Oceana

It's #WhaleWednesday! Show love for whales today by supporting the Marine Mammal Protection Act. The MMPA protects whales and other marine mammal populations. #DefendMarineMammals: https://t.co/ai87eGCsMk pic.twitter.com/SiWRTnNp3L

— Oceana (@oceana) April 29, 2020

Yoda & a 'room

A couple of photos. Here's one of Yoda, out of focus as all my Yoda photos seem to be. In the background you can see her pile of tissue paper that she loves to play with, and her latest toy, a sort of cat version of a hamster tube ;) ....



And here's the mushroom, which has grown up through a crack in a dead tree ...

Nino :)

Kate McKinnon's cat Nino appeared with her on the latest SNL ...



Here she is from the past talking about how she found Nino ...

:)

Brad Pitt as Dr. Fauci ...

The Girl From Ipanema

Another song to cheer us up during the pandemic. The bossa nova tune The Girl from Ipanema, sung by Astrud Gilberto with music by Stan Getz, from the 1964 movie Get Yourself a College Girl.

Without us

How are things going without the constant presence of people? In a lot of ways, better - cleaner air and water, birds and animals unmolested, even the planet's crust has calmed down. With tomorrow being Earth Day, it's hard not to think the world would be a better place without us.

The dead-heads

Who are the people protesting against stay-at-home orders? A lovely combination of the willfully ignorant and the terminally stupid. I'd say "yes, please infect each other and depart this Earth" but unfortunately, they will take a lot of normal people with them through their dangerous behavior.

Pets & pandemic

Pets are making a big difference in people's lives now during the pandemic. I know that taking care of Yoda and the cats outside gives my life structure and meaning and love :)

Powell's Bookstore

Tonight on the PBS NewsHour they had a segment about Powell's Books in Portland Oregon and how it's being affected by the virus.

I lived in Portland for three years after I got divorced and spent many a weekend hanging out at Powell's. It is a huge store with a wide variety of books, including a lot of used books, and it has a nice coffee shop within the store too ... bagel with cream cheese ... mmm :) Here's a photo of me (on the L in flannel) and my sister while in Portland ...



I was really lonely in Portland. The only person I knew was my sister and after she moved away to Japan, I was alone there. What kept me going in that depressing rainy place was my job at the Oregon Health & Sciences University Hospital, Mexican takeout food + video rentals, and Powell's.

"Kindness matters"

My grocery store ...

Another song

Another song to give us a momentary break from the pandemic. The Rap by the Irish-Norwegian band Secret Garden ....

Songs of comfort

On the PBS NewsHour they have a segment about songs of comfort being posted on social media by people to help everyone get through the pandemic. I offer this song by James Taylor (BBC 1971) about a socially isolated person with only his horse and cattle as companions - reminds me of myself and my cats :) ...

Happy Easter

Henry Ian Cusick is Jesus in The Gospel of John

Women deacons again

- the risen Jesus greets Mary M

I see that the pope has created another second commission to study the idea of women as deacons (the first one created in 2016). In case you haven't noticed, commissions are where topics the pope doesn't like go to die (think of his sex abuse commission).

The members of this new commission seem mostly set against women as deacons and I don't doubt they will decide against it. After all, if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to want a glass of milk, and if you let women be deacons, they will want to be priests too.

This is one of the reasons I've given up on the Catholic church - the way women are treated. It's not just church leaders who are to blame. They couldn't get away with this if Catholics themselves didn't accept the inequality. I've known Catholics who expect fairness and equality for everyone in all other realms of life, but who just shrug about the church's discrimination, saying "Oh, it will happen someday, probably in our lifetimes". Justice delayed is justice denied.

Thought experiment. Would you be so sanguine if the church wouldn't let people of different races be priests? Jesus didn't pick any Asians to be his apostles, so that must mean God doesn't want Asians to be priests in the contemporary church. No kidding - that's the official argument against women priests (the actual reason appears to be sexism). And then there's the condescension. Pope Francis has made a ton of objectionable remarks about women (Pope Francis' woman problem). Would it be ok with you if he spouted racial tropes instead of gender ones?

As we near Easter, I recall that the first person the risen Jesus revealed himself to was a woman, and the first person he deputized to spread the good word of his resurrection was a woman. The church has utterly failed to exemplify his faith in women.

:)

Scottish sportscaster out of work during the pandemic gives commentary on the competition between older dog Olive (the black one), and younger dog Mabel ...

Snowy

Snowy is watching me talk to my sister in the driveway. I think she is what is known of as a flame point or cream point Siamese. She first appeared as a kitten with her siblings and mama cat a couple of years ago. I eventually managed to catch her mom, Marie, and all the kittens and get them spayed and neutered. But they've always been more wild than the other cats. Marie has since disappeared and Snowy's twin brother, Goldy, just appeared dead one day, maybe hit by a car. The life of a stray cay is very hard.

Forever Autumn

Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues sings Forever Autumn (BBC 1978), a song for The War of the Worlds. Maybe it fits for a pandemic too ...

:)

OK, we need something more cheerful. I wish I could post this song but it can't be embedded - you will have to follow the link. Listening to this made me feel better for a bit :) ...

- I Gotta Wash My Hands!

Masks

So, are we civilians (non-medical workers) supposed to be wearing surgical masks (not N95 respirators) or are we not? Earlier they told us not to because: 1) they would be useless at preventing contamination, and 2) we would be depriving hospital workers of needed masks. Now they are changing their tune ...

Should We All Be Wearing Masks In Public? Health Experts Revisit The Question

Have you tried to buy surgical masks on Amazon? Most are out of stock. There are videos, though, on how to make your own ...