We begin August 2020, week twenty-one of the pandemic
shutdown, with the continuing unknown, unknowns.
From baseball, hospitalizations, Tik Tok, daily menus, never
really knowing what day it is, changing strategies in business daily, there are
just too many unknown, unknowns.
Many of us feel like we are living in a twilight zone: afraid
to go out, each day our leaders have different excuses and strategies, I have
had a constant ill feeling in my stomach.
I even tried to learn Spanish, a disaster. The solution –
trust your family and close friends, read anything, and stay off social media
(seriously).
GRIM FIRST: California
recorded its first coronavirus-related death of someone younger than 18 on
Friday. The unnamed teenage victim had underlying health conditions, according
to the California Department of Public Health, whose director Dr. Sonia Angell
referred to the death as “a tragic and powerful reminder of how serious
Covid-19 can be.”
SOMETHING SMELLS – No it is
not a hockey road trip bus ride to Troy, New York, but the Claremont Club. The
Claremont Club is (was) a 10,000-member athletic club in Claremont, California.
Forty plus years in operation with profits in 2019 of more than $14 million.
This writer was a member, honestly, I participated not in the
tennis, racquetball, Olympic pool, or weight room. I enjoyed the steam room,
jacuzzi, and the bar. 😊
Nevertheless, the club closed it doors this past weekend, the
reason, the pandemic and a loss of 1,200 memberships. They had 10,000 members,
one of the top clubs in the country, making profits, why close. I get it, times
are tough, but based on what I know they could have lasted into the next year.
There is more to this closure, stay tuned.
COLLEGE
CHRONICLES - The American four-year college experience has
always been more than learning the classics, or surviving organic chemistry, or
being versed in existential philosophy, or acquiring job skills. Most students
who attend college — whether at a big state school or a small liberal arts
college — will meet lifelong friends. Some will find their partner. Others will
begin their careers. All of them will create cringe-worthy memories they will
later try to scrub from social media.
The pandemic is testing
whether any of that will happen this fall.
College administrators
are scrambling to figure out how to provide their students not just an
education but the experience they’ve marketed for years as worth an exorbitant
sticker price. Some students are weighing whether to take a gap year.
We asked four college
and university leaders from around the country to learn how they are preparing
for the pandemic’s first fall semester. At Colby College, students will return
to campus in Waterville, Maine, at the end of August where students, faculty
and staff will be tested three times in the opening weeks of the semester and twice
a week after that. At Rice University in Houston, Texas, students will be
tested as soon as they arrive and throughout the semester. They’ll also have
smaller classes: In-person classes will be capped at 25 students.
Students at Texas
A&M University in College Station will move into their dorms over 10 days
starting Aug. 8. More than 50 percent of the university’s classes will be held
in person. College football is also restarting in late September, with the
Aggies playing a conference only schedule to a half empty stadium. That’s still
55,000 students and fans. Washington University in St. Louis pushed back its
start date by a month and is reducing the overall number of students in dorms —
everyone will have a single room.
Do you think that some
colleges won't survive the pandemic? How do you avoid becoming one of those?
Colby College president
David Greene: Colby is very strong and is not struggling. In a normal year, we
would have 2,000 students on campus. We have 2,100 students now who have
indicated that they’re going to be here this fall. We’re putting $10 million
into a combination of testing and other mitigating strategies to protect the
community.
Are you planning on
having some classes outside?
Rice University
president David Leebron: We’re constructing a number of tents and special
facilities. In the end, those may be more used for gatherings other than
classes. My own thing now is if somebody does want to meet with me in person,
then let’s go sit eight feet apart outside on a bench or something.
Why was it important to
resume college football?
Texas A&M University
president Michael K. Young: It’s part of the university experience for some of
our students. It’s a very critical part of their educational opportunity and
experience. Sports presents opportunities for students to develop camaraderie
and learn how to support each other.
What do you think
students will miss out on most this fall?
Washington University in
St. Louis provost Beverly Wendland and interim vice chancellor for student
affairs Rob Wild.
Rob Wild: We are a
high-touch undergraduate residential experience. Most of our students live in
university-owned housing. We have a great Division III athletic tradition. We
have many signature events throughout the semester. We’re really good at doing
things together and in person. They are going to miss, like we are, the ability
to do that.
How are you rethinking
the admissions process?
Beverly Wendland: Our
admissions office, starting in the spring, took on some very creative and
effective mechanisms for virtual visits for students: small group sessions with
our dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and other people involved with
admissions and academics to help students meet one another, meet our
leadership. We’re further honing and refining some of that programming. Because
of the difficulty in being able to sit for some of these exams, we have gone
test optional for this coming year, but we haven’t determined yet what it will
be for the following years.
If more students decide
to gap year this year, what does that mean for the high school graduating class
of 2021?
Rob Wild: I have one of
those class of 2021 high school graduates living in my home, so I’ve been
thinking about that on a personal level. We’re heavily recruiting already the
class that would enroll next fall, and we will continue to do that.
STAT OF THE
DAY - 2 times a week
That is how often Yale
University plans to test students who return to campus this fall.
BACK-TO-SCHOOL:
is the
second-biggest shopping season, after the holidays. At a time when stores are
already struggling, traditional sprees are expected to be smaller with students
learning at home.
Laptops are closing the
gap for some merchants: The National Retail Federation forecasts a
record-breaking back-to-school season because of more being spent on
electronics for at-home learning.
Any uptick in demand for
electronics will "be offset by those households with one or more parents
laid off or unemployed because of the pandemic."
Amazon, Walmart, Target,
Best Buy and Apple are positioned to benefit from the online learning shift.
Traditional clothing
stores will struggle.
Carter's, the kid
apparel company, cut its back-to-school inventory.
The retail apocalypse is
being accelerated by new realities caused by the pandemic, like virtual
schooling. The result could be more dominance by the already biggest players
that can quickly pivot.
Macy’s, which is
struggling like other department stores, is using a new slogan: "No matter
how we school, let’s be ready."
🛍️ More retail woes ...
Lord & Taylor, the oldest U.S. department store, known for its upscale
fashions and extravagant holiday window displays, sought bankruptcy protection
in Richmond yesterday.
The company was founded
in Manhattan by two English immigrants in 1826.
BIRTHDAYS THIS WEEK – Birthday wishes
and thoughts this week to Tony Bennett (94), Reggie Dunlop …famous for wasting
time, Issam Ghazzawi, …famous faculty
member, Corlan Harrison ….famous community leader, Dustin Hoffman (83), David
Letterman (67), Alessandro Suffredini
…famous nephew.
SPACE - NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken splashed down in the
Gulf of Mexico after a historic flight to and from the International Space
Station, powered by SpaceX.
The landing, the first splashdown by U.S.
astronauts in 45 years, begins a new NASA phase tied to partnerships with
private companies.
GOOD READ - Before he died, the civil-rights icon John Lewis wrote this final essay, to be published on the day of his funeral. (The New York Times)
MARKET
WEEK -
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We
summited the earnings mountain last week with dozens of big names and are now
on the way back down, which should give stocks a bit of a breather. So far,
reporting S&P 500 companies performed better than expected in Q2 (though
"expected" was a profit drop of more than 40%).
Crypto:
Bitcoin had itself an eventful weekend, rising above $12,000 before dipping
slightly. It’s significantly outpaced gold and the major equities indexes this
year.
TROUBLE
AHEAD - Real
gross domestic product (GDP) decreased at an annual rate of 32.9 percent in the
second quarter of 2020, according to the "advance" estimate released
by the Bureau of Economic Analysis. ... The "second" estimate for the
second quarter, based on more complete data, will be released on August 27,
2020.
Neither
the Great Depression (1929-1933) nor the Great Recession (2007-2009) nor any
other slump over the past two centuries have ever caused such a sharp drain on
the economy.
VEEPSTAKES
- On
Sunday, a Biden aide maintained that 11 women remain in the mix, despite most
of the attention in recent weeks swirling around five women: Harris, Warren,
Rep. Karen Bass, Sen. Tammy Duckworth and former National Security Adviser
Susan Rice.
The
Swami likes California Senator Kamala Harris, but I would place a side bet on
California Congresswoman Karen Bass.
DRIVING
THE WEEK
– Continued talks on another stimulus package
will remain the key factor for markets and the economy … Senate Banking on
Wednesday at 2:00 p.m. holds a markup hearing to vote on the nominations of
Hester Peirce and Caroline Crenshaw for the SEC and Kyle Hauptman to be a
member of the National Credit Union Administration Board.
ISM
manufacturing index at 10:00 a.m. Monday expected to rise to 53.5 from 52.6 …
ISM non-manufacturing index on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. expected to dip to 55.0
from 57.1 … Initial jobless claims on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. expected to be
relatively flat at 1.42M from 1.43M … July jobs report on Friday at 8:30 a.m.
expected to show a gain of 1.5 million with unemployment dropping to 10.5
percent and wages down 0.5 percent.
WORD OF
THE MONTH
- kaput
[
kah-poot, -poot, kuh- ]
Adjective
- ruined; done for; demolished.
The
adjective kaput “ruined, done for; out of order,” is used only in predicate
position, not in attributive position; that is, you can only say “My car is
kaput,” but not “I’ve got a kaput car.” Kaput comes from the German colloquial
adjective kaputt “broken, done for, out of order, (of food) spoiled,” which was
taken from the German idiom capot machen, a partial translation of the French
idioms faire capot and être capot, “to win (or lose) all the tricks (in the
card game piquet).” Faire capot literally means “to make a bonnet or hood,” and
its usage in piquet may be from an image of throwing a hood over, or
hoodwinking one’s opponent. Unsurprisingly, kaput became widely used in English
early in World War I.
“Is
it as bad as that?” He shook his head. “It’s worse. If we get caught,
all this is kaput. Kaput, you hear? Gone. Lost. Forever.”
ON THIS
DATE – On
August 3, 1958, the U.S. nuclear submarine Nautilus accomplishes the first
undersea voyage to the geographic North Pole. The world’s first nuclear
submarine, the Nautilus dived at Point Barrow, Alaska, and traveled nearly
1,000 miles under the Arctic ice cap to reach the top of the world. It then
steamed on to Iceland, pioneering a new and shorter route from the Pacific to
the Atlantic and Europe.
TUNE IN
- Twenty
One. Games. That's what our three major sports leagues have generously offered
up today (Monday August 3) — at least until the next MLB game gets postponed.
SWAMI’S
WEEK TOP PICKS –
Our three major sports winners in the months ahead:
Stanley Cup Champs – We like
the Washington Capitals over the St. Louis Blues.
NBA Champs – Los Angeles Clippers over the
Toronto Raptors.
World Series Champs – New York
Yankees over the Los Angeles Dodgers. BUT, over and unders on the MLB
season to be completed are 55/45 to not complete.
2020
Season to Date (9-6)
Finally – To my St. Lawrence University friends, reunion
weekend July 15-18, 2021. The reservation has been made at the University Inn,
hope to see you all then: Golf Friday and Saturday mornings, cocktails Friday
and Saturday afternoons, St. Lawrence County jail Friday and Saturday nights.
Next Blog: Dear Rink
Rats and baseball’s best and worst broadcasters. Hint: A Rod sucks.
Until Friday
August 14, 2020 Adios.
Claremont,
California
August
3, 2020
#XI-7-413
2,313 words, six minute read
CARTOON OF THE WEEK – The Spreaders
RINK RATS POLL – Joe Biden’s
Vice President nominee will be…
_____ Representative Karen Bass
_____ Senator Kamala Harris
_____ Michelle Obama
_____ Susan Rice
_____ Senator Elizabeth Warren
_____ Other
_____ Who cares
QUOTE OF THE WEEK – "Patriotism means to stand
by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President." - Theodore
Roosevelt
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