[If we moved to Florida...]

On 2/9/2023 at 4:34 PM, HomeAgain said:

Florida's political climate is not one that I would feel comfortable raising children in.

To each their own. We lived in 4 different states before settling in FL to raise our kids, and it has been amazing. No regrets. 

[I need helping choosing a book for one of my library's reading challenges]

I recently flew through the first three books in the Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman. They are mostly clean, kind of a cozy English mystery vibe but way more fun and modern, less formulaic. The characters are well-drawn, a bit over the top at times, but also dealing with issues that many people can relate to (family, aging, illness, dating, etc). Highly recommend!

[Need to pick out a new dishwasher! Features or brands you love or hate?]

We’ve had the Kitchenaid with three racks for a few years, and it is fabulous. I believe it is the Freeflex 404. The top rack is bigger and more practical than on any other we looked at. It’s made for cups/glasses, which is great because we tend to go through a lot. It also opens up so much space in the rest of the washer. Everyone who helps load/unload is pretty amazed by how much it can fit. I typically use the Prowash cycle and it gets the dishes clean every time. Our old dishwasher didn’t have a heating element for drying, just used a fan and the residual heat of the water. I never realized how much I disliked that until we got the new one that has a heating element. Now 99% of the dishes come out dry vs like 50% at most for the old one. Other nice features: stainless steel tub, the middle rack can be adjusted up to make room for taller items on bottom, very quiet, has delay cycle, sanitizing option, silverware holder designed well to keep pieces separate for better cleaning. 

[Will you get the covid vaccine right away?]

Nope

[Have you bought a printer recently? Looking for input]

We bought an Epson Ecotank printer about 6 months ago to replace my dying color laser printer. I love it! Our model can copy, scan, and my favorite of all—duplex printing! It also has a feeder tray, so it can handle bulk copies/scans. One of the huge selling points was that we only need to replace the inks that are running low, rather than expensive and wasteful cartridges. Ink refills are around $15 and last a long time. If I remember correctly, Canon also makes a similar tank printer. We went with the Epson after reading reviews online and getting a deal at Costco. The print quality for regular documents is very good; not sure about photos since we never do that. 

[MD Gov. Hogan goes full gangsta!]

 

There's always something going on in Florida 😂 Miami Herald reported this morning that Daymond John from Shark Tank had attempted to secure and sell N95 masks to the state at an inflated price:

"The price would have been one of the highest the state would agree to pay for the highly coveted N95 protective mask: $7 a piece for 1 million masks.

The source of the offer had cachet and seemed legit. He was Daymond John, CEO of the Shark Group and one of the stars of the popular TV show “Shark Tank.” He said he could get them for Florida but the cost would be more than three times the market price for the masks, which normally sell for under $2 each."

John issued a statement on Twitter that calls the Herald article a "gross distortion of the truth" in order to "create splashy headlines to mislead readers."

The state waived normal contracting rules and procedures including competitive bidding in order to secure supplies quickly, so who knows what really went on behind the scenes. Maybe they should have tried to get a better deal from Mark Cuban or Mr. Wonderful? 😂

 

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

7 minutes ago, Pam in CT said:

This is an extremely good article, thank you.

The whole thing is worth reading, but the summary outlines the essential way stations of the roadmap (as we've already discussed in this thread: massively stepped up testing -- more per day than we've done thus far in 2 months -- coupled with privacy-corrosive contact tracing coupled with mandatory isolation of the positives.)

 

Is this amount of testing by the dates they propose plausible? I know there is a lot of research and development being done regarding testing, but I haven't read much about what is currently being made and ultimately will be put to available use in the near future. I'm not saying this information doesn't exist, just that I am personally unaware and would love to know more.

[Anybody play ukelele? Do you like concert or tenor size?]

I have no valuable input; I just really like that you compared playing the ukulele to petting a cat. It's a surprisingly accurate comparison 😂

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

I think my teenagers using my computer must be skewing the results I get. My first page of Yahoo results was mostly about Celeb news, which I don't follow or read about. I normally just read my local newspaper online and supplement with some of the larger national news outlets here and there. Now I think I need to check my history to see what they've been reading that Yahoo thinks that I've been reading 😂

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

4 hours ago, Corraleno said:

When I clicked on yahoo news a little while ago, this article was one of the first articles I noticed and clicked on, and it still shows up on the first page when I look at the website. It reports information from two different polls:

"Just 14 percent of Americans believe the country "should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus," a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday found. A massive 76 percent meanwhile say social distancing should continue "even if it means continued damage to the economy," the poll taken just days ago found.  .... The Morning Consult poll mirrors a recent survey from Pew Research, which found 66 percent of Americans were more concerned that social distancing guidelines would be lifted too soon than last too long.  Morning Consult/Politico surveyed 1991 registered voters online from April 18-19, and the poll had a two percent margin of error."

The article even includes a direct link to the Morning Consult poll data (the specific question quoted in the article is towards the bottom of page 4 of the poll data), and to a CNN article that includes a link to the Pew survey  as well as multiple other polls that show similar results, including a Quinnipiac poll that shows 81% favor continued SAH order, an ABC poll, an NBC/WSJ poll, a Gallup poll, and a Fox News poll. Those links go directly to the poll reports.

All that information took me about 2 minutes to find.

Interesting, that article doesn't show up on the first page of Yahoo or Yahoo News for me. I did see that poll data linked from another news site. But it doesn't show up on Yahoo/Yahoo News. Maybe if I clicked around more. That's part of the confusion of online news. What you see as top billing may not even show up for me until several clicks deep due to target-based placement.

Editing to add: I was checking my local news before I went to bed and realized that the Quinnipiac poll for my state was the link that I had seen earlier. As some soothing before bed reading, I went to the Quinnipiac poll site and read the poll methodology which also included all of the exact questions the surveyors asked respondents. It was really interesting seeing both questions and responses, and then seeing the responses also broken down by various categories (demographic, party affiliation, and others). The question regarding continuing the stay at home order is asked as such: "Do you think [state's name] should loosen social distancing by the end of April, or don't you think so?" Total result: Yes/should loosen, 22%; No, 72%. There are questions on the Q-poll regarding being concerned that someone you know/yourself will be infected and regarding being concerned if someone you know/yourself will need to be hospitalized, choices being Very, Somewhat, Not So, Not. 

I also read the NBC/WSJ poll. There is a question about worries but it as posed as a choice question (do you choose this or that): "Which worries you more about responding to the coronavirus and restrictions that require most Americans to shelter in place and only leave their homes for essential needs: That the US will move too quickly in loosening restrictions and the virus will continue to spread with more lives being lost OR That the US will take too long in loosening restrictions and the economic impact will be even worse with more jobs being lost" Total result: Choice 1, 58%; Choice 2, 32%.

The Quinnipiac poll did not mention fear or worry at all. The NBC/WSJ asked about fear but only posed as a which do you fear more question. If asked that question I would choose the first option (regarding lost lives), as I do think there's more harm today in loosening too quickly and slim chance right now that we are going too slowly. But if you asked me differently my answer would come across much differently. For example, if asked if I felt my state or the local group of cooperating states was moving too quickly in loosening guidelines I would say No. I feel like they are taking a measured approach at this point and moving at an appropriate pace. Those are two similar questions asked two different ways with very different potential answers. I feel like the way this NBC/WSJ question was asked leads to a false dichotomy that assumes worry one way or another.

So having read the specifics of three different polls, I think the Yahoo headline ("As some areas of the U.S. begin relaxing social distancing restrictions, a new poll showed a majority of Americans fear easing those guidelines could result in more deaths.") must have been referring to the NBC/WSJ poll. If you read how the question was asked in the poll, though, it wasn't saying people feared easing the guidelines but rather that given a choice between worrying about preceding too quickly + lives lost or worrying about moving too slowly + jobs lost, they worried more about the former than the latter. Ah, semantics.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

13 minutes ago, StellaM said:

 

Well, we had an outbreak that infected my friend's sons (one son worked in the area, infected his sibling before he knew he was ill) due to people gathering for fun times on Bondi beach, so my personal trust in people applying social distancing measures on the beach is pretty much nil, but YMMV.

I'm hoping that because of such cases, people will take these measures more seriously than they might have a month ago. Of course, unfortunately, some people won't follow rules or sense, so I'm hoping that enforcement will be thorough. Our county sheriff seems very cautious and sounds like he will take enforcement seriously once the beaches are open. Parks have done well with patrolling and enforcement so I think that there is a chance beaches could be the same.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

1 minute ago, square_25 said:

This was just an opinion poll about what people are worried about. How is it panic-inducing?

I'll explain the stats in a little bit. The only problem is randomizing, but you don't really need to worry about representing each state, per se. 

Panic inducement is maybe not the right term, but the best substitute I could come up with for the other term being used in this thread. Whatever you call it, I'm addressing the headline that says "As some areas of the U. S. begin relaxing social distancing restrictions, a new poll showed a majority of Americans fear easing those guidelines could result in more deaths." But no such poll is linked or explained. I think it might be the poll that I referenced in my earlier post but really can't tell. If it is indeed that poll, then is it really representative of the majority of Americans? If it is the majority of Americans, then why are so few people I'm in IRL contact with expressing that fear? 

Why not couple the first part of that headline about states lifting restrictions with something that will assist people in understanding that this is a part of the Hammer and Dance that has been referenced in this thread? Why couple it with a mention of fear and then not even explain anywhere in the article what this fear is about, how to address it, what states are doing to mitigate those things that lead to fear, etc. Why address fear and not work to alleviate it if possible through thorough reporting? Highlighting people's fears in such a manner, especially if it is so widespread, seems to only work to stir up even more fears. If nothing else, it leads to confusion.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

1 minute ago, StellaM said:

 

Public health programs were rolled out pretty quickly here in the form of ads re caring for your physical and mental health during a period of partial lockdown. Very simple, very easy to understand, even if you didn't speak English due to the graphics used, very pertinent. 

More people have been exercising during our partial lockdown than before, partly because it's been one way to break the monotony, and get out of doors.

Bike sales are through the roof. 

I've had telemedicine appointments over the last 4 weeks too. 

I'm so thankful that our local parks have stayed open for exercise and fresh air. In the next county over, they have been closed for a few weeks. Some areas of my state reopened public beaches for limited hours with law/park enforcement supervision. There were pictures circulated of people going there, and Twitter shamed them and gave them their own disparaging trending hashtag. Reports from the mayors of that beach area said the reality is that people were actually following guidelines well and no arrests or citations were needed. I'm hoping that it will go well so that our beaches may open back up as well.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

6 minutes ago, square_25 said:

 

I read online articles. I guess I don't know if that's "newspapers" or not, but I'm not seeing tons of panic porn. That's why I asked for an example. 

I think lots of people make stuff up, yes. Or someone writes an uninformed blog post and passes it on. I don't think most of that stuff comes from reputable organizations. 

The example I gave was right from Yahoo News. Not what I would consider a source for hard-hitting journalism, but also not a blog post or social media. I would consider it relatively reputable. I wouldn't elevate what I posted about to the level of panic-inducing (sorry I won't use that other term), but I think there is a narrative there in the headlines suggesting fear but then not explaining or fully justifying it.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

Just now, square_25 said:

I don't think there's any reason to count the number per state. If you sample randomly (that's the big if; sampling randomly is hard), then 1000 people is plenty. 

I know that it is possible statistically. But it was really difficult for me, an average person with one college stats class under my belt, to figure out how random their sample was. I know from your other posts that you have much more knowledge about math and statistics than I do, so if I knew you IRL and I actually cared about the stats of the poll used in this piece, I would try to find out if it was indeed a good sample. There are so many statistics thrown out in the news and media, though, to back up big over-arching claims, that it's hard to know what is accurate and what is potentially a stretch for the average reader. I'm not saying their poll sample is bad or not bad; just that it's hard for most people to even figure that out. So they just read the headline and don't dig much past that.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

10 minutes ago, bolt. said:

Interesting.  I think the different geographic locations are a serious factor, but, for us, when they closed the schools (effectively the beginning of our various restrictions) the narrative was clearly months.

On fact, the thinking at one point was that they didn't know if they should close schools *because* if it was bad enough to close them, it was pretty clear that it was going to be for the entire school year. (So, initially, they thought they might hold off.) This was mid-march, and even though our numbers were low, we had the advantage of seeing the progress in other parts of the world and our country, which helped us see that a few weeks wasn't really what we were looking at. They did close them after a weekend of dithering, and called parents in for student belongings, and shut them down with the expectation of months. Other restrictions followed shortly.

I wonder if our original understanding of 'unknown duration but probably quite a while' helped us cope without the sense of bait-and-switch.

That type of thinking didn't occur in my area*. When K-12 schools remained closed after spring break, there was initially no talk of not reopening this school year. As late as April 10, my state governor was discussing schools potentially reopening in late May even if only for a couple weeks, even after many states had announced not coming back. It wasn't until 4 days ago that he officially made the announcement to not reopen. The local community college went to online classes only after spring break, and announced about a little bit later that they would be online through the end of the spring semester and summer as well, so they were a little ahead of our K-12 information and more forward-thinking. But I know a lot of people were holding out hope to resolve things in just a month or two, not months. 

*Editing to say: I'm sure it did occur for some people in some (or even many) instances. I'm talking more about the general sense and tone in my area, at least initially.

[Is the goal FLATTEN THE CURVE or ELIMINATE COVID?]

Regarding willful ignorance vs. confusion: 

I don't normally use Yahoo for anything, news-related or other, but since it was mentioned here I decided to go down the rabbit hole. There's a banner at the top of the page in orange/red that says, "U.S. death toll surpasses 45K; CDC director issues warning about second wave". Yes, that is just factual data. It's important so it doesn't seem too overly dramatic to have it take top spot and in a red banner. It's a clickable link, so I went to that page.

I scroll down the page to look at the current update bullet list. This bullet catches my interest: "As some areas of the U.S. begin relaxing social distancing restrictions, a new poll showed a majority of Americans fear easing those guidelines could result in more deaths." I'm interested in this because many people I know IRL have expressed interest in opening things back up, cautiously of course. I haven't really heard of fear regarding an incremental approach, so I'm curious about this poll saying it's the majority of Americans. Clicking on the link just takes me to an article about what plans various states are putting in place, but there's no mention of the poll or fear referenced in the teaser text.

I go back to the corona update page and scroll down quite a bit. There's a headline about a poll but no indication that it's the poll mentioned above: "New poll: States earn more praise for outbreak response". No mention of fear in the headline or short description, but I click on it since it does address state response. I click to see the article about this poll. The article features a large graph image at the top. Only if you scroll to the third graph do you see statistics about "widespread worry". This doesn't address fear, so maybe it's a different poll. It's hard to tell. The poll surveyed 1057 people in all 50 states + DC. That's roughly 20 people per state/district, although I realize it could have been done relative to state population since it's supposed to be a representative sample. That seems like a low number surveyed to make the conclusions of "All Americans" think x, y, or z. I know statistical samples can use small numbers if they are an accurate cross-section, but after going to the source of the poll (AP-NORC) and reading their methodology, it doesn't seem great. But then again, I took statistics many years ago, so what do I know. I'm confused as to whether this is the poll that was used to write that "a majority of Americans fear easing the guidelines". 

All of this to say, the news can be very confusing. In just this one instance, a news source says in a prominent place that most people fear easing guidelines. But it doesn't follow through in explaining that assertion so I don't know where it's coming from, if it's valid, whether to take it with a grain of salt given what I'm hearing IRL, and so on. I have a degree in English and have work experience in research and analysis/synthesis of various text sources, yet found it hard to analyze just this one news thread. I think about relatives who would just look at the headline, be like, "Ok, sure" and not even bother to see if there's any credence to what is being posited. That may be willful ignorance, but if the information is that difficult to get down to brass tacks I think the responsibility is on the shoulders of the journalist and media outlet rather than the average educated reader.

[Anything but (coronavirus) ..what are you reading, have you tried a new recipe....]

On 4/6/2020 at 4:25 PM, Carol in Cal. said:

I taught my husband how to make bread last week.  It came out pretty good.  I had not really realized that he had never done it before.

I also cooked Peruvian mayacoba beans for the first time, and wow, they are so good!  Way creamier and milder than pintos.  I made some of them into refritos, and was pleasantly surprised at how well they turned out considering that I was doing the recipe entirely from memory.  I also made homemade maseca tortillas for the first time in years.  We had a feast--street tacos, raw veggies, and Margaritas.  I've had the Costco Margarita mix moldering in the larder for about 4 years, and we finally used some.  It's good!  

I had the maycobas available because I have a cousin who gives us Rancho Gordo fancy dried beans every year for Christmas.  And I put them aside and don't use them because I usually am not around enough to fuss with them, and I hate to smell them cooking all day and then have to eat them.  But I have a better stove fan where I'm sheltering in place, and decided I had nothing to lose in trying this.  Plus I have a slow cooker there that was my fallback if the smell bugged me anyway.  But it didn't.  🙂

I love homemade "refried" beans made from pintos. Now I really want to try using mayacobas in their place! I also love that your cousin gives you fancy beans for Christmas. Beans don't necessarily come to mind as the first choice for a gift, but that would be a completely welcome treat to me. 

[Thoughts on summer / fall]

Cleaning and disinfecting are two different things. According to the CDC (and common sense), it's important to clean before the disinfecting process. I think kids could be responsible for wiping desks to do a cursory clean and then have the janitorial staff sweep through and spray disinfectant across desks and other highly touched surfaces at the end of the day. If nothing else, it would give the kids a sense of awareness and agency about the importance of cleanliness. Also, if the school community is taking care of some of the easier cleaning tasks, it could allow the janitorial staff more time to devote to doing the deeper cleaning/disinfecting.

Most schools have day and evening janitors, with the bulk of them working in the evening after schools is out. Schools will need to hire more janitors in general, and add more day staff to disinfect hot spots throughout the day (playgrounds, other highly touched surfaces).

[Anything but (coronavirus) ..what are you reading, have you tried a new recipe....]

I made whole wheat bagels and cream cheese. It started with finding a packet of starter culture while reorganizing my pantry and having some extra milk. And just like in "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie", if you have a bunch of cream cheese you are definitely going to need bagels to go with it. This was my first time making bagels from fresh-ground wheat. It was pretty easy, but I'm going to try some different techniques to get them to taste more bagel-y and less like circle-shaped bread.

[Thoughts on summer / fall]

11 hours ago, lmrich said:

We need to think about having students attend on alternate days or having 1/2 the class come in the morning and the other 1/2 come in the afternoon. None of this will be easy. We will all be bothered and inconvenienced by this, but is is worth it. 

I was talking to teachers at one of the hybrid schools where I work, and we agreed to lower our class sizes. However, we get paid based on how many students we have. So we either have to work longer days and offer more classes (which won't work well in our current space) or make less money. I might suggest that students are on a rotation. - One week at school, the next week at home so the teachers can maintain an income and keep the students safe. I doubt that would work, but I think at this point, we need to consider everything to keep everyone safe. 

I think alternate days might be better so that there’s time to clean the building before the next set of students arrives. One half of students could physically attend M/W while the other half is at home doing virtual work; switch on Tues/Thurs. Reduce hours on those days by making them for core classes only. Fridays could be for specials/electives, alternating weeks. So one half would attend physically on 1st and 3rd Friday, other half on 2nd and 4th. 

[Need ideas for pick me ups for a friend]

I would suggest something that would last beyond the initial drop off, so she would be able to look at it and remember that you’re thinking of her. Maybe a small plant, like a succulent or potted herb (basil or rosemary)?

ETA: I meant in addition to the balloons and treats, which are great ideas that I’m sure they will love and appreciate. 

[SUNDAY: What are you making for dinner?]

Chicken Pot Pie Crumble

This was a request from my daughter. It’s one of her favorites. 

[Thoughts on summer / fall]

39 minutes ago, Ordinary Shoes said:

DD used to attend Catholic school. I needed a note from the orthodontist when I had to take her out of school for an hour for her appointment. Absences of more than 3 days in a row required a doctor's note. It really made me mad. I'm the mom and I said my kid is going to the orthodontist. Why isn't that good enough? 

My sophomore year of high school I would schedule my orthodontist appointments so I would only miss school during the class period before lunch and then miss lunch, so I wouldn't miss too much in-class time. I was pretty serious about school and keeping my grades up, so I thought this was a good solution. Nope. I got in-school suspension without warning for missing that one class too many times. I was a straight-A student and had parental approval and orthodontist notes every time I came back to school, but that didn't matter to the admin one bit.

ETA: I lived in a rural town with no local orthodontist. The drive there and back took an hour, and then the appointment usually took another ~30 minutes. So there's no way I could just be absent over only the lunch period. I was told I should miss different classes, even though I would be absent from more classes (would have had to miss at least two). I would also potentially miss more substantial material in those classes since the one I chose to miss for my appointment time was a blow-off type class needed for graduation and all my other classes were college prep classes where an absence was harder to make up.

[A cutting edge situation... or do I want some knives like Jamie Oliver?]

Do you hone your knife regularly? Do you have it sharpened periodically? Doing both of those will give you a better (and safer) tool to work with. Then you can practice improving your technique. No, your knife won't be as good as Jamie's, and no, your skills won't match his. But you can always make smaller steps toward improvement with what you have. If you do decide to get a new knife, you might try a different shape. I personally prefer the chef's/cook's knife shape over santoku.