Golf Courses and Playgrounds and Coronavirus

The following is an open letter by Andrew Laska to the City of Richardson. Laska has lived in Richardson for decades. He served five years as President of the Richardson Heights Neighborhood Association and four years on Richardson’s Environmental Advisory Commission.

Sherrill Park, 3/26/2020. Photographer anonymous.

The English Game (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

The English Game (TV 2020): The FA Cup in the 1880s, cotton millworkers vs Old Etonians, with class warfare, mill strikes, and a lot of romantic melodrama by Julian Fellowes. Predictable storyline and subplots but if you liked Downton Abbey, you'll like this. B-

When Can We Start to Relax?

According to FiveThirtyEight.com, expert medical estimates of the number of Covid-19 deaths that we can expect in the US range between 36,000 and 1.1 million. Dr. Fauci, a member of President Trump's coronavirus task force, issued his own estimate of between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths, which is in that same range. The biggest variable in determining which end of the estimates prove true is our own behavior. Will we be more like Dallas County or more like Collin County? Will we have the fortitude to keep stay-at-home measures in place long enough?

Tiger King (TV 2020)

Rotten Tomatoes

Tiger King (TV 2020): Grudge between exotic big cat zookeepers turns into true crime story of arson, a missing husband and murder-for-hire. Bigger than life low life characters starring a "gay, gun-carrying redneck with a mullet," a tiger lover and reality TV star wannabe. B+

Conventional Wisdom Gets Whiplash

Conventional wisdom is getting whipped around by this pandemic. Remember in January, when China was first getting locked down because of coronavirus? Conventional wisdom (and by conventional wisdom I mean the Trump administration) said China's loss would be America's gain. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said, "I think it will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America." Could coronavirus hurt America in any way? In the same interview, Ross said, "I think it’s almost physically impossible for there to be a recession this year." When you put an out-of-touch grifter in a responsible government position, you get what you should expect, political hackery, not expertise. Unless you live under a rock, you know where this goes next.

Fist Bumps

It's too early to predict what permanent changes COVID-19 will bring to life in America. Personally, I don't think I'll be shaking hands ever again. For years already, I've substituted fist bumps for hand shakes, but going forward I don't think even fist bumps are a good practice in a world of infectious disease. Right now, my favorite is the Namaste prayer hands with a head bow.

A Look Back at Peru

From 2019 08 20 Machu Picchu

As we say goodbye to Peru and all of its wonderful and surprising experiences, this photo-of-the-day shows the main reason why we went to Peru in the first place. It's the classic photo every tourist takes of Machu Picchu. But this photo is not today's photo-of-the-day. Today's photo-of-the-day is after the jump. It shows the spot where the classic photo in everyone's vacation snapshots is taken. It's called the Guardhouse and it overlooks Machu Picchu from above. The photo shows one tourist posing just like we did in the photo above and it shows the queue of tourists patiently waiting their turn for their own photo.

Click to see the real photo-of-the-day.