Blue Square Thing

I think it's possible to argue that the context in which they're posted is important. For example, posting this Tweet in the specific thread context looks as if it's deliberately attempting to provoke a reaction rather than anything else: Not that I have a problem with that Tweet, and I imagine that I'd get along famously with eiredoire4 as is happens, but it is all about context. And by not commenting, you invite us, for some reason, to imagine our own context. No one here was wishing ill health on Johnson. That's been made explicitly clear in previous posts, but I'd be doing the board as a whole a disservice if I didn't point out that there are a great many issues with Johnson's administration and its management of the pandemic. For example, this is a Tweet I could post randomly without context from this morning: I mean, it probably works without much context actually, certainly where it is in this thread just now. It's possible to be critical of Johnson without wishing him dead. Fwiw, I'm not sure that all the criticisms in that Tweet are entirely justified, certainly mass testing the public is a tricky one just now, and I'd argue that being part of the administration that has continued to cut the health service over a long period of time is actually a stronger criticism, but there you are. Anyway, it's a lovely day. I'm going to go and dig some of my garden rather than sit in front of a screen.

^ this If I'd gotten ill I wouldn't have even been admitted to hospital - and I'm about the same age as him. I'd have been told to stay at home until I couldn't speak. He was on significantly less oxygen than the threshold for admittance to an intensive care bed.

Now they can give the bed to someone who actually needs it.

Not olive oil?

Yep. So much. Apparently around a third of Britons believe that police powers go too far as well. Or, alternatively, a third of Britons are idiots who deserve a thwack round the ear. You're becoming more like us by the day. I believe they're all your fault. As much as I'd like to take credit for them. In my day we made do with trampolines strung over pits on grass alongside the promenade.

Yes, I think I read the same sort of thing - the biggest outbreak in Israel is an ultra-orthodox town iirc. We have the same issue here:

There seem to be lots of examples of orthodox Jewish communities being really badly hit by this around the world. I'm sure there are a host of reasons why. Are there simply less of those communities in your part of the world?

Add a touch of balsamic vinegar to that oil and you're talking.

Greek is bold.

We have the same issue here with Momentum loon spuds claiming that they'll refuse to support Starmer as Labour leader. I've voted Green, for example, in the past. On principle. But there are times when any vote for anyone other than a main candidate is, essentially, a vote for someone hideous like Trump. In this case, principles are worth nothing - any vote for anyone other than Biden is essentially a vote for Trump. Any abstention is a vote for Trump.

Extra virgin?

3 March: shaking hands with "everybody" at a hospital where there were cases. Was going along with the idea of herd immunity it seems as well - characterised, apparently, by his chief advisor as the idea that if a few elderly people die as a result then, well, that's OK. And, for the record, his party have been cutting NHS capacity to the bone for the last ten years under the cover of "austerity". In ICU as a precaution currently apparently. Joe Public is told not to go near hospital if they can still talk. So, although I'm sympathetic of anyone caught in such a predicament, he's getting better care, earlier than I would.

Did you never get the "power lines/phone masts linked to cancer" thing? The specific background to this is here: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/5g-coronavirus-conspiracy-theory Interesting example of the ways that loonspuddery works on social media, ending with the inevitable: But please read all of the article. It's monumental and well worth the time. RT is heavily involved and Infowars gets a mention as well...

I love that bit of Italy.

Yes, we had parents sending their kids into school with colds and coughs just at the time the government here was telling them not to. Pretty soon had the staff were ill and the school had to close to some year groups because teachers can actually take advice rather than ignore it (well, most of them anyway...) My son had a temp of 38+ C (that must be in the 100s - it was above the level that was supposed to be an issue) and a cough mid-March; I've had a cough for a month or so that was quite nasty for a bit at the same time. My wife felt a bit rotten for day or so - so we may well have had it, but without any way to tell.