This mini-series of coronavirus ramblings from around the world will continue as long as they keep coming my way and people keep coming in sufficient numbers to read them. Covered so far: Toronto, Madrid and London. All my friends dispersed around the world are warmly invited to join in. If you don't already have my e-mail address, leave a comment below ...
The human cost of the pandemic continues to appal and distress.
Over at the Daily Mail, the wizened old columnists, Brexiters to a man and woman (though some have to go home to confront sullen Remoaner kinfolk), are becoming fractious.
Dominic Lawson rubbishes the sort of thinking that inspired part of the headline for this series: "Please can our politicians stop calling this a war? It's nothing like it." But Stephen Glover worries, in a way he didn't when energetically promoting the dangerous gamble of Brexit, about the future of our youth: "The old may be most at risk from coronavirus, but I fear the young are set to pay a heavy price for the financial cost of fighting it."
Luckily, there is humour, too, and assorted reasons to be cheerful.
On a selfish level, our delayed departure to France from west London - coupled with the rise of a sturdy wall as neighbours extended outwards at the back - encouraged us to make use of a neat little terrace after 35 years of neglect. At a cost: thank heavens the garden centre has now closed.
Mind you, after her tweeted assertion that Made in China has become a badge of shame, the author and right-wing commentator Allison Pearson would roundly rebuke us for this mail order of a patio table and chairs ...
There are the cheery faces of the people who run corner shops near us. We feel more comfortable using them, and the superette-sized local branches of Tesco and Sainsbury's (despite the higher prices), than trundling along in the grumpy hour set aside by hypermarkets for the elderly.
Then there's the stream of jokes sent my way by a cousin oop north, David Athey. I love the newly arrived one you see at the top of the page, but still laugh each time I think of this, from yesterday:
And this was quite funny, too:
Thanks, David. And if anyone owns copyright on any of them, let me know and I will either add a credit or remove as you wish.
Finally for now, let me remind you of the best of all so far: Bill Taylor's gag in his most recent dispatch from Toronto. He tells us his former paper, the Toronto Star, has published an apology to readers that its daily horoscopes may contain inappropriate suggestions concerning social distance, an unfortunate consequence of the columns being prepared long in advance of the outbreak.
"So the astrologer didn’t see this coming?" wrote Bill. "Just asking."
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