Now, now, friend, no need for that. I know it's intended in good fun, but no one in China intentionally bought tainted anything.

The Chinese at the end of this inspiring video (of Italians singing from their balconies while on lockdown) ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q734VN0N7hw

... are saying something that literally translates to "Add oil," which may need some explanation.

Or maybe not. It's a message of solidarity. We're all in this together! Humanity against the virus!

Some think that distancing
must involve strife,
but I have been doing it
all of my life.

x
Julie: Now, now, friend, no need for that. I know it's intended in good fun, but no one in China intentionally bought tainted anything.

True. I was groping for a rhyme (and it wasn't even a rhyme). Irresponsible of me. The video is awesome, thanks. Add Oil. Strength in numbers.

I heard something interesting today. An observation on NPR was made that pandemics have historically spread beginning with the bottom rung of the socio-economic ladder. This one not so much. The relatively affluent — travelers, vacationers, politicians, schmoozers, socialites — appear to be the fast track. You schmooze you lose.

Anyway, thanks for the dope-slap. That's the second slap you've doled out today Julie. Me and Bob Dylan : )
x
x

Yeah, on second thought, I really need to keep my hands to myself....

(As you noted in the original post, humor is a way of figuring out where the boundaries are, and that means we'll all occasionally transgress them.)

I'm not coming out
I'm ignoring the phone
In self-isolation
I'm here all alone.
I'm shutting the curtains
I'm locking the door
I'm reducing my world
To the living room floor.
I'll read all the books
I've been meaning to read
I've got music, a chair
And a half ounce of weed.
My loo-roll is stacked
Like the pyramids of Giza
I've got pasta and ice-cream
And chips in the freezer.
The virus is awful
But to tell you the truth
I'm always like this
I just like the excuse

Corona
March 2020

From Khabarovsk to Arizona,
from Wellington to Barcelona,
the nuttiest caper
is toilet paper
we’re panic buying against Corona.

PLOT SUMMARY

The government accidentally releases a new, despotic and self-appointed
triffid poison. The narrative begins with Masen in prison, bandaged,
constantly under threat: Smartphone alerts. Venomous, carnivorous

misinformation lined with public health scavengers. A strictly enforced
contact-tracing programme. With military personnel chained to his eyes
he finds large numbers have tested positive. Disobeying quarantine,

the escaped triffids drive an armoured car and urge people to wash.
Assigned numbers of international visitors decide to form their own settlement
on the Isle of Wight. After discovering her hoarding medical supplies,

militaristic representatives establish a colony in a young sighted girl.
Anyone can be called by officials, who have harsh penalties
for triffid cultivation. Nearly everyone is ghostly. Masen suspects

public transport, large with staff and patients, is a mask. Stations are hung
with those who break guidelines. After the unbandaging,
the triffids leave the streets. The novel ends in Sussex, with the blind

burying a boy around the fenced exterior. In chaos, triffids pour in.


----------------------
cut up from: This article in the Guardian and The Day of Triffids plot summary on Wikipedia.

Pandemic

A jillion germs now smirk and grin,
grinning (like one aware he’s vicious)
at those who thought the pangolin—

scales and blood and flesh—delicious.
A jillion germs knock at our doors
around the world, both mine and yours.

I’d like to think this all fictitious.
Everybody is suspicious
of anyone who coughs or sneezes,

a protocol I think judicious.
The virus does as it damned pleases.
“Keep your distance! Don’t get near me!”

I shout inside my mind. You hear me?
I fear you and, I’m sure, you fear me.
And so they grin and so we hide

and throw away the travel guide.
Look how they smirk, those jillion germs,
knowing the battle’s on their terms.


Here is a great article on a different attitude toward the pandemic.

https://sapphostorque.com/2020/03/

I reckon the late great Warren Zevon said it best:


SPLENDID ISOLATION

I want to live alone in the desert
I want to be like Georgia O'Keefe
I want to live on the Upper East Side
And never go down in the street

Splendid Isolation
I don't need no one
Splendid Isolation

Michael Jackson in Disneyland
Don't have to share it with nobody else
Lock the gates, Goofy, take my hand
And lead me through the World of Self

Splendid Isolation
I don't need no one
Splendid Isolation

Don't want to wake up with no one beside me
Don't want to take up with nobody new
Don't want nobody coming by without calling first
Don't want nothing to do with you

I'm putting tinfoil up on the windows
Lying down in the dark to dream
I don't want to see their faces
I don't want to hear them scream

Splendid Isolation
I don't need no one
Splendid Isolation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awhGI0_o90s

Julie, “He’s on a roll” is worth at least $8 HK. Hilarious.