Masking Less Now

I'm starting to give up on masking against the Coronavirus. I won't say "I am giving up" because I'm not totally giving up on masking— or other health precautions. I'm still wearing a mask in highest risk situations such as aboard airplanes and in airports. But I've basically given up masking in stores and restaurants.

I remained one of the last holdouts in masking. Even in the otherwise health-conscious area of Silicon Valley I live in I've noticed that voluntary masking in stores is down to about 5% now. Ditto at SJC airport, even.

The government has long since thrown in the towel. President Biden essentially announced the end of treating Covid like an emergency a year ago. Two weeks ago he signed a bipartisan congressional resolution (example coverage: NPR article, 14 Apr 2023) abruptly ending the official emergency just four weeks before it was set to expire already on May 11. And California state government, which was a leader nationally in having a well articulated, evidence based policy, dropped even its requirement for wearing masks in hospitals and clinics, leaving it up to individual hospitals to defend on their own.

In addition to having been one of the last mask-wearing holdouts I remain one of the last never-had-Covid holdouts among people I know. Many people I know have had it twice now.

Catching Covid has become accepted as the new normal. Early on in the Coronavirus pandemic, deniers scoffed, untruthfully, that "Covid is just like the flu". In terms of impact it's not. It's 4-5x more deadly. But it has become like the flu in the sense that getting sick with it has become normalized. The public considers it one of those things that just happens; nothing to be done about it other than seek care & tough it out when you get it. (Nevermind that the chance of getting the flu can also be greatly reduced by annual vaccination... which also most people don't bother to get....)

It's in this context that I'm dropping my mask in more places. There remains little value in trying so hard when virtually nobody else does.

Cemetery Cruising in Nola

New Orleans travelog #7
French Quarter - Monday, 23 Apr 2023, 3pm

We've been doing a bit of sightseeing each day in New Orleans. Yesterday we met with a local friend for another self-guided tour around the French Quarter and Faubourg-Marigny. Today we discussed options for sightseeing before we walked out to lunch at Café Beignet. We intended to visit a couple of Louisiana museums in the 'Quarter... but when we arrived there after lunch we found them closed for the day. Unfortunately that wasn't made clear on their websites. Thus we fell back to our #2 pick for the day, cemetery cruising.

Visiting New Orleans' cemeteries is a big thing for some visitors. I'm kind of like, "Enh." One, there's dead people everywhere; how's this different? And two, stuff about spirits and voodoo and other hokum is... well, all hokum. So it doesn't seem terribly interesting to me. But the museums are closed, so cemetery cruising it is!

Next was the question of which cemetery. Nearby was St. Louis Cemetery #1, the oldest in New Orleans... but it's accessible only by tour guide with a cost of $25 per person. Thanks, Catholic Church[1]. 🙄 There's another that's free, but it's a few miles away. We checked the cost of Ubering over there and found it'd cost as much as one entry ticket just to go back and forth. So we decided to pay the Catholic Diocese its dues and walk there, 4-5 blocks from our hotel.

Details and pictures coming soon.

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[1] I roll my eyes at the Catholic Church charging admission for even simple things like seeing the inside of a historic church because as I have visited many cities in numerous countries I've found it the only religion that routinely charges for entry. Yes, other religions ask that you be respectful— of course— but they don't charge for entry. They're happy for visitors to learn about their faith.

Beer Tasting in New Orleans

New Orleans travelog #6
French Quarter - Sunday, 22 Apr 2023, 11pm

After carousing on Bourbon Street two nights in a row I've decided to party a bit more quietly back at the hotel, in "The Room of Seven Gables", as I call it. At the same time I've decided to keep working on my Beer Tasting 2022 project. Yes, even though it's 2023 now. I don't drink beer as fast as I used to when I was younger. (That's also why I don't feel like carousing on Bourbon Street 3 nights in a row.) Plus, there's such a wider variety available now. That's true even here in New Orleans, "The Big Easy", where drinking alcohol is literally a local pastime.

On this trip I've seen a variety of local brews in bars and stores that either didn't exist years ago or weren't widely distributed even here in their home territory. A few I've had and enjoyed back in California, particularly several varieties from Abita Brewing. Most of the bars have Abita Amber on tap and most of the stores have it in bottles. It's... is far from Abita's best, IMO. I've hunted around and found two other local beers in stores, buying a 6-pack of each for enjoying back at The Room of Seven Gables.



My two picks for enjoying back at the Room of Seven Gables on this trip are Abita Brewing's The Boot and Parish Brewing's Canebreak.

I chose to try The Boot because a) I've liked a number of other Abita beers I've had, particularly Turbodog (a brown ale) and Mardi Gras Ale (a Maibock) and b) it's a Louisiana exclusive— not distributed out of state. Canebreak I chose with no recommendation, just the labeling on the bottle that it's a wheat ale.

The Boot is a blend between Pilsener and Kolsch styles. Like a Pilsener it has gentle flavors, a light body, and overall a crisp, clean, refreshing character. The addition of Kolsch yeast gives it a bit more body than a traditional Pilsener but without the stronger, fruity flavor that typifies Kolsch. I like the way Abita has blended these two styles. The Boot has some spine but remains crisp and clean.

Canebreak is an actual wheat ale. I emphasize that because in the US the style hefeweizen has been popularized and almost everybody mislabels it "wheat beer". Hefeweizen actually means yeast-wheat and is a different style. It has strong flavors of banana and clove that Americans incorrectly think typifies wheat beer. Those are flavors from the yeast, not wheat. Wheat beers have a very clean flavor. I like Canebreak because it has a very clean, simple taste. It's much richer than The Boot... but that's to be expected as it's an ale rather than Pilsener.