Friday the 13th
On Friday the 13th, I have found, strange things happen; often they are things that look bad at first blush but which, after a couple twists and turns, turn out to have an overall beneficial effect.
Take the news today: Trump finally won North Carolina, a hard-fought battleground state. But then, Biden won Georgia, which is kind of a man-bites-dog story. And, of course, Biden won the election days ago so all of this is strictly academic.
Jordan Green watched the final votes come in at election boards in Guilford and Forsyth today, reporting on our Twitter feed.
And yet, the coronavirus rages on, inching closer and closer to all of us. Elon Musk has it — or does he? New Mexico and Oregon have locked down. Chicago and St. Louis are freaking out. New York City will close schools, perhaps as soon as Monday.
We’ve added 163,402 new cases today (10,7 million total) in the US, and 1,172 deaths (243,376 total). The numbers in North Carolina are similarly disheartening.
The numbers
- State dashboard numbers have been updated, or so they say. We’ve got 1,779 new ones today, for 290,802.
- Highest hospitalization rate to date: 1,423 right now.
- 4,720 deaths, dropped from 4,796 yesterday via the adjustment. But this site says 4,726.
- 8.0 positive test rate. People, please!
- Guilford County sucks, with 244 new cases today for 13,180 total, 208 of whom have died (+0) and 11,337 of whom have recovered.
- 1,635 active cases, 105 hospitalized.
- Forsyth County posts a more reasonable 88 new cases (10,562), with 137 dead (+0) and 8,842 recoveries.
- 1,583 active cases.
A diversion
By 1980, “Saturday Night Live” was the biggest show in the world. John Belushi would not be dead for another two years, but he had left the show by then to pursue films that collectively did not age well, leaving room for a little competition. So ABC took a crack at the time slot, only a day earlier with “Fridays,” a direct knock-off out of LA that saw mild success during its three-season run. Cast members included Larry David, Harry Shearer and Rich Hall, the guy who used to do Sniglets on “Not Necessarily the News. Here’s one from May 1980, with musical guest Devo and a host I do not recognize.
Program notes
- For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “The Old Oaken Bucket which Hung in the Well,” by an unknown American, 1890. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection.
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