Hello, Friends. How are you? How was your week? Are things beginning to open up where you are? Or do you still have strict shelter-in-place guidelines?
We’re looking forward to working on some projects over at the Tall House this weekend. We’ve got some more demolition in the attic, and we’re trying to make some progress on cleaning a really dirty plaster wall up there. We’d love to go walking in the countryside too! The weather has been lovely.
Memorial Day is on Monday — will you get to visit any gravesites? Or do something special to mark the day? We will miss taking part in the U.S. Pampanito memorial service with Oscar’s scout troupe (though I assume it’s not happening this year).
When we lived in France before, we would go to the American Military Cemetery at the D-Day beaches. Visits to that sacred place are always worthwhile (and emotional). I don’t even know if it’s open during quarantine, but if it is, I hope we can visit this weekend.
How about you? Any plans for the “long weekend” or will it look the same as every other shelter-at-home weekend?
I’ve got some terrific links for you this week. Here are a few things I’ve wanted to share:
-Why we need a large-scale contact isolation program and how it would work.
–Is Pier One really over? I remember my mom introducing me to it when I was a kid. They had a small selection of clothes back then!
-American billionaires got $ 434 billion richer during the pandemic.
-The French villages that rescued thousands during WWII continue to welcome refugees.
-Trump has decided to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, negotiated three decades ago, to allow nations to fly over each other’s territory with elaborate sensor equipment to assure they are not preparing for military action. #putinspuppet
-Federal prosecutors are demanding an ancient tablet be returned to Iraq after it was “stolen” and put on display at the Museum of the Bible, which is funded by Hobby Lobby.
-Last week, The Indigo Girls got together (6 feet apart) and played Rites of Passage in its entirety.
-DJT is recalling our National Guard after 89 days. 1 day short of the 90 days they needed for their benefits to kick in.
-Wait. What? A 49-year-old man has fallen out of a sixth-floor window of a Moscow hospital for coronavirus patients and died, Russian media reports.Three Russian doctors treating coronavirus patients also fell out of windows in recent weeks.
-What city would you say wins best weather?
-The pandemic is exposing the severe disparities in how Japanese couples divide housework. One man who thought he was doing his share gave his wife a list of the 21 tasks he does. A spreadsheet of her task list was 10 times as long. (How would American couples compare?)
-When we lived here before, I would buy a pair of Superga sneakers each summer (usually navy). To no one’s surprise, I’m craving a pair again. : )
Here are some tweets I saved for you:
-Hah. Do you have skills? Entertaining responses.
-The billionaires aren’t going to do the right thing. So let’s tax them appropriately instead of crossing our fingers they’ll be good.
-I haven’t even clicked through to read the article because the headline made me too sad.
–Are offices over? I hear Twitter is doing something similar.
-“I can never unexperience it.”
-What it’s like when SpaceX moves to your town.
-Everything he accuses someone of, is something he’s doing himself.
-A thread about Sarah Palin. Do you agree?
-“Forced commodification or utter construction of trauma.”
-How’s the recovery going?
-A layman’s guide to some of the crimes.
-Hah! Made me laugh.
I hope you have a wonderful weekend. I’ll meet you back here next week. I miss you already.
kisses,
Gabrielle
