Hope you didn't miss these examples of important journalism:
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Canadians brace for a summer like no other due to COVID-19 restrictions
I've shored up the pandemic sandbags around my house, covered the windows and added more locks on the doors. Summer ain't getting in here.
News photographers already know this but here's a
NY Times op-ed column, written by a Harvard art history associate professor, about the lack of Covid-19 news photos (in the US) that show the true impact of the virus. This would apply to Canada as well.
Surely someone is to blame for all this turmoil in our lives. Obviously we have to sue someone! China? Canadian government? Provincial government? Municipal government? World Health Organization? Can we sue bats? Can we sue the virus itself? Sue airlines and airports? Hand sanitizer companies? I'm outraged and someone has to pay for this!
I've published an online video tutorial to help those isolated at home. It's titled "What You Need to Know About Reading a Book."
The two-hour video has sections on:
What pages are made from and how they stay together to form a book.
How to hold a book for best results
The pros and cons of sitting while reading. Other reading positions are also examined.
Proper techniques for turning a page without injuring yourself
First aid for paper cuts
The optimal order in which pages should be read
What to do when a page has a photo or illustration
What is a table of contents and how to use it
How to use an index
Should you read a book's introduction
Book hacks! How to use a book as a door stop or to raise up a desktop monitor.
With everyone staying at home and/or keeping their distance from each other, will this decrease the spread of other viruses: the common cold, influenza, measles, chicken pox and sexually transmitted diseases?
Are you sick of hearing these:
Stay safe
Be healthy
New normal
Abundance of caution
Closely monitoring the situation
These are all just as meaningless as "Have a nice day."
Yale professor Frank Snowden literally wrote the book on epidemics. He's become quite popular over the past two months. Most of his
many interviews are about how scientists
have been warning about a pandemic just like this one for decades and how governments did nothing. He also mentions how research into a SARS vaccine and other coronavirus research came to a stop when SARS "disappeared" and there was no longer any profit to be made.
A full-page open letter to the federal government in The Globe and Mail, and probably printed in some other newspapers as well, was about the fact that online companies like Google and Facebook don't pay for their news content or pay their fair share of taxes.
The publishers who signed this open letter represent "the vast majority of Canadian newspapers."
The sad part is that just ten publishers represent the vast majority of the newspapers in this country.
The city of Toronto is still getting lots of daily complaints about non-essential businesses being open. In my neighbourhood, there are several stores still open, for example: stores that sell long distance calling cards and cell phone accessories, a computer repair store, a luggage store, a small housewares store and a few others.
Am I going to call the pandemic hotline? Maybe if there was a reward, perhaps some type of Pandemic Points™ or Corona Cash™ that's redeemable at a local grocery store.
When the "lockdown" ends (are you sick of that misleading word?), what are you going to do?
I'm going to have cameras record this historic moment. As I step from my front door and bravely enter the post-pandemic world of the New Normal, I'm going to say something inspirational like, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for the economy."
I will then race to the shopping mall and start hoarding for the next pandemic.
The day the federal government lifts all or most restrictions has to be chosen carefully. That day will go down in history, there will be school plays about Canada's Covid Heroes, ballads will be written and, of course, that day will become a national holiday.
I say we choose the second or third Monday in June. It fits nicely between Victoria Day and Canada Day and "June" is easy to rhyme in song lyrics.
We could choose a day in November, between October's Thanksgiving and December's Christmas. But it can't conflict with Remembrance Day. We could make it the fourth Friday in November which coincides the USA's Black Friday. We could then celebrate the end of pandemic lockdowns by buying as much crap as possible but at deep discount prices.
We could mark January 25th, the day the country's first coronavirus case was confirmed. It's close enough to Christmas that folks could still use their Christmas decorations. But the halls would have to be decked with boughs of toilet paper. Stores would still have to offer discount prices.
Edit: added a link to the NY Times