A sunny Saturday. The leaves are coming out.
A barber in New York who had been illicitly cutting hair now has Covid. Contact tracing of neatly trimmed neighbors is now underway.
In Massachusetts there’s suspense in the air as the governor keeps his cards close on the details of Monday’s reopening. One thing is clear. No matter what he does he’s going to get slammed by both sides. Some are calling for a broad economic reopening while others are demanding that he extend the stay at home order. Baker has been smart about this so far and I think he’ll do the right thing, which will, of course, piss everyone off.
Speaking of Bay State governors dealing with pandemics, Emily Sweeney talks to the folks from the Coolidge Foundation who are hosting a webinar about how Calvin Coolidge handled the 1918 flu outbreak. There were penalties for coughing, spitting and kissing out in public. And you could be fined for being a ‘big talker.’ I’m all in favor of bringing that last one back.
When it comes to defending Apple, John Gruber tends to have a hair trigger. But in this case he’s right on every point. That Washington Post story on the Apple/Google contract tracing software is wrong in all the ways he says it is. Glaringly wrong.
And Steve Earle has a new album, Ghosts of West Virginia, coming out next week. He can’t do promotion for it but this story in the Times won’t hurt.