The Prom Goes on (at Home)

Steve Rubenstein, who's my idea of the current Mark Twain, wrote about a shelter-in-place teenager having her prom at home, where she danced with her dad but shared the experience virtually with people all over the world. That reminded me of a scene in the movie "Contagion," where a father decorates the living room like a prom setting for his daughter, who can't go out because of pandemic. That prompted me to write new words to the Rodgers and Hammerstein song "Shall We Dance."

I’ve just read the report.

By brilliant Rubenstein.

Who shows how proms can still go on

If they go on online.

So many guys and gals

Aren’t in each others arms.

But there’s a way

Even today!

Tik Tok makes proms divine!

Shall we dance?

At six feet from each other

Shall we dance

At the prom?

Shall we show that our rituals can go on?

Or perchance,

When the whole world is watching from afar

Shall we all get together

With our virtual video sharing,

With our dad or mom on the floor?

I have now watched entrancing

Film “Contagion” with its dancing

Proms are here; Life’s no longer a bore!

Another Eloquent Letter-to-the-editor from Kathie Piccagli

Kathie Piccagli's  eloquent letter to the editor appeared in the SF Chronicle this morning, Monday, March 30.

Prep for climate crisis

It has been heartening to see the sense of community and caring about each other generated by the COVID-19 outbreak. Most of us are going to great lengths to try to ensure others can live and thrive. Why then are we so complacent about the ravages of the climate crisis? Climate change is already causing, and will continue to cause, great societal upheaval and widespread death.

Air pollution itself already contributes to significant health problem, as well as premature deaths that are likely to exceed the deaths caused by COVID-19. Yet, we continue to support and even subsidize with our own tax dollars the extraction and burning of fossil fuels fueling the climate crisis as well as air pollution. There’s a lesson here.

We need to look at the lack of preparedness that has exacerbated the COVID-19 crisis and do more to prepare for the climate crisis that we know is here and growing. And contrary to this current novel coronavirus, this will hit our children and youth the hardest.

Kathie Piccagli, San Francisco

MUNI and BART Fading Away

Maybe it's not true that "Earth is getting a rest.  Sometimes business as usual's not best."

We need to stop polluting, but now with the coronavirus, we're advised to take our cars out instead of using public transit, and look at today's headlines!

Today on a morning walk, I paid special attention to the MUNI buses and saw this:

Sing-along

Yesterday I sent new words I'd just written to both Cliff Louie, the leader of the Baby Boomers sing-along at the Anza Public Library, and to Dennis and Marsha, who agreed to sing it. 

To the tune of “Sing”  by Joe Raposo and sung by the Carpenters

Sing, sing a song

In the cosmic sense pandemics don’t last long.

Sing of brave Italy

Where they sing out from each balcony

Walk

At six feet

From the people that you smile at as you greet.

Remember when Louis Armstrong sings,

“What a Wonderful World” he brings

So sing, sing along

La la la la la la la la la we’re washing our hands

For twenty seconds—please expand.

Sing, sing a song

Let the whole world sing along

Earth is getting a rest.

Sometimes business as usual’s not best.

Sing, singing’s allowed.

People helping stand out (6 feet) from the crowd.

Remember that we’re together in

Whatever now comes along,

So sing, sing this song.

Just sing. We’ll come out strong.

Just sing, sing along.

Lalalalal a(spoken) we’re washing our hands

But of the virus, not of one another. 

A Walk to the Ocean to Stretch My Legs

After too much sitting at home, I walked back to the ocean to stretch out my legs, and it looks as if I really did! Notice how I'm keeping my social distance from the woman on the beach in the third picture. Sloth is still there at the ocean. 

Social Distancing in the Time of the Coronavirus--a Preview of What's to Come

This is a picture from today's SF Chronicle, commenting that--while this spacing was criticized initially--it may be the future.

And what about this in France?

Shelters Told to Skip Social Distancing

Heather Knight's column today revealed that Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing this week "circulated a directive among shelter operators instructing them not to move beds 6 feet apart from each other or to create isolation rooms for people who may have contracted the coronavirus."

This is what it said:  

“Please do NOT implement 6 feet social distancing guidance in shelter until instructed to do so."

However, a few hours after she posted this column on line, they received different instructions. 

What? No More Reusable Bags at Safeway?

Here's my open letter to a reporter for the Boston Globe.

Dear Mr. Abel,

Thanks for your article about the backlash against reusable  shopping bags.  This really concerns me because it may be sending the wrong message, one that people will remember after the pandemic is over.

I'm writing you from San Francisco, where I saw a sign at Safeway saying that as a safeguard against the coronavirus,.
 

I'm glad they're trying to protect the cashiers, but I'm not sure this is the best way to do it.  They have on sterile gloves.  They still take our money, which has the contribution of --well, I just Googled it:

$20 bills are used 75 times per year, or once every 5 days, and last 7.5 years, touching about 550 people

$1 dollar bills are used 110 times a year, or twice a week, and last 4 to 15 years, with an average of 6. That means they touch at least 440 people, an average of 660, and at most 1,650.

 How does that compare with the number of people who have touched my reusaable bag?  Yesterday I bagged my own items--into my reusable bag.

Also, what about customers, who are asked to key in their customer number on a pad?  Hasn't recent research shown that the germiest place for travelers is the check-in kiosk pad?  

Why doesn't someone run a test on where the most germs really congregate?  The self-serve checkout keypad?  The shopping carts used by many customers?  

Why target something that's good for the environment?

Again, thanks for your article.

Tina Martin

A Poem to Give Us Perspective

Evelyn La Torre forwarded this to me, and I'm very grateful;

Lockdown by Brother Richard: 

 

Yes there is fear.

Yes there is isolation.

Yes there is panic buying.

Yes there is sickness.

Yes there is even death.

But,

They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise

You can hear the birds again.

They say that after just a few weeks of quiet

The sky is no longer thick with fumes

But blue and grey and clear.

They say that in the streets of Assisi

People are singing to each other

across the empty squares,

keeping their windows open

so that those who are alone

may hear the sounds of family around them.

They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland

Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.

Today a young woman I know

is busy spreading fliers with her number

through the neighbourhood

So that the elders may have someone to call on.

Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples

are preparing to welcome

and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary

All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting

All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way

All over the world people are waking up to a new reality

To how big we really are.

 

To how little control we really have.

To what really matters.

To Love.

So we pray and we remember that

Yes there is fear.

But there does not have to be hate.

Yes there is isolation.

But there does not have to be loneliness.

Yes there is panic buying.

But there does not have to be meanness.

Yes there is sickness.

But there does not have to be disease of the soul

Yes there is even death.

But there can always be a rebirth of love.

Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.

Today, breathe.

Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic

The birds are singing again

The sky is clearing,

Spring is coming,

And we are always encompassed by Love.

Open the windows of your soul

And though you may not be able

to touch across the empty square,

Sing

What a Wonderful World

Lockdown!  I'm grateful for a roof over my head and view from my living room window that doesn't have to include the traffic on 19th Avenue.

When I look out at this beauty--Larsen Park across the way and the Pacific Ocean--I keep hearing Louis Armstrong singing "What a Wonderful World."

My Freezer: An Excavation Project

Sure enough (although knowing me, maybe it wasn't all that sure), I did an excavation of my freezer this morning, right after I got back from the Y and was already sweaty and in my grubbies.

Freezer Stories

Peter Hartlaub's column inspired me to take a look in my freezer and (maybe later) excavate.

Dear Peter Hartlaub,

See how beautiful my freezer looks when the door is closed, with postcards friends sent me in 2019?  The second picture is of how it looks inside, revealing a freezer story that tells itself and tells on me.

I bake a lot, and if I have leftover cake and cookies, instead of sitting down and eating them all on the spot the way I used to do--or giving them away to the homeless, who've been known to say "No, thank you"-- I freeze them to use in trifle, which I make once a year.  For animal welfare and the environment, I'm now making a version free of dairy and eggs but full of Kahlua-doused chocolate pudding and topped with whipped coconut cream and sliced almonds

Of course, this doesn't explain why I have so many bags of corn and edamame.  You’ve inspired me to do a freezer make-over. 

Thank you,

Tina Martin

Vegan Po Boy at a French Soul Food on Divisadero

Terrifying Sequel to "Home Alone"--"Home Together!"

I just dashed this off to members of MOthers Out Front:

Hi!

Hope everyone's having fun at home with the whole family.  Maybe one activity we could suggest for those at home with their families is the idea of making a terrifying sequel to "Home Alone" and calling it "Home Together."

But in case there are more positive approaches we could take, I just wanted to follow up on what we were discussing in our teleconference this past week.

I found this link, and the idea of making a time capsule really appealed to me, especially if three generations are together and talking about what was and wasn't thrown away, how we got milk and other products, how we dried clothes, etc.  It could also include places we love to go in San Francisco (when the coronavirus isn't a pandemic), places we walk to every day, etc.   Photos, drawings, etc.  For restless kids, families could make videos of their restlessness.

Family members could share the answer to questions like "When did you first..."

demonstrate for the environment/hear of Greta Thunberg/ switch to oat milk/hear about fossil fuels/stop eating meat/become impatient with Tina's propaganda...

9 kid-friendly activities while you're stuck at home

9 kid-friendly activities while you're stuck at home From schools closing to businesses testing work from home - along with the increasing number in self-quarantine ...

Wishing you all  a peaceful or fun or tolerable day,

Tina

Good News, I Thought. Some San Franciscans are still living.

At first glance, I thought the SF Chronicle was finally giving us good news about the coronavirus.  Then I realized it was an add for an Irish whiskey Tullamore Dew hoped the living would drink (small letters) responsibly. 

"The Hunt" Sounds Like People I Know and Love--Maybe Even Me

"The Hunt" Sounds Like People I Know and Love--Maybe Even Me

Mick La Salle describes "The Hunt" as a "satire of the extremist tendencies of our current politics," presenting the liberals as "elitist, smug, self-satisfied, wealthy, contemptuous, humorless, insufferably politically correct and self-righteous" and the Conservatives as "amazingly stupid, uncultured, paranoid, broke, (often) fat, gullible, hate-filled, conspiracy minded and resentful."

This is a movie I have to see because I think it's about time that we "Progressives" stopped feeling so self-righteous and stopped being what San Francisco columnist Manfred Wolf calls "the Righteousness Mob." 

I agree that Trump supporters are amazingly gullible and often hate-filled, but so are we "Progressives." 

I'm amazed at how little anyone on the Left checks facts.  We just rally around the people we think know. 

Recently OWL (Older--and Wiser--Women's League) sponsored a panel on "Making Sense of What's Happening at City College."  We really tried to get panelists with more than one perspective and succeeded although no one from the CCSF Administration or the Board of Trustees was available that day, and I can give the short list of those who even bothered to respond to the invitation.

 But I don't see many other organizations trying to present more than one perspective.  What I see instead are rallies designed to present only the perspective of the sponsors.

An Open Letter to Jenny Lam, the Mayor's Advisor on Education

Dear Ms. Lam,

Supervisor Mandelman suggested that we reach out to you about a follow-up to a February 22nd panel discussion "Making Sense of What's Happening at City College," sponsored by OWL, Older (and Wiser) Women's League, on which he participated.  

We know that because of the coronavirus a lot of events are  being cancelled and we can't schedule new ones.  However, we'd like to start planning this for a later date because the panel discussion  both indicated and generated a lot of interest. 

I'm attaching the flyer from our February 22nd gathering so you can see some of the questions we have.  We tried to create a balanced panel by having the president of the AFT 2121 Teachers Union, Jenny Worley, who supports the $2.7 million Emergency Bridge Fund, and Supervisor Mandelman, who opposes it.  We also tried to get people from the CCSF Administration and the Board of Trustees, but among those who responded (Leslie Milloy, Ivy Lee, and John Ricco), no one was available on February 22.  We did get a student, Jess Nguyen, who threw the balance off a little bit because she was a strong proponent of the $2.7 million Emergency Bridge Fund.  I know that Mayor Breed vetoed it.

We San Franciscan voters regularly support City College bond measures, so we feel we have the right to information on how decisions are being made in its governance and financing.

What we want is not a rally but a fact-filled event at which more than one "side" is represented and San Franciscans can ask questions--perhaps at the Koret Auditorium.   (We found it useful to have attendees write their questions on cards so that there were no 10-minute speeches.)

Could you help plan this?

Sincerely,

Tina Martin

OWL Board Member

(I am also cc'ing Melanie Grossman, the Vice-President of OWL, who co-moderated the panel on February 22.)

Can San Franciscans Demand the Facts about City College?

Can San Franciscans demand the facts about City College?  I hope so.  With that in mind, I wrote to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman:

Dear Supervisor Mandelman,

At the forum on February 22nd ("Making Sense of What's Happening at City College") you made a very valid point about the need to have a panel that includes the City College Administration and the Board of Trustees--and I think you also said the mayor.

As you know, I tried very hard to get someone from the Administration and Board of Trustees there, and Leslie Milloy told me no one from the Administration was available on the date of our meeting (always the fourth Saturday of the month).  She asked about March, and I did send out a message to her shortly after the panel, which generated so much interest.  She hasn't responded yet.

I started contacting people in early January, and the only two trustees who even  responded to the  invitation to participate on February 22nd were Ivy Lee and John Ricco, neither of whom was available that day.  

Now we'd like to endorse and help promote a more inclusive panel.   Do you have any suggestions on how we could proceed?  We really do think that we as tax payers who always support City College should be given a forum to hear several perspectives and have the chance to ask questions.

Could you, Joe Adkins, Erin Mundy, Tom Temprano and others on your staff help make this happen?  

What we envision is a major panel discussion at the Koret Auditorium again on making sense of what's happening at City College--perhaps indicating that this is a forum the citizens of San Francisco are calling for.  We want civil discourse, and we also want to assert our rights as citizens to be informed.

We would be very grateful for your help with this.  I know we can't really schedule anything until we know about the coronavirus, but I'd like to start getting the "team" together.

Many thanks,

Tina Martin

WEN's Hack-athon for Environment-related Problems Disproportionately Affecting Women

Last night (Tuesday, March 10) After we were welcomed and told to wash our hands, WEN (Women's Environmental Network) provided another stimulating evening with Anya at the helm and Kathie Piccagli and me representing Mothers Out Front. Before breaking into groups to problem solve, we met women from various environment-focused organizations and saw the "Corona Dance,". Then we introduced ourselves in a way that was fun and revealing. (Details later.) 

Note charming Anya's new hair cut, improving the environment in a unique way.

The Department of Public Health Order C19---02 and My Letter to the Editor

Over the weekend, the Department of Public Health issued the ORDER OF THE HEALTH OFFICER No. C19-02 with instructions for City-owned facilities to cancel all non-essential group events to facilitate social distancing, which will help prevent further spread of COVID-19 in our community.

Bravo to Tony Bravo for his plea “Don’t let virus fears kill local arts scene.”  I certainly sympathize with people with an autoimmune condition like those Erin Allday wrote about in “Isolation a risk amid virus fear” on March 8th, but I see signs that the epidemic of fear is worse than the epidemic of the coronavirus. I recently went to a sing-along for Baby Boomers at the Anza  Public Library, where they were discouraging large unnecessary gatherings but seemed to understand that a sing-along doesn’t fall into that category! Later I heard that a book discussion group is being cancelled there.  A friend scheduled to interview former SF Columnists, Leah Garchik and Ruthe Stein for Word Week in Noe Valley let me know that that, too, has been cancelled. 

I still plan to BART to two meetings pertaining to the climate change emergency that I wish people would take more seriously—the Last Chance Alliance today and the Women’s Environmental Network tomorrow.  It’s thanks to the latter that I learned about the Corona Dance, which puts washing hands into movements and had  242,793 views the last time I looked.

Let’s sing along to that as we wash our hands.

Environmental Justice Meeting across the Bay--No Drilling Where We're Living

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/tkcngxcevmcnolg/AAA1HnE8u8r8Ta6FR2QvHz67a?dl=0

Kathie Piccagli and I wore our Mothers Out Front tee-shirts and carried our sign to Oakland for the hearing at the California Department of Conservation/Geologic Energy Management Division, where more than 100 people showed up to say "No drilling where we're living." Children ranging in age from 8 to 11, grandmothers, and medical staff were among those speaking about the impact drilling has on the people living in the communities where it's going on. Lots of environmental organizations were there, and only one representative from the oil industry--Bob Brown from WSPA, Western State Petroleum Association. Kathie Piccagli spoke, showing our sign and reinforcing the message that there should be at least a 2500 ft. set-back.

Not Really San Francisco but San Franciscans Chew and View

Our Francophone (soi-disant), Francophile group Chew and View usually meets in San Francisco to enjoy amuse-gueules and chat before we look at some kind of emission in French.  But we also have a member in Berkelely and a member (the founder and wit that named our group) in San Rafael, where we went today and feasted on the view--of trees and of food--at the home of Jana and Jeff.

Here's the Chew.

What Jennifer Siebel Newsom Really Said to Anti-Vaccination Protesters

This morning's SF Chronicle said that First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom "last week offered aid and comfort to anti-vaccination activists." 

I looked up what she'd really said and done: 


SACRAMENTO — 

 

California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom told anti-vaccine protesters rallying outside her Sacramento-area home that her husband’s administration is looking into their concerns about California’s new laws limiting who can be exempted from shots required for school, while also saying she believes there needs to be more dialogue about whether some immunizations are unnecessary.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-24/vaccine-critics-assurances-jennifer-siebel-newsom-governor-california

Why are people who think drug companies and clinics are overdoing the vaccinations automatically dismissed as nuts?  Even if they're wrong, why shouldn't the state look into it?

Book Passage at the Ferry Building--"Frida in America" by Celia Stahr

Last night's reading/presentation at Book Passage (Ferry Building) for "Frida in America" by Celia Stahr re-united the author with her agent, translator, and the granddaughter of Lucienne Bloch, whose diary provided so much of the information on Frida Kahlo's travels her first three years in the United States. Of course, Will Maynez was on hand! I'm looking forward to reading this book, which just came out.

After Voting, Very Good Presentations on Rivera's Mural of Pan American Unity

While we're waiting for election returns, I want to report that education on Rivera's Mural of Pan-American Unity is in very good hands with Nicole Krup Oest, instructor of Art History and the Mural Docent Program Coordinator at CCSF. We also applauded for Anna Asebedo

I went to the Flex Day presentation Nicole organized with docents Erin Blackwell, Melissa San Miguel Quintana, and Micahela X Gonzales. Instructors Jeff Goldthorpe, Dayamudra Dennehy, Amy Diaz-Infante, and Sophie Touze also presented. All the presentations were excellent,

Nicole is very kind and thoughtful, so she acknowledged the work on the Rivera mural done by us decades ago, and Jeff and Dayamudra did too--a shout out to Jana Zanetto and Bill Shoaf.

Notice what the art students have added to be more inclusive.