by John Walters
3,124
That’s the number of Americans who died from the coronavirus yesterday. In one day. So, yes, more than 9/11.
As Dr. Eric Ding noted on Twitter yesterday, with approximately 290,000 cumulative deaths since late February, more Americans have died of COVID-19 this year than U.S. soldiers in WW2 died fighting in the Pacific, France, Italy, Northern Africa and Germany combined.
Ah, but what about the U.S. deaths in Austria? See? See? There’s a bright side.
You know what would be fascinating? To go back and watch Chernobyl on HBO in light of how our government has handled this corona crisis. We’ve lost at least 10 times as many Americans as the Russians lost and our government has been even more averse to tackling the problem head-on.
Ohio Statement
Yesterday the Big Ten athletic directors got together and looked at the evidence:
- Ohio State is our best, and only undefeated, team.
- Before this wacky season began we imposed a 6-game minimum in order for a team to be eligible to play in our conference championship game.
- Ohio State will have played five games before the conference championship game.
- Ohio State is our only chance to make the college football playoff, a chance that recedes some if the Buckeyes do not play in the conference championship game.
Faced with those four pieces of evidence, the B1G did something both wise and pragmatic: they eliminated the 6-game minimum. Look for a Northwestern-Ohio State B1G CC, the Howlin’ Herbies versus the Fightin’ Rece Davises.
And Your Chicks For Free
I was thinking about this 1985 Dire Straits classic yesterday. The song is pure genius and Mark Knopfler wrote most of it while sitting in an appliance store in New York City and eavesdropping on a conversation between a few employees who were watching MTV on a television.
The song was released on June 24, 1985 and this performance at Live Aid happened just three weeks later. It’s one of the gem moments of that incredible day. And at the time Sting was one of the most famous musical artists in the world (along with Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna) so having him along certainly helped.
A Whale Of A Story
Nearly 12 years ago, Sully was landing a commercial jet in the Hudson River (just three miles south of MH world headquarters). Today, a humpback whale is swimming up it. I call that progress.
Surely this whale is lost but one wonders if it will continue up river all the way to West Point, where it will be this Saturday’s College GameDay celebrity picker.
No Words
Rex Chapman, again. No one curates the internet better.
Nearly 27 millions lost their lives during WWII, so there’s that…
Geez… I’ll Micah myself. Nearly 27 million Russians lost their lives during WWII, so there’s that.
Money for Nothing is one of my favorite songs. Yeah, I’m a millennial, but I’m the youngest of five kids – the others are all Xers. I’m decently versed in 80s music (at least the stuff my older siblings listened to in the house and driving me about). I love the guitar riff at the opening of the song … just perfect.