Quiz #73. 3 Things from Steve
The power of "No" plus a feel-good baseball story--and what do you want to do when there's a vaccine? #WTAV Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for July 22, 2020
Those who know me and work with me know that I often include a subject line for my emails that mirror the title of this quiz, “3 Things from Steve.” I like the idea of giving readers--of my emails and now, here, of my quiz--a sense of what to expect.
In setting those expectations in a work email, I also try to keep the list of “things” short so the email is focused. I have found that it can also help to focus the response. The reader of a “3 Things from Steve” email can go through the list of 3 things and offer a response to each one.
Note Well: For this quiz, I’d like your thoughts on 3 things. The 3 things you want to do when there’s a vaccine. Think about that as you read along and, as I will explain, please feel free to leave me a comment here with the 3 things you want to do when there’s a vaccine.
As noted in Quiz #35. Odd, I also like odd numbers--especially 3 which always sets off a pair, defies symmetry and breaks any tie. “2 Things from Steve” is just not as interesting as “3 Things from Steve.”
And so it is that I am calling this quiz, “3 Things from Steve.”
3 things on 3 subjects.
3 Things from Anthony Fauci
On Wednesday morning, July 22rd, I read Jennifer Senior’s New York Times column, “I Spoke With Anthony Fauci. He Says His Inbox Isn’t Pretty.”
Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Reuters
Beyond Fauci’s boundless optimism and unwavering attempts to try to remove himself from the politics of the day, I was struck by three things in the interview.
1. Propagation
Fauci says he’s focusing his messaging on younger people because the latest coronavirus numbers show that more younger people are testing positive, many from going to bars and other indoor gatherings.
So it’s clear what’s going on. Young people are saying to themselves: “Wait a minute. I’m young, I’m healthy. The chances of my getting seriously ill are very low. And in fact, it is about a 20 to 40 percent likelihood that I won’t have any symptoms at all. So why should I bother?”
What they’re missing is something fundamental: By getting infected themselves — even if they never get a symptom — they are part of the propagation of a pandemic. They are fueling the pandemic. We have to keep hammering that home, because, as much as they do that, they’re completely relinquishing their societal responsibility.
2. Surprise
Senior asked Facui what had surprised him the most about the coronavirus. His answer, well, surprised me.
...it’s extremely unique, and I think that is one of the reasons why there is such confusion and misunderstanding about the seriousness of it. Of all the viruses and outbreaks that I have been involved with over the last four decades, I have never seen a virus in which the spectrum of seriousness is so extreme. This disease goes from nothing to death! So that has really surprised me.
3. “No.”
As noted, the headline of the column is “I Spoke With Anthony Fauci. He Says His Inbox Isn’t Pretty.” His “inbox” came up when he answered the following question.
How much faith do you have in people to pivot and change their behaviors?
It’s disconcerting when you see people are not listening. I could show you some of the emails and texts I get — everybody seems to have my cellphone number — that are pretty hostile about what I’m doing, as if I’m encroaching upon their individual liberties.
To me, his one-word answer to the follow-up question is the most revealing thing in the whole interview.
Can you read me one?
No.
3 Things on Baseball
1. @jomboy
One of my favorite follows on Twitter is @ jomboy.
As noted in Quiz #20. Curbing My Enthusiasm, back on March 16th, @jomboy had a great “recipe” for homemade chocolate, peanut cups which I championed (and made repeatedly) in the early weeks of this coronavirus quiz
Me making homemade chocolate, peanut butter cups back in April.
@jomboy’s most endearing quality is that he is a crazy baseball fan who is in love with the game. Despite his adoration for the New York Yankees, he is always a lot of fun to follow. His trademark on Twitter is taking baseball videos and by either boosting the audio or doing some lip-synching, he fills in the dialogue so you can tell (and sometimes hear) what’s really going on during a baseball play and its aftermath.
This week, @jomboy captured a great moment in the preseason game on Monday, July 20th between the Philadelphia Phillies and Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Phillies brought a 20-year-old minor league prospect along for the trip, Logan O’Hoppe. Growing up on Long Island, O’Hoppe was a big Yankees fan. Even in an empty stadium in a meaningless preseason game for what’s sure to be an asterisk of a season, O’Hoppe’s at-bat in Yankee Stadium was fantastic. O’Hoppe could not contain his happiness--and that’s exactly what @jomboy celebrated in his video.
As @jomboy explains, O’Hoppe had already had a bit of fame as a Yankees fan. Two years earlier as a fan in the stands, he caught and threw back a baseball from an opponent’s home run ball hit into the Upper Deck. This @jomboy video on O’Hoppe’s at-bat is a must watch.
Fair warning, this includes some profanity—which, for me, is part of its attraction.
2. Foul Balls
I also follow Yahoo Sports baseball writer, @HannahRKeyser on Twitter. Just as I did in Quiz #66. Pluck It, this week she raised the question of what to do with foul balls when baseball starts playing its games in empty stadiums.
Among the suggestions in the thread that followed Keyser’s tweet:
Let a small number of kids into games and let them chase the foul balls
With fans buying cardboard cutouts of themselves to be placed in “their seat,” the foul ball should go to the fan with the cutout closest to the ball
From broadcasters for both the Yankees and Phillies: Just leave the foul balls in the stadiums for 2021 when fans, hopefully, will be allowed back into to watch baseball games. What a way to welcome fans back!
3. Crowd Noise
It’s been nice to see baseball back on TV. I still don’t see how M.L.B. makes it through the whole season, but so far, so good. Still, I have a complaint. I hate the fact that teams are pumping in fake crowd noise on televised games.
In part, it feels like a real missed opportunity. Think about it, beyond this pandemic, when are you ever going to be able to watch—and listen—to a real M.L.B. game played in a quiet, empty stadium? When will you be able to actually hear players yelling at one another? Mocking, razzing and ridiculing the other team? Imagine being able to hear every word of every argument with an umpire? Don’t you want to hear that? Wouldn’t people tune in for that? Especially when games get intense and if baseball does make it to a pennant race of some kind?
It’s certainly helped drive people to @jomboy. Bringing you into what’s being said and heard inside the game is his brand. Why not lean into it? Baseball, like you’ve never seen or heard it before--and never will again. (Hopefully.)
More important, fake crowd noise is, well, fake. Hearing it sounds like a laugh track from an old sit-com--and somehow that always made the jokes seem less funny. To me, you can’t fake crowd noise because there simply is nothing like the roar of a crowd. The joy of being a sports fan at any game is in the shared wonder of the unexpected. The momentary silence in anticipation of a long fly ball followed by one of two things. The collective groan when the ball is caught at the fence--or the eruption of bedlam when “that ball’s outta here.”
3 Things for “When There’s a Vaccine…”
As noted in Quiz #72. NICE, I like abbreviations and I am hoping to replace “OOO” with:
NICE
Not Immediately Checking Email.
And so it was that I spotted a new abbreviation on Twitter this week from @shawna, a former colleague:
WTAV
It was her way of highlighting things she wants to do “When there’s a vaccine…”
Here’s my WTAV list:
1. WTAV, I want to hang out at the office.
In Quiz #69. After the Dog Days, I wrote about some things I like about the stay-at-home part of the pandemic.
Not commuting is at the top of the list. Working from home, I have more time to read, write and sleep.
My high school friend Tom wrote the following in the comments of his 5-star review of Quiz X.
What is the benefit for your employer (or you, though that seems dubious) of working from the office as opposed to home? Are there certain things that you are convinced would be more efficient or successful working in the same physical vicinity as your colleagues? Although I was quite wary about working from home, it has proved great for my job and I don't think anything is lost.
In the end, I have found that there’s really nothing I can’t do for work that I cannot do at home--and I do not expect to go back into the office until next year.
And yet, I miss stopping at someone’s desk to talk and catch up. Seeing random people on the elevator. Talking freely before a meeting in one room--and not on a video conference call where people seem afraid to talk beforehand and always anxious to get off as soon as the video meeting is over.
2. WTAV, I want to go to the beach.
I grew up on Long Island and now live in New Jersey. Going to the beach--or down the Shore--has always been a part of every summer. In 2020, I have yet to see the Atlantic Ocean.
On July 4th, The Atlantic had an article, “Scolding Beachgoers Isn’t Helping” from Zeynep Tufekci. Tufecki argued that people have been wrong in focusing so much attention on chastising people who have been going to the beach. Nothing is without risk, but being outside and staying socially distanced on a beach, she argues, can be good for your health.
It’s the beach-related activities that go along with a trip to the shore that are dangerous.
But what about the indoor restaurants, packed shops, and house parties at vacation hot spots by those beaches? These activities represent a real risk, and especially given what scientists have foundelsewhere, it’s crucial to emphasize that the crowded indoors appears to be conducive to transmitting this virus efficiently. A pandemic is a communications emergency, as the saying goes, and the only effective way to communicate risk effectively is to tell people the truth in plain language, and to give them evidence-based advice on reducing risk. Furious scolding about the least risky part of a potentially risky chain of activities is certain to backfire.
For Tufecki, the right message on going to the beach is that it’s OK to do so with caution--and avoiding the dangerous things that often go with it like crowded restaurants, bars and parties with groups of people getting together.
We are drowning in anger and fear, but at the same time, we don’t get the basic information we need to live our lives in a pandemic. We don’t even receive the simplest message that applies in this case: Please enjoy the beach and practice social distancing while there, but avoid bars, indoor restaurants, and parties. And if you do have to be indoors around people you are not quarantining with, keep it as brief as possible and wear masks.
Those who know me know that I am not one for crowded bars or house parties at the beach.
And yet, I have not yet been to the shore in 2020. To me, the beach is an escape. Waiting for a seat in a crowded restaurant without rushing because chocolate chip pancakes are meant to be eaten like this, from your favorite pancake house looking out at the Atlantic Ocean.
Chocolate chip pancakes—with coffee and a side of bacon.
Without worry, spreading out the chairs for your group so there’s room for everybody.
Watching the sunset without a care in the world.
None of those parts of going to the beach seems possible now.
WTAV, that’s what I want back--the beach and all that comes with it including chocolate chip pancakes.
3. WTAV, I want to hug, hold and photograph my grandchildren.
Granddaughters Turner and Marin are in Michigan. Sara and I haven't seen them since Christmas. We miss them and it’s hard to miss out on these months in their lives. Ted and Erica have cancelled two trips back East and Sara and I do not yet feel safe driving across the country.
We especially feel sorry for the new grandparents we know, forced to distance at first from their next generation of newborns, something a neighbor described in Quiz #35. A Baby Aquarium—an analogy that neighbor told me about after he and his wife brought their newborn home from the hospital and their parents had to see their new grandson through the glass door of their back deck.
We miss Turner and Marin--and all the rest of our family.
We cannot wait to hug, hold and see them all again.
WTAV…
What’s on your WTAV list?
Click on this link and let me know in the Comments section what you want to do “when there’s a vaccine.”
What did NOT happen?
A. On Thursday, July 23rd, Sara and I are planning to try our first trip to a beach location in 2020. Sara has another furlough day and I’m taking the day off. We’re planning to drive down to Sandy Hook, the closest beach location to us so there will be no bathroom breaks;
B. We’ve already ordered take-out lunch from our favorite restaurant which is closed to in-house dining. They’ve promised contactless delivery and we can pick up our food at an outside counter;
C. Sara’s ordered a lobster roll. I’ve ordered a full, boiled lobster;
D. We’re planning to bring beach chairs in case we find a safe and secluded spot to enter and sit on the beach;
E. We debated whether to bring a beach umbrella, but in proof-reading this quiz, Sara commented, "I think we should bring an umbrella."
Want the answer?
Answer #73. 3 Things from Steve.
If you’re a subscriber, the answer will be sent to you as a separate email when the question is published.
Want more?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #74. “Turd.”
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #72. NICE.
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
Thank you and good night.
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