Good.
In a perfect world, there would be no need for vaccine passports. Human beings would act rationally, in their own self-interest, out of their own desire to return to a post-pandemic world (whatever that looks like), and just get the shots that will help save their lives and the lives of the people around them. We are closer to this than it might seem. It should be remembered that, as of August 2, 70 percent of the adult population has received at least one shot of the Covid-19 vaccine. Seventy percent is a lot! …
(They’re a lot more dangerous than Covid. If you’re vaccinated.)
Here are the odds of dying from various activities:
- Riding in a Car: 1 in 106
- Riding a Motorcycle For More Than 15 Miles in One Year: 1 in 860
- Boxing: 1 in 2,200
- Choking on Food: 1 in 2,535
- Canoeing: 1 in 10,000
- Scuba Diving: 1 in 34,000
- Bee Stings: 1 in 59,507
- Killed by Dog: 1 in 86,781
- Being Put to Death As Punishment For a Crime: 1 in 119,012
- Riding in an Airplane: 1 in 188,364
- Skydiving: 1 in 256,410
- Bungee Jumping: 1 in 500,000
- Skiing: 1 in 1,400,000
- Shark Attack: 1 in 3,748,067
- Being Struck by…
Internet Nostalgia
An early sign of our algorithm-driven culture.
Welcome to part 22 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week: The Dress. This week: Rebecca Black’s “Friday” video.
When: 2011.
The Story: Rebecca Black was 13 years old, and she didn’t write the song. That really has to be remembered before we have any discussion…
It’s great. You’ll love it.
Exactly three months ago today, going by the CDC and WHO guidelines, I became a fully vaccinated human being. I received my second Moderna shot on April 12, 2021, which means I was fully protected two weeks later. Thus: Three months of full vaccination. I will confess, when I reached such a platinum status, I imagined more of you would be fully vaxxed alongside me by now. …
And now, he and his family must sleep in it. The rest of us have to.
This weekend, Fox News “personality” Tucker Carlson, on a family trip with his daughter, went to a fishing store called Dan Bailey’s Outdoor Company in Montana. There, a local fly fishing guide named Dan Bailey — amusingly, not the Dan Bailey of Dan Bailey’s Outdoor Company; he was somehow a different Dan Bailey entirely — saw Carlson and confronted him, telling the broadcaster:
“Dude, you are the worst human being known to mankind. I want you to know that. What you have done to this state, to the United States, to everything else in this world. I don’t care that…
Internet Nostalgia
The only thing that matters is what I see.
Welcome to part 21 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week: The Manti Te’o hoax. This week: The Dress.
When: 2015.
The Story: A Scottish woman named Cecilia Bleasdale was shopping in a Lancashire mall for a dress for her daughter’s wedding when she came across…
Getting back to theaters feels great, people.
With my childhood best friend (and vice president of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association) Tim Grierson, I host a weekly movie podcast, called Grierson & Leitch. (Subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!) Tim and I grew up in Central Illinois obsessed with “Siskel & Ebert,” and the podcast is meant to be just like that show: Two Midwestern dopes who see way too many movies and love nothing more than to talk about them with each other.
Ever since 1991 — when I was 16 years old — we, at the end of the movie year, announce our Top…
This didn’t just begin.
One of my favorite 2021 activities is to go back and look at the headlines from exactly one year ago. 2021 hasn’t been anything like normal, but 2020 was so absurd and terrifying and surreal on a daily basis that there’s value, I think, in looking back with some perspective on every ludicrous event. One year ago today, the President (who was Donald Trump! Donald Trump about to have was about to have his Person Woman Camera TV interview while mocking people for wearing masks, Goya beans became an actual political hot potato and Major League Baseball was about to…
Internet Nostalgia
It wasn’t about just one football player.
Welcome to part 20 of our Internet Nostalgia series, which looks back at phenomena that captured the internet’s imagination and attention for a fleeting moment and then vanished as everyone moved on to something else. This series looks back at those olden times and what they told us about the internet and ourselves. If you have a suggested topic, email me at williamfleitch@yahoo.com. Last week: The Crying Jordan meme. This week: The Manti Te’o hoax.
When: January 16, 2013
The Story: Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o hadn’t just been one of the best players in college football for the 2012…
Remember to be grateful, everyone
This has been quite the couple of years for shaking your head and despairing about the human condition, but I’ll confess, this anecdote, from a story about a Cape Cod restaurant that shut down for a day for the mental health of their increasingly abused wait staff, made me wonder if our species maybe just isn’t salvageable.
Last week, [a restaurant owner] said, a group of diners took out their frustrations on his employees after having to wait 40 minutes for a table and even longer because of a computer problem. …
