Okay folks. Sharing this as I think it has helped keep me Covid-free (knocking on wood, for real) the last 4.5 years.
Buy a bottle of X-Clear nasal spray. Buy a bottle of food-grade oil of oregano essential oil. Put three drops of the oil of oregano oil into three bottle of X-Clear and shake. Shake it an put a good squirt up each nostril just before, and just after, you are around other humans.
Please know I also masked and was a pretty rabid hand washer. Also social distanced.
And this stuff’s return is all the more terrifying as the isolation time has been cut (so people are not staying home when they might still be contagious) and people are no longer social distancing with any fervor. There did seem to be more people masking here in Wilmington, NC, today at the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s when I made my weekly run.
Used my X-Clear before and after each foray into the fray.
Yes. The oil of oregano burns. But I will say, “it burns so good”, and that I welcome the burn. Maybe it’s psychological in its immune building and protective powers.
Whatever!
As I said, so far…
… and I have been vaccinated and avoid crowds. But did just take a class with 40 people. (A/C was Antarctic and air was circulating like a vortex in a wind tunnel.)
For less than $20?
I’ll keep using this spray. Have given the combo to several friends and my adult children. Will poll to see who used it and who didn’t; who’s had “the vid” and who hasn’t.
Peace. And again, I am sorry for the loss of Mr. Shapiro.
This is the second very personal and hearth-felt tribute I've read in the last 12 hours to a writer who had just been lost to COVID. The other was by Gail Collins in the NYT, about her husband Dan. This is a nasty disease, and it continues to stalk us four years along. In the first months, I lost two friends and four favorite jazz musicians to it.
My wife and I, in our 80s, have always taken it seriously, realizing how our age increases our vulnerability, and have managed to avoid it. We miss hearing live jazz and eating in restaurants, both of which were important to us. But recently, nearly every week, we hear from friends who have gotten infected. My wife's oldest daughter and her husband both got infected about ten days ago. Yesterday, she went in for day-long surgery for cancer in her jaw. Both the surgery and recovery are grueling -- think of what Roger Ebert went through. We're hoping there are no complications.
I'm writing this because we've got to keep taking this virus seriously if we want to stay alive, and to stop losing friends.
Agree 100%. The virus is very clearly coming back, and it is no joke, especially for Boomer-and-above cohorts. Practically everyone we know has had a recent infection. (Our second bout was last month. Immediate effects were mild, but we're aware of the long-term toll.)
Jim, have you considered writing a book-length of your long, rich career in political (and non-political) journalism, all the colleagues and personalities you've known, stories and lessons from the Carter years, etc.? I apologize for suggesting this, because I'd hardly want you to feel put out to pasture! We *need* you in the fray, more than ever these days. But I would be the first paying customer for such a book, FWIW.
While such a book would likely be quite interesting, I find Jim and Deb's work on what's currently happening in our country to be very important. Their "Our Towns" series, and the resulting book, is a great example, as is this Substack.
Ethan, Jim Brown, et al — You are so generous. I am really touched by these suggestions. I have a "normal" journalistic project I'll be finishing off in the next two or three weeks, plus these election chronicles. Then am juggling two or three book possibilities. I do appreciate and take this seriously.
Thank you. Our thoughts are now mainly with Meryl, his wife, for whom all this just happened so suddenly. One moment Walter was himself, in full five-dimensional wise-cracking form, and then — he wasn't.
Okay folks. Sharing this as I think it has helped keep me Covid-free (knocking on wood, for real) the last 4.5 years.
Buy a bottle of X-Clear nasal spray. Buy a bottle of food-grade oil of oregano essential oil. Put three drops of the oil of oregano oil into three bottle of X-Clear and shake. Shake it an put a good squirt up each nostril just before, and just after, you are around other humans.
Please know I also masked and was a pretty rabid hand washer. Also social distanced.
And this stuff’s return is all the more terrifying as the isolation time has been cut (so people are not staying home when they might still be contagious) and people are no longer social distancing with any fervor. There did seem to be more people masking here in Wilmington, NC, today at the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s when I made my weekly run.
Used my X-Clear before and after each foray into the fray.
Yes. The oil of oregano burns. But I will say, “it burns so good”, and that I welcome the burn. Maybe it’s psychological in its immune building and protective powers.
Whatever!
As I said, so far…
… and I have been vaccinated and avoid crowds. But did just take a class with 40 people. (A/C was Antarctic and air was circulating like a vortex in a wind tunnel.)
For less than $20?
I’ll keep using this spray. Have given the combo to several friends and my adult children. Will poll to see who used it and who didn’t; who’s had “the vid” and who hasn’t.
Peace. And again, I am sorry for the loss of Mr. Shapiro.
Mr. Fallows, Jim, I am sorry for the loss of your dear friend.
This is the second very personal and hearth-felt tribute I've read in the last 12 hours to a writer who had just been lost to COVID. The other was by Gail Collins in the NYT, about her husband Dan. This is a nasty disease, and it continues to stalk us four years along. In the first months, I lost two friends and four favorite jazz musicians to it.
My wife and I, in our 80s, have always taken it seriously, realizing how our age increases our vulnerability, and have managed to avoid it. We miss hearing live jazz and eating in restaurants, both of which were important to us. But recently, nearly every week, we hear from friends who have gotten infected. My wife's oldest daughter and her husband both got infected about ten days ago. Yesterday, she went in for day-long surgery for cancer in her jaw. Both the surgery and recovery are grueling -- think of what Roger Ebert went through. We're hoping there are no complications.
I'm writing this because we've got to keep taking this virus seriously if we want to stay alive, and to stop losing friends.
Agree 100%. The virus is very clearly coming back, and it is no joke, especially for Boomer-and-above cohorts. Practically everyone we know has had a recent infection. (Our second bout was last month. Immediate effects were mild, but we're aware of the long-term toll.)
Now I know why I liked his writings that I read so much. Thanks for this memory.
Jim, have you considered writing a book-length of your long, rich career in political (and non-political) journalism, all the colleagues and personalities you've known, stories and lessons from the Carter years, etc.? I apologize for suggesting this, because I'd hardly want you to feel put out to pasture! We *need* you in the fray, more than ever these days. But I would be the first paying customer for such a book, FWIW.
While such a book would likely be quite interesting, I find Jim and Deb's work on what's currently happening in our country to be very important. Their "Our Towns" series, and the resulting book, is a great example, as is this Substack.
Good point! Of course anything and everything would depend on Jim's own interest and available time :-)
Ethan, Jim Brown, et al — You are so generous. I am really touched by these suggestions. I have a "normal" journalistic project I'll be finishing off in the next two or three weeks, plus these election chronicles. Then am juggling two or three book possibilities. I do appreciate and take this seriously.
What a lovely reminiscence, and my sympathies on the loss of your friend.
Thank you. Our thoughts are now mainly with Meryl, his wife, for whom all this just happened so suddenly. One moment Walter was himself, in full five-dimensional wise-cracking form, and then — he wasn't.