We’reTexas

I’m not. But my friends who have been pregnant or have had kids over the past two years sure have been, particularly in states that decided COVID was over in summer 2020, and I’m not one to tell them otherwise. To be clear, California’s prohibitionist policies have been disastrous on young people, particularly minorities, which is a huge reason for why I was originally railing against the state’s and local authorities’ inability to embrace harm reductionist policies to prepare for the long term. But having lived most of my life in Texas, I’ve never seen its governance at the state level as much of a model for anything, and certainly not this pandemic.

On the whole I’d take a state government that supports public health measures to combat the pandemic, even if I generally disagree with its approach, rather than one that at the very best is lukewarm and at worst actively opposes them. I’ve been back to Texas six times during the pandemic and observed quite a striking contrast. It’s been hard for my family and friends, especially those with young kids, to navigate things, and I feel for them.

I meant having to fend for yourself in a caliphate that ceased to take any action against the greatest public health crisis of our time, emboldened the ignorant and actively stymied local authorities. Not a great choice, but I’d take the CA experience over TX any day.

This. The nine Bay Area county health authorities are still stuck in April 2020. I had a mini-breakdown reading this story today as I waited to get into the office (where we are tested daily, 100% vaxxed and now have an indoor mask mandate at all times). Obviously y’all back in Texas have had it much harder on the other end up the spectrum, but I am infuriated by CA’s inability to move from zero COVID to a long-term harm mitigation approach. Sonoma County just issued a voluntary shelter-in-place order.

Like, overall or distinctly New Orleanian cooking? For the former: Saint Germain is easily the best and most ambitious restaurant in the city right now, Mister Mao is the hottest among the foodie circuit, and Bywater American Bistro continues to be one of the most consistently excellent places in the city. For the latter, Peche, Brigsten’s and Clancy’s are still going strong. Personally I like Gabrielle. Haven’t had a chance to check out Miss River or Chemin a La Mer yet, but both look incredible and are getting a lot of buzz. Edit: Forgot to mention, but Saffron was the best dining experience I’ve had in NO in the past decade.

Another poster was hospitalized a month ago or so. He said was did not regret being unvaccinated (because he recovered), would never get vaccinated (because they believe natural immunity lasts forever), and did not recommend that anyone else get vaccinated (muh freedoms). Dude got several hundred upvotes. They’ve had at least one poster die - a rural physician in North Texas, I believe, who caught COVID on the front lines during the winter surge. They had a whole memorial thread where everyone was posting “gig ‘em” or some aggy nonsense. Someone suggested that they honor his memory by taking the surge seriously and practice masking and social distancing. The thread turned into total uproar as though someone had just pissed on his grave. I just do not understand how they have comprehended the experience of the past two years.

Yes, like 4th&Five mentioned, you just show your card and ID to the hostess or bartender once you are sat. I understand the practicalities of what LaToya is up against, but I find it amusing you only need proof of one shot (in SF it’s fully vaxxed for two weeks, and now places are voluntarily requiring boosters).

There’s a vaccine mandate for bars and restaurants in Orleans parish, and as of Monday it’s for everyone over 5. It was just extended through Mardi Gras, March 1.

Favorite all around uptown bar. Love their crusade to make margs the NO drink (despite being a whiskey bar).

SF, LA, Seattle and Houston are all Housing First cities (Housing First is actually the official policy of California and HUD). It is a great question as to why only Houston and Utah have been success stories, but I suspect it has to do largely with the cost of housing, zoning, and NIMBYism.

*guy who supported Iraq invasion*

Brown people reproducing?

She was talking about cracking down on drug dealing in the Tenderloin, as well as the rise in property crimes during COVID. Retail theft has always been a significant problem in SF (people literally scoop up bags of merchandise at the Walgreens locations in the Mission and sell it on the sidewalk outside), but as the various studies posted in this thread have indicated it’s likely more of a pretense for the recent retail closures in the city.

Yes, 44 vaccinated players at Cal tested and they postponed the USC game. Finally the UCSF head AIDS researcher got fed up and wrote a shots-fired op-ed slamming the university’s approach.

It’s a pretty good juxtaposition to the absurd alarmism of this article they published last month. Flippant attitude aside, I do see what he is getting at. As a Bay Area resident who has traveled back home to Texas several times over the past two year, my anecdotal sense has been we’ve had a very different COVID experience than Texas (the outdoor masking example he gave was a good one). My wife and I also have plenty of friends and colleagues who fit the profile of the Berkeley guy in the article I linked, who have been so bubbled in over the past two years that they don’t understand that they are at the extreme end of things (or that anyone outside of certain major urban areas takes this seriously either).

Yeah it’s pretty sketchy. They didn’t file the signatures of the counter parties, which they are required to do, so we don’t actually know who invested.

It’s hilarious. Matt Levine did a good write-up on the PIPE the SPAC just raised.

Spending six weeks in NOLA beginning Mardi Gras. Miss River is one of the top places on my list so looking forward to reviews.

To be fair, it’s a valid point. It’s actually the crux of the crime issue in San Francisco, as Chesa Boudin has acknowledged. Even though crime is generally down YoY, several events and developments have contributed to a sense of lawlessness: the NYE hit and run homicides by a former Boudin client, the shift of property theft to burglaries during the pandemic, the string of attacks on Asian Americans by repeat offenders, and, oh, the fucking sideshows. Despite the data, people don’t like to be told their feelings don’t matter (this is a recurring problem for progressive prosecutors - see Philly DA, about Larry Krasner). It’s been a rough year, and with certain high profile events and crime literally hitting closer to home, folks are irate about the tone deafness of having a DA that openly blows off quality of life crimes while instead finding ways to charge police officers for years-old homicides. I support most Chesa’s platform, but voted to recall him because he’s a disastrous DA. Sorry if I’m being overly specific, but that’s because the controversy in SF is that of confusing, internecine squabbles in a parochial town that have been exploited by national right wing outlets for cheap shots on “progressive values”.

Dean Preston is a moron but he was right to call out the media for running with the Walgreens narrative. As with most major cities, COVID has complicated crime statistics. One thing that is clear is that home invasions have increased, which has led to an increased perception of lawlessness. Is it real? Sure, in some respects - with tourists gone, crime rings moved on from car break-ins to garage break-ins (my own included). I think the Chronicle was probably right. Property theft has always been a bad here for Walgreens (folks will grab bags full of merchandise and sell it in broad daylight on Mission Street), but I don’t see how this last year has been any worse. Locally, there’s tons of tension over the Chesa Boudin recall, but nationally it seems to me like FOX/NY Post/etc going after the low-hanging fruit of the “San Francisco values” story.

Generally agree but there are some notable exceptions. Unti, Idlewild and Ryme up in Healdsburg focus on Italian varietals and are fantastic (though generally on the bigger side of what I like). Broc Cellars, which works with many lesser-known varietals, does a dolcetto/montepulciano blend and nero d’avolo. And Martha Stoumen, IMO one of the most exciting winemakers out there right now, has focused on making nero d’avalo her thing (she trained with the COS guys in Sicily and worked at Broc as well).

Have you done Clamato? Also part of the Septime group, but next door. Can put your name down and hang out at Septime le Cave (my favorite wine bar in the world). Also nearby in the 11th is Le Servan, which is new-ish and fantastic.

Lipomas are common at that age and rarely cancerous, and you can get a biopsy with removal. But yes, totally understand the worry. We were set to take our dog in to have her two lipomas removed a month ago when, before the procedure, tests led to an inoperable (and totally unrelated) hemangiosarcoma diagnosis. We put her down three days later. F cancer.