Tuesday Takes

hot-takePrior to COVID, I tipped less for takeout than for dining in and never tipped at drive-thrus. Now I tip the full 20% for takeout, and always offer a couple of bucks to drive-thru staff (not all of them are allowed to accept tips). These are the essential workers who helped keep us going through the pandemic. Their pay’s for shit and it’s the least I can do. I’m used to it now and will keep on doing it after we come out of quarantine.


I know this won’t be a popular take, but I think COVID vaccine side effects are (with some exceptions) a form of mass hysteria brought on by suggestion. When I was a USAF pilot training instructor, busloads of Air Force Academy and ROTC cadets would show up every summer for orientation flights in jet trainers. What did the cadets talk about on the bus? Air sickness. Every cadet was primed to puke, and nearly every one did. If your friends tell you the COVID shot gave them fevers and sore arms, you may be predisposed to experience the same when it’s your turn.


Needed in daily life (carry at all times):

  • Photo ID (driver license, usually)
  • Military ID (if applicable)
  • Passport (if traveling internationally)
  • Medical/dental insurance cards
  • Naturalization document/green card (if not a native-born citizen)

Rarely needed but important (keep in a safe place):

  • Birth certificate
  • Social Security card
  • Shot record (not just the COVID one)
  • Voter registration
  • Marriage certificate
  • School transcripts
  • Military discharge form (if applicable)

Am I missing things? No doubt. Right off the top of my head, though, these are the types of identification and personal documents each of us must carry or be able to produce on demand. It’s a rather long list.

(Rod Serling voice): Imagine, if you will, a single wallet-sized universal ID card with an embedded chip. A single ID card to replace everything on the list above, containing your personal ID information, proof of citizenship, certifications and licenses, medical records, passport, voter registration, the works.

Looking at right wing reaction to the idea of a “vaccine passport,” I can only imagine the culture war armageddon any serious move toward universal ID would unleash. Honestly, that’s half the appeal of the idea to me. In fact, if they could embed the chip in our foreheads, so much the better.


Speaking of culture wars, were you planning to order yourself some Lil Nas X Satan Shoes? Too bad, all 666 pairs sold out in less than a minute.


Last but not least (should I have put a trigger warning on this?)

Screen Shot 2021-03-30 at 10.36.54 AM

One thought on “Tuesday Takes

  • A friend of mine died here, (Belize). She was an icon in the country – NBC etc had reported on her activities a few years ago. She was in poor health before getting the vaccine and felt poorly the next week. We put her being sick down to the vaccine (I did not hear about the specific symptoms as vomiting is not one as far as I know) and then she went too late to the hospital, eight days later. Her sickness had nothing to do with the vaccine but was bacteria that went septic. If she had only gone earlier to the hospital… P.S. I am not divorced but add in divorce decree and nationalization or loss of citizenship certificates.

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