Sigh.
I hate shopping. Al Gore, of course, invented the internet so that I never would have to enter a store. But, alas! We were low on dog food, and the three beasts only eat Kirkland Salmon meal kibble, available only at the local Costco. Off we went, expecting to confront rampaging mobs of Zombies doing battle over rolls of toilet paper . . . but, no. I had no need of my new Arizona-made Ruger 57 (review coming) or my new Texas-made STI Staccato 9 (review coming). The zombies must have known I was on my way, and stayed away. That's gotta be the explanation . . ..
The Costco here in Wilmington was not particularly crowded; the shelves seemed full to me of all kinds of stuff, admittedly, the sort of stuff I rarely buy. People were quite nice and civilized; no fighting over pasta or beans; no insults; no grappling over a solitary case of water bottles.
We got our 35lb sack of dog food, and a few other odds and ends, e.g., pimento cheese, kosher hot dogs, some hamburger meat, beef jerky (of course), ice tea, unsaltead nuts, and went to the register. Everybody in line, as well as the cashier, proved friendly, no panic, no rudeness, no comments about "hoarding," or the END. We took advantage of the trip to gas up the ol' Silverado ($1.88/gallon!)--no lines, no fighting over gasoline, etc. The apocalypse seemed quite distant on a sunny Carolina day.
Maybe, just maybe, folks in North Carolina haven't gotten the memo about the impending collapse of the universe, but at the Costco, the dog park, the local bbq establishment, they all seemed quite relaxed, a few even making jokes about the hysterical nonsense over the Chinese flu. My kind of people.
North Carolina. A good place to be when the zombies come around . . . I hear that the Ruger 57 is particularly effective at stopping zombies. I will let you know.
Dip, we Tar Heels have never done the panic thing. Too many generations of hurricanes have left us mentally prepared to cope.
ReplyDeleteBingo! Not to mention Sherman . . . but I won't mention Sherman . . .
DeleteYou are a gentleman, suh.
DeleteOur Southern cousins in North Carolina as well as North Carolinians we're privileged to have as friends are lovely people possessed of an abundance of common sense and wisdom. None are worried about the killer monster plague Corona and the zillions sure to perish.
ReplyDeleteIn our section of southwest Florida, largely still suburban, rural/agricultural, and solidly red, people are going about their business as usual.
Parking lots of hotels, motels, taverns, restaurants, shopping plaza and beaches are filled. Vacationers and locals are gamboling about the beaches, plucking seagulls. Well, OK, strike out the seagulls...
Publix grocery looks same as always, shelves stocked. Winter people historically clean out the Shredded Wheat and jug water, but this year, both are plentiful.
WalMart earlier this week, three ladies in the checkout line with me as well as the cashier expressed skepticism re overblown marxstream media hype. They saw it as deliberate, to incite panic to ruin the economy.
The cashier said the toilet paper hoarding cleaned out her WalMart for a day, quickly restocked the next, not repeated.
All stymied by the toilet paper fetish, speculating that blue state denizens feared draconian local quarantines.
The cashier noted we survived millennia without TP, but not without food, so why not fill the pantry and worry less about TP?
Well, that's the common sense behavior and thinking from our area of SW FL north of Fort Myers.
Wish we could report gas lines, TP brawls, 'old people dropping like flies', but can't. Seems citizens here are afflicted with common sense, critical thinking, and historical perspective.
One can only hope that when this fades in a couple weeks, the press is taken hard to task for its venal subversive lies.
The Left is hate. Revenge is its pastime. Genocide is its legacy.
That is good to hear, on one level. On a more conspiratorial level, it is clear that the Powers That Be -- who occupy the East Coast -- are diverting essential supplies from flyover country to their own bastions, leaving the benighted to fight over the last toilet roll.
ReplyDeleteTalking about toilet rolls, the Walmart in my part of the Great Southwest was well stocked with everything -- except toilet rolls. Why the panic about toilet rolls? Is Canada going to close the border and TP every tree along the 49th parallel to mock the stinking Americans?
To be serious for a moment, who started the run on toilet rolls. (Apologies for that nasty image!). Back to being serious -- was it CNN? NYT? Someone somewhere started a panic about perhaps the least useful thing to have around if Orange Man Bad imposes a shoot-to-kill order on anyone who fails to stay indoors and self-isolate. Who?
Back in the 70/80s an engineer named Dean Ing, iirc wrote a number of things re surviving nuclear fallout, among other things. One of his lashups that I remember was a fallout shelter air filter that featured cardboard boxes, primer paint, duct tape, plastic sheeting, and toilet paper rolls. Echoes from the past?
DeleteNo idea about the run on TP; however, we Americans are hardly alone in that regard -- certainly the Aussies and the Brits have had their issues with hoarding TP, etc.
DeleteStocking/hoarding bottled water is a completely irrational response. People are expecting water utilities to cut their lines? To punish them for not voting Bernie or what?
ReplyDeleteChina is claiming that the deaths in Wuhan are on the order of 3000 since December. That is barely distinguishable from noise for a metropolitan area of 11M, which should receive probably 5-10k death/month from old age. (Roughly 1% of population dying annually for a 100 year life-span, is 5-10k deaths/month for 11M people which is 5-10x the claimed fatalities.)
It's possible that China is under-reporting deaths by a large factor, but it would have to be huge to make it observable against just the typical background.
Virus and the threat are real, but the panic itself seems media-driven.
- reader #1482
I absolutely love ENC BBQ. The vinegar sauce is the greatest. I am interested in hearing about that 57 pistol. I have heard that the FN 57 has a lot of malfunctions, and the Ruger runs well. Up in Oregon Toilet paper is unobtainable, and flour and rice and pasta are getting hard to find. I suspect in a couple of months I will enjoy clearance prices on all those products.
ReplyDeleteIn Oregon, or in Portland?
Delete- reader #1482
I live in a southeast Portland suburb called Happy Valley.
DeleteRuns on toilet paper was started by Australia, who have no domestic toilet paper production. So when supplies started running short, they panicked.
ReplyDeleteSo our wonderful media, which is all about panicking people, saw what was happening in Australia, again with no domestic ability to produce tp, and saw an opportunity to start a panic in a nation that is all about domestic toilet paper production.
Media strikes again. Yay.
I don't know of a single state that doesn't have at least one pulp mill. Maybe Hawaii, as they seem to not want anything locally produced. And Alaska, maybe. Maybe Rhode Island. But anywhere else? If there are trees to be harvested there is a pulp mill somewhere, and the corresponding pulp industries, like, well, toilet paper.
Stupid media.
Been to the Philippines (where my wife is from). They use a small plastic bucket of water to wash with when done, then wash their hands. Let the TP run. Let the sheep panic.
ReplyDeleteIn SoCal their was a sudden run on milk when they closed the schools. As if the milk wont spoil after a week or so anyways. Morons.
Go for the organic milk.. stabilized for a couple months...
DeleteOr aseptically packaged milk. Used to keep a coupla flats on the tank. Would keep for quite some time. Dunno the actual drop dead date but we had some that lasted several months.
DeleteSeriously... if I were coordinating Trump's reelection, I'd take every one of the democrat candidates comments on the impeachment garbage, and contrast it with "... at precisely that time, in Wuhan, China, the threat the Democrats were trying to distract us from with this impeachment balderdash was gathering...."
ReplyDelete- reader #1482
Great idea!
DeleteI went to my local Costco Saturday. I should have known there might be an issue when I saw a police officer directing traffic IN THE PARKING LOT!
ReplyDeleteIt was a bit of a mob scene, no worse then before Christmas or Thanksgiving. There wasn't a roll of brain tissue to be seen and they were rationing bottled water to 2 cases per day. (I usually by 4)
Everyone was polite, professional and probably had a plan to kill everyone in the room. Oh wait, that was a Marine I think.
When I was dropping my allotment of water into my cart, There was someone behind me. I just picked up another case and offered to drop it in his cart. He thanked me.
The bad point was trying to check out. The lines reached halfway back to the end of the warehouse. Still, it only took about 20-30 minutes.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/862298659892492662/ (Costco waiting line)
On the other hand, when I went to my local supermarket, I decided to check out the paper products section. The only thing missing were the tunbleweeds.
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/71/99/25/7199254c47327bbcae32ecb998fd57e6.jpg (Supermarket)
This is in New Hampshire where we have had a massive outbreak of the beer virus. There must be at least 6 people who have tested positive. (Deep eyeroll)
The numbers say there's a 75% chance at least one of those 6 will be hospitalized for critical care (1 - 0.8 ^ 6). New Hampshire might get lucky. It appears that this virus has a reasonably threatening mortality rate, but is likely to wreak havoc by flooding hospitals with people who "would die but for modern respiration advances".
DeleteIt's likely our healthcare system can handle this, so long as people aren't deliberately stupid... like French NBA players.
Helps when the government doesn't actively stop the word from getting our, like our last-man-standing Communists in China (well, except for Bernie, of course, don't want to leave him out).
- reader #1482
My other numbers question... I don't get it... the hospitals in Wuhan were overrun, but the 'final numbers' seem nearly negligible.
ReplyDelete1000 covid Wuhan-muni-deaths/month (3000'ish dead in a metro-Wuhan over 3-months)
6400 typical Wuhan-muni-deaths/month (Typical annual death rate 7/1000 * 11M metro-Wuhanese / 12 months)
Increased death rate of 15%, from a serious pandemic?
Seems wrong:
- China could be significantly lying on fatality.
- Covid could put a large burden on hospitals without being fatal.
- I'm wrong on something here?
- reader #1482
Agree, something doesn't add up when you consider they had 16 new hospitals (in Wuhan? Or Hubei province?) that were closed down last week. And then there've been some reports here and in the UK that this could extend into 2021? I just don't see it unless there are parties deliberately stirring up panic in an attempt to defeat Trump this year.
DeleteI'm going with China lying. They are communists.
Deletethose called dead by other means(like lead poisoning or strangulation) aren't counted as "infected" even if they had the bug. so one way to reduce the public figures is to have a bit of shooting of those breaking quarantine-which I hear is not beyond the pale.
DeleteJust so you know Mr. Amselem ... just in case those crazy people from the eg other states who're running the dumb tp craze ... there's a plant I'm figuring ought to be pretty common 'round North Carolina - Anyway it's as we'uns whatever our ... hmmm "caliber" should know wherever we is.
ReplyDeleteAs the mood strikes:
Verbascum thapsus. More commonly known as 'mullein'.
And too - at least they're showing up all over now in my neck of the woods, jonquils. ... Not so much utility as a single leaf of mullein is indisputably but the womenfolk swear by any man who gathers 'em a clump pre-dispositionally.
Seein' as how your gun-tote is getting near respectable I reckon it's time you get to learnin' your woodscraft.
Just wouldn't do you not know mullein - despite the spellun.
Morels will be coming pretty soon and your bag's empty spots will be better left to the few cartridges of rat-shot as you think you might want.
There's something about the Deep South that is quite attractive.
ReplyDeleteMy Diplowife' old English teacher was dying in Mississippi, so we drove down to say goodbye. En route, we encountered people who rival the Thai for good manners. Back at work, when carrying burdens to go back to my DC-area classroom, a black kid whom I didn't know from Adam got the door for me I noticed the mannerisms, so I said, "Are either you or your parents from the Deep South?" He gave the shocked and surprised expression and said, "How did you know?" "Age and travel, I replied."
We were taught good manners in NC public schools way back when. Eg if a girl dropped her books in the hall, one of us boys would be ready to slide them back to her.
DeleteYikes, Whitewall!!! Where I grew up (DC suburbs), we now have the girls suing the boys for condescension or harassment if they dared pick up their books!
DeleteWent to Costco yesterday to get gas only as I had a quarter-tank remaining and the price was down to $1.69 (I'm in Ohio). There had been huge runs on our Costco the previous 2-3 days but the parking lot wasn't overly full so we braved the crowds and entered the building to get a few things (cat litter and so on). Imagine our surprise when the Costco wasn't even as busy as on a typical Sunday! It was one of our quickest trips ever! And they had everything, including TP. Guess the apocalypse isn't here just yet.
ReplyDeleteGas at Costco in Tucson was $2.05 yesterday. At least better than California. Venturing out for veggies in a few minutes. We'll see.
ReplyDeleteI finally had some free time this past Saturday to use some gift cards at Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabela's. The ammo shelves were largely bare, and many, many people were standing in line to purchase guns at each store. I shoot a variety of calibers, so I was able to get some uncommon stuff that was still on the shelf at both places.
ReplyDeleteDip, regarding your iced tea. I used to drink quite a bit of the sugar free version. I noticed changes so I looked into the sweetener. It is Acesulfame Potassium and is nasty. Also called Sweetener 950 and Ace K.
ReplyDeleteAcesulfame K contains the carcinogen methylene chloride. Long-term exposure to methylene chloride can cause headaches, depression, nausea, mental confusion, liver effects, kidney effects, visual disturbances, and cancer in humans.
It produced liver function effects, kidney effects and depression in me. I'm usually dismissive of these things but I actually experienced this and the symptoms have gone since I stopped drinking it.
DYOR.
One thing that will keep me a stranger in the Southland: I drink my tea straight. I think it came from having taught in Taiwan a number of years before the bubble tea craze hit. Back then, it was a straight, unadulterated Wulong, Jasmine, or Tie Guan Yin.
DeleteStephen does have a point there.
ReplyDeleteS'why I recommend if you must have it sweet, Southern Comfort.
Or Kessler's.
Went to Costco in Gilbert, AZ at 10:00 AM this monrring. Line wrapped almost entirely around the building. People have lost their minds!
ReplyDeleteHere in Salt Lake, no panic, no lines, everyone friendly. Of course we ran out of TP. Also ran out of milk for a day and a half, that means every fridge in the valley is packed. Went to the range yesterday and shot a little less retarded than usual even in the wind. Oh, I got a jug of rifle powder at Sportsman's Warehouse and they seemed to be fully stocked.
ReplyDeleteMy theory as to why the run on toilet paper. It came not from Wuhan but from Hong Kong. Hong Kong was to shut its border with the Mainland.....but 100% of paper products come from China! Thus began a one week run on toilet paper in Hong Kong. Of course, there are plenty of people in the US with relatives in Hong Kong. They got the idea that it best to stock up on a month's supply of toilet paper, "just in case". Of course, everyone else starts noticing that the toilet paper section is getting depleted, and decides that maybe they should buy an extra pack, "just in case". Next thing you know, a full fledged run in the US!
ReplyDeleteThat's my theory and I'm sticking with it.....
Last week at my local Costco they had toilet paper for about 11 minutes. A blue haired lady was able to get a box and she continued shopping. She was over in the wine area where a jackleg tried to steal her TP. The lady hit the jackleg with a bottle of wine. We now have cops at the front door and at the back between the paper products and meat counter. There are also limits on high demand items and only 50 customers in the store at one time.
ReplyDelete