Coronavirus daily update: Thursday, Sept. 10

Best of the Beat edition

We’ve waited six years to launch Triad City Beat’s first reader’s choice poll. For one, we needed more staff. And for another, we wanted to do it right.

Sure, it’s a popularity contest. But we wanted to make it a fair one. To that end, each registrant can vote only once in the nominations period, and once again in the final voting period. None of this voting every day business.

And we wanted it to be effective. So we’re doing it in stages. First off is Winston-Salem, a city so vibrant and diverse it needs its own poll. Greensboro comes online in early 2021. And then we’ll throw High Point into the mix and have everybody square off in the Best of the Triad.

Go ahead and register so you can nominate your friends.

Some news

• Attorney General Bill Barr is playing it fast and loose — looks from here as if he feels Trump is his client, and not the people of the United States.
• Local social-media groups for quarantine cooking are so hot right now.
• We got a gallery of Trumpers from Tuesday night’s event in Winston-Salem.
• Speaking of which, turns out Trump thought the coronavirus was actually pretty dangerous, but that it would be wise to “play it down.” Oh, and thanks for the head’s up, Bob Woodward.

The numbers

• We’re back up, 1,222 new cases in North Carolina today, for 180,754 total. This comes on a steep increase in testing.
  • So our positive-test rate has dropped significantly, to 6.3 percent. Remember, we’re trying to get below 5 percent, and that won’t be accomplished by slowing down testing.
  • 3,012 total deaths in NC thus far, 28 new ones today.
  • 928 hospitalizations, 12 new ones.
• Guilford County adds 73 new cases for 7,468. 4,323 recoveries (52), 166 deaths (+2).
  • The county site says there are 626 hospitalizations, which would be 67.47 percent of the reported hospitalizations in the entire state. How can this be? Serious question.
• Forsyth County reports 6511 cases, including 30 new ones today. Linking to their Facebook page, tonight, because it has more data than the county page. 5,767 recoveries (+31) and 84 deaths (no change).
  • There are 12 hospitalizations in Forsyth.

A diversion

I was looking for something else when I came across this old episode of “The Paul Lynde Show.” Lynde rose to fame in “Bye Bye Birdie,” but eventually became better known as a guest star on sitcoms and Hollywood game shows. He was also pretty openly gay, but no one ever talked about it on TV, ever. His own sitcom lasted just one season, 1972-73, but he did get nominated for a Golden Globe that year. Here’s Episode 10 of that lonely television gem. (Note: It’s pretty bad.)

Program notes

• For tonight’s featured image, we have “The Bell Inn,” by George Morland of Great Britain, from the late 1780s. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection. And hey: The Met is now open on Fifth Avenue in NYC, if you’re in town.
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