end of civilization

[calimac]

So now they're ending mask mandates on public transportation, just when I was barely beginning to think it was safe to use it again, at least until the next omicron spike rises. Fortunately I have a choice; many people don't. I just have to hope we're still in a lax trend when I next get on a plane in three months.
Biden was asked, “Should people continue to wear masks on planes?” and gave the supremely unhelpful reply “That’s up to them.” No! If it's up to anyone there, it's all the people around you! This is public health: what you do affects those around you as well as yourself. Freedom does not include the right to breathe deadly virus on those around you. You don't get to decide for yourself whether to take protective measures during a pandemic any more than you get to decide for yourself whether to drive on the right or the left, or whether to stop at red lights. The virus is not done with us yet, and there have to be enforced rules.

In other end-of-civilization news, I read that the AAA is discontinuing paper maps. That's a grave shame, as electronic maps, while very useful, are no substitute for big unfolding paper maps, the only kind where you can see detail and the big picture at the same time, and thus adequately understand where you're going. Online directions can be followed, but don't give a sense of why you're turning here or there, and even with today's advanced algorithms, it's still my hard-learned navigational smarts and knowledge of the area that has saved me from some absurd electronic directions; see my trip to LA last summer, when the directions took me miles out of the way to avoid one closed freeway exit, when taking the regular route and just getting off at the next exit was a satisfactory option.
It's also frustrating because, apart from the very occasional use of emergency road service, which I guess is worth the trouble to pay for it, maps are the only thing I belong to the AAA for.

Comments

[sturgeonslawyer]

What has made AAA (or CSAA as the case may be and in fact is) worthwhile for me is not only the famed Yellow Tow Trucks, but the subtler Yellow Battery Trucks. They have twice in the past ten years rescued me -- once in the parking lot of mine employers, and once in my own driveway -- by showing up, testing the battery, declaring it dead, and replacing it, all quite quickly and at a not very great expense. (They've also shown up once, tested it, and, with a grin and "It's ALIIIVE!" -- yes, really -- gave it a preliminary charge and ordered me to drive it around for an hour or so. Fortunately, I had quant suff gas in the car to do so at the time.)

The other thing I have really appreciated is the first question that they ask when you call for roadside service: "Are you safe?" They ask about where you are. They are a little pickier about safety for women, and if a woman is alone in a dark place they expidite service to her over other members. Bravo CSAA.

[cynthia1960]

CSAA allows us to use GIG car share up here in Oakland so we keep that membership going without a car of our own.

I share calimac's sadness about paper maps; maps and atlases are fascinating.

[cynthia1960]

This whole decision was political; no actual science was involved, and this makes our crappy responses to pandemic surges get even worse.

[sturgeonslawyer]

As do I; when I was about 5, my favorite toy was a cutout map of the United States. I wish I'd had one of the world, though so many countries and borders have come and gone since then.....

[cmcmck]

Living in hill country and forest as we do, we still find the good old OS (Ordnance Survey) maps to be of supreme use and the batteries don't run out! :o)

[calimac]

The US equivalent is the US Geological Survey (USGS), whose maps I've found equally useful for countryside wandering. But I think they no longer issue paper maps either.

[wild_patience]

I was certainly grateful for AAA when I had the flat tire on the way to work some years ago. It was 4:45 in the morning and very dark.