Coronavirus daily update: Thursday, Aug. 6

More from the summer that wasn’t

My wife is out of town with her sister for a few days, so it’s just me and the kids in this last weekend before two-thirds of them move out. We’ve got a take-out dinner on the way and we’ve all retreated to our corners to look at our screens. Like we’ve done every night as far back as we can remember.

I’m pretty sure we used to do stuff at night.

And I’m hoping to drag these kids out of their rooms at some point this weekend and do something. Anything: a morning hike, a midnight drive, sandwiches in the car, lighting off the last of the fireworks, throwing eggs at stop signs… anything that requires we wear shoes and pants and does not increase our chances of contracting COVID-19 at this late date.

But for now, we’ve got a new paper on the streets, which means new content at the website.

In the paper

• There’s a big US Senate race between incumbent Thom Tillis (R) and well-funded challenger Cal Cunningham (D).
• Nik Snacks takes a long, hard look at her industry.
• Have you met Angie the Rose?

The numbers

• 1,979 new cases today in North Carolina?! Come on, people. Keep your droplets to yourself.
  • That’s 131,267 total, at least 105,093 which have recovered (new numbers Monday) and 2,115 deaths (40 new ones)
  • Positive-test rate: 9 percent.
• Guilford County adds 103 to make 5,430, minus 3,054 recoveries and 149 deaths, we have 2,227 active cases, 509 of which are in the hospital.
• Forsyth County‘s website is back! But it hasn’t been updates in three days. So let’s use Facebook to find 63 new cases for 5,091, minus 3,751 recoveries and 51 deaths makes 1,289 active cases, no current hospitalizaton numbers.

A diversion

Television was still relatively young in 1971, and there was still some concern that TV would overtake movies as an entertainment choice. But the newer medium was still decidedly low-budget, and it became a good place for filmmakers to cut their teeth. Take Duel, for example, which came out as a Movie of the Week on ABC in November of that year but became so successful that it had a limited international theatrical release. It was the directorial debut of Stephen Spielberg. And this copy is probably illegal.

Program notes

• Tonight’s featured image is “At the Milliner’s,” from Edgar Degas, in 1881. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
• If you’d like to help Triad City Beat, please consider becoming a supporter. You could also give us a like on Facebook and share our stories on Twitter.