No. 153: What if we just stopped counting?
Good morning, everyone.
A gentle reminder this morning: if they stopped counting COVID cases, we wouldn't be talking about it anymore. End the case count and the pandemic will magically fade into the background. Headlines abound of the UK having its "highest case count of all-time" and yet deaths continue to trend down. All in all, the Omicron variant appears little more than a common cold. Why the commotion?
Below, we introduce a new "Tale from the ER" via our esteemed collaborator @ParacelsusDoc, talk about The Church of the Assumption's steeple, and survey some particularly out there headlines from the week.
You can follow us on Twitter (@realpamphleteer), LinkedIn (@realpamphleteer), or Instagram (@realpamphleteer) for additional content.
Thanks for reading.
🎫 END OF YEAR TICKET GIVEAWAYS
Enter to win four tickets and a parking pass to the Thursday Night Titans/49ers game on December 23rd, or four tickets to see St. Paul & the Broken Bones at the Brooklyn Bowl on New Year's Eve.
If you refer people to the contest, you will increase your chances of winning.
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Our second installation in the “Tales from the ER” series written by the medical mastermind and spiritual successor to the 16th-century Swiss physician, @ParacelsusDoc. These tales are based on real cases. Identifying information and certain medical details have been altered to protect privacy.
PREVIOUS TALES
- Tales from the ER # 1: Los Paquetes (Read)
OTHER WRITING
We've frequently linked out to @ParacelsusDoc's essays on the nuts and bolts of the medical world to great acclaim.
- Public Health Isn't a Science, It's a Religion @ his substack (Read)
- Meet Paracelsus, the Based Alchemist & Populist Physician @ Countere (Read)
- Corporate Medicine @ IM1776 (Read)
- Sexual Devolution @ IM1776 (Read)
◢ BEACON OF HOPE ◣
In a ceremony on Wednesday, the Catholic parish in Germantown placed a steeple atop The Church of the Assumption after a year and a half of being grounded following the tornadoes that swept through Tennessee back in March of 2020. The church, now recrowned with its original seven-foot cross from the 1800s, welcomed dozens who gathered for the event.
Before being lifted by cranes to its rightful place, Bishop J. Mark Spalding blessed the refurbished steeple and sealed a relic of St. Roch in its cross. The relic was gifted to the parish by Cardinal Raymond Burke who, among many things, is known for his traditionalism as a canon lawyer of the Catholic Church. Cardinal Burke is also known for clashing with Pope Francis and has offered his opinion that Catholic politicians who support legalized abortion, including President Joe Biden, should not receive Holy Communion.
The steeple’s ascent has a poetic air of divine providence following the destructive storms of last weekend and, beyond Wednesday’s event, the Church itself has an inspirational and rich history of rising from the ashes and enriching its surroundings. With humble beginnings, the church began as a simple brick wall warehouse in 1861. Located in the heart of a community of German immigrants, most sermons were delivered in German until WWI.
During the Civil War, Union troops commandeered the church and left it sparsely adorned with hardly any of its original decorations or furnishings. The physical structure, functionality, and beauty of the Church of the Assumption was enhanced in the 1880s, the early 1900s, the 1920s, and the 1950s, but it wasn’t until Fr. Bernard Neidergeses became pastor of Assumption in 1970 that the glory and accommodations the church offers today began to take shape. The last time the church was crested with a new steeple was in 1984, marking the church's 125th anniversary. It was an edifying moment echoed by Wednesday’s ceremony. A ceremony that carried all the symbolism represented by the weight of its cross lifted up to its summit as a beacon of hope. Hope that has risen from the rubble.
Noteworthy
- Parishioners hosted the first Oktoberfest in Germantown on October 11, 1980. A staple celebration that is still a tradition held in the area today.
- Germantown wasn’t always a hot spot. It was largely abandoned by prospectors starting in the 1950s, but became a historic district on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. The revitalization of the Church of the Assumption played a role in revitalizing the area into what it is known as today.
- The Church of the Assumption will continue to undergo internal repairs and won’t be holding services in the church until 2023.-A video of the church’s bells ringing with the new steeple in place.
HEADLINES
- Tennessee to spend $15M to improve newly-designated Bill Dance Signature Lakes (Center Square) The funding will be used on initiatives such as increased stocking of fish, habitat and fisheries management and improved access to fishing and boating. The projects will begin in 2022 and near completion by fall 2024. More on Bill Dance below. Legend.
- 58% of Last Week's Stolen Vehicles Taken with Keys (nashville.gov) So far this year, 1,210 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville. More than 70% of ALL guns reported stolen in 2021 were taken from vehicles. Last week, 28 guns were stolen from cars and trucks. 58% of the automobiles taken were easy targets because the keys were left inside or made available to thieves.
- Tennessee unemployment rate drops to pre-pandemic levels in November (Homepage) The latest unemployment data shows November's rate matched that of March, 2020, the month before the state soared to a 15.8 percent unemployment rate.
DEVELOPMENT
- 🎥 The Rebirth Of Second Avenue In Nashville. (Now Next)
- Spring Hill reviews new proposals for five industrial buildings, townhome community and homes (Homepage)
- East Nashville hotel building sells for $27.75M (Post)
- Developer indefinitely shelves project for White Bridge Road (Post)
- Beaman sells Midtown property for $110M (Post)
- Multiple West Nashville homes sell for $8M-plus (Post)
- Gulch property eyed for tower sells for $36M (Post)
✛ SOME HEADLINES TO PONDER
- Crime Prediction Software Promised to Be Free of Biases. New Data Shows It Perpetuates Them (Governing) Shocking. Software designed to predict crime makes predictions where it is most likely to happen and not where it doesn't happen. You can probably guess how this one goes.
- Leave fact-checking to the fact-checkers (Nieman Lab) Thanks to fact-checkers, we haven't had any of the wrong opinions lately. That is until the, uh, not fact-checker people started fact-checking and telling us to have the wrong ones.
- ‘Worry Burnout’ Is Real (NYT) Here's a bit of advice for those with "worry burnout": stop reading the news. Better yet, read The Pamphleteer and channel your worry into laughter. Hell, start a garden, go for a walk, look at the clouds — they weigh a million or so tonnes and they float in the sky.
- The metaverse has a groping problem already (MIT) Sure it does.
⚖︎ MISSIVES
- A new study found that population loss due to domestic migration out of California has more than doubled since the beginning of COVID-19. Entrances to the state have dropped 38 percent since March 2020.
- The Senate on Wednesday voted 88-11 to pass a $778 billion defense-policy bill that will establish a commission to investigate America’s longest war, and make historic changes to the military-justice system.
- After a nearly two-year timeout, almost 27 million borrowers with federal student loans will be expected to restart their payments in February.
- Harvard will not require SAT or ACT scores for admission through the next four years, extending a policy adopted during the coronavirus pandemic and adding fuel to the movement to permanently eliminate standardized test scores for admission to even the nation’s most selective schools.
𝄞 WEEKLY PLAYLIST
In other news and notes, check out the 🎶 Spotify playlist we compile 🎶 at the bottom of this article (or slap that link) to give you a sample of what you can get from the calendar this week.
THINGS TO DO
View the full calendar here.
🎄 It’s a Wonderful Life is playing at the Belcourt from the 17th - 24th.
⭐ Cheekwood’s Christmas lights exhibit is running until January 9.
🖼 At the Frist, Medieval Bologna: Art for a University City is running until January 30 and American Art Deco: Designing for the People, 1918–1939 until January 2.
TONIGHT
🔪 Flea Market @ Nashville Fairgrounds, 8a, Free, Link
🌃 Winter Solstice Celebration @ Percy Warner Park, 4p, Link
🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Link
+ The best honky tonk in Nashville
🔥 Faux Ferocious & Temp Job @ The East Room, 8p, $10, Link
+ Temp Job is the band to see
TOMORROW
🔪 Flea Market @ Nashville Fairgrounds, 7a, Free, Link
🏀 Men’s college basketball: TN Vols vs. Memphis Tigers @ Bridgestone Arena, 11a, $65+, Link
🎸 Kelly’s Heroes @ Robert’s Western World, 6:30p, Free, Link
+ The best honky tonk in Nashville
🤠 Whey Jennings @ Bold Patriot Brewing, 7p, Free, Link
+ Waylon Jennings grandson who sounds just like Grandpappy
SUNDAY
🔪 Flea Market @ Nashville Fairgrounds, 7a, Free, Link
🎺 Squirrel Nut Zippers @ City Winery, 7p, Link
🎸 Emily Nennie @ Basement East, 7p, $10 - $12, Link
Around the Web
☠︎ Netherlands Goes Nuclear In Massive Atomic Humanist Victory! Dutch government will keep existing nuclear plant operating AND build two more full-sized water-cooled plants
✤ The NBA's Big Covid Choice A chance at changing the conversation
🍸 How we drained California dry A story of remaking the land and taking the water until there was nothing left.
Political Theater Highlight Reel
- A Louisiana judge is receiving flack for saying bad words while she was being robbed
- Shaun visited a plant nursery last week, now he's quarantined in an Adelaide medi-hotel
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Words of Wisdom
I've found the best way to help a fish grow is to practice catch and release... Whenever I release a fish, it always doubles in size by the time I get home to tell my friends.
Bill Dance