Monthly Archives: April 2020
Photo of the Week – April 10, 2020
Filed under News
Tweet of the Week – April 10, 2020
A creative take on Queen’s “I Want to Break Free” (1984) – a quick homage for the desire to be quarantine-free amidst the COVID-19 pandemic!
Filed under News
Worst Quote of the Week – April 10, 2020
“It is being used in Germany as a mist. Health care workers go through a misting tent going into the hospital and it kills the coronavirus completely dead not only right then, but any time in the next 14 days that the virus touches anything that’s been sprayed it is killed.”
– U.S. Rep. Louie Gohmert, (R-TX), claiming that German scientists had developed a powder that – mixed with water – will kill the COVID-19 virus on contact.
In response, Dr. Jörn Wegner, a spokesman for Deutsche Krankenhausgesellschaft, the German Hospital Association, stated, “What your congressman said is absolute nonsense. There are no such tents and there’s no powder or magical cure.”
Gohmert continues to embarrass both my home state of Texas and the United States in general by spouting out such idiotic and ridiculous statements as this “misting” cure. Why the people of his district continue to let Gohmert stay in office is mind-boggling. Then again, if you knew East Texas, like I do, you’d understand – somewhat.
Filed under News
Best Quote of the Week – April 10, 2020
“This is a test of our humanity, whether we will put each other’s lives ahead of our own economic self-interest. I know we’re passing it here in Kentucky. We need to pass it as a country.”
– Andy Beshear, Democratic Governor of Kentucky, on PBS April 6, discussing the personal and professional sacrifices his state’s residents have made during the COVID-19 crisis.
Filed under News
How the Chief Is Coping with the COVID-19 Quarantine – April 10, 2020
My attempt to make a home-made face mask out of an old jock strap with steel cup protector that I used during my taekwondo days didn’t turn out as planned. For everyone’s information, yes, it’s still functionable and clean and is a size extra-medium.
Filed under Wolf Tales
COVID-19 Safe Distance Measures by State
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have recommended individuals remain at least 6 feet (1.8 meters) from one another to help prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The minimum distance is based on the average trajectory of nasal droplets once expelled from the nose, mouth, or whatever infected orifice a person might have. (If this person can expel nasal droplets from more openings than their mouth and nose, I suggest they be put to death. They will be a danger to humanity, no matter what contagion is in the air.)
This “social distancing” has caused some consternation among many people. For introverts, however, it’s called life as we know it. But, in order to help people understand exactly what the 6-foot minimum is, each state has comprised analogies for their particular citizenry.
Alabama – 2 outhouses
Alaska – 12 salmon or 2 Alaskan King Crab
Arizona – 5 Native American bead necklaces or a blueprint for Donald Trump’s “Wall”
Arkansas – 5 lists of the state’s 3 family trees
California – 1 surfboard or a chest of old Kim Kardashian press-on fingernails
Colorado – 1 miniature horse
Connecticut – 25 recordings of Donald Trump trying to pronounce Connecticut
Delaware – 6 bags of used Joe Biden hair pieces
Florida – 1 adult alligator or 4 motorized wheelchairs
Georgia – 10 DVD sets of “Gone with the Wind”
Hawaii – 5 floral lei wreaths or 1 lost mainland tourist
Idaho – 1 “No Californians Allowed” sign
Illinois – 5 Chicago pizzas (or 10 boxes of .32 caliber bullets if you’re actually in Chicago)
Indiana – 10 lists of the top 10 names indigenous peoples had, before some drunk White people arrived and screwed up everything
Iowa – 10 late-model voting machines
Kansas – 3 sheaths of whole-grain wheat
Kentucky – 5 cases of moonshine
Louisiana – 10 Mardi Grass beads (preferably neon) or 5 indictments of state governors
Maine – 1 lobster (unboiled)
Maryland – 10-15 bricks from a now-dismantled wall built around Washington, D.C.
Massachusetts – 5 cases of Irish whiskey
Michigan – 10 cases of German beer or 1 illegal Canadian immigrant (in Detroit, use anything that’s bullet-proof)
Minnesota – 5 maps of the 10,000+ lakes in the state (complete with detailed explanations why no one has made a concerted attempt to count the exact number)
Mississippi – 50 audio recordings of school children trying spell Mississippi
Missouri – 50 video recordings of school children misspelling Mississippi as Missouri
Montana – 3 taxidermy moose heads
Nebraska – 1 bovine calf or a University of Nebraska cheerleader (whichever is closest and not sleeping at the moment)
Nevada – 500 poker chips or 1 topless showgirl
New Hampshire – 1 10’x 6’ slab of granite or 5 “We Are NOT Vermont!” signs
New México – 1 saguaro cactus frond (unshaven)
New York – 1 life-size inflatable Donald Trump doll, 5 yamakas, or 10 Brooklyn-made calzones
North Carolina – 5 vintage “Missing: Roanoke – Have You Seen Us?” flyers
North Dakota – 25 copies of “Why God Created North Dakota (Because Minnesota Was Too Cold)”
Ohio – 30 unpublished “Best Reasons to Visit Cleveland” pamphlets
Oklahoma – 15 editions of the latest Indian casino directory (also still accepting donations for the “Back to Europe” movement)
Oregon – Any still-living Grateful Dead fan
Pennsylvania – 25 king-size Hershey bars
Rhode Island – Rhode Island
South Carolina – 10 editions of “25 Reasons We Keep Fighting the Civil War and Still Haven’t Won”, © 1964
South Dakota – 3 cases of malt liquor beer or 1 “White People Don’t Let the Sun Set on You!” sign
Tennessee – 1 statue of Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, or Tammy Wynette
Texas – 1 rifle and a bottle of tequila (preferably José Cuervo)
Utah – 10 Mormon bibles or 25 unused “Romney 2012” posters
Vermont – 10 “Sanders 2020” banners (previously 5 cases of maple syrup) or 5 “We Are NOT New Hampshire!” signs
Virginia – 5 replicas of Cutty Sark clipper ships or 10 bottles of Cutty Sark whiskey
Washington – 5 buckets of rainwater or 200 bongs
West Virginia – 25 “There Is NO East Virginia” bumper stickers
Wisconsin – 5 crates of Gouda cheese
Wyoming – 1 life-size replica of a buffalo (NO live buffaloes permitted, as they’ll kick your ass)
“Don’t move any closer, bitch!”
Filed under Wolf Tales
How the Chief Is Coping with the COVID-19 Quarantine – April 3, 2020
Reading about my family history has always been exhilarating!
April 3, 2020 · 10:58 PM
Rays of Pink
The oceans and seas remain one of the most mysterious realms on Earth. We still know more about the surface of our moon – and perhaps the surface of Mars – than what all lies beneath the world’s deepest waters.
Recently Australian photographer Kristian Laine took pictures of a truly remarkable submarine creature: the world’s only documented pink manta ray. Spanning about 11 feet and nicknamed Inspector Clouseau, after The Pink Panther, the animal lives near Lady Elliot Island, which is part of the Great Barrier Reef.
“I had no idea there were pink mantas in the world, so I was confused and thought my strobes were broken or doing something weird,” Laine told National Geographic.
Project Manta, established to study and preserve the creatures within Australian waters, discovered Clouseau in 2015. Organization officials were able to conduct a skin biopsy on the animal and determine its unique coloration is not due to disease or its diet; rather, it’s the result of a genetic mutation called erythrism, which causes reddening in melanin expressions. Most manta rays are black, white, or a combination of the two.
This is individual, however, is unbelievably astounding and proves just how fascinating our own planet really is!
Filed under Curiosities
The Earliest Hazmat Suits
Color copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel (Dr. Beak), a plague doctor in seventeenth-century Rome, published by Paul Fürst, (c. 1656).
The sight of various medical personnel clad in head-to-toe coverings to protect themselves from the COVID-19 virus has become common in recent weeks. It used to be frightening to see something like that; images that were usually relegated to toxic waste dumps and crime scenes. But such garb is nothing new.
Beginning in the 17th century C.E., as more epidemics of bubonic plague swept Western Europe, doctors often wore a variety of outfits to protect them from the miasma, or “bad air”, then believed to carry disease. This was still a time when most people believed health scourges were acts of God and not the result of microbes gone awry. (Some people – even in so-called developed nations – are still stupid enough to believe that! The AIDS epidemic is a perfect example.) It was long before people realized the importance of basic health measures: handwashing, sanitation, not listening to politicians or religious leaders.
These long-ago costumes look theatrical (almost comical) now, as they typically consisted of a head-to-toe leather or wax-canvas garment; large crystal glasses; and a long snout or bird beak, containing aromatic spices (such as mint and cloves), dried flowers (usually roses or carnations), or a vinegar sponge. The strong smells of these items — sometimes set aflame for added advantage — were meant to combat the contagious miasma that the costume itself could not protect against.
They attire wasn’t just fanciful. The ankle-length gowns and beaked masks could offer some protection against germs. The design of these particular outfits has been credited to French physician Charles de Lorme who may have developed the concept around 1619. By the time the “Plague of 1656” ravaged Italy (which was then a collection of city-states) and killed an estimated half-million people, the beaked coverings had become mostly mandatory.
Terrifying in centuries past, they make for good Halloween apparel today!
Photograph of 17th-century plague doctor mask from Austria or Germany on display in Berlin’s Deutsches Historisches Museum.
Theodore Zwinger III (1658-1724), coat of arms with portrait.
Man in plague mask on Poveglia, (c. 1899).
Plague doctor, from Jean-Jacques Manget, Traité de la peste, (1721).
Doctor in plague costume during the plague epidemic of 1720 in Marseille. Drawing first published in 1826 in the Guide sanitaire des gouvernemens européens by Louis-Joseph-Marie Robert.
Jan van Grevenbroeck (1731-1807), Venetian doctor during the time of the plague. Museo Correr, Venice.
Copper engraving of Doctor Schnabel, a plague physician in 17th-century Rome, (c. 1656).
IJsbrand van Diemerbroeck, Dutch plague doctor.
Satirical engraving by Johann Melchior Füssli of a doctor of Marseilles clad in cordovan leather equipped with a nose-case packed with plague-repelling smoking material.
Doctor’s outfit at the Lazaret de Marseille, 1720.
A physician wearing a 17th-century plague costume, as imagined in 1910.
A physician wearing a 17th-century plague costume, as imagined in 1910.
Filed under Classics
Tomás Sánchez – Landscapes of Isolation
“The interior spaces that I experience in meditation are converted into the landscapes of my paintings; the restlessness of my mind transformed into landfills. When I paint, I experience meditative states; through meditation, I achieve a union with nature, and nature, in turn, leads me to meditation.”
– Tomás Sánchez
If one word can best describe the world we’re living in now, surrealism has no equal. Seeing the empty roads and highways of the Dallas /Fort Worth-area that I’ve known my entire life is one of the most uncanny experiences I’ve ever had. I’m still trying to comprehend this slow-motion cataclysm and all of the chaos around it.
Tomás Sánchez seems to understand the concept of a surrealistic existence. His paintings truly exhibit that sense of isolation; something we introverts love, but that even we realize is not always perfect. Yet, in those moments of solitude, titanic waterfalls and endless canopies of treetops often embrace (almost swallow) a tiny nondescript figure with its natural beauty. The latter aspect is reminiscent of dramatic sunsets and massive ocean waves I’ve encountered; elements of the world that should render the most egocentric among us as humble.
“Aislarse (Isolate)”, 2001
“Orilla y cielo gris (Shore and gray sky)”, 1995
“Autorretrato en tarde Rosa (Self-portrait in pink afternoon)”, 1994
“Llegada del caminante a la laguna (Arrival of the walker to the lagoon)”
“Meditación y sonido de aguas (Meditation and sound of waters)”, 1993
“Atardecer (Sunset)”
Filed under Art Working
Chief Writing Wolf 