Mackay Elementary School

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I have been teaching virtual drawing classes seven days a week all summer. Each time I teach foundation drawing I like to do a demo in two point perspective by drawing a building. I always encourage the students to draw their own home or a place they go to often. To keep the assignment interesting for myself I always draw a new building from my past using google maps as a reference.

After 1972, I moved to Tenafly, New Jersey and transferred to Mackay Middle School. I remember that in one class I was encouraged to make use of my drawing skills to make political cartoons. I remember drawing Nixon and Kissinger in class. It might seem a bit odd for a 10 to 13 year old to have an interest in producing political cartoons, but I enjoyed interpreting the news of the day. My dad had a subscription to the New York Times and he taught me how to scan the headlines to find the articles I wanted to read. This is a habit that persists to this day.

It is funny that it took many years before I came back around to the interest that I had back in middle school. Though my COVID series has slowed down due to the summer work load, I continue to create illustrations that some might consider political cartoons. I consider them my explorations of the theater of the absurd.

This school and the high school were close enough to the Knickerbocker home so that I walked there and back. I never took a bus to school.

Judge Retreat Superspreader Event

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Have you heard this one? 70 judges enter a swanky Hampton’s Yacht club and…

Twenty out of those 70 New York City judges who attended tested positive for COVID-19 in the days that followed. All the infected judges were vaccinated.

The judges retreat or conference took place at Gurney’s Star Island on Long Island in New York, which is sometimes referred to by its former name, the Montauk Yacht Club, according to the New York Times.

The three-night retreat was sponsored by the New York City Criminal Court Judges Association.

One of the activities at the event was a karaoke session, according to an unnamed source who spoke with the New York Times. The New York Times noted that singing has been linked to spread of the virus. It is kind of reassuring that these high heeled judges are a dumb as most other Americans who think the pandemic is over. It ain’t over till the fat lady sings.

Capitol Police Infected

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38 Capitol Police have tested positive for COVID-19 after the attack on January 6, 2021. Health officials have worried that the thousands of unmasked Trump supporters who  stormed the Capitol would cause a super-spreader event that could expose local residents and law enforcement officers to coronavirus. The new cases at the Capitol Police, which were first reported by the New York Times, mark the highest spike among force in months.

The officer’s union could also not confirm that those officers were on duty the day of the attack. Several police officers were directly assaulted during the insurrection.

Approximately 150 National Guard troops have also tested positive since the attack, CBS News reported.

Gus Papathanasiou, chairman of the U.S. Capitol Police Labor Committee said, “The union had been pushing the department for testing and recently pushing for vaccines, but the incompetence of the USCP chiefs of police, both former and current with the new acting chief and assistant chiefs, speaks volumes of the lack of leadership at the top of the USCP,” in an emailed statement to DCist/WAMU he said. “The continued systemic failures ‎of this Department is unacceptable and the congressional community as well as the officers that put their lives on the line every day deserve better than being led by inept chiefs of police.”

Steven Sund, the Capitol Police chief, stepped down from his role following the riots, and Yogananda Pittman was named acting chief, becoming the first woman and first Black officer to lead the force. A number of Capitol Police officers were suspended and at least a dozen were investigated for their involvement in or support of the violence.

The Metropolitan Police Department, which at one point led the effort to clear the angry mob from the Capitol, has also seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases. As of January 6, 2021 a total of 498 MPD personnel had tested positive over the course of the pandemic. By Jan. 21, that number had jumped by 82, reaching 580 total cases. It appears to be one of the biggest jumps in positive cases in the recent data.