Lip service

Friday. A good day for a piña colada at a bar called O’Malley‘s.

I spent a month there one night: This article offers an interactive look at how our sense of time can become distorted when things are bleak.

When Boston schools open they’ll adopt a 6 foot social distancing standard. This despite overcrowding and a lack of space in existing buildings. Having a good plan that’s unworkable is the same as having a bad plan, or no plan at all.

I downloaded the iOS 14 public beta yesterday but still haven’t explored most new features. Jim Dalrymple did and writes about some of his favorites.

The plan to rebuild the fire-damaged Notre Dame has been finalized. It will be rebuilt as it was, not with a new, modern design. And that billion dollar fund of pledged money from businesses never really materialized so the funding will have to come from other sources.

I initially dismissed the meme going around about individual taxpayers getting only $1200 while non-taxpaying religious organizations got billions in coronavirus aid. That couldn’t be true, could it? Well apparently it is and the Catholic Church was the largest beneficiary.

And a commenter at Universal Hub noticed that a Dorchester street with an odd name was simply a common name spelled backwards. Tebroc = Corbet. There’s also a Corbet Street in Dorchester and it’s near Lorna Road, which intersects with Doone Avenue. And further down Bowdoin is another backward street, Navillus Terrace which, reversed, is Sullivan. Sounds like a drunk night of city planning back in the day.

Lifting all boats

It’s Thursday. Counting down to Friday. Today’s word is bromide.

Disney World will be reopening this weekend. No word yet on whether they intend to ban screaming on the rides.

Boston is the third most gentrified city in the country behind San Francisco and Denver, according to a report by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition (via CBS Boston.) The level of gentrification was measured from 2013 to 2017. We’re frightening close to San Francisco, which is not a good thing. But I think city leaders here have been thoughtful and have taken steps to discourage the displacement that gentrification often brings to neighborhoods. It’s a balancing act. No one wants to be in first place on a list like this but also no city wants to be last.

Oklahoma health officials are connecting the dots between a spike in infections and a certain campaign rally. Let’s see if anyone wears a mask in New Hampshire on Saturday. At least it will be outdoors.

The city parks department and the Franklin Park Coalition will be seeking public input next week via Zoom on how to make the park better and more connected to surrounding neighborhoods.

And Gary Larson is working on new Far Side material. I wonder, is he using an Apple Pencil?

Gordian knot

It’s Wednesday, the 190th day of 2020. Just 176 more to go.

Why is Stella mad? Wait and she’ll tell you.

A list of prominent writers and artists have come together to write a letter in Harpers on the importance of, and need for, freedom of expression. Pretty clear cut, right? But another writer is apoplectic because the authors, in writing the letter, did in fact express themselves, making the premiss of the letter false. And others are speaking out against speaking up. It’s a controversy that encapsulates these times pretty well.

It looks like The Swamp is actually getting deeper.

Adam Gaffin reports on the slow trickle of museum openings, including the Gardner, Aquarium and Museum of Science.

And it’s officially hurricane season and it looks like it’s going to be a busy one. Of course it does.

A hasty pudding

Now comes Tuesday. It’s Ringo Starr‘s 80th birthday.

Only about forty percent of students will be returning to Harvard this fall for in-person classes. MIT is in the same boat. Not good for the Cambridge economy but probably a solid public health decision.

The Massachusetts Senate would like to have a police reform bill ready for a vote by Thursday. Included are certification and force de-escalation requirements along with a statewide ban on facial recognition. It also contains the State Police reform measures proposed by the governor, like removing the requirement that the colonel be promoted from within. The House apparently has something else going on. Getting a bill passed by both chambers and to the governor by the end of the session on July 31 would be quite a feat, especially during the summer.

Both the Ayn Rand Institute and an organization run by Grover Norquist apparently took government business relief money. I guess the end justifies the means even if it’s at odds with it.

Today is the anniversary of the 2016 shooting of 14 police officers in Dallas, five of whom died.

I had heard about the Pixii camera when it was announced a couple of years ago but then nothing happened. Now it’s here and available to buy. A novel take on photography, the Pixii is a rangefinder that accepts manual focus Leica M-mount lenses. It has no display and no memory card. Photos are stored in internal memory and transferred wirelessly to your phone. It uses an APS-C sensor and costs over $3000. I’m interested to see how it’s reviewed but I’m pretty sure I’ll pass.

And here’s Boston from the movies, rated only for wicked smarht audiences.

A common understanding

Monday once again. What is it about Monday?

Ennio Morricone has died. He made some amazing and very memorable music. Peter Bradshaw recounts his accomplishments.

In the Columbia Journalism Review, Jack Herrera writes about confusion over what the slogan defund the police really means. He thinks journalists are watering it down because they aren’t familiar with the purist interpretation or because they’re afraid of the political implications of promoting the actual elimination of police departments. But isn’t that how slogans work? No one owns them. They’re just memes open to interpretation. They take on meaning as they spread. The less we know about what they actually mean the quicker they catch on.

Murders are up in cities nationwide but crime is down. OK. Experts chalk this up to it just being a weird year.

Britons have a dilemma as things are opening up. Where should they go first, the hairdresser or the pub?

And with a shortage of live sports, ESPN is bringing us The Eagles pre-recorded. The ones from Los Angeles, not Philadelphia. A concert from 2018.