I walked all the way down to State Street just to enjoy the freedom to shop unmasked, but the individual shopkeeper's freedom to exclude the unmasked stopped me basically everywhere I wanted to go.
So I took pictures:
At the University buildings, there's an official mask requirement, slated to end on March 12th, so I couldn't go to the art museum...
... or the Institute for Discovery...
Posts
95 comments:
Super easy solution. Simply open the door, poke your head in, and say "I don't agree with your mask policy. I'm taking my business elsewhere. {SARC on}Have a nice day.{SARC off}
Oh, and then do take your business elsewhere.
Weirdos.
I hope they go broke.
And Madison is often cited as a "Top Ten" destination for retirees, relocators, etc. Yeah, if you want to live in an almost entirely White, entirely Liberal society, you can choose Madison. If you care about diversity of both race and philosophy, I suggest anywhere else. Bans, mandates and quotas, that is the Madison way.
I wonder how many of those signs are still up just from inertia.
I have been walking past those signs for over a year now.
They are hard to remove.
No business owner wants you to pass their store if you would buy something from them.
Ignore the signs.
Smart business move to prevent customers from entering your store.
You could always just go in and see if anyone asked you to put a mask on. If they did, and you left, it would send the message that they lose business by being mask weenies.
Now a place with a “no masks allowed” sign — I’d pay extra for that.
Masks have morphed into a sort of leftie MAGA hat performative display of political allegiance. I guess it's good that those people self-identify as it saves me time and money from shopping there.
Frightened people must come out of their holes sometime. When Scandinavia dropped all mandates weeks ago I thought the US left would parrot them. Will a loss of customers and failing businesses cause a breakthrough? Many people are going to stop carrying masks NOW, meaning they can't come in even if they desire. 50% of foot traffic loss?
What are the demographics of those who keep wearing masks? Mainly female (e.g., urban teachers unions)? Mainly left wing (e.g., mask mandates were never a big thing in red states)? Which racial groups are over and under represented? Is masking up correlated with the cities experiencing protests/riots in 2020? Do mask wearers have latent PTSD? Why, why, why?
If there are any neutral social scientists still employe, there are many obvious research projects here. For the next 20 years even.
Yes to Michael's suggestion- ignore the signs. You have to willing to be told to leave.
As Michael and Achilles said... Walk on in.. If you want, when you see a clerk say:
"I'm not wearing a mask.. Do you want me to leave?"
Most likely (~94%), they'll say: "No, it used to be the rule.."
If they DO ask you to leave, say: "Cool, I won't be back"
Still very high mask compliance by customers where I live, but it's a majority Asian community where masks in winter predominated pre-covid.
Just saw Charlie Berens at a club on Wednesday. The club still had all their ‘Don’t even think about coming in without a mask’ signs posted. There were significantly more people wearing ashes than masks.
Virtue-signaling bullshit.
The Science® says masks aren't needed.
I would walk in with a mask, ask for the store manager, and tell them I am going to spend my money somewhere else...
Covid hardliners: There can be no speculative trace that we took the mandate off compelled by protests.
We have another week to go here in Washington state before the requirement is lifted. Pretty sure a good percentage of folks will continue to wear their upgraded "AK-47" masks for awhile - after all, they invested in them just a couple of months ago.
Stopped by my local dry cleaners today - lovely, young 2nd gen Korean couple own the place - they treated my father's WWII military clothing with TLC. They usually have masks hanging from their ears or around neck and put them up when a customer walks in. My arms were full and my mask was in my pocket but when I walked in without it on, they didn't bother to go through the charade. Good people - they almost lost the business during Covid because all the Microsoft workers were working from home.
The virus onlyi exists above table height and in boutique stores. So says science!
Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello.
Yancey Ward said...
Yes to Michael's suggestion- ignore the signs. You have to willing to be told to leave.
======
Do you know WHO I AM is super good come back : to see if they repeat LEAVE NOW OR WE CALL COPS [OOOOPPSEY DEFUNDED]
They know their demographic.
If I walked into this record store in Madison, with my mask on, would I recognize Murakami with his mask on? This seems like the type of record store that he would frequent. Another reason to ban masks already.
There is some of this in Chicago, but less than I would have thought.
I talked to the owner of a great neighborhood grocery store that has been moving mountains to stay staffed and keep the shelves full for two years. He welcomes everyone and invites anyone who wants to wear a mask to wear a mask. All others can go mask-free. He has no patience for lectures from maskers about what others should do.
Living in Florida has kept me from having to deal with that sort of thing. Some people down here are still wearing masks; that's up to the, but I haven't worn one in the past year or so other than for doctor's appointments or air travel where it was required. We do still have the maskers who are ridiculously overdoing it: Wearing a mask alone in a car, high school kid walking down the street from his bus stop still wearing a mask, etc. That's their problem, not mine.
Wear one of those Eyes Wide Shut masks, see what they say.
I'm working in Singapore for two months and even here they're starting to remove the "stand here" stickers from the elevators. Plenty of other absurdities - masks on to walk outside in the bright sun, but off to exercise indoors - but it does seem to be opening up to a 'live with covid' policy.
Fine. Let businesses make their own decisions. And I promise never to darken their doors again. Even after this is all over.
Same with those who posted BLM all over their doors, windows and websites.
Reciprocate their hate.
Those signs are still in windows of businesses here in Florida and we've not worn masks for quite some time. I just don't think anyone has bothered to pull the signs down, but no one pays any attention to them. They're like the OSHA signs that are mandated to post for employees in certain businesses. All employees see these signs, but pass them without giving them an ounce of thought.
Your government loves to have their signs in as many places as possible.
Ann Althouse said...Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello
Which means they’re not vegetarian.
I agree with those who say just walk in. Chances are you won’t be treated differently. It’s a policy, not a law, and who knows how the people who work there feel about it? If they do say something, leave. No big deal, no hurt feelings, just lost business.
For some fun with numbers*, let's compare Dane County, where you live, with Ada County, where I live.
There are a fair number of differences. Ada county has a 50% greater population, is semi-arid, has a vax rate at least 20% less than Dane county. And Idaho has ditched pretty much all mandates for nearly a year. The last time I saw a business requiring masks was last May — a French restaurant. When they insisted, we left, never return, and went to the packed German restaurant across the parking lot.
The case rate per capita is identical — 1 in 4.
The fatality rate is about two and a half times higher in Ada than Dane.
So what does the science seem to say? Masks are no more effective than garlic garlands. And getting jabbed seems a good choice.
*The NYT does a pretty reasonable job of presenting a broad range of statistics, with the caveat that using absolute numbers is just stupid. Rates are what matter. Oh, and all their stats absolutely blow out of the water any notion that lockdowns and masks made even a tinker's damn worth of difference.
Frankly, I'd barge in and have them throw me out. If they have to do that enough times, they'll stop being dicks.
I did walk out of a favorite chinese restaurant that had recently done away with hard copy menus and expected me to scan with my phone.
This is all soooooo two years ago to Floridians.
Local Hardware store sign: "Wear a mask, don't wear a mask. Just don't talk about it."
Oregon's ReichsFungus, Kate Brown, can't determine her own sex by looking down her pants, but she was able to determine that it will be safe for us all to stop wearing masks a week from tomorrow. So, the signs are still up here, but more and more people, myself among them, no longer pay any attention. No one has bugged me about it. In fact, masked people often seem to go out of their way to interact with me. I'm not sure what they are thinking, I can't see their faces.
Prediction: Many blue regions are ditching their mandates.
If those mandates were doing any good, then within a week or so, there should be an obvious increase in C-19 stats.
There won't be.
Their store their rules.
Probably a majority of those signs were just forgotten about. Highly doubtful anyone would have said anything.
You would think losing your small business would be a bigger risk than the “virus”. Not a hill to die on
'Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello.'
I thought it was THC : )
Just hold one in your hand.
It's the new "Black Lives Matter" sign.
It may as well say "I'm on YOUR team! Won't you come in and buy something from me?"
Here in NY State there was a mask mandate from November through late February. Most stores had similar signs, a few still do. I walked past them unmasked the entire time and on a daily basis. Many times I was the only person unmasked but not always. 90% of the time no one said a word. Not the employees nor the patrons. The very few times they insisted I simply said "No problem, I can shop somewhere else" and walked out.
I now assume the store just forgot to take the sign down. I'm now seeing 80% of all customers maskless everywhere I go. If someone actually approached me about wearing a mask today, I'd laugh in their face, then leave.
I have no illusions that my lone intransigence had any effect but I always hoped that my example would inspire someone, anyone, to join my cause.
Did our usual Thursday grocery shopping at Eastside Woodman's. I told my wife that knowing the mentality of the Liberal Madison population, the people wearing masks would far outnumber the unmasked. She didn't think they would. It wasn't even close. I would estimate easily 3/4 if not more were wearing masks. At first I found it amusing, but after thinking more about it, I felt sorry for those people and a little bit angry at those who instilled so much fear into these people that they were afraid to venture out into public without their mask.
To quote our last President, sad.
Stores that require masks are practicing racial disrimination. More people of color and the immigrant community are unable to wear masks due to higher rates of COPD, asthma, and other respitory diseases.
By requiring masks, the stores are trying to exclude the most vuleranble in our population. When a much higher pecentage of People of Color are denied access, then some the state and local civil rights organizations need to take action.
'It's the new "Black Lives Matter" sign.'
You can't swing a dead cat in Berkeley (and I have, many times) without hitting one of those goddamn signs.
That or the 'This Household Believes' bullshit sign.
People not wearing masks here in Minnesota, but all the medical and dental clinics still require them. Most people here are quite over covid,
but we still see occasional solitary drivers wearing masks alone in their vehicles, virtue signaling or stupidity.
Masks are gone here in Minnesota. People here are really over covid, but we still see drivers, alone in their vehicles, wearing masks.
Moreover, the local medical and dental clinics still require them. The local medical monopoly corporation pressured our mayor to institute
a mask mandate a few months ago, but the mayor quickly rejected the demand, explaining that masking should always be voluntary.
He’s a stand up guy.
>>This is all soooooo two years ago to Floridians.
Very true. I've gone maskless for more than a year, even in places that have signs. I've been asked a grand total of once to put my mask on. And that was last week!
The Pearl Street Mall in Boulder opened up last week. I saw more people wearing masks as they walked outdoors than I have in a year, and of course they entered restaurants and stores with them on. But none of the businesses I passed were requiring masks (admittedly only walked through 2 blocks).
I agree with Rockeye, they are a leftie MAGA hat. Maybe we need an artisanal seamstress to make up a bunch of masks emblazoned with the slogan "You'll have to pry this mask off my cold dead mug."
Ann, it's Madison. What did you expect.
rhhardin said...
Their store their rules.
************
Yeah, sure. that was always true when the mask mandates were being imposed by the govs or Boards of Health.
Businesses were still free to ignore the mandates..."their store, their rules"....right?
SNORT
I live in Boston, half a block from the Brookline line. Boston's illustrious government is dropping the mask mandate effective tomorrow (haven't found anything saying exactly what that means, but I'll take it as midnight tonight, when everything is closed anyway (hey, it's Boston)), a few days after ending the vaccine passport crap. One of my barmates said tonight that most of the people in her art studio building in Brighton were already done with it today.
A number of stores and restaurants I frequent are on the next block in Brookline, not Boston. Maybe not a lot, but I would put money on the fascists in Brookline being, if not the very last, among the top ten or so in being the last to take the same steps. The stores include what is, literally (and, yes, I mean literally) the smallest Whole Foods store in the country, as well as a liquor/wine store that pronounces that they are requiring masks per the order of the Brookline fascists.
Uhub is a great site collecting local news about Boston. Most of the commenters there are beside themselves about how awful and irresponsible the Boston moves are.
--gpm
The greengrocer doesn’t really care if the workers unite, but where’s the percentage in taking down the sign?
More people of color and the immigrant community are unable to wear masks due to higher rates of COPD, asthma, and other respitory diseases.
Trends in COPD Mortality by Sex and Race/Ethnicity
White=44.3%
Black=28.2%
Other=13.4%
Mestizo=16.2%
Asthma:
Blacks=10.9%
Whites=7.7%
Mestizo=6.4%
Asians=4.0%
Here in Central Minnesota masks have been gone for a few weeks. People are physically and psychologically over covid, but we
occasionally see drivers, alone in their cars, wearing masks. Don't know whether its virtue signaling or stupidity. Our local
health care monopoly recently pressured our mayor to institute a mask mandate, but he quickly declined. He's a standup
guy.
The gov't said to wear masks, they wear them.
The gov't says you don't have to wear masks, they wear them.
What we need is for Trump to say they have to wear them.
"When Beatrice Wood first met Marcel Duchamp at Edgard Varèse’s bedside, a fly flew into her mouth. Unsure of the proper etiquette in this kind of situation, she swallowed it." Althouse yesterday
'Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello.'
**********
Gummi is also the German word for rubber.
"Gummiwurst" , rubber sausage, is the name of a cheap cold cut.
Also used to describe a short radio antenna
We were just talking at dinner with friends tonight about visiting Madison sometime soon. Guess we will continue to wait awhile longer.
Businesses can have it both ways by exercising some strategic ambiguity: don't touch the signs.
Is the policy still that masks have to be worn (pleasing maskers)? Or have they just not gotten around to removing the signs (pleasing unmaskers)? Who knows?
"Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello."
Actually, it is people.
I just tell them, "Shhh, I'm a celebrity"
ok, hasnt happened yet, but if
Meanwhile, 40 miles up the road at Farm and Fleet in Baraboo one person wearing a mask. All the others were wearing smiles.
Joe Smith said...That or the 'This Household Believes' bullshit sign.
What does this household believe? (Real question, I haven’t seen that sign.)
In SW PA, with very rare exception (doctor's office), we haven't been mandatory masking since what seems to be a year or so.
The song needs updated lyrics. The sign says long haired freaky people must wear a mask
We haven't had to wear masks in the Milwaukee area for many months, but some business I've gone into still require it. Not retail or restaurants though. Office buildings and manufacturing plants. I think the rational is that it's so damn hard right now to get anyone to work they don't want the few that they have to get sick.
Other than Doctors offices, I haven't worn a mask in over a year ANYPLACE in New Jersey and Connecticut.
Gummi bears are the dehydrated essence of cow hooves? Makes sense, I guess. Good for your fingernails and hair.
The city of Philadelphia ended indoor mask mandates for businesses this week. I was in the city the next day and about half the people on the street still had masks on OUTSIDE!
I get that it’s a choice but, really, what has happened to people? Two 25 year old women talking to each other outside with masks on. Why?
I live in a little town on the Minnesota border in Polk County, WI. I haven't worn a mask since last May. Sometimes in the bigger stores I see people who still wear a mask. Usually they are quite old.
The Polk County covid dashboard tells me that we have 16 active cases of covid out of a population of ~43,000.
.125 micron diameter> Paranoia runs deep, into your life it will creep.
You "couldn't" go the the art museum? How so? Aren't they giving out free masks for those that don't have them.
Thanks for living in Madison so that I don't have to.
My son had their first child 14 months ago. We babysit for them two days a week. The kid isn't vaccinated because vaccines have not yet been approved for infants. The parents want us to wear masks inside when we can. Is that so unreasonable of them? Is it so unreasonable of us to do what they want us to do? Why do so many people get angry if they see someone else wearing a mask? Maybe they have a serious immune deficiency. Maybe they have an unreasonable fear. Maybe they don't believe the CDC telling them it is okay not to wear masks, just like you didn't believe the CDC when they said it was not okay to go maskless.
Whatever - just give them a break. I don't get all the anger.
asking for a Con-Law Professora : How could you miss small print right bottom corner? that authority has been voided by mandate cancel??!!
We are comming up on, "two weeks to flatten the curve" (the last honest thing the govt said). After that a staged reopening happened. For retail, the last hold outs in Iowa, were the bigger companies, that had large HR, and compliance departments. Meaning they had a hierarchy of people flexing their power. They held out until enough customers, 1/3? stopped voluntary complying, meaning employees had to be confrontational enforcers. Trickle up, caused the employees to tell bosses, they could not, so would not, confront customers. Then it became theater
The last 6 months has felt like I was watching a movie with the east coast media documenting the slow fall of covid protocols that have not been part of my life for well over a year. Dining in restaurants were the servers did not wear masks. Most of Our school opened last year not wearing masks. A good number of schools operated the year before with no masks.
asking for a Con-Law Professora :
did you miss small print right bottom corner of mask reuired placard?
that authority has been voided by mandate cancel??!!
The green hippy grocer I shop at took the sign down. I'd say 30-50% of employees and customers still wear masks.
Personal choice.
I had to turn off Clay and Buck because they keep yammering on about masks. I'm beyond caring at this point. Wear a mask - Don't wear a mask. Be Free to choose.
(I must say I love that I've been cold-free for the last 2 years.) I usually get a cold every year. and as I age, those colds morph into more serious aliments. *People are gross.
And because it's Madison and tu le monde is watching the perceived cool people will dutifully comply and shop there.
And because it's Madison and tu le monde is watching the perceived cool people will dutifully comply and shop there.
jim5301, this is just Ann virtue signaling to her conservative comment section. I will consider it something other than that when I see she is regularly attending large events unmasked, until then it's theater l.
I am sure they all had masks to offer, if asked.
Putting up a sign is one thing, enforcing it via personal confrontation quite another.
Several months ago, I made a bet that most people are unwilling to do the latter — and if they don’t think it’s important enough to enforce it, I definitely will not help them enforce it since I strongly disagree with it — and so I decided to purposefully ignore such signs.
I was right. In the many months since, nobody has said anything. I got a few looks from a few customers, but that was it.
“My son had their first child 14 months ago.”
Well… that’s a problem right there, Jimmy, my boy…
jim5301 said...
My son had their first child 14 months ago. We babysit for them two days a week. The kid isn't vaccinated because vaccines have not yet been approved for infants. The parents want us to wear masks inside when we can. Is that so unreasonable of them? Is it so unreasonable of us to do what they want us to do? Why do so many people get angry if they see someone else wearing a mask? Maybe they have a serious immune deficiency. Maybe they have an unreasonable fear. Maybe they don't believe the CDC telling them it is okay not to wear masks, just like you didn't believe the CDC when they said it was not okay to go maskless.
Whatever - just give them a break. I don't get all the anger.
3/5/22, 8:04 AM
Do whatever you want. We aren't in their house. We don't care.
jim5301 said
The parents want us to wear masks inside when we can. Is that so unreasonable of them? Is it so unreasonable of us to do what they want us to do?
Of course it's reasonable to follow the parent's requests, but I do have concerns about infants and young children not being able to see people's faces. I am in my 60's and since June 2020 my college students have been in masks. As time passed, they became more lax and I would occasionally see a student's face when they were eating in the student lounge, or out in the parking lot. I was surprised that I experienced a visceral shock at seeing their faces because their actual facial features didn't match what I had subconsciously imagined behind the mask. Since the mask mandate dropped last week, I feel like I'm just getting to know students I've worked with for almost 2 years! I think looking at faces and seeing facial expressions is developmentally important, so I would encourage your son to consider a balance between protection from COVID and providing appropriate developmental stimulation.
effinayright said...
['Only today did I learn that the “gummi” of Gummi Bears is dehydrated Jello.'
**********]
"Gummi is also the German word for rubber.
"Gummiwurst" , rubber sausage, is the name of a cheap cold cut.
Also used to describe a short radio antenna."
My parents were touring Germany several years ago when the tip fell off his cane and was lost. He stopped at a local druggist to find a replacement, using his limited German skills from the early Fifties, mostly forgotten. He finally had to point to the end of his cane, at which point the clerk said, "Oh, ein Gummi!"
Jean - Totally agree . . . . We don't wear masks when we are with our grandkid. Just elsewhere.
We went to for the traditional Wisconsin Friday Night Fish (deep fried cod) last night at a Dane County supper club in the country about 10 miles from Madison. With no mask mandate in the county now, the flood gates opened. Bar area was three deep, one and a half hour wait for a table and the only masks in sight were on the hostess and waiter.
B-Side Records! I believe I spent way too much money there in the early 1980s. . . .
Interesting that in blue, blue California, as soon as indoor mask mandates were cancelled, stores everywhere went along. Not saying that there are no stores here in Sacramento trying to force people to mask--I haven't seen any even in the seriously lefty neighborhoods--but given the rush to de-mask, I doubt that their resolve will last long. As for Madison, maybe the pro-mask stores will show Zelensky-like backbone and keep Ann and Meade out forever, but I wouldn't put my money on it.
I vote for inertia, but I'll also go with the "clapping for Stalin" explanation. Like the anecdotal green grocer, they were "asked" to put up the signs if they knew what's good for them, and now that it's "over," many don't want to be among the first to take them down.
However, I do like B Side Records' somewhat ironic "Come on in" with the pointy hand seemingly directed at the masks required sign with a second "come on in" directly underneath the mask sign.
What a bunch of belly-aching crybabies!
Kathryn51,
I've never gotten a single comment as I go about my business maskless, down here in Pierce County.
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