by Government is laying down the heavy hand when it comes to enforced social distancing. The effort is to flatten the curve when it comes to new cases of coronavirus or COVID-19.
Schools are closed in at least 70% of the school districts across the country. Efforts will be made to go to online learning or to deliver packets of materials to those without computers. I know my younger daughter’s district is doing just that. She and her fellow teachers will be going out on school buses to deliver materials today.
In many states you can’t eat in a restaurant or drink in a bar. Gov. Roy Cooper (D-NC) ordered all North Carolina restaurants and bars closed under the state of emergency as of 5pm yesterday. If a restaurant decides to remain open, it will be for take out only. Unless you live in a place like Louisiana, cocktails to go are not a thing.
Most, if not all, movie theaters are closed.
In NYC, gyms are closed unless your last name is De Blasio.
Getting together with friends for a cookout? Not in Stokes County, NC if it involves more than 10 people.
In Pennsylvania you can’t even go to the liquor store and buy booze to drown your sorrows thanks to Gov. Tom Wolf (D-PA). How in the hell can you even make a Quarantini unless you had stocked up earlier?
So what can you do?
One suggestion if you don’t already subscribe is Amazon Prime. There are a number of movies available for both adults and children that you can view on your computer, iPad, other mobile device, or on a Smart TV. While not everything is included, the Amazon Originals are included along with a number of other movies, cartoons, etc.
<Amazon allows you to try out Prime for free for 30 days. That should give you the chance to watch as much stuff as you want for the next 30 days. With some bit of luck, much of the enforced social distancing will relaxed by then. In full disclosure, Amazon pays me a “bounty” if you subscribe for the free trial.
One Amazon Original that I can highly recommend is Zero Zero Zero. It follows a shipment of cocaine from the time the Mafia in Italy decides to buy it through its shipment from Mexico to Italy. You have an intra-family drama in Italy between the old Don Minu and his grandson Stefano who wants to seize power and enact vengeance on the grandfather. You have a corrupt team of Mexican Army special forces led by a evangelical Protestant sergeant moving in on the Leyra cartel. Finally, you have an American family, the Lynwoods, acting as the intermediaries brokering the deal with their own internal drama.
New theory. Lord Bezos financed the germ warfare lab that “accidentally” released the covirus just outside of Wuhan.
Forcing ourselves to watch an episode of ZeroZeroZero a day. Darn good show.
It is hard not to want to binge watch it!
Pennsylvania’s liquor problems have nothing to do with Gov Wolf. If you think NC approach to alcohol is “antediluvian,” go to PA. They still have state-run liquor stores. I think that dates back to prohibition in 1933. They only allowed beer and wine in grocery stores very recently (Wolf actually signed the law that allowed grocery stores to sell wine). The laws is complex, but the Campbells soup (condensed) version is that grocery stores cleared floor space and added a separate “restaurant” so they could sell wine. Nobody eats the crappy food, but we can buy wine- even in Amish country like Lancaster now, lol. I dont live in PA but i travel there and have family there. What Wolf actually shut down is the state-run liquor stores (which sell spirits). You can still buy beer and wine. See more here: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/grocery-and-convenience-stores-beer-and-wine-sales-coronavirus-covid-19-update
For decades, they have been talking about getting rid of the state store system, neither republicans nor dems want to give up the tax revenue. Technically as I recall, the law sunsets every 10 years, but they keep renewing it, lol. I am not a Wolf fan by any stretch, but if anything he’s helped bring the system into the 19th century by allowing groceries to sell wine.
PA has its flaws with the state liquor system, but a CCW permit is $10 and 10 minutes (well not now, the lines are out the door). Outside of Pittsburgh or Philadelphia, its typical to see people open carry either way. In Maryland, or NJ no permits for anyone (and in NJ, even if you have a permit, they might prosecute you for transporting a weapon because the laws are so confusing). I do blame governor Wolf for ceasing the CCW reciprocity.
North Carolina still has state-run liquor stores and that isn’t going to change anytime soon.
We didn’t get liquor by the drink aka mixed drinks until 1978. There are still towns and counties where you can’t get a mixed drink. While every county now has at least one town allowing the sale of alcoholic beverages of some sort, there are still many counties where it is forbidden in unincorporated areas.
I was born in Asheboro which was a dry town. It wasn’t until 2008 that they finally voted to allow sales of alcoholic beverages. My NYC born mother long held that bootleggers were in cahoots with Baptist preachers and she may have been correct.
https://scholarship.law.campbell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=clr
Also I should add: in most places gun ranges are not closed. Not even in MD. And with the apocalypse upon us its a good time to be building your skills.
Enforced social distancing!
Whatever happened to “the right to peaceably assemble”??
Only a matter of time before the 21st century speak easys start up. Banning bars did not work 100 years ago and will not work now either.