Dispatches From the Fortress – Day 518

So…how many of you had today in the "When will Andrew Cuomo resign?" pool? I thought he'd hang in there for another humiliating week or two but I guess the accusations were escalating to a point where he finally "got it." You'd like to think that somewhere in that decision, there was a smidgen of "I think it'll be better for the people of my state if I turn the job over to someone else" but I'm skeptical any politician ever thinks that way. It feels to me like most of them never budge from the concept of "what's best for the citizens of my city/state/country is that I be in office!"

I'm watching all the virus/vaccination news the way my father used to watch a local TV station in L.A. that ran stock market prices all morning. He'd be reading a book or doing something else with one eye on the set, ignoring 98% of what they said because it wasn't relevant to his life…waiting for something that was, like his stock going down another half-point. Next week, I'm scheduled for a routine physical with my main doctor and I'll ask him if/when my Moderna might need a booster jab and I'll probably go with what he says. I could read every last word on the Internet on this topic and I wouldn't know as much about it as he does.

If I were following the Corona News more closely, I'd probably inaugurate a daily feature on this blog. It would be called something like "Today's Right-Wing Figure Who Called The Virus A Hoax and Told People To Not Wear Masks Or Get Vaccinated But Now He Has COVID And He's Changed His Message." There would sure be enough material to fill it.


There's a line I occasionally find myself uttering when someone insists I make a decision about something where I don't feel I have all the facts I need. It goes, "If you have to have an answer now, the answer is No. If I have more time to decide, it might become a Yes."

As you know, Comic-Con Special Edition is being held Thanksgiving Weekend down in San Diego. The above response applies to the questions of whether I'm going to be there and if so, will I be hosting a batch of panels? The convention starts 107 days from today.

107 days from now, the Virus may be under such control — and the precautions the convention will be taking may be so reassuring — that I'll feel safe to attend. I may even feel that way far enough ahead of that date to organize some panels and arrange with certain folks to be there and be on them. But I certainly don't want to promise panels and recruit panelists and then decide it's not safe for me to be there.

If we've learned anything during This Pandemic, it's how unpredictable This Pandemic is. Not that long ago, people were stowing their masks away along with the Christmas and/or Hanukkah decorations they don't expect to need for quite a while. Now, we've gone ten steps forward and about three back.

It feels like things are going in the right direction where I live…which is not Florida or Arkansas or anywhere the problem has gotten seriously outta control. But "it feels like" is not a good basis for deciding on something important. And "it feels like" can change quickly as we've all seen. So I really don't know what to do except to wait and see how things change between now and whenever I absolutely have to commit or not…and I don't even know when that is.

When I do have to decide, I'll be fascinated to hear what my decision will be. Right this minute, I truly do not know.