Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

I hope that I do not annoy people by sticking in my oar with comments about Israel, but "If I am not for myself, then who is? If I am for myself only, then what am I? And if not now, then when?"

Like every democracy in the world, Israel also is struggling to find a way to cope with the novel Coronavirus, and to protect her citizens while not crossing the lines of abusing civil rights. The NY Times does not mention Israel at all, nor do most media.

At this point in time, 5pm Monday, 16th of March 2020, Israel reports to the public 250 testing positive, 4 severe, 10 moderate, the rest mild, 4 recovered. There have been NO DEATHS. On the one hand, Israel instigated closure of schools, public institutions such as libraries, and entertainment (restaurants, bars, movies, theaters....) at an earlier "stage" than most affected countries. On the negative side, there is much criticism and very vocal dissatisfaction over testing. Israel has had the ability to test perhaps 2,000 a day (and there are tens of thousands in quarantine because of exposure), but hospitals were crippled by Ministry of Health regulations that only those who had travelled abroad were ALLOWED to be tested. This ridiculous situation has been somewhat relieved due to public pressure, but not enough. To the best of my knowledge only 200-some are tested daily now.

Having studied several courses in epidemiology and biostatistics at the master's level, I positively cringe when many officials from our Ministry of Health, HMOs, or "senior" physicians from Community Health are interviewed on television and tapdance around basic foundations of epidemiology. Not all positive for the virus are isolated in the hospital; many are allowed to stay at home with their families, families who until the general closure of most of Israel, continued to go to school, university, and work. You know what? No. Forget cringe. There are times when I actively yell at the television, swear, and threaten bodily harm. 

Frankly, guys, as disturbing as this picture may be to those who remember me even a little from high school, I am much more worried for you in America. In the first place, there is free movement from state to state, but each state makes decisions binding on itself only, minding the Constitution and Bill of Rights. You do not have a single central body or person deciding in these apocolyptic times what the entire country must do in order to survive.  However, on the other hand (remind me, how many hands do we have?) what would happen if Trump decided to grant himself powers, under a National Emergency, that infringe on the Bill of Rights? Envision everyone over 65 being removed from his and her home and being put in large quarantined quarters "for their own good as an especially endangered group"? This happened in China, and after only 2 months of nightmare, they have emerged on the "other side" of Corona.....

And BTW, there is a small laboratory in Israel in the small city of Kiryat Shmona that has been working for FOUR YEARS on a vaccine for Coronavirus in ANIMALS. They are now working at triple time, hoping to have a vaccine for humans in 3 MONTHS that can begin vetting. Will the world be told about this? I wonder.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Paul, after completing several steps to enable the @NYT article it still is blocked to me.  I can get information elsewhere but thought I'd let you know it's still not free.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Adding this to my response to Paul.  I have received a NYT newsletter so my attempt to read the article on coronoavirus did get me some information. Thank you Paul!

Paul Simons

Glad something worked Barbara. For me the New Yorker is essential because their writing and analysis are state of the art.

Judy just to set your mind at ease I get a couple of newsletters from Israel and maybe not getting a lot of press in commercial media is good - it means there are no sensational tragedies like it appears Italy is enduring or abject failures like the termination of the pandemic response authority that transpired here. We’re grateful for your country’s work on vaccines. 

Chuck Cole

If you are having difficulty reading a newspapeer article online because you haven't subscribed to the site, try using an incognito window--the site will pesume you haven't read any articles yet and will let you read however many they allow someone to read before they tell you that you've used up your free monthly quota, or something similar.  This probably won't work with the Wall Street Journal but it works with many other sites.

Barbara Kahn (Tepper)

Thank you Chuck, that's what was happening. I used my 5 free views or whatever was allowed. 

Philip Spiess

For some suggested relevant reading in the current crisis (I've suggested these to Mrs. McCammon) -- in order to set the mood, shall we say -- I recommend Boccaccio's The Decameron, Poe's "The Masque of the Red Death," and Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year.

Philip Spiess

Having found another lengthy correspondence with our late classmate, Rick Montague (from November, 2014), I feel that I should share some of his other thoughts with you:

He said that he was a "compulsive collector"; one of the things which he collected (previously unmentioned) was guns (he, no doubt, was intrigued by their mechanisms and the lathing of the stocks).  In my previous post, I mentioned his "Mystery Motor"; he said this could be viewed on Google at "Ricks Mystery Motor."  [I tried this. and it turned up several "mystery motors," but none that I could specifically connect with Rick.]  Regarding the Goyen lathe which he collected, he said see "Shuter Goyen" on Google [I looked this up, and there it was!].  As to his collecting, he said (and I quote) "Half the fun is doing the research and collecting related literature.  I like one-off and unusual items."

As to other things, Rick liked Skyline Chili and, inquiring about what his fellow classmates were interested in, mentioned that he knew his good friend Nelson Abanto liked to fish and mountain climb (he also noted that Nelson and I loved to discuss opera).  His favorite book was Miller Dynasty:  A Technical History of the Work of Harry A. Miller and His Successors, by Mark Dees (Grouville, Jersey Channel Islands, U. K.:  Barnes Publishing Inc., 1981; 527 pp,).  He inquired, do high schools still have shop classes?  (He remembered enjoying WHHS shop class field trips to the Walter Beckjord Power Station on the Ohio River [discussed by me, Post #3541]; the Globe-Wernicke Company; the Fisher Body Plant, etc.).  I do not, on looking at the current WHHS course offerings, find "Shop," or anything near it (such as "Mechanical Drawing") offered anywhere; this I find appalling (as, I am sure, would Rick).

But our major discussion was about the Cincinnati Water Works, for which Rick worked for a few years and, as he said, he "was amazed to find there old steam pumpers still in place."  In short, recognizing the historical importance of the Cincinnati Water Works equipment -- the 1906 [?] Triple Expansion Steam Engine is the world's largest water pumping steam engine -- he promoted information about it in both the United States and Britain, with the result that the Cincinnati Pumping Station got landmark status:  in 2003 it became an Ohio Historic Landmark, and in May, 2019, the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers had it declared a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark (tours of the California waterworks, upstream from Cincinnati, under the name "Cincinnati Triple Steam," are given periodically).

Steve Levinson and I were also interested in the matter of the fluoridation of Cincinnati water, a major political and scientific issue in the early 1950s.  Had it ever happened?  Richard said yes, the Cincinnati Water Works installed the equipment and used it.  He further stated that the operators and building maintenance crews who dealt with it were issued soda pop, fresh outfits, and masks when they handled the chemicals -- but mechanics (of which he was one) weren't.  Rick spent most of his time in water distribution at the pumping station [I assume on Eastern Avenue], but he was at the California Pumping Station (just down river from old Coney Island) for a couple of years, mostly at the Chemical West building, where they fed in chlorine and carbon.

The great quote he gave me about purifying water was:  "In reality there is NO NEW WATER!  JUST RECYCLED!!"  (That was Rick.)

Judy Holtzer (Knopf)

Take a look at just some of Google’s top museums that are offering online tours and exhibits. Museums around the world are also sharing their most zen art on social media to help people cope with staying home. And if that's not enough culture for you, New York's Metropolitan Opera will be offering free digital shows every night at 7:30 p.m. from March 16 through March 22. Now you can even go "outside" with incredible virtual tours of some of America's best national parks.

British Museum, London

This iconic museum located in the heart of London allows virtual visitors to tour the Great Court and discover the ancient Rosetta Stone and Egyptian mummies. You can also find hundreds of artifacts on the museum’s virtual tour.

Guggenheim Museum, New York

Google’s Street View feature lets visitors tour the Guggenheim’s famous spiral staircase without ever leaving home. From there, you can discover incredible works of art from the Impressionist, Post-Impressionist, Modern and Contemporary eras.

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

This famous American art museum features two online exhibits through Google. The first is an exhibit of American fashion from 1740 to 1895, including many renderings of clothes from the colonial and Revolutionary eras. The second is a collection of works from Dutch Baroque painter Johannes Vermeer.

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

You can virtually walk through this popular gallery that houses dozens of famous works from French artists who worked and lived between 1848 and 1914. Get a peek at artworks from Monet, Cézanne, and Gauguin, among others.

National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul

One of Korea’s popular museums can be accessed from anywhere around the world. Google’s virtual tour takes you through six floors of Contemporary art from Korea and all over the globe.

Pergamon Museum, Berlin

As one of Germany’s largest museums, Pergamon has a lot to offer – even if you can’t physically be there. This historical museum is home to plenty of ancient artifacts including the Ishtar Gate of Babylon and, of course, the Pergamon Altar.

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Explore the masterworks from the Dutch Golden Age, including works from Vermeer and Rembrandt. Google offers a Street View tour of this iconic museum, so you can feel as if you’re actually wandering its halls.

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Anyone who is a fan of this tragic, ingenious painter can see his works up close (or, almost up close) by virtually visiting this museum – the largest collection of artworks by Vincent van Gogh, including over 200 paintings, 500 drawings, and over 750 personal letters.

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

European artworks from as far back as the 8th Century can be found in this California art museum. Take a Street View tour to discover a huge collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, manuscripts, and photographs.

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

This less well-known gallery houses the art collection of one of Florence, Italy’s most famous families, the de'Medicis. The building was designed by Giorgio Vasari in 1560 specifically for Cosimo I de'Medici, but anyone can wander its halls from anywhere in the world.

MASP, São Paulo

The Museu de Arte de São Paulo is a non-profit and Brazil’s first modern museum. Artworks placed on clear perspex frames make it seem like the artwork is hovering in midair. Take a virtual tour to experience the wondrous display for yourself.

National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico City

Built in 1964, this museum is dedicated to the archaeology and history of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage. There are 23 exhibit rooms filled with ancient artifacts, including some from the Mayan civilization.

Sadly, not all popular art museums and galleries could be included on Google Arts & Culture’s collection, but some museums are taking it upon themselves to offer online visits. According to Fast Company, the Louvre also offers virtual tours on its website.

To see more of Google Arts & Culture’s collection of museums, visit the collection’s website. There are thousands of museum Street Views on Google as well. Google Arts & Culture also has an online experience for exploring famous historic and cultural heritage sites.

Philip Spiess

I may add that most, if not all, of the Smithsonian Institution's 22 museum buildings (including the National Gallery of Art) have put up virtual tours of their collections online.

Jeff Daum

Thanks Judy and Phillip!  Great links indeed.

Bonnie Altman (Templeton)

Thanks Judy; stay safe.

Philip Spiess

Let me be more specific about virtual tours of the Smithsonian Institution museums (not all of the museums have specific virtual tours, but they all have Websites, some accessed through "si.edu"):

Smithsonian Institution Building  (1846; 1855) and Enid A. Haupt Garden  (ca. 1987):  si.edu

Arts & Industries Building  (1881):  si.edu

National Zoological Park & Conservation Biology Institute  (1889):  nationalzoo.si.edu

National Museum of Natural History  (1858; 1910):  naturalhistory.si.edu

Cooper-Hewitt Museum, the National Museum of Design  (1897 - New York City):  cooperhewitt.org

Freer Gallery of Art (of the National Museum of Asian Art)  (1923):  asia.si.edu

National Gallery of Art  (1937; 1941):  nga.gov

National Museum of American History  (1964):  americanhistory.si.edu

Anacostia Community Museum  (1967):  anacostoa.si.edu

National Portrait Gallery  (1968):  npg.si.edu

Smithsonian American Art Museum  (1968):  americanart.si.edu

Renwick Gallery (of the Smithsonian American Art Museum)  (1972):  american.art.si.edu

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden  (1974):  hirshhorn.si.edu

National Air and Space Museum  (1946; 1976):  airandspace.si.edu or nasm.si.edu

National Gallery of Art East Wing  (1978):  nga.gov

National Museum of African Art  (1964; 1987):  africa.si.edu

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery (of the National Museum of Asian Art)  (1987):  asia.si.edu

S. Dillon Ripley Center (International Gallery)  (ca. 1987):  si.edu

National Postal Museum  (1993):  postalmuseum.si.edu

National Museum of the American Indian, George Gustav Heye Center  (1994 - New York City):  americanindian.si.edu or si.edu

National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden  (1999):  nga.gov

National Air & Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center  (2003 - Chantilly, Virginia):  airandspace.si.edu

National Museum of the American Indian  (2004):  americanindian.si.edu

National Museum of African American History and Culture  (2003; 2016):  nmaahc.si.edu

You can also find some non-Smithsonian-originated tours on "YouTube" by putting the specific museum name into Google.

Stephen (Steve) Dixon

While we are talking about virtual museum tours, let's not forget The Frick, perhaps my favorite museum in New York City.

Sure, the art collection is nowhere near what you see at MoMA, or The Guggenheim, but what is special is the home. You get to see the home of Henry Clay Frick, one of the richest men in America , during his lifetime, just as it was when the Frick family lived there.

https://www.frick.org/visit/virtual_tour/living_hall

Steven Levinson

Steve D., speaking of Fricks, I was a fellow congressional intern with Karen Frick, of Cumberland, Maryland, diring the summer of 1967.  We were two of the seven interns under the supervision of then-Representative Charles "Mac" Mathias of Maryland, whose office, at the time, was in the old Cannon Office Building.  Karen was part of the poor wing of the Frick family, although she was definitely a descendant of Henry Clay Frick.  She was a neat person.  Mac Mathias went on to the U.S. Senate in 1968 and, although a Republican, led the charge in 1969 and 1970 against the confirmation of Nixon appointees Clement  Hansworth and G. Harrold Carswell to the United States Supreme Court.  Mathias won that one.  He was referred to in the Nixon White House as "that goddamned bastard."

Philip Spiess

John Russell Pope, sly old dog of a Neo-Classical Beaux-Arts architect in the first third of the 20th century, was not above a few old-dog tricks.  His plan for the expansion of the Henry Clay Frick mansion in New York City (designed by Thomas Hastings), in order to open it as a public museum in 1935, included a formal enclosed Garden Court as part of the new entrance, a room which he virtually repeated point for point when he designed the National Gallery of Art (West Building) in Washington for Andrew Mellon, with its East and West Garden Courts (circa 1935; completed 1941).  But wait! there's more!  After designing the National Gallery of Art, he designed the Thomas Jefferson Memorial (1935-1937) on the Tidal Basin, and was promptly accused by the Congress of merely repeating the National Gallery's central dome, Rotunda, and portico as the design for the Jefferson Memorial, thus getting paid twice by the government for work which he had only done once!

David Buchholz

What are you doing?

OK, California is in the lead when it comes to "sheltering in place", a term I like because of the warm fuzzy connotations, but "sheltering in place" as a concept reallly sucks.  Jadyne and I were planning to walk with Gail Stern tomorrow around some ponds in Marin County, but we've called it off because everyone wants to go somewhere to walk and hike, and we've been told not to do that.  Pt. Reyes is closed to anyone who doesn't live there.  Yosemite is closed.  All the walking and hiking that we can do, (which is just about the only thing we're allowed to do) has to be local.  I walked 68 miles last week, 168,000 steps, and I'm trying to figure out what to do tomorrow.  This was along Wildcat Canyon Road last Friday.

Our daughter won't let us shop anywhere.  She brings us food and leaves it on our deck.  Once a week.  On the first day of the quarantine I washed and waxed our car.  Today I started staining our outside furniture.

We have five more benches.  One a day.

Because spring starts early here I look around with my macro lens, tripod, and take images like these:

or this...

and then when the light is right I can go up to the vacant lot on Purdue Avenue...which I did five minutes ago...

and then there's aLways Pinot Noir, but that was a half hour ago.  Earlier I cut the grass.  I can only do that once a day, though.  I planted the garden, perhaps the earliest ever.  I read.  The New Yorker online edition comes on Monday.  I cut my finger in a pruning mishap (4 stitches) ten days ago and the stitches come out tomorrow, so perhaps then I can play guitar again.  I'm nervous about going to the hospital and having to sit with people before the stitches are removed.  I post stuff on Facebook  Remember Ms. Gerwig?  She sent this link:

https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates/status/1241747731242192897?fbclid=IwAR294unHZuzkeXLxTzleSj06lnyL2Tfsgz9-lhRL2M9DXN8vGbTCHA4jB74

Enough of that.  I'm looking for suggestions from any of you.  What do you do?  We've only got another couple of months of this...

Oh yes, I have a Chinese friend in Changsha, a professor.  He was quarantined in mid-January.  I asked him how he was doing.  He sent this today:

Jerry Ochs

In these troubled times we should look back to when we as a people acted more rationally.

In May 1849, at least 23 people were killed when a riot broke out in New York over two rival productions of Shakespeare’s Macbeth.

Philip Spiess

Yeah!  The Astor Place Shakespeare Riots of 1849!  (Theatre riots are great!  I participated in one-such riot at an opera performance at the Academy of Music in Philadelphia in 1970, which I described to Nelson Abanto early on in these pages.)  In the incident depicted, the British actor William Macready's upper-class pro-English supporters were versus the American actor Edwin Forrest's lower-class Irish supporters!  It was the biggest American riot until the New York Draft Riots of 1863 (the worst ever in American history)!  (The Astor Opera House, pictured, was destroyed.)

Bruce Fette

Hello all,

My wife is part of a music group called the Sunshine Gang. They often play music for various charitable purposes.The group circulated this link today. Perhaps you will enjoy this from a socially distanced concept still making good things happen.  Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3eXT60rbBVk&feature=youtu.be

Bruce

Ann Shepard (Rueve)

Took a nice walk today with my dog, Chief, and my neighbor's dog Juno. Both are golden doodles.
Under mandatory Stay At Home orders from the governor, we returned, I joined the neighbors in our six feet of separation for happy hour, with no more than ten people. 
 

Philip Spiess

David:  You ask what we're doing?  We're stalling in place.  Yes, we have enough toilet paper, canned goods, frozen foods, alcohol (not that I intend to wash my hands in it), etc., -- nor are we hoarding (as some are); we're doing okay.

As to what our activities are, both being retired, each day is pretty much like the others, no change.  My wife binge-watches old TV shows; my son takes the dog for long hikes in the local parks and is doing music broadcasts from his home studio (here) on Facebook for tips, since his performances around the country have been cancelled; and I am reorganizing my library, as I research and write articles on Cincinnati history for "The Forum," consult at long distance on the history and restoration of Cincinnati Music Hall, make caustic comments on the alternative WHHS site, commune about literature with our WHHS teacher, Mrs. Carol McCammon, conduct (online) the adult education classes of my Presbyterian church, and, when the Cocktail Hour rolls around, my wife and I retire to the patio (if the weather permits) to enjoy our backyard and, occasionally, the firepit (you may recall that for the past several years I have been researching historic cocktails, a subject which has driven me to drink).  Afterwards, I indulge in what I call the "semi-gourmet" cooking of dinner, then we watch the news, and in the words of that inveterate diarist, Samuel Pepys, "And so to bed."

Jerry Ochs

A bit of light music that goes well with a quarantini.

Paul Simons

 Thanks Jerry. That’s some welcome comic relief from the comorbidity that crosses our TV screens and even NPR at around 6:00 PM every day.

Steven Levinson

Bruce, thatks so much.  Absolutely beautiful.