Updates from March, 2020 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Kate 19:17 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    Good photos of downtown nearly abandoned by Radio-Canada photographer Denis Wong.

    TVA asks whether the city should be closing its parks, citing people playing team games and otherwise using them to unwisely socialize. I noticed this item after reading a piece Taras Grescoe retweeted earlier from an observer in Italy, arguing for not closing parks, and for encouraging people to get outside (in a socially distanced manner) to walk and exercise.

    The SAQ will now be closed on Sundays.

     
    • JP 21:47 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I don’t think parks should close for the reasons stated in Taras Grescoe’s tweet. We do need to walk/jog/run despite all that is going on. I went for a nice long walk today that was both restorative and energizing. With that being said, some people are still not getting the message about physical distance.

      At the grocery store today, I saw two women greet each other with cheek kisses and their husbands(?) shake hands…I’m very shy and didn’t feel comfortable saying anything, but I really wanted to. Forget about 2 metres, some people can’t even forgo handshakes and cheek kisses….

    • Alison Cummins 21:55 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      My sister — the nine-year-old — is schooling from home, but the kids are being strongly encouraged to ride their bikes. It’s the only activity they are allowed to do together.

  • Kate 11:23 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    Here’s Ste-Catherine Street at Peel, from the city traffic cam. Looks like 6 a.m., but it’s 11:19 on a Saturday:

     
    • JaneyB 11:35 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      The new face of social solidarity. Pretty amazing.

    • Alison Cummins 11:43 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Crowdsourcing opinions:

      Our fridge has chosen this week to give up the ghost. I have puffy eyes and my partner has a little cough.

      We need to buy a fridge. How do we do this ethically? Do we put masks on, glove up and go to the dinged-fridge store? Do we get someone to shop in our stead? Or do we have to place a call and get a full-price fridge from the new-fridge store?

    • Ephraim 11:55 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Order from the new fridge store. The old fridges aren’t energy efficient and you will pay more in the end to run an old fridge than you would in the cost of being a low cost energy efficient fridge. Hardest part is… you need to measure the space, height, width and depth and look for a fridge that will fit. In the last few years they have changed the dimensions of some fridges, so you need to make sure that it isn’t too tall.

      Stay in. Get better.

    • Alison Cummins 12:14 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Ephraim, we usually go with new-but-dinged. We’ve gotten used dishwashers but not used fridges. (We have tenants. We buy a lot of appliances.)

    • Kate 12:31 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      There are 2 used appliance stores on Laurier East. I bought my used fridge from one of them, a couple of Christmases ago. It was clean as new and has been fine ever since (and my electricity bill went down, too). The shop I went to was called Ameublement Laurier. I’m looking at it on Streetview and the number is 514-598-8838. They delivered, and the fridge had a one-year guarantee. It was $400, as I recall.

      The other store is called Appareils R.V. and is on the same block, between Fabre and Marquette. It has slightly lower Google reviews than the previous.

      I don’t know how you shop ethically right now if you’re both feeling icky. Picking out an appliance is not something I’d feel sure of doing for someone else.

    • Meezly 12:38 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Also if you order new, they will take the old fridge away for you, just confirm that they will take it to a recycling depot (maybe an additional fee).

    • Alison Cummins 12:41 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Kate, yeah, the issue is not so much where to get a good deal — we have our favourites — but whether it’s possible to do so ethically.

      If I want the latest model of a fancy brand I don’t have to go in person but I do have to go in debt.

    • Dhomas 12:47 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I went to the new-but-dinged store out here in the East (Bon Prix
      https://maps.app.goo.gl/oFBujtSiCmVEomAi9) before the pandemic was officially declared to buy a freezer (they’d did about 10 already that day, so I wasn’t the only one with that idea). The prices seemed to have increased, but not quite gouging territory since the appliances were still cheaper than new, though I still feel like a good sale could get me a new appliance for the same or similar price. In any case, if you know what you want, you can call them and they’ll deliver to you for an extra 40$. Not sure if they’ll take away the old appliance as mine was not replacing anything.

    • Kate 12:52 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Should’ve mentioned that the Ameublement Laurier guys also took my old fridge away. I didn’t ask any questions, as I have no room to store an extra fridge had I not liked the answer.

    • JaneyB 13:19 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Alison, you could ask a friend to do the proxy shopping but they could take photos of options, phone or videoconference moments of decision-making etc. Also, in a pinch, we are still in the Big Fridge Season for a few more weeks so…a hard box outside in the shade? Your broken fridge is still as good as a styrofoam cooler so stuff frozen at night outside can be moved into the fridge by day to keep the lettuce cool.

    • Alison Cummins 14:26 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      We have gone with the “cover, but disclose” option. Mask, scarf, gloves; a store unlikely to be crowded with shoppers; keeping a safe distance from personnel; using a tap credit card and disinfecting it before and after use; and “careful, I might be contagious.”

      Probably not the most ethical choice—Big Fridge for another couple of weeks would probably be better—but for various reasons the one we are capable of.

      +++ +++ +++

      Yesterday a young man came by to install our Fibre To The Home, now that local use of telecom infrastructure has slowed our Netflix access to barely-useable. Partner warned him to be careful, assured him that we had cleaned, wore gloves and face scarf, kept a distance etc. Technician was very upset at not having been warned by dispatch but went ahead with the job anyway.

      Which raises the question: is Bell not giving their technicians training in how to deal with working in clients’ homes in the time of plague? Or are they, but it hasn’t sunk in yet?

      Back in the early ’90s when my sister was paying her way through med school by doing dirty jobs in hospitals, she learned that the operating theatre she had just cleaned had been used for surgery on an HIV+ patient. She was very distressed and stormed off to complain feelingly to her supervisor that she hadn’t been alerted. The supervisor said that’s right, she wasn’t alerted. She didn’t have to be. All patients were assumed to be HIV+, always, and universal precautions were to be in place, always.

      Oh. Yeah. Of course.

      She was a med student working in a known-to-be dirty environment, and she was diligent enough to escort each new date to the local STI clinic for mutual blood testing — often enough that they grew to recognize her — but she didn’t really grasp the implications for her job until confronted with them. It would not be surprising if Bell technicians were being given instructions but not fully grasping the implications until confronted.

      I hope that’s the issue, and not that Bell isn’t training their technicians.

    • Uatu 15:20 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      You never know. Maybe the work orders are taken by customer service over in India and relayed via computer to local dispatch. I work in a hospital and in our meeting about covid 19 my boss told us to assume that everything is covered in it so we didn’t get lax about hand washing etc. Extreme, but unfortunately in a pandemic this is the way to think regardless of your job or situation. It’s the new normal.

    • jeather 16:02 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Are there any local places that have senior hours? I keep hearing places that offer senior-only hours the first hour of the day and then a little note saying “except Quebec”. I can’t see any, but perhaps I missed it.

    • Michael Black 16:29 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      The Gazette article today said PA has a “senior hour”. Not clear if it’s all stores or just on Park ave. I thought other stores were doing it, but I wasn’t paying attention, so maybe not Montreal.

      I realize some of it is to let people in before the crowds, but 7 or 8am just seems ridiculous. I won’t be going then.

      Then there was a story about SAQ checking ID and keeping people over 70 out. As if older people are pariahs.

      Jean Coutu had plastic up in the actual pharmacy area, and signs on the door saying they only take debit or credit cards. Dollarama looked to be using only the automatic cashes. Pharmaprix had a guard, it looked like they were limiting the numbers. Just skipped it all. A week ago Friday I went to Aux Vivres to get some of their refrigerator stuff, even checking their website to see if they were open (they did have announcement that it was only takeout or delivery) and I had loaded my bag when the cashier said “we don’t take cash”. So out comes the stuff again “I guess I’ll starve” and they’ve lost a customer until things are normal. I wonder if they tossed the items I was buying.

      It’s bad enough the crowds (which have tapered off) and the people wearing masks, but now they don’t want our money?

    • JP 21:33 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I think the not taking cash thing is going a bit too far, especially at Jean Coutu! If it’s Starbucks or Second Cup, which I don’t consider essential, fine. But, a pharmacy!

      I have a credit card and a debit card, but I’ve had sudden lapses, where I’ve forgotten my pin numbers (I’m in my 30s…). I actually carry around some cash, in case that happens again. I also lost my credit card recently and it took a week to replace. What if I had lost my whole wallet? I could probably borrow some cash to get by for the week while cards were being replaced, but if places stopped accepting cash, that would suck

      I realize it’s less “clean” than just tapping, but it’s money and if you’re an essential service (i.e., pharmacy, grocery store, or gas station) you should be accepting it.

    • Kevin 23:04 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Anyone who refuses cash is a fucking idiot.
      Sigh. People should just shut up and listen to the experts: cash is not dangerous.

      Yes I’m angry. My wife is writing guidelines for doctors because she spent years running infectious disease labs before becoming an MD.
      People panicking over cash is STUPID.

    • Uatu 17:38 on 2020-03-22 Permalink

      Actually it might be a good idea to keep some old pennies in your pocket

      https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2013/10/why-coins-are-copper.html

  • Kate 10:55 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    I realize everyone in health care is run off their feet, but Santé Québec has not updated its COVID-19 totals from Friday, when it was 139. Bureaucracy will have its weekends, but this is a situation that transcends the standard working week – if only because so many of us are not working.

     
    • Matt 11:19 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Don’t they usually update it daily at ~1pm when Legault has his press conference? I’ve got to think they’ll do the same today.

    • Kate 11:21 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Perhaps it will be. Thanks.

    • Matt 11:22 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Hope so! Also in case it’s helpful, the Sante QC twitter account is usually the first place I’ve seen numbers posted: https://twitter.com/sante_qc

    • Ephraim 11:58 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      The numbers that I saw yesterday in Canada, for the most part were under the 33%, which is good. The US is about 45% per day. By Wednesday, unless testing kits are flying out really quickly, their numbers will LOOK like they are slowing down… if only for lack of kits.

    • Tee Owe 12:33 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Covid-19+ numbers are not really useful unless the entire population are tested. Otherwise it’s just a sampling of those deemed worthy of testing. Who deems and on what basis is not the same in every province or country. If the subset being tested is regularly re-tested then I guess the numbers could be compared to each other but I’m not confident of such stringency, The numbers that really count are how many need medical care, how many are in ICU and on respirators (unless everybody gets tested) – oh, and how many died. Sorry, but that’s how it is.

    • Kevin 12:46 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      The province shifted from twice daily updates to once a day at 1pm midweek. Wednesday?
      The number of negative tests is also useful.

    • Alison Cummins 14:47 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      181.

    • Kate 16:13 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Thanks. I’d listened to the Legault-Arruda Hour and put it up in the sidebar.

      Five deaths here so far – four of them in the same old folks’ place.

    • steph 17:38 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

    • Kate 17:50 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Good source, steph. Thank you.

    • Raymond Lutz 21:02 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      It would have been be great if every country followed the best student in the class for their reports… check https://www.cdc.go.kr/board/board.es?mid=&bid=0030

    • Raymond Lutz 22:31 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      @Tee Owe, from our demographic profile and data at statista (“How COVID-19 Affects Different U.S. Age Groups”) I calculated that 3.5% of declared canadian cases will need an ICU bed.

      NB: for those interested, I’ll post daily a graph of total reported covid-19 cases for some chosen countries (including Canada) on https://twitter.com/lutzray (bridged from my mastodon timeline). The data scrapped from worldometers.info lags somehow but stays current day to day.

      Geek note: on a semi-log scale, no need to normalize case numbers using each country population to plot cases per million inhabitants… since 1- what matters most is the slope and 2- all plots start at 100th case.

    • James 08:32 on 2020-03-22 Permalink

    • Raymond Lutz 11:28 on 2020-03-22 Permalink

      Any data geek knows a source of daily data about covid-19 cases for ALL Canadian provinces? It would be interesting to compare their respective rate of evolution (particularly ONT vs QC). I’m tempted to scrape and parse the SVG from the CBC.

    • Raymond Lutz 11:33 on 2020-03-22 Permalink

  • Kate 10:23 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    I’ve just suspended Google ads for the moment. I don’t think I should be profiting, in however minimal a way, from COVID-19, but it was also that I personally get waves of disgusting ads and if I don’t want to see them, I’m sure no reader does either. (I realize the ads are tailored to what else people are looking at, but I can’t figure out why Google has been showing me huge banners about earwax lately. Not a topic I’ve been researching.)

    I may eventually put up a Patreon to help pay for the blog’s expenses, but not now.

    The Google ads did pay for my server account and a bit over, by the way – but it’s been at the expense of making the blog a lot uglier and harder to look at. I don’t want that.

    Thanks all for your patience.

     
    • dwgs 10:31 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Earwax must be a thing, I’ve been seeing a lot of them too. Throw up the Patreon already, you already put in the time, no reason you should be out of pocket as well.

    • Michael Black 10:50 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I’ve seen the earwax ads too, and I’ve done nothing to attract them.

      Maybe there are some ads that are used as filler.

      But yes, generally ads follow you around, it’s not that amazon can read my mind.

    • Bill Binns 11:56 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Just my 2 cents but I don’t mind the ads. I have always felt that having some ads sprinkled throughout good content is a small price to pay in exchange for receiving that content for free. There are limits of course such as pop up video ads but I’m not seeing anything like that on your site.

      I don’t think it’s a bad idea but I get a chuckle out of the thought of you going to Patreon. Will there be blue check marks for donating commenters? Exclusive content? Access to all 17 years of archives?

      No earwax ads for me. A few weeks ago my wife asked me to track down a certain model of Ray-Ban sunglasses for her. Now I see Ray-Ban ads absolutely everywhere. Number two is scam homeopathic cures for toenail fungus. An affliction I have never suffered from, researched online or clicked on ever. Still they follow me everywhere.

    • Ephraim 11:59 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Kate – Your expenses haven’t stopped. Don’t worry about the ads and profiting from them. I certainly won’t judge you or anyone else for it… and I’m pretty sure most readers won’t either.

    • Tee Owe 12:25 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I’m with Bill and Ephraim on this – ad are everywhere, I filter them out, they’re not a problem. I appreciate having direct click-and-enter access to the blog and I prefer to have as few pay details on line as possible, however it works, Love the blog, thanks!

    • PO 12:27 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      None of the ads have ever struck me as clickbait or chumbox style nonsense. I don’t mind. Your blog is valuable, and nothing wrong with you having ads to support it.

    • Alison Cummins 12:47 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Earwax and toenail fungus are very small prices to pay for this site.

      You are not profiting from covid-19, you are profiting from your labours and specialized expertise.

      And yes, do put up a patreon too. Subscribers get a green tickmark against their comments. Righteousness is its own reward.

    • Kevin 12:48 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Listen to your users and put the ads back up Kate!

      😀

    • Alison Cummins 14:46 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      … but just because we can tolerate earwax and toenail fungus it doesn’t mean you should if you don’t want to. This is your workplace and you have a right to keep it clean and inoffensive.

      Do put up that Patreon.

    • Kate 16:14 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Oh, you got the toenail fungus too? There were also some nasty views of mold in houses that I was getting awhile back. I had to log in and shut those down.

      I will fix things up shortly.

    • Patrick 16:53 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Since I mostly read via RSS, I would be first in line to pay via Patreon.

    • Hervé 17:02 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I would definitely support you on Patreon

    • GC 19:38 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I also read via RSS, so I generally wasn’t seeing the ads. I did try to follow through to the site once in a while, however, because I figured the ads weren’t paying off for you if I wasn’t visiting the actual site.
      I’d say do whatever you want to keep this great service alive. Ads, Patreon…and the two aren’t mutually exclusive.

    • JP 21:53 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Kate, I very much enjoy your blog. I visit at least once daily, and when I’m out of town I love catching up. It’s also nice to read comments from your regulars, I’d be fine with ads and/or a Patreon. Thanks!

    • JaneyB 23:31 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I’m fine with either or both (ads or patreon, not earwax and toe fungus!). Also, now that I think of it, wasn’t there an Amazon wishlist on this site once upon a time? If Amazon has nixed that, could there be a link to such a list somewhere on this site?

  • Kate 09:52 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    The Journal finds that while grocery stores are getting bogged down with delivery requests and customers may be put on waiting lists, restaurants are feeling the opposite effect.

    As usual during crisis times, COVID-19 is bringing out the crooks, trying to falsely collect donations or sell fraudulent goods. (Even as I’m looking at this item in Metro, the animated ad banner above is trying to sell me hand sanitizer and wipes with the catchy phrase “En cas de pandémie, cliquez ici!”)

     
    • Ephraim 12:04 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I think in the case of restaurants that some people are worried that someone sick may come into work.

      Supermarkets may have no choice but to go to delivery/pickup in the next while. It’s certainly a lot more controlled to have a limited number of people in the store doing the shopping for people. Of course, they need to get Amazon efficient with pulling items… It’s not really efficient to have one person pull an order, when you can have a trolley with 6 baskets and go through the store pulling and dropping into the boxes. Oh and maybe they should start putting those orders into paper boxes. The boxes are fully recyclable, clean and easy to transport. You pull up, load in the marked boxes and go. Even on pick up, you can call into the store, they can pull the prepared boxes and put them on the sidewalk for you to pick up and go.

    • Tim S 14:09 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I did a pick up order this week, it was easy, and I was surprised at how few other people were doing it. While I waited for them to bring the order to the car I watched people flow in and out of the store, wearing masks, gloves, rubbing hand sanitizer. I actually almost didn’t do the pick up option because I worried about taking away a slot from a more vulnerable person, but only one other person had an order in the 15-20 minutes while I was there.

    • Chris 14:54 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I went to a grocery store yesterday and they now refuse cash. Anyone else seeing this?

      When stores won’t trade food for money, we could indeed be in for a rough time. The
      unbanked should not have to choose between starvation and theft, but it may yet come to that. 🙁

    • GC 15:16 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Why be worried that a restaurant worker might come in sick, but not that a grocery store worker might? (I realize people aren’t always rational, but I’m not sure why one would be more dangerous than the other.)

    • david100 16:10 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      I’ve been ordering out almost every meal, to try to keep the money flowing to the restaurants in my small way. My absolute worst fear is that the result of these measures is a giant wave of restaurant bankruptcies, and the face and character of the city permanently changes in a way even worse than it has been reformed by our terrible and suicidally culturally destructive land use laws.

    • Chris 16:20 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      david100, once this is over, people will again want to eat in restos, so when demand returns, so will supply (of restaurants), though it of course might be different restos as some go bust.

    • Mitchell 07:45 on 2020-03-22 Permalink

      As much as I would like to support the restaurants, it’s expensive to do so for each meal. If the stores can’t deliver, that’s going to be a real problem. Even if we stock up, we’re going to run out.

  • Kate 09:44 on 2020-03-21 Permalink | Reply  

    Rabbis are telling their flocks not to gather for Shabbat dinner while one ultraconservative Catholic group in Quebec City is stubbornly planning to hold a Sunday mass despite public health pleas to suspend such gatherings.

     
    • Uatu 12:40 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Just lock the doors of the church after the mass starts and quarantine all the attendees. ;P

    • Chris 15:02 on 2020-03-21 Permalink

      Well, if you genuinely believe in an eternal afterlife in paradise, and that Mass & Eucharist are a requirement to get there, then indeed it’s logical to take some risks with your finite earthly existence. Better to risk dying early on earth and make it to eternal paradise, than it live a little longer here but burn in hell forever.

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