What This Is About

 

Welcome, first-time readers, to my personal blog page, where I have been publishing essays for the past 15 years. Since the start of the pandemic, I have also been posting these essays at Meta (aka Facebook), but for a number of reasons I'm in the process of phasing out that practice.

I'll continue providing a summary of the day's most significant news stories there, plus occasional essays and promotions of other writers' work, which I do frequently.

But this will continue to be the permanent space for my work, along with my photo site, "Sidewalk Images."

As the pandemic recedes for most (though not all) of us, we must deal with the aftermath. Except for the most privileged, life has been more or less on hold since March 2020 when the lockdowns began.

Early in 2021, the vaccines arrived and ever since then we have been crawling out of a deep hole back toward some sort of sense of normality.

In the process of doing so, it's clear that damage has been done -- to our lifestyles, our social mobility, our psychology and explicitly to our mental health.

Many peoples' lives have been on hold. It is not just the generation of young people who have had to hit "pause" on the restart button as they graduated from school, signaling the moment they normally would have begun their entry into professional life and transitioned from their families to a larger role in society.

Many of the rest of us face the same challenge.

In my case, the pandemic coincided with my retirement after a 55-year career and a series of debilitating illnesses. So I spent the entire lockdown recovering strength and preparing to re-enter society.

While doing so, since I am a writer, I inhabited the meta verse in a very public way, sharing my daily musings for a large multinational Facebook audience.

This has been fun and satisfying.

But my personal circumstances are changing. I need to start earning at least some income again. I am going to need to find a place to live. I need resume my own life.

I know I am not alone in this dilemma so I can only hope that some of my new Facebook friends will "stand by me" during this transition.

(BTW, comments are enabled below but no one has used them for many years.)

TODAY'S HEADLINES:

* Origin of Virus May Remain Murky, U.S. Intelligence Agencies Say -- A declassified report said a clearer answer would require more information from Beijing or new discoveries and reiterated divisions over natural causes vs. a lab leak. (NYT)

* FDA authorizes Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children 5 to 11 (WP)

* VIDEO: Covid-19 Pandemic ‘Far From Over,’ W.H.O. Says -- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, called for “global coordination” to bring the coronavirus pandemic under control, after the number of cases and deaths worldwide increased for the first time in two months. (Reuters)

* ‘Astounding’ new sensors make U.S. nukes more powerful and more accurate. But they may create additional security perils. (WP)

* Case Against Cuomo ‘Very Solid,’ Sheriff Says of Move to File Complaint -- The district attorney has not committed to prosecuting the former governor, and experts called the sheriff’s decision to proceed independently unusual. (NYT)

* Climate Consensus Sought After Decades of False Starts (WSJ)

* National climate pledges are too weak to avoid catastrophic warming. Most nations are on track to miss them anyway. (WP)

* An Electricity Crisis Complicates the Climate Crisis in Europe -- Prices for power have soared, and some politicians are now trying to use that as a lever to slow action on climate change, a strategy with far-reaching consequences. (NYT) 

* Scientists tracked a mysterious signal in space. Its source was closer to Australia --

A mysterious signal that appeared to be emanating from Proxima Centauri put scientists on a hunt to track down its source. What they found was that it had a decidedly earthbound origin. (NPR)

* Earth gets hotter, deadlier during decades of climate talks (AP) 

* Britain sees ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ discovery of complete Roman statues(WP) 

* Abortions Fell by Half in Month After New Texas Law ;(NYT) 

* Leaders have expressed “broad support” for a landmark deal to establish a 15% global minimum corporate tax that aims at deterring multinational countries from using clever accounting to elude taxes by using low-rate havens. (AP)

 * During Jan. 6 riot, Trump attorney told Pence team the vice president’s inaction caused attack on Capitol (WP) 

* Microsoft topples Apple as most valuable company -- Apple lost its crown as the world's most valuable public company to Microsoft on Friday, as the iPhone maker's shares continued their downward slide. (Reuters)

* As vaccination mandate looms, New York prepares for shortage of firefighters, police (Reuters)

* Rare ‘Penis Plant’ Blooms For First Time In 25 Years (The Onion)

*** 

 "Stand By Me"

Writers: Leo Robin, Ralph Rainger 

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No, I won't be afraid
Oh, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand
Stand by me

So darlin', darlin'
Stand by me, oh, stand by me
Oh, stand, stand by me
Stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountain should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No, I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand
Stand by me

And darlin', darlin'
Stand by me, oh, stand by me
Oh, stand now, stand by me
Stand by me

Darlin', darlin'
Stand by me, oh, stand by me
Oh, stand now, stand by me
Stand by me
Whenever you're in trouble 
Won't you stand by me?
Oh, stand by me
Won't you stand now?
Oh, stand, stand by me