newyorker--2020-12-19--Dreaming of My Vaccination Day

Dreaming of My Vaccination Day

How will it happen ?
What year will it be ?
Will all my friends get vaccinated before me ?
Will it be , like , the kind of thing where I ’ ve known it will happen for a long time , or will it be a surprise I-let-go-and-stopped-thinking-about-it-till-it-found-me sort of thing ?
How will I know who ’ s vaccinated ?
Will the local papers write up vaccination announcements with black-and-white photos , detailing who got vaccinated , and when , and what makes them and their vaccinations so special ?
Can I get de-vaccinated if things go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get vaccinated before me—because they ’ re essentially more generous people who know how to devote their lives to others—will I still be able to hang out with them ?
Or will they all go on vaccinated-people dates without me ?
Look , guys , just because I ’ m unvaccinated doesn ’ t mean I don ’ t like going to spin class , or to karaoke , or on group road trips with the option of rolling up the windows and turning on the heat .
O.K.
, fine , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ things without the vaccine .
But I can think about what kind of vaccine I want—Moderna or Pfizer ?
And about how I ’ ll spend my vaccination night .
So far , I ’ m choosing between laughing really hard inside somewhere and going to a movie with a crowd of other vaccinated people .
For now , I can keep dreaming , or I can figure out a fast track through medical school , or I can finally become a teacher .
Or maybe they ’ ll add aging singles to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my parents will be thrilled !

Ever since I was young, back in March, I’ve dreamed of my vaccination day.
How will it happen?
What will I wear?
What year will it be?
Will all my friends get vaccinated before me?
Will it be, like, the kind of thing where I’ve known it will happen for a long time, or will it be a surprise I-let-go-and-stopped-thinking-about-it-till-it-found-me sort of thing?
How will I know who’s vaccinated? Will the local papers write up vaccination announcements with black-and-white photos, detailing who got vaccinated, and when, and what makes them and their vaccinations so special?
Can I get de-vaccinated if things go south?
If all my friends do get vaccinated before me—because they’re essentially more generous people who know how to devote their lives to others—will I still be able to hang out with them?
Or will they all go on vaccinated-people dates without me?
Look, guys, just because I’m unvaccinated doesn’t mean I don’t like going to spin class, or to karaoke, or on group road trips with the option of rolling up the windows and turning on the heat.
O.K., fine, I can’t do any of those things without the vaccine.
But I can think about what kind of vaccine I want—Moderna or Pfizer? And about how I’ll spend my vaccination night. So far, I’m choosing between laughing really hard inside somewhere and going to a movie with a crowd of other vaccinated people.
For now, I can keep dreaming, or I can figure out a fast track through medical school, or I can finally become a teacher. Or maybe they’ll add aging singles to the early-vaccination list.
Whatever happens, my parents will be thrilled!


newyorker--2020-12-19--African-American Resistance to the COVID-19 Vaccine Reflects a Broader Problem

Back in March , when the pall of the pandemic hung over the city , and long stretches of Broadway were as desolate as a dry creek bed , the New York Police Department began enforcing a mandate to observe social-distancing measures .
Between March 17th and May 4th , the Times reported , the police made forty arrests for social-distancing violations ; thirty-five of those arrested were African-Americans .
Deployed to fight a virus , the N.Y.P.D .
delivered the same kind of slanted tallies that result when it is deployed to fight narcotics .
COVID-19 has been the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the racially skewed arrest numbers—like the racially skewed numbers associated with infections , hospitalizations , and fatalities—suggest that our perennial problem remains the disparities that mar the society into which the virus was introduced .
Inequalities abound in the narrative of this pandemic .
Black people and Latinos have disproportionately lost their jobs in the COVID recession , but they are also more likely to perform the kinds of labor deemed essential , which accounts , in part , for the higher infection , hospitalization , and death rates found among these populations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fact that , on Monday , Sandra Lindsay , a Black nurse who works at the Long Island Jewish Hospital , became the first American to receive the Pfizer vaccine , and that it was administered to her by Dr. Michelle Chester , a Black doctor with Northwell Health , was laden with significance .
Just forty-two per cent of African-Americans are willing to receive the vaccine , despite the fact that they are more likely than white Americans to be infected with—and die from—the virus .
Last month , the N.A.A.C.P.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , released a report , “ Vaccine Hesitancy in Black and Latinx Communities , ” which found that just fourteen per cent of African-Americans surveyed “ mostly or completely trust ” the vaccine ’ s safety .
On Wednesday , Trayvon Martin ’ s mother , Sybrina Fulton , who last month ran for a county commissioner ’ s seat in Florida ’ s Miami-Dade County , posted her doubts on Instagram , asking , “ I really want to trust the scientist but why do they have a vaccine for COVID-19 so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Notably , Republicans are another group voicing significant skepticism about the vaccine ; according to a Gallup poll conducted in October , less than half were willing to be vaccinated , compared with sixty-nine per cent of Democrats .
Donald Trump has been a driving factor among both groups , albeit for very different reasons .
Earlier this year , a Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that eighty-three per cent of Black people think that Trump is a racist , while the N.A.A.C.P.
’ s report notes that only four per cent of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has apparently bled into perceptions of the vaccine .
Republicans , for their part , having been fed a steady diet of quack cures , pseudoscience , and misinformation by the White House , have been primed to disbelieve much of the science associated with the pandemic—and many of the scientists who have been working to put an end to it .
This dynamic may change somewhat after Friday , when Vice-President Mike Pence was vaccinated on live television .
The net result of all that has preceded that event , however , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ become accustomed to this year : more people will die unnecessarily .
Yet , for Black America , the story extends far beyond Trump .
In September , when Walter Kimbrough , the president of Dillard University , a historically black institution in Louisiana , announced that he had volunteered for a vaccine trial , and encouraged his students do likewise , the Internet exploded with references to the Tuskegee experiment .
In that four-decade-long medical scheme , which began in 1932 , nearly four hundred African-American men with syphilis were led to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but were , in fact , left untreated , so that doctors could chart the course of the disease .
In the nearly fifty years since the experiment was exposed , it has become a central reference point for understanding Black Americans ’ relationship to the medical establishment .
The story of Henrietta Lacks—a Black woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer , and whose cancerous cells had been harvested for research , without her knowledge , by Johns Hopkins Hospital , replicated , sent to labs around the world , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medical exploitation .
That history , chronicled in works such as Harriet Washington ’ s “ Medical Apartheid ” and Dorothy Roberts ’ s “ Killing the Black Body , ” is , in part , what hampered efforts to recruit African-American volunteers for the trials , and now hampers efforts to get African-Americans vaccinated .
In this context , conversations about the vaccine are inevitably balancing acts between the unknown likelihood of contracting , or succumbing to , the virus and the known medical history of the African-American population .
Such concerns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is why the coercive approach of the N.Y.P.D .
this spring , and the events that sparked the months of Black Lives Matter protests this summer , also contribute to a broader skepticism about—if not the science itself—the good faith of the system in which it exists .
On Monday , Thomas Fisher , a Black E.R .
physician at the University of Chicago Medicine , told me that “ our essential people are getting sick , but being pushed to deliver food and drive Ubers , and things like that , without @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s hard to imagine that we won ’ t also reflect maybe these same inequities with the distribution and uptake of this vaccine.
” One outcome of all this has been that many African-Americans who have not outright rejected the vaccine are taking a wait-and-see approach , which , in the short term , will slow the progress toward herd immunity and give the virus more time to circulate in the places where it has already been most deadly .
Another result is that the success of the vaccination effort will depend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ associated with it .
This is why there is such keen interest in Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett , an African-American immunologist who was instrumental in the development of the Moderna vaccine—which , on Friday , the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use in adults .
It is also why Black churches have begun sponsoring forums on vaccination .
On Tuesday , the Reverend Matthew Watley , senior pastor at Kingdom Fellowship A.M.E. Church , in Silver Spring , Maryland , moderated an online discussion on the issue with the objective of addressing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ The goal is to ultimately have vaccinations done in our churches , ” he told me .
“ We have to get this to where our people are.
” Amid the remonstrances on the right and among some centrists about “ identity politics , ” the situation we find ourselves in now confirms , once more , that identity is , in fact , political .
We will solve the riddle of COVID long before we resolve the reasons why , and for whom , it became so deadly .
More on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and revive the economy , Donald Trump and Jared Kushner should listen to Anthony Fauci rather than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans .
It is not too late to ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the crisis .
• Trump is helping tycoons who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ space are we willing to live and work in now ?

Back in March, when the pall of the pandemic hung over the city, and long stretches of Broadway were as desolate as a dry creek bed, the New York Police Department began enforcing a mandate to observe social-distancing measures. Between March 17th and May 4th, the Times reported, the police made forty arrests for social-distancing violations; thirty-five of those arrested were African-Americans. Deployed to fight a virus, the N.Y.P.D. delivered the same kind of slanted tallies that result when it is deployed to fight narcotics. COVID-19 has been the defining crisis of the year. But the racially skewed arrest numbers—like the racially skewed numbers associated with infections, hospitalizations, and fatalities—suggest that our perennial problem remains the disparities that mar the society into which the virus was introduced.
Inequalities abound in the narrative of this pandemic. Black people and Latinos have disproportionately lost their jobs in the COVID recession, but they are also more likely to perform the kinds of labor deemed essential, which accounts, in part, for the higher infection, hospitalization, and death rates found among these populations. For this and similar reasons, the fact that, on Monday, Sandra Lindsay, a Black nurse who works at the Long Island Jewish Hospital, became the first American to receive the Pfizer vaccine, and that it was administered to her by Dr. Michelle Chester, a Black doctor with Northwell Health, was laden with significance. Just forty-two per cent of African-Americans are willing to receive the vaccine, despite the fact that they are more likely than white Americans to be infected with—and die from—the virus. Last month, the N.A.A.C.P., in conjunction with two other organizations, released a report, “Vaccine Hesitancy in Black and Latinx Communities,” which found that just fourteen per cent of African-Americans surveyed “mostly or completely trust” the vaccine’s safety. On Wednesday, Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, who last month ran for a county commissioner’s seat in Florida’s Miami-Dade County, posted her doubts on Instagram, asking, “I really want to trust the scientist but why do they have a vaccine for COVID-19 so fast but not cancer or AIDS?”
Notably, Republicans are another group voicing significant skepticism about the vaccine; according to a Gallup poll conducted in October, less than half were willing to be vaccinated, compared with sixty-nine per cent of Democrats. Donald Trump has been a driving factor among both groups, albeit for very different reasons. Earlier this year, a Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that eighty-three per cent of Black people think that Trump is a racist, while the N.A.A.C.P.’s report notes that only four per cent of Blacks trust the Administration; that distrust has apparently bled into perceptions of the vaccine. Republicans, for their part, having been fed a steady diet of quack cures, pseudoscience, and misinformation by the White House, have been primed to disbelieve much of the science associated with the pandemic—and many of the scientists who have been working to put an end to it. This dynamic may change somewhat after Friday, when Vice-President Mike Pence was vaccinated on live television. The net result of all that has preceded that event, however, will be one that we have grudgingly become accustomed to this year: more people will die unnecessarily.
Yet, for Black America, the story extends far beyond Trump. In September, when Walter Kimbrough, the president of Dillard University, a historically black institution in Louisiana, announced that he had volunteered for a vaccine trial, and encouraged his students do likewise, the Internet exploded with references to the Tuskegee experiment. In that four-decade-long medical scheme, which began in 1932, nearly four hundred African-American men with syphilis were led to believe that they were receiving treatment, but were, in fact, left untreated, so that doctors could chart the course of the disease. In the nearly fifty years since the experiment was exposed, it has become a central reference point for understanding Black Americans’ relationship to the medical establishment. The story of Henrietta Lacks—a Black woman who died in 1951 of cervical cancer, and whose cancerous cells had been harvested for research, without her knowledge, by Johns Hopkins Hospital, replicated, sent to labs around the world, and later sold commercially—has likewise become shorthand for medical exploitation. That history, chronicled in works such as Harriet Washington’s “Medical Apartheid” and Dorothy Roberts’s “Killing the Black Body,” is, in part, what hampered efforts to recruit African-American volunteers for the trials, and now hampers efforts to get African-Americans vaccinated.
In this context, conversations about the vaccine are inevitably balancing acts between the unknown likelihood of contracting, or succumbing to, the virus and the known medical history of the African-American population. Such concerns are not walled-off by discipline, which is why the coercive approach of the N.Y.P.D. this spring, and the events that sparked the months of Black Lives Matter protests this summer, also contribute to a broader skepticism about—if not the science itself—the good faith of the system in which it exists. On Monday, Thomas Fisher, a Black E.R. physician at the University of Chicago Medicine, told me that “our essential people are getting sick, but being pushed to deliver food and drive Ubers, and things like that, without P.P.E.” He added, “It’s hard to imagine that we won’t also reflect maybe these same inequities with the distribution and uptake of this vaccine.”
One outcome of all this has been that many African-Americans who have not outright rejected the vaccine are taking a wait-and-see approach, which, in the short term, will slow the progress toward herd immunity and give the virus more time to circulate in the places where it has already been most deadly. Another result is that the success of the vaccination effort will depend largely on the credibility of the people associated with it. This is why there is such keen interest in Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, an African-American immunologist who was instrumental in the development of the Moderna vaccine—which, on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use in adults. It is also why Black churches have begun sponsoring forums on vaccination. On Tuesday, the Reverend Matthew Watley, senior pastor at Kingdom Fellowship A.M.E. Church, in Silver Spring, Maryland, moderated an online discussion on the issue with the objective of addressing concerns in his congregation and beyond. “The goal is to ultimately have vaccinations done in our churches,” he told me. “We have to get this to where our people are.” Amid the remonstrances on the right and among some centrists about “identity politics,” the situation we find ourselves in now confirms, once more, that identity is, in fact, political. We will solve the riddle of COVID long before we resolve the reasons why, and for whom, it became so deadly.
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-12-19--Just Buy Your Loved Ones Eleven Feet of Salami: A Food-Themed Gift Guide

This holiday season , you could bake cookies for your friends and family ; you could watercolor landscapes on postcards ; you could knit oven mitts or press flowers or compose clever little poems about fruit and write them by hand on scraps of vintage wallpaper .
There really is nothing quite like a personal touch , especially in a year when personal touch has been hard to come by .
Then again , you could always just buy things from stores .
Perhaps this is less loving and intimate than a kombucha scoby you ’ ve named after their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ planning to engage in gift-giving , it ’ s always helpful if the gift actually exists—and if you ’ re anything like me , your creative ambitions are far greater than your capacity to actually create , especially in ( ahem ) these uncertain times .
So here is a collection of nice things that would make nice gifts , mostly along a theme of the edible , or the edible-adjacent .
Whatever you decide to give , I would suggest throwing in a sweatshirt or coffee mug or baseball cap from a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s ) , to help these essential small businesses and their workers stay afloat during the difficult winter ahead .
Look up individual restaurants ’ Web sites and social-media accounts to see what sort of souvenirs they have available—or check out sites like Merch4Relief or Care of Chan , where you can find aggregations of gear from restaurants around the country .
( Nota bene : It ’ s unlikely any of these will arrive by Christmas .
That ’ s O.K .
Time is a false idea , especially this year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outcome of efficient butchery ” : I stumbled upon these eight words , several years ago , on the Wikipedia page for “ Sausage , ” and since then I have considered it an ideal sentence , both pithy and graceful .
There is something similarly appealing about this Bavarian wheel of meat , which consists of 3.5 metres of a slender salami , wrapped , efficiency of all efficiencies , around a wooden spindle ( about $ 18 ) .
The product page advertises that it “ tastes very good ” and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ real man .
.
.
whether at the pool , the lake , or the beer garden.
” True enough , but I ’ d like to think that individuals of any gender could appreciate this much sausage .
A downside : it ships from Germany , which diminishes your chance of it arriving before Christmas .
An upside : a D.I.Y .
version could easily be fashioned with a few packets of salami whips ( about $ 12 ) and a cord reel ( $ 8.36 ) .
This Year ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Universe Whether your loved one eats her meals at a dining table , on the couch , or hovering over the sink , cloth napkins will make her experience more lovely .
Bolé Road ’ s embroidered Ethiopian cotton napkins ( $ 95 for a set of four ) are washing-machine-friendly and gorgeously geometric ; for the friend trying to transform her three-hundred-square-foot apartment into a rustic Provençal farmhouse by sheer force of will , try Food52 ’ s unbleached linen set ( $ 85 for four ) , edged with jaunty blue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will add liveliness to the table : I like these simple poplin napkins ( $ 15.92 for eight , on sale ) , which come in cool young-people-these-days colors like dusty pink and mustard yellow .
Or , depending on the nature of your relationship , just buy your beloved a set of five hundred shop towels ( $ 94.99 for the white , which is the only color worth getting , in order to be able to douse them in bleach like a Real Housewife flinging a glass of Chardonnay ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ industrial use .
When Americans next descend into irrational panic and overload our paper-goods supply chains , whoever holds the durable cloth household items will hold all the cards .
The Gros Michel ( “ Big Mike ” ) was the primary cultivar of banana until the nineteen-fifties , when a fungal wilt swept through a huge swath of the world ’ s banana plantations .
Within a few years , Gros Michels had all but disappeared from the market , and virtually all commercially sold bananas in the United States were of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , less delicious , but more resistant to disease .
If this knowledge fills you with a great sense of loss—if you yearn for the days of bananas with flesh as bright and dazzling as the sun—the South Florida produce vender Miami Fruit is here to help .
Its Web site boasts eighteen varieties of fresh banana available to ship throughout the country , including the vanilla-flavored Nam Wah , the fluffy-fleshed Praying Hands , and , of course , the long-lost Gros Michel .
If you can ’ t pick just one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( $ 57 and up ) , the fruit basket of kings .
After a year spent largely within the confines of our homes , I hope we are finally ready , as a culture , to throw away the notion—smug , joy-hating , ultimately misogynistic—that deriving pleasure from beautiful objects is somehow frivolous .
Wouldn ’ t it be nice to reach for the salt and find it not in a ragged box or a clogged-up shaker but , rather , an olive-wood cellar ( $ 39.50 ) , with its mesmerizing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it be nice to decant one ’ s daily litre of seltzer into a faceted pink pitcher ( $ 115 ) , and sip it from a delicately green-tinted tumbler ( $ 28 ) ?
To stand gazing into the middle distance before Jungalow ’ s peach-hued woven fruit bowl ( $ 75 ) , eventually extending a hand to grasp an apple ?
To rest an afternoon Martini on a Portuguese-linen cocktail napkin shaped like a fat-bellied pink elephant with a little swirly belly button ( $ 84 for four ) ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ better way to spruce up one ’ s nightly ice-cream sundae than by spooning it out of a Helle Mardahl Martini glass that resembles an alien marshmallow ( $ 420 ) using a ceramic spork ( $ 18 ) handmade by Aleisha Ellis , of Utility Objects , or of a more dramatic counterbalance to the drudgery of mise en place than mincing garlic atop abstractly geometric cutting boards ( $ 931 for a set of four ) that , when hung together on the wall , resemble a topographical map as dreamed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , high-glamour absurdism of “ Toiletpaper , ” a biannual magazine produced by the Italian artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari , lends its over-the-top aesthetic exceptionally well to homewares .
Naturally , they ’ re offering a duvet set printed all over with heavily sauced spaghetti ( $ 330 ) ; to turbocharge the effect , add a matching spaghetti candle ( $ 70 ) .
In the early nineteen-fifties , the American singer Peggy Lee recorded “ Apples , Peaches , and Cherries , ” a jazzy ballad , written by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the erotic allure of fruit venders .
It was such a hit that , in 1958 , Sacha Distel , a silken-voiced French singer who , until then , was best known for being Brigitte Bardot ’ s boyfriend , released his own version , which rocketed to the top of the charts and cemented his career as a superstar .
Distel , alas , had never cleared the matter with Meeropol , who took Distel to court , and won what Meeropol ’ s son Robert ( who , with his brother @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the federal execution of their parents , Ethel and Julius Rosenberg ) described in his 2003 memoir as “ a windfall.
” The song ’ s refrain , a very jazzy “ scooby-dooby-oo , ” provided Distel with the title of his version— ” Scoubidou ” —which the French adopted as the name for the then-faddish plastic-thread craft known , in the U.S. , as lanyard weaving .
Rather than using the colorful wires to make keychains or bracelets , in the summer-camp tradition , les français wrapped them around glass wine jugs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so cool .
You can find vintage scoubidou bottles at almost any French flea market or antique shop ; if that ’ s not a tenable shopping plan between now and Christmas , dive into the considerable stock available online , at ritzy housewares stores or on online marketplaces like Etsy ( prices vary ; watch out for international shipping fees ) .
Get Your Pantry In Gear We live in the golden age of excellent pantry goods with compelling backstories , delivered in beautiful packaging , which are ideal for accidentally leaving @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , for the optimal oh-this-old-thing moment .
They ’ re also great for cooking .
Some of my favorites , lately , include Tart vinegars ( and their preserved lemon paste , if you can manage to catch a jar while they ’ re in stock ) ; the Mala spice mix from Fly By Jing , a warm-fiery-sweet blend that ’ s brilliant on everything ; Chefing While Black ’ s smoky-fiery jerk dry rub ; Shaquanda hot sauces , made by the iconic Brooklyn drag queen ( I ’ m partial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but they ’ re all terrific ) ; the L.A. pastry chef Max Boonthanakit ’ s Boon Chili Oil , which ups the ante on the now-ubiquitous condiment with the addition of anchovies ; and Omnivore Salt , a fennel-and-cayenne seasoning blend whose packaging bears , improbably , an endorsement by Werner Herzog : “ Congratulations Angelo !
Finally your salt is in the market and I do not need to steal from your kitchen anymore.
” Billie Ruth Sudduth—a former school psychologist from Bakersville , North Carolina , whose artist ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fibonacci sequence—hand-weaves unbelievably beautiful baskets designed for storing potatoes ( $ 93.50 ) .
Since potatoes are best stored in darkness , and hiding these works of art in a closet or basement would be a crime , I might suggest using the baskets to store something else .
Sudduth also makes onion baskets ( $ 75 ) , which are slightly smaller and woven in a striking red .
A bottle of nail varnish is just a bottle of nail varnish , but the way Unkosher Market , an astonishingly schticky hipster-Jewish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ salmon-pink , and an everything-seasoning glitter coat for their lox-and-bagels polish set ( $ 28 ) channels an entire Sunday-morning gestalt .
A Drink , and Something to Drink It Out Of As I suggested in last year ’ s gift guide , the bottle of booze is , with good reason , a reliable gift , especially when it ’ s given along with something nice to pour it into .
This year , you can ’ t go wrong with a bottle of Uncle Nearest 1856 ( $ 54.99 ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( Nearest ) Green , an enslaved Black man who was born around 1820 and who , after his emancipation , became a master distiller for Jack Daniel ; by most accounts , Green taught Daniel everything he knew .
To go with it , try a pair of the designer Sophie Lou Jacobsen ’ s clever borosilicate drinking glasses ( $ 25 each ) , whose chubby ripples make it easy to eyeball your pour .

This holiday season, you could bake cookies for your friends and family; you could watercolor landscapes on postcards; you could knit oven mitts or press flowers or compose clever little poems about fruit and write them by hand on scraps of vintage wallpaper. There really is nothing quite like a personal touch, especially in a year when personal touch has been hard to come by. Then again, you could always just buy things from stores. Perhaps this is less loving and intimate than a kombucha scoby you’ve named after their favorite child. But if you are planning to engage in gift-giving, it’s always helpful if the gift actually exists—and if you’re anything like me, your creative ambitions are far greater than your capacity to actually create, especially in (ahem) these uncertain times. So here is a collection of nice things that would make nice gifts, mostly along a theme of the edible, or the edible-adjacent. Whatever you decide to give, I would suggest throwing in a sweatshirt or coffee mug or baseball cap from a favorite restaurant (yours or the recipient’s), to help these essential small businesses and their workers stay afloat during the difficult winter ahead. Look up individual restaurants’ Web sites and social-media accounts to see what sort of souvenirs they have available—or check out sites like Merch4Relief or Care of Chan, where you can find aggregations of gear from restaurants around the country. (Nota bene: It’s unlikely any of these will arrive by Christmas. That’s O.K. Time is a false idea, especially this year.)
2020 in Review New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.
Eleven Feet of Salami on a Cable Drum
“Sausage making is an outcome of efficient butchery”: I stumbled upon these eight words, several years ago, on the Wikipedia page for “Sausage,” and since then I have considered it an ideal sentence, both pithy and graceful. There is something similarly appealing about this Bavarian wheel of meat, which consists of 3.5 metres of a slender salami, wrapped, efficiency of all efficiencies, around a wooden spindle (about $18). The product page advertises that it “tastes very good” and is an excellent gift “for all real man . . . whether at the pool, the lake, or the beer garden.” True enough, but I’d like to think that individuals of any gender could appreciate this much sausage. A downside: it ships from Germany, which diminishes your chance of it arriving before Christmas. An upside: a D.I.Y. version could easily be fashioned with a few packets of salami whips (about $12) and a cord reel ($8.36).
This Year’s Paper-Towel Shortage Was a Sign From the Universe
Photograph by Richard Baker / Corbis / Getty
Whether your loved one eats her meals at a dining table, on the couch, or hovering over the sink, cloth napkins will make her experience more lovely. Bolé Road’s embroidered Ethiopian cotton napkins ($95 for a set of four) are washing-machine-friendly and gorgeously geometric; for the friend trying to transform her three-hundred-square-foot apartment into a rustic Provençal farmhouse by sheer force of will, try Food52’s unbleached linen set ($85 for four), edged with jaunty blue stripes. Even a solid cotton set will add liveliness to the table: I like these simple poplin napkins ($15.92 for eight, on sale), which come in cool young-people-these-days colors like dusty pink and mustard yellow. Or, depending on the nature of your relationship, just buy your beloved a set of five hundred shop towels ($94.99 for the white, which is the only color worth getting, in order to be able to douse them in bleach like a Real Housewife flinging a glass of Chardonnay), the thin cotton rectangles designed for heavy-duty industrial use. When Americans next descend into irrational panic and overload our paper-goods supply chains, whoever holds the durable cloth household items will hold all the cards.
Many Varieties of Banana
The Gros Michel (“Big Mike”) was the primary cultivar of banana until the nineteen-fifties, when a fungal wilt swept through a huge swath of the world’s banana plantations. Within a few years, Gros Michels had all but disappeared from the market, and virtually all commercially sold bananas in the United States were of the Cavendish variety—less floral, less sweet, less delicious, but more resistant to disease. If this knowledge fills you with a great sense of loss—if you yearn for the days of bananas with flesh as bright and dazzling as the sun—the South Florida produce vender Miami Fruit is here to help. Its Web site boasts eighteen varieties of fresh banana available to ship throughout the country, including the vanilla-flavored Nam Wah, the fluffy-fleshed Praying Hands, and, of course, the long-lost Gros Michel. If you can’t pick just one, spring for a banana variety pack ($57 and up), the fruit basket of kings.
There’s Nothing Wrong With Wanting Nice Things
After a year spent largely within the confines of our homes, I hope we are finally ready, as a culture, to throw away the notion—smug, joy-hating, ultimately misogynistic—that deriving pleasure from beautiful objects is somehow frivolous. Wouldn’t it be nice to reach for the salt and find it not in a ragged box or a clogged-up shaker but, rather, an olive-wood cellar ($39.50), with its mesmerizing knots and whorls? Wouldn’t it be nice to decant one’s daily litre of seltzer into a faceted pink pitcher ($115), and sip it from a delicately green-tinted tumbler ($28)? To stand gazing into the middle distance before Jungalow’s peach-hued woven fruit bowl ($75), eventually extending a hand to grasp an apple? To rest an afternoon Martini on a Portuguese-linen cocktail napkin shaped like a fat-bellied pink elephant with a little swirly belly button ($84 for four)? I can’t think of a better way to spruce up one’s nightly ice-cream sundae than by spooning it out of a Helle Mardahl Martini glass that resembles an alien marshmallow ($420) using a ceramic spork ($18) handmade by Aleisha Ellis, of Utility Objects, or of a more dramatic counterbalance to the drudgery of mise en place than mincing garlic atop abstractly geometric cutting boards ($931 for a set of four) that, when hung together on the wall, resemble a topographical map as dreamed up by Ellsworth Kelly.
Spaghetti Bedsheets
The saturated, high-glamour absurdism of “Toiletpaper,” a biannual magazine produced by the Italian artists Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari, lends its over-the-top aesthetic exceptionally well to homewares. Naturally, they’re offering a duvet set printed all over with heavily sauced spaghetti ($330); to turbocharge the effect, add a matching spaghetti candle ($70).
A Neat-Looking Vintage French Wine Jug
Photograph from Alamy
In the early nineteen-fifties, the American singer Peggy Lee recorded “Apples, Peaches, and Cherries,” a jazzy ballad, written by Abel Meeropol, warning young women against the erotic allure of fruit venders. It was such a hit that, in 1958, Sacha Distel, a silken-voiced French singer who, until then, was best known for being Brigitte Bardot’s boyfriend, released his own version, which rocketed to the top of the charts and cemented his career as a superstar. Distel, alas, had never cleared the matter with Meeropol, who took Distel to court, and won what Meeropol’s son Robert (who, with his brother Michael, was adopted by Meeropol after the federal execution of their parents, Ethel and Julius Rosenberg) described in his 2003 memoir as “a windfall.” The song’s refrain, a very jazzy “scooby-dooby-oo,” provided Distel with the title of his version—”Scoubidou”—which the French adopted as the name for the then-faddish plastic-thread craft known, in the U.S., as lanyard weaving. Rather than using the colorful wires to make keychains or bracelets, in the summer-camp tradition, les français wrapped them around glass wine jugs in kaleidoscopic patterns. They’re so cool. You can find vintage scoubidou bottles at almost any French flea market or antique shop; if that’s not a tenable shopping plan between now and Christmas, dive into the considerable stock available online, at ritzy housewares stores or on online marketplaces like Etsy (prices vary; watch out for international shipping fees).
Get Your Pantry In Gear
We live in the golden age of excellent pantry goods with compelling backstories, delivered in beautiful packaging, which are ideal for accidentally leaving in the background of Instagram food posts, for the optimal oh-this-old-thing moment. They’re also great for cooking. Some of my favorites, lately, include Tart vinegars (and their preserved lemon paste, if you can manage to catch a jar while they’re in stock); the Mala spice mix from Fly By Jing, a warm-fiery-sweet blend that’s brilliant on everything; Chefing While Black’s smoky-fiery jerk dry rub; Shaquanda hot sauces, made by the iconic Brooklyn drag queen (I’m partial to the Mx. Green Sass variety, but they’re all terrific); the L.A. pastry chef Max Boonthanakit’s Boon Chili Oil, which ups the ante on the now-ubiquitous condiment with the addition of anchovies; and Omnivore Salt, a fennel-and-cayenne seasoning blend whose packaging bears, improbably, an endorsement by Werner Herzog: “Congratulations Angelo! Finally your salt is in the market and I do not need to steal from your kitchen anymore.”


newyorker--2020-12-19--A Brazen Republican Power Play Is Blocking Essential COVID-19 Relief

In an effort to force through an agreement , the leaders of the two parties have tied approval of a new COVID-19 relief package , which is reportedly worth about nine hundred billion dollars , to passage of a broader spending bill that is needed to fund the rest of the federal government .
On Friday evening , the House and the Senate passed a stopgap spending measure , the second such bill in a week , which will keep government agencies running until the end of Sunday .
The hope is that by then the two sides will have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the thorniest of which involves a Republican effort to restrict the Federal Reserve ’ s freedom to maneuver in the coming months .
In theory , the approval of two vaccines for the deadly virus should have made reaching a deal easier .
Finally , there is an escape route from the pandemic , and the task facing legislators is a straightforward one : providing sufficient financial support for individuals , businesses , and state and local governments to get through the next few months , until most people are vaccinated .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ near record lows , there should be no problem financing a new spending bill .
The barrier is raw partisan politics on the part of the G.O.P .
Led by Senator Pat Toomey , of Pennsylvania , a group of Republicans is trying to include a stipulation in the COVID-19 bill that the Fed must gain congressional approval before restarting a series of emergency-lending programs it introduced earlier this year , after the stock market plummeted and problems emerged in the credit markets .
You may ask what tying the hands of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other elements of the spending bill , which include extending unemployment benefits , keeping restaurants and other small enterprises in business , preventing a wave of evictions of people who have fallen behind on their rents , and providing another cash handout to low- and middle-income families .
The answer is virtually nothing .
The Republican demand isn ’ t about helping people make it through the rest of the pandemic .
It ’ s a partisan ploy to hobble the incoming Biden Administration , which Toomey and others fear might try to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ create money to bypass a Republican-controlled Senate .
It would be one thing if such a maneuver on the part of a Biden Administration was a real possibility , but it isn ’ t .
The emergency Fed programs that were designed this spring to enable credit to flow to small and medium-sized businesses , as well as states and municipalities , are set to expire on December 31st anyway .
Despite the severity of this year ’ s coronavirus recession , those programs didn ’ t end up being used that much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Secretary , Steven Mnuchin , the Fed has already promised the Treasury that it will return unused funds that Congress provided to the central bank through the CARES Act .
Furthermore , Jerome Powell , the chair of the Fed , has made perfectly clear that he doesn ’ t want the central bank to be used as a surrogate for fiscal policy .
Biden ’ s economic team , which includes Janet Yellen , Powell ’ s predecessor at the Fed and the nominee to be the next Treasury Secretary , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , like Powell , Biden ’ s team is committed to maintaining the independence of the central bank .
About the only conceivable circumstance in which the Fed would try to restart its emergency lending programs is if there was another blowup in the credit markets .
But , if that happened , Congress would almost certainly authorize this action anyway—as it did earlier this year , and in 2008 , during the financial crisis .
In other words , Toomey is raising a phantom threat .
But he won ’ t give @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street Journal , the language he wants inserted in the spending bill would bar the Fed and Treasury from establishing , without congressional approval , not only the expiring programs but any new lending facility “ that is similar to any program ” created with money from the CARES Act .
If this became law , Congress would potentially have veto power over the Fed using other funds that have long been provided to it for use in a crisis .
And , in pursuit of this end , Toomey and some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a spending bill that is essential to the welfare of tens of millions of Americans .
According to the Labor Department ’ s figures through November , 3.9 million Americans had been out of work for twenty-seven weeks or more , and this doesn ’ t count people who have dropped out of the workforce .
The department also says that about two million people have already exhausted their eligibility for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation , a CARES Act program that extended jobless benefits from twenty-six weeks in most states to thirty-nine weeks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that caters to gig workers aren ’ t extended further , millions more people who were cast out of work through no fault of their own could well find themselves ineligible for any benefits at all .
Such an outcome would only worsen the hunger epidemic , which is already rampant .
According to data collected between November 25th and December 7th from the Census Bureau ’ s Household Pulse Survey , 27.4 million American adults—about thirteen per cent of adults in the country—said that their household sometimes or often didn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven days .
This figure has risen by five million since late August , Catlin Nchako , an analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities , pointed out in a blog post this week .
Like many other problems associated with the pandemic , the hunger crisis is most severe among minority groups : more than a fifth of Black and Latino adults reported not having enough to eat .
The new spending bill , of course , won ’ t be a panacea for the deep-seated problems that the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it would prevent or alleviate a great deal more needless suffering .
This could still happen in the next couple of days—if Toomey and his colleagues stand aside .
More on the Coronavirus • To protect American lives and revive the economy , Donald Trump and Jared Kushner should listen to Anthony Fauci rather than trash him .
• We should look to students to conceive of appropriate school-reopening plans .
It is not too late to ask what they really want .
• A pregnant pediatrician on what children need during the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who have donated to his reëlection campaign exploit the pandemic to maximize profits .
• Meet the high-finance mogul in charge of our economic recovery .
• The coronavirus is likely to reshape architecture .
What kinds of space are we willing to live and work in now ?

Is it any wonder that so many people have lost faith in organized politics? After a week in which the daily tally of coronavirus cases and deaths both hit a new record, and the Labor Department announced that another 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, Congress still hasn’t managed to pass a new spending bill to extend a number of emergency relief measures that were enacted back in March, as part of the CARES Act, and which are due to expire at the end of the month.
In an effort to force through an agreement, the leaders of the two parties have tied approval of a new COVID-19 relief package, which is reportedly worth about nine hundred billion dollars, to passage of a broader spending bill that is needed to fund the rest of the federal government. On Friday evening, the House and the Senate passed a stopgap spending measure, the second such bill in a week, which will keep government agencies running until the end of Sunday. The hope is that by then the two sides will have resolved their differences over the COVID-19 bill, the thorniest of which involves a Republican effort to restrict the Federal Reserve’s freedom to maneuver in the coming months.
In theory, the approval of two vaccines for the deadly virus should have made reaching a deal easier. Finally, there is an escape route from the pandemic, and the task facing legislators is a straightforward one: providing sufficient financial support for individuals, businesses, and state and local governments to get through the next few months, until most people are vaccinated. With the interest rates on Treasury bonds near record lows, there should be no problem financing a new spending bill. The barrier is raw partisan politics on the part of the G.O.P.
Led by Senator Pat Toomey, of Pennsylvania, a group of Republicans is trying to include a stipulation in the COVID-19 bill that the Fed must gain congressional approval before restarting a series of emergency-lending programs it introduced earlier this year, after the stock market plummeted and problems emerged in the credit markets. You may ask what tying the hands of the central bank has to do with the other elements of the spending bill, which include extending unemployment benefits, keeping restaurants and other small enterprises in business, preventing a wave of evictions of people who have fallen behind on their rents, and providing another cash handout to low- and middle-income families. The answer is virtually nothing. The Republican demand isn’t about helping people make it through the rest of the pandemic. It’s a partisan ploy to hobble the incoming Biden Administration, which Toomey and others fear might try to use the Fed’s ability to create money to bypass a Republican-controlled Senate.
It would be one thing if such a maneuver on the part of a Biden Administration was a real possibility, but it isn’t. The emergency Fed programs that were designed this spring to enable credit to flow to small and medium-sized businesses, as well as states and municipalities, are set to expire on December 31st anyway. Despite the severity of this year’s coronavirus recession, those programs didn’t end up being used that much. At the instigation of the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, the Fed has already promised the Treasury that it will return unused funds that Congress provided to the central bank through the CARES Act. Furthermore, Jerome Powell, the chair of the Fed, has made perfectly clear that he doesn’t want the central bank to be used as a surrogate for fiscal policy. Biden’s economic team, which includes Janet Yellen, Powell’s predecessor at the Fed and the nominee to be the next Treasury Secretary, is fully aware of this stance. And, like Powell, Biden’s team is committed to maintaining the independence of the central bank.
About the only conceivable circumstance in which the Fed would try to restart its emergency lending programs is if there was another blowup in the credit markets. But, if that happened, Congress would almost certainly authorize this action anyway—as it did earlier this year, and in 2008, during the financial crisis. In other words, Toomey is raising a phantom threat. But he won’t give it up. According to the Wall Street Journal, the language he wants inserted in the spending bill would bar the Fed and Treasury from establishing, without congressional approval, not only the expiring programs but any new lending facility “that is similar to any program” created with money from the CARES Act. If this became law, Congress would potentially have veto power over the Fed using other funds that have long been provided to it for use in a crisis. And, in pursuit of this end, Toomey and some of his colleagues are apparently willing to torpedo a spending bill that is essential to the welfare of tens of millions of Americans.
According to the Labor Department’s figures through November, 3.9 million Americans had been out of work for twenty-seven weeks or more, and this doesn’t count people who have dropped out of the workforce. The department also says that about two million people have already exhausted their eligibility for Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation, a CARES Act program that extended jobless benefits from twenty-six weeks in most states to thirty-nine weeks. If this program and another one that caters to gig workers aren’t extended further, millions more people who were cast out of work through no fault of their own could well find themselves ineligible for any benefits at all.
Such an outcome would only worsen the hunger epidemic, which is already rampant. According to data collected between November 25th and December 7th from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey, 27.4 million American adults—about thirteen per cent of adults in the country—said that their household sometimes or often didn’t have enough to eat in the last seven days. This figure has risen by five million since late August, Catlin Nchako, an analyst at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, pointed out in a blog post this week. Like many other problems associated with the pandemic, the hunger crisis is most severe among minority groups: more than a fifth of Black and Latino adults reported not having enough to eat.
The new spending bill, of course, won’t be a panacea for the deep-seated problems that the pandemic has highlighted and accentuated. But enacting it would prevent or alleviate a great deal more needless suffering. This could still happen in the next couple of days—if Toomey and his colleagues stand aside.
More on the Coronavirus


newyorker--2020-12-19--A Musical Top Ten for an Unmusical Year

A Musical Top Ten for an Unmusical Year

This year ’ s Top Ten lists will be different .
How could they not be , in this most different of years ?
2020 was when live music stopped , and recordings suddenly regained their primacy .
Any list of the best recordings doubles as a sonic life raft : here is the music that sustained the listener during the plague .
My own list skips around within , and sometimes across , genres , because that ’ s my job .
At WNYC , the public radio station in New York , I present daily gig alerts and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ audience ; then , at night , on the long-running “ New Sounds ” show , I offer contemporary classical works and genre-blind global music to a smaller group of music fans .
Those two roles require constant listening , from Taylor Swift ’ s collaboration with the brooding indie-rockers the National to an omnivorous “ mono-opera ” on the Black experience by the composer Joseph C. Phillips , Jr. Do that long enough and you begin to hear less the differences between styles and more the constants that make music work—that make @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the records that got me through the year .
This single from the Baltimore band ’ s album “ As Long As You Are ” marries the instrumental sound of eighties electronic dance pop with the extraordinary , expressive vocals of Samuel T. Herring .
The track also has one of the very best videos of the year .
Blount is a queer Black fiddler , banjo player , and singer for whom bluegrass is way too modern .
Instead , he mines a deep , underexplored vein of Black and indigenous @ @ @ @ @ @ @ haunted versions of field hollers , murder ballads , and more .
Maybe start with the familiar “ Where Did You Sleep Last Night , ” but don ’ t stop there .
8 .
Lanterns on the Lake , “ When It All Comes True ” In the long term , climate change will be a bigger threat than COVID-19 .
Hazel Wilde , the lead singer of this northern English band , paints a picture of a world after an environmental disaster , with stark lyrics backed by soaring , post-rock @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Spook the Herd , ” comes from a line in this song and refers to how autocrats manage to stay in power—another threat the world will continue to face after COVID-19 becomes history .
I suppose I should put the whole album , “ Rough and Rowdy Ways , ” here .
.
.
.
But , really , this seventeen-minute-long opus is practically an album in itself .
A “ love it or hate it ” excursion into American culture triggered by the images of the Kennedy assassination , the track begins @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , rhymes .
I hated it at first .
But , by the end , Dylan ’ s hypnotic , droning music and his fun-house-mirror journey through literature , movies , and musical history casts a most effective spell .
This young Chicago rapper had a big year .
His album , “ THE GOAT , ” was a hit , thanks at least in part to this song .
Like Tupac ’ s “ Changes , ” “ Wishing for a Hero ” is based on Bruce Hornsby and the Range ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” from 1986 , but Polo G adds gospel harmonies to buttress his brilliant social commentary .
It would be hard to find a better lyric in 2020 than “ They killed Martin for dreamin ’ and now I can ’ t sleep .
”

2020 in Review New Yorker writers reflect on the year’s highs and lows.
This year’s Top Ten lists will be different. How could they not be, in this most different of years? 2020 was when live music stopped, and recordings suddenly regained their primacy. Any list of the best recordings doubles as a sonic life raft: here is the music that sustained the listener during the plague. My own list skips around within, and sometimes across, genres, because that’s my job. At WNYC, the public radio station in New York, I present daily gig alerts and weekly music roundups to a general news-consuming audience; then, at night, on the long-running “New Sounds” show, I offer contemporary classical works and genre-blind global music to a smaller group of music fans. Those two roles require constant listening, from Taylor Swift’s collaboration with the brooding indie-rockers the National to an omnivorous “mono-opera” on the Black experience by the composer Joseph C. Phillips, Jr. Do that long enough and you begin to hear less the differences between styles and more the constants that make music work—that make it affect us—whatever the genre.
Here are the records that got me through the year.
10. Future Islands, “For Sure”
This single from the Baltimore band’s album “As Long As You Are” marries the instrumental sound of eighties electronic dance pop with the extraordinary, expressive vocals of Samuel T. Herring. The track also has one of the very best videos of the year.
9. Jake Blount, “Spider Tales”
Blount is a queer Black fiddler, banjo player, and singer for whom bluegrass is way too modern. Instead, he mines a deep, underexplored vein of Black and indigenous roots music, presenting new, often haunted versions of field hollers, murder ballads, and more. Maybe start with the familiar “Where Did You Sleep Last Night,” but don’t stop there.
8. Lanterns on the Lake, “When It All Comes True”
In the long term, climate change will be a bigger threat than COVID-19. Hazel Wilde, the lead singer of this northern English band, paints a picture of a world after an environmental disaster, with stark lyrics backed by soaring, post-rock guitars. The album title, “Spook the Herd,” comes from a line in this song and refers to how autocrats manage to stay in power—another threat the world will continue to face after COVID-19 becomes history.
7. Bob Dylan, “Murder Most Foul”
I suppose I should put the whole album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways,” here. . . . But, really, this seventeen-minute-long opus is practically an album in itself. A “love it or hate it” excursion into American culture triggered by the images of the Kennedy assassination, the track begins with some pretty obvious, even clunky, rhymes. I hated it at first. But, by the end, Dylan’s hypnotic, droning music and his fun-house-mirror journey through literature, movies, and musical history casts a most effective spell.
6. Polo G, “Wishing for a Hero”


newyorker--2020-12-19--Pence Worries That Sight of Bare Arm Will Make Him Irresistible to Women

WASHINGTON ( The Borowitz Report ) —Posing for cameras to receive the COVID-19 vaccine , Mike Pence expressed his fear that the sight of his bare arm would drive women wild .
Pence , who has lived daily with the burden of being irresistible to females , worried that unveiling his bicep would be “ like pouring gasoline on a fire.
” “ I know it ’ s important that I set an example by getting the vaccine in public , but it comes with a steep price , ” he said .
“ Now there are going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get a piece of Mike.
” Resigned to the consequences , Pence rolled up his sleeve to reveal his naked arm .
“ Here we go , ” the Vice-President said .
“ Tickets to the gun show.
” Read More Satire from the Borowitz Report • Dr. Fauci says that alcohol may help people survive coronavirus briefings .
• Scientists say that Earth is endangered by a new strain of fact-resistant humans .
• Obama proposes cancelling cable at the White House to get Trump to leave .
• Ivanka Trump applies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden .
• Queen Elizabeth II offers to restore British rule over the United States .
• Putin warns that the U.S. will be controlled by Americans .
• Get the Borowitz Report in your in-box .
Sign up for the newsletter .

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Posing for cameras to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Mike Pence expressed his fear that the sight of his bare arm would drive women wild.
Pence, who has lived daily with the burden of being irresistible to females, worried that unveiling his bicep would be “like pouring gasoline on a fire.”
“I know it’s important that I set an example by getting the vaccine in public, but it comes with a steep price,” he said. “Now there are going to be even more ladies out there desperate to get a piece of Mike.”
Resigned to the consequences, Pence rolled up his sleeve to reveal his naked arm. “Here we go,” the Vice-President said. “Tickets to the gun show.”
Read More Satire from the Borowitz Report


newyorker--2020-12-20--The Cryptic Crossword: No. 69

The Cryptic Crossword: No. 69

Some clues have been edited for clarity .
Subscribers can find explanations of the original puzzle ’ s answers in @ @ @

Some clues have been edited for clarity. Subscribers can find explanations of the original puzzle’s answers in our archive.


newyorker--2020-12-20--First Ladies and Second Gentlemen

First Ladies and Second Gentlemen

“ Hey , Dr. Biden , how are you—how ’ re you doing ?
” the driver of a Teamsters Local 633 pickup truck called out cheerfully to Jill Biden , Ed.D.
, one day this fall when she was campaigning for her husband in New Hampshire .
The other occupants of the truck offered similar greetings .
In recent days , the soon-to-be First Lady ’ s use of the title “ Dr. ” has inspired an unaccountable spate of anger on the right .
In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece , Joseph Epstein wrote that it “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say a touch comic.
” Tucker Carlson , on Fox , called her “ poor , illiterate Jill Biden.
” Yet the Teamsters , like any number of people whom Biden has encountered in the political world and in academia over the years , had no problem using the honorific .
( The community-college students she teaches call her Dr .
B . )
The only novel aspect of the encounter in New Hampshire came when she gestured to a man standing next to her and asked , “ You met Doug , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They had met Doug Emhoff , the husband of Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris , and many more Americans will get to know him in the weeks leading up to her swearing in , alongside Joe Biden ’ s , on January 20th .
When Biden announced his selection of Harris as his running mate , he said that Emhoff would be a “ barrier-breaker ” as the first Second Gentleman of the United States .
He will also be the first Jewish person to be a Second ( or First ) Spouse , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ interracial couple in their position .
And yet , if Emhoff is an unconventional figure , it is mostly because his wife is one on a more historic scale : the first woman and the first person of color elected to the Vice-Presidency .
The reactions to Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff raise different , if related , questions .
In her case , it ’ s how her simple wish to be known by a title she earned could excite such fury .
For Emhoff , it ’ s what it means @ @ @ @ @ @ @ corporate lawyer still has new barriers to break .
One explanation for the scorn directed at Jill Biden is that our political culture is so unhinged that anybody close to a President-elect gets pelted with whatever material is available , whether it makes sense or not .
Michelle Obama , after all , was attacked for wanting to plant a vegetable garden .
During the Obama Administration , she and Jill teamed up to create Joining Forces , an initiative that offers support to military families—as bipartisan a project as one could imagine @ @ @ @ @ @ @ site within hours of Trump ’ s Inauguration ; Jill Biden plans to revive it .
( Emhoff has said that he is considering working on food insecurity or access to the justice system . )
But women ’ s experience of first having their credentials ignored and then being mocked if they assert them is all too familiar , in almost every arena .
That is doubly true for women of color ; Harris is a U.S. senator and a former attorney general of California , but Donald Trump has portrayed her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , drawing on the most tedious racist and sexist tropes .
“ Ka-maala .
Kamala , ” he said at a rally in October , mangling each syllable .
“ You know , if you don ’ t pronounce her name exactly right , she gets very angry at you.
” Nor is it incidental that both Epstein and Carlson suggested that the topic of Biden ’ s dissertation , which has what Epstein called an “ unpromising title ” —it ’ s “ Student Retention at the Community College : Meeting Students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ anything , that topic is more urgent than ever .
Last month , a study by the National Student Clearinghouse found that community-college enrollment had fallen , in the course of the pandemic , by almost ten per cent ; among underrepresented minorities , that number is close to thirty per cent .
Community colleges provide a route to the middle class for people who are low income , the first in their family to attend college , immigrants , single parents , or all of the above .
When Joe Biden was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Virginia Community College , becoming the first known sitting Second Lady to hold a full-time paid job .
She has written that it was easy for her Secret Service agents to blend in at the college , because the average age of the students was twenty-eight .
Her plan is to teach as First Lady , too .
Emhoff will also be teaching , in his case a course on entertainment law at Georgetown University .
( “ Just call him professor Doug Emhoff , ” a story in People began , though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that titles come more easily in some cases than in others . )
He is leaving behind a partnership at the international law firm DLA Piper .
Still , in terms of qualifications , he is not an outlier .
Since 1993 , every First and Second Spouse , with the exception of Melania Trump , has had an advanced degree : a master ’ s ( Tipper Gore , Laura Bush , Karen Pence ) , a J.D .
( Hillary Clinton , Michelle Obama ) , or a Ph.D. ( Lynne @ @ @ @ @ @ @ litigation surrounding the Taco Bell Chihuahua ; Michelle Obama once protected the intellectual property of Barney the Dinosaur .
The “ traditional ” picture has long been outdated ; perhaps an advantage of being a gentleman , rather than a lady , is not being told to pretend otherwise .
Harris and Emhoff found each other relatively late in life , when both were in their forties .
She had not been married before ; he was divorced , and his two children call Harris “ Momala.
” ( Stepparents are not new @ @ @ @ @ @ @ list includes not only Jill Biden but Melania Trump , Nancy Reagan—and George Washington . )
Emhoff has said that his role is not to be Harris ’ s adviser but to “ support her.
” His useful message is that supporting can be an act of strength , for a man as well as for a woman .
Emhoff has won praise and ardent fans for doing something that should not be extraordinary : expressing pride in his wife ’ s achievements .
O , The Oprah Magazine , after reviewing Emhoff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to an airport shop display that includes a book she wrote , of a TV screen on which an interview of her is playing , and of himself wearing a Harris campaign hoodie—declared him to be “ the ultimate hype-man we all deserve in a partner.
” That is as good a summation as any of the aspiration for ordinary decency—something that has often seemed out of reach in Trump ’ s Washington .
Perhaps Emhoff ’ s radical task is to remind people that respect for a woman ’ s career and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He can always ask Dr. Jill Biden for advice .
♦

Illustration by João Fazenda
“Hey, Dr. Biden, how are you—how’re you doing?” the driver of a Teamsters Local 633 pickup truck called out cheerfully to Jill Biden, Ed.D., one day this fall when she was campaigning for her husband in New Hampshire. The other occupants of the truck offered similar greetings. In recent days, the soon-to-be First Lady’s use of the title “Dr.” has inspired an unaccountable spate of anger on the right. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Joseph Epstein wrote that it “sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.” Tucker Carlson, on Fox, called her “poor, illiterate Jill Biden.” Yet the Teamsters, like any number of people whom Biden has encountered in the political world and in academia over the years, had no problem using the honorific. (The community-college students she teaches call her Dr. B.) The only novel aspect of the encounter in New Hampshire came when she gestured to a man standing next to her and asked, “You met Doug, right? Everybody met Doug?”
They had met Doug Emhoff, the husband of Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, and many more Americans will get to know him in the weeks leading up to her swearing in, alongside Joe Biden’s, on January 20th. When Biden announced his selection of Harris as his running mate, he said that Emhoff would be a “barrier-breaker” as the first Second Gentleman of the United States. He will also be the first Jewish person to be a Second (or First) Spouse, and he and Harris will be the first interracial couple in their position. And yet, if Emhoff is an unconventional figure, it is mostly because his wife is one on a more historic scale: the first woman and the first Black or South Asian person elected to the Vice-Presidency. The reactions to Jill Biden and Doug Emhoff raise different, if related, questions. In her case, it’s how her simple wish to be known by a title she earned could excite such fury. For Emhoff, it’s what it means to say that a successful, white corporate lawyer still has new barriers to break.
One explanation for the scorn directed at Jill Biden is that our political culture is so unhinged that anybody close to a President-elect gets pelted with whatever material is available, whether it makes sense or not. Michelle Obama, after all, was attacked for wanting to plant a vegetable garden. During the Obama Administration, she and Jill teamed up to create Joining Forces, an initiative that offers support to military families—as bipartisan a project as one could imagine. The incoming Administration disabled its Web site within hours of Trump’s Inauguration; Jill Biden plans to revive it. (Emhoff has said that he is considering working on food insecurity or access to the justice system.)
But women’s experience of first having their credentials ignored and then being mocked if they assert them is all too familiar, in almost every arena. That is doubly true for women of color; Harris is a U.S. senator and a former attorney general of California, but Donald Trump has portrayed her as pushy, dislikable, and alien, drawing on the most tedious racist and sexist tropes. “Ka-maala. Kamala,” he said at a rally in October, mangling each syllable. “You know, if you don’t pronounce her name exactly right, she gets very angry at you.”
Nor is it incidental that both Epstein and Carlson suggested that the topic of Biden’s dissertation, which has what Epstein called an “unpromising title”—it’s “Student Retention at the Community College: Meeting Students’ Needs”—was piddling. If anything, that topic is more urgent than ever. Last month, a study by the National Student Clearinghouse found that community-college enrollment had fallen, in the course of the pandemic, by almost ten per cent; among underrepresented minorities, that number is close to thirty per cent. Community colleges provide a route to the middle class for people who are low income, the first in their family to attend college, immigrants, single parents, or all of the above. When Joe Biden was Vice-President, Jill Biden taught at Northern Virginia Community College, becoming the first known sitting Second Lady to hold a full-time paid job. She has written that it was easy for her Secret Service agents to blend in at the college, because the average age of the students was twenty-eight. Her plan is to teach as First Lady, too.
Emhoff will also be teaching, in his case a course on entertainment law at Georgetown University. (“Just call him professor Doug Emhoff,” a story in People began, though he will technically be a lecturer—a reminder that titles come more easily in some cases than in others.) He is leaving behind a partnership at the international law firm DLA Piper. Still, in terms of qualifications, he is not an outlier. Since 1993, every First and Second Spouse, with the exception of Melania Trump, has had an advanced degree: a master’s (Tipper Gore, Laura Bush, Karen Pence), a J.D. (Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama), or a Ph.D. (Lynne Cheney). Emhoff was involved in litigation surrounding the Taco Bell Chihuahua; Michelle Obama once protected the intellectual property of Barney the Dinosaur. The “traditional” picture has long been outdated; perhaps an advantage of being a gentleman, rather than a lady, is not being told to pretend otherwise.
Harris and Emhoff found each other relatively late in life, when both were in their forties. She had not been married before; he was divorced, and his two children call Harris “Momala.” (Stepparents are not new in First and Second Families; the list includes not only Jill Biden but Melania Trump, Nancy Reagan—and George Washington.) Emhoff has said that his role is not to be Harris’s adviser but to “support her.” His useful message is that supporting can be an act of strength, for a man as well as for a woman.
Emhoff has won praise and ardent fans for doing something that should not be extraordinary: expressing pride in his wife’s achievements. O, The Oprah Magazine, after reviewing Emhoff’s social-media posts—photographs of Harris next to an airport shop display that includes a book she wrote, of a TV screen on which an interview of her is playing, and of himself wearing a Harris campaign hoodie—declared him to be “the ultimate hype-man we all deserve in a partner.” That is as good a summation as any of the aspiration for ordinary decency—something that has often seemed out of reach in Trump’s Washington. Perhaps Emhoff’s radical task is to remind people that respect for a woman’s career and credentials can be something quite normal. He can always ask Dr. Jill Biden for advice. ♦
A previous version of this article inaccurately summarized the ways in which Kamala Harris’s ascendancy to the Vice-Presidency is historically novel.


newyorker--2020-12-20--Sunday Reading: A Year of New Urgency for Black Lives Matter

In 2016 , Jelani Cobb published a sweeping report in The New Yorker about a new movement that had emerged in the wake of Michael Brown ’ s killing by a police officer , in Ferguson , Missouri , and the massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church , in Charleston , South Carolina , among other events .
Black Lives Matter had become a powerful rallying cry for a new generation of civil-rights activists , and , for some in the movement , the affirmation was “ as much a reminder directed at black people as it is a revelation aimed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In 2020 , the phrase and movement took on new life as millions of people from all different backgrounds mobilized across the globe to protest the killing of George Floyd .
This week , we ’ re bringing you a selection of pieces about the evolution of Black Lives Matter and the racial-justice movement in America .
In “ The Trayvon Generation , ” Elizabeth Alexander explores how persistent patterns of brutality and discrimination have influenced young Black Americans .
In “ The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision , ” the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the very gears of the criminal-justice system turn and grind in indifference to who Breonna Taylor was while alive—and kept turning even after her death—then we must change those gears , fix that machinery.
” In “ How Do We Change America ?
, ” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues that efforts at reform must go beyond a focus on the police .
Finally , in “ My Mother ’ s Dreams for Her Son , and All Black Children , ” Hilton Als recounts his childhood in Brooklyn and the racial injustices he witnessed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reveal the extraordinary impact this movement has had on our political landscape over the past year .
A new kind of movement found its moment .
What will its future be ?
There ’ s a lot that is just god-awful wrong here , but let ’ s consider what Kentucky ’ s attorney general didn ’ t say .
The quest to transform this country can not be limited to challenging its brutal police alone .
She longed for black people in America not to be forever refugees—confined by borders that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ system that killed them before they died .

In 2016, Jelani Cobb published a sweeping report in The New Yorker about a new movement that had emerged in the wake of Michael Brown’s killing by a police officer, in Ferguson, Missouri, and the massacre at Emanuel A.M.E. Church, in Charleston, South Carolina, among other events. Black Lives Matter had become a powerful rallying cry for a new generation of civil-rights activists, and, for some in the movement, the affirmation was “as much a reminder directed at black people as it is a revelation aimed at whites,” Cobb wrote. In 2020, the phrase and movement took on new life as millions of people from all different backgrounds mobilized across the globe to protest the killing of George Floyd.
More from the Archive Sign up for Classics, a twice-weekly newsletter featuring notable pieces from the past.
This week, we’re bringing you a selection of pieces about the evolution of Black Lives Matter and the racial-justice movement in America. In “The Trayvon Generation,” Elizabeth Alexander explores how persistent patterns of brutality and discrimination have influenced young Black Americans. In “The Empty Facts of the Breonna Taylor Decision,” the writer ZZ Packer observes, “If the very gears of the criminal-justice system turn and grind in indifference to who Breonna Taylor was while alive—and kept turning even after her death—then we must change those gears, fix that machinery.” In “How Do We Change America?,” Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor argues that efforts at reform must go beyond a focus on the police. Finally, in “My Mother’s Dreams for Her Son, and All Black Children,” Hilton Als recounts his childhood in Brooklyn and the racial injustices he witnessed there. Taken together, these pieces reveal the extraordinary impact this movement has had on our political landscape over the past year.
—David Remnick
Photograph by Amy Elkins for The New Yorker
A new kind of movement found its moment. What will its future be?
Art work by Carrie Mae Weems / “Blue Black Boy” (1997). © Carrie Mae Weems. Courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery
For Solo, Simon, Robel, Maurice, Cameron, and Sekou.
There’s a lot that is just god-awful wrong here, but let’s consider what Kentucky’s attorney general didn’t say.
Illustration by Jamiel Law
The quest to transform this country cannot be limited to challenging its brutal police alone.
She longed for black people in America not to be forever refugees—confined by borders that they did not create and by a penal system that killed them before they died.


newyorker--2020-12-20--An Advent Lament in the Pandemic

An Advent Lament in the Pandemic

It has been , to a distressing degree , an ignominious year for the church in America .
In the midst of a global public-health crisis , many Christians certainly took seriously Jesus ’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew about how he would separate believers from unbelievers on Judgment Day : “ For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat , I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink , I was a stranger and you invited me in , I needed clothes and you clothed me , I was sick and you looked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and you came to visit me.
” My colleague Jonathan Blitzer profiled Juan Carlos Ruiz , a fifty-year-old Mexican pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Bay Ridge , Brooklyn , who tirelessly delivered meals , arranged discounted burials with funeral homes , and answered calls for help at all hours from undocumented members of the community .
Legions of Roman Catholic priests donned personal protective equipment and ventured , at great personal risk , into hospital rooms to anoint the dying with oil .
Churches have operated food pantries , distributed rent-relief checks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But white evangelical Protestants , once again , overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the election , despite his denialism about the pandemic , which has now killed more than three hundred thousand people in the United States , and his utter lack of compassion for its victims .
Many churches , particularly conservative ones , fought lockdown orders and rebuffed public-health warnings about large indoor gatherings .
The virus has swept through houses of worship across the country .
In the end , the lasting image of the church in the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unmasked choir at First Baptist Church , in Dallas , led by the pastor , Robert Jeffress , a staunch Trump supporter , singing in front of Vice-President Mike Pence at a “ Freedom Sunday ” service , as the county where the church is located reported a record high for COVID-19 cases .
As Christians prepare anew to celebrate the Incarnation , when “ the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us , ” revisiting early church history offers a reminder of the devotion to the common good that Jesus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can inspire .
In the year 165 , a horrible pandemic , sometimes referred to as the “ Plague of Galen , ” for the physician who described the illness in his writings , struck the Roman Empire .
By some estimates , a quarter to a third of the population died .
Nearly a century later , another pestilence devastated the region , killing as many as five thousand people a day in Rome .
Dionysius , the bishop of the church in Alexandria , where two-thirds of the population may have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tend to the sick .
“ Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty , never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another , ” he wrote in an Easter letter to his flock .
“ Heedless of danger , they took charge of the sick , attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ , and with them departed this life serenely happy ; for they were infected by others with the disease , drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ believers to that of pagans , who “ pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest , throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt , hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease.
” Accounts of works of mercy by followers of Jesus were not limited to Christian sources .
Nearly a century later , Emperor Julian , seeking to bolster paganism , urged the high priest of Galatia to emulate the charitable works of Christians , attributing the growth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ benevolence toward strangers and care for the graves of the dead ” and how they “ support not only their poor , but ours as well.
” The historian Timothy S. Miller , in his book “ The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire , ” documents how the first public hospitals began to spring up in the fourth and fifth centuries as an expression of Christian charity .
Basil , the bishop of Caesarea , in what is now Turkey , established a charitable complex for the destitute on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hostel for the sick , staffed by doctors and nurses .
John Chrysostom , the archbishop of Constantinople , the new capital of the Roman Empire , opened several hospitals in that city .
During the Middle Ages , hospitals were established throughout Europe , often as part of monastic communities .
Charlemagne , who sought to convert all his subjects to Christianity , decreed that hospitals accompany every cathedral built in his kingdom .
In 1527 , Europe experienced a resurgence of the bubonic plague , nearly two centuries after the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the German town of Wittenberg , many chose to flee .
Martin Luther , a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg and a leader of the Protestant Reformation movement , decided to stay there to care for the sick and the dying .
He later wrote an open letter , “ Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague , ” explaining his decision : “ when people are dying , they most need a spiritual ministry which strengthens and comforts their consciences by word and sacrament and in faith @ @ @ @ @ @ @ no one should risk his or her life needlessly , Luther described people as being “ bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.
” Along these lines , he noted that those who stayed should “ take potions which can help you ; fumigate house , yard , and street ; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wants to help put out the burning city.
” He was explicit about the need for social distancing : “ I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others , and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.
” In “ The Rise of Christianity , ” Rodney Stark , a sociologist of religion , writes that the early Christians ’ response to epidemics helps to explain the extraordinary spread of their movement .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ providing food and water , likely led to dramatically better survival rates among Christians and those they cared for , which would have seemed nothing short of miraculous amid so much suffering and death .
Starks argues that differing mortality rates would have then begun to shift the demographics in the Roman world between Christians and pagans , and led to further conversion opportunities .
He points out that Christianity provided adherents hope and consolation and that , more important , “ the Christian way appeared to work.
” While Stark considers a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ conclusion is that the ultimate impetus for Christianity becoming the dominant faith in the Western world , a few centuries after Jesus ’ birth , was the doctrines of the religion itself and the “ attractive , liberating , and effective ” relationships and community they produced in the early church .
The Christian message of a God who loved humanity and , therefore , expected his followers to love one another—and nonbelievers , too—Stark writes , was “ something entirely new ” in antiquity .
In 2020 , many churches realized that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ neighbors was to temporarily shut their doors .
Early in the pandemic , the National Association of Evangelicals and Christianity Today issued a statement calling on churches to close “ out of a deep sense of responsibility for others.
” The Reverend Rick Warren , the senior pastor of Saddleback Church , a megachurch based in Orange County , California , encouraged his congregants to meet online in smaller Bible-study groups , volunteer at pop-up food pantries , and tune into virtual services on Sundays , but he kept his many campuses closed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not a building.
” “ Shepherds ( that ’ s what ‘ pastor ’ means ) are called to protect God ’ s Flock not expose it to danger , and I ’ m not willing to risk people ’ s health just to have a live audience to speak to , ” Warren told me in an e-mail .
But other church leaders resumed in-person services , even as infections surged , often while waving the banner of religious freedom .
For years , the church in America has been in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ numbers .
According to a survey by the Pew Research Center , in 2019 , sixty-five per cent of Americans identified as Christians , down twelve per cent from the previous decade ; meanwhile , the numbers of the religiously unaffiliated have grown to twenty-six per cent .
The co-opting of white evangelicalism by Republican politics helps to explain the confrontational attitude of conservative Christians , but so does the fear of many believers that they are losing their place in a secularizing America .
A pluralistic society needs to insure that people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ without any faith , have a role in the public square .
But the defiance of the church during the pandemic has come with a cost .
The pandemic in 2020 has held a mirror to Christianity , just as the epidemics of antiquity did , but today ’ s reflection carries the potential to repulse rather than attract .
Once the vaccine is widely distributed next year , the church , along with the rest of society , will begin to move on .
Yet the world will not be as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not only with whether their congregants will return in person , but with how much their collective witness––the term Christians use to describe their ability to point to Jesus in their lives––may have been diminished .

In the Christian liturgical calendar, the weeks leading up to Christmas, when Advent is observed, are meant to be a season of anticipation. A stanza in the carol “O Holy Night,” often sung during Christmas Eve Mass, conveys an intense longing for the Savior’s arrival: “A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices / For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.” That sense of weighty expectation feels heightened this year, as a fragile, disputatious America prepares for an enormous mobilization to manufacture and distribute hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to finally bring the pandemic under control. The passage in the Book of Common Prayer for the fourth Sunday in Advent reads as a collective yearning: “O Lord, raise up (we pray thee) thy power, and come among us, and with great might succour us.”
It has been, to a distressing degree, an ignominious year for the Church in America. In the midst of a global public-health crisis, many Christians certainly took seriously Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel of Matthew about how he would separate believers from unbelievers on Judgment Day: “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” My colleague Jonathan Blitzer profiled Juan Carlos Ruiz, a fifty-year-old Mexican pastor of a Lutheran congregation in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, who tirelessly delivered meals, arranged discounted burials with funeral homes, and answered calls for help at all hours from undocumented members of the community. Legions of Roman Catholic priests donned personal protective equipment and ventured, at great personal risk, into hospital rooms to anoint the dying with oil. Churches have operated food pantries, distributed rent-relief checks, and provided housing during the crisis. But white evangelical Protestants, once again, overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the election, despite his denialism about the pandemic, which has now killed more than three hundred thousand people in the United States, and his utter lack of compassion for its victims. Many churches, particularly conservative ones, fought lockdown orders and rebuffed public-health warnings about large indoor gatherings. The virus has swept through houses of worship across the country. In the end, the lasting image of the Church in the pandemic may very well be that of an unmasked choir at First Baptist Church, in Dallas, led by the pastor Robert Jeffress, a staunch Trump supporter, singing in front of Vice-President Mike Pence at a “Freedom Sunday” service, as the county where the church is located reported a record high for COVID-19 cases.
As Christians prepare anew to celebrate the Incarnation, when “the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us,” revisiting early Church history offers a reminder of the devotion to the common good that Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection can inspire. In the year 165, a horrible pandemic, sometimes referred to as the Plague of Galen, for the physician who described the illness in his writings, struck the Roman Empire. By some estimates, a quarter to a third of the population died. Nearly a century later, another pestilence devastated the region, killing as many as five thousand people a day in Rome. Dionysius, the bishop of the Church in Alexandria, where two-thirds of the population may have died, mounted a broad effort to tend to the sick. “Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another,” he wrote in an Easter letter to his flock. “Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting their pains.” Dionysius contrasted the behavior of believers to that of pagans, who “pushed the sufferers away and fled from their dearest, throwing them into the roads before they were dead and treated unburied corpses as dirt, hoping thereby to avert the spread and contagion of the fatal disease.” Accounts of works of mercy by followers of Jesus were not limited to Christian sources. Nearly a century later, Emperor Julian, seeking to bolster paganism, urged the high priest of Galatia to emulate the charitable works of Christians, attributing the growth of the “impious Galileans” to “benevolence toward strangers and care for the graves of the dead” and how they “support not only their poor, but ours as well.”
The historian Timothy S. Miller, in his book “The Birth of the Hospital in the Byzantine Empire,” documents how the first public hospitals began to spring up in the fourth and fifth centuries as an expression of Christian charity. Basil, the bishop of Caesarea, in what is now Turkey, established a charitable complex for the destitute on the outskirts of the city that included a hostel for the sick, staffed by doctors and nurses. John Chrysostom, the archbishop of Constantinople, the new capital of the Roman Empire, opened several hospitals in that city. During the Middle Ages, hospitals were established throughout Europe, often as part of monastic communities. Charlemagne, who sought to convert all his subjects to Christianity, decreed that hospitals accompany every cathedral built in his kingdom.
In 1527, Europe experienced a resurgence of the bubonic plague, nearly two centuries after the Black Death. As victims began appearing in the German town of Wittenberg, many chose to flee. Martin Luther, a professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg and a leader of the Protestant Reformation movement, decided to stay there to care for the sick and the dying. He later wrote an open letter, “Whether One May Flee From a Deadly Plague,” explaining his decision: “when people are dying, they most need a spiritual ministry which strengthens and comforts their consciences by word and sacrament and in faith overcomes death.” While he believed that no one should risk his or her life needlessly, Luther described people as being “bound to each other in such a way that no one may forsake the other in his distress but is obliged to assist and help him as he himself would like to be helped.” Along these lines, he noted that those who stayed should “take potions which can help you; fumigate house, yard, and street; shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city.” He was explicit about the need for social distancing: “I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance infect and pollute others, and so cause their death as a result of my negligence.”
In “The Rise of Christianity,” Rodney Stark, a sociologist of religion, writes that the early Christians’ response to epidemics helps to explain the extraordinary spread of their movement. Rudimentary nursing, in the form of providing food and water, likely led to dramatically better survival rates among Christians and those they cared for, which would have seemed nothing short of miraculous amid so much suffering and death. Starks argues that differing mortality rates would have then begun to shift the demographics in the Roman world between Christians and pagans, and led to further conversion opportunities. He points out that Christianity provided adherents hope and consolation and that, more important, “the Christian way appeared to work.” While Stark considers a variety of other social factors, his conclusion is that the ultimate impetus for Christianity becoming the dominant faith in the Western world, a few centuries after Jesus’ birth, was the doctrines of the religion itself and the “attractive, liberating, and effective” relationships and community they produced in the early church. The Christian message of a God who loved humanity and, therefore, expected his followers to love one another—and nonbelievers, too—Stark writes, was “something entirely new” in antiquity.