Saturday 21 March 2020

Dining in the Last Chance Restaurant

Yesterday evening, as every last locus of conviviality – pubs, restaurants, cafes, clubs, leisure centres, libraries – prepared to close down on government orders, Mrs N and I determined to have one last meal out. Disappointingly, the arts centre bar that has become our local had already shut down, as had the best dining-out pub in the vicinity, so we took a train (at least they're still running) one stop to see what we'd find. Happily the best local restaurant was still open, so in we went. Two jolly ladies were drinking in the bar front of house, but we had the large dining area to ourselves for some while. Eventually another (much younger) couple turned up, then a table of four (younger again) and one more couple – and that was it. It all felt extremely strange, like the last days of... What? England as we know it, I suppose, at least for a while – a while that might be long and wearisome.
  Whatever the health arguments, is it really wise to close things down on this kind of scale? The effects will be profound. To quote R.R. Reno's editorial in First Things:

Earlier generations understood that institutions anchor our lives. That’s why German children went to school throughout World War II, even when their cities were being reduced to rubble. That’s why Boy Scouts conducted activities during the Spanish flu pandemic and churches were open. We’ve lost this wisdom. In this time of crisis, when our need for these anchors is all the greater, our leaders have deliberately atomized millions of people. 
Society is a living organism, not a machine that can be stopped and started at our convenience. A person who is hospitalized and must lie in bed loses function rapidly, which is why nurses push patients to get up and walk as soon as possible after sicknesses and operations. The same holds true for societies. If the shutdown continues for too long, we will lose social function
I hope he's wrong.
  On last night's news, just to add insult to injury, there was Fergal 'make 'em cry' Keane in the Derbyshire village of Eyam, telling the oft-told story of how the villagers quarantined themselves to save others from the plague. Obviously we were being invited to draw lessons from this, and – absurdly – to equate Covid-19 with bubonic plague. I'm glad to say Fergal didn't manage to draw a tear from the doughty locals.

Meanwhile, as I discovered this morning, panic buying has now reached the point that not a toilet roll is to be found on sale for miles around. Some people seem already to have lost social function.

9 comments:

  1. The loss of 'social function' was already embedded c/o the mobile 'phone which, like Covid-19 (will there be a Covid-20?), swept around the globe quite quickly. With more than 1300 dead already, we are ahead of you here in La La Land, and almost totally locked-down. But the signs are that the human spirit will not be as easily extinguished as Reno fears. We are allowed to visit the Quack, the Chemist, the Petrol Station, and the Supermercado - and we can walk the dog, but only in order for Towser to do his or her business. The result? If you want to go for a stroll (and who doesn't?), you take a shopping bag, in case you might be challenged by Plod. The loo-roll fetish is in its pomp here too - but a friend buys kitchen roll, and after cutting the square into two pieces, stacks them neatly on the low level cistern. Beer - like loo-roll, seemingly very popular - except for the brand Corona, which simply languishes on the metal shelf. And yesterday, coming out of Aldi, a man walking a stuffed dog on wheels, bringing a smile to anybody who saw him. So, worry not R R Reno - todo maravilloso on the Iberian Peninsula.

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    1. At Scott Circle a few blocks north of the White House, there is a monument to Hahnemann, the father of homeopathy. I've been thinking that a few youngsters should get a photo of themselves next to the monumument, hoisting Coronas next to the word "Similia Similibus Curentur".

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    2. Excellent idea, George!

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  2. Glad to hear it, Mm – very encouraging. Animo! Ya terminamos. And meanwhile KBO.

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  3. One presumes that the German schoolboys and their masters took shelter when the air-raid sirens went off.

    In the Washington, DC, area, milk, bread, water, and perhaps toilet paper have a way of vanishing when a blizzard is forecast. I find it ridiculous, but am not so astonished at the disappearance of toilet paper now. Perhaps when the shut-down ends the hoarders can tee-pee one another's houses. (Or is that practice simply an American custom?)

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  4. Tee-peeing? I think it might be...

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    1. It is practiced mostly by high-school students. Persons stand on opposite sides of a house, throwing rolls back and forth until the house is well-draped. I don't think it is especially common--I may have seen a house so treated once or twice in my life.

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  5. Well, it could certainly play a part in the celebrations when they sound the all clear.

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    1. Particularly if the population singles out the hoarders' houses.

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