I should have written this two hour ago, better late than never. I had another good day yesterday. Not as exciting as Sunday when I heard live music and at a restaurant with a friend. Yesterday’s accomplishments were sitting in for Tragedy Ann’s John Platt’s On Your Radar tech rehearsal. Rob Hinkal directs the show. I’m there to learn and hang out with my friends. There are three acts, but I sat in with Tragedy Ann because I know Liv and Braden. I met them at NERFA and became an instant fan. I even like the name of the city they live, Guelph, which makes them Guelphlings. How have I never thought of that before? I bet everyone in Guelph that’s seen Dark Crystal has.
I got to the room early and joked around with Rob before the start. I came up with my name for our Tragedy Ann tribute band, Tragedy Android. Our rival band is Tragedy iPhone. Is it sad that I’m laughing at my own jokes? Don’t answer. You can see how great Tragedy tonight when you watch. You are going to watch right? I’ll make it super easy for you. Here is a link to the live stream.
I was good and ate before the tech rehearsal. Then when it was done I got myself out of the house and finally got to Bagel Corner before they closed for the day. This was my first time trying them out. They were out of salt, my favorite but as a bonus I got a baker’s half-dozen sesame. I don’t know if it was because it was late or because they felt bad that they didn’t have what I wanted, or they just made a mistake, but I was not going to look a gift bagel in the hole. When I got home I made a peanut butter on bagel sandwich. That makes life good. I gave myself another treat for dinner, barbecue country style ribs. I now have the timing down to a science. It came out perfect and I served it on a mini-sub roll. The fries cook for exactly the same time in the oven. So easy and so good.
I didn’t want to bring up anything negative yesterday so today I’ll write about my subway trip to Brooklyn. I get on the second stop; the train is usually close to empty. A few stops after I boarded a group of four came on without masks. The law is that you must wear a mask on the subway, but it’s not enforced, and some people are totally oblivious. There were two other maskless people on the car. As the train filled up somebody wearing his mask around his chine stood right next to me. I decided to say something. I made eye contact, smiled, and the mimed putting my mask on. He did! This can work. Give it a try. The key is to not be confrontational, be friendly. Treat it as you would someone whose fly is open. You are doing them an awkward favor.
When I changed to the Q the train had fewer people on it but one stop after mine someone came on and sat at the bench perpendicular to mine. I was facing sideways, and he was facing forward. I was at the far end of my bench. I planned that so if someone said on the cross bench they’d be far away. The guy sits on the crossbench but puts a large amp/speaker down on my bench. He then connects it to his phone via Bluetooth and starts blasting it. I was trying to listen to a podcast through my earbuds. Guess what. He had his mask on around this chin. I decided to confront him only about the more important thing, his mask. I did the mime and once again it worked. Unfortunately, the guy had other issues and started talking to the world and often pulled his mask down. When I could, I changed my seat.
I’m not going to take the subway routinely, but I will when I need to. None of that is why I’m telling you about this. I am a creature of Facebook and posted about the maskless people on the subway. People responded with their prejudices,
“It must be Trumpers!”
“It’s tourists!”
Most people not wearing a mask are not making a political statement. They are just careless people like those that speed, smoke indoors, or don’t wear seatbelts. Yes, there are Trumpers that make a political point by not wearing a mask. There are libertarians who feel that nobody can tell them what to do. Those are the ones you read about but it’s not most of the maskless. I find it hard to believe that people of color getting on the subway are Trump supporters, especially teenagers. They were totally at ease on the subway, they aren’t tourists. These are simply careless people. I won’t even say that they don’t care about others. They just don’t think it through. They are people that can be reached. The trick is not to shame them, not be holier than thou, but to attempt to get them to appreciate the importance. They need education not scolding.
I see on Facebook making the same sorts of assumptions about who is not wearing a mask. People blame the groups they have something against. “Everyone I see without a mask is a blond!” “I never see left-handed people wear a mask!” “Architects are the worst!” I have never heard anyone blame those groups, that’s why I used them. If you say some group is worse about mask wearing and don’t have a study to show you’re right you’re being a prejudiced. When I suspected that people in my neighborhood wore masks less often than those in the surrounding neighborhoods. I decided to study the situation. I counted the percentages of people in and out of my neighborhood and the difference in mask-wearing rate was large. My null hypothesis was that the rates would be the same and what I had observed was either chance or confirmation bias on my part; I noticed the masks more where I was specifically looking for them. It was only after making up rules on who to count and doing the counts, over many days that I concluded that I was right.
Years ago, I had an unfortunate experience with a rude and hostile person on the subway. When I told a friend she asked, “Was he black?” My response was, “What difference does it make?” She asked because she wanted her bias confirmed. Before you think Trumper, her politics is progressive. Prejudice is all over. If she asked if her were white I’d have said the same thing. Bias works in all sorts of ways, it’s still bias. I was hesitant to mention that the maskless people I encountered on the train were young POC. That wasn’t important in terms of them wearing a mask, it was just a good indication that they weren’t Trump supporters.
I should head out again and do some shopping. I waited too long to have time to go to Stop & Shop like I planned as I have to be back here for On Your Radar. Oh hell. If I’m very quick about it I can make it. I’ll try.
Wise Madness 