Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins

The Quarantine Thread


No Excuses

Recommended Posts

After failing to find toilet paper my father showed up with a smug grin on his face... and an enormous with pack of “bum fodder”.  Costco let’s the old folks in early and they go straight for the TP.  I’m now set for like six months.  
 

Moral of the story, find yourself a brave retiree with a Costco membership... Or get you one of them fancy butt washing Japanese toilets.

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 4/3/2020 at 11:10 PM, Momma There Goes That Man said:


Brosnan was a great Bond that was given dog**** scripts after Goldeneye

 

 

 

Bond is now looking like he's retired to a deserted island for fifty years...

 

0_MAIN-Pierce-Brosnan.jpg

  • Haha 1
  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

How the rich reacted to the bubonic plague has eerie similarities to today’s pandemic

 

The coronavirus can infect anyone, but recent reporting has shown your socioeconomic status can play a big role, with a combination of job security, access to health care and mobility widening the gap in infection and mortality rates between rich and poor.

 

The wealthy work remotely and flee to resorts or pastoral second homes, while the urban poor are packed into small apartments and compelled to keep showing up to work.

As a medievalist, I’ve seen a version of this story before.

 

Following the 1348 Black Death in Italy, the Italian writer Giovanni Boccaccio wrote a collection of 100 novellas titled, “The Decameron.” These stories, though fictional, give us a window into medieval life during the Black Death – and how some of the same fissures opened up between the rich and the poor. Cultural historians today see “The Decameron” as an invaluable source of information on everyday life in 14th-century Italy.

 

Boccaccio was born in 1313 as the illegitimate son of a Florentine banker. A product of the middle class, he wrote, in “The Decameron,” stories about merchants and servants. This was unusual for his time, as medieval literature tended to focus on the lives of the nobility.

 

“The Decameron” begins with a gripping, graphic description of the Black Death, which was so virulent that a person who contracted it would die within four to seven days. Between 1347 and 1351, it killed between 40% and 50% of Europe’s population. Some of Boccaccio’s own family members died.

 

In this opening section, Boccaccio describes the rich secluding themselves at home, where they enjoy quality wines and provisions, music and other entertainment. The very wealthiest – whom Boccaccio describes as “ruthless” – deserted their neighborhoods altogether, retreating to comfortable estates in the countryside, “as though the plague was meant to harry only those remaining within their city walls.”

 

Meanwhile, the middle class or poor, forced to stay at home, “caught the plague by the thousand right there in their own neighborhood, day after day” and swiftly passed away. Servants dutifully attended to the sick in wealthy households, often succumbing to the illness themselves. Many, unable to leave Florence and convinced of their imminent death, decided to simply drink and party away their final days in nihilistic revelries, while in rural areas, laborers died “like brute beasts rather than human beings; night and day, with never a doctor to attend them.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

  • Sad 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here is a video for those of you who like the Rat Pack era that at the time was called "The Frank Sinatra Spectacular". It was broadcast live on closed circuit TV. It was all for charity and arranged by Frank Sinatra. Johnny Carson is the MC/Host. It highlights Dean, Sammy, and Frank. They each perform separately and then finish together. Johnny even sings with them at one point. 

 

There are a lot of songs but also some good jokes and humor. These guys all knew how to entertain. Hope you enjoy. It's about 1.5 hrs long. Over the years I have watched it from start to finish about 10 times. 

 

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...