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The man on the left is Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, President of Portugal. He is setting an example by wearing a mask (shorts optional, but mask and pants required). This photo was taken while he was grocery shopping during a recent visit to Ericeira. The man on the right is the President of the United States, wearing his mask all wrong. Even his loyal dog, Silver, is laughing. Joking, of course. The President doesn’t have a dog.

Some people are taking the stance that wearing a mask is an infringement upon their freedom. You may recall, some people also felt that way about smoking on a plane, where the non-smoking section started directly behind the smoking section. Non-smokers were protected by an invisible shield, a stealth barrier, as it is called in the aerodonetics industry (no, not really).

As is the case with most positions taken in the US, masks and social distancing have fallen into mainly two camps. One camp insists that Covid-19 is either a hoax, or no more destructive than the annual Demolition Derby, and that any effort made to save people from it is unpatriotic. The other camp sees those people as lunatics who should drink bleach.

Sometimes it’s hard to tell which conspiracy-du-jour belongs to the far-left or to the far-right. There is a theory, called the horseshoe theory, which proposes that the political extremes are closer to each other than either is to the political center. In other words, they are not opposites on the political spectrum. I would take it even a step further and have come up with my circle theory, which states that they overlap and are practically indistinguishable from each other.

It should be noted that even Portugal has its extreme political wings, neither of which has a significant following. The left has its Communists, whose headquarters looks like they ran out of money for paint. The right has its Chega party, and I’m not even sure if they have a headquarters.

The Portuguese government operates under the concept that if you do your best to treat all the people fairly, then extremes will not take root. So far, that philosophy seems to be working.

Here is a picture of the leaders of Portugal’s opposing parties marching in solidarity over their commitment to work together against the coronavirus. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Portugal’s coronavirus mortality rate is lower than most of Europe.

The Virus of Racism

I wrote most of this blog about a week ago, just before the recent killing in Minneapolis, and the ensuing riots across the country. One week ago, the only story was Covid-19, and the mask controversy. Coronavirus will end someday, but racism is a virus that just doesn’t seem to go away.

A friend recently posted a video of a young, black woman sharing her feelings on racism to her mostly white church. This was during a church gathering on Zoom (before George Floyd’s murder). It was significant because she was talking about subtle racism, not just the obvious racism that has recently become front and center once again.

She gave an example of how a black person wearing the “wrong” kind of mask during this pandemic gets suspicious looks, whereas a white person does not. Her message was delivered with love and thoughtful reflection, and it was received much in the same way.

This made me think back to when my son was very young. We were watching the story of Rosa Parks, the black woman who refused to move to the back of the bus.

I told him that when I was growing up, there were water fountains marked white and colored, and we had to drink from our designated fountains. He then asked me, “So you had to drink out of the colored water fountain?” I told him, “No, because I was white.” He then asked, “When you were young you were white?”

I do have a dark complexion, so his observation would made perfect sense to an innocent mind. Racism is a learned behavior. We are not born with it.

I also remember an experience in a shopping center with my younger brother, maybe 1960. He tried out both the white fountain and colored fountain and came away disappointed because the water was the same in both. I think he was expecting Kool-Aid from the colored fountain.

A Word About Designer Masks

Recently, in my Facebook newsfeed, I saw a Harley Davidson mask being advertised for $30. Seemed a bit high but anything with a Harley logo tends to be about ten times the normal price. Besides, I’m not really the right demographic for a Harley Davidson mask. Speaking of demographics, though, is the Harley crowd the right group to be receiving ads for COVIC-19 protective masks? Many of them take issue at even wearing a protective helmet. But what do I know? I’m not a marketing genius.

Look at this picture, though, surrounded by coronavirus germs shown in actual size (no, not really). Does this couple look like your average Harley Davidson riders? Looks more like an episode I remember of the Dick Van Dyke Show where he was riding a small, maybe 50cc, motorbike and ended up in the middle of a biker club. He ended up becoming the honorary leader of the pack. But I digress. If you want to watch it, though, you can click >>HERE<<. If that link doesn’t work, search “Br-rooom Br-rooom” on YouTube. It actually makes me chuckle, even now.

Hi ho, Silver! Away!

There is one “Silver” controversy I would like to address here. It is not the controversy about whether or not the Lone Ranger says “Hi ho, Silver” or “Hi-yo, Silver”. I’m not going to jump into the middle of that quagmire. People might start unfriending me over which side I take.

The controversy I want to talk about is the televangelist preacher who sells Silver Solution, which he claimed kills SARS, HIV and, of course, COVID-19. And, it’s only $80 for a 4-ounce bottle! He says it has been proven by the government to work (no, it hasn’t). Is Silver Solution a brand name for the miracle drug, hydroxychloroquine? No, that was a different cure being promoted by a competing televangelist. I forget his name.

But I do know the name of the conman selling Silver Solution. He is the ex-con (although still a con), Jim Bakker. Remember Tammy Faye’s husband? Back in the 80s, he scammed many followers out of millions of dollars by overselling timeshares in his Christian Disneyland condominium project.

Bakker sold 66,000 lifetime memberships, with thousand-dollar deposits, for access to a 500-room hotel, which landed him in jail. Now that his new bogus company has been removed by the FDA, he is asking followers (how does this man still have followers?) to just send money anyway.

Sure, why not? I was just gonna waste it on food and rent anyway. The only miracle about Silver Solution is how it miraculously fattened Jim Bakker’s wallet after he already spent years in jail with his previous scam.

A few years back, in between the condo scam and the Silver Solution scam, he was selling freeze-dried survival foods. They were for the end days just before the Rapture. “Imagine, the world is dying and you’re having a breakfast for kings.” Yes, that was an actual ad. One food review likened it to wet cement or paper-mache, both in taste and consistency.

Enough about him. In conclusion to the mask controversy, most professionals agree that masks help prevent spread of the virus. They’re not a cure, not even the Harley-Davidson masks, but a preventative measure. Some people are close-talkers, and they tend to exude more than their fair share of molecular saliva particles. Hence, the masks.

Learning Portuguese – The Equivalency of a Mask for Alzheimer’s?

Are there mask equivalencies for non-contagious pandemics, such as Alzheimer’s? Could learning Portuguese really keep Alzheimer’s at bay?

There now appears to be rather conclusive proof that learning a second language slows down Alzheimer’s Disease significantly. Scientists have taken MRI scans of brain regions associated with memory. When they start talking about cortical thickness and gray matter density, though, I just get sleepy. Learning Portuguese is already hard enough. Rather than attempt to understand and interpret the data, >>HERE<< is one such study if you are interested.

Since the lockdown, my wife and I have been spending a little more time with our Portuguese studies. But so far, I still can’t remember where my glasses are when they’re sitting on top of my head. So, this jury is still out in connection to the cure for Alzheimer’s.

One of your first encounters with Portuguese when you visit Portugal, will be the word Puxe, because you see it on almost every merchant’s door. It is pronounced push, but it means pull. If that won’t  fire new synapses in your brain, then nothing will. I guarantee you will learn that word after only one bruised nose, experienced when pushing rather than pulling.

Learning in the Zoom Classroom

Zoom has become huge during the lockdown. Zoom this, Zoom that, everyone seems to be Zooming something these days. This really shouldn’t need to be said, but you need to be careful when you are carrying around your devise while Zoom is still on.

The example that you may have seen is the Zoom class (I can’t recall the subject because that became rather irrelevant), where the woman carried her laptop into the bathroom during class. The teacher was oblivious to what was going on, but she noticed that the class had stopped paying attention to her.

The teacher rambled on for a minute or so before stopping and asking what was going on. What was going on was that one of her students had dropped her drawers and sat down on the toilet. Then your heard someone in the class mutter, “Poor Jennifer”. You might be asking how that could happen. Honestly, I don’t know. But apparently it is happening more often than you would think.

There is also a lot of Zoom hacking going on, too. Recently, during a Zoom Bible study, someone hacked in and started showing some radical porn. Not just XXX, but XXXX! And they were clever enough, or devious enough, to disable the presenter’s controls so that it couldn’t be shut off.

Fortunately, neither of those mishaps have taken place during our Portuguese classes on Zoom. I do keep my fingers crossed, however, whenever someone stands up in our sessions, hoping that they remembered to wear pants. Or that I remembered to wear pants.

By the way, if you are planning a move or visit to Portugal, I would recommend downloading “Learn 50 Languages” on your phone. It is the best app that I have found for learning European Portuguese. It’s free, and pants are not required!

Rediscovering Portugal’s Cultural History

Now, with things opening back up, maybe we will be able to experience more of Portugal again. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is suggesting that during this time with fewer tourists around, we residents should get out and rediscover Portugal’s history and culture. Sounds like a good suggestion. Most of our recent experiences have been within walking distance, like this picture of the beautiful sunset taken on the sidewalk outside of our Mafra apartment.

Last Thing.. Website Update

I have been working on my blog website and the notification emails that you receive. The millions of you who have subscribed (okay, dozens) may have recently received a duplicate email notification of last month’s Carnation Revolution blog. Sorry about that! Still working out the kinks. The main problem was that the feature photo for each blog was not showing up in email notifications although it does show on my website. Hopefully, that is fixed now.

Anyway, feel free to comment about anything on your mind or suggest topics you would like to see covered in the future. Tchau for now!