Now I'm a "Covid Virgin" 🙄

I saw an article in my newsfeed Friday from The Atlantic, America Is Running Out of ‘COVID Virgins’. Subsequently that term, "Covid Virgin", seemed to pop up on other news articles over the weekend. It seemed to be part of what-can-we-talk-about-now news cycle of President Biden testing positive for Covid-19 two days earlier.

I take this turn of phrase, "Covid Virgin", personally. It means people like me (I've never had Covid) and it is not meant kindly. In popular culture to call someone a virgin is at best polite snickering over their putative lack of physical beauty and/or ineptness at romance. Indeed the Atlantic article paints "Covid Virgins" in a negative light right in its subhead with the rhetorical question, If you haven’t gotten the coronavirus, are you a sitting duck?

No, people like me are not sitting ducks. I have avoided Covid for 2+ years through not just luck but also lots of good judgment and preparation. Starting in March 2020 I drastically reduced my outings to stores, restaurants, and events. I wore a mask everywhere in public indoors settings starting when the CDC recommended shortly thereafter and I still do. I suspended travel for months and eased back into it with an eye on public health recommendations and data. I got my vaccination when it was first available to me. I got not just one but two boosters, also when they were first available. In short, I'm healthy in part because I've done things right.

Social matters do hit a tipping point though, a point after which up becomes down, good becomes bad, and right becomes wrong. As in the classic Dr. Seuss children's story, once there are enough Star Bellied Sneetches it becomes a mark of shame to be a Plain Bellied Sneetch. The Atlantic article cites a recent study from the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation estimating that 82% of Americans have had Covid already. When we're the 18% it's easy for vast majority to start shaming us with terminology.

But here's the thing the smug people in the 82% should remember: Losing your Covid V-card won't help you. People are getting reinfected. Prior infection alone is weak protection— weaker than getting vaccinated, weaker than precautions like wearing a face mask correctly in high risk situations, and weaker than making wiser choices where possible.

Dining at Chain Restaurants

On our trip to Colorado a few weeks ago we ate a number of meals at chain restaurants. That's unusual for us as we prefer non-chain restaurants. There are a lot of good ones in our area; so many, in fact, that a lot of chain restaurants which are mainstays elsewhere in the US are MIA around here.

Take Olive Garden, for example. If a visitor told me, "I'd like to eat at Olive Garden," my first thought would be, "OMG, I can think of at least 5 Italian restaurants within a 3 miles of my house that are better than OG, depending on what you want." And my second thought would be, "OMG, I don't even know where an OG is around here." I'd have to open a map app and search! (Answer: There isn't one on the whole peninsula between here and SF, an area where 2.5 million people live. On the other side of the bay are three.)

That said, I understand why people like chain food. We eat at chains occasionally for a few of the same reasons. The biggest one is that chains are predictable. Going in you know what the menu will be, you know what the price range will be, you know what the food is going to look and taste like, and you know what the decor and level of service are going to be. Especially when traveling, where you generally aren't familiar with any of the local alternatives, that's significant.

Chain Restaurants - Colorado Experiences

In my previous blog I wrote about chain restaurants. We visit them sparingly, prefering local restaurants which are often way better— especially in our area. But sometimes we have a taste for chain food, and when traveling we're more likely to opt for chain food because it's a known quantity in an unfamiliar place. When we were traveling around Colorado a few weeks ago we visited more than our usual share of chain restaurants. Here's a rundown of what we visited during the week & what we thought:

Qdoba: Our first chain food was lunch on Saturday. We picked Qdoba, which is in the same niche as better known competitors Baja Fresh and Chipotle, because we wanted Mexican food. Also, neither of us had been to a Qdoba in at least 10 years, so it was kind of like trying something new. How was it? Meh. The quesadillas we bought came heavy on cheese and light on meat/veg. The cheese seemed to be low quality with a weird aftertaste. We won't go back to one for at least another 10 years.

Pizza Hut: "The 'Hut" is a guilty pleasure for me. I think their pizza is actually good. Well, not good-good, but the one near my home is reliably 3.5/5 stars, occasionally reaching 4/5. I ordered pizza from one in a small town on Saturday night not because it was my first choice but because it was my thirteenth. How was it? Not as good as the one near home, but it got the job done. One of the things I like about Pizza Hut is that, with their online deals, I can virtually always get an excellent amount of food for a very reasonable price. On this Pizza Hut delivered. Well, not delivered, because I went to pick it up, but figuratively delivered. 😅 Also, as an example of why I don't blanket-dismiss chain food, when I bought pizza at two different local restaurants later this trip, one of them was clearly better than Pizza Hut but one was not quite as good— despite positive Yelp reviews.

Dairy Queen: This ice cream chain is a guilty pleasure for both of us, and the guilt here is mostly the "OMG how many calories did I just ingest?" kind. I know from visiting a number of them that DQs vary in selection and quality, though at worst the quality is still at least barely acceptable. How was it? This trip we visited three DQs, using Yelp to avoid a few of the not-so-good ones. As with past experience, the worst we visited was still okay. The other two were like, "OMG that was delicious... but how many hundred calories?"

Famous Dave's: We ate at one of these chain barbecue restaurants Monday night when I was ready for some "red meat therapy", as I like to call it. It was either Dave's or Outback; we picked Dave's because, like Qdoba, we hadn't been to one in about 10 years, so it was kinda like trying something new. How was it? I shared a photo a few thoughts already. Basically, it got the job done. Not great, not quite good, but definitely okay to okay-plus. I could see going back to a Famous Dave's in less than 10 years.

Del Taco: Del Taco is one of those chains we'd eat at more if there were any near us. Instead we look for them when we're on the road in the southwest US. "What's a Del Taco?" you might ask if you're not from this region? Imagine it being like a Taco Bell but with way better food. ...Yeah, I know that's damning it with faint praise. It's still fast food, but we like it. How was it? The store we visited had marginal reviews on Yelp but we found it was exactly what we expected, no more, no less. The negative reviews were likely from people who either don't grasp the decidedly Mexican-American style cuisine they offer (e.g., meals come with fries on the side, not beans and rice) or don't grasp the idea of fast food vs. full service.

Village Inn: This diner we ate at on Friday was actually my first experience with the chain. Inside, the restaurant is decorated in a motif of pale orange and teal, seemingly an homage to the popular Howard Johnson's restaurants of 40+ years ago. I figure that's deliberate as this kind of restaurant caters to people who remember fondly the restaurant scene of 40+ years ago. How was it? I found the menu uninteresting... unless you want breakfast all day or a burger. I'm not much of a breakfast person, especially at 1pm, so I ordered a burger. It was okay. I have no interest in returning. Hawk wanted to go again a day later; I insisted we choose a local diner, specifically one with a broader menu, instead.