In Case You Missed it (v32)

Miss any of last week's posts? Not to worry - here's your week in review.

In our Sunday School classroom visits, I had the opportunity to listen in on Chris Wallace's conversation with Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a bit of a maverick himself, on Fox News Sunday. They talked about the administration's desire to be back and open for business come May. Cuban doesn't seem convinced.

Will it be open 24 hours a day? No. Will we open some doors and take some baby steps? Yes. How will I decide? When the scientists say it's safe for my employees to come back to work, that's when I'll feel confident enough...

Others making the rounds? The FDA's Dr. Steven Hahn and the WHO's Dr. David Nabarro on Meet the Press.

Our Sunday School Extra Credit this week included interviews with three governors on CNN's State of the Union, and Margaret Brennan's interview with the former Trump FDA head, Scott Gottlieb, talking a lot about reopening, which include him saying

he doesn't think "anyone's optimized really right now" to handle a rolling reopening, and he acknowledged the pressure not just on the administration, but on governors as well. Gottlieb expects a "slow reopening" through May, which could include older people staying home longer, under-staffing shifts, limited face to face meetings, and so on - decisions that will likely fall to local politicians and governors.

I don't know about you, but that gave me pause.

When it was time for Wondering on Wednesday, in addition to the good news stuff that's so much fun, I was wondering about the Economic Impact Payment, commonly referred to as the stimulus checks. Among other things, there was this.

Staying on the stimulus, there are multiple memes floating around wondering if #NeverTrumpers like me are going to refuse the stimulus checks because "they're from Trump" - which of course, they're not - as noted above, it's our money. Because that's where the government gets money -- from us. But now I have to wonder, will the Trumpeters keep the check, you know, frame it or something, like businesses do with their first dollar? 

This week's TGIF was focused completely on the thank goodness part, and included my thanks to everyone involved in helping fight the pandemic, including all the regular folks.

 doing their level best to do what we're being

asked to do, to help protect others, and maybe even ourselves, and to anyone I missed.  

And things wrapped up with an emptying of the laundry pile on the Irony Board. There's so much irony out there, related to the pandemic, and how people are reacting to it, and what things are coming to light and lighting fires under people in a way that would never light a fire under them under anything close to normal circumstances. Which led me to think about the lessons in the irony, and what we can take away from it all.  Among the takeaways?

• Irony is everywhere.
• What we don't want today we might need tomorrow, so when we get what we want, we may come to regret it. 
• Our elected officials are human - and imperfect - as are we.
• Many times, the ideas of one party are the ideas of the other party.
• We'd probably be better served if we focused more on the ideas and less on the people.
• 'We' includes me. 

There you have it - last week's veritable pastiche, ready whenever you are. Don't forget, you can subscribe safely, without a mask, by entering your email in the Instant Gratification box on the right sidebar. 

I'll be back later with today's Sunday School.