As usual, I began reading early this morning, and because our news has almost been overwhelmed by the viral pandemic, it’s hard to think of about anything else. In the past, various publications often have created joking-around-stuff for April Fools’ Day.
But not this year.
It’s hard enough to keep up with all the changes our world is going through. We are learning a lot about this virus, but there will be so much more to learn. The “sign” above was created by Karsh Hagan, a firm here that added a laugh to our state’s rustic signs at our borders. It was featured yesterday evening on 9Next with Kyle Clark last night, and, yes, it gave me a laugh.
Going through my usual reading cycle, there are links to several issues, concluding with an amazingly stupid April Fool’s Day prank.
The Denver Central Library’s newsletter from the Western History department features a story about the 1918 pandemic, but also other epidemics Denver has lived through in 1968 and 1976. But The Big One in 1918 shows some similarities today, with wavering decisions that led to many deaths all over the country.
Today, April 1, is Census Day. A story from the Associated Press was picked up by Colorado Politics. Apparently, this is not going well. I filled my form online probably two weeks ago, because, why not? It took about 4 minutes, with basic, down-to-earth questions. The story starts off with this:
“Census Day — the date used to reference where a person lives for the once-a-decade count — arrived Wednesday with a nation almost paralyzed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. But census officials vowed the job would be completed by its year-end deadline.”
And that is despite taking a month to suspend field operations from mid-March through mid-April.
Then, it was just fabulous to read stories about more development in Denver, especially in my neighborhood.
First, is the owner who has applied for a certificate of demolition eligibility, which is always alarming. The main draw is the purplish-pink of a building at East 17th Avenue and Clarkson Street. There are two other buildings just to the west of that building. If the certificate is granted – the deadline is April 9, for the intent to oppose this – there is a five-year window to begin redevelopment. If no one opposes this it would sport an apartment block. The purplish-pink building housed a Cajun/Creole restaurant, followed by an Indian restaurant, then a gay bar, and then a pizza place. The story is in BusinessDen.
Then, in today’s Denver Business Journal, a developer based in San Francisco wants to build a 12-story apartment building at the southwest corner of East 16th Avenue and Logan Street. It’s a surface parking lot now, but with current zoning, part of this new building might only be 8 stories. Of course.
And, finally, there are two stories that sort of boggle the mind. In Colorado Politics, a man in Denver has filed a suit against Denver’s mayor and Colorado’s governor for issuing stay-at-home orders.
This is how the story begins:
“When the restaurant where Michael Lawrence worked as a cook closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, he found himself out of a job. Unlike the other thousands of Coloradans suddenly unemployed, though, Lawrence filed a federal lawsuit against the governor and mayor of Denver.”
It’s terrible when someone loses a job, but we’ll see where this goes.
This is something really dumb to end this, and it is about April Fools’ Day.
Here’s the beginning: “Jaejoong of JYJ told his fans he had the virus, then admitted he had made up the diagnosis. His devastated fans were unamused.”
That really didn’t go over well. It’s a prank, but a mean prank, and so that wraps up April Fools’ Day.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/world/asia/jaejoong-jyj-coronavirus-prank.html
Chandler in Denver 