Energize An Ally Tuesday
Three weeks ago, chef and living humanitarian saint Jose Andres founded an offshoot of his World Central Kitchen called Chefs for America. The mission: serve fresh, nutritious meals to medical staff and vulnerable communities as the virus continues its rampage across the country. Here's a snip from his Saturday update:
With New York as the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, our teams are working tirelessly to make sure residents in need are fed. We are serving 25,000 meals each day across sites in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Harlem, along with Elizabeth and Newark, New Jersey. Next week we will be ramping up to 40,000 meals every day. Additionally, we have set up a WCK “cafe” at the Mount Sinai field hospital that recently opened in Central Park. We’ll keep the fridge here full of healthy, delicious meals for frontline medical staff to grab and heat up whenever they’re hungry.
Continued...
Chefs for America's COVID-19 teams are also operating, or ramping up, in communities all across the country, including Puerto Rico. Their agenda is breathtaking. And when this thing blows over---and it will---Chef Andres has promised to feed the front-line medical personnel for free for an entire year. If that don’t put a lump in your throat, check your pulse.
But they need money to do all this. That’s why today, with our Tuesday "Energize An Ally" spotlight on Chefs for America, C&J is making a donation to WCK via this link, and we encourage you to do the same if you're able and willing.
For real-time updates and local opportunities to help Chef Andres’ efforts, follow World Central Kitchen's Twitter feed here or their Facebook feed here.
And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Note: Full moon tonight. Get yer butt in the back yard, look up, think of Katherine Johnson, smile, and give it a wink. It’ll lower your blood pressure by at least three percent. —Dr. Billeh
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By the Numbers:
Days 'til Earth Day: 15
Number of times "wartime" president Trump played golf from mid-January to early March, during the invasion of the coronavirus: 8
Trump's current approval rating via all polls combined and averaged at FiveThirtyEight: 45%
Number of people who flew to the U.S. From China After Trump's travel ban was allegedly enacted: 40,000
Percent drop in airline travel versus this time last year, according to TSA data: 95%
Percent chance that "better days are ahead" according to Queen Elizabeth II, who is now coping with the fact that her prime minister is in the ICU with COVID-19: 100%
Percent chance that the Red Sox would be playing a perfect winning season if it hadn’t been canceled, according to all the experts: 98.7%
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Puppy Pic of the Day: Volleyball, anyone?
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JEERS to cheese-for-brains Republicans. Today is election day in Wisconsin. Yes, actual go-to-the-polls election day. In Wisconsin. During the "Pearl Harbor week" of the coronavirus pandemic. Governor Tony Evers, having done an about-face days ago, wants it postponed or done entirely by mail. Health officials are fuming. The folks who run the elections are appalled. Poll workers are so (rightly) spooked that the National Guard will have to step in at the fraction of polling places that are able to open. But the Republican-led legislature feels that conspiracy to commit murder is their preference, and so they'll invite all the state's citizens to pack cramped polling places to mark their ballots and then, shortly thereafter, die. And for what? Charlie Sykes at The Bulwark boils it down:
[T]he real action centers on the state Supreme Court. … For several years, Republicans have worried about re-electing conservative incumbent Dan Kelly, who was appointed to his seat by former Governor Scott Walker. […]
The election is set to proceed on Tuesday, despite warnings from one of the state’s top health experts that in-person voting may undo efforts to control the spread of the virus. [...]
[I]n Wisconsin, the GOP would rather endanger people’s lives and have a clusterfuck election, so long as it gives them a chance at clinging to a piece of government power.
Murder in the streets. It's okay if you're a Republican.
CHEERS to—oh my god, are you kidding me—HIM??? Yes, people. This is one of those once-in-a-blue-moon times when saying something nice about—[Throws up in mouth a little]—George W. Bush is warranted. Because truth is, when it came to killer pandemics, "W" wasn't as big a fan of getting caught bone spur-footed as his Republican successor:
According to [former Bush White House official Tom] Bossert, who is now an ABC News contributor, Bush did not just insist on preparation for a pandemic. He was obsessed with it. "He was completely taken by the reality that that was going to happen," Bossert said.
In a November 2005 speech at the National Institutes of Health, Bush laid out proposals in granular detail -- describing with stunning prescience how a pandemic in the United States would unfold. Among those in the audience was Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leader of the current crisis response, who was then and still is now the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Had a viral pandemic happened on George W. Bush's watch, he may have been a little more prepared than, say, George W. Bush during and after 9/11…or George W. Bush during Katrina…or George W. Bush during the Iraq War…or George W. Bush during the Great Recession…or George W. Bush during the Terri Sciavo tragedy…or George W. Bush during the torture and illegal wiretapping years...or... Y’know what? I think it’s safe to go back to despising him again.
JEERS to Today's edition of She Chose…Pooooorly. Sponsored by Purell.
Texas Woman Dies Of COVID After Posting Facebook Rant: “You Don’t Need Sanitizer, You Need Faith And Guns”
This has been today's edition of She Chose…Pooooorly. Sponsored by Purell.
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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CHEERS to little reminders. Forty years ago today, Post-It Notes were introduced by 3M. The road to market was a textbook case of serendipity. Little-known fact: A Post-It Note will play a central role in archiving our 45th president’s accomplishments at the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library:
Took Oath. Broke Stuff.
Got impeached.
Got booted after one term.
Finally died.
Meanwhile 82 years ago, in 1938, Roy Plunkett invented Teflon. It has saved many a meal and, unfortunately, too many a presidency.
CHEERS to the calm before the storms. As if we don’t have enough to worry about, I just had to barge into your life and announce that Atlantic hurricane season starts in 55 days, and the meteorological elves at Colorado State University are out with their 2020 forecast (pdf). They're predicting a more active year than last year: 16 named storms (up 3) and 8 hurricanes (up 3)...4 of them major (up 2). But more important, check to see if your name is on the 2020 storm list:
Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gonzalo,Hanna, Isaias, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky, and Wilfred
Remember that the usual meteorological Pottery Barn Rule applies: if a hurricane with your name on it breaks it, you buy it. So start socking away those pennies, Ms. Parton.
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Ten years ago in C&J: April 7, 2010
CHEERS to earning your peace prize. President Obama travels to Prague to sign a nuclear arms treaty (a term that sounds kinda powdered-wiggy these days since we seem to do them so rarely) with Russia tomorrow. The goal is a nuclear-warhead-free world. And in other news, Tinkerbell weds unicorn on Segway.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to U.S. Minty freshness. The new America the Beautiful state quarter is here! The new America the Beautiful state quarter is here!!! The latest in the series, which celebrates our national historic sites, represents the great state of Connecticut and its Weir Farm “park for Art.” And while yesterday's rollout ceremony was canceled, we can still show it to you via the miracle of the internet:
Weir Farm National Historic Site in Connecticut includes a 68-acre cultural landscape consisting of 15 historic structures, including houses, barns, studios, and outbuildings. The landscape features bedrock outcrops, historic gardens, stone terraces, specimen trees, orchards, fields, miles of stone laid walls, a pond,and hundreds of historic painting sites—all expertly preserved. The artistic tradition at Weir Farm is kept alive through a variety of Art in the Park programs, including an artist-in-residence program, free art supplies, night painting, and art lessons.
This reverse design portrays an artist, wearing a painter’s smock, painting outside Julian Alden Weir’s studio at Weir Farm. It is inspired by various images of the studio and Weir’s paintings created on the property, as well as descriptions of Weir and his fellow artist’s creative inspiration from the rural environment.
And this is cool: the Mint is adding a scavenger-hunt twist. Two-million of the coins will be produced at the West Point minting facility, and bear a rare (and coveted) "W" on the front. So keep an eye on your pocket change. Instead of being worth a single gumball, your quarter maybe worth an entire bubble gum empire. Please: rule your domain wisely. Try not to start any wars.
Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial
What is it about the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool? Last year, viewers noticed it in a scene during the "Game of Thrones" finale. Now, fans are spotting it in last year's Oscar-winning film "Little Women.”
—NBC News
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