The Before Times & The New Yorker

During a conference call this morning when it wasn't my turn to talk, I went downstairs to my kitchen and cleaned up some clutter. In a stack of stuff, I found an unread copy of the New Yorker from the middle of February, which means it was probably written at the end of January and early February before COVID-19 was discovered in the U.S.

Oh, how much our world has changed since then! When I flipped through the magazine, I noticed two things:

1. Things that changed
2. Things that knowing what we know now, seem very eerie.

Travel

First, there was still travel and cruise ships, as evidenced by the ad on the inside cover, to Italy, no less! The eerie part is this trip happens to skip Lombardi in northern Italy. Did they know?

In this travel article, The Transformative Twenties, an interviewee attempts to name this decade less than two months in and before corona virus hits.

Restaurants

Movies in Theaters
Not just Netflix...

"Her activities revolve around her home life..." I have more than enough of my home life. I think I can skip this one.


Performing and Fine Arts
There used to be plays and ballet and art exhibits.

Investing in the Stock Market

Surprise! Your portfolio will lose 25% of its value! In a week!

Paper Books

Volcanoes are for pussies.

(Okay, maybe not. Yeah, Corona isn't as bad as Vesuvius. Or the London Blitz.)

I think I'll skip Black Cathedral about the "temple of end times."

Now for the eerie and the weird...

Valentine's gifts for flu season, or Corona season? Purell, a biohazard suit and roses with a description of how they smell?

Weeks before a deadly virus comes to the US, Shouts & Murmurs is about a will?

Here are some of interesting cartoons where I've added a second caption.

This will never happen again: people riding on the subway and getting close to each other. "No, after you..."

After being quarantined with your "loved one."

Because there are no restaurants...

Yeah.

Sharing food from the same plate? Never again!

At least they are six feet away...

Waiting for Corona?

Before I get to the best cartoon, here are two happy/funny things:

Gotta love jewelry. Portable wealth, good for the end of times.

And the grand winner...