Monday, June 8
Statewide: 164 deaths, 4,922 cases, 149,732 tested (Deaths: +0) (Cases: +84)
On Sunday, when we joined the Black Lives Matter demonstrators and felt the energy of the large crowd, it was clear that decency and the capacity for outrage over injustice are still alive in our town, as they seem to be in so many other parts of the world. It’s good to be reminded that goodness never dies. Alas that evil never dies either. We have gone through this before.
In the unreal world of Black Money Love, the main plot is winding down and as it does things are turning dark. Ömer is finding ways to smite the great evil, but he is losing his belief in his own innocence and getting a peek at the less admirable side of his own motives. Elif sees it and we in the audience see it also. We are disappointed in him. We have only four more episodes; we’ll have to see what the writers can do.
Tuesday, June 9
Statewide: 169 deaths, 4,988 cases, 153,470 tested (Deaths: +5) (Cases: +66)
An old-fashioned June day in Oregon, cool and cloudy with intermittent showers, the kind of day we had before global warming. Thirty or forty years ago, we wore sweaters and rain jackets in June and complained of the damp and the cold. It was hard to believe back then that June meant summer in most of the country, that we’d need sunglasses and shorts if we travelled anywhere.
Here in 2020, we had planned a trip over to the coast to stay at a hotel on the beach at Newport. Alas, there has been an outbreak at a seafood plant there and the hotel is reducing services for a few days, so we’ve decided to cancel.
Wednesday, June 10
Statewide: 169 deaths, 5,060 cases, 156,605 tested (Deaths: +0) (Cases: +72)
We had tertulia with J and R today, and for the first time in months we met at an actual coffee shop. We sat outside on the terrace under overcast skies and braved a few drops of rain. Very nice. Later on E and M went downtown and picked up a necklace or two for E and then got take-out lunch from the Vietnamese Baguette. We ate on a bench on the riverfront.
Thursday, June 11
Statewide: 171 deaths, 5,237 cases, 161,643 tested (Deaths: +2) (Cases: +177)
According to the Oregon Health Authority, yesterday was a record day for testing (5,038) and also for new cases confirmed (177). The percentage of tests that came out positive was 3.51%, slightly above the long term average for this number, which is 3.24%.
Which goes on longer, a seemingly interminable pandemic or a seemingly interminable Turkish TV series? Well, it appears that the pandemic wins because for us the latter has ended. Last night we watched the final episode of Kara Para Aşk, a.k.a. Black Money Love. Episode #164 went for 55 minutes instead of the usual 45; they had a lot to wind up. Ömer and Elif had split up after the death of Tayyar when Elif demanded that Ömer leave the police force. But after three months, Ömer came his senses and they were married in a lovely ceremony by the sea. Now they are planning to open a bookstore. Yes, I know. That’s insane. Never mind. Previously, Hüseyin partially redeemed himself by taking a bullet meant for Ömer. He is now paralyzed and has been released from prison into the care of his family. Melike and Elvan have solved their money problems by opening a day care center. Venal Fatma went too far even for saintly Elvan and has been thrown out. Demet and Mert are officially engaged. Pelin and Arda are married. Having adopted İpek’s little boy, Yağız, they are also expecting a child of their own. Elif’s sister Aslı has married Ege, who seemed for a time to be Elif’s new boyfriend.
That leaves only Nilüfer and Fatih. Fatih has escaped from prison, but is now broke and in hiding. Nilüfer is with him. He’s been very good lately and seems to adore being with her and planning for the birth of their child. He hasn’t shot anyone in the last few days and in fact the last person he killed was purely in self defense, back when Tayyar sent an assassin into the prison to kill him. Fatih has done a lot of bad things in his life, but he’s trying hard to be better. Nilüfer really loves him and he loves her. So, what to do, what to do? Have him die in a shoot-out? Spend life in prison? Escape from Turkey and make a new life financed by his ill-gotten gains? None of these are quite right. He needs to suffer, but he also needs to have some chance for eventual happiness. So the writers had to think carefully. As always, their ability to blissfully ignore the demands of plausibility came in handy in what they finally came up with. But we didn’t really mind. Even though the superficial sloppiness of BML drove us both crazy, we know the difference between a story and a report. It has been argued by serious scholars that there’s nothing very plausible about King Lear either.
Just to clear the air, though, let’s now leave off both pandemic and pandemic pass times. Here’s what the lilies have to say.
Friday, June 12
Statewide: 173 deaths, 5,377 cases, 166,019 tested (Deaths: +2) (Cases: +140)
Another day similar to yesterday: a relatively high number of tests processed (4,376) and a high number of new cases confirmed (140). The percentage of tests that came out positive was 3.20%, which is again very close to the long term average, which remains at 3.24%. So, more testing yields more positives, just as it should at this point. We might also consider OHA’s claim that recent testing has been focused away from the “worried well” and more toward individuals that are known to have been exposed. To the extent that this is the case, the percent positive rate should actually be going up because we are doing a better job of zeroing in on people who are infected. In light of this, maybe the unchanged percent positive rate should be considered good news? Never mind, the simple existence of these higher than usual case numbers freaks everybody out, for understandable reasons. Oregon’s governor has announced a one-week “pause” in the state’s reopening process.
Saturday, June 13
Statewide: 174 deaths, 5,535 cases, 170,479 tested (Deaths: +1) (Cases: +158)
A third straight day with high testing numbers (4,460) and high new case totals (158). The daily test positive rate was 3.54%, a little above the overall test positive rate, which is now 3.25%.
A quiet day here on Oak Avenue, cool and wet. For breakfast we had fresh strawberries from our rather pitiful little patch. Not an abundant crop, but tasty. E did some gardening despite the rain. M finished painting the wall where the ironing board didn’t go and did a little caulking in our decrepit main bathroom. For dinner we had take-out from Koriander, a Korean fusion restaurant that we’d been missing. Delicious job chae with sweet potato noodles.
We are missing our friends Elif, Ömer and the gang. They were quite real to us while we were watching, and now they’ve all gone away. The actors who portrayed them have turned back into actors. We miss their passions, their reckless energy, their emotional boneheadedness and the insane coincidences in which they were constantly involved. Our real friends and family members cannot quite fill this void…
Sunday, June 14
Statewide: 176 deaths, 5,636 cases, 174,062 tested (Deaths: +2) (Cases: +101)
A moderately high number of tests (3,583) combined with a lowish percent positive (2.82%) equals a moderate increase in cases. From very early on in this morass, it seemed to me that all numbers regarding the virus were dubious, with too much variation in reporting, too many assumptions, too much distortion, too much ignorance, too many unknowns, and never enough context. The number that seemed best, back then, was the simplest one–the death toll. That too is imperfect, but it still has more significance than any other. The official Oregon death toll is now 176, or 4 per 100,000 of population. To visualize the distribution of those deaths over time, I’ve been making a graph of 10-day averages. Since I’ve been keeping records for 80 days now, it’s time to add an eighth data point to that graph. As shown below, the rate in the most recent period was 1.7, while that of the previous two periods was 1.1.
