The Berlin Files #85: manor manners
Not... quite as much on hopeful signals, quarantine life, and radical transformations this week.
Hi all, Eric here. Very short edition for you this week, and what's here leans hard on the lighter stuff and comedy videos and such. During this jittery countdown-to-the-election period and as the pandemic drags on, I hope it gives you a little distraction and a laugh.
Speaking of the election: I'll likely be holding edition #86 until after it's over (and I'll get back to lighting incense at my shrine that the election does indeed end sometime very close to election night), so hang on and hang in until then!
Hopeful Signals, Quarantine Life, & Radical Transformations
Prevention Progress (or: the current state of affairs)
This single tweet sums things up about as well as anything, I'd say.
Nearly 130,000 fewer people will die of COVID-19 this winter if 95% of Americans wear face masks in public, according to new research published today.
The bottom line: Wear a mask, help save a life.
Meanwhile, not sure how I feel about this.
Quarantining
Perhaps you won't -- which I grant is your right -- but I find everything about this to be deeply hilarious.
Election 2020
This might be the most interesting piece I've read about politics in some time.
And here are some other pre-election binge reading selections for you.
The hidden factors that could produce a surprise Trump victory
Paranoia and finger-pointing n Trumpworld as election approaches
Also, if you haven’t voted, vote or make a plan to vote and if you’ve voted already tell other people a lot that they should vote and make a plan to vote and get others to vote and do it to the extend that you’re super annoying much like this run on sentence, you dig?
The Comedy Club
I went down a YouTube rabbit hole of Saturday Night Live sketches recently and present to you some of my choice findings.
Be forewarned: this is a rather, eh, dark spin, let us say, on Dead Poet's Society.
You have to appreciate when a sketch title tells you everything you need to know. In this case, it's "Almost Pizza."
Finally, I give you this bizarre masterpiece, called "The Shooting AKA Dear Sister," which I like to think owes a debt of gratitude to The Kids in the Hall's more experimental outings.
The Music Club
This is really fun.
Bonus: The Raincoats' "Fairytale in The Supermarket."
Tweets of the Week
It's a Wrap!
You made it. Now get out there and vote, and then tell a friend or three to do the same.
Also:
Support The Berlin Files: buy me a cup of coffee, only if you want to. I'll use the money to support local coffee shops here in Seattle.
Once upon a time, I wrote a book about the TV show Mad Men. If you're a fan of the show, my writing, or that era of U.S. history, give it a check out.
E-mail me. I get it here: eric@forwerdmedia.com.
Social media for a socially distanced world: Twitter | LinkedIn
And one last time…