If that's the way it's going to be, I simply won't go to a bar or restaurant until the mask phase ends. I can't see the pleasure in keeping a mask on while eating and drinking and moving it aside for every bite or sip. I thought you weren't supposed to touch it.
I got an email from my hair salon explaining how they were going to reopen and one of the rules is that the customer needs to wear a mask through the entire appointment. Okay. I understand, but I'm not picturing myself going back until the masks are gone. I'm eager to go back to my Pilates lessons, but I'm not going to do it while wearing a mask.
I'm simply dealing with the mask issue by not going anywhere or doing anything that requires a mask. Writing that made me think of Henry David Thoreau's warning: "Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes." And what's the context?
I say, beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes. If there is not a new man, how can the new clothes be made to fit? If you have any enterprise before you, try it in your old clothes. All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be. Perhaps we should never procure a new suit, however ragged or dirty the old, until we have so conducted, so enterprised or sailed in some way, that we feel like new men in the old, and that to retain it would be like keeping new wine in old bottles. Our moulting season, like that of the fowls, must be a crisis in our lives. The loon retires to solitary ponds to spend it. Thus also the snake casts its slough, and the caterpillar its wormy coat, by an internal industry and expansion; for clothes are but our outmost cuticle and mortal coil. Otherwise we shall be found sailing under false colors, and be inevitably cashiered at last by our own opinion, as well as that of mankind.Ah, but we have become new men and women, have we not? Here in this crisis in our lives, in our solitary ponds. We have created the condition for getting new clothes... and masks are clothes within Thoreau's broad understanding, within which the caterpillar wears a "wormy coat."
ADDED: Now, there are some bars and restaurants that have a rule against masks. See "‘Sorry, no mask allowed’: Some businesses pledge to keep out customers who cover their faces" (WaPo).
At one Kentucky gas station, no one is allowed inside the adjacent convenience store if they are wearing a mask. Near Los Angeles, a flooring store encourages hugs and handshakes while prohibiting face coverings. The owner of a campground in rural Wisconsin vowed to treat clients sporting them inside her facilities as she would “a robbery in progress.”...He's got a sign on the door "Sorry, no mask allowed/Please bare [sic] with us thru the ridiculous fearful times."
“Why are we having to do this?” [asked bar owner Kevin] Smith “We’re not here to live in fear.”
Bartenders need to see their customers’ faces to check IDs and make sure no one gets served too many drinks, he argued. Anyone with the virus, including those who are asymptomatic, should not be coming out to begin with. Besides, he asked: How are you supposed to down a beer with a bandanna stretched across your lips?
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108 comments:
I just heard "effulgence" for the first time (that it registered) in an episode of Dalziel and Pasco.
Why, it's almost as if the rules governing mask-wearing are ... ARBITRARY.
I got my haircut last week. Wearing the mask seemed a little odd a first but turned out to be no big deal.
I'm simply dealing with the mask issue by not going anywhere or doing anything that requires a mask.
Well, that's all fine and dandy right up until an out-of-control health officer - in this case, a fucking pediatrician - mandates you wear a mask every time you're out in public.
We have one death in Thurston County. A population of 280,000 people. One death. And just now - today - we've been ordered to wear masks.
By the way -- I completely agree with your approach, Professor. But I'll give an exception for the barber. I'm getting really shaggy, and if I have to wear a mask for 15 minutes while getting shorn, then it's a small price to pay.
And I'll still leave a hefty tip. Those ladies at Supercuts work hard.
In the 1970s, self-serve gasoline began to become a thing. Now, almost all gas stations have self-serve pumps (except in New Jersey and Oregon where they are illegal). The oil companies discovered that people actually like to pump gas.
I bet that one of the legacies of this COVID 19 panic is that people discover they like to wear masks. At least a certain type of person does. Those are the ones you see driving their cars, alone, with their mask on.
We went to a restaurant last night. Both of us put our masks on and went in. NO ONE was wearing a mask. The waitress charged up to the table as per usual. And it was a Chinese restaurant.
I guess the whole thing's silly after all.
Moulting our color, while retaining our character.
That said, every time you touch your face and mask you increase the risk of self and cross-contamination. Oh, and don't forget the goggles. The eyes are a window to contagion. Not to mention the latest distancing guidance from Wuhan is 3 m, 6 if you follow the precautionary principle. Why be a poseur?
I'm eager to go back to my Pilates lessons, but I'm not going to do it while wearing a mask.
Wearing a mask, holding your breath, will produce a similar effect for oxygen, carbon dioxide, and [viral] contagion.
I'd wear a mask if I went to the supermarket. So far Amazon does a nice job of delivering sometimes overpriced groceries, in a nice level of minimal contact. You can usually even get a time-slot for same day delivery now. I guess more people are in fact going to the supermarket.
The virus math is that the virus has to get through two masks (95% times 95% gives you 99.75% effectivenes) so it's nice if everybody wears a mask even if they're only 95% effective. The combination is really good.
I haven't eaten out for a couple of decades though, and have cut my own hair for longer than that, so it's no going-out experience missed for me because of masks.
Going out has always meant bike riding.
Try claiming that only people who are morally pure can see your mask.
Order the masquerade.
I'm afraid the mask will be an item of fashion long after its utility as a prophylactic has lapsed. Maybe the next step will be a tattooed mask, or one drawn on with cosmetics, so as to give the appearance of a mask without the inconvenience of blocking one's nose and mouth.
Let me give you still shut downers a glimpse into the future from an open state: no one wears a mask in a restaurant. We went on a three day road trip this weekend and ate in five restaurants. Available seating was all full; not a single mask on anyone at tables whether they had food in front of them or not. A handful of older folks wore them while waiting for tables but even they took them off as soon as they were seated.
I also won’t really go anywhere that requires a mask. I’ve made a couple exceptions for shopkeepers I personally know and like but mostly, nah. Yesterday stopped by Costco and that’ll be the last time until they lift the mask requirement. I’m struggling with the opening of summer things for kids because they want them in masks. My four year old is supposed to wear a mask to dance class? GMAFB. My friends in Washington say they have to wear masks to the gym. Pure idiocy and I won’t be a part of it. Church is requiring it. Count me out. I want to be involved in things again but I do not buy that masks on asymptotic people are worth the discomfort, hassle, forced participation in conformity theater, costs to human communication and connection, and inherent germiness of a damp warm piece of cloth against my breathing holes. Not to mention it want nothing whatsoever in common with the hooting monkey burn the witch mask people like those animals in the grocery store in Staten Island.
I really think there's potential for liability under these circumstances. What's the negligence standard - failure to conduct oneself as a reasonable person would under the same or similar circumstances thereby causing (directly and proximately) harm.
Seems like there could be a case made given the proper proof. I would disagree with those kinds of lawsuits, but I'm not going to be shocked when they're filed.
We have a couple we are friendly with who are mid 70’s. They scurry out every two weeks to resupply groceries and essentials. That’s it. No socializing even remotely because neither seems to be able to remember how to text. They’re not coming out until there is a vaccine. Not sure we’ll ever see them again. At least they have a metric for rejoining the world which more than some.
I still follow a food forum in Chicago out of habit. Many there are bunkered in with food delivery and Instacart. There seems to be no self-awareness that they are offloading all risk onto other, less economically advantaged people who do the picking and delivering.
“Why are we having to do this?” [asked bar owner Kevin] Smith “We’re not here to live in fear.”
Exactly. Plus we are not here to indulge the pseudo-scientific illusions of the Karens.
"He's got a sign on the door "Sorry, no mask allowed/Please bare [sic] with us thru the ridiculous fearful times."
No mask allowed: I like it. Bare: good one.
I agree, and thats why I take the short drive to Indiana to buy groceries......without a mask on. Pritzker is off to Florida looking for all the other whales.
I got my hair cut today while wearing a mask, as per their rules, throughout the entirety of the procedure. This place is on the far west side of Madison and has been open for two days. I thought it would be awful but it was all fine. And, I feel really great. I got my hair cut and then went and got awesome coffee from an awesome just-opened coffee shop.
I will wear my mask if necessary to gain entry to the place. Once comfortably seated, maybe having ordered and received a drink, I will remove the mask and dare them to throw me out. The other patrons may yell at me, scold me, demand that I put on my mask (I won't refer to them by the derogatory term). If they make enough of a ruckus I'll leave and try again the next day or week. I will not engage or escalate. If asked to leave I will do so, quietly and politely.
The mask is nonsense, not science. The lock down did nothing to slow the spread of the virus. Subtract out the deaths at nursing homes and you have a bad flu season. None of the dire predictions came true.
But that's just me. Some would say this makes me a Trump supporter. I am so, but these things have nothing to do with each other.
the customer needs to wear a mask through the entire appointment. Okay. I understand, but I'm not picturing myself going back until the masks are gone.
Are we going to see hippie Althouse? You ever wonder what your real hair color is?
I got an email from my hair salon explaining...
Flowbee!
I just read that in the state of Virginia, masks will be required whenever a person is outside of their home after May 29. I can't imagine this will engender widespread cooperation, and I can't imagine how it could be enforced.
I'm immune compromised, so I wear a mask when I go out.
I'm immune compromised, so I don't go out to bars and restaurants.
You do you.
I can't see the pleasure in keeping a mask on while eating and drinking and moving it aside for every bite or sip. I thought you weren't supposed to touch it.
Indeed, constantly touching it to remove it to eat negates its value to you. Actually, it causes you to touch your face even more. At that point, the mask is only for the sake of others, in case you might sneeze or cough. Thus wearing the mask is about demanding you behave in a manor that only benefits others. If this is truly the new normal, then our liberty is lost.
I'm simply dealing with the mask issue by not going anywhere or doing anything that requires a mask.
Isn't this a bit of submission? Or, are you counting on a changing definition for what "requires a mask"? These news media you sites are trying to sell a new definition that will result in you staying at home and not going anywhere or doing anything for a very long time. I do appreciate that your blog is but one platform for speaking out about this.
Althouse: "If that's the way it's going to be, I simply won't go to a bar or restaurant until the mask phase ends. I can't see the pleasure in keeping a mask on while eating and drinking and moving it aside for every bite or sip. I thought you weren't supposed to touch it."
Ah, careful now Althouse. You are attempting to apply logic to the rulings of our would be Commissars and you are putting yourself at risk of being charged with Anti-Revolutionary Application of Logic Against The People.
Robert Cook can now doubt explain it further to you.
Consider yourself warned.
How to wear a mask to a restaurant or bar?
Don't. Stay home.
Had lunch today with a colleague. Sat in outdoor area. Shook hands. No mask on diners, masks on servers. Inside seating a quarter full. No 6 ft bullshit, friends shoulder to shoulder in booths, four on four tops. Lot of happy people.
If you have to wear a mask at a bar or a restaurant to eat or drink there, don't eat or drink there.
I'm a high risk individual so for now I'm sheltering at home but working from home. The idea of going to a bar or restaurant with a mask is ridiculous. Same for the barber ( which I need badly). Once my wife calms the eff down I'll go to the barber and see which restaurants I like are still open and go to them. People like me who are high risk should stay the hell out of the way and let everyone else live.
Sorry, no mask allowed/Please bare with us thru the ridiculous fearful times."
And Samuel Johnson called the pun “the lowest form of humor”.
Took son and daughter-in-law to a local restaurant to celebrate anniversary #2. Under the rules they have to serve at outdoor tables and only every other table at that. Server wore mask throughout. We removed our masks to order, and left them off to eat, obviously. Put them on to leave the premises. Menus were photocopies that were supposed to be destroyed after use. Easy-peasy. Leave it to New York to complicate things unnecessarily.
A couple of Fridays ago I was leaving someone's house, on my way home to make dinner for myself.
Along the way, I noticed a restaurant that had their "Open" sign lit, with a half dozen cars in their parking lot. So I turned in, parked, grabbed my bottle of hand sanitizer, and went in. There was a sign on the door with their rules - no eating at the bar during COVID, but no mention of masks or gloves being required.
There were a handful of people at the bar, two of which I recognized. I wait to be seated, got the pick of tables in their nearly empty dining room, and proceeded to order and eat a classic Wisconsin fish fry.
It felt strange for all of 5 minutes. It was kind of like, "Hey, I remember doing this back on planet Earth."
Professor, go find a restaurant with their Open sign lit with a nearly empty parking lot. Pick a table far enough away from everyone. Order your food and enjoy the experience.
Thalia & Melpomene,
... "Covid-19"--
the tragi-comedy now playing in your neighborhood theater
Last night we went out for Mexican food for the first time, on the first day dine-in was allowed here in Colorado (50% capacity). People wore masks as they entered and were seated, but after sitting, not one table was wearing their masks. After all, no masks required while you eat...er, while *dining*.
No one seemed super concerned, let's put it that way. I certainly wasn't. The staff was all masked of course.
To walk in, my daughter actually wore a huge halloween space helmet with a pop-up visor, with a blue mask taped across the front. People were amused!
A couple of days ago, my wife and I drove to Ventura County to escape the power-crazed lefties that run LA County. We had lunch in an excellent fish restaurant. Everyone wore masks until they were seated and then removed them throughout the meal. The waitstaff continued to wear them. Every other table had been removed.
It wasn't ideal, but it worked and folks seemed to enjoy being around strangers for the first time in months.
The mask thing may be necessary in some circumstances of extended close quarters contact with many other folks, but, for the most part, it's simply an example of lefties enjoying the exercise of their power.
- Krumhorn
My hairdresser is a Russian immigrant. So, of course, she doesn’t require a mask. She never stopped cutting hair and never made or required any special accommodation. I haven’t gone because I have a family, but back when I was single, it wouldn’t have even crossed my mind to not go.
"By the way -- I completely agree with your approach, Professor. But I'll give an exception for the barber. I'm getting really shaggy, and if I have to wear a mask for 15 minutes while getting shorn, then it's a small price to pay."
If I had short hair, I would go and wear the mask, but I've let my hair grow out in the past 2 years, and I can get away without going to the hairdresser for a long time. I could even figure out how to trim it at some point if it got super long, but it's easy (and comfortable) to wear a ponytail/braid/etc. I do also get coloring, but there's so little contrast that it hasn't started to bother me. I could go until fall... I could go for the rest of my life if I needed to.
What a bunch of stupid sniveling wimps. You would rather be part of the problem because the solution, which is too easy, hurts your pride and goes against marching orders from Dear Leader.
Althouse said ... I'm not picturing myself going back until the masks are gone. I'm eager to go back to my Pilates lessons, but I'm not going to do it while wearing a mask.
I am eager to start yoga, but it does not seem conducive with a mask. In the meanwhile, I have a Bowflex, recumbent bike and treadmill in my very hot garage. It is quite a workout here in the desert.
I had a haircut last week. It was awkward with the mask, but I only have a minor quibble with the cut.
People in Southern Arizona seem to be adapting to circumstances pretty well and without drama. If you have a mask, it's fine. If you don't, it's fine. There is little complaint of social or government oppression, but then we have a Republican governor.
"Well, that's all fine and dandy right up until an out-of-control health officer - in this case, a fucking pediatrician - mandates you wear a mask every time you're out in public."
I don't believe that will happen, even in Madison. There are some things that will trigger rebellion and making us do things like wear a mask in our own backyard or wear a mask while biking alone on a country road or wearing a mask while swimming are going to drive people over the edge.
Just like they never closed the food stores (or even the liquor stores), they're not going to impose restrictions that make the citizens flip out. We're already under stress and I think the govt is self-protective enough to notice they shouldn't antagonize us.
I like those crocheted masks the clueless movie actors wear.
Althouse said ... I've let my hair grow out in the past 2 years, and I can get away without going to the hairdresser for a long time.
I always thought that men and women needed to have shorter hair as they aged. Last year I convinced my 57 year old wife to cut her relatively long hair.
She hated it. "I look like a dyke or an Iowa Republican."
Her hair has grown out and I must admit it suits her.
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks
h said...
I just read that in the state of Virginia, masks will be required whenever a person is outside of their home after May 29. I can't imagine this will engender widespread cooperation, and I can't imagine how it could be enforced.
Patrick Henry was from Virginia. Some of his spiritual heirs may still live there and remember the spirit of 1775.
Cut your own hair. I've been doing it for years, it's not hard. Even is the key--like if you cut too much off.
If you have a spouse, it's even easier.
And remember, it grows back.
St. Fauci on March 8, 2020 .
"When it comes to preventing coronavirus, public health officials have been clear: Healthy people do not need to wear a face mask to protect themselves from COVID-19,” CBS News reported March 8, concerning the Fauci interview."
There's more:
"“There’s no reason to be walking around with a mask,” the infectious disease expert told “60 Minutes.”
“While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do,” CBS News reported at the time. “Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.”
“Right now, in the United States, people should not be walking around with masks,” Fauci asserted."
"You ever wonder what your real hair color is?"
No, I know what color it is: White. With streaks of color that wouldn't look different if the slight bit of darkening were removed. You can't even see the line of "roots" on my hair. I know exactly what it is. I started getting white hairs when I was a teenager. I loved my natural color but it gave up early.
"Indeed, constantly touching it to remove it to eat negates its value to you. Actually, it causes you to touch your face even more. At that point, the mask is only for the sake of others, in case you might sneeze or cough...."
If you've got to sneeze or cough, I hope you're not using just the mask to shield other people. That seems worse than using your arm. Are people going around sneezing and coughing into the mask and thinking that's okay? I'd get far away from anyone doing that, but I am afraid that will be happening.
"I just read that in the state of Virginia, masks will be required whenever a person is outside of their home after May 29. I can't imagine this will engender widespread cooperation, and I can't imagine how it could be enforced."
Read the actual rule. I'll bet it says the mask is required when you can't maintain 6' distancing.
Opening day for bars in Iowa. NO ONE is wearing a mask. Fuck the Karens!
Remember the old 1970's TV commercial on seat belts?: link
"They're too confining"
"They wrinkle my dress"
"I like to relax when I drive."
The CDC could easily update the ad to cover wearing masks: three brief scenes of people uttering ridiculous anti-mask excuses and striking a pose which segs into a shot of that person on a ventilator.
"They're too hot and confining"
"They muss my lipstick"
"I like chicks to see my stubble when I'm out."
Wait for it -- especially if there is a resurgence this fall.
I can see in my county's order that the salon is required to make customers wear masks.
Restaurants here can open but with only 25% capacity. No masks required.
You put that mask on, Green Grocer. It is a diktat.
YES! I've been reading you for many, many years, but this is my first comment - I'm glad to see someone else like me - I haven't been anywhere since May 1 when masks became required in Illinois. I don't plan to go anywhere inside until the requirement is lifted. I've no interest in being a player in their safety theater any longer.
This attempting to live in a cloth bubble will fade quickly as the total impracticality hits us. Our rampant fear of germs was already bad before Covid-19, so all those people who were already pre-disposed to use hand sanitizer at every turn really glommed onto this mask business. But it cannot hold. I have always thought that the over-sanitization efforts of suburban white women resulted in our increase in auto-immune diseases. Our bodies have evolved to fight disease. If you don't give them anything to fight, they will find something to fight. We live in a very germ filled world, and our best defense is to face it front and center, not run away from it. Some will succumb, but avoiding it will weaken you in the long run. In this case it is true that what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. It is sad that some will die, but if we feared death that much we should live in the plastic bubble and never come out. That would not be living, however.
CDC recommendations for reopening schools include mandatory face masks for teachers and children (over the age of two), students sitting six feet apart in same rooms with same teachers for all subjects, plus lunch in classroom, to avoid contact. No use of gym or play equipment, no shared books or other items. How many teachers will return if they have to teach in a mask, and spend the day telling kids to keep their masks on and stay six feel from classmates? How many parents will send kids back to school, if it's a fearful, isolated experience? https://bit.ly/2TMZB70
CDC recommendations for reopening schools include mandatory face masks for teachers and children (over the age of two), students sitting six feet apart in same rooms with same teachers for all subjects, plus lunch in classroom, to avoid contact. No use of gym or play equipment, no shared books or other items. How many teachers will return if they have to teach in a mask, and spend the day telling kids to keep their masks on and stay six feel from classmates? How many parents will send kids back to school, if it's a fearful, isolated experience? https://bit.ly/2TMZB70
And when I swallow wrong and end up in a coughing fit?
know what color it is: White."
I thought mine was white too but finally decided to transition a year ago. The colorist did a couple weaves with grey and then I just let it go...good timing! And only parts are white. The rest is grey or brownette.
I really can't tell the difference in the new growth.
Shorn of specific context, I suggest that executive decrees infringing on citizens’ interests in life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness may be legitimate during a true emergency, understood as a situation of acute peril justifying action due to the absence of a reasonable time for the legislature to act. But after the legislature has had a reasonable time to act (even if it fails to act because its members or leadership are too timid to vote for particular measures), continued “emergency” rule by decree is presumptively illegitimate (and Unconstitutional), and should be mocked, resisted and, where persistent, remedied with tar and feathers.
Placed in context, legislatures at the federal, state, and local levels have had ample time to enact laws pertaining to the current pandemic, so that no true emergency justifying rule by decree may be said to exist.
So if we are to protect our constitutionally protected interests, resistance, mockery, and shame should be employed against such illegitimate decrees.
Althouse hits on something. But does she understand?
The authorities are pushing just as hard as they can. They are exerting power, but only so far as they are unlikely to face pushback. And that means that the powers-that-be are not interested in control of a virus.
They are interested in control of people.
Did you understand that when you typed above, Althouse? Was it crystal clear?
And doesn't that decrease your concerns? If the authorities are not so concerned with the virus as they pretend, why take them seriously?
I will wear one if the place requires it and I want to go. One thing I have noticed call me Male C piggy but some masks on women look sexy. Maybe it leaves something to the imagination when they are all running around with skin tight yoga pants. The masks highlight the eyes and leaves some mystery. Not all masks but enough. Maybe the Arabs have something there with veils and I just never noticed it before.
I had an eye appointment last week. Mask required. Kept fogging up all the equipment. Made the testing useless. Just kept the same prescription. All a strange game needing to be played for the paperwork.
I'm like you, and don't go places that require a mask with one exception. I do wear a mask at the grocery store. I prefer to select my own produce and the store asks people to wear masks. Fair trade.
Thankfully my hairdresser has been willing to do “house calls” since all this started. Tomorrow when he comes he’s also going to cut my husband’s hair because the barber shops are all still closed here in “lockdown California”
"...discomfort, hassle, forced participation in conformity theater, costs to human communication and connection..."
Imagine having experienced so little actual life problems, you get all this hassle out of a piece of cloth. President Tweety has apparently taught Boomer men to be melodramatic drama queens just like him. Embarrassing, but at least us millennials can now disregard their snowflake insults as protection.
"Subtract out the deaths at nursing homes and you have a bad flu season."
Flu also kills people in nursing homes, so the comparison won't work unless you also include the nursing home deaths. Even so, there has never been a flu season that put any ICU anywhere at capacity or killed 100,000+ people in two months. But unhinged, rage tweeting psycho Trump is a science-denying pathological liar, so why wouldn't his supporters follow suit.
In other news, Democratic senate candidates in Maine, Arizona, and Colorado have unprecedented double-digit leads; internal polling showing a Blue Tsumsni has prompted McConnell to hit the panic button on trying to confirm judges as quickly as possible; and even Rasmussen now shows Trump slumping.
Ann Althouse said...
I can see in my county's order that the salon is required to make customers wear masks.
I went to the barber 10 days ago. Nobody wore masks. AZ has a sane Governor. Even the crazy leftist Mayor of Tucson has kept her mouth shut.
According to Dr. Fauci, wearing a mask has little protective effect, but it’s a great sign of (non-scientific) respect. So, in a way, it’s sorta like a rabbits foot for good luck. For others, it’s a badge of compliance with diktats issued from our rulers. Equally, for some, not wearing a mask is an act of defiance against those same diktats.
According to Dr. Fauci, wearing a mask has little protective effect, but it’s a great sign of (non-scientific) respect. So, in a way, it’s sorta like a rabbits foot for good luck. For others, it’s a badge of compliance with diktats issued from our rulers. Equally, for some, not wearing a mask is an act of defiance against those same diktats.
According to Dr. Fauci, wearing a mask has little protective effect, but it’s a great sign of (non-scientific) respect. So, in a way, it’s sorta like a rabbits foot for good luck. For others, it’s a badge of compliance with diktats issued from our rulers. Equally, for some, not wearing a mask is an act of defiance against those same diktats.
And when I swallow wrong and end up in a coughing fit?
Hopefully, after swallowing wrong, you dont end up fit in a coffin
I've found that when I go to the post office, just in an out to my box in the lobby I don't really have to wear the mask.
I carry it until I get to the door, walking past all the folks waiting in the sun for counter service.
When I cross the threshold, I grasp the mask between my teeth. It is stiff enough to cover most of my nose and lower face.
And, it provides every bit as much protection to both myself and others as Howard's mask does.
That is to say, none at all to anyone.
John Henry
On vacation in south. Waitstaff wearing masks, sometimes. No customers are. I forgot how much I miss going out for dinner. It’s great.
I have no interest in being respectful of other people's delusions. You cannot have it both ways: either masks are health theater, in which case you're a terrible person for trying to force others to go along, OR they really are necessary and all the touching and moving aside defeats the purpose of wearing them in the first place, so you shouldn't be dining out with masks in the first place.
Howard @ 5:33 PM,
Go easy on the projection there, buddy.
"Now, almost all gas stations have self-serve pumps (except in New Jersey and Oregon where they are illegal)."
You will be interested to know, that at the height of The Terror, the Oregon State Fire Commissioner ruled that Oregonians could pump our own gas, provided the station provided at least one person to watch and make sure we didn't do whatever it is that we might otherwise do. The Terror has receded now, and Oregonians once again require assistance in filling our gas tanks.
Incidentally, there have been multiple referenda in Oregon, attempting to make it legal for Oregonians to pump our own gas. There was even one where they would have to have someone there to pump it for you, but you could pump your own if you wanted to. Nope. The voters of Oregon don't want anyone pumping their own gas.
I will wear a mask to get something I want badly - like having my hair colored last week, or the pedicure I had this evening. It was totally worth it, even though I really don't like masks. That said, I agree with you that there are some things that aren't worth wearing one. We've been out to eat a few times recently and saw the same thing many of your commenters saw: you wear the mask when you walk in, maybe when you order if it's at the counter, but then you take it off when you find your seat. I would not exercise in one; if I can't go to the gym without one when it opens June 1, I will keep working out at home for a while.
Interesting anecdote: a co-worker's wife is a primary school teacher in Switzerland, where the schools have reopened. He said the teachers were told to wear masks at all times and keep "social distance" from the children. His wife says "absolute baloney, not in MY classroom - I can't teach 6 year olds from 2 meters away" and so is teaching her kids much as she always has. She wears a mask in the halls, and the teachers' lounge is closed for now, but otherwise she is finding things to be much the same as they were before the shutdown. I can only hope the same will be true here by the time August rolls around.
The mask wearing will fade away by mid-July. They are very stultifying in the heat. Unbearable.
I deleted the article I posted about Fauci saying masks were useless, because it's dated from last February.
However, I'd sure like to know how the drugstore masks he dissed as ineffective then suddenly became a "must" for people, indoors and out.
The wife and I used to dine out once a month. We cut back to once or twice a year the last 2 years and then only went to Great Dane because we like the beer. They currently are only doing curbside pick up.
We grocery shop at Woodman's on the east side. Masks are requested but not required. 80-90% wear masks. My wife does because most other people do. I do not.
My Princeton Club Express just opened Tuesday P.M. I went on Wed. there were 6 of us in there, no masks.
Menard's is probably the busiest place in town (should have bought their stock) requires masks. I wear a 3M dust particle mask to get through the door and then pull it down below my nose. I'm not the only one.
Just live in a ski gaiter. Hides the turkey neck and pulls up fast.
Long as you don't mind looking like Peter Bogdanovich.
“While masks may block some droplets, Fauci said, they do not provide the level of protection people think they do,” CBS News reported at the time. “Wearing a mask may also have unintended consequences: People who wear masks tend to touch their face more often to adjust them, which can spread germs from their hands.”
Even he was right about one thing.
My stylist's salon is in her home. There are no other employees. I recently called her to see when she was planning to re-open (based upon Governor Inslee's unpredictable "phases") and she said that she was already accepting 1-2 clients a day.
She said she would wear a mask if requested, but didn't require it of me.
She adores Trump so I had to listen to that but otherwise - my hair looks great.
All against the rules. Just like the friend who - when called - said "don't tell anyone, but I'm getting my nails done at the manicurist's home.
Folks are "cheating", but with eyes open and brains intact. It's called Irish Democracy in some circles. Cloward-Piven Karma.
"I can see in my county's order that the salon is required to make customers wear masks."
What's the basis for the requirement? I mean, if health care facilities are not overburdened and the vulnerable are kept safe, what business is it of any government to tell people to wear masks for ordinary tasks? Of course, businesses should be free to cater to Karens, but the rest of us should be free to assess risk as we see it.
“ I always thought that men and women needed to have shorter hair as they aged.”
That’s considered an old fashioned attitude these days.
You should just wear what you like and think looks good on you. I like to be able to get it into a ponytail.
Hey Unknown @ 6:48 - Guess how much of a crap I give about whether you think my mask objections are stupid? Last I checked it’s MY face and MY body and I don’t owe you or anyone else an explanation and I don’t have to ask permission to decline to participate in y’alls bullshit circle jerk. And I’m sorry you can’t see that that’s what it is.
Tonight we had dinner at a restaurant with a soda fountain. I can’t get my own anymore; instead of using my cup which was sanitized in a commercial dishwasher and would touch nothing other than my own hand and the parts of the machine, I had to wait for an employee to do it for me. This employee stopped slurping at her own drink, pulled her nasty bandana back over her face, got my drink for me with the hand that had just pulled said nasty rag up, handed me my drink, pulled her “mask” back down and went back to her scrolling her (no doubt filthy) phone and drinking her Coke.
But keep on saying that those of us who call this out as bullshit are whiners. Maybe we just don’t want to be forced to pretend that obvious bullshit isn’t.
I just read that in the state of Virginia, masks will be required whenever a person is outside of their home after May 29. I can't imagine this will engender widespread cooperation, and I can't imagine how it could be enforced.
@h, there are two Virginia’s — the northeastern counties that comprise the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, are under one set of rules, the rest of the state is under looser restrictions. People in my rural county take walks, walk their dogs, watch their unmasked kids play, and do a lot of things without masks. Wife says much fewer than half now are masked in the grocery store. Store employees, servers in restaurants (outdoor and takeout service only), my barber, are still masked. And cops have better things to do than enforce mask restrictions.
I always thought that men and women needed to have shorter hair as they aged.
That was never a universal attitude for or toward either men or women. A lot of modern perceptions have been normalized through sociopolitical myths.
masks... stultifying in the heat
Especially with a load. The universal demand was essentially a diversitist (e.g. class) prescription that not only denied context but also circumstance.
From what I read here, and from my own experience on the locked-down island of Hawaii (no hair stylists or "non-essential" businesses can open until June 1st), masks and social distancing is half-hearted, at best. The highways are as busy as they were in February (once you account for the closed schools and lack of tourists). Nobody wears a mask where they are not legally required to wear a mask. In the places where a mask is required, people improvise bandanas or pull the top of the mask below their nose.
Yet, in spite of this, covid-19 deaths have dropped off of a cliff, rather than increase, as people have chosen to be ever more sloppy about following social-distancing rules.
Above: "there has never been a flu season that . . . killed 100,000+ people in two months." The Hong Kong flu killed 100,000 +/- Americans in 1968-69, mostly in '69. Yes, it took longer than 2 months (I think the Covid-19 epidemic has also been in the US more than two months). But the the US population was only a shade over 200 million in 1969. Now it's almost 330 million. We would have to lose another 60,000 souls to match the percentage of the population lost to the Hong Kong Flu. And we may do so, but we haven't yet. While the Hong Kong flu was going on, the first human beings walked on the moon; the young generation celebrated at Woodstock; we worried about the deaths in Viet Nam; we talked about the people that the Manson "family" murdered. I don't think the Hong Kong flu was page 1 news very often. I know we didn't shut down the country to practice social distancing.
I have no informed opinion about the efficacy of masks. However, I do know that all of these "lockdown" and "social distancing" rules depend on voluntary compliance by most people. There aren't enough cops, or enough "Karens", to enforce them. Where I live, in a lightly populated, middle and upper middle class community, the lockdown has been fairly easy to endure. Most folks here have been complying with the spirit if not always the letter of the law, but even here more and more people have been reaching their limits. Telling people they can go to a restaurant but have to eat their meal while wearing a mask is stupid. All that approach will do is create more "quarantine outlaws". Opening things up is not only important for the economy; it's also important to preserve some level of community support for anti-virus policies.
There is at least one advantage to knowing you cannot live forever, or even much longer than average. It makes safety a secondary concern at best. Imagine the absolute oppression of knowing you can live forever if you are just very very careful every. single. moment of every. single. day.
I don't go to a bar to avoid risks. In fact, if the place offers no risks, I'll go somewhere else. Life is too short to live it obsessed with safety. Life is so short that safety is probably the main impediment to living a rich one.
Have you ever taken a really risky risk. You never regret them, whether you survive or not.
Isn't it funny how often we have caught the powers that be that decree mask wearing like that ex-Klansman dressing governor in Virginia not wearing one outdoors or the Michigan Gov. whose spouse was trying to get special treatment to get his boat launched, or the Illinois Gov. who sent his family to his Florida compound and then to his private farm in Wisconsin.
It's pretty clear by now they don't believe any of this nonsense so why are we going along? What I have noticed in Sonoma co. is people are going along, read the room and then see they don't have to wear the masks and then take them off. This happened at the post office and at a hardware store. It won't be long before no one is wearing them sign or no.
How do you get your beard trimmed while wearing a mask?....I'm going for the Jesus look, but I can't pull it off. I look slovenly and disreputable with long hair and an uneven beard. When your hair is long, you pay more attention to it. For the first time in decades, I keep a comb in my back pocket. I need to comb my hair back or it keeps falling in my face. I wonder how Jesus managed. I suppose He used his superpowers. Long hair is annoying. It takes forever to dry.
Even so, there has never been a flu season that put any ICU anywhere at capacity or killed 100,000+ people in two months.
At least one third of those deaths were due to Democrat governors forcing nursing homes to accept patients who were known to have the disease, coupled with an inadequate testing regimen, particularly in nursing homes. This pandemic was an opportunity for Democrat governors and their allies in the Deep State to shine, and they fell flat on their faces. BTW, the first deaths due to this “novel coronavirus” occurred in early February, the sad milestone of 100,000 was reached in the closing days of May. That’s four months, not two.
All against the rules. Just like the friend who - when called - said "don't tell anyone, but I'm getting my nails done at the manicurist's home.
Serious Question
has Anyone in the government considered the fact that black market businesses don't pay taxes?
imho, When they realize that all they've stopped, is their ability to take a cut of the sales...
They'll decide that things CAN open up
Drove through most of central Kansas City for the first time since early March. Didn't see a single mask on the streets or in the restaurant where we had lunch. Suburban KC is much more masky. We were surprised because KC made a big deal of opening later, and with more restrictions, than suburban KC.
We did see the results of Mayor Lucas's no two tables shall be closer than ten feet to each other diktat. It was the source of much amusement among the owner, staff, and customers of the restaurant.
Very few in Idaho wear masks.
Of course, it it hard to have a quiet conversation at a restaurant with all that “bring out your dead” shouting going on outside.
[/sarc]
@Michael K:
“... those crocheted masks the clueless movie actors wear.“
To be fair to the actress, the crochet was decoration over an actual mask.
Lowe's won't sell real masks (healthcare workers need them!). The handmade mask I bought on Etsy rides up when I speak, requiring me to constantly touch it. My glasses fog up, my eyes itch so I scratch them. I don't believe that I am in anyway safer with a mask on.
I'm with you Ann. If it requires a mask, I'll not be doing it.
In the earlier days of pandemic, I was eager to get hard info on whether and when an asymptomatic person would actually be contagious. The authorities decided that there is a lot of asymptomatic spread. I accepted that but still wondered. Then yesterday I read an article about a study done where they investigated some infected but asymptomatic people's contacts and didn't find any asymptomatic transmission. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen of course but viral transmission is a numbers game.
What would be the actual difference in transmission rates where 1) everyone wears a mask no matter what if they are going to be indoors in public, and 2) people who are asymptomatic, feeling fine, and not in close contact with the sick do NOT wear masks, but people who are vulnerable and/or worried go ahead and wear masks? My guess is that it would be a miniscule difference. That's the kind of data that will be so helpful if we can get it.
Even so, there has never been a flu season that put any ICU anywhere at capacity or killed 100,000+ people in two months.}}}
Not so. I just read an article discussing New York's hospitalization metrics and learned that although it may sound precarious that they are at 80+% ICU capacity, they routinely experience 95% capacity during flu seasons. That's a pretty interesting and weighty fact, isn't it? We can't keep locked-down and the virus must run its course, so why not harden plans to quickly expand hospital and ICU capacity IF it comes to that, and focus like a laser on preventing spread in residential care communities?
As far as how many people in the USA will succumb to the virus, the 1957-58 Asian flu killed over 200,000 people in what would be today's adjusted numbers. And it killed people in all age groups although of course the frail and elderly were more affected. The current worst-case modeling gives something like 240,000 Covid deaths. Flu season duration varies from year to year but they do go on for months, starting in late October/November and finally dying out in April, sometimes May, so while we don't know what the 12 month total for Covid will be, keep in mind that flu seasons last for a good portion of the year too. So it's still helpful to consider how we reacted to the 1957-58 and 1968 flu pandemics vs. Covid.
I'm with ann on this one.
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