It’s our 24th anniversary today. We celebrated with a dinner consisting of mixed salad with cilantro and tomato alongside canned sardines for the bride and kippered herring for the groom. Our salad dressing–as always–was the Turkish style with lots of lemon juice and just a little olive oil. Very nice. The main course was fresh baked rhubarb pie warm from the oven, with modest scoops of vanilla ice cream. Aah. Then a walk followed by a couple of episodes of our crime drama/soap.
We got mad at our show a few days ago for being too slow and depressing. But the action has picked up and we are once again reconciled to the ridiculously unlikely coincidences and etc. We were happy to see that Elif has finally been warned that the DNA test that she arranged to determine who fathered İpek’s child may have been tampered with by cunning Nedret and slimy snake Levent.
Anniversary celebrations are far from finished. Gifts have not yet been exchanged, though some have been ordered. We may also try staying a night or two at the coast, where hotels and other businesses are now somewhat opened up.
A gardening and lawn mowing day. The irises are just about done; roses out in full force. The white calla lilies inherited from the previous owners are doing great. The blooms really last. Blueberries look very promising with hints of purple on the green. E spent a lot time attacking spider mite infestations, which are widespread. Worst off is a small hebe by the patio that is near death. On the up side, the little ice plant that we have dubbed ‘the sick man of Europe’ now has eleven blossoms and will have to be removed from the critical list, a better outcome than befell the Ottoman Empire a hundred and two years ago.
Got an invitation for a socially distanced Wednesday breakfast with chocolate chip scones! Sounds good to us.
No new deaths, but somewhat of an upturn in number of new cases.
Started the day with good scones, good coffee and good conversation. Later on, we delivered a couple of pieces of pie to some of our old neighbors. It was nice to see B again. We talked, at a distance, just outside the garage wherein lives his newish car, a dark blue 2019 Toyota Avalon. (The color matched that of the car we arrived in.) Beautiful. Before this car, B had owned four new Cadillacs in succession. But the Cadillac dealer in Corvallis closed down and B likes to have a dealer nearby for servicing.
Had dinner at the old wooden table in our back garden. Moroccan vegetable stew over couscous plus a green salad with Ankara dressing. Delicious.
Hot weather today, with afternoon temps in the high 80’s. E and M did a hiking expedition, taking the little car up to Mary’s Peak, highest point in the coast range. Parked at the campground (which is closed) and hiked the Meadow’s Edge loop trail. A bit cooler up there and very lovely. Lots of yellow violets and white oxalis blooms. Also noticed a mass migration of half-inch long black beetles from an alpine meadow area downhill into a forest. Sandwiches and pineapple juice for lunch near the high point of the loop. (Some chocolate also.) Fun to give the Porsche some exercise. Top down on the way up, but on the way back, once out of the mountains the top went back up. Too hot. M seemed ill-prepared for this sudden summer and is suffering from sunburn. His night to cook; homemade pizza being the plan.
On Thursday the 28th there were three articles on the front page of our newspaper. Two were by local reporters; the third was from the Associated Press. The first two sentences of the AP article were these: “The U.S. surpassed a jarring milestone Wednesday in the coronavirus pandemic: 100,000 deaths. That number is the best estimate and most assuredly an undercount.” That second sentence gave me pause, mostly because I had the impression that whether COVID deaths are being under-counted or over-counted has been the subject of some debate. I know that there was a controversy recently in the state of Colorado which resulted the state making revisions to its procedures and led to an announcement that the cumulative death toll was being reduced from 1150 to 878, a roughly 20% reduction.
So, what about this “most assuredly”? Where did it come from, this rather strange phrase? Is this phrase actually in common use these days? It sounds nineteenth century to me, or maybe just British English. But I digress. The real problem in the sentence is a logical one: No estimate can be both a “best” estimate and “most assuredly” a too low estimate at the same time. Aren’t best estimates, by definition, in the middle? The probability that they are too high is the same as the probability that they are too low. My feeling is that the phrase ‘most assuredly’ as used in the article is both a blatant lie (asserting that there can be no debate where debate obviously exists) and a logical contradiction. Maybe I’m crazy to worry about this. Maybe I’m getting so much logical incoherence in the stupid plot of our Turkish soap opera that I’ve become over-sensitized and gone round the bend. I don’t know.
Woke to the sound of thunder today followed by a brief shower. Then in the afternoon, a lot more rain. Good, we were tired of watering. High around 60.
The good news from Denmark, in case you missed it, was that the death toll there is relatively low. How about Sweden, you ask, the place with some of the mildest lockdown restrictions in Europe? Sweden’s toll is 42.7 per 100,000. That’s a lot higher than Denmark’s (9.8 per 100,000) or Germany’s (10.3), but lower than Italy, Spain or the United Kingdom all of which are in the mid to high 50’s. In these last three countries, all schools remain shut down. Sweden shut down its high schools at the start of the pandemic but never closed down its primary and middle schools. Denmark first shut down all schools but then reopened primary and middle schools on April 15th. What can we make of all this? Well…maybe not very much. Interesting though.
Nice quiet Sunday. In the morning E organized a Zoom call with her siblings. They seem to be a fairly nice group of people. Later on, M helps E with her photo album project. She plans to empty a number of old albums, pick out 600 or so pics for scanning, and then discard the remains. She has done this before. The actual scanning is done in the Philippines. She says that the whole process goes pretty well, because even if you forget where you put the CD that they sent you, it’ll turn up eventually.
In case anyone is wondering, Elif is in jail again and will soon go on trial for the murder of the man who killed her father 128 episodes ago. She remembers nothing of what happened during time that the murder occurred. She was found near the supposed crime scene in a dazed stupor, the murder weapon in her hand. The prison psychiatrist, who is in the pay of her enemies, is trying to convince her to accept the fact that she did the deed. Her enemies believe that this will cause her to either commit suicide or give a false confession, either of which would give them unbridled joy. So far this seems to be working. It is sad to see her so downcast, especially since we the audience know that the man she is supposed to have murdered isn’t even dead. Did I mention the hatchet that Fatih was holding behind his back? That’s how they set up the very damning DNA test on the body. Yup, lopped that thing right off and bribed the CSI guy to send it to the lab.
An article in today’s paper warned of potentially drastic consequences of early re-opening. Its main argument was that the total number of COVID cases in the U.S. is still rising. But it was not clear whether the writer understood the difference between cumulative totals over time and specific conditions at any one particular time. Plus, as we have mentioned earlier, the number of confirmed COVID cases has as much to do with the number of tests processed as it does with the actual number of infections in the population. If our goal is to minimize the number of confirmed cases, the simplest solution would be to stop doing so much testing. (And yes, some of our leaders have already thought of this.) On the other hand, if the goal is to minimize the overall negative effects of the pandemic, there is no simple solution.
Of the 145 deaths in Oregon, 138 (95%) involved victims aged 60 and above. There have been 8 deaths of individuals between the ages of 40 and 59 and no deaths of anyone younger than 40. (These numbers are updated daily at https://govstatus.egov.com/OR-OHA-COVID-19)
E and M got depressed last night from watching their stupid Turkish soap. Learning the truth about his brother has brought Ömer’s worst neuroses to the fore and he was unable to go through with his marriage to Elif, leaving her at the altar in her pretty white dress. We knew this was coming, but we were still sad to see it. What a schmuck.
Once again Friday means E fetches French pastries for breakfast and then M goes grocery shopping. In kind of a rut here, but it’s working pretty well. The pain au chocolat was delicious and the store was uncrowded. The selection of fresh fish was better today than it has been in weeks, so something’s changing there. Still no paper towels. Lots of sanitizer.
M is finishing up his feeble attempt to explain why he has watched so much of Black Money Love. Is the world clamoring for such news? Not exactly. But as for the show itself, M and E are the not the only ones watching. M says that the series is or was available on TV in some 30 countries.
Zoom gathering today with two of E’s long-time friends plus the Andees. Not something that would have happened without the pandemic. Beautiful spring day. After dinner, we watched two more episodes of the Turkish show. Must say that our interest is starting to wane. Too long. Too slow. So, back to the pandemic. Good news on that front. Death numbers are down. The Pandemic Diary has been tracking basic Oregon statistics for 60 days now. Here’s a graph that shows the basic data as divided into six 10-day periods. The numbers on the vertical axis are the average number of deaths per day. The period of March 27 to April 5 showed a steep increase in daily deaths. The four periods from April 6 to May 15 show a plateau that tilts down. The most recent period shows a steep decline. What does the future hold? Stay tuned.
Average Oregon deaths per day in 6 consecutive 10-day periods
The following two charts are not news, but they are interesting given some of the confusion that surrounded such numbers in the early stages of the pandemic. What they show is that an overall increase in the number of tests per day in Oregon has been accompanied by a decrease in the daily percentage of test results that are positive. At the beginning, when testing capacity was lowest, testing was limited to a very high probability population: people who showed clear COVID symptoms and people who were known to have been exposed to confirmed cases, such as family members and health care workers. As testing capacity expanded, the population of people tested started to include a slightly wider circle of people, which included those who may have been exposed to known cases or who showed less definite COVID-like symptoms. Given this expanded circle, it would seem natural to expect a decrease in the percentage of positive results per day as indeed is shown in the second graph. It should be noted that the numbers in these two graphs do not provide any conclusive information about transmissibility of the virus or its prevalence in the general population. They are artifacts of our response to the virus.
The number of tests per day has fluctuated, but the trend is upward.
Percent positive has trended downward, even during the period when deaths were highest
Kara Para Aşk, a.k.a. Black Money Love, is a Turkish series set in modern day Istanbul. Eve and I love this show. Produced in 2014 and 2105, it has elements of a crime drama, but it’s mainly a soap. It is available on Netflix in the form of 164 45-minute episodes with Turkish dialog and English subtitles. So far we’ve suffered through 115 episodes. I use the word suffered because in many respects this show is really terrible.
But never mind that now. First let’s try to find out why we like it so much. One thing is that it reminds us of Turkey. We lived and worked in Ankara for a year in 2007 and it was a wonderful experience. As we watch Black Money Love, we can hear the Turkish language again and experience again the Turkish energy and the Turkish spirit. The producers of BML deliberately include scenes that celebrate some aspects of Turkish culture and also include lots of footage of the beauties of Istanbul. (Istanbul is way too crowded to be livable, but it’s a wonderful place to visit and it is strikingly photogenic on film.) BML characters are often snacking on simit, a distant relative of the bagel. Man, do we miss simit. Occasionally the characters indulge in a full-blown Turkish breakfast, of which we have even more wonderful memories. Some of them drink rakı, which is a like oozu but not as nasty. Everybody drinks Turkish tea and behaves in ways that are very much connected (let us say) to the way real Turks behave.
We studied the Turkish language a little when we were there. We’ve forgotten most of it (E has retained more than M) but we remember a few words and grammar rules. So with the help of the subtitles, we can make out, now and then, words that we know. That’s great fun. Plus, we have learned one or two new phrases just because they are used so often. The best example of this is sakın ol, which means calm down. In BML someone is always telling someone else to calm down.
As for the show itself, BML production values are high. Lighting and photography are excellent. The location shoots include the interiors of a some lovely buildings, both new and old. And in every episode there are multiple shots of the Bosphorus, one of the loveliest city views in the world. The costuming is great, with beautiful fabrics and extraordinary colors and designs. The hairstyles and jewelry are also impressive. (And yes, some of Elif’s hair is fake and also some of Ömer’s, but it’s not too obvious.) The chief actors are all good-looking and talented, capable of giving life to mediocre dialog and able to communicate volumes with just a look or a small movement. The stars are Tuba Büyüküstün (Elif) and Engin Akyürek (Ömer). They are both excellent in their way. We have to say, though, that veteran actors Erkan Can (Tayyar) and Isil Yücesoy (Nedret) often steal the show. Eve is particularly taken with Nedret’s clothing and hairstyles. She’s thinking of taking a photo along to her next hair appointment. Nedret is somewhat of a shady character, so our sources are not sure this is a good idea.
The directing and editing are competent: crisp and clear, but never frantic. At the tensest moments time seems to dilate as the action is stretched out almost to the point of ridiculousness. (Well okay, it is sometimes stretched out even a little bit past that point.) In general, Turks are not afraid to overdo, in any realm. Take the actress who plays Nilüfer. Everybody thinks she’s beautiful, but she’s thin, really thin, freakishly, ridiculously thin. How is that actress even alive? We really wish she would eat something.
As for the writing, there’s good news and bad news. One problem with soaps in general is that occasionally everyone’s energy seems to flag and the action slows to a crawl. Conversations just rehash previous ones and plot progression is nil. This happens in BML, but not very often. Most of the time the writers keep the pot at a hard rolling boil. New crises pop up thick and fast. The good people suffer and suffer and then suffer some more. You’d suffer too in their shoes.
Or maybe you wouldn’t. I have to mention that in this show the good people are not always real bright. They have powerful emotions combined with frustratingly low levels of emotional intelligence, with the result that some of their worst wounds are self-inflicted. The evil characters in BML are a lot smarter than the good ones, but even they are not immune this particular problem. Sigh. Thank goodness nothing like that has ever happened to us.
And no one ever gives up. The monstrous Tayyar keeps an iron grip on his evil enterprises, always scheming and always smart enough stay one step ahead of his foes. He loves power above all and he will allow no force on earth to thwart him. But policeman Ömer is equally determined. He will persevere no matter how often he is outmaneuvered or betrayed. Once, when he does momentarily succumb to discouragement, his mother Elvan sees it in his face. “Don’t worry, my son,” she tells him, “God won’t let you fail.”
The name of the game here is drama and they get that right, for sure. So why did I say that we have had to “suffer through” all these episodes. What’s so terrible? The worst is that the events in BML, as dramatic as they are, proceed with little regard for plausibility, consistency, or basic logic. The writers have no shame whatever. A character who leaves home driving her car returns in a taxi or is dropped off by a friend. Powerful evil doers who routinely get away with murder are strangely reluctant to just bump off their most dangerous enemies and instead go to great lengths merely to make those enemies uncomfortable and ruin their wedding plans. Minor bad guys often get arrested, but they are never, ever brought to trial. Either they immediately escape custody and disappear, or else they are murdered by their cellmates. In fact, whenever a prisoner gets a cellmate, you know it’s curtains for him. Another problem is that there is so much repetitiveness about all these crises that it’s hard to tell this week’s from last’s. Also, the dialog is uneven. Once in a while there will be an intense and highly emotional confrontation that makes no sense at all–sort of like two characters in a darkening room arguing violently about whose fault it is that they can’t see very well, never noticing that the sun has gone down and all the while ignoring the perfectly functional light switch that they’re standing next to.
Another possible difficulty with BML is the matter of sexism and gender roles. There is generally more machismo and stereotyping than would be acceptable in a TV series here. When women try to walk away from an argument, men physically restrain them by grabbing their arms and jerking them around. (And these are the good guys; bad guys do much worse in the way of abuse.) In terms of roles, it’s always a woman who cooks, be it relative or servant. Ömer has cooked once, but the writers were careful to show us that he wasn’t very good at it. When Elif, a rich young career woman, gets engaged, it’s critical for her to show how well she can cook. She passes the test with flying colors, despite having been fed by servants most of her life.
But this brings up another reason why we like this show. Like any good soap, it both mirrors and stretches the boundaries of the society in which it is produced. Elif, our female lead–she who passes the cooking test–is not dependent on any man. She is the de facto head of her family’s company and is also a talented designer. Although she is in love with Ömer, she is fully capable of going off on her own in defiance of his wishes. Another woman, Pelin, is a police detective who works with Ömer in the homicide bureau. The fact that she’s there at all is of course a measure of gender equality. And she’s an interesting character–smart, hardworking, and feisty. But so often her role is that of personal assistant, taking care of the details so that Ömer will have time to do whatever it is that he does. Still, the role of Pelin is not so different than that of her boyfriend and fellow detective Arda. Both are there to support Ömer. Many heroes have sidekicks; Ömer has two.
The matter of reflecting and/or prodding societal norms in popular media is a sensitive issue in Turkey and Turkish writers work within a number of constraints. One of these constraints is that there is a law against “insulting Turkishness.” If you are perceived as insulting Turkishness, you can be arrested and imprisoned. This has happened to quite a number of writers, journalists, moviemakers and poets. Turkishness is a nebulous concept and there are no clear boundaries on what constitutes an insult to it, so things can get really complicated. But complication is Turkey’s middle name. The ancient name for Istanbul was Byzantium. The word byzantine in English means really, really complex because that’s the kind of reputation that Byzantium had. Things haven’t changed all that much in three thousand years. As far as I can tell, both insult and complication are key elements to understanding Turkish culture.
So…given that insults to Turkishness are illegal and also ill-defined, is it wise to base a popular entertainment on the idea that Turkey might harbor a malignant criminal empire, one based partly on murdering people to steal their organs and partly on international money laundering, with key Istanbul police officials being paid off to provide protection? Is it wise to show guards in Turkish jails being bribed to look the other way while prisoners carry out their schemes? How about the police using physical violence when interrogating suspects? Can you get in trouble for showing this? The fact that criminal empires exist in Turkey is very well known to most Turks. But does that make it more less dangerous to say it out loud or more dangerous? It’s complicated. What it means in the case of Black Money Love is that if you play it just right, your ratings jump even higher.
Another challenge for film and TV makers in Turkey is that to reach the broadest audience, their work must appeal to both halves of a very divided society. A portion of the Turkish population is highly secular, which is to say, not particularly religious and very much in favor of the separation of church and state. People in this group are culturally Islamic in that they celebrate major Islamic holidays and revere certain traditions that have arisen from Islamic beliefs, but that’s about as far as it goes. These secular Turks, who live mostly in the big cities in the center and west of Turkey, look and act a lot like Europeans. They drink alcohol in bars and restaurants; they dance at parties; they wear European clothing; they take tango tourism trips to Argentina, and they don’t pray five times a day, if they pray at all. The women wear tight jeans and short skirts in public and rarely cover their hair. Women and men are considered to have equal rights, though it appears that in practice that gets…complicated.
So that’s one group. Another large portion of the population takes the religious aspects of Islam and so-called traditional culture much more seriously. Many do pray five times a day; they never drink alcohol (at least not in public); women rarely cover their faces, but they always cover their hair and wear extremely modest clothing in public. Bare arms are never shown, let alone legs. Men and women have very different roles, with the men having generally more public status and power. Music and dancing are limited to a few special occasions and couples never dance together in public. In 2006, an opinion poll in Turkey found that a majority of men and a narrow majority of women agreed with the idea that a husband had the right to beat his wife if he believed it was called for.
People who make TV serials in Turkey want to appeal to both groups without offending either. Watching how BML manages this balance is another of the joys of viewing. It works like this. The great majority of characters appear to be secular. Some openly drink alcohol in bars; they all wear fashionable European clothing; women show their hair and a fair amount of skin; we generally don’t see them praying. Almost none of the characters are ever overtly religious, not the bad guys and not the good guys either. There are two exceptions. The first and most important is Ömer’s mother. Elvan dresses modestly and always covers her hair in public. She is the one character who prays often. Elvan is also the most clearly good person in the whole of the BML universe: wise, kind, and nurturing. She listens more than she speaks and speaks less than she knows. We see her praying, but she prays at home so we never see a mosque. In general, this religious woman is a saint. Elvan’s acquaintance Fatma is somewhat different. She covers her head when she is outside and dresses modestly, but it’s not clear how often she actually prays. In the first sections of the series, she is a fairly unpleasant woman. When she mentions God, she is likely to be calling down some sort of curse on someone, or else calling upon God to spare her daughter from the horrible dangers of being a mafia runner, an occupation that Fatma herself urged her daughter to take up. She is also a vicious and inveterate gossip. Later on, Fatma is redeemed to an extent. Eventually, Elvan continued genuine compassion toward Fatma wears down her spitefulness and she becomes a more supportive friend. Elvan has a much larger part in the drama than Fatma, but both of them are counters in the culture wars, and demonstrate the producers’ wish to cover all the bases.
That’s probably the safest way to go here. Religious viewers may be scandalized by both the clothing and the behavior of Elif and her sisters, but as everyone knows the right level of scandal is exactly what pulls in the viewers. Elif often wears short skirts to work, often shows her bare arms, and never covers her hair in the summer. (In the winter she wears an endless series of designer woolen caps.) Once–but only once–Elif and Ömer were shown sitting near one another at a swimming pool. Elif wore a fashionable two piece bathing suit, not a bikini but not an overly modest style either. This was only shown in one kind of middle distance camera shot and in only one pose: with Elif seated in a deep lounge chair with a towel strategically blocking any view of her hips. Ömer was similarly posed in his swim suit. The whole scene contributed nothing to the plot. It wasn’t meant to; it was meant to contribute to the ratings and, perhaps in a small way, to show a commitment to an open and secular society. And, it was a one-time deal. If the show’s producers showed such scenes often, they might be in trouble. They need to push the boundaries just a little and then back off. They’re not thinking only about Turkey. They were surely thinking from the start about the export market. Since 2015 BML has made money for them in 30 countries around the world, including Indonesia, the world’s most populous Islamic nation. (Also among the 30 are both Egypt and Israel, as well as Chile, Peru, Colombia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Spain and Kuwait.)
Another aspect of BML that we find interesting is that it tries to showcase certain other aspects of Turkish culture. There are a wealth of references to traditional foods and customs, including marriage customs. Although the language is varied and is sometimes obscene enough to require bleeping, it also seems to include a large number of familiar politeness formulae that are specific to Turkey and Turkish culture. And then there are those many scenes shot on location at places that Turks might be rather proud of. The new bridge over the Bosphorus, for example, is featured often. Characters go out to what appear to be very lovely restaurants and have tea in charming cafes all over town, including many on the waterfront. In one episode Elif takes Ömer to a luxurious private resort–a place where he and his family would never otherwise be able to go–where they spend the day sampling all the various amenities. (This was probably a real resort who may or may not have paid the producers for the privilege of being featured.) These are all exterior locations rather than artificial sets and they all make Turkey look like a paradise. And speaking of paradise, whenever BML characters drive their cars, traffic is light and flows smoothly. Parking is never a problem. All of this gushing over Turkish culture and Turkish places is a treat for the audience, including two formerly resident foreigners, and could possibly help ratings. But what else does it do? It balances the presentation of the nasty corruption which is at the heart of the story. “Insult Turkey?” the producers can say. “Are you crazy? We love Turkey to death. Just look.”
So there you have it. Kara Para Aşk, Black Money Love. It’s terrible, but it’s wonderful. Of course we’ve only gotten to Episode 115 out of 164. All we can say at this point, considering all that it has put us through, is that it better have an awfully nice ending.
And by the way, there’s another great Turkish show on Netflix called Winter Sun (Kış Güneşi). It’s just as wonderful as BML; it’s also less terrible than BML; and there are far fewer episodes. To see the trailer for Winter Sun or to read dozens of American fans’ comments about it, see the Winter Sun entry on the Turkish Drama Website.
ADDENDUM: Questions and answers about Black Money Love.
Q: You mentioned some obscene language. Can I really learn Turkish swear words by watching this show?
A: Unfortunately not. The nasty words are included in the English subtitles, but they are bleeped out of the Turkish soundtrack. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn anything at all. Take this example, something one hoodlum says to another:
We read: I’ll shit on your grave if you try to mess with me!
We learn: In Turkish, the main verb comes at the end.
Q: If you love Turkey so much, why don’t you just go live there?
A: Hey, we said we liked a lot of things about Turkey. Among those things are how beautiful it is and how nice they are to visitors. We never said Turkey doesn’t have problems. Turkey has problems. They’re different from our problems, but not all that different.
Q: You said that Istanbul used to be called Byzantium. I thought it was called Constantinople.
A: You’re right. It was called Constantinople between the time it was called Byzantium and the time it started to be called Istanbul. If you are Greek, you can still call it Constantinople if you want to, because if you are Greek you’re never going to let any Turk tell you what to call anything.
Q: Is it true that Elif is currently the most common name given to girl babies in Turkey?
A: Yes.
Q: How do you say turkey (the bird) in Turkish?
A: The Turkish word for turkey is hindi. That means that turkeys were thought to come from India. But turkeys are from the new world. But Columbus, who discovered the new world, thought he had reached India. So when he brought back these big birds… Apparently there was a lot of confusion back then, unlike now when everything is clear and good.
Q: I watched a few episodes and I noticed that there are a lot of scenes of cars and driving. But on all the cars the brand logos and badges have been covered or removed. So, except for Bahar’s Mini, it’s hard to tell what model of car they are. What’s up with that?
A: Beats me. Something complicated, I’m sure. For what it’s worth I’m guessing that Elif’s blue car is a Mercedes A-class and that the white convertible that Ömer rents is a Mercedes E350. In one episode Fatih drives a Porsche Macan. I have no idea about Ömer’s own car, the blue one, but it looks boring.
Over the last ten days, the Oregon Health Authority has reported an average of 2.6 COVID deaths per day. That rate has been mostly unchanged since my record keeping began on March 26th. So the curve is flat as can be. Will it ever go down? Or will it go up as restrictions are eased? We shall see.
It’s rainy and cooler today, a welcome change. E had an exercise class in the morning and then went walking in the OSU research forest in the afternoon. The OSU forest has just been reopened after more than a month of closure. E reports that the woods are beautiful this spring and that she saw only a few other hikers. Meanwhile, M was in the garage working on refurbishing the cordless trimmer. Also down here in the city, it’s iris season.
With reported fatalities totaling 130, Oregon has reached the level of 3 deaths for every 100,000 residents. For comparison, the states with the highest number of deaths per 100,000 are New York (138), New Jersey (107), Connecticut (85), and Massachusetts (75). States with the fewest are Utah and Montana with 2 per 100,000 and Wyoming, Hawaii and Alaska with 1 per 100,000. (These numbers are from the Washington Post, May 12.)
According to Johns Hopkins, the current number of deaths per 100,000 in the U.S. as a whole is 25. Some other countries are Belgium (76), Spain (57), Italy (51), U.K. (48), France (39), Sweden (32) and Germany (9).
As we look at these figures, let’s do keep in mind that in times such as ours concerning matters such as these, numbers always lie. According to M, that’s part of why these are so interesting.
Another hike in the OSU forest today, this time with M coming along. Man, it’s green out there! Plenty of healthy-looking poison oak for example. On the way home we stopped at a nursery for E’s Portulaca starts. They’ve been hard to find, but we got ‘em.
In the afternoon M tried out his cordless trimmer with its new cutting head installed. Whoa! The tough grass that once resisted the trimmer’s whirling strings now falls to its whirling blades. But with great power comes danger. M’s technique is appalling. Dirt and bark chip were flying everywhere.
In the latest episode of Black Money Love we see that despite the best efforts of their enemies to break them apart, Elif and Ömer remain in love and are still officially engaged to be married. But the mystery about who fathered İpek’s child hangs like the sword of Damocles above their heads. And now Nilüfer, Elif’s headstrong younger sister, has sneaked off and got herself married to her intensely romantic psycho-man boyfriend-from-hell Fatih. Elif is angry and distraught. Meanwhile, Arda and Pelin are smiling again because–but no, that’s enough of that.
Thursday, May 14
Statewide: 137 deaths, (Deaths: +3)
Hiked today at Chip Ross Park, which is just up the road. Beautiful views through light rain. Earlier, E had a Zoom class and then dared visit BiMart where she secured, among other things, some disinfectant wipes and a bottle of Josh cabernet, two basic necessities in times of plague.
M’s mother has received another letter concerning her economic stimulus payment. It is again addressed to Patricia A Petrich, DECD and the return address on the envelope is again the Department of the Treasury, Internal Revenue Service. The letter inside, however, is from no mere functionary. It is on what purports to be White House stationery and is signed by the President. He says that he is “pleased to notify you that as provided by the CARES act, you are receiving an Economic Impact Payment of $1,200 by check/debit card.” M is also pleased as he now has the complete set.
Another day of zero reported deaths in Oregon, the fifth one this month. Here’s an updated chart.
M reports that our local Market of Choice grocery now has tons of toilet paper, but no paper towels. He has also confirmed that our local French pastry shop continues to have very good pain au chocolat. The big news in the state is that our county, along with 31 others in Oregon, has been approved for a Phase 1 re-opening, starting today. All stores are now allowed to open provided that proper distancing and other safety measures are enforced. The reopening applies to barber shops, salons, clothing stores and a number of others. Interestingly, the reopening does not apply to bookstores and thrift shops. Why? Because they were never ordered to close in the first place.
We are debating what to do with this long-awaited news. Are we going to rush out right now and go to a restaurant? Well, not today. Today we’re having salmon at home. Tomorrow is a Saturday and for the last little while Saturday has become take-out night. We may just do that again. Not sure we want to sit in a restaurant where all the staff are masked and gloved. Sounds eerie. But we shall see.
Another day with no reported COVID deaths in Oregon, the second in a row. Coinciding, as it does, with the partial re-opening, this makes the governor look good, as if she were prescient. (Competent is nice, but so is lucky.) The number of confirmed COVID cases is still going up, but it’s difficult to interpret this since there has also been an increase in the number of tests processed per day. In April Oregon was testing between 1,000 and 1,500 per day. Lately it has been more than 2,000 per day.
It’s cloudy and cool today with occasional drops of rain. E and M both worked in the garden in the morning, then went to Burger King for take-out lunch. E’s had an impossible burger while M had an unsustainable one. It’s a wonder we can eat at all. Burger King was not yet open for dine-in. The Vietnamese Baguette, our first choice, was not open at all. We guess they are busy making needed modifications to be able to open for dine-in service per the new rules sometime next week. On the way home we passed our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Rockita, which had been completely closed from the beginning of the crisis. A large sign proclaims that they are now open. So that’s something to look forward to.
The opening of the restaurant scene comes just in time for E and her friend H, who have the custom of taking each other out for their birthdays. Helen’s birthday is coming up next week, giving them time to figure out which places will be open by then and find out how hard it is to get a reservation.
For the third day in a row Oregon reports no new deaths. Also, only 11 new cases out of 2,154 new tests.
M went to Trader Joe’s this afternoon and found a line of people waiting to get into the store. The line was so long it was hard to find the end. Of course it doesn’t take many people to make a really long line these days. Six maybe? At TJ’s the line moves fast and when it’s your turn, an employee pushes a disinfected cart toward you and waves you in. So the procedures are easy. Other customers, though, can be less easy. In a time of pandemic, says M, special rules of grocery shopping etiquette apply. One of them is that this is not the time to lean casually against a shelf for five or ten minutes with a box of TJ’s dried abalone flaked quinoa in your hand while you attempt to read all of the tiny print on the label. Just don’t do it.
For quite some time the President has been touting hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, as an effective treatment for COVID infections. Today he announced that he now takes this drug every day, presumably as a preventative. For some, this raises the question (again) as to whether he is an idiot. Others wonder if he is telling the truth or not. Basically, though, this looks pretty straightforward. We’re just not used to presidents doing celebrity endorsements. This one harks back to earlier times when tobacco companies paid baseball players and medical doctors to extol the health benefits of smoking.
Back in the real world, rain in the early morning, then clouds. M finished his sod project by noon. E walked to the store to get jello to make H’s birthday cake. She is surprised that M has never heard of adding jello to a cake mix. M asks how that could be legal. Says it must be an east coast thing. Still no paper towels on the shelves at Market of Choice. On the way to the store E passed La Rockita and stuck her head in. Turns out they are open for take-out only, no dining in. That’s understandable. The place is quite small with lots of little tables all very close together. Six foot spacing would leave them with maybe two tables that were usable. Hardly worth it.
It’s a good year for peonies here in Oregon. As you can see here, our peonies arewere may have been spectacular. Oh threats of hell and hopes of paradise…
One thing is certain, this life flies. One thing is certain and the rest is lies…
A gray, cool day. We did another walk in the forest. The rule is to carry a mask and put it on when encountering anyone on a narrow trail. We did that, and had just one encounter. Later we celebrated with a couple of take-out lattes from Coffee Culture.
It was also our day to take our friend out for her birthday and we decided, perhaps foolishly, to dine in at one of our friend’s favorite places. It’s a Thai place, one that’s been in Corvallis quite a long time. In the early nineties, a couple of the the founders’ kids were our students at the old English Language Institute.
The food was fine, but the experience was odd, off kilter you might say. When we arrived, just three tables were set up for dine-in business. One was occupied; we took another; the third remained unused. We arrived at 5:35 or so, just in time for the evening rush of take-out orders. This meant that there was a steady stream of people walking past us to get to the back of the space where they could pick up and pay for their orders. That was annoying. Perhaps one in ten of these visitors were wearing masks.
After giving us water and menus our server got caught up in the rush of pick-up orders and left us to wait for quite a time. Suddenly we saw him jump up and give a startled glance our way. He then took our order and basically all was well. It was a different server who brought us our courses and later our bill. She wore a mask, but of the three employees we saw, she was the only one who did. Was this a violation of the Stage 1 opening rules? Yeah, we think it probably was. Both when we entered the restaurant and when we left there were quite a few young people on the sidewalk. Were they wearing masks? Nah, get serious. E thinks that they are being very irresponsible while M found them pretty normal. (The Thai place is near the university; we were on their turf.) After dinner we went home and had lemon cake, on which Eve had placed one candle for each 82-year segment of our friend’s life.
Later we watched a couple more episodes of our Turkish soap opera, about which M is writing a long essay to explain why it must be watched despite its terribleness.
The second day in a row with no reported COVID deaths in Oregon. The case number total, however, is up by 79. OHA notes that this total includes both confirmed and presumptive cases. In their words: “Presumptive cases are those without a positive diagnostic test who present COVID-19-like symptoms and had close contact with a confirmed case.”
Made an excursion today to McDowell Creek Park north of Sweet Home. M’s iPhone reports 1.6 miles of walking and 16 flights climbed; E took an alternate route on the way down and logged considerably more. The volume of water coming over the various waterfalls was lower than when we visited in February, but still sufficient to make for lovely scenes. Had a picnic lunch prepared especially for us by McDonald’s of Lebanon.
So far the COVID story in Oregon shows a strong urban/rural divide. Of Oregon’s 36 counties, 24 have reported 0 deaths from COVID. In three of the 24, the number of confirmed cases is also zero; in five others the number of cases is one. These are rural counties with low populations. Will they continue to be spared? Or is the virus just taking longer to arrive? We shall see. Meanwhile, let’s just imagine we live in a community where the case numbers are minimal and no one has died. Would we be pleased and relieved that the governor had ordered a lockdown? Some of us maybe, but that’s asking a lot. In general, I expect that we would simply be confirmed in our suspicions that those people in Salem and Portland are all knuckleheads and thank god we don’t live over there.
E organized a Zoom meeting with Jim, Joann and John. Nice! Joann really wants us to come and visit them. The pandemic does not seem to be part of her world.
Lunch from Burgerville today. Long line at the drive-up. Tomorrow’s breakfast from Le Patissier has been ordered.
Watched two episodes of our Turkish soap last night. Elif and Ömer slept together again (finally!) and now spend a lot to time making goo-goo eyes at each other and not advancing the plot at all. But the new characters, Elif’s wealthy aunt, Nedret, and Ömer’s old girlfriend, İpek, are beginning to make their presence felt. İpek has been transferred into Ömer’s department and Elif has met her, but no one has informed Elif that the two have a history. Ooh.
Several excursions today. E went out early to fetch croissants from Le Patissier. We had them with a couple of giant strawberries that arrived last night, a Mother’s Day present from the Andees. Thus fortified, M went out grocery shopping. Then at about 11:00 the two of us made an expedition to Home Depot to get a bit of wire fencing for E’s front corner garden. Lots of traffic on the roads by then and when we got to Home Depot, the parking lot was more crowded than we had ever seen. They’re limiting how many people can be in the store at any one time, so there was a long line of people waiting outside. The beautiful weather had something to do with it. But there may have been psychological reasons as well, a feeling that somehow we have turned the corner on the pandemic. We decided to abort and try again after lunch. A few hours later the line outside was shorter and moved quickly. But they had no fencing of the type wanted! So we kept our masks on and tried the Wilco farm store just down the road. Success!
Social hour with B and B in the afternoon at their new place. We felt some trepidation. Of all our friends they seemed a bit less concerned with taking precautions. But who can say no to the B’s? It was fine, we hope.
The news from Kara Para Aşk, is that İpek has been shot! But she is expected to recover and she managed to disrupt the ambush meant to kill Arda. Elif is worried that Ömer might be feeling a little too much sympathy for İpek. Meanwhile, Ömer is beginning to face the awful truth about his brother Hüseyin.
Although Oregon COVID deaths are still low and the curve is flat, the latest numbers do show a one-day spike in number of new cases.
We had a busy Saturday morning, mostly doing garden work, but M also washed the Boxster and then remounted the kitchen can opener, which had fallen off the wall during a battle with a can of sauerkraut.
The big news, though, is that we have purchased a John Deere tractor. Given the size of our yard, this was almost a necessity. Almost.
Mothers Day, 2020 and Eve celebrates by having an almond paste croissant and a giant strawberry for breakfast. Then she mows the lawn. After lunch a small box of Burst’s chocolates comes out of quarantine. It had been self isolating for three days to prepare for this occasion.
Nedret continues her clever campaign to prevent Elif from marrying Ömer. She has learned that Ömer could be the father of İpek’s child! Yikes. You can see the wheels spinning as she plans how to use this information for maximum impact.
E did her restorative yoga class today via Zoom. M sat in–well out of camera range–and tried to follow along. It wasn’t pretty. And besides that, Elif is still in a filthy jail cell being pressured to make a false confession and Sami has been exiled to the obscurity in the provinces. Ömer is near despair, but his mother tells him never to give up hope. Back in the real world, we got some happy news friends in Colorado.
A week or so back, E went to the bookstore–you can’t go in, but they’ll bring things out to you–and bought a book of Molly Gloss short stories. This book of stories is called Unforeseen. Some of Gloss’s novels, like Hearts of Horses, have specific historical settings. The settings here, though, are different, sometimes contemporary and sometimes speculative. Most of them focus on lives that involve close relations with–and close observation of–the natural world. The stories tend to be immediately engrossing. Using seemingly simple materials, Gloss very quietly builds sharper and sharper tensions, which in the end are only partially resolved. (But the Tao says that the partial and the whole are one…)
We made a trip to Ankeny Wildlife Refuge today. In one part of the refuge, there is a small wetland forest where big ash trees grow. You can see them in the background below. In the spring the trunks push up through two or three feet of water. It’s perfect habitat for wood ducks, of which we saw many. There’s a boardwalk through the deepest part and a big octagonal blind. Had lunch sitting in the grass on the bank of an old dyke southeast of the ponds. Rode home with the top down.
Oregon’s total deaths have now reached 0.0235 per thousand by method of calculation that I have used previously. I’ve noticed recently that some official sources have begun reporting COVID results in terms of deaths per one hundred thousand. It seems to me that those numbers are easier to understand, so I will be using the 100,000 method from now on. In those terms, the Oregon number as of today is 2.35 deaths per every 100,000 inhabitants. This number will inevitably rise as more deaths occur. Two weeks ago, for example, it was 1.49 per 100,000.
For those of you who are naturally worried about what’s happening to Elif and Ömer, I can report that although Elif is still in jail, she has been moved to a nicer cell.
Another normal day for these times. Zoom BBB for Eve. Then a trip to Garland for plants, then some lunch, then some planting. And finally…quiet time, a.k.a. nap.Then it was M’s night to cook. The menu was Indian chickpeas, Indian saag lentils, and green salad. The larder is emptying, so a grocery store visit is planned for tomorrow.
Elon Musk said that lockdowns are ‘fascist’ and is now being called insane and dangerous. Technically, Musk is right; the crisis response has been dictatorial and has overridden certain rights that normally we take for granted. In a real crisis, that’s what happens. And rightly so. Group survival depends on firm and timely measures even if some people disagree with them.
But is this a real crisis? The virus is real, of course, and the virus deaths are real; but the crisis level is less clear. Is COVID truly an existential threat? Is our response to it proportional to our response to other threats? So far this year in Oregon, 104 people have died of the virus, most of them older people who were already in poor health. Also so far this year, 385 people in Oregon have died by suicide, quite a number of them young people who might have had many years of life before them. To deal with the virus, we are willing to turn our world upside down, causing hardships and life disruption to thousands of citizens and incurring financial losses in the billions of dollars. Fine. But what are we doing to prevent suicide, which is taking three and half times as many lives? In comparison, not very much. Automobile accidents this year in Oregon have cost perhaps twenty times as many lives as the virus. And thirty years ago, when cars were less safe, the highway death toll per capita was much higher. But has any governor, then or now, ever decreed a moratorium on cars? We also hear seemingly credible claims that the lockdown measures themselves are contributing to a large number of extra non-virus deaths. The COVID crisis is real all right, but it’s peculiar. It’s no wonder we have disagreement about what we’re doing in the name of fighting it.
Successful grocery outing this morning. For a hour or two after we got home there was a mound of fresh vegetables sitting on our counter, freshly washed and waiting to be put away. And then, E once again braved the potential hazards of the French bakery. Pain au chocolat for lunch. Also, we note that emergency dental care is still functioning. M spoke to a friend who had root canal yesterday to prove it. At 5:00 we had a Zoom social hour with several old friends just before dinner.
But best of all, my mother got her $1200 stimulus check today. Frankly, we had not expected this. We thought it might be a mistake. Don’t they realize that she passed away a year and a half ago? But no, never let it be said that our government’s records are inaccurate. The check is written to Patricia A Petrich, DECD
A quiet day, rainy in the morning. We did some gardening with rain jackets on. Then later the weather turned fine. Saturday has become take-out dinner day! We did Pastini’s.
Lovely breakfast of almond paste croissants from E’s venture to the bakery on Friday. After breakfast she did a Zoom call with Suzanne and Mrs. Hopper, then talked to both brother John and daughter Andrea. M weeded for a couple of hours and got himself all stove up. E had to go for her walk alone, so she was able to go for a long one through the OSU campus with all the magnificent old rhododendrons. Their flowers are out now and it’s amazing to see towers of blossoms climbing up to the third story of some older buildings. In the evening we watched Call the Midwife and forewent the Turkish soap.
