tomversation

The PPP not the PPE

ruth-chris-print2 PPP and PPE are two separate things – PPP is the Paycheck Protection Program and PPE is the Personal Protective Equipment – two things many of us need these days.

I signed up for the PPP a few weeks ago and Chase Bank has been on top of it. They have emailed me every step of the way to tell me the process is going on, up until the money ran out, because of schmucks like Shake Shack, Harvard University and Ruth Chris’s Steak House.

I know they returned the money, but they are all still schmucks, but I don’t give them business anyway so I can’t boycott them and Harvard, well, whenever I am in Cambridge, which is often, I do visit the Harvard grounds, but next time, hopefully November, I’ll spit on the lawn.

Here locally, ritzy Fisher Island, the most expensive zip code in the U.S., got approval for a $2 million forgiveable loan! It seems that the owners may have taken the board to task and had them not accept the money. The greed in our country is sickening. Dallas hotel chain Ashford, Inc. received $$60 million and they are keeping it, they also put in for more of the newly released batch of money the government set forth. Their goal is to get $126 million! AutoNation was able to receive $77 million but they say they will return it now. These two greedy schmucks are now accounting for a very large part of the money that was released Friday by the federal government.

As for the measly few bucks I am asking for, after all this greedy brouhaha happened, I got another email from Chase telling me that the SBA, Small Business Assoc. turned down my request and Chase gave me a link to reapply. It seems that I left so much out of the first attempt regarding papers and licenses and proof of my business, and I am grateful to be able to reapply with the proper paperwork.

I got another email yesterday from Chase. This one was sort of an admonishment for the greedy millionaires in our country. You can see it here. “New guidance for the PPP.” They are giving these greedy folk a chance to redeem themselves, but unless they get caught do you think they will redeem themselves?

From Chase Bank:

We continue to work hard to prepare as many applications as possible for processing when the SBA begins taking new applications. However, the SBA recently issued new guidance that we want to communicate to customers whose application is in process as well as those who have already received funding.

The new guidance strengthens some of the language regarding qualifications for a Paycheck Protection Program Loan. Specifically, we would like to remind you:

When you applied you certified that “current economic uncertainty makes this loan request necessary to support the ongoing operations of the Applicant.”

You have the opportunity to withdraw your application if you do not feel you meet this criteria.

If you’ve already been funded, and you believe you do not meet this criteria, you can repay your loan by May 7, 2020 and the SBA will treat that repayment as being in good faith.

If you cannot certify and want us to stop processing your application or you want to return your funding, you’ll need to follow the instructions at the bottom of this email.

Then it goes on to say that large publicly held businesses cannot apply and that when you apply you are signing into law that you are telling the truth, etc. etc.

Dear Mr. Cuomo

I was mentioning that people’s true selves, their true spirits come out in times like these.

Here is the letter New York’s Gov. Andrew Cuomo received from a selfless retired Kansas farmer named Dennis Ruhnke, Gov. Cuomo read it at one of his press conferences and then posted it online, humanity at its best:

cuomo-letter

Dear Mr. Cuomo,

I seriously doubt that you will ever read this letter as I know you are busy beyond belief with a disaster that has befallen our country. We are a nation in crisis, of that there is no doubt. I’m a retired farmer hunkered down in northeast Kansas with my wife who has but one lung and occasional problems with her remaining lung. She also has diabetes. We are in our seventies now and frankly I am afraid for her. Enclosed, find a solitary N95 masks, left over from my farming days. It has never been used. If you could would you please give this mask to a nurse or doctor in your state. I have kept four masks for my immediate family. Please keep on doing what you do so well. Which is to lead.

Sincerely,
Dennis and Sharon

Dennis thought the governor would never read the letter. By now I think the whole world has read it.

Hollywood, the beginning

I’ve been watching this 13 part documentary about the film industry just called, “Hollywood,” it’s on YouTube. If you’re bored these days, this is something you might like. I’m still trying to catch up with Shameless and I love watching Breaking Bad, which I never get tired of, but this is something you don’t have to really think about and it’s enjoyable.

It’s great if this subject interests you, it starts from silent films and explains how it all begin in Ft. Lee, New Jersey and then ended up in Hollywood, CA. Each episode is 50 minutes or so and it’s mostly scenes from the actual movies they are talking about with commentary and interviews from people such as DW Griffith, Louise Brooks, Hal Roach and so many old stars and directors from the time. Since the documentary was filmed in 1980, many of these people were still around to discuss the time and the films and you see the movie footage of what they are discussing.

It’s interesting how actress Lillian Gish and writer Adela Rogers St. Johns, who thinks she was part of it all, feel that silent films were the be all and end all and when sound started, it was the beginning of the end of the art. Seriously.

Here is the first episode and from here you can go through the rest of them.

I’ve been watching it on tv where I have the YouTube app, so it’s more enjoyable on the large screen.

Who has the best mask design?

masks1

There’s a new fashion statement these days – face masks, and I’m here for it! Have you noticed all the different designs? I ordered a few and they came from multi-colored fabric, but I’ve been using the plain white one that I got at the doctor’s office.

I saw a cartoon where a lady was color coding her many masks to match up with her clothing.

I’ve noticed all the tv reporters have their own colors and styles. First it was the book shelves on their Skype reports, now it’s the masks.

masks10

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I see your true colors

true-colors It’s interesting how people’s true personalities come out during this time of stress. I’m happy to say that it looks like most of us are rising to the occasion, but then there are those few who are miserable and they want to make you miserable – not on purpose, it’s just their way.

I have friends who I have not spoken with in weeks because I turned them off. I didn’t dump them, I don’t dump people, but I do distance myself.

One of my best friends, who is always abrasive and rude, was quite rude via text. How do you get rude and obnoxious via text? I mean, in person, you can easily blurt something out, but I would think with a text you have time to look it over and remove the rude parts. Anyway, we have not spoken in a month. We will again, but not right now.

Others are negative about everything. I’m not that way, for years when I wrote the daily news in our town, I was abrasive at times, I fought with politicians and others and it got ugly sometimes, but that’s not me. I turned into something I didn’t like. But during these stressful times do I need to hear other people’s problems? I don’t mean serious problems, I mean daily day to day problems like you can’t find toilet paper, or you can’t get the SBA to answer your phone calls or you don’t have any business – I don’t either – I can’t do anything about it for myself but I don’t dwell on it. We’re all stressed, it’s how you handle it.

quit

I found out that by avoiding things, or thinking about things I don’t like, it helps me out. I know it sounds like a simple thing, but it protects my sanity. My cousin texted me the other day, sad and concerned about Broadway being closed. But while she is a New Yorker she lives far from Broadway and only goes a few times a year. I don’t think she would be going during this time of year, so I told her to just imagine it like it always is and don’t look at pictures of the empty streets. Make believe it is business as usual. Make believe Times Square is full of people and all is right with the world.

I’m using that with friends who insist on going out where they should be sheltering in place. They think it’s ok to go out daily for food or drive up two counties away to be with their family or run daily or just not stay home. I know it’s none of my business, but I feel the longer we prolong this thing, the worse it will be. So I’ve taken to ignoring them and what they are doing, just to get it out of my head. Who am I do judge them, although the air they breathe affects all of us these days. They want to be selfish, fine.

My favorite saying is, “It’s not about how many times you fall down, it’s about how many times you get up.” That saying has been attributed to so many people – Lincoln, Knute Rockne and others. I’m not sure who said it, but I love it. I have always lived by it.

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Caronavirus is our Jaws

I was watching Jaws the other day. I don’t know if it’s my favorite movie, but I must have seen it 100 times. Every time I come across it on tv, I stop what I’m doing and I watch.

I happened to turn it on in the exact scene that reminded me of Florida these days. Mayor Larry Vaughn of Amity Island in Jaws wants the beaches open for July 4th through the whole summer, while the police want the beaches closed to protect people from the shark, the mayor wants the beaches open; sort of like the dolts in Florida these days who feel the beaches should be open, just adding to the spread of caronavirus.

No sheltering in place for these idiots.

The reason I like Jaws is not about the shark, the part I like is the little beach town in New England and that point in time, the mid 1970s. I love that. It reminds me so much of the Hamptons where I spend part of the summer with my cousins and I am hoping to be able to be there this summer, but if these idiots in parts of Florida are still spreading the virus by opening beaches and other businesses, who knows what summer will bring.

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Three stories about today

CBS Sunday Morning had some great stories this week, they were all feel good stories about the caronavirus and our sheltering in place. This first one is of interest to me because I’ve been thinking it – it’s about the backgrounds you see on people’s zoom reporting. It’s funny. I like the Lady Gaga one because she is always all out there being the most of the most and yet her home background is so plain – it’s her home office. Others go out of the way to show off awards and things like that.

I often wonder what I would show. I don’t zoom, I do Facetime, but with people who know me and have been here, so I don’t have to choose a background to impress.

Another story was about artist Nadir Nelson and his work. He’s an award winning artist and you can see why here.

Beven Strickland of North Carolina got up off her couch and headed to NYC to help in the hospital. It’s a beautiful story about a beautiful hero.

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Word is getting out

I ran into a couple of neighbors the other day – downstairs at the front gate, we were waiting for deliveries – Instacart and UPS – our connections with the outside world. They mentioned my comics, they knew that publication date is coming up – May 4th.

Later in the day another neighbor called to say, “hi,” and check up on me and she knew about the comics, too. So word is getting out!

I’ve been promoting it a lot on social media and a couple of local publications wrote about my comics venture – when I say local, I mean local, one was a neighborhood newsletter and the other was a chamber of commerce newsletter – but still, I was well known around here for many years, so people are interested in what I’m up to these days and I’m glad to have the publicity for my Tomversation comic. And the nice part is that they contacted me and asked me about Tomversation.

It’s odd, as the editor of our daily news, I was in the middle of everything for so many years, now I am almost invisible. I choose the invisible part, I never was one for being “out there” but I had to be due to the situation. But now I liken myself to that old American Express commercial – “Do you know me?” Remember that? People were known for their names, but not their faces. I like that. I like it that way.

Anyway, again – my Tomversation comic panel will run daily starting May 4th. You can find it three places –
Online at TomFalco.com
Instagram here: instagram.com/tomversation.toons and at
Facebook here: facebook.com/Tomversation.toons

Hope to see you at one of these places. Thanks!

Enough with the solitude already

solitude

This sheltering in place is starting to get to me. A couple of weeks ago (was it a couple of weeks, or one week or a month, who knows anymore at this point) I said that I could live like this – alone in the woods or in Alaska in solitude. But this has gotten old faster than I thought. Maybe I could be alone in the woods for a week now, maybe a few days.

It’s early Saturday morning. I miss getting up and heading to the gym on Saturday mornings, in the quiet, where the village is quiet and free of people. Wow, there I go again, liking to be free of people. But I mean only when I’m out early in the morning at the gym. Then of course after the gym at breakfast – I like it quiet then. Then when I get home and watch tv. On Saturday mornings I watch a bunch of cooking shows on PBS, I barely boil water, but I find the cooking shows very relaxing. I like to eat, I don’t like to cook. After that I do my day whatever that is, but of course it always involves people, which is the big thing missing now – people.

I’m rambling on. I keep thinking of summer, hoping we will all be set free and can travel and have a normal world, but how will that be? Will we still be wearing masks when out in public? What will the subway be like? What about bars and restaurants? I’m sure hand shaking is a thing of the past, but I don’t care about that, and that ubiquitous kiss on the cheek or both cheeks will end, that I will not miss, I was never a fan of that.

One day at a time, that’s how I’m taking it. My life moved in slow motion for so many years. I would tell people that a week felt like a month. I didn’t know the reason why and I didn’t want to know out of fear of ruining that. It’s a great thing when your life moves in slow motion, but now it’s moving fast, which is kind of weird since you would think out of pure boredom it would move slow, but it’s the opposite. It’s Saturday again? Wasn’t it just Saturday?

I keep thinking of years from now when we tell young people what it was like in 2020 – how the whole world shut down, how we were all in self isolation, under house arrest. I don’t wish to rush my life, but I sort of look forward to the future.

The sound of silence

silence It’s so quiet outside. It’s almost like being back 100 years or more.

Sure inside we have the tv and computer on but outside there is not much traffic, including air travel – so we don’t have many planes overhead or cars on the street.

The Earth is recovering from abuse. The ozone layer is closing, oceans and waterways are getting cleaner and clearer, there is much less air pollution and less movement on the ground is stopping earthquakes from occurring. And animals are reappearing.

In Lake Michigan, algae blooms are disappearing and the water is clearing up so much that hundreds of shipwrecks are showing up on the sandy bottom.

The planet is healing.

There are sounds we don’t hear anymore, things from the past – like typewriter bells and a tv dial, cash registers, rotary dial phones and such. And today it’s mechanical things like cars on the road and planes in the air to a big degree.

I read recently that 74 miles of Oakland streets will close to cars to give walkers, bicyclists exercise room during coronavirus stay-home order. Streets closed to cars.

the-earth Things I do hear are more birds chirping and singing in the morning and crickets and water gurgling. And at night it’s mostly silent. And friends are silent, the ones who are drama-filled know I won’t be part of that, so that’s been silenced in my life, too.