The Write Angle: And This Is 2020...

While walking in the street this morning to avoid a woman with her dog and smartphone, an SUV pulled up alongside me. Its masked driver called out: “How you feeling? Better?” “Yes,” I replied, despite not feeling poorly of late and not knowing who wanted to know. The mystery man then flashed me a smile and a thumbs up and drove away.

I thought the guy looked familiar and concluded he had driven me—via a car service—to a hospital at some point and assumed I was ill at the time. My compounding assumptions didn't hold water for very long because—later on in my journey in a different part of town—I heard the words: “Sir! Sir! Sir!” Out of the corner of my eye, I assumed—again—that it was this annoying fellow who is always asking for spare change. As I was within his panhandling coordinates, I ignored the calls—but the sirs just kept on coming. Turns out it was the guy who had asked me earlier—but on foot this time—how I was feeling. He told me that his wife—who must have been in the vehicle with him—believed he had mistaken me for a chap named Tony. I sincerely hope Tony is feeling better because, alas, I cannot speak for him. This second encounter was quite a coincidence and I got a second thumbs up, too.

It’s been a strange year and promises to get stranger yet. On Saturday—for the first time in three months—I took a subway ride. The trains are disinfected every night and they were cleaner than I'd ever seen them. I rode in a car that never had more than a handful of people in it. One and all wore masks. So, we were not violating any pandemic dictums. It was interesting to walk around parts of Manhattan, which in normal times would be overrun with travelers and tourists. But these aren't normal times and the streets were pretty quiet. Not as eerily so as they were a couple of months ago, but nevertheless startlingly tranquil.

The unchained melody began here...

In a subway car as clean as a hound's tooth.

Reminders abounded both below ground and above ground...

To maintain proper social distancing...

And wear masks. I assumed this guy was distributing free masks. However, he didn't appear overly interested in his task. Yes, I keep assuming...

Businesses in New York City are getting decimated...and not just by looters.

How are these gift shops going to survive without tourists? It remains to be seen when people can and will start coming back here.

Phase One of the reopening has not been very impressive. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo threatened to "shut down" Manhattan and the Hamptons on Long Island in Phase 1 and Phase 2 respectively. It seems that there were various large gatherings outside of restaurants and bars this past weekend, with many folks unmasked and not practicing proper social distancing.

I hate to say this but the governor has lost some of his moral authority. By essentially green-lighting the never-ending protests—social-distancing nightmares—his righteous indignation in decidedly lesser matters leaves a lot to be desired. That said: There's a fair share of fools in our fair city and out on Long Island, too.

Speaking of fools: I wish it were an Onion story, but apparently it's not. Mayor de Blasio has instructed his army of COVID-19 contact tracers to not ask those who test positive for the virus if they attended any Black Lives Matter protests. Silly me: I just assumed the point of tracing was to trace. Another wrong assumption, I guess.

Head of the New York City council's health committee Mark Levine had this to say recently: "Let's be clear about something: If there is a spike in coronavirus cases in the next two weeks, don't blame the protesters. Blame racism." Is that a scientific opinion?

If nothing else, these are heady times for bicycle riders.

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, but lose his soul?

Once upon a time on school field trips at Christmastime, we would travel en masse from the Bronx to Radio City Music Hall on very, very dirty subways—the 1970s editions. We would leave in the early morning hours and not get home until dark. In those good old days, the Radio City experience began with a full-length movie, followed by an intermission, and climaxed with its famous Christmas show featuring the Rockettes. That all took some time.