Today, Diane and I planned to drive into Buffalo to watch the performance of Hello Dolly! at the Shea’s Performing Arts Center. But Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York State has banned all events with 500 people which effectively cancelled Hello Dolly! because of the coronavirus. Both of us have seen the movie version of Hello Dolly. But, this musical version had been garnering good reviews so we’re missing a good performance by Broadway veteran Carolee Carmello. Many of our friends have retreated into “self-quarantine” mode until the coronavirus outbreak gets resolved. How are you dealing with the coronavirus? What do you think of Hello Dolly!?
Dolly Levi
Should have had a bevy
Of fans in Buffalo.
But coronaV.
Did some dirty work, see?
And now there ain’t no show.
George paid good cash
To watch this bash,
But will he see it? No, no no!
Jerry, you are so clever! We have the option of a refund for our tickets to HELLO, DOLLY! or apply the money to next year’s theater package. Diane decided on the second option.
Meh.
We saw the original Broadway show when it was turned over to an all-black cast at the end of 1967: Pearl Bailey and Cab Calloway. I enjoyed seeing them more than the show itself, though there are some good songs. I didn’t like the movie much either.
How are we dealing? Jackie gets increasingly paranoid each day, it seems. We are (as of now) staying an extra week in South Florida, where things are definitely a lot more low key than in New York (judging from the newspapers). But beyond that, who knows? Down here the only major disruption is shortages of some items – toilet paper, sanitizer, and the like. Also, more signs about hand washing. I expect things to get worse before they get better.
Jeff, we woke up this morning to find that three confirmed cases of coronavirus are quarantined here in Buffalo. And so it begins…
I have zero interest in Hello Dolly. For some reason I got suckered into seeing the movie. Hated it. It doesn’t help that I detest Streisand.
My apartment building has shut down all activities. You have to stay in your apartment unless coming or going or doing laundry. At least they haven’t closed down the exercise room. I like using the treadmill. My library has closed indefinitely. I don’t worry much about the virus. I take the usual precautions. I worry more about my youngest daughter who works in a nursing home.
At least you can get cheap flights. My friend just found a round way ticket to Hawaii for $300. Tempting.
Steve, I have several friends who are flying on heavily discounted tickets next week. My sister (who has taken over 90 cruises) is considering the Carnival offer of a four-day cruise for $139. We’ve decided to hunker down and ride out the coronavirus outbreak.
Jackie said she thought Trump said that the cruises were canceled, but then, you can’t exactly trust his words. Every time you read one of these articles, it sounds worse, but for now we are staying put until the end of the month. Keep your fingers crossed.
Jeff, I think you and Jackie are doing the right thing by staying put for now. I suspect the cruise lines are trying to get people to book cruises for later months when the ban is lifted. I wouldn’t go on a cruise if you paid me.
Forget what I said. Only Princess and Viking Cruises have shut down.
I’ve never seen “Hello, Dolly” and have absolutely no desire to. Actually I’m just not a fan of musicals at all. Here (Atlanta) there are disruptions, pretty much the kind of things you’d see anywhere else. Schools are closed but I don’t know for how long. Restaurants remain open but seem far less crowded than usual. The big grocery chains (mostly Publix and Kroger around here) are crowded, but the stores are doing a good job of restocking and I haven’t yet needed anything that’s unavailable. You see the usual fools buying lifetime supplies of toilet paper, but that’s rare. The change that bothers me most is that all county library branches are closed indefinitely. Even though I have plenty to read I find that annoying and unnecessary.
I’m a chronic news watcher, but I quickly got tired of all virus all the time and quit watching. I’m sure there are other things going on in the world, but CNN isn’t telling us about them. I’m sure things will get worse before they get better, but for now everyone seems to be coping. Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu will get us through.
Public Officials addressing the crisis urge people to drop off meals to elderly neighbors.
As a single man over 70 too lazy to cook, I applaud this move,
BUT:
I really don’t want a bunch of bland casseroles and cheese melts on my front porch. I’m more into Steaks, Fried Chicken, Thai, and Tex-Mex Barbecue.
How can I best convey this to well-meaning neighbors? Register at Bob Evans? Set up a standing order with DoorDash? Distribute Suggested Menus tgo hoiuses on my street?
Your advice & suggestions will be welcome.
Dan, many of our friends are using DoorDash and Grubhub. I’m in a good position because Diane is an excellent cook and baker. So far, we’ve had no problems buying food–but, that’s likely to change as the coronavirus pandemic gets worse.
Left Coast Crime convention here in SD was to end today but it barely got started Thurs the County health dept. closed it down. In Cal., no groups of 250 or more are allowed and those with less are required to have 6 ft. between participants. This would have been the worst LCC before the virus. The host book store refused to sell books, and though they took books on consignment from authors, they were charging a $20 per title fee to put them on the table. Then the covered the table. I heard at least one author couldn’t get his books back.
I always have a good stock of tp, so am in good shape that way. I also was able to get rubber gloves, which I use under my gardening gloves. I only have a few face masks (used for dusting, vacuuming and cleaning ceiling fans).
There are NO paper products in grocery or drug stores. Purell was the first thing to go. Meat is in short supply and many have no chicken. Fresh produce is scarce at some stores. Ralphs (kroger) had no bananas. Cans of soup, bags of rice, beans are short supply. The only thing I want to stock up on is almond milk, and was able to get a carton, though I had to settle for rice milk for another. I have 4 new boxes of cereal, so only will need a couple more cartons and fresh blueberries. Yesterday at one grocery store there weren’t lines. The other had at least a dozen people with overflowing carts. One woman had about a dozen 2 liters of coke, not diet which supposedly needs a sweetner from china.
I plan to pretty much self quarantine. I don’t really need to go anywhere except get my mail and I can do that once a week, maybe twice. I have a dental appt fri, which I will go to. Our libraries are still open as far as I know, but seattle and baltimore have closed them.
Maggie, all of the colleges and universities around here have closed or gone into full Distance-Learning mode (aka, online classics). The Public Schools are planning on closing but nobody knows for how long. Food supplies here are normal, but there are ZERO antiseptic wipes for sale. The same with masks, latex gloves, and Purell. I imagine that as the contagion spreads and more people can’t work, supply disruptions will increase. Better stock up now!
Nice idea, but it’s too late.
last time i was at the 99c they had tons of antiseptic wipes (individually wrapped) I bought a few boxes for lcc. When I got to the hotel room I wiped down all the surfaces
Maggie, that was good thinking. I suspect we’ll be dealing with an increasing number of cases of coronavirus by the end of this week as more testing kits become available.
Since yesterday was Pi Day we went to the local Walmart down the street to pick up a couple of pies. The grocery section looked like a plague of locusts had hit it — meat, tuna, cereal, and just about everything else were sold out. Luckily there were a few pies left (cherry and blueberry, yum!) so we were fine. On the way out I could swear I heard the grocery manager praying for continued pandemics.
Jerry, Patrick actually baked a couple of pies yesterday for Pi Day. The stores around here are doing a brisk business. Estimated peak for the coronavirus outbreak is two and a half weeks from now. The number of people contracting the coronavirus doubles every five days. Stay safe!
First death in Oregon yesterday, 70 year old man. I don’t believe I’ve heard of any women dying so far, is this a male death disease? I’m staying home, Barbara does the shopping. We didn’t “stock up” and now there is nothing left to buy, the market shelves are bare: Costco, Walmart, Albertsons, Safeway, all sold out of most everything. Forget hand sanitizer, and even alcohol for making it at home. We have about 4 rolls of TP and there is none in stores, but we have some shrubs with the right sized leaves. We have some cereal and rice, and with frozen veggies we’ll get through.
It snowed yesterday and a little more last night, but it’ll be gone today. We should have had this weather two months ago.
We tried to watch AMERICAN HUSTLE last night but dumped it after about 20-30 minutes, we thought it was awful. I have no idea why it got Academy Award nominations. So we watched an excellent episode of MORSE instead, LAST BUS TO WOODSTOCK, which we had DVR’d.
Our libraries are all closed: Multnomah, Clackamas and Washington counties have all shut down indefinitely. Bummer.
Rick, we’re in Shut-down Mode here in Western New York, too. I feel sorry for the workers in restaurants and delis. I suspect pizza places are doing well with plenty of take-out orders and deliveries.
We’ve been watching LEWIS episodes on DVDs borrowed from the library here. Also the excellent Danish series BORGEN. So far, the Palm Beach County library system is open.
Kidding about the leaves.
leafs
Hello Dolly isn’t my type of show/music at all …
Re the Corona virus:
Here in Europe things are very similar and in addition to closing everything from schools to music halls many countries have now forbidden entry from other European countries. So you’re not allowed to enter Germany from Austria, France or Switzerland – unless you’re a commuter!
A lot of people work in Switzerland (good money there …) but live in Germany in the Black Forest.
And I was so proud of the Schengen trety which meant no borders …
Now I’m wondering whether the USA might have something similar soon – no entry from Florida to New York or whatever.
Do you think that might be possible?
Wolf, enforcement of state borders would be a problem. Right now, many people are in lock-down mode so travel activity has been reduced drastically.
Rick-I liked American Hustle.
Went to Kroger’s today. They had everything in stock except hand sanitizers. Plenty of tp. Bottled water was on the low side but I refuse to buy water when I have perfectly good tap water. For some reason all their fresh fish was 50% off.
Steve, I just returned from our grocery story–Wegmans–and was shocked to find all their bread sold out. Just empty shelves. Same for part of the meat counters. No hand sanitizers, either. But I did buy the fruits and vegetables Diane wanted.
Steve, maybe AMERICAN HUSTLE got better, later on. We don’t buy water, either, as our tap is perfectly good.
In South Florida, we’re able to get produce and most things other than paper goods and sanitizer and the like…so dar, at least.
But they are closing Starbucks starting tomorrow except for take out and drive thru orders.
O, the humanity!
All our Starbucks are walk-in, so I guess we’re screwed. Though it’s severe in some places (here), it’s not even the virus that’s the big problem right now, it’s the EFFIN’ PANIC. Why on earth do people think they need a six month supply of toilet paper? There was a piece in the local paper about a woman who bought 40 bottles of hand sanitizer “just in case”. What about the rest offs, lady? Now she says she’s “sharing it with friends and family. I repeat: what about the rest of you greedy bi**h?
Well put. There was a guy online who apparently bought thousands of hand sanitizers, planning to resell them until Amazon stopped him for price gouging. I guess it is what you might expect in the Age of Trump. Stores need to put limits on buying. The guy in the local Publix here said he doesn’t tell people when a shipment is coming in because they would buy it up immediately. Still, every store we’ve been to is out of most paper goods. Good thing we have toilet paper at home.
Jackie said the Starbucks guy told her it was “this area” but I would guess it is probably everywhere. I believe they are open for mobile orders and pickups, so you can probably get coffee.
Deb says: School is closed until April 13—although school personnel are on standby because we may have to go to work to assist with paperwork, online classes, or even lunch prep (schools are still trying to figure out how to get lunches to students without defeating the purpose of the whole quarantine element). John and I went to Walmart at 11:00 pm on Friday night…and it was still pretty crowded. They were out of orange juice, bananas, potatoes, lunch meats, bacon, bread, and (yikes!) beer, but everything else was in pretty good supply. We just got word that our library system will be closed for at least a week. John and I went out to dinner last night—the restaurant seemed a little less crowded than would be normal for 6:00 pm on a Saturday night but nothing like the vast empty spaces at the casino buffet last Saturday night. We’re taking sensible precautions, but I’m trying not to get too paranoid. Reading quite a bit—as usual—and as little as possible about the corona virus.
of us,
Did you hear about Trump trying to pressure (with lots of money …) the German company Curevac to develop its vaccine only for the USA?
Luckily it’s in my hometown Tübingen (where I went touniversity ), we have a Green Mayor not very sympathetic to Trump – and the company is partly owned by Dietmat Hopp, founder of SAP, billionaire and philanthrop – and a climate activist and big fan of Greta T.
So they reacted not well and it was all over the German media.
They might have a vaccine ready this summer, maybe even end of June …
Wolf, usually it takes a year or more to develop a vaccine. Great economic damage (and deaths) will already been done by then.
I have always had a good supply of TP . My mom taught me early to buy as much as you can afford of items you use when on sale. We didn’t have a lot of $$ when I was growing up, and took it to heart. she also said “that you have a place to store” , but I get very creative about that.
I have gone out and bought some extra almond milk, when I can find it, and some other staples, like broth, but not going overboard.
some stores are limiting things vons/safeway limits bean products, dairy, paper (if available) to 2 frozen foods to 1. ralphs has no limits on anything but paper, saniitizers, etc.
I urge people to get vit. c with d3 also perhaps selenium. and green tea I have a cousin who offered me a gun (I refused) who also said to get extra cash in case there is a run on banks. He has bought a lot of coffee (which he doesn’t drink) to sell in the worst case scenario. He said the dodd frank act says when you deposit $$ in a bank, it’s not yours That sounds bizarre to me
Maggie, Diane and I just returned from BJ’s Warehouse. Plenty of empty shelves. Diane wanted to buy apples to make some apple sauce in her crockpot…but all the apples were gone! When we went down the Frozen Food aisle, all the Frozen Vegetable and Fruit cases were completely empty. It gave us pause.