There is no point in attempting my usual meandering approach to the topic that preoccupies all of us at the moment. Just as unnecessary travel is discouraged, leisurely verbal excursions now seem a rude extravagance. As the Novel Coronavirus invades our shores—and lungs—we’re faced with the worst public health crisis of our lifetimes. Even the very oldest of my readers are likely too young to have lived through the so-called Spanish Influenza of 1918. This is a hundred-year plague.
We’re seeing the best—and worst—of ourselves. People are rising to the occasion to observe basic precautions against contracting or spreading Covid-19. If we never learned to wash our hands twenty times a day (as I did in grade school) we’re getting a crash refresher course now. Unfortunately, certain others are panic-buying the supposed necessities of life and stripping the supermarket shelves of household paper products and cleaning supplies. I think back on Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, and I have to smile—albeit bitterly. Mackay would certainly add a whole new chapter on our TP-omania.
The gracious social amenities that we have traditionally enjoyed—and have taken for granted—are suspended. We guess that we may at some point again venture out for a haircut and a movie, eventually. For those of us who border on agoraphobia (or cros
