We’ve talked endlessly about first responders.  Let’s talk for just a moment about the last responders.  The men and women  concocting a vaccine that could end the madness.

Ever wonder what these scientists do in the lab?

You probably envision them squirting eyedroppers into beakers full of smouldering chemicals… but the effort bears more than a faint resemblance to witchcraft in a white coat.

In the middle ages…  a witch might try eye of newt… root of  hemlock… and a wolf’s tooth might be the key ingredients as a black-hatted witch would stir her bubbling cauldron.

For modern day scientists… its not much different… as they try various ingredients to help kill the coronavirus.  But no matter whether they use yeast.. or.. egg protein… or whatever to create their miracles…. the one ingredient that is an absolute must… is the blood of a horseshoe crab.

Oh I kid you not.Or perhaps I should say “the blood of a horseshoe crab.”

The eiree sight if you could imagine is a wall completely covered with shelving … and on every inch… a horseshoe crab ...with a plastic tube coming out of its shell.  They drain the blood of these bottom dwellers….   A component of horseshoe crab blood is needed to make certain that deadly  endotoxins aren’t mixed up in the vaccine.  Every dose gets tested… for toxins. All vaccines… use the blood of from horseshoe crabs…. there’s no synthetic replacement.  The blood is sucked into giant vats… or cauldrons if you will… suggesting a vaccine scientist is just a witch who went to medical school.  

And if that’s the case… bubble bubble toil and trouble away… and keep on doing the good work toward the vaccine we so depserately need.

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To a generation of kids… Theodore Roosevelt is a guy on a horse played by Robin Williams.  

We all remember the statue come to life in Night at the Museum.   The real teddy Roosevelt was respected as one of America’s first conservationists… so he holds a prominent place at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

The real Teddy Roosevelt statue… is high on a pedastal front and center on the steps leading to the museum.   And it’s where families and schoolkids would meet up at day’s end.

Meet me at the statue out front.  My mom as a kid.  Me as a kid.  My son on his class trip.

For Generations.. in fact… for 80 years… Teddy Roosevelt has stood on horse back guarding the museum that you know from the movie… … but no more.  Not because of anything he did.  Remember… he was one of our first conservationists.

But standing alongside his burly horse… an African man on one side… a Native American on the other.   The museum says the statue represents colonial expansion and racial discrimination.  

So Teddy Roosevelt… President … Conservationist… Movie Star… and the guy you meet up in front of at the museum…  will be pulled back inside… and pushed into a dusty corner.  

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Everybody knows this song by David Bowie.

Now you had the original 45… and flipped it over.

Oh right… to our younger listeners a 45 is a vinyl record with a song on each side… and it rotates on the record player at 45 rpm’s rotations per minute… as opposed to an album uh ..33… well I have to.  They don’t know. But I digress

If you had the original 45 from 1970 and flipped it over… the B-side was a song that originally got no attention.

David Bowie wrote it in disgust about the music industry… 

The song languished… practically unknown until November, 1993… when Kurt Cobain and Nirvana performed it on MTV unplugged ..    There… on live TV on a dark stage strewn with flowers and candles… The guitar notes seared into the consciousness of grunge rock fans… and Cobain’s haunting performance offered a clue… a hint… the pain that led him to suicde five months later.

To a generation of fans in flannel … this performance was a milestone… and over the weekend.  The guitar that played these notes was sold for 6-million dollars.  The highest price ever paid…. for the guitar that played… 

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t’d a take a full minute to explain why white women who question people of color are all called Karen.  But here’s this week’s Karen... on video.. from a wealthy neighborhood in San Francisco.

The Filipino guy wearing a balaclava… is stenciling the words black lives matter… on the stone facade in front of a beautiful house.

She’s lying.  She doesn’t know the person.  It’s just she just can’t wrap her head around a Filipino guy living in a big expensive house.

And she does.  And walks off.  Leaving James Juanillo shaking his head.

Afterward… he told NBC San Francisco…. oh yeah.  The cops came.

Please note… you don’t have to take sides.  The cops were great.  The racism was thwarted.

This Karen…. came back after the cops left… you know… to check on things.  James made sure he was inside and waved at her from the window.  The woman’s name is Lisa Alexander ..her skin-care line has been dropped by Birchbox. She’s apologizing.  And if your name happens to be Karen.  No offense. 

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I hear it constantly.  I don’t trust the media.

I’ve heard it from my own mother.  I don’t trust the media.

I’m like.  Mom.  You know who you’re talking to …right?

And she says “not you…” but on this media they say that media is lying.”

So in a world where you have facts… and you have alternate facts.

For instance… in Seattle… you’re hearing about this occupied zone… where protestors have thrown out the police.  There are news reports of mayhem.  Shakedowns.  Wholesale violence.  Border Checkpoints. Our friend from ABC… Alex Stone flew there over the weekend.  Here’s what he found.

That’s from a guy who’s there.  Chances are you’re hearing otherwise from men and women in their vacation homes.

Sean Hannity is on the North Shore of Long Island doing his show from home.  Tucker Carlson hosting his show on Fox from his homes in Florida and Maine.  On MSNBC… Rachel Maddow is in Western Massachusetts. 

All of them are careful to avoid showing their wealth in the background …when their on the air.

The head of CNN … Jeff Zucker… is in the Hamptons where a pandemic means… you have to wheel your own golf cart. No caddies.

Mom… a rule of thumb.  Trust the people who are there.  Sometimes the folks at their vacation homes… are out to lunch. So to speak       

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Are you part of the pandemic tofu craze?

Some people swear by it. Some people would rather eat fried rubber bands… which is almost the same thing..

But tofu sales are skyrocketing  - up 67 percent.  Up so much tofu makers have been importing it from South Korea. 

These bland rubbery blocks of off-white protein are far cheaper than meat.  But meat has taste.  Tofu does not.  But if you roll enough of it into a sphere… it’d might make a decent basketball

After the game enjoy any of the millions of tofu  recipes.  Ohhhh the recipes.  Tofu takes the flavor of whatever you mix it with.  But not really.   Pour Mrs Butterworths on a pancake… it’ll taste like syrup.  But pour ketchup on a pancake and that doesn’t make it a hamburger.

Nonetheless… there are recipes abound for enjoying - and I use that word loosely - enjoying tofu.   Sweet or Salty  ones…  Sweet AND salty ones.  There’s spicy …  there’s marinated… there’s Crispy Fried tofu.

Any way you cut it or mush it … Tofu *is* good for you.  Protein without the heart-clogging cholesterol should be welcome on our dinner plates.  It’s good news that tofu sales are off the charts…  and as the price of meat skyrockets… it’s thrifty.

So thrifty Utahns…  it you can’t wrap your head around tofu for dinner… just think of it as off white jello… and enjoy!

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If you haven’t been paying attention… you might think that most planes are empty… and flights are dirt cheap.  That is sooo April.

Here’s what’s going on as we head into summer travel season.  Most of the fly for a dollar dirt cheap flights are gone.  The airlines have cut their schedules back so far… that in some cases… you’re paying more for the ticket… and once you get to the airport you’ll be surprised how many people are in the boarding line for your flight.

Here is Salt Lake City… we’re fortunate to be a Delta hub.  Because report from travel bloggers indicate that Delta is the one airline that’s serious about Coronavirus precautions.   They’re only booking flights to 60 percent of capacity.  They’re trying to avoid booking middle seats.  They want people to wear masks.  There a constant reminders about social distancing as you walk down the jetway.  And they board from the back of the plane to the front so you don’t bump and grind into people as you find your seat.

Other airlines not so much… and by most accounts… the worst right now is American Airlines.  Which doesn’t seem to be enforcing any of its covid safety rules… nor reminding people how to stay safe.   Some United Airlines flight attendants say they’ve been given no directives on how to handle people who are coughing with no mask on…. so they don’t do anything.

The advice from travel bloggers … if you’re ready to travel and want to stay safe…   when you see something say something.  Be the squeaky wheel to protect your health.

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Simple question:  Why do we love movies?

---Hooray for Hollywood—

Two word answer?  We watch movies to escape!   Fiddle with the remote… and all of a sudden the bad news is gone.  You’re saving the galaxy

—— Chewie —— 

Or  you’re in a Chocolate Factory....

—— famous line

Maybe you’re on a beach…

___ wilson!

Or. in Oz …. 

But who wants to be home… cowering from the coronavirus while we watch ugly news about tear gas… and looting nonstop.   You need to escape.

But  if we watch movies to get away from reality… why is Hollywood racing to produce TV shows and feature length movies about the coronavirus?

Michael Bay… the guy behind transformers and Bad Boys… will direct a movie about a deadlier version of Coronavirus hitting LA in 2022.   The movie’s called “Songbird.  There’s a Disney affiliate shooting a four part series called Love in the Time of Corona.  It’s a rom-com.  With Social distancing.   Or this!  Producers are giving the fast track to another movie with the most unoriginal title… You ready to pay 5.99 and slide popcorn into the microwave… to watch a flick called Lockdown?  Didn’t think so.

But these movies are coming.  Just ahead of what will undoubtedly be a slew of riot movies… 

While you grab the remote for a couple hours of escape… Hollywood is getting ready to sell … misery.

Good luck with that.

——  

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Daniel Thorson is a deep thinker.  He hosts a podcast called Emerge… 

Daniel’s podcast is about philosphy… with shades of Monastic Buddhism tossed in.  I really don’t understand it.

But I mention Daniel… because he completely missed the worldwide lockdown.   

March 13th… Daniel Thorson entered a monastery for 75 days of seclusion.  This is a few days before Rudy Gobert tested positive and the world stopped.  Since then Thorson was tucked away in silent meditation in northwestern Vermont… clueless to world events.

May 23rd he emerged.  Memorial Day weekend… he left seclusion and said “hey.  So what’s been goin’ on?”

Well, Daniel…  the NBA canceled the season.  The other sports followed. Almost every school in America shut down. The highways emptied. We figured out how to work from home.   Oil fell below zero.  Clorox shot to the moon.  100,000 dead. Zoom happened. We fought over masks  Ran out of toilet paper. meat got expensive.  40 million lost their jobs.

How you been?

Thorson tells the New York Times… he’s had a strange week… because catching up is completely different than experiencing the trauma the rest of us went through.

When he emerged he went to the grocery store expecting human contact.  But people backed away from him.  He’d never heard of social distancing… 

Now… everybody wants to interview him… He’s the only person in America… who missed the fear and Facebook fights.   The shortages and the long days stuck at home.    And he wonders… whether he should bother to catch up at all..

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While I’m watching it all happen Saturday night … my son facetimes me from Philadelphia… where he’s in the middle of a riot.

He showed up for the protest.  And it turns into choas.   Looting at the Apple Store .. H&M..   Starbucks tables being thrown in the street.  I’m watching this on Facetime saying Benj… get outa there.  But no he stays… and stands in the door of a Gourmet Fooshop... to stop looters from going in…  because yes… they wanted  steal a wonderful array of fresh imported cheeses.

So he’s protesting.  And then he's defending.  Rioters want cheese.  And I don’t understand any of it.  

And then I see this guy in downtown Salt Lake doing the exact same thing when the looting started at 7-11.  African American guy standing in the doorway on top of the glass shards.

Listen…

The crowd wants to steal more beer.  But they don't you feel my pain… you need to stop.  And they did.

I don’t even know his name… but you need to know… that one person can make a difference.

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