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| And I thought New York had a weird Easter. |
Normally, the sidewalks would have been jammed with churchgoers. Other people would be lined up at restaurants with outdoor tables, ready to celebrate the son of God's resurrection by indulging in the traditional three-for-one Bloody Mary specials.
This year, church services were strictly virtual. And the only lining up being done was at grocery and liquor stores allowing just a certain number of people inside at a time. We've gone from breadlines to boozelines. Progress?
With even fewer cars than there are during the workweek these days, we walked the entirety of East 87th Street in the middle of the road to Central Park. Presuming that this quarantine-not-a-quarantine will actually end eventually, we're taking advantage of breaking the law and getting away with it as long as we can.
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| Because the field hospital is provided to the city free of charge by the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse, this will be one time when I don't crack wise about religion. |
The section of the sidewalk outside the tents is closed to the public, so this is as close as I could get to what amounts to a MASH unit, only without the laugh track. In fact, you'd likely get arrested if you so much as chuckled walking by.
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| Considering how few people there were, I don't think it was a problem. |
While the Conservatory Garden wasn't totally devoid of visitors, it certainly had roughly 90% fewer than it normally would have on an Easter morning. I have to admit, I'm going to miss the relative silence that has come over the city.
Silence, that is, if you're not a medical worker. Then you're likely to advise me to snort a can of Ajax. And I wouldn't blame you.
As we returned home, wondering where we would pick up lunch, we figured out that we actually hadn't gone out to a meal in five weeks -- the same day we met with our accountant regarding our taxes and visited a furniture store in Midtown West. How adventurous it all seems now.
A few days after that, I worked on the HBO series The Flight Attendant at Hudson Yards on 30th Street and 10th Avenue. What I didn't realize, taking pictures between shots on that raw windy day, was that it would be the last time for the foreseeable future that I would travel outside my neighborhood. That was March 10.
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| My last views of the outside world. |
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| The guy doing the sign language is saying, "Why does he bother?" |
De Blasio himself seemed to realize how out of his depth he was. While Cuomo's cool, prepared briefings are meant to inform, de Blasio's uncertain, nervous delivery, both halting and rushed, drove us out of the room. The local affiliate cut away just as he started speaking Spanish, as if wanting to spare Latinos the pain we gringos went through.
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| "...And it looks like Gorgeous Gov just put Big Mouth Blaz in a bad spot..." |
Andrew and Bill's latest feud involves education. On Friday, de Blasio announced that city schools, which have been closed since March 18, wouldn't re-open until September.
The following day, Cuomo reminded us that the decision to re-open schools or not "is my legal authority in this situation". Bye, Felicia!
Taking the high road, de Blasio harrumphed that keeping schools closed was "not a legal or jurisdictional decision. This is a moral question." Ooh, snap!
It makes you feel like a socialite reprimanding the Three Stooges in countless movies: Boys, boys! Come to your senses! Only now there's more at stake than mixing up "can of peas" and "canapes" when making dinner.
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Because it couldn't hurt, here's Moby Grape performing "It's a Beautiful Day Today" in 1968:
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