Items

• 
  2020-03-19

  #FormalFriday

  "Since everyday is Corona Casual now, I propose we start doing 'Formal Friday.' Break out the tux or gown, do your hair, and settle in for a fancy day at home." I posted that on Facebook on Thursday, March 19, 2020. The next day, I shared a photo of myself in a cocktail dress, pearls, and lipstick, laptop balanced on my knee, chaotic home office behind me. In the weeks that followed, I would post a reminder on Thursday, and on Friday folks would post photos of themselves in their finery. These were friends from all aspects of my life, people who didn't know each other, using the hashtag #formalfriday and adding a little levity to an anxiety ridden time. For me, it was one of the only bright spots. Work from home started March 12th. Five days before that, my husband had informed me our marriage wasn't working. And five days after, my mom went into the hospital, where she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer. Over the course of 10 days, my world had been ripped out from under me. The emotional isolation was crushing. Compounded with the physical and social isolation - I was living each day on the verge of collapse. But on Fridays, I would put on makeup, jewelry, and a gown and pretend that everything was hunky dory for social media. That my level of fear, of anxiety, of panic were on the same level as everyone else's. I would take a photo, sometimes with my daughter, and post on Facebook. Then I would take off the sparkles and finery and return to the dull reality of leggings and dread. Formal Friday went on for eleven weeks. I saved my favorite dress for last: A full-length gown with a black and white striped skirt (it has pockets!) and crop-top illusion. In the photo, my daughter is in her pajamas because we had given up on making her get dressed by then. I'm clenching onto her and she's flopped backward, totally over the whole thing. There's a smile on my face that doesn't reach my eyes. After I posted it, I had multiple friends reach out to ask if I was OK. We were three months into a two-week quarantine, yet the pandemic was a solid third on the list of things I was most worried about. The strain was starting to show on my body, in my face. Looking back at the photos now, I think about the illusion of social media and how easy it is to pretend that what someone posts is reflective of their full reality. I was going through the most challenging time in my life, but based on what I put on Facebook, I had enough joy to play dress-up once a week. At the same time... I still had enough joy to play dress-up once a week. And it brought me joy to see other people do the same. Seeing my friends, and friends of friends, and screenshots of zoom meetings, where people were in suits, or gowns, or just putting on a little make-up because that's all they could muster, kept a flame of happiness glowing inside me and helped me get through those first eleven weeks. It was silly, it wasn't a representation of reality, but when my whole world was on fire, it was nice to feel beautiful with friends.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Eating Food in Class

  This is a video my friend shared with me at the beginning of the pandemic of him eating food in class when he believed his camera was off.
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  2020-03-19

  Silent Hospital – Giving Birth in Quarantine

  The Covid-19 quarantine started on March 16th, 2020. I gave birth to my daughter four days later. Thankfully my labor was very quick and there were no complications. By 8:44 a.m. on the 19th, my daughter was in my arms. After the commotion of the nurses and doctors coming to check on my daughter and myself, there was just silence. Newborns, as a quickly discovered, slept a lot. There were long stretches of silence for the two days we were in the hospital. I would look at my husband and say, “It is eerily quiet in here.” I was only one of three mothers giving birth in my area of the hospital, there were no visitors, and we were told to stay in our rooms unless we absolutely needed to walk around. My husband would order food and have to wait at the front of the hospital for them to drop it off. Every time he left and came back, he talked about how he had barely seen anyone, and that it was completely silent in the hospital. When it was time for us to finally leave, walking out of the hospital was also silent. There were no phones ringing, no nurse pagers, no talking between nurses, nothing. The only sounds were my flip flops squeaking off of the floors. When we finally made it outside, the birds were chirping and I remembering thinking, ‘thank goodness for some background noise!’
• 2020-03-19

  LockDown

  So this was the beginning of lockdown for covid-19 when it first started to get out of hand, I was trying to start my first year at my new college DePaul University. Yet it was going to be online for the first year and that is when it started to get rough from all the work I had to get done with little to no help at all from professors. They weren't opposed to helping it was just the fact that we could only find them in office hours and after class online and most of the times it was software problems that would take so long to be fixed to where it would take almost a couple of weeks to fix. When if it wasn't for covid I would be able to go in and fix it asap. It's just that the reason for this is because Covid can really affect ones learning progress and if it's something tech related it really can cause a delay for many not just students but office workers and professors etc.
• 2020-03-19

  Panic During a Pandemic

  March 19th 2020 started off as a very normal day, I very clearly remember dropping off my son at school and heading into the office for work. I was a Senior Purchasing Agent at a fairly large IT solutions company and we were busy preparing for the Fiscal Year End as it was only a week and a half away. At around 10 am, my phone buzzed, I looked down and noticed it was an email notification from my son’s school which was fairly uncommon during school hours. I quickly opened it up and saw that the schools were going to be shut down for two whole weeks, which was absurd to me at the time, I had never heard of such a thing happening. I quickly let my supervisor know in hopes of being able to work from home. At the time we were piloting working from home one assigned day per week to see if we could make it a long term perk. She quickly approved me to stay home with my son, I am a single mother, and we all know how expensive childcare in California is. Moments later, I heard everyone who was in the office shuffle into the breakroom to watch a press conference on the news. President Trump was on the podium announcing that he was issuing a “Stay at home” order for the whole country. I immediately got chills down my spine and was in complete panic wondering how dangerous the Covid-19 virus truly was. I then quickly grabbed my phone to text in my family’s group text to check in on them. We all thought that it was absurd but understood that it was for everyone’s safety. Next, there was panic in what seemed like every corner of the United States, as almost no one had enough supplies to cover their entire families for two weeks without going to the stores. This caused complete havoc! For some reason, the hot commodity at the time was toilet paper. It was flying off the shelves and obsolete for some time. My mother and I went to stand in line the next morning at 4:45am in hopes of getting enough food and basic necessities to last our family. Upon arrive at the store about five minutes later there were a hundred people in line waiting for the store to open. Inside the store, people were dashing to get whatever they could and manners were completely out the window. It seemed very apocalyptic. Little did we know that the lockdown would not end for six months. I personally lost an aunt and very good family friend to the virus. Even today, December 10th, 2021, there are mask mandates, and now variants of the virus. Although there is only a vaccine, not a cure, we are learning how to safely navigate life again.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Museums, Curators, and Artists Find Innovative Solutions for Showing Art in a Pandemic

  This Artsy article written in the beginning of the pandemic discusses the innovative ways that museums and art professionals used technology to maintain relevance and viewership during lockdown.
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  2020-03-19

  Pandemic Smells and Silence

  When the pandemic became widespread enough for schools to start shutting down, it seems that’s when life really changed. I remember - it was March 2020 - and my school district had just gone on spring break. It was still uncertain whether teachers and students would be returning to their classroom after break’s end. We were asked to come into our classrooms to gather any teaching supplies we might be able to use to teach virtually in the event that we would be told to remain at home. When I arrived at school, it was so quiet. There were a few cars parked in the parking lot, but no people to be seen. The usual student chatter, catching fragments of conversation as they walked by, the bustle of cars parking was gone. As I entered my building, a wave of chemically cleaned and sanitized air blasted my nostrils. The smells of bleach and whatever other industrial cleaners schools use wafted through the halls. They had recently been cleaned - I had never seen them so pristine. A few custodian cleaning carts were scattered nearby, but still no one to be seen. Every footfall seemed louder against the backdrop of silence. The deserted hallway and the chemical smell assaulting my olfactory system had turned my second home into something sterile and unwelcoming. Entering my classroom, I noticed it, too, had been sanitized with heavy chemicals and a jug of hand sanitizer had unceremoniously been plopped on my desk. I surveyed my classroom, nostrils burning from the bleach again, grabbed what I needed and went home. It would be the last time I would see my classroom for a long time. The memory of that shining, white hallway and the burning air of “purification” has stayed with me.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Life during Pandemic

  Life during pandemic has been crazy. From schools getting shutdown mid semester to half of the population in the world getting laid off from their job. The pandemic for me started when the schools got shutdown mid semester. University's and colleges went online during pandemic but high schools got shut down till the end of the year. I was a high school senior when the pandemic started. I was really happy at first to get a couple of days off from school, but the couple days turned into weeks and eventually in months. This would have been my high school graduation, the moment I had been waiting for years. But because of pandemic, almost no one from class of 2020 get to celebrate their graduation, the way they wanted. A couple of months after graduation, i went to start university. But it was not the university experience I imagined for myself. ASU went all online with zoom classes from home. I tried getting involved to see if that can make a difference in my college experience, but the involvements were also all online. One thing I learned during this whole pandemic was how important in person learning was. I did hear a lot of people complaining about not learning anything though zoom, but It actually happened to me. I had to use twice as much time going over lectures and quizzes than I would usually do. Because I would get distracted easily. On the other hand, during pandemic I also had a part time retail job. Even though half of the population in the U.S got laid off from their job, I actually worked double the shift during pandemic than I would normally work. I started working full time since the pandemic started till last month august, when the classes started in person. I did get to save tons of money to buy a car for myself. Thankfully during pandemic, no one from my family got covid-19, and we were all really safe. Overall, the pandemic was a crazy yet really wonderful experience for me because I not only learned importance of small things in our lives but also learned to always stay in touch with our family member and friends because you never know what will happen next.
• 
  2020-03-19

  EXECUTIVE ORDER N-33-20

  This is the executive order from California Governor Gavin Newsom that introduced California's shelter-in-place on March 19, 2020. The executive order orders Californians to stay at home and only leave home for necessities (buying food, health care, etc.) or for working in certain industries.
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  2020-03-19

  What Is Social Distancing and How Do I Do It?

  A blog postfrom the Banner Health Blog about social distancing.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Early Moveout

  Had to move out of my dorm 2 months early, a few weeks after classes were cancelled. The roommate was from Colombia, had to leave behind half of his stuff to get on a flight home.
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  2020-03-19

  Toilet paper being cleared out dubbed with Walking Dead zombie noises

  A video meme making fun of the panic buying of toilet paper in march of 2020. Appears to be a Costco. Dubbed with zombie noises from The Walking Dead. I feel its important for videos of these events to be preserved as well as the social/ popular response to events like panic buying
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  2020-03-19

  Alberta Distillery

  Post from Strathcona Spirits about specialized hand sanitizer.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Text Messages between my Mother and I.

  This is a small conversation between my mom and I when she went back to work during the beginning of quarantine. She works as a medical secretary at a local doctor’s office and works closely with sharing phones, computers, and other spaces. It was not until recently that there was a COVID scare following Thanksgiving, but, she tested negative since they are from a different department. This item connects to the week focusing on historical thinking on and off the web as this was never something that I would have considered sharing beyond my close group of friends since it feel mundane now. I think that this is an “Item of interest to future historians that helps illustrate something particularly significant about the year 2020” as we see her in full gear. While the precautions no longer have the dress or hair mask, she still wears the medical-grade mask with her gloves and face shield each day. Seeing people in action will humanize the pandemic and make it seem like something that truly happened than just another historical moment with accounts like this.
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  2020-03-19

  Facing Quarantine, Canadians Want to Exercise

  This article shares one running businesses's increase in sales during lockdown as many Canadians returned or started running. People needed a way to still exercise for not only their physical but mental health, and running became the most popular workout for its socially distanced nature.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Quebec Distillery

  Cirka Distilleries began producing hand sanitizer. In this post, they request contacts with companies that provide bottles and aloe.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Online Courses to Help with Anxiety Amidst the Pandemic

  During the pandemic, I was an intern at a nonprofit, LEAD Inc., where we created online courses and webinars that give people tips and tricks to dealing with anxiety, working from home, and things to do during the pandemic. I think this item amplifies the voices of a marginalized group, people who struggle with anxiety already, and who struggled even more during the pandemic. It is also a great example of a small non-profit who took an advantage of the pandemic, and worked to try to help people during an unprecedented time. A lot of items I found were just things people did during the pandemic to pass the time, but at LEAD, we actually put together an online course to inform and help people who struggle with the anxiety of uncertainty, and we give lots of information and tips in the course.
• 
  2020-03-19

  The Las Vegas strip

  What it does means to me is that our bright and beautiful city which was active was dead, it was a ghost town. It showed that at that time the Governor Steve Sisolak needed to make a very difficult decision and shut down our country in order to protect the Nevadans. But it came at a risk of shutting down our economy many Nevadans have been hurt recently, When it came to the federal government barely anything has been done. There are still millions of Americans who are struggling to put food on the table for their children and Congress can't put politics aside for the betterment of the American people. I was one of the lucky ones and I have been negatively affected so I don't know how it must of felt for the Americans who are struggling but I know it must be painful.
• 
  2020-03-19

  The Glass Den, Save Hospo

  This image represents hospitality venues in Melbourne struggling to make ends meet earlier in the pandemic, before they were closed due to restrictions. The hashtag #savehospo trended on Instagram, being used by hospitality venues to ask for continued support from the public. This image is important to me as I am the worker in the background of the image. For me, the image represents my personal journey during the pandemic, where I lost my job and was unable to apply for Jobkeeper benefits as I got the job three weeks before restrictions were enforced. This photo gives insight into the struggle that a lot of hospitality venues and workers are going through during the pandemic. HIST30060
• 
  2020-03-19

  Prospering through a pandemic

  Covid-19 was an eye opening experience as to how fast life moves and all that plays a part in it.We're taught from young about germs,proper hygienic practices but this disease still seemed to emerge that continues to spread day by day.During these unprecedented times, it is important to be in control of your emotional health,financial and intellectual wellness.Self quarantining was the first and at a point in time was the only thing I, as a New Yorker could do.Being locked in your home everyday,all day due to fear of catching a disease that you have no idea where it came from,no cures, just a mask and anti-bacterial soap/hand sanitizers,or cleaning agents hoping to whisk it all away.As a young woman,growing up in New York,it is indeed true that you are a product of your environment.The city is fast-paced,everyday there is something to do,places to be.My life was made up of work,school,groceries,laundry.I enjoyed the rush, the constant rotation of responsibilities I had.March 19, 2020 It all came to a halt.My job was closed,going to class was now a thing of the past,can't see friends or anyone outside of immediate family,honestly.What type of life was this? All that was left was you,your mind,and time.To ensure that Covid-19 had not taken complete control of my life or my well-being,I kept the mind wandering.The reminder to consistently self-assess and keep the mind free of stress but also alert to not be oblivious to the seriousness of this pandemic.To learn the importance of finances and creating balance now that its uncertain when another check may arrive.Developing new interests,researching various topics,looking for new hobbies ;painting,coloring as a way to keep sane.With all this time spent in the house,its important to keep the mind active and alert and my emotions in check.
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  2020-03-19

  A comparative evacuation

  This is my own story of evacuating Malaysia in March due to covid-19 during my Fulbright grant. This story is important to me because, while I did not want to leave Malaysia, it is a humbling reminder of how privileged I am to have been able to evacuate somewhere when so many people throughout the world had no option but to stay put and brace themselves for the pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Fighting Creative Blocks During Quarentine

  Of course the pandemic hit everyone's motivation and zest for daily life pretty hard, but as an artist whose social circles are mainly comprised of other artists, I noticed an especially hard hit to the creative output of my peers. I've heard before that suffering and despair is supposed to bring out the best artists have to offer, but in reality the inverse is often true- Van Gogh painted the Starry Night while he was getting specialized care in a mental health facility, after all. It's hard to find your spark when it feels like the world is caving in on all sides, but I was determined to find a way to keep myself from falling into a months long creative drought I knew I'd find myself in if I didn't do something about it. I didn't have the energy or desire to touch full sized pieces, but I reasoned with myself that I could stand to go smaller scale to save on both energy and time without sacrificing the feeling of accomplishment that comes with a finished piece, and so the day before every non-essential business in town shut down, I ran to my local Michael's and picked up the cheapest acrylic paints I could find and 3 packs of six 2 inch square canvases. I tried to think of a subject that could easily be captured on such a small surface, but was also sure to spark joy in myself and perhaps others if i chose to share them, and landed on the topic of pets, since they were easily one of the biggest comforts for myself and everyone else I knew during our prolonged stints sitting at home. It was a good move, I think- looking at an an image of an animal for long periods of time never hurts your mood, and sharing photos of the finished paintings with my friends who own the animals pictured brought a boost of serotonin to both parties involved. More than one person suggested I start an etsy page and sell them, but I think I'm content to just let them be a quarantine hobby and act of kindness during a deeply depressing time.
• 
  2020-03-19

  "Proclamation Declaring a Public Health State of Emergency for the Osage Nation"

  "Under the authority of Article VII, Section 1 of the Osage Nation Constitution, and in the intrest of the Osage People and the general public, I, Geoffrey M. Standing Bear, Principal Chief, declare that a Public Health State of Emergency for the Osage Nation exists within the territory of the Osage Nation."
• 
  2020-03-19

  The Fog Will Wait For You

  This TikTok video encourages San Francisco Bay Area residents to stay at home to stop the spread of COVID-19. There is a sense of community portrayed in the video. The overall message of the video is to relax, enjoy being home and know that everyone else is at home too. The video contains iconic San Francisco images, such as the Golden Gate Bridge, Victorian homes, sea lions, the Castro Theater and Twin Peaks neon signs, and a trolley. This video was produced at the start of shelter-in-place orders when many believed that if we all did our part, life would return to normal in a matter of weeks.
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  2020-03-19

  Plague Journal, Day 6: "This one is a disease vector"

  I'm keeping a Plague Journal, here is today's entry: I struggle to file my unemployment claim in an overwhelmed system; Trumpians trot out a racist description of Covid-19; I work to grasp the virus's severity with everything from face touching to pants buying; and The Girlfriend and I walk and jog through Bed-Stuy.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Miami is not aware

  US at late march has already got stucked into cover-19's threat, meanwhile Miami's people were still not aware the seriousness of the pandemic and gather around in public places.
• 2020-03-19

  Refrigerator Trucks line a street in Italy to Handle the Dead During the Pandemic

  Before COVID-19 took hold in the United States, we were all terrified as we read about Italy and what they were experiencing. They were the hotspot of the world at that time. This picture was circulated widely--it shows refrigerator trucks lined up in front of a hospital to take away the bodies of the dead.
• 
  2020-03-19

  What I thought would be an extension of Summer Break.

  When school was first canceled due to COVID 19, my friend and I thought that It would be sort of an extension of summer for us, but we could not foresee the extent to which business would close. This whole quarantine and lockdown serves us right for thinking that we were able to do anything that we wanted. Basically, for people who look back at this in the future, quarantine for students was basically just school at your house where you didn't have a mandatory time to show up, still pretty miserable since you were bored most of the time and couldn't even see your friends.
• 
  2020-03-19

  "Trending in Canada"

  A screenshot of a tumblr post which is, in turn, a screenshot the original poster took of twitter trending topics which initially seems as though the #endthelockdown hashtag and sentiment was gaining popularity in Canada, but that hashtag was shown to have been frequently used with the additional hashtag #morons, suggesting that instead Canadians were angry that anyone would hold such a sentiment when there is still a significant risk of infection.
• 
  2020-03-19

  UTAS students given three days to decide on online learning before census

  UTAS students given three days to decide on online learning before census
• 
  2020-03-19

  ‘We should blow up the bridges’ — coronavirus leads to class warfare in Hamptons

  New York Post article on 1%ers "escaping" to the Hamptons and putting severe pressure on local communities.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Drone footage over Boston

  t feels like the streets of Boston haven’t been this empty since the cows (apocryphally) laid out the paths centuries ago. Aram Boghosian, a regular freelance photographer and videographer for the Boston Globe, shot aerial video with a drone over several Boston hotspots on Monday and Tuesday. On a normal weekday afternoon, the city bustles with workers and tourists and commuters alike. But in the footage, the city sits nearly empty. It’s a ghost of what it was just a week ago, before Gov. Charlie Baker banned gatherings of over 25 people, established tight restrictions on stores and restaurants, and closed the schools in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Newbury Street and Faneuil Hall Marketplace are nearly devoid of shoppers. The seagulls on Summer Street seem to outnumber the pedestrians. Traffic is breezy in and out of the city, and an empty Fenway Park won’t see a pitch anytime soon. Only a handful of people walk and bike across Boston Common, which hosted a rally of over 13,000 densely packed people less than three weeks ago. It seems unimaginable now *Drone footage of Boston during quarantine
• 2020-03-19

  Letters to Lagniappe

  Instagram account curating a series of short, daily observations during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-03-19

  Graffiti on Grocery Store

  Graffiti shows cartoon "germ" and says "State of Emergency" and COVID-19. This was right at the beginning of the quarantine and is located on the block around the corner from a popular grocery store in Bushwick, the first place I saw with an enforced socially-distanced line outside.
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  2020-03-19

  DoD travel ban brings stress for separated families

  The Department of Defense placed a travel ban for military personnel and their families. At this time (03/19/20), the ban was set until May 11. However, in the middle of April, the ban extended the end date for the travel prohibition to June 30. This put stress on my parents because I'm not allowed to fly back home. They were worried about where I would stay once classes were done. In messages prior to the one shown, we discussed our limited options. With the help of Facebook, some relatives connected to my mother and we found out that my mother’s aunt and uncle in the Tucson area. This was incredibly fortunate for us and I’m extremely appreciative of the generosity of my great aunt and great uncle.
• 2020-03-19

  BLuey Strings

  A Playlist Created During Quarantine CSU
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  2020-03-19

  "Don't Pay Your Rent" Message

  A chalk message that states "DON'T PAY YOUR RENT" written on the back of my apartment building. This was during the period of quarantine when people were questioning whether or not landlords would still charge rent. I ended up paying my rent.
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  2020-03-19

  Indigenous People of Thailand Revive Traditional Practice of "Kroh Yee" (Village Closure) to Fight COVID-19

  “Karen people in a number of highland communities begin to shut-down their villages one by one, not to allow entering nor getting out at all times. These village shut-downs were announced in conjunction with the revival of the ancient ritual called, “Kroh Yee” (or village closure). It was found that this ritual was used seventy years ago when there was an outbreak of cholera. Local knowledge holders believe that there would be enough food for annual consumption if a pandemic occurs and the village needs to be blockaded, but the town’s people may run away to the forest for their survival.” #IndigenousStories
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  2020-03-19

  Suffolk University Instagram March 19, 2020

  Suffolk University Interfaith Center online programming during pandemic
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  2020-03-19

  U.K. in Morocco Tweet to help get any person of any nationality out of closed down Morocco due to the Coronavirus Pandemic.

  A screen shot of f this tweet to share with others in my What’s App group “Stranded in Morocco.” My wife and I were able to book this flight for a reasonable price. Might I note we were out in the Sahara Desert without service or news when the country shut down and after desperately trying to get help from our Embassy, with no success, we turned to the British Embassy for help and support. Original iPhone screenshot from Twitter. #HST643
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  2020-03-19

  The Hermit Herald vol 1, Issue 1

  Finding myself intellectually challenged during this period of monastic existence (I can only read the great works of the world so many hours a day) I have decided to communicate with several circles of friends to place upon their shoulders the angst of my ennui. Hence the first issue of The Hermit Herald, which may or may never hit the news stands again. Within this erudite publication the dear reader will discover some true and helpful tidbits, some thoughtful musings and a good sprinkling of innocuous drivel. Proceed at your own peril.
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  2020-03-19

  When sports stood still

  The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University's student run newspaper, reports on lack of pro sports during the pandemic.
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  2020-03-19

  Think of those who have been forgotten during this pandemic

  The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University's student run newspaper, reports on the personal affects of the pandemic.
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  2020-03-19

  Trump says potential COVID-19 treatment drugs won’t have to be approved by FDA

  The Suffolk Journal, Suffolk University's student run newspaper, reports on federal politics during the pandemic.
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  2020-03-19

  Email to all UTas students regarding online lecture delivery due to COVID-19.

  HUM402 On March 19, this email was sent to all UTas students in response to the outbreak of COVID-19 and its impact on the delivery of lectures. For thousands of students, this meant that the academic year was significantly going to change.
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  2020-03-19

  PA "life sustaining businesses"

  This document details the types of businesses and industries permitted to stay open in Pennsylvania as of 3/19/2020 after the governor shut down all non life-sustaining businesses.
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  2020-03-19

  How Are Major Religions Responding to the Coronavirus?

  This article by Kali Robinson is a great article that talks about the major changes that have had to happen because of COVID-19 . Robinson starts off by mentioning that religious gatherings have been hotbeds for outbreaks. She even mentioned that "Half of South Korea’s cases can be traced back to a meeting of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a Christian denomination"(Robinson, 2020). Since the outbreak, they have had to close down many places of worship, and have tried to limit social gatherings. In India they still celebrated Holi even though their prime minister advised to avoid social gatherings. Most of the people in attendance wore surgical masks. Religious groups are now donating equipment to undersupplied communities. Most churches have moved to online streaming for their services like the Roman Catholic Church started to livestream the Pope’s daily mass and Sunday sermon.
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  2020-03-19

  How Ronnie Red Found a Forever Home in the Middle of a Global Pandemic

  Ronnie the cat and I share a 650 square foot apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens, roughly a mile from the coronavirus epicenter. He 'supervises' my remote work and keeps me sane and organized. During this crisis, many people across the country fostered and adopted animal companions.
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  2020-03-19

  Email Signoffs

  Unique ways to sign off in emails related to social distancing as a result of the pandemic
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  2020-03-19

  Morning after testing

  A sunny morning. A view from my hotel balcony. This shows the testing tents and the registration office.