Oh dear, not again, not this time

Tbe Schloss-Blog does not want to write about the coronavirus.

I want to write about my fabulous GDX fraternity brothers, with whom I had the privilege of being on fantastic Zoom calls the last two months and will continue to be, on the last Sunday of every month.

That is, until we can meet again in person for a real reunion, sometime in 2021. Broke 100 twice playing golf, which is miraculous for me. But the coronavirus is still out there.

I want to write about the Psi Gam girls who welcomed me into their weekly cocktail Zoom call, but the coronavirus is still out there. It hasn't lessened the beauty and heart of all five of them, going back almost 50 years.

I want to write about my daughter and my grandson (age 6), but the coronavirus is still out there. My daugher has matured into a professional and effective social worker at a time when we need so many of them in this world.

I want to write about how much I've binge-watched "NCIS," "Chicago P.D." and "Bluebloods," but the coronavirus is still out there..

I want to write about the hiking bros in my fraternity - Lenny, Chauck, Corky and Larry,  but the coronavirus is still out there. I will join you guys, some day.

I want to write about the people with whom I've reconnected, growing up on East 2nd Street in Brooklyn, but the coronavirus is still out there.

I want to write my brother having lost 100 pounds, and my sister-in-law has lost some 50, but the coronavirus is still out there. I am so proud of and happy for them.

I want to write about Jim Benes, who is reorganizing the Illinois-based golf group I played with so often now that courses are opening up again in the state, but the coronavirus is still out there.

I want to write about, for the first time in my life, packing toilet paper in my suitcase before returning home to Illinois, because I don't remember how much we had there when we left for Arizona. But the coronavirus is still out there.

I want to write about how much my friendships with my fraternity brothers mean to me, especially the guys on the reunion planning committee with me, but the coronavirus is still out there.

I want to write about how our government has struck that critical balance between keeping people healthy and keeping people employed.

But I can't. Because the coronavirus is stil out there.

And I will not relent about it until Trump is out of office and our government starts taking it seriously.

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you,. Mrs. Robinson.

More to come on my show, Sunday night on radiofreephoenix.com, when I dedicate a set of music to my friend, Lori Jones Guthrie.

GDX-tra

The Schloss-Blog is coming off a dynamic Zoom call with about 30 of his fraternity brothers and it was enlightening, inspiring, caring, funny, insightful and - yeah, fraternal.

Everything we discussed came back to the coronavirus, except for Bob Hoffman's photography. If you need a lift in spirits, visit his site. What a talent.

Everything else came back to the virus. When you do think you'll go to a Major League Baseball game again? After the virus.

When do you think you'll attend a National Football League game? After the virus.

When do you think you'll get on a plane again? In so many cases, after the virus.

When will you shave and cut your hair again? After the virus, or at least one out of two.

And then the hammer: do you know someone who has had and/or has died from the virus?

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Need I go on..?

We're trying to plan a real reunion of guys who attended SUNY-Albany pretty much from the late '60s to the mid '70s, or about as long as the fraternity lasted, with some glory years and events in there. As many as 60 guys have attended prior reunions.

They're smart, my bros. They shelter-at-home. They care for their loved ones. They stay socially distanced, despite efforts to pass a joint from screen to screen during our Zoom call.

We want to plan a real get-together for sometime during 2021, in Albany, but we sobered up in a hurry when one of us mentioned that a vaccine probably won't be available for 12-18 months and even with that, no guarantee it will work.

Another brother, albeit on another call, said he believes Trump and Biden are showing signs of dementia, making ridiculous statements, tripping over their own words, not recalling what they said, stuttering badly, slurring words and so much more.

Maybe they are. Adam Sandler, reprising his Opera Man role on Saturday Night Live in May 2019, warned us.

Me and my bros all agreed Trump has to go. The only question: how many coronavirus victims is he going to take with him.

Just don't ingest household disinfectant.

Not Again...

The Schloss-Blog finds itself compelled to write about the coronavirus situation even though we don't wanna' write about the coronavirus situation.

It's depressing.

People out of work. Businesses not working.

Government still acting politically instead of health-carefully.

Please, stop all the wrangling and help people.

Mr. President, we implore you - stop stepping all over the message from your elite task-force members. 

You said you knew more than "the generals." You didn't.

You said you knew more than the politicians. You didn't.

You seem to be saying you know more than the doctors and scientists. You don't.

Did you know that the State of Maryland Health Hotline received more than 100 call inquiries about ingesting household cleansers after you suggested finding a way to get that into people, literally?

Did you know a man died after ingesting a form of hydroxychloroquine and his wife was in critical condition after doing the same after you "suggested" that too?

Stop talking about what you don't know, especially when you don’t know anything about it. Please!

Unfortunately, that's everything.

Now, with skies clear around the country from so much decreased auto traffic and industrial activity, you have ordered a lowering of EPA requirements. Really?

You don't want paper ballots - no, instead, let's have people not socially-distance and have to stand in long lines at fewer voting facilities. And your Republican cronies support that. Really?

It's all to suppress voter turnout, you S.O.B.

And Moscow Mitch wants states to declare bankruptcy. That ought to do wonders for the stock market. The United States is nearly bankrupt, in case you haven’t noticed our $23 trillion debt.

Can we please have some intelligent people running our government instead of being at war with each other over how not to treat the coronavirus.

I'll close with this, to all federal legislators: if we ran our household budgets the same way you idiots run the national budget, we'd be bankrupt and homeless, living on the streets. We'd have lost our houses, watched them being foreclosed upon. 

And think about this, folks: when is the next time you think you'll go to a baseball game? A football game? Any game? Get on a plane? Go back to your office? Go to a movie theater? A mall? I go every day - it's called amazon.

I'm not counting on this calendar year for returning to any of that. 

Good night Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Mrs. Robinson.

Radio Free Phoenix show is back next Sunday night. And maybe I'll write about Gronk returning, the NFL Draft or give a shout-out to my friend Christen LaRochelle.

No, No, No No, I don't ... anymore

The Schloss-Blog is going through a list of things it "knows" as the coronavirus cripples us. By the way, more than 4,500 people died of the virus on Friday in the United States. Did you mourn for them? Did you? Anyway...

• No more movie theaters
• No more Broadway shows
• No more sporting events
• No more gathering at local taverns and pubs
• No more eating out
• No more PPE equipment available
• No more truthful statements from the White House (as if, when were there, ever)
• No more hugs
• No more kisses
• No more high fives
• No more baseball
• No more basketball
• No more hockey
• No more football
• No more school classes
• No more going out "and getting lucky" tonight
• No more "Friday Night Lights"
• No more Saturday night out to dinner
• No more Woodfield Mall
• No more ninth-inning heroics
• No more fourth-quarter comebacks
• No more tennis or golf "majors"
• No more Trump...
• Damn...
• Please...

Stay true. Stay home. Stay safe. Stay healthy, unlike the idiots in Lansing, Michigan

Good night, Mrs Calabash. Here's to you,Mrs. Robinson

Back on the air on Radio Free Phoenix on May 3..

State of the States

Hi everyone. Today, the Schloss-Blog is dedicatied to the losses we have suffered across this country. I don't have the names of all those who have passed because of the virus, but we probably all know someone who has it, who had it, who passed from it. And we have not hit apex yet. We don't know if they'll be a second wave. The president only cares about people going back to work, no matter how many more get sick. Again.

If you've lost a loved one, a close friend, or know someone who has, just saying I'm sorry isn't enough. Our federal government has to act with more assertion and affirmation.

And today being Easter, and still amidst Passover, stay healthy, stay safe, stay smart, stay home.

Here are the damages as of Good Friday::

Number of cases                                                         Number of deaths
United States               469,464                                         16,711
New York                    161,504                                          7,067
New Jersey                   51,027                                           1,700
Michigan                      21,504                                           1,076
California                     20,212                                              559
Massachusetts              18,941                                              503
Pennsylvania                 18,546                                              360
Louisiana                      18,283                                              702
Florida                          16,826                                              371
Illinois                           16,422                                              528
Texas                             11,426                                             222
Georgia                         10,885                                              412
Connecticut                    9,784                                               380
Washington                    9,740                                               455
Indiana                           6,351                                               245
Colorado                        6,202                                               226
Maryland                       6,185                                                138
Ohio                              5,512                                                213
Tennessee                      4,634                                                 94
Virginia                         4,509                                                121
North Carolina               3,823                                                 75
Missouri                        3,539                                                  91
Arizona                          3,018                                                 89
Wisconsin                      2,885                                                111
Alabama                        2,881                                                  79
South Carolina              2,792                                                   67
Nevada                          2,456                                                  89
Mississippi                   2,260   .                                              76
Idaho                            1,353                                                  24
Oregon                         1,321                                                  44
Iowa                             1,270                                                  29
Minnesota                     1,242                                                 50
Delaware                      1,209                                                 23
Arkansas                       1,149                                                 21
Kansas                          1,106                                                 42
New Mexico                    989                                                 17
New Hampshire              819                                                  21
Vermont                          528                                                  23
Nebraska                         577                                                  15
Maine                              560                                                  16
West Virginia                  523                                                     5
South Dakota                   447                                                    6
Hawaii                            442                                                     6
Montana                          354                                                    6
Noirth Dakota                 269                                                    5
Wyoming                        354                                                   n/a
Alaska                             235                                                     7
Guam                              128                                                    4
Northern Mariana Isls.      11                                                     2
Puerto Rico                     725                                                   40
U.S. Virgin Islands            50                                                     1
U.S. Military                  3,160                                                   8
Grand Princess Ship         103                                                   3

                                 469,454                                                16,708

These numbers are 48 hours old. The grand total is over 500,000 now and the death total is right at 20,000. It is generally underreported so the number infected and dead are likely much higher (not lower, Fox News). If we go back to work too soon, we'll have another wave. If we do not have it 100 percent contained by fall, we'll have another wave.

Trump wants you back to work. I want you safe.

God bless and good night Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you Mrs,. Robinson. My radio show is on a two-week hiatus. Talk to you on air in May.

No More Bad News

Today, the Schloss-Blog, as promised, is going upbeat. No bad news today. Nothing critical of all the lies coming out the president's administration. No lamenting that Dr. Anthony Fauci needs a security detail because of the death threats he's received for telling the truth, counter to the administration's falsehoods.

No, today we are all about good news.

(Trump sucks.)

Today, I am happy that my daughter is feeling better after having been diagnosed that she likely had a mild case of the virus. She's working from home after isolating and is doing well, stronger every day, thank God.

(Trump sucks.)

Today, I can celebrate the absolutely joyous Zoom call I helped arrange last weekend with some 40 of my fraternity brothers, as we updated each other on our self-containment exploits and what we were doing and will continue to do when this all ends some time in the next millenium. We talked like it hasn't been 40 years or so since we all lived together at Zenger Hall at Albany State (now UAlbany, SUNY system). We'll be doing it again, every month, right up to our next reunion in Albany in 2021.

(Trump sucks.)

Zoom calls are really cool, especially huge ones. Guys tend to relax when they're not talking, so you can see what they have in their home offices - memorabilia, frat shirts and hats, grandkids in and out of their laps during the call, guys picking their noses, girlfriends-turned-wives chiming in, a few insults flying like it was 1972.

(Trump sucks.)

For me, the coronavirus, which has closed down my wife's office in Chicago, means she'll be with me every night, working from "home" here. It's nice to have her here every night, falling asleep on my shoulder. No more 10 days or so between visits. She works in the hospital design industry and you can imagine she is very challenged right now. Aren't we all?

(Trump sucks.)

My relatives have all reached out in one form or another online, in social media or old-fashioned, actual phone calls. It's great to hear from them, know they have not been victimized by a virus that knows no borders as they check in from New York, Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Austin, San Francisco, Sacramento, Jacksonville and Portland. And New Jersey. "Glamping" never looked so good.

(Trump sucks.)

Don't know about you, but we've been catching up on back episodes of our favorite TV series and finally watching movies we've meant to see ("Star Wars/Rise of Skywalker" and "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" among them, the latter being a very creative and entirely unexpected spin by Quentin Tarantino on the Sharon Tate-household murders).

(Trump sucks.)

OK, I've celebrated what I have in my life - friends, family, events, kindness, "brothers," technology and most of all, good health for everyone.

No bad news or criticism this time around.

(Trump su... oh, you know.)

More on radiofreephoenix.com on my regular Sunday night show (9 Pacific, midnight Eastern).

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.