I Finally Get to Play With a Picturephone

Journal day 10 (feels like day 100): Life in my little corner of NYC in the age of the Coronavirus, Tuesday, March 31, 2020

New York City before social distancing: August, 2017, Waiting to see the solar eclipse at the American Museum of Natural History © 2020 Jorie Mar

CNN’s Chris Cuomo caught the virus and is broadcasting from his basement, where he is quarantined. His brother, the governor, gave a moving tribute this morning.

Closer to home, I’m in a “philosophy for the people” discussion group that usually meets in a Panera’s in Astoria. Tonight we met online via Google Meet for a video chat. The format of the group is that we vote on a discussion question, and tonight’s question was whether things will go back to the way they were once this is all over.

When I was a little kid, I was very excited about the picturephones at the 1964 World’s Fair, which my family went to often because it was in walking distance of where we lived in Flushing. I never did get to see the picturephones, though, because the lines were always too long. I was very disappointed.

But now that everyone has free picturephones in their pocket, for some reason I have hardly ever used them — maybe three or four times total up to now. So tonight’s virtual get-together was an almost-new experience for me. It was enjoyable, though less intense than meeting in person. I guess this will be our new normal for a while.

My pictures from today’s walk:

Dirty Pierre’s © 2020 Jorie Mar

(Editing to add 4/3/20 — I just saw that the restaurant/bar Dirty Pierre’s left a beautiful post on Facebook a few hours ago):

Y’all we always cook PLENTY!

If anyone is not working and runs out of food, please don’t go to sleep with an empty stomach. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to send me a private message. We will be more than happy to share whatever food we have. I will drop and go.

I was taught growing up that where one person eats; two can eat, too. We have to be more grateful and less selfish❤️

Pretty street. It looks so peaceful. You would never think we were in the middle of a pandemic. © 2020 Jorie Mar

Another pretty street. Looks like something out of another time. © 2020 Jorie Mar

Magnolias are still in bloom © 2020 Jorie Mar

• Editing to add 4/3/20 — I just saw that the restaurant/bar Dirty Pierre’s left a beautiful post on Facebook a few hours ago:

Y’all we always cook PLENTY!

If anyone is not working and runs out of food, please don’t go to sleep with an empty stomach. Don’t be afraid or embarrassed to send me a private message. We will be more than happy to share whatever food we have. I will drop and go.

I was taught growing up that where one person eats; two can eat, too. We have to be more grateful and less selfish❤️