You call it maize

I'm sorry people, I'll apologize right up front, because I was trying, I had intended, to keep my mouth shut about the coronavirus panic. And I mean exactly that: this is panic, not pandemic. Or perhaps better, and I do so love alliteration, a panic pandemic of powerful proportions. There: pop all those Ps.

Of the best advice out there I have not heard a thing - not one thing - which is not common sense anyway. I've avoided my elderly mother in recent years when I've had any type of illness. I wash my hands regularly. This is no different.

Or what makes it different (such as it is) is the panic. I would never, ever downplay the effects death has on the person who dies or their family. But as of this morning we are only at 3,200 cases in the US with only 68 deaths. Other things will kill more people this year. This does not merit the panic.

And it is panic. Last week at this time there were few thoughts if any about shutting down sports. Now everything's shut down. That's not sensible. That's not a measured response. It is panic.

I think what's most worrisome in this is that we'll never really know if the shutdowns actually ended the problem. Corona, or Covid-19 or whatever you want to call it, may have died quickly on its own without all the closings. But now that we've had the closings, if they seem to have worked, well, we better expect a major closing of everything once every year or two now, because the precedent has been set.

Calm down. Sit back and take a breath. Do the common sense things. In the meantime, I'm going to work. Ain't no media driven, government enhanced, stock market dragon gonna get my work done but me. Might as well do it.

You call it sensible. I call it fear mongering. Now that's a dragon which feeds itself all too well and easily, and recent events show. It's not getting fat on my time or dime.