by John Walters

75,600

That’s the number of new cases diagnosed yesterday in the U.S.A., according to The New York Times. Florida and Texas also surged to one-day records. That number is approximately double the number the U.S. was hitting on a daily level just one month ago.

Remember, “fifteen, going down to zero?” How quaint.

Mask-arade

In Provo, Utah, a meeting to discuss a state mandate that all children wear masks upon returning to school next month was canceled when parents not wearing masks flooded the room (although, look at that nice couple on the lower left).

It’s time for Mask America Great Again headgear. And I don’t mean baseball caps.

Got To Rock On

There are about three Kansas songs that everyone knows: The band’s massive breakout hit, “Carry On, Our Wayward Son,” “Dust In The Wind,” and perhaps “Point Of Know Return.”

This tune comes from their 1980 album, “Audio-Visions.” Always felt that it got lost on the radio. It’s not a classic, but it deserves a little more attention. If you have kids who’ve never heard either band, you should play, “Styx Or Kansas?” with them, playing a smattering of each band’s songs.

That’s Going To Cost You An Arm And A Leg

When the sister of tech entrepreneur Fahim Saleh, 33, did not hear back from him for more than a day she went to check on him in his $2.25 million luxury apartment on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. There she found a grisly scene: her brother’s decapitated and dismembered corpse (writers from Law & Order are already on Page 16 of the script).

Police have already arrested Saleh’s 21 year-old personal assistant, Tyrese Haspil. Apparently Saleh had discovered that Haspil had stolen tens of thousands of dollars from him and confronted him about it. Not that he was going to report Haspil to the cops, but that he wanted to set up a repayment plan. It seems that Haspil was not down with that.

Saleh was a born entrepreneur, the kind of dude you’d seen killing it on Shark Tank. His main success was a Nigerian ride-share company that used motorbikes: Uber on two wheels. But if you’re going to hire a personal assistant, hire an older female. Not a 21 year-old dude with designs on your possessions. Or, better yet, just get married.

Luanda

Sometimes when I’m up against it, figuring out how to fill out the daily five, I look up a place in Africa that I’ve never even heard of. Today’s place? Luanda, the capital of Angola. Right up against the Atlantic Ocean.

Luanda is the largest Portuguese-speaking capital in the world, even more so than Lisbon. It was the center of the slave trade to Brazil until it was outlawed. It was also colonized by the Portuguese way back in the 16th century. But now the indigenous peoples have taken back their home.

Oh, and the country has running rhinos. Which is cool.

Tuition Fruition

A recurring conversation I’ve been having with friends whose kids are in college right now: Is it really worth it to send your kids back to campus if they’re going to be taking courses on-line?

Now, certainly, not everyone’s kids attend a Top 100 university but look at the costs in tuition at these schools. Once you get past room and board you’re talking at least $60,000.

So what’s the smart play here? How about a gap year? If your student/child can find a job and take a couple of community courses locally (or online), isn’t that better than sending them off somewhere where they’ll be cooped up in an even smaller room and yet still have a far, far greater chance of contracting the virus? And for what? What’s the point of being educated on a college campus if you’re never in the classroom or never around other students?

I’ll hold for your thoughts…