The Signs Of Our Time

Streetscapes aren’t looking too great right now in many cities. And “museums and galleries around the world have locked their doors as people wait out the coronavirus pandemic in isolation. But works of street art, cropping up on bare walls and boarded-up storefronts across urban landscapes, are offering images of beauty and hope to those venturing out for exercise.” – The New York Times

Is It Feasible To Reopen Cinemas With A Max Of 50 People Per Screen? Norway Is Trying It

Movie theaters in Norway will reopen on May 7 with a mandatory minimum of one meter of space between each audience member and no more than 50 patrons total in any one space. (These rules follow those of Sweden, which did not close its cinemas when the novel coronavirus arrived.) If everything goes smoothly, the limit will be increased to 200 patrons per screen on June 15. – Variety

What Classic Plague Lit Tells Us About COVID — And About Its Aftermath

“The primary lesson of plague literature, from Thucydides onwards, is how predictably humans respond to such crises. Over millennia, there has been a consistent pattern to behaviour during epidemics: the hoarding, the panicking, the fear, the blaming, the superstition, the selfishness, the surprising heroism, the fixation with the numbers of the reported dead, the boredom during quarantine.” – The Guardian