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I’ve seen a bunch of inspiring chalk messages around the neighborhood this week.

ME (grocery shopping while wearing mask, consults shopping list app on iPhone)
MY iPHONE’S FACIAL RECOGNITION: “Who the hell are you?”
repeat several dozen times

Report on an excursion to the supermarket

I went to the big Von’s on University Avenue to stock up today

I wore nitrile gloves, as I did the other time I went to the supermarket nine days ago. I also wore an N95 mask – my first time out in public wearing one.

I felt self-conscious about the mask, and over the past few days I was mentally rehearsing the conversation I might have with a hypothetical person who might confront me about using the mask when healthcare professionals are doing without. I imagined myself saying, “We bought the masks long before the pandemic; Julie uses them when she cleans the litterbox. We had the gloves too. We’re not hoarding; we have 10 masks and 100-200 pairs of gloves.

“We do not have a large extended family in the area,” I would have said, “so if one of us gets sick the other one takes care of them. If we both get sick, well, we’re screwed.

“By protecting ourselves, we avoid becoming additional burdens on the healthcare system,” I would have said.

“And also, you may be right,” I would have said to the hypothetical person.

Nobody non-hypothetical confronted me.

The supermarket crowd was light, but I would not have found it remarkably light on an ordinary day. Only three or four of us wore masks, and a few more wearing gloves. None of the supermarket staff seemed to be wearing masks, but the pharmacy staff did. The cashier, at least, was wearing gloves, of the type that food service workers usually wear.

One man brought his son, who looked to be about 4 years old. Seems like a bad idea. Maybe he had nobody to watch the kid?

The supermarket had most of the things I was looking for. Plenty of fresh produce, even fresh asparagus for a treat tonight. They did not have Julie’s favorite brand of salad dressing, but that might not have been virus-related as the shelves were full of salad dressing. Maybe they just didn’t carry it.

Also absent: Toilet paper and cleaning supplies. I keep hearing the supply chain is fine with those, and people are just hoarding. So when will that ol' supply chain kick in? Eventually people will run out of room in their houses for toilet paper.

I also was able to find two big bottles of my favorite hand soap, Dr. Bronner’s. That was a pleasant surprise.

I still get occasional comments on this article I wrote 10 years ago. Ten years!

5 reasons why people hate Apple

I just got an email this morning.

The email had no context. Just a short two sentences on why the sender hates Apple – he’s an Android user and was using Dark Sky until Apple bought it this week and shut off API access, including Android.

I replied by asking him why he was sending the email to me. But I was still waking up when I sent that reply, because truly I already knew. That article.

I just reread it. It’s a pretty good article. If I were writing it today, I’d spend time discussing Apple’s monopolistic practices. Or quasi-monopolistic – they don’t own the market, but they control a big chunk of it. It’s the same all over the economy; a few big companies control each industry. They compete against each other but mainly they’re concerned with stifling new competition.

I’m still nearly exclusively an Apple user but I have fewer illusions today. When you do business in the current economy, you compromise your principles. Like using Facebook, for example.

Baked potato + kosher-style spicy brown mustard: Good idea? Discuss.

I just did the census. For “origin” I put in “American,” after Julie pointed out that her great-grandparents (and my grandparents and great-grandparents) were from other countries, but she and I are from right here in the USA.

I gave serious thought to putting in “human” for race, because I am becoming seriously convinced that racial differences aren’t just social constructs, they’re toxic bullshit.

But I went with the conventional answer: White.

Although to people who get really exercised about race, Jews aren’t white.

Fellow Americans, take the census today, if you have not already: 2020census.gov. It’s important; it’s how representation and government services will be distributed over the next decade.

In the “Reign of Terror” episode of “I, Claudius,” a character being beaten to death at the behest of a tyrant declares: “I’ve never fully realized before how a small mind, allied to unlimited ambition and without scruple, can destroy a country full of clever men.”

This TV drama is about ancient Rome, and it aired in 1976, so of course this quote has absolutely no bearing on today.

Via the delightful “I, Podius” podcast, with John Hodgman and Elliott Kalan.

The petty tyrant in the above scene is Sejanus, played by a thirty-something Patrick Stewart. Sir Patrick has hair in “I, Claudius” but – I learned in a previous episode of the pod – it’s stunt hair; Stewart has been bald since he was 19.