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Mar 4Liked by Stephanie Losi

Hmm, interesting heads up on long COVID. My brother and his girlfriend have started avoiding indoor restaurants entirely and masking up when going to crowded indoor places due to long COVID fears, and I thought they were a bit loony for that. What do you think? Do you think the nasal sprays that supposedly protect you against COVID work in this instance?

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I am still eating at indoor restaurants. But yes, because I feel insufficiently protected by the current vaccines versus current variants of the virus, I bought a nasal spray and have been using it. I went with Xlear since CVS carries it, plus some NasalGuard external gel, though I considered buying Enovid and then decided I probably didn't need it. If the Xlear fails, I will re-evaluate. That's just what I am doing, YMMV, and I have no idea if it will work for me or not. About to conduct a serious stress test at SXSW where I'm giving a presentation.

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Realistic optimist is a great phrase. If I ever get truly down I just think about a male born in 1899. He was probably drafted in WW I. If he survived that and had a family he would see his son fight in WW II. If the son survived that, his son would fight in Vietnam. My point is that there is always something to be down about. Meanwhile, the Jews have the majority of the world against them (me). If I want to get through my day I can't focus on that.

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Yeah, the 1899 baby had a tough road ahead. Also the Great Depression happened right about when their young family was finally getting to feel stable! I try to stay cognizant of how much more fortunate I am to live now versus almost anytime in the past. At least now I have the chance to try to influence some outcomes beyond my immediate surroundings in a small town.

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Oh yeah! I totally forgot about the Great Depression!

Your career is certainly making a difference!

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I'm glad you are back. And yes, redefining optimism is a grand idea. Truth is, this angry, burgeoning with cognitive dissonance, inarticulate world needs to hear voices, to read articles, and consider the thoughts and musings of people such as you. The risk if they do not is quite worrisome.

May an exponential cascade of people, a stampede hopefully, spread your words and grow your discovery statistics here.

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Much appreciate your wonderful wish, Mark, and happy that you didn't "mind the gap" in my posting :-) I was thinking a lot but just having a solitude moment.

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"A weird kind of optimistic" made me smile. While I don't know what the next unforseen technological breakthrough will be (or I'd be rich) I think we are strapped into a fast moving rollercoasterr. Enjoy the ride I guess. One of my sons does risk management and hedging for living for largish firm. When we talk it seems the consistent failure of humanity has been to underestimate the future. His expression that ALWAYS MAKES ME LAUGH is "I miss the good old days when real GDP was lower and crime was higher." For at least the last 10,000 years where we can reliably piece together what has happened, prosperity has grown and crime has fallen. Tell that to the serial clickers who cannot resist telling us how the world is falling apart. Change and innovation are the train we are hitched to. Things will get better at a faster rate than ever -- we don't quite know how alas. Thanks for a very fun post!

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