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SURVIVING THE PANDEMIC: “Okay, boomer”
Published: Apr 01, 2020
Category:
Pandemic: Dispatches and Essentials
PHOTO CAPTION: My daughter and I walk in a park two blocks away. To get there, we pass by Rao’s, the legendary restaurant that, it’s said, used to be a clubhouse for gangsters, politicians, and cops. (The sauce is great. You can buy 2 large jars at Amazon for $33, or the same jars at Costco for $9.) Every restaurant in the city is closed, except for takeout and delivery. There’s been a sign in the window for a week: Staff Only. I wondered why. Yesterday, I saw a man loading cartons of prepared food into a station wagon. I asked: “For hospitals?” He said, “No.” Of course: these boxes were for favored customers. Four hundred yards away, at First Avenue and 112th Street, there are white tents. On the tables, there are cartons of food — free, courtesy of the city — for the elderly and disabled. In the bus lane, cars wait to pick up the cartons and deliver them. Dispensing those boxes: the National Guard. Crisp. Efficient. Respectful. Rao’s… the National Guard… you make the call.
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So I have asthma. It came on a few years ago, seemed like nothing, became annoying, became debilitating. I used a ventilizer daily. Carried an inhaler. Gasped in Park City. Asthma wasn’t going to kill me any time soon, but over time…
Two years ago, a genius doctor identified the problem. Not your garden variety asthma. Something obscure. She prescribed Cinqair. Once a month, I get hooked up for an hour-long infusion and a diverting, free-ranging chat with Dr. Rachel Kramer. A bargain drug: just $75,000 a year. (My co-pay: $20 a month.)
Now my lungs are flawless. No ventilizer. No inhaler. A friend wrote to ask, delicately, how I’m doing. “It’s tragic,” I replied. “The dry cleaner is closed, and my tux is there.” Not true, but I was tired of typing “So far, so good.” Still, I know I’m ”acute” in one key way: As an aging boomer, I’m a prime candidate for the virus. And so, naturally, I keep an eye on more celebrated boomers. Jackson Browne had it; he’s fine. John Prine is on a ventilator; he’s still critical, but — I question the term — “stable.” Other boomers are gone; bless their memory.
This morning I read Jennifer Finney Boylan — she’s a Barnard professor and an op-ed columnist, now publishing a journal, every two weeks on Wednesday — in the Times. Today she wrote:
I wake in the middle of the night, worried and neurotic. I have asthma, which gets triggered by stress. Now, lying there in the dark, I convince myself I am symptomatic and reach for my inhaler, gasping for breath. The puffer makes a soft hiss in the black room.
I do not have the coronavirus. But worrying about it is making me crazy.
One day I sit down to darn a sock. But I can’t thread the needle.
The difference between 61 year-old Jennifer Boylan and a generation or two older Jesse Kornbluth? I say: “Russian Jews are hard to kill.” That’s just me being me, too clever by half. The right answers are 1) Dr. Reenal Patel and 2) luck.
I’m just a few days away from finishing my play. I know just what to do, but I haven’t touched it this week. I told a friend: “My work seems to be connecting with friends and readers.” She said, “As it should be.” So this is just to announce: I can still thread a needle. If you are reading this in good health with the essentials of life in place, you can too.
NEW AND IMPROVED
I’ve organized my pandemic posts in one place. You find links to all my dispatches in chronological order and the essentials by category: soaps and moisturizers, vitamins and supplements, and, of course, coffee. Two new additions:
Thistle Farms Soap and Moisturizer
“Thistle Farms is a nonprofit social enterprise, based in Nashville, TN, dedicated to helping women survivors recover and heal from trafficking, prostitution, and addiction. We provide a safe place to live, a meaningful job, and a lifelong sisterhood of support because we believe love is the most powerful force in the world. Every sale of our handmade body and home products directly impacts the women survivors who make them. Because of customers like you, in 2018 we housed 41 survivors in our Magdalene residential program, employed 54 survivors across all departments, provided 1,489 medical and mental health appointments, and supported the employment of over 1,200 women through our Global Partnerships.”
[To buy Thistle Farms Lavender Liquid Soap from Amazon (delayed delivery), click here.
To buy Thistle Farms Moisturizing Hand Lotion made with Organic Aloe Leaf & Coconut Oil from Amazon, click here.]
Nautica Men’s Soft Knit Sleep Lounge Pants
So not me! But my daughter has explained her decision to color her hair blue this way: “Who will see it?” I can’t argue. Consider this a victimless crime. [To buy these ridiculous pants from Amazon, click here.]
MUSIC OF THE DAY: JOHN PRINE & STEPHEN COLBERT
Stephen Colbert and John Prine perform ‘That’s the Way That the World Goes ‘Round’ for the Internet in 2016. Colbert: “We are recording this because someday the world might be in trouble and need cheering up.”
HERO OF THE DAY: GREG DAILEY
From the Washington Post:
“I was at the grocery store and started thinking about this 88-year-old lady and an idea just popped into my head,” said Dailey, a newspaper carrier for 25 years who lives in East Windsor, N.J.
“I called her up and said, ‘Hi, this is Greg, your newspaper guy — I’m at the store, do you need anything?’ She asked me to pick up a couple of things, and then she called me back and said, ‘Could you also get some brown eggs and bananas for the Millers across the street?’ ”
After dropping off the groceries, Dailey sat down at his computer and typed out an offer to shop for all 800 of his newspaper customers, and anyone else in his delivery area who might need a little help.
PSA OF THE DAY: LARRY DAVID
“I basically want to address the idiots out there, and you know who you are, you’re going out. You’re socializing too close, it’s not good. You’re hurting old people like me — well, not me, I have nothing to do with you, I’ll never see you.” To watch, click here.
THEY’RE MAD AS HELL, AND THEY’RE NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE
Two Times headlines:
Governors Fight Back Against Coronavirus Chaos: ‘It’s Like Being on eBay With 50 Other States’
Frightened Doctors Face Off With Hospitals Over Rules on Protective Gear
STUPID IS AS STUPID DOES
New Orleans police are jailing people for minor offenses even as the city becomes a covid-19 hotspot.
SMART IS AS SMART DOES
“France is relocating women beaten by their partners into hotels, and has created a secret code word for them to discreetly seek help in pharmacies, in response to a huge increase in domestic abuse during the coronavirus lockdown.”
APRIL FOOLS
Sources close to Jared and Ivanka say they’re opposed to 100,000 people dying.
SAVE MONEY WHEN YOU SHOP
How? Paypal. Here’s how.
IF YOU DON’T WANT TO BUY BOOKS AT AMAZON
Find a local bookstore that will ship/deliver. Click here.
HOW THE CHINESE SLOW THE PANDEMIC
Query: Can a democracy get these results? Or does it require a complete loss of personal freedom?
ESSENTIALS (PARTIAL LIST)
For the full list, click here.
A mask. Any kind. Even homemade. The Washington Post explains why.
O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Hand Cream
or
Egyptian Magic. (You get much more and pay less at Costco.com)
ThinAddictives Cranberry Almond Thins 100 calories per snack pack.
Vitamin D
Data from 16 clinical trials involving 7,400 people show that taking vitamin D supplements reduces the risk of experiencing at least one respiratory infection including influenza and pneumonia by a third with positive benefits seen within 3 weeks.
(To buy Vitamin D3 Enhanced with Coconut Oil from Amazon, click here. To buy Vitamin D in Fruit Flavored Gummies from Amazon, click here.)
Apple Cider Vinegar Gummy Vitamins
Apple cider vinegar contains potassium, which thins mucus; and the acetic acid in it prevents germ growth, which could contribute to nasal congestion. (To buy Cider Vinegar Gummies from Amazon, click here.)
Chelated Zinc
Zinc is important in fighting infection. Food sources include red meat, shellfish, legumes, seeds and dark chocolate. Note: Not to be taken every day; it can cause toxicity. (To buy Chelated Zinc from Amazon, click here.)
