newyorker--2020-03-31--Rotten Tomatoes Unearths Noteworthy Film Critics of the Past

It ’ s worth remembering that before Rotten Tomatoes deems films and television shows fresh or rotten , it has to aggregate their reviews , a process that is inherently political : Whose opinions get counted toward the critical consensus and whose get left out ?
Typically , the site has included a wide range of current-day critics ( in large measure because of the ready availability of reviews online ) , but its selection of reviews of classic movies has drawn on a narrower spectrum of publications .
Over the past two years , though , the site ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ working with the review curator Sara Ataiiyan , has delved deep into the history of film criticism and included , on the site ’ s reviews of classic films ( including ones that have been lost ) , an important range of critics who ’ d formerly been excluded—and who haven ’ t , until now , got their due for their insights , observations , and ideas .
( Not surprisingly , many of these excluded critics are women and people of color . )
In the process , Ryan and Ataiiyan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shifting , the history of cinema over all .
One of these newly included critics remains prominent today , albeit , unjustly , not for her writing : Iris Barry , who , in 1935 , founded MOMA ’ s Film Library .
Before then , Barry was a film critic , and a pioneering one , in London , notably at The Spectator .
She also wrote a noteworthy book of movie aesthetics and appreciation , “ Let ’ s Go to the Pictures , ” in 1926 .
( When I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , by Robert Sitton , in 2014 , I called for a collection of her critical writings . )
Rotten Tomatoes has gathered many of her reviews and linked them to the relevant films , and they prove that she was a critic of historic , powerful insight .
( The one rub to the curation is that , in order to click through and read Barry ’ s full reviews , a subscription to The Spectator is required . )
In 1926 , moved by Robert Flaherty ’ s “ Moana ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cooper ’ s “ Grass , ” Barry derided the studio-bound and script-bound artifices of the American cinema , adding , “ Hollywood ’ s new battle-cry should be ‘ away with complications ’ and a return to nature.
” ( The silence to this day remains deafening . )
Praising Josef von Sternberg ’ s début feature , “ The Salvation Hunters , ” an independent film from 1925 , she wrote , “ Most films reek of money : this one , with all its faults , is so sincere , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that one would warm to it had it no other qualities.
” ( In the same piece , she anticipates the Film Library , with her lament about the near-total lack of revivals of even the best of previously released movies : “ When is one to see The Last Laugh or Greed again ?
And who can tell us where to see the old Chaplin and the old Harold Lloyd films which sometimes reappear ?
” ) Writing of Ernst Lubitsch ’ s “ The Marriage Circle , ” Barry discerns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the classic arts and , at the same time , distinguish it as intrinsically more modern : “ Henry James could , in a light mood , have told it as minutely as Lubitsch has in pictures : but at what a length .
I do not believe that any dramatist living or dead could relate it in dialogue quite so delicately , so intuitively or so effortlessly as this unpretentious film does.
” Barry , though far from being the first critic , may well be the first modern critic , at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wide net that Ryan and Ataiiyan have cast has caught an amazingly early film review : an anonymous and aesthetically perceptive one , from January 29 , 1898 , in the New-York Tribune , about a filmed version of the Passion , based very loosely on the “ Oberammergau Passion Play.
” One of a pair of reviews from Australia , of a locally made movie from 1906 , “ The Story of the Kelly Gang ” —about an Australian band of outlaws who were also folk heroes—offers what may be the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is usual for people who have a skeleton in their cupboard to keep it under lock and key .
.
.
.
The exploits of the Kelly gang , away back in the early eighties , were admittedly sufficiently daring in their character and tragic in their sequence to provide a sensational page of Australian history , but it is not the class of history to which a nation points with pride.
” From the same year are the first movie reviews published by the New York–based trade paper Variety , single-paragraph notices @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proprietor .
An all-caps notice , bordered and in large type , declares : “ Commencing with current issue , reviews of new moving pictures presented in the vaudeville theatres of New York and Chicago will appear in the department.
” One of the most fascinating figures newly on the site is John Kinloch , who wrote in the thirties and forties for the California Eagle , which was owned and run by African-American businesspeople and journalists , and provided news for the black community .
The short-lived , precociously accomplished Kinloch , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nephew of Charlotta A. Bass , the paper ’ s editor and publisher , and was being groomed to succeed her .
He also aspired to work in the movie business , but he was killed in combat in the Second World War , in 1945 , while still in his early twenties .
( As cited in a valuable essay by the historian Robbie Lieberman , both Bass and Kinloch believed that he was drafted into service on political grounds , to hobble the publication .
Footnote : quickly , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Charlotta Bass ! )
As a writer , Kinloch reflected the enduring paradox of the working critic : most of the movies that he reviewed were relatively disposable entertainments , neither particularly noteworthy nor particularly reprehensible , and he reviewed such films with amiable ease ( occasionally noting that a B-picture or an ultra-low-budget one was a “ sleeper ” ) .
But , with great movies , Kinloch rose to the occasion with insight and passion , as when , writing about Fritz Lang ’ s “ You and Me , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time—he ranked it among the director ’ s masterworks .
Reviewing Charlie Chaplin ’ s “ The Great Dictator , ” in the April 10 , 1941 , issue—he was still a teen-ager—Kinloch wrote , “ The little funny man ’ s significance to the screen is roughly that of Shakespeare to playwriting , da Vinci to painting or Jim Farley to party politics.
” Kinloch addresses the aesthetic controversy that greeted the film , centered on the ten-minute-long concluding speech in which Chaplin—playing a Jewish barber impersonating the Hitler-like tyrant Adenoid Hynkel—speaks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voice .
Kinloch approves of the filmmaker “ tacking on a bit of his own philosophy after a quarter-century of service to the world ’ s collective happiness , ” and concludes the piece with a flourish , paying close attention to the substance of what Chaplin is saying : “ You may also note that Charley ’ s plea for equality and tolerance started out with the following items : ‘ White man .
.
.
black man .
.
.
’ ” Kinloch paid special attention to movies on subjects of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as one about Abraham Lincoln ) , movies by black filmmakers , and those featuring black stars , such as Paul Robeson and Lena Horne .
Perhaps his most extraordinary piece , a bold and visionary political and aesthetic treatise , was disguised as a review of the 1940 movie called “ As Thousands Cheer ” ( also known as “ While Thousands Cheer ” ) , a musical with an all-black cast .
Writing of the rise of movies , including “ As Thousands Cheer , ” made by white producers for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the colored motion-picture boom has been an incredible failure , ” because “ no real attempt to translate into celluloid the lives of black people in this nation has been made.
” He complained that such “ colored pictures are a tepid rehash of white ones , ” and he uses an extraordinary term :

It’s worth remembering that before Rotten Tomatoes deems films and television shows fresh or rotten, it has to aggregate their reviews, a process that is inherently political: Whose opinions get counted toward the critical consensus and whose get left out? Typically, the site has included a wide range of current-day critics (in large measure because of the ready availability of reviews online), but its selection of reviews of classic movies has drawn on a narrower spectrum of publications. Over the past two years, though, the site’s review-curation manager, Tim Ryan, working with the review curator Sara Ataiiyan, has delved deep into the history of film criticism and included, on the site’s reviews of classic films (including ones that have been lost), an important range of critics who’d formerly been excluded—and who haven’t, until now, got their due for their insights, observations, and ideas. (Not surprisingly, many of these excluded critics are women and people of color.) In the process, Ryan and Ataiiyan are meaningfully contributing to, even significantly shifting, the history of cinema over all.
One of these newly included critics remains prominent today, albeit, unjustly, not for her writing: Iris Barry, who, in 1935, founded MOMA’s Film Library. Before then, Barry was a film critic, and a pioneering one, in London, notably at The Spectator. She also wrote a noteworthy book of movie aesthetics and appreciation, “Let’s Go to the Pictures,” in 1926. (When I wrote about Barry and reviewed her biography, by Robert Sitton, in 2014, I called for a collection of her critical writings.) Rotten Tomatoes has gathered many of her reviews and linked them to the relevant films, and they prove that she was a critic of historic, powerful insight. (The one rub to the curation is that, in order to click through and read Barry’s full reviews, a subscription to The Spectator is required.)
In 1926, moved by Robert Flaherty’s “Moana” and Ernest B. Schoedsack and Merian C. Cooper’s “Grass,” Barry derided the studio-bound and script-bound artifices of the American cinema, adding, “Hollywood’s new battle-cry should be ‘away with complications’ and a return to nature.” (The silence to this day remains deafening.) Praising Josef von Sternberg’s début feature, “The Salvation Hunters,” an independent film from 1925, she wrote, “Most films reek of money: this one, with all its faults, is so sincere, so simple and so obviously cost little, that one would warm to it had it no other qualities.” (In the same piece, she anticipates the Film Library, with her lament about the near-total lack of revivals of even the best of previously released movies: “When is one to see The Last Laugh or Greed again? And who can tell us where to see the old Chaplin and the old Harold Lloyd films which sometimes reappear?”) Writing of Ernst Lubitsch’s “The Marriage Circle,” Barry discerns the qualities that place the cinema alongside the classic arts and, at the same time, distinguish it as intrinsically more modern: “Henry James could, in a light mood, have told it as minutely as Lubitsch has in pictures: but at what a length. I do not believe that any dramatist living or dead could relate it in dialogue quite so delicately, so intuitively or so effortlessly as this unpretentious film does.” Barry, though far from being the first critic, may well be the first modern critic, at least in the English language.
The wide net that Ryan and Ataiiyan have cast has caught an amazingly early film review: an anonymous and aesthetically perceptive one, from January 29, 1898, in the New-York Tribune, about a filmed version of the Passion, based very loosely on the “Oberammergau Passion Play.” One of a pair of reviews from Australia, of a locally made movie from 1906, “The Story of the Kelly Gang”—about an Australian band of outlaws who were also folk heroes—offers what may be the first criticism of scolding moralism: “It is usual for people who have a skeleton in their cupboard to keep it under lock and key. . . . The exploits of the Kelly gang, away back in the early eighties, were admittedly sufficiently daring in their character and tragic in their sequence to provide a sensational page of Australian history, but it is not the class of history to which a nation points with pride.” From the same year are the first movie reviews published by the New York–based trade paper Variety, single-paragraph notices by Sime Silverman, the editor and proprietor. An all-caps notice, bordered and in large type, declares: “Commencing with current issue, reviews of new moving pictures presented in the vaudeville theatres of New York and Chicago will appear in the department.”
One of the most fascinating figures newly on the site is John Kinloch, who wrote in the thirties and forties for the California Eagle, which was owned and run by African-American businesspeople and journalists, and provided news for the black community. The short-lived, precociously accomplished Kinloch, born and raised in Harlem, was the nephew of Charlotta A. Bass, the paper’s editor and publisher, and was being groomed to succeed her. He also aspired to work in the movie business, but he was killed in combat in the Second World War, in 1945, while still in his early twenties. (As cited in a valuable essay by the historian Robbie Lieberman, both Bass and Kinloch believed that he was drafted into service on political grounds, to hobble the publication. Footnote: quickly, a bio-pic or TV miniseries about the extraordinary Charlotta Bass!)
As a writer, Kinloch reflected the enduring paradox of the working critic: most of the movies that he reviewed were relatively disposable entertainments, neither particularly noteworthy nor particularly reprehensible, and he reviewed such films with amiable ease (occasionally noting that a B-picture or an ultra-low-budget one was a “sleeper”). But, with great movies, Kinloch rose to the occasion with insight and passion, as when, writing about Fritz Lang’s “You and Me,” in 1938—he was about sixteen at the time—he ranked it among the director’s masterworks. Reviewing Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator,” in the April 10, 1941, issue—he was still a teen-ager—Kinloch wrote, “The little funny man’s significance to the screen is roughly that of Shakespeare to playwriting, da Vinci to painting or Jim Farley to party politics.” Kinloch addresses the aesthetic controversy that greeted the film, centered on the ten-minute-long concluding speech in which Chaplin—playing a Jewish barber impersonating the Hitler-like tyrant Adenoid Hynkel—speaks, in effect, in his own voice. Kinloch approves of the filmmaker “tacking on a bit of his own philosophy after a quarter-century of service to the world’s collective happiness,” and concludes the piece with a flourish, paying close attention to the substance of what Chaplin is saying: “You may also note that Charley’s plea for equality and tolerance started out with the following items: ‘White man . . . black man . . . ’ ”
Kinloch paid special attention to movies on subjects of distinctive interest to black viewers (such as one about Abraham Lincoln), movies by black filmmakers, and those featuring black stars, such as Paul Robeson and Lena Horne. Perhaps his most extraordinary piece, a bold and visionary political and aesthetic treatise, was disguised as a review of the 1940 movie called “As Thousands Cheer” (also known as “While Thousands Cheer”), a musical with an all-black cast. Writing of the rise of movies, including “As Thousands Cheer,” made by white producers for black audiences, Kinloch says that “the colored motion-picture boom has been an incredible failure,” because “no real attempt to translate into celluloid the lives of black people in this nation has been made.” He complained that such “colored pictures are a tepid rehash of white ones,” and he uses an extraordinary term:


newyorker--2020-03-31--How Christian Siriano Turned His Fashion House Into a Mask Factory

On the morning of March 20th , the thirty-four-year-old fashion designer Christian Siriano sat in the living room of his country house , in Danbury , Connecticut , watching the must-see TV of the moment : the daily press briefings of Andrew Cuomo , the governor of New York , about the state ’ s battle against the coronavirus pandemic .
Cuomo was asked , by one reporter , whether he wished that President Trump would invoke the Defense Production Act , which would allow him to force companies in other industries to begin manufacturing desperately needed medical supplies , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ protective equipment , like masks and goggles .
“ Look , if I had a New York State Defense Production Act I would use it , ” Cuomo answered , adding , “ If you ’ re making clothing , figure out if you can make masks .
I ’ ll fund it.
” Siriano , a former “ Project Runway ” winner who has dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and Taylor Swift , realized that he was in a position to help .
He had closed his atelier a week earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ City was accelerating .
But his team of eight sewers had brought their machines with them .
Siriano had intended to keep them busy—and on the payroll—with client orders for wedding dresses and gowns for fall galas .
At noon , he tweeted at the governor : “ If @ NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some .
I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help.
” Within an hour , a representative from Cuomo ’ s office had slid into Siriano @ @ @ @ @ @ @ offer .
The governor ’ s office sent Siriano a stock pattern .
The mask was not a medical-grade N-95 , which requires special materials , such as non-woven polypropylene , to filter microscopic particles .
It was a cloth surgical mask , with three pleats , elastic ear bands , and a small metal strip that could be molded to fit the nose .
Siriano had a suitable polyblend fabric in his atelier , which he had delivered to each sewer ’ s home .
For two days , the team worked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not have a sewing machine in Connecticut , served as a kind of virtual Rosie the Riveter . )
But , with each sewer working on her own , they were only able to make around fifty masks a day .
So Siriano asked Cuomo ’ s office for permission to reopen his atelier as an “ essential ” business .
He returned to the city and gathered the team under one roof ( six feet apart , of course ) , where they could form an assembly line .
In the first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ masks .
The first box they shipped went directly to the new field hospital at the Javits Center .
On March 25th , as the mask-making was in full swing , Siriano took me on a FaceTime tour of his atelier , which occupies a prewar Beaux-Arts town house on Fifty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue .
It sits on what , during New York ’ s Gilded Age , was the site of St. Luke ’ s Hospital , and in the nineteen-forties served as an office for the Victory Clothing Collection for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ warm clothes from civilians to send to soldiers in need .
“ At one point , I ’ m sure similar things were being made here , ” he said .
A willowy sprite with a shiny acorn cap of black hair and chunky glasses , Siriano was wearing a tight black T-shirt and slim black jeans .
In a hallway on the third floor , he squeezed past a rack of several dozen sequinned ball gowns .
He entered a bright , airy room full of white sewing tables that looked much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” and zoomed in on a half-finished wedding dress , with a kelly-green bodice and a cascading skirt of black-and-white tulle .
It sat on a mannequin next to a table where a woman was attaching elastic cording to the back of one mask after another .
Siriano stressed that staff participation in the effort was entirely voluntary .
The first day back in the office , after he explained the plan via a group text , around twenty people showed up to help : cutters , sewers , designers , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , on any given day , around ten report for duty .
Each morning , private cars shuttle them from their homes to the town house .
A caterer provides lunch so that no one has to leave the office and risk exposure .
Twice a day , every day , the employees stop for a temperature check .
American officials have advised the public against wearing masks for their own protection against the coronavirus , in part because of the dire shortage of supplies needed for health-care workers .
But studies suggest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ While working their stations , each staff member wears a House of Siriano mask .
In normal times , Siriano is known as the rare designer with an inclusive vision of high fashion ; when the comedian Leslie Jones complained on Twitter , in 2016 , that no designers would outfit her for the “ Ghostbusters ” première , Siriano answered the call with a regal scarlet gown .
He said that he sees making masks now as an extension of his mission , which is to use his resources to help those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far more urgent than , say , a red-carpet appearance .
“ Fashion is amazing .
And it is beautiful , ” he said .
“ And I think we change a lot of people 's lives .
But it is a luxury .
It ’ s very surreal , to push aside , like , our ten-thousand-dollar gowns , and they just go in the corner.
” It was disconcerting , he said , that a company like his was even in a position to pitch in .
“ It ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enough product ?
How was there no preparation at all ?
In one way , it feels good we have something to do .
On the flip side , we get e-mails every day from hospitals being , like , ‘ We have nothing.
’ It ’ s a mess .
It ’ s horrible.
” During his first week of quarantine , Siriano had spent his free time working on a series of paintings .
Each showed a female figure done in the sparse , fluid style of the midcentury Vogue illustrator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a matching face mask .
On Instagram , Siriano posted a photograph of himself posing with three of the paintings .
“ I guess this is what my collections will be for a while now , ” he wrote in the caption .
“ A tulle gown and mask to complete the look.
” Siriano sold the paintings and funnelled the proceeds into his mask operation—all the work he ’ s done so far has been pro bono .
In recent days , companies much larger than his have volunteered to begin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brothers announced that it would use its menswear factories to make a hundred and fifty thousand masks a day .
Siriano says that he will keep his new operation churning as long as his supplies are needed , but he won ’ t mind when his staff can return to embellishing ball gowns .
“ I mean , my sewers are couture sewers , ” he said .
“ Now they are making masks , which is great .
But they ’ re not really using their talents.
” • How to practice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sick housemate to the pros and cons of ordering food .
• How people cope and create new customs amid a pandemic .
• What it means to contain and mitigate the coronavirus outbreak .
• How much of the world is likely to be quarantined ?
• Donald Trump in the time of coronavirus .
• The coronavirus is likely to spread for more than a year before a vaccine could be widely available .
• We are all irrational panic shoppers .
• The strange terror of watching the coronavirus take @ @

The designer Christian Siriano realized that he was in a position to help with the shortage of face masks. Photograph Courtesy Christian Siriano
On the morning of March 20th, the thirty-four-year-old fashion designer Christian Siriano sat in the living room of his country house, in Danbury, Connecticut, watching the must-see TV of the moment: the daily press briefings of Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, about the state’s battle against the coronavirus pandemic. Cuomo was asked, by one reporter, whether he wished that President Trump would invoke the Defense Production Act, which would allow him to force companies in other industries to begin manufacturing desperately needed medical supplies, including ventilators and P.P.E., or personal protective equipment, like masks and goggles. “Look, if I had a New York State Defense Production Act I would use it,” Cuomo answered, adding, “If you’re making clothing, figure out if you can make masks. I’ll fund it.”
Siriano, a former “Project Runway” winner who has dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and Taylor Swift, realized that he was in a position to help. He had closed his atelier a week earlier, as the outbreak in New York City was accelerating. But his team of eight sewers had brought their machines with them. Siriano had intended to keep them busy—and on the payroll—with client orders for wedding dresses and gowns for fall galas. At noon, he tweeted at the governor: “If @NYGovCuomo says we need masks my team will help make some. I have a full sewing team still on staff working from home that can help.” Within an hour, a representative from Cuomo’s office had slid into Siriano’s direct messages and accepted his offer.
The governor’s office sent Siriano a stock pattern. The mask was not a medical-grade N-95, which requires special materials, such as non-woven polypropylene, to filter microscopic particles. It was a cloth surgical mask, with three pleats, elastic ear bands, and a small metal strip that could be molded to fit the nose. Siriano had a suitable polyblend fabric in his atelier, which he had delivered to each sewer’s home. For two days, the team worked remotely. (Siriano, who does not have a sewing machine in Connecticut, served as a kind of virtual Rosie the Riveter.) But, with each sewer working on her own, they were only able to make around fifty masks a day. So Siriano asked Cuomo’s office for permission to reopen his atelier as an “essential” business. He returned to the city and gathered the team under one roof (six feet apart, of course), where they could form an assembly line. In the first week, they produced almost two thousand masks. The first box they shipped went directly to the new field hospital at the Javits Center.
On March 25th, as the mask-making was in full swing, Siriano took me on a FaceTime tour of his atelier, which occupies a prewar Beaux-Arts town house on Fifty-fourth Street and Fifth Avenue. It sits on what, during New York’s Gilded Age, was the site of St. Luke’s Hospital, and in the nineteen-forties served as an office for the Victory Clothing Collection for Overseas Relief, a service that gathered warm clothes from civilians to send to soldiers in need. “At one point, I’m sure similar things were being made here,” he said.
A willowy sprite with a shiny acorn cap of black hair and chunky glasses, Siriano was wearing a tight black T-shirt and slim black jeans. In a hallway on the third floor, he squeezed past a rack of several dozen sequinned ball gowns. He entered a bright, airy room full of white sewing tables that looked much like a set from “Project Runway,” and zoomed in on a half-finished wedding dress, with a kelly-green bodice and a cascading skirt of black-and-white tulle. It sat on a mannequin next to a table where a woman was attaching elastic cording to the back of one mask after another.
Video Courtesy Christian Siriano
Siriano stressed that staff participation in the effort was entirely voluntary. The first day back in the office, after he explained the plan via a group text, around twenty people showed up to help: cutters, sewers, designers, even the building’s doorman. Now, on any given day, around ten report for duty. Each morning, private cars shuttle them from their homes to the town house. A caterer provides lunch so that no one has to leave the office and risk exposure. Twice a day, every day, the employees stop for a temperature check. American officials have advised the public against wearing masks for their own protection against the coronavirus, in part because of the dire shortage of supplies needed for health-care workers. But studies suggest that they are a worthwhile precaution. While working their stations, each staff member wears a House of Siriano mask.
In normal times, Siriano is known as the rare designer with an inclusive vision of high fashion; when the comedian Leslie Jones complained on Twitter, in 2016, that no designers would outfit her for the “Ghostbusters” première, Siriano answered the call with a regal scarlet gown. He said that he sees making masks now as an extension of his mission, which is to use his resources to help those in need—even if the need now is far more urgent than, say, a red-carpet appearance.
“Fashion is amazing. And it is beautiful,” he said. “And I think we change a lot of people’s lives. But it is a luxury. It’s very surreal, to push aside, like, our ten-thousand-dollar gowns, and they just go in the corner.” It was disconcerting, he said, that a company like his was even in a position to pitch in. “It’s, like, wait, how is there not enough product? How was there no preparation at all? In one way, it feels good we have something to do. On the flip side, we get e-mails every day from hospitals being, like, ‘We have nothing.’ It’s a mess. It’s horrible.”
During his first week of quarantine, Siriano had spent his free time working on a series of paintings. Each showed a female figure done in the sparse, fluid style of the midcentury Vogue illustrator René Bouët-Willaumez, wearing a wispy gown and a matching face mask. On Instagram, Siriano posted a photograph of himself posing with three of the paintings. “I guess this is what my collections will be for a while now,” he wrote in the caption. “A tulle gown and mask to complete the look.”
Siriano sold the paintings and funnelled the proceeds into his mask operation—all the work he’s done so far has been pro bono. In recent days, companies much larger than his have volunteered to begin producing P.P.E. On Monday, Brooks Brothers announced that it would use its menswear factories to make a hundred and fifty thousand masks a day. Siriano says that he will keep his new operation churning as long as his supplies are needed, but he won’t mind when his staff can return to embellishing ball gowns. “I mean, my sewers are couture sewers,” he said. “Now they are making masks, which is great. But they’re not really using their talents.”
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-03-31--Trump Catches Melania Watching Cuomo Briefing

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —An awkward scene unfolded at the White House on Tuesday after Donald J. Trump came upon his wife , Melania , furtively watching New York Governor Andrew Cuomo ’ s daily coronavirus briefing .
According to White House sources , Trump was walking down a corridor of the Family Residence when he heard a familiar nasal voice emanating from the Lincoln Bedroom , droning on about masks and ventilators .
Bursting into the room , Trump came upon his wife watching Cuomo with rapt attention .
Caught by surprise , Melania quickly turned off @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only watching Cuomo “ to see how many big , terrible mistakes he makes.
” While her husband seemed to accept her explanation , the incident raised eyebrows at the White House , where , for weeks , the First Lady has been vanishing midday to watch the Governor ’ s daily COVID-19 updates .
Reportedly , last week a White House staffer observed Melania alone in the Lincoln Bedroom , the lights dimmed , the room illuminated only by the flickering image of Andrew Cuomo .
Unaware that she was being watched @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Cuomo , “ You be best .
”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—An awkward scene unfolded at the White House on Tuesday after Donald J. Trump came upon his wife, Melania, furtively watching New York Governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily coronavirus briefing.
According to White House sources, Trump was walking down a corridor of the Family Residence when he heard a familiar nasal voice emanating from the Lincoln Bedroom, droning on about masks and ventilators.
Bursting into the room, Trump came upon his wife watching Cuomo with rapt attention.
Caught by surprise, Melania quickly turned off the television and claimed that she was only watching Cuomo “to see how many big, terrible mistakes he makes.”
While her husband seemed to accept her explanation, the incident raised eyebrows at the White House, where, for weeks, the First Lady has been vanishing midday to watch the Governor’s daily COVID-19 updates.
Reportedly, last week a White House staffer observed Melania alone in the Lincoln Bedroom, the lights dimmed, the room illuminated only by the flickering image of Andrew Cuomo.
Unaware that she was being watched, the First Lady was overheard murmuring to Cuomo, “You be best.”


newyorker--2020-03-31--A View of Milan Under Quarantine

A View of Milan Under Quarantine

Nearly three and a half million people live in the metropolitan area of Milan , the Italian and international center of fashion , finance , culture , and commerce .
In recent weeks , the city has also become one of the centers of the coronavirus pandemic : it is the capital of the northern region of Lombardy , which has been hardest hit in the outbreak in Italy .
( The country currently has more than a hundred and one thousand coronavirus cases . )
As of Monday , Lombardy reported more than forty-two thousand cases of COVID-19 and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fifty-eight that day alone .
Since the Italian government ordered a lockdown of the northern regions , more than three weeks ago , which soon expanded to the rest of the country , Milan has been transformed , its normally teeming streets and piazze deserted .
Milan Men ’ s Fashion Week , planned for June , has been cancelled and combined with the city ’ s womenswear show , which is still scheduled for September .
In the new video “ Milan , a City Closed , ” the photographer and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ quarantine , capturing its iconic landmarks and attractions—such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II , Teatro alla Scala , Duomo di Milano , and Naviglio Grande—and residential neighborhoods empty and enveloped by a striking silence .
“ Here in the deserted city , there are no sounds , only noises , ” Pagetti wrote to me in an e-mail .
Instead of the usual hum of urban life , there is now an eerie quiet punctuated by birds chirping , screeches from empty trolleys , and church bells tolling .
“ But more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the ambulances , ” he went on , “ a lacerating scream that breaks the peace of silence , as if to remind us what tragedy we are experiencing.
” What struck Pagetti most while walking the silent streets of Milan , he told me , was “ the absence of voices.
” And the only voices to be heard in the video above are those of medical personnel at San Giuseppe Hospital , in the center of the city , where , in its intensive-care unit , doctors and nurses talk in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ To hear people talking and smiling among themselves gave me comfort and strength , gave me hope and put me in a good mood , ” Pagetti wrote .
On the quiet streets , a sense of resilience and solidarity is visible in buildings lit up in the tricolor of the Italian flag at night , and in messages on banners displayed around the city : “ Insieme ce la faremo ” ( “ Together we ’ ll make it ” ) and “ Andrà tutto bene , ” a phrase that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and , Pagetti said , is also posted on the door that leads to the San Giuseppe I.C.U.— “ Everything will be fine .
”

Nearly three and a half million people live in the metropolitan area of Milan, the Italian and international center of fashion, finance, culture, and commerce. In recent weeks, the city has also become one of the centers of the coronavirus pandemic: it is the capital of the northern region of Lombardy, which has been hardest hit in the outbreak in Italy. (The country currently has more than a hundred and one thousand coronavirus cases.) As of Monday, Lombardy reported more than forty-two thousand cases of COVID-19 and more than sixty-eight hundred deaths—including four hundred and fifty-eight that day alone.
Since the Italian government ordered a lockdown of the northern regions, more than three weeks ago, which soon expanded to the rest of the country, Milan has been transformed, its normally teeming streets and piazze deserted. Milan Men’s Fashion Week, planned for June, has been cancelled and combined with the city’s womenswear show, which is still scheduled for September. In the new video “Milan, a City Closed,” the photographer and photojournalist Franco Pagetti documents the city under quarantine, capturing its iconic landmarks and attractions—such as the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, Teatro alla Scala, Duomo di Milano, and Naviglio Grande—and residential neighborhoods empty and enveloped by a striking silence.
“Here in the deserted city, there are no sounds, only noises,” Pagetti wrote to me in an e-mail. Instead of the usual hum of urban life, there is now an eerie quiet punctuated by birds chirping, screeches from empty trolleys, and church bells tolling. “But more disturbing than ever are the sirens of the ambulances,” he went on, “a lacerating scream that breaks the peace of silence, as if to remind us what tragedy we are experiencing.”
What struck Pagetti most while walking the silent streets of Milan, he told me, was “the absence of voices.” And the only voices to be heard in the video above are those of medical personnel at San Giuseppe Hospital, in the center of the city, where, in its intensive-care unit, doctors and nurses talk in the corridor of an isolation area. “To hear people talking and smiling among themselves gave me comfort and strength, gave me hope and put me in a good mood,” Pagetti wrote.
On the quiet streets, a sense of resilience and solidarity is visible in buildings lit up in the tricolor of the Italian flag at night, and in messages on banners displayed around the city: “Insieme ce la faremo” (“Together we’ll make it”) and “Andrà tutto bene,” a phrase that has become something of a national slogan and, Pagetti said, is also posted on the door that leads to the San Giuseppe I.C.U.—“Everything will be fine.”
A Guide to the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-03-31--Keeping Calm in Guilderland, New York, in the Time of the Coronavirus

Two years ago , I moved into an apartment in Crown Heights that had bed bugs .
An exterminator sprayed the apartment again and again , until I gave up and moved out .
My dad borrowed a van and drove to Brooklyn to help me .
We soaked rags with insecticide and packed them into plastic tubs with my books and shoes .
We moved cautiously .
Even though we couldn ’ t see the bugs—they ’ re small ; they ’ re champions at hiding—we knew that they were there .
When I moved into my new place @ @ @ @ @ @ @ missed something , that I hadn ’ t been careful enough , and that the bugs had followed me .
What if a pregnant bug had sheltered itself in a blanket that , in the dryer , had failed to reach the appropriately lethal hundred and twenty degrees ?
What if two Adam and Eve bugs had nested inside my laptop ?
I texted my dad about the possibilities for months .
He replied that the bugs were not there .
How could he know that ?
He couldn ’ t .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he was proved wrong .
( Also , he was right . )
Recently , my dad has been forced to apply these methods on a larger scale .
He ’ s the supervisor of the town of Guilderland—in New York State , cities have mayors , and towns have “ supervisors ” —and he has spent the past month mitigating the anxieties of thirty-six thousand people .
He began sending out daily e-mail updates to residents on March 10th , back when there were a hundred and seventy-three COVID-19 cases in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ County , where Guilderland is situated .
“ We are proactively acting to ensure a safe environment for residents , ” my dad wrote .
( The bugs were not there . )
He added that the town would put out hand-sanitizer bottles in public places .
“ Please remember to ‘ keep the calm , ’ ” he concluded .
That same day , he texted me , “ The Town ’ s Medical Director is sure that it ’ s already here.
” Two days later , my dad sent an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case of the virus .
“ Please rest assured that the Town is fully equipped and trained to respond to COVID-19 , ” he wrote .
“ Thank you and please stay calm.
” Then two more residents tested positive , and schools closed .
“ Thank you and continue to stay calm , ” he wrote .
One of the cases was a middle-school student , and families with plausible contact were self-quarantining .
“ Thank you again for staying calm.
” Town Hall closed ( although my dad was still putting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ day ) .
“ Thank you again for staying calm , and for your kind words of support for Town employees.
” Fifty-two county residents had contracted the virus .
He declared a state of emergency for the town .
“ Thank you again for staying calm.
” I returned to my home town on the tenth day of my dad ’ s e-mails .
I was having trouble “ staying calm ” alone in Queens , and I headed to Guilderland after I was sure—or as sure as one can ever be—that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
( Of course , I still worry that I could be a vector and get my parents sick ; I worry about everything . )
More than half of Guilderland is farmland , and a third of it is suburbs .
The residents have plenty of space from each other ’ s germs .
Still , the town had experienced the first outbreak in Albany County , and the virus was spreading quickly .
My dad was concerned that residents , marooned from each other by lawns , fences , and apple @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and panicked .
So , when the number of COVID-19 cases in the county reached fifty-two , he suggested that residents in need of a diversion try the New York Power Authority ’ s nine-hundred-and-eighty-seven-page report on municipal lighting systems .
( “ Don ’ t worry , ” he wrote .
“ No comprehension test is required under current conditions.
” ) That evening , I sat with him in the living room as he waited to get a dial-in for Governor Andrew Cuomo ’ s 7 P.M. conference call with all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Cuomo ’ s office does these from time to time , and my dad was pretty sure that the governor ’ s office muted most of the people on the line , except for the mayors in places like New York City and Buffalo .
Sometimes he ’ d try to say something , and it didn ’ t seem like anybody was listening .
He checked his e-mail .
The call was postponed so that Cuomo could do a press event .
My dad turned on the news to see if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ does this all the time , ” my dad said .
“ He goes on TV , and he keeps people waiting.
” He ’ d been hoping to ask the governor whether the prohibition on nonessential gatherings applied to local-government board meetings , which need to happen—with public comment—to review new development .
The town ’ s economy was on his mind .
Guilderland gets twelve million dollars in sales tax , which is more than half of its budget .
In April , when Guilderland gets its quarterly sales-tax revenue , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bad , but by June it will be falling short by hundreds of thousands , if not millions , of dollars .
The town ’ s mall , Crossgates , where I used to fight with my mom at Hollister about the value of a dollar , is closed , except for Best Buy , which performs an essential service ( “ technology support ” ) .
People are buying lots of food—the Hannaford supermarket is sold out of popcorn , flour , and frozen vegetables—but there ’ s no sales tax on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taxes on mortgages .
But it seems unlikely that people would be interested , at this particular moment , in buying homes .
My dad says that he has plans .
He has ideas about where to find dollars ; and , in the meantime , he won ’ t spend any money unless he absolutely has to .
Except , earlier that day , someone at the mall had contacted the town and said that Crossgates couldn ’ t reimburse the town for the salaries of the two police officers it had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dad said , O.K.
, this was bad news , but he understood , and the town would keep paying the officers .
It wasn ’ t like he was going to fire them .
He checked his e-mail again .
The governor ’ s conference call had been cancelled .
The next morning , my dad wanted to drive around and visit town employees on the job .
A morale thing .
So I asked if I could come and we drove to the police station .
There were two officers there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from them and they positioned themselves six feet from each other .
Things were fairly normal , the police said .
Except last night someone leaving a quarantined house had driven into a tree , and all the E.M.T.s called to the scene had to put on hazmat suits and all the officers had worn respirators .
“ No one wants to stop cars right now , ” one of them said .
“ You never know who ’ s going to be in that car , but now .
.
.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s plug-in electric Subaru , the governor ’ s daily 11 A.M. press conference was on the radio .
My dad turned it up when Cuomo said that he was going to address economic fallout .
“ Some people are saying , ‘ Why can ’ t we dump Biden and go with Cuomo ?
, ’ ” my dad said .
He ’ d started sending his e-mails because he liked watching Cuomo ’ s press conferences ; he found them candid and informative , and my dad reasoned that , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ giving out facts , it was important that local leaders do so .
But , as much as he likes Cuomo , my dad is also used to fixing things himself , and this time Guilderland ’ s issues required substantial help from above .
The town , which has hundreds of employees to pay , was going to need state assistance .
But the conversations about how many dollars , and when , were happening at the state and county level , and all my dad could do was wait .
We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people drop off their trash and recycling ( Guilderland doesn ’ t have a landfill ) , and my dad got out and glumly noted the grammar on a sign announcing that the town had ceased charging “ town residence ” for the service .
The staff there looked busy , so we got back in the car and went to the ambulance station , to say hello to the paramedics and E.M.T.s .
There were two guys in the break room , and things were pretty normal , except everyone wondered if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dad said that the town was trying to figure out how to transport patients to local urgent-care facilities , rather than to the hospitals in Albany , which would both free up hospital beds and cut ambulance commute times .
Everyone agreed that this was a good idea .

Two years ago, I moved into an apartment in Crown Heights that had bed bugs. An exterminator sprayed the apartment again and again, until I gave up and moved out. My dad borrowed a van and drove to Brooklyn to help me. We soaked rags with insecticide and packed them into plastic tubs with my books and shoes. We moved cautiously. Even though we couldn’t see the bugs—they’re small; they’re champions at hiding—we knew that they were there.
When I moved into my new place, I was convinced that I had missed something, that I hadn’t been careful enough, and that the bugs had followed me. What if a pregnant bug had sheltered itself in a blanket that, in the dryer, had failed to reach the appropriately lethal hundred and twenty degrees? What if two Adam and Eve bugs had nested inside my laptop? I texted my dad about the possibilities for months. He replied that the bugs were not there.
How could he know that? He couldn’t. But he saw no reason to worry until he was proved wrong. (Also, he was right.)
Recently, my dad has been forced to apply these methods on a larger scale. He’s the supervisor of the town of Guilderland—in New York State, cities have mayors, and towns have “supervisors”—and he has spent the past month mitigating the anxieties of thirty-six thousand people. He began sending out daily e-mail updates to residents on March 10th, back when there were a hundred and seventy-three COVID-19 cases in the state, but none yet in Albany County, where Guilderland is situated. “We are proactively acting to ensure a safe environment for residents,” my dad wrote. (The bugs were not there.) He added that the town would put out hand-sanitizer bottles in public places. “Please remember to ‘keep the calm,’ ” he concluded. That same day, he texted me, “The Town’s Medical Director is sure that it’s already here.”
Two days later, my dad sent an e-mail explaining that Guilderland had one confirmed case of the virus. “Please rest assured that the Town is fully equipped and trained to respond to COVID-19,” he wrote. “Thank you and please stay calm.” Then two more residents tested positive, and schools closed. “Thank you and continue to stay calm,” he wrote. One of the cases was a middle-school student, and families with plausible contact were self-quarantining. “Thank you again for staying calm.” Town Hall closed (although my dad was still putting on a suit and going in every day). “Thank you again for staying calm, and for your kind words of support for Town employees.” Fifty-two county residents had contracted the virus. He declared a state of emergency for the town. “Thank you again for staying calm.”
I returned to my home town on the tenth day of my dad’s e-mails. I was having trouble “staying calm” alone in Queens, and I headed to Guilderland after I was sure—or as sure as one can ever be—that I did not have the virus myself. (Of course, I still worry that I could be a vector and get my parents sick; I worry about everything.) More than half of Guilderland is farmland, and a third of it is suburbs. The residents have plenty of space from each other’s germs. Still, the town had experienced the first outbreak in Albany County, and the virus was spreading quickly. My dad was concerned that residents, marooned from each other by lawns, fences, and apple trees—their own organic quarantine—might be feeling isolated and panicked. So, when the number of COVID-19 cases in the county reached fifty-two, he suggested that residents in need of a diversion try the New York Power Authority’s nine-hundred-and-eighty-seven-page report on municipal lighting systems. (“Don’t worry,” he wrote. “No comprehension test is required under current conditions.”)
That evening, I sat with him in the living room as he waited to get a dial-in for Governor Andrew Cuomo’s 7 P.M. conference call with all the state’s mayors and supervisors. Cuomo’s office does these from time to time, and my dad was pretty sure that the governor’s office muted most of the people on the line, except for the mayors in places like New York City and Buffalo. Sometimes he’d try to say something, and it didn’t seem like anybody was listening.
He checked his e-mail. The call was postponed so that Cuomo could do a press event. My dad turned on the news to see if he could find him. “He does this all the time,” my dad said. “He goes on TV, and he keeps people waiting.” He’d been hoping to ask the governor whether the prohibition on nonessential gatherings applied to local-government board meetings, which need to happen—with public comment—to review new development. The town’s economy was on his mind. Guilderland gets twelve million dollars in sales tax, which is more than half of its budget. In April, when Guilderland gets its quarterly sales-tax revenue, the damage won’t be too bad, but by June it will be falling short by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars. The town’s mall, Crossgates, where I used to fight with my mom at Hollister about the value of a dollar, is closed, except for Best Buy, which performs an essential service (“technology support”). People are buying lots of food—the Hannaford supermarket is sold out of popcorn, flour, and frozen vegetables—but there’s no sales tax on food. Guilderland gets decent revenue from taxes on mortgages. But it seems unlikely that people would be interested, at this particular moment, in buying homes.
My dad says that he has plans. He has ideas about where to find dollars; and, in the meantime, he won’t spend any money unless he absolutely has to. Except, earlier that day, someone at the mall had contacted the town and said that Crossgates couldn’t reimburse the town for the salaries of the two police officers it had recently hired to patrol it. My dad said, O.K., this was bad news, but he understood, and the town would keep paying the officers. It wasn’t like he was going to fire them.
He checked his e-mail again. The governor’s conference call had been cancelled.
The next morning, my dad wanted to drive around and visit town employees on the job. A morale thing. So I asked if I could come and we drove to the police station. There were two officers there, and my dad stood six feet from them and they positioned themselves six feet from each other. Things were fairly normal, the police said. Except last night someone leaving a quarantined house had driven into a tree, and all the E.M.T.s called to the scene had to put on hazmat suits and all the officers had worn respirators. “No one wants to stop cars right now,” one of them said. “You never know who’s going to be in that car, but now . . . ”
When we got back to my dad’s plug-in electric Subaru, the governor’s daily 11 A.M. press conference was on the radio. My dad turned it up when Cuomo said that he was going to address economic fallout. “Some people are saying, ‘Why can’t we dump Biden and go with Cuomo?,’ ” my dad said. He’d started sending his e-mails because he liked watching Cuomo’s press conferences; he found them candid and informative, and my dad reasoned that, if the White House wasn’t giving out facts, it was important that local leaders do so. But, as much as he likes Cuomo, my dad is also used to fixing things himself, and this time Guilderland’s issues required substantial help from above. The town, which has hundreds of employees to pay, was going to need state assistance. But the conversations about how many dollars, and when, were happening at the state and county level, and all my dad could do was wait.


newyorker--2020-03-31--How 3-D Printers Are Helping to Fight the Coronavirus

A little more than a week ago , Isaac Budmen heard that a coronavirus testing site was going to be set up in Syracuse , New York , not far from where he lives with his partner , Stephanie Keefe .
The couple , who are both artists , own a company that makes 3-D printers .
They knew that medical workers had a shortage of face shields , one kind of personal protective equipment ( P.P.E . )
, and they wondered if they could help .
On a recent Saturday evening , after a few hours of research @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a face-shield prototype .
It wasn ’ t very good , Budmen told me .
They modified the design , adding sizes for different face shapes , making sure there would not be a space between the shield and the wearer ’ s forehead , where microbes might be able to reach the eyes , nose , or mouth .
With their printers running all night , they figured they could make a total of fifty shields .
The office of the Onondaga County executive asked them to make three hundred .
According @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Conference of Mayors on Friday , about ninety-two per cent of the group ’ s members ( two hundred and thirteen mayors , from forty-one states and Puerto Rico , representing forty-two million Americans ) do not have enough testing kits or face masks for first responders and health-care workers ; eighty-five per cent said that their hospitals do not have enough ventilators .
The U.C.S.F .
Health hospital system , in San Francisco , is running out of nasal swabs for testing , and a health-care system in Texas that serves a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down testing sites because of a shortage of protective gear .
In New York , where people are now waiting in long lines outside of emergency rooms and refrigerated trucks have been deployed as temporary morgues , Governor Andrew Cuomo asked the federal government to help the state get thirty thousand ventilators .
But that help doesn ’ t appear to be coming anytime soon .
In a recent interview on Fox News , Donald Trump said , “ I don ’ t believe you need forty thousand or thirty thousand ventilators .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and they ’ ll have two ventilators .
And now all of a sudden they ’ re saying , ‘ Can we order thirty thousand ventilators ?
’ ” Across the United States , an ad-hoc corps of health-care workers , designers , engineers , and fabricators like Budmen and Keefe have stepped into the breach .
Dr. Paul Biddinger , the chair of emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital , recently said , at a virtual town hall for the newly formed Massachusetts General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation , that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Dr. Gary Tearney , a pathologist and the co-director of the Center , said that the initiative was set up to marshal “ the enormous outpouring of support ” following the hospital ’ s recent public plea to anyone with 3-D printing and other prototyping capabilities , to make personal protective equipment for health-care workers .
“ We ’ re looking at designs and coördinating a way to print the most promising , ” Tearney told me .
“ We have to make sure they are safe for providers and patients ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ways of vetting new equipment , he said .
On a separate call , Dr. Reza Farivar , a neuroscientist at McGill University , likened the effort to the Apollo 13 mission , “ you know , when they had to build a filtration system out of tubes , and so on.
” The New England Journal of Medicine recently predicted that the United States may need as many as a million ventilators , and estimates put the country ’ s current stock at no more than a hundred and sixty thousand .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Californians found out last week , when Los Angeles received a hundred and seventy broken ventilators from the federal emergency reserve .
Farivar has put his brain research on hold to organize the Code Life Ventilator Challenge , a two-week competition to design a coronavirus-specific ventilator so simple that it can be built and deployed anywhere on the planet .
The challenge comes with a hundred-and-forty-thousand-dollar prize from the Montreal General Hospital Foundation , and nearly seven hundred teams from all over the world have signed up to participate .
“ This is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ All of us are anxious , but the antidote to anxiety is creativity.
” A similar competition , the CoVent challenge , created by a group of fourth-year anesthesiology residents at Massachusetts General Hospital , is just getting under way .
“ The ventilators that are used in the I.C.U .
cost twenty to thirty thousand dollars and have millions of parts , ” Dr. Richard Boyer , the founder and director of the challenge , told me .
“ We ’ re looking for something less sophisticated , that can @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a number of global crowdsourced initiatives , like # ProjectOpenAir , in Portugal , Open Source Ventilator , in Ireland , and M.I.T.
’ s E-Vent project , in which participants are trying to create an emergency ventilator by mechanizing a manual resuscitation bag .
For Boyer , who is just coming off a fourteen-day quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus , the challenge is personal : he and the other anesthesiology residents are responsible for intubating patients and controlling their mechanical ventilators .
One of the people on the Center for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Nashville .
Baker is the global supply chain officer at Smile Direct Club , a company that makes “ invisible ” aligners .
It turns out that a printed nylon his company uses can be employed to fabricate face shields .
On Friday , Smile Direct Club shipped its first thousand face shields to a hospital in Boise , Idaho .
Baker and his crew are also figuring out how to make N95-like filtration masks that snap together like Legos .
“ Our R. & D. and engineering team was in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ me , “ working like mad scientists , pulling designs off the Internet , making different things .
We ’ re at the final stages of designing and testing to prove the efficacy of the design to enable multiple use , that they can be sterilized and used safely.
” The mask is a Class II medical device which requires approval from the F.D.A .
Once they get the go-ahead , he estimates that Smile Direct Club can crank out three thousand masks a day , repurposing thirty to sixty of the company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so .
Last week , shortly before the White House was set to announce a collaboration between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to retool a car-parts factory to produce ventilators , Trump balked at its billion-dollar price tag .
( He later invoked the Defense Production Act and ordered G.M .
to make ventilators , though a G.M .
spokesperson said that this directive did not change its production plans . )
Retooling a 3-D printer , by contrast , is a matter of changing its software to design and model the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are now so sophisticated that they are used to make prosthetics , airplane parts , and hip replacements .
“ With 3-D printing , we can go from design to production within an hour , ” Ramon Pastor , the acting president of 3-D printing and manufacturing at HP Inc. , told me .
“ But in traditional manufacturing you have to work from a mold , and the mold has to be made first .
”

A little more than a week ago, Isaac Budmen heard that a coronavirus testing site was going to be set up in Syracuse, New York, not far from where he lives with his partner, Stephanie Keefe. The couple, who are both artists, own a company that makes 3-D printers. They knew that medical workers had a shortage of face shields, one kind of personal protective equipment (P.P.E.), and they wondered if they could help. On a recent Saturday evening, after a few hours of research, Budmen and Keefe designed and printed a face-shield prototype. It wasn’t very good, Budmen told me. They modified the design, adding sizes for different face shapes, making sure there would not be a space between the shield and the wearer’s forehead, where microbes might be able to reach the eyes, nose, or mouth. With their printers running all night, they figured they could make a total of fifty shields. The office of the Onondaga County executive asked them to make three hundred.
According to a survey released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Friday, about ninety-two per cent of the group’s members (two hundred and thirteen mayors, from forty-one states and Puerto Rico, representing forty-two million Americans) do not have enough testing kits or face masks for first responders and health-care workers; eighty-five per cent said that their hospitals do not have enough ventilators. The U.C.S.F. Health hospital system, in San Francisco, is running out of nasal swabs for testing, and a health-care system in Texas that serves a million people is in danger of shutting down testing sites because of a shortage of protective gear. In New York, where people are now waiting in long lines outside of emergency rooms and refrigerated trucks have been deployed as temporary morgues, Governor Andrew Cuomo asked the federal government to help the state get thirty thousand ventilators. But that help doesn’t appear to be coming anytime soon. In a recent interview on Fox News, Donald Trump said, “I don’t believe you need forty thousand or thirty thousand ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order thirty thousand ventilators?’ ”
Across the United States, an ad-hoc corps of health-care workers, designers, engineers, and fabricators like Budmen and Keefe have stepped into the breach. Dr. Paul Biddinger, the chair of emergency preparedness at Massachusetts General Hospital, recently said, at a virtual town hall for the newly formed Massachusetts General Brigham Center for COVID Innovation, that the situation requires “an Apollo 11 moonshot.” Dr. Gary Tearney, a pathologist and the co-director of the Center, said that the initiative was set up to marshal “the enormous outpouring of support” following the hospital’s recent public plea to anyone with 3-D printing and other prototyping capabilities, to make personal protective equipment for health-care workers. “We’re looking at designs and coördinating a way to print the most promising,” Tearney told me. “We have to make sure they are safe for providers and patients” while bypassing the standard, protracted, ways of vetting new equipment, he said. On a separate call, Dr. Reza Farivar, a neuroscientist at McGill University, likened the effort to the Apollo 13 mission, “you know, when they had to build a filtration system out of tubes, and so on.”
The New England Journal of Medicine recently predicted that the United States may need as many as a million ventilators, and estimates put the country’s current stock at no more than a hundred and sixty thousand. Some of these are non-functional, as Californians found out last week, when Los Angeles received a hundred and seventy broken ventilators from the federal emergency reserve. Farivar has put his brain research on hold to organize the Code Life Ventilator Challenge, a two-week competition to design a coronavirus-specific ventilator so simple that it can be built and deployed anywhere on the planet. The challenge comes with a hundred-and-forty-thousand-dollar prize from the Montreal General Hospital Foundation, and nearly seven hundred teams from all over the world have signed up to participate. “This is an all-hands-on-deck situation,” Farivar said. “All of us are anxious, but the antidote to anxiety is creativity.”
A similar competition, the CoVent challenge, created by a group of fourth-year anesthesiology residents at Massachusetts General Hospital, is just getting under way. “The ventilators that are used in the I.C.U. cost twenty to thirty thousand dollars and have millions of parts,” Dr. Richard Boyer, the founder and director of the challenge, told me. “We’re looking for something less sophisticated, that can keep someone alive.” These efforts join a number of global crowdsourced initiatives, like #ProjectOpenAir, in Portugal, Open Source Ventilator, in Ireland, and M.I.T.’s E-Vent project, in which participants are trying to create an emergency ventilator by mechanizing a manual resuscitation bag. For Boyer, who is just coming off a fourteen-day quarantine after being exposed to the coronavirus, the challenge is personal: he and the other anesthesiology residents are responsible for intubating patients and controlling their mechanical ventilators.
One of the people on the Center for COVID Innovation call was Dan Baker, in Nashville. Baker is the global supply chain officer at Smile Direct Club, a company that makes “invisible” aligners. It turns out that a printed nylon his company uses can be employed to fabricate face shields. On Friday, Smile Direct Club shipped its first thousand face shields to a hospital in Boise, Idaho. Baker and his crew are also figuring out how to make N95-like filtration masks that snap together like Legos. “Our R. & D. and engineering team was in the lab all weekend,” Baker told me, “working like mad scientists, pulling designs off the Internet, making different things. We’re at the final stages of designing and testing to prove the efficacy of the design to enable multiple use, that they can be sterilized and used safely.” The mask is a Class II medical device which requires approval from the F.D.A. Once they get the go-ahead, he estimates that Smile Direct Club can crank out three thousand masks a day, repurposing thirty to sixty of the company’s industrial 3-D printers to do so.
Last week, shortly before the White House was set to announce a collaboration between General Motors and Ventec Life Systems to retool a car-parts factory to produce ventilators, Trump balked at its billion-dollar price tag. (He later invoked the Defense Production Act and ordered G.M. to make ventilators, though a G.M. spokesperson said that this directive did not change its production plans.) Retooling a 3-D printer, by contrast, is a matter of changing its software to design and model the item being produced. Industrial 3-D printers are now so sophisticated that they are used to make prosthetics, airplane parts, and hip replacements. “With 3-D printing, we can go from design to production within an hour,” Ramon Pastor, the acting president of 3-D printing and manufacturing at HP Inc., told me. “But in traditional manufacturing you have to work from a mold, and the mold has to be made first.”
Pastor, who lives and works in Barcelona, watched the virus rip through his country and ravage the medical community. HP has turned its research-and-development centers in Spain and the United States into factories for face masks, face shields, mask adjusters, nasal swabs, hands-free door openers, and respirator parts. And HP has mobilized a network of its customers, including Smile Direct Club, to do the same, sending out designs that they can print locally, at scale. “We’ve realized that in moments of crisis, having digital factories and a distributed supply chain is a good thing,” Pastor said. HP is also collaborating with researchers to make splitters so that existing ventilators can be shared, and participating in the global effort to design and manufacture field ventilators. Pastor had just received word that the F.D.A. had approved an exemption for 3-D-printed nasal-testing swabs, and expected that H.P. would soon be shipping a million of them a week.
Formlabs, a 3-D-printing company whose printers are used by hospitals to make pre-operative models, are ramping up the production of nasal swabs to fast-track tests. Gaurav Manchanda, Formlabs’ Director of Healthcare, estimates that, between the company’s two hundred in-house 3-D printers and those of its customers, they will be able to produce up to a hundred thousand swabs a day at peak capacity. They will begin to be shipped to testing centers in New York and Florida this week. “It’s taken about two weeks to go from an idea to something we can offer patients,” Manchanda said.


newyorker--2020-03-31--America’s Teachers Urge Trump to Use Time at Home to Repeat First Grade

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —Donald J. Trump should use this time when he is staying at home to repeat first grade , the nation ’ s teachers are urging .
Carol Foyler , the executive director of the National Alliance of Elementary Educators , said that the homebound Trump has a “ golden opportunity ” to use remote learning to repeat the first-grade curriculum .
“ At a time when many of our nation ’ s children are being homeschooled , this seems like the perfect time for President Trump to learn the basics of reading , writing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ By June , he could be reading ‘ Hop on Pop ’ and ‘ Go , Dog , Go !
’ ” She added that anyone at the White House would be qualified to homeschool Trump , “ except Jared.
” Foyler acknowledged that the plan for Trump to repeat first grade had faced dissent from some of the nation ’ s teachers , who felt strongly that he should first repeat kindergarten .
“ From an educational standpoint , the kindergarten curriculum is mainly devoted to socialization and getting along @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ I think the ship has sailed on that.
” That disagreement aside , Foyler said that the nation ’ s elementary educators were prepared to offer Trump a broad array of online learning resources .
“ He will have everything he needs to repeat first grade while Dr. Fauci runs the country , ” she said .

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Donald J. Trump should use this time when he is staying at home to repeat first grade, the nation’s teachers are urging.
Carol Foyler, the executive director of the National Alliance of Elementary Educators, said that the homebound Trump has a “golden opportunity” to use remote learning to repeat the first-grade curriculum.
“At a time when many of our nation’s children are being homeschooled, this seems like the perfect time for President Trump to learn the basics of reading, writing, and math,” she said. “By June, he could be reading ‘Hop on Pop’ and ‘Go, Dog, Go!’ ”
She added that anyone at the White House would be qualified to homeschool Trump, “except Jared.”
Foyler acknowledged that the plan for Trump to repeat first grade had faced dissent from some of the nation’s teachers, who felt strongly that he should first repeat kindergarten.
“From an educational standpoint, the kindergarten curriculum is mainly devoted to socialization and getting along with others,” she said. “I think the ship has sailed on that.”
That disagreement aside, Foyler said that the nation’s elementary educators were prepared to offer Trump a broad array of online learning resources. “He will have everything he needs to repeat first grade while Dr. Fauci runs the country,” she said.


newyorker--2020-03-31--Imagining a Justice-Based Health System

Imagining a Justice-Based Health System

Jennifer Prah Ruger , the director of the Health Equity and Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania , studies national and international public-health policies through a moral lens , examining the ways in which world leaders can insure more just health outcomes for their fellow-citizens , as well as for citizens of other nations—and how those two things necessarily intersect .
Prah Ruger ’ s work is influenced by her former teacher Amartya Sen , whose “ capabilities approach ” to economics—developed with the philosopher Martha Nussbaum—envisions a broad definition of human flourishing , one that transcends indicators like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent book , “ Global Health Justice and Governance , ” published in 2018 , examines international crisis responses to past epidemics , such as the Ebola outbreak of 2014 .
“ Public health and health care systems capacity and governance vary considerably across the globe , ” Prah Ruger writes .
“ Like rapidly spreading contagions and global inequalities , this arbitrary patchwork of health systems is morally troubling.
” That work is especially relevant today , with the coronavirus pandemic straining health systems around the world , from China to Italy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S.—a country that is infamous for the unequal outcomes of its health system—hospitals find themselves overwhelmed with patients and short on medical equipment .
I recently spoke with Prah Ruger by phone .
During our conversation , which has been edited for length and clarity , we discussed how different types of health systems have responded to the current crisis , the area where the U.S. shines in keeping its population safe and healthy , and whether health care should be understood as a universal human right .
What have you been thinking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as this thing has spread , and how does the coronavirus fit into what you study and write about ?
The first thing I ’ ve been thinking about is the underlying principles of justice and equity that we ’ ve been working on in our approach and in our lab .
In the recent book that we just published , the underlying philosophy of human flourishing and the attempt to create the global and domestic conditions for people to have the ability to flourish is very relevant for the current situation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do and be what they want to do and be , and health is an instrumental and an essential part of that .
So global public health that protects people ’ s ability to flourish is an essential part of a just society—a global society and a domestic society .
And so what I ’ ve been looking for and trying to understand better , as you look globally but also domestically and in our own country , is how are we going about effectuating that or not .
So I ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ called provincial globalism , in which we look at the intersection or the commonalities between provincial or state or nation or local-based norms and values about equity in public health , and global foci on health and equity .
Are those intersecting ?
Do we have a sense that , globally , we ’ re really trying to work together , coöperate on the common good to insure people all over the world are able to be healthy , and protecting them and working collaboratively in coöperating ?
Or are we advancing the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ model of global health governance , which has different nations and different countries and different interests advancing their own interests , rather than working together toward the common good of equity and health .
You ’ re talking about flourishing , and one of the things related to that is something called the “ health capability paradigm.
” What is that , and how does it fit into the broader idea of a “ capabilities approach ” to economics ?
Well , the health-capability paradigm is a theoretical framework for justice and health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ level .
So , if you think about it in terms of an alternative to a free market , the free market is focussed on allocating goods and services in the economy at the domestic level based on people ’ s preferences , or their desires for things .
So , whether we ’ re buying computers or phones or chairs or picture frames or whatever it is , we ’ re advancing our interests in terms of our preferences for those goods and services through the free market .
And we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certain extent , to protect consumers .
Alternatives to the free market are looking at a role for other institutions in promoting different goods that we have reason to value in society .
The health-capability paradigm puts forward a framework that what we have reason to value—and what we have an interest in , societally and collectively—is people ’ s ability to flourish and their ability to be healthy .
So are the conditions in place ?
Are there public-health systems and structures that are in place that enable that ?
Is there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that ?
Do we have the social conditions , and do people have enough income , and is that income distributed in an equitable way so that people have this opportunity ?
Are people educated , and do they have jobs ?
All of these conditions are necessary for people to be able to be healthy .
And what are the principles of justice that apply to the health sector and health-care sector ?
And so we advanced an approach that looks at advancing a public-goods or common-goods approach to the health sector @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a private-goods or private-sector , market-based approach to health and health policy .
We have seen a lot of countries already ravaged by this pandemic .
Some have health care that is at least relatively equitable—at least compared to most countries on earth—such as Italy , and others , like the United States , do not .
Are there things that you ’ re noticing from this pandemic about why it ’ s so important to build as much equity into the system as possible ?
Yes , I am noticing some real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we have a set of natural experiments unfolding before us , right ?
You have a very good display of different kinds of approaches to public health domestically .
And it ’ s within the context of a global public-health system , or lack of a system .
So , for example , we have the contrast between what we would call two typologies .
The first is a more centralized public-health policy that has more of a focus on equity and health , and looking across the population , as opposed to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are real differences between the two , generally speaking .
Centralized public-health policy is more planned .
It ’ s more deliberate .
It ’ s more intentional .
There are several steps along the way .
Centralized governance and authority tends to be federally located in terms of decisional latitude and authoritative standards with national guidelines and triggers .
The decentralized public-health policy tends to be very ad hoc , more patchwork , unscripted .
It tends to be spontaneous and reactive , and there tends to be a lot of voluntary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ re seeing in general a difference in , for example , the United States approach , which tends to be very decentralized , and countries like Taiwan or Singapore , which tend to be more centralized .
Other differences are that under a centralized public-health policy you tend to have more uniform standards and uniformity in policies and practices .

Jennifer Prah Ruger, the director of the Health Equity and Policy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, studies national and international public-health policies through a moral lens, examining the ways in which world leaders can insure more just health outcomes for their fellow-citizens, as well as for citizens of other nations—and how those two things necessarily intersect. Prah Ruger’s work is influenced by her former teacher Amartya Sen, whose “capabilities approach” to economics—developed with the philosopher Martha Nussbaum—envisions a broad definition of human flourishing, one that transcends indicators like G.D.P.
Prah Ruger’s most recent book, “Global Health Justice and Governance,” published in 2018, examines international crisis responses to past epidemics, such as the Ebola outbreak of 2014. “Public health and health care systems capacity and governance vary considerably across the globe,” Prah Ruger writes. “Like rapidly spreading contagions and global inequalities, this arbitrary patchwork of health systems is morally troubling.” That work is especially relevant today, with the coronavirus pandemic straining health systems around the world, from China to Italy and the United States. In the U.S.—a country that is infamous for the unequal outcomes of its health system—hospitals find themselves overwhelmed with patients and short on medical equipment.
I recently spoke with Prah Ruger by phone. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed how different types of health systems have responded to the current crisis, the area where the U.S. shines in keeping its population safe and healthy, and whether health care should be understood as a universal human right.
What have you been thinking about for the last couple of weeks, as this thing has spread, and how does the coronavirus fit into what you study and write about?
The first thing I’ve been thinking about is the underlying principles of justice and equity that we’ve been working on in our approach and in our lab. In the recent book that we just published, the underlying philosophy of human flourishing and the attempt to create the global and domestic conditions for people to have the ability to flourish is very relevant for the current situation. Flourishing is about enabling people to do and be what they want to do and be, and health is an instrumental and an essential part of that. So global public health that protects people’s ability to flourish is an essential part of a just society—a global society and a domestic society.
And so what I’ve been looking for and trying to understand better, as you look globally but also domestically and in our own country, is how are we going about effectuating that or not. So I’ve been advancing a particular approach to that called provincial globalism, in which we look at the intersection or the commonalities between provincial or state or nation or local-based norms and values about equity in public health, and global foci on health and equity. Are those intersecting? Do we have a sense that, globally, we’re really trying to work together, coöperate on the common good to insure people all over the world are able to be healthy, and protecting them and working collaboratively in coöperating? Or are we advancing the status quo in terms of a rational-actor model of global health governance, which has different nations and different countries and different interests advancing their own interests, rather than working together toward the common good of equity and health.
You’re talking about flourishing, and one of the things related to that is something called the “health capability paradigm.” What is that, and how does it fit into the broader idea of a “capabilities approach” to economics?
Well, the health-capability paradigm is a theoretical framework for justice and health, and that is at the domestic level. So, if you think about it in terms of an alternative to a free market, the free market is focussed on allocating goods and services in the economy at the domestic level based on people’s preferences, or their desires for things. So, whether we’re buying computers or phones or chairs or picture frames or whatever it is, we’re advancing our interests in terms of our preferences for those goods and services through the free market. And we’re regulating the market, to a certain extent, to protect consumers.
Alternatives to the free market are looking at a role for other institutions in promoting different goods that we have reason to value in society. The health-capability paradigm puts forward a framework that what we have reason to value—and what we have an interest in, societally and collectively—is people’s ability to flourish and their ability to be healthy. So are the conditions in place? Are there public-health systems and structures that are in place that enable that? Is there a health-care system in place that enables that? Do we have the social conditions, and do people have enough income, and is that income distributed in an equitable way so that people have this opportunity? Are people educated, and do they have jobs?
All of these conditions are necessary for people to be able to be healthy. And what are the principles of justice that apply to the health sector and health-care sector? And so we advanced an approach that looks at advancing a public-goods or common-goods approach to the health sector and health policy, as opposed to a private-goods or private-sector, market-based approach to health and health policy.
We have seen a lot of countries already ravaged by this pandemic. Some have health care that is at least relatively equitable—at least compared to most countries on earth—such as Italy, and others, like the United States, do not. Are there things that you’re noticing from this pandemic about why it’s so important to build as much equity into the system as possible?
Yes, I am noticing some real differences. What we have here is we have a set of natural experiments unfolding before us, right? You have a very good display of different kinds of approaches to public health domestically. And it’s within the context of a global public-health system, or lack of a system. So, for example, we have the contrast between what we would call two typologies. The first is a more centralized public-health policy that has more of a focus on equity and health, and looking across the population, as opposed to a more decentralized public-health policy.
There are real differences between the two, generally speaking. Centralized public-health policy is more planned. It’s more deliberate. It’s more intentional. There are several steps along the way. Centralized governance and authority tends to be federally located in terms of decisional latitude and authoritative standards with national guidelines and triggers. The decentralized public-health policy tends to be very ad hoc, more patchwork, unscripted. It tends to be spontaneous and reactive, and there tends to be a lot of voluntary actors in the mix. And we’re seeing in general a difference in, for example, the United States approach, which tends to be very decentralized, and countries like Taiwan or Singapore, which tend to be more centralized. Other differences are that under a centralized public-health policy you tend to have more uniform standards and uniformity in policies and practices.


newyorker--2020-03-31--George Saunders Reads “Love Letter”

George Saunders Reads “Love Letter”

George Saunders reads his story from the April 6 , 2020 , issue of the magazine .
Saunders won the @ @ @ @ @ , for his novel “ Lincoln in the Bardo.
” He is the author of @ @ @ @ @ “ In Persuasion Nation ” and “ Tenth of December .
”

Photograph by Rahav Segev / Zuma
George Saunders reads his story from the April 6, 2020, issue of the magazine. Saunders won the Man Booker Prize in 2017, for his novel “Lincoln in the Bardo.” He is the author of four story collections, including “In Persuasion Nation” and “Tenth of December.”


newyorker--2020-04-01--What Shakespeare Actually Did During the Plague

Day 1 : Quills lined up .
Nibs sharp .
Parchment ready .
No death knells yet this morning .
You are going to write “ King Lear ” !
Day 2 : No pressure .
Fine to spend the first day brainstorming .
There ’ s no such thing as a bad idea .
Nibs still sharp .
You can do this !
Day 3 : You know what was a great play ?
“ Julius Caesar.
” Re-reading it .
“ How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over / In states unborn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Day 4 : First draft doesn ’ t have to be perfect .
The scribe will always go over it later .
Shoot for a sloppy copy .
Day 5 : Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Or is it Actus Primus , Scænus Primus ?
Day 6 : Ben Jonson must have written , like , six plays by now .
Day 7 : No competition .
You do you .
Who wrote “ Titus Andronicus , ” bitch ?
Day 8 : Are those plague sores ?
They ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Does rubbing your body with a chicken actually work ?
Day 11 : They ’ re not plague sores .
Phew !
Back to the old quill and parchment .
Day 13 : You ’ ve been wearing the same doublet and hose for two weeks .
Day 14 : The muse strikes !
If Cordelia and the Fool never appear in the same scene , that new apprentice can play both of them .
Save one actor ’ s wages , times six performances ( optimistic , but why not ? )
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Can you say “ new doublet and hose ” ?
Day 16 : New approach : fasting between meals .
Clears the mind .
Day 18 : Hard to focus with all the death knells tolling .
Day 19 : Trying to work in some witches .
King James likes witches .
Maybe Lear ’ s eldest daughter turns out to be a witch ?
Or Edgar and Edmund are twins , and one of them ’ s a witch ?
And cross-dresses as Cordelia ?
Who ’ s actually the Fool @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , that apprentice could play all four parts .
Day 20 : Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Just keep the quill moving .
Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Actus Primus , Scæna Prima .
Day 23 : Stop the infernal tolling !
We get it already !
Day 24 : “ As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods ; / they kill us for their sport.
” Damn .
Day 25 : Definitely too dark .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to see a tragedy after a plague .
Day 27 : So what if you didn ’ t go to university ?
Day 28 : You ’ re the King ’ s Men !
Say it : King ’ s Men !
King ’ s Men rule !
Day 29 : King James is going to serve your head on a platter if you don ’ t write this godforsaken play today .
Day 30 : You know what ’ s selfish ?
Writing a play while people are literally dying .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an apothecary and actually helped people .
Day 32 : You are a worthless piece of plague-infected excrement .
Day 33 : You know what makes you even more worthless ?
Having the resources to spend your day writing a play while other people are dying and then NOT WRITING IT !
!
!
Day 34 : Just take it one day at a time .
Day 35 : You know who has it easy ?
Anne and Susanna , back in Stratford .
They don ’ t have to write anything .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ duke of Milan usurped by younger brother , cast out to sea with infant daughter to drown , shipwrecked on magical island , harnesses spirits of earth and air , summons tempest to wreak vengeance on brother .
Show off Globe ’ s new metal thunder sheets !
Day 38 : Quarantine almost over .
Quaranta , forty ; trenta , thirty ; venti , twenty .
This would be a great time to learn Italian !
Day 39 : “ The weight of this sad time we must obey ; / Speak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ought to say .
/ The oldest hath borne most ; we that are young / Shall never see so much , nor live so long .
”

“Just a reminder that when Shakespeare was quarantined because of the plague, he wrote ‘King Lear.’ ” —Rosanne Cash, on Twitter, March 13, 2020
Day 1: Quills lined up. Nibs sharp. Parchment ready. No death knells yet this morning. You are going to write “King Lear”!
Day 2: No pressure. Fine to spend the first day brainstorming. There’s no such thing as a bad idea. Nibs still sharp. You can do this!
Day 3: You know what was a great play? “Julius Caesar.” Re-reading it. “How many ages hence / Shall this our lofty scene be acted over / In states unborn and accents yet unknown!” Damn.
Day 4: First draft doesn’t have to be perfect. The scribe will always go over it later. Shoot for a sloppy copy.
Day 5: Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Or is it Actus Primus, Scænus Primus?
Day 6: Ben Jonson must have written, like, six plays by now.
Day 7: No competition. You do you. Who wrote “Titus Andronicus,” bitch?
Day 8: Are those plague sores? They’re kind of reddish.
Day 9: They’re definitely plague sores.
Day 10: Does rubbing your body with a chicken actually work?
Day 11: They’re not plague sores. Phew! Back to the old quill and parchment.
Day 12: Sharpen nibs.
Day 13: You’ve been wearing the same doublet and hose for two weeks.
Day 14: The muse strikes! If Cordelia and the Fool never appear in the same scene, that new apprentice can play both of them. Save one actor’s wages, times six performances (optimistic, but why not?), for a total of thirty pence. Can you say “new doublet and hose”?
Day 15: I miss Burbage.
Day 16: New approach: fasting between meals. Clears the mind.
Day 17: Feeling peckish.
Day 18: Hard to focus with all the death knells tolling.
Day 19: Trying to work in some witches. King James likes witches. Maybe Lear’s eldest daughter turns out to be a witch? Or Edgar and Edmund are twins, and one of them’s a witch? And cross-dresses as Cordelia? Who’s actually the Fool? If you sort out the entrances, that apprentice could play all four parts.
Day 20: Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Just keep the quill moving. Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Actus Primus, Scæna Prima. Actus Primus, Scæna Prima.
Day 21: It’s hard to write a good æ.
Day 22: Need new nibs.
Day 23: Stop the infernal tolling! We get it already!
Day 24: “As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods; / they kill us for their sport.” Damn.
Day 25: Definitely too dark. Keep the mood light! No one wants to see a tragedy after a plague.
Day 26: Jonson’s probably writing a comedy.
Day 27: So what if you didn’t go to university?
Day 28: You’re the King’s Men! Say it: King’s Men! King’s Men rule!
Day 29: King James is going to serve your head on a platter if you don’t write this godforsaken play today.
Day 30: You know what’s selfish? Writing a play while people are literally dying.
Day 31: You could have been an apothecary and actually helped people.
Day 32: You are a worthless piece of plague-infected excrement.
Day 33: You know what makes you even more worthless? Having the resources to spend your day writing a play while other people are dying and then NOT WRITING IT!!!
Day 34: Just take it one day at a time.
Day 35: You know who has it easy? Anne and Susanna, back in Stratford. They don’t have to write anything.
Day 36: New idea: rightful duke of Milan usurped by younger brother, cast out to sea with infant daughter to drown, shipwrecked on magical island, harnesses spirits of earth and air, summons tempest to wreak vengeance on brother. Show off Globe’s new metal thunder sheets!
Day 37: Stupid idea.
Day 38: Quarantine almost over. Quaranta, forty; trenta, thirty; venti, twenty. This would be a great time to learn Italian!
Day 39: “The weight of this sad time we must obey; / Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say. / The oldest hath borne most; we that are young / Shall never see so much, nor live so long.”
Day 40: Damn.