changed within the past few months (in late June, I believe) to “Lion Run.” I certainly am not a supporter of the “Lost Cause” and have no use for sentimentalizing over a group of men who fought to preserve the institution of slavery. But it is one thing to repudiate such a cause and it is quite another to pretend that it never existed by erasing every reference to it. At this rate the 21st century is on the road to outdoing the 19th in its use of euphemisms.
Wildfires continue to rage in California, Oregon, and Washington. Nearly 70 fires are active along the West Coast, six of them ranking among the top 20 of the largest wildfires in the history of California. At least 29 people are dead, dozens more are missing, and tens of thousands have been forced to flee from their homes. The worst of the fires in California are in the Bay Area; but Los Angeles, where my brother lives, has endured the worst smog it has seen in 26 years. Cities such as Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco have for days been seeing skies colored a ghastly orange, festooned with black and white smoke. The situation is exacerbated by the extreme heat of the past several weeks (triple-digit temperatures for many days in succession).
Navid Afkari, an Iranian wrestling champion, has been executed for stabbing a security guard for Iran’s water and sewage department to death. As a matter of course, athletes from all over the world have joined in protests over his death, calling for Iran’s expulsion from world sport. I’m sure it must come as a shock to them that there still exist some nations in the world who do not believe that professional athletes are entitled to special privileges in such matters and that not every country is as gentle and forgiving as the United States is for celebrities such as O. J. Simpson. For my part, although I am not particularly well-disposed to the Iranian regime, I cannot fault them in this instance: it is no crime to kill an assassin. The attack appears to have been unprovoked, the victim dying from being stabbed in the back; and the murder of Hassan Turkman, the security guard in question, has plunged several relatives into mourning, including Turkman’s three young children. Iranian law allows a man who commits homicide to pay restitution to the victim’s relatives in exchange for his life if they agree to such an arrangement. The offer of payment was made to Turkman’s family, but they refused, insisting on sentence being carried out on the man who had killed their kinsman; and I would have done the same in their place.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide: 28, 928,750; # of deaths worldwide: 924,054; # of cases U.S.: 6,674,763; # of deaths U.S.: 198,120. Some falling off in numbers since yesteday: less than 40,000 new cases and just under 700 new deaths. But we’re not back at the level of the previous few days.