Project Herzog Part II: Themes ("Do You Dream A Lot Like That?")

1.  Nature

One of the funniest things ever recorded is comedian Paul F. Thompkins' impersonation of Herzog.  ("Trader Joe's on Hyperion.")  There is, thankfully, much more.

And it's funny because it's half true.

No doubt Herzog is no typical Romantic.  He sees no easy, seamless connection between humans and our environment.  He sees no ultimate redemption in our willingness to commune with forest or jungle or wildlife habitat.  Shamanism is for suckers.

Famously, in a documentary about Fitzcarraldo, he comments that the jungle birds aren't singing, they're screaming in pain.

But once in a while he gives up the game.  While nature isn't exactly our friend, it's worthy of our respect.  In The White Diamond (2004) he has the opportunity, via the talents of a professional mountain climber, to record footage from a sacred cave behind a waterfall.  It's been untouched by humans for centuries.  He refuses to do so.  Why not?  Out of respect for the locals and their beliefs in part, but tonally it's clear Herzog is more concerned with breaching some unspoken pact with yet another unknowable, physical place.

Nature is not some demi-monde for Christian or Romantic faith, but it is a space like any other that must be respected and analyzed.  There is dirt and trees and plants and life.  And birds, of course.

If only to push back on the stereotype of the cold nihilist yet again, Herzog is by his own admission a lifelong walker and hiker whose only friend growing up was the Bavarian landscape (Portrait of Werner Herzog 1968).

There is a necessarily symbiotic but impossibly absurd relationship between nature and humanity, but a relationship nonetheless.

2.  Dreams

In the recent documentary Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016) Herzog deal with Artificial Intelligence.  Interviewing various experts in the field he has two simple questions for the realization of true A.I. -- Can a machine fall in love?  Can the internet dream of itself?

Again, the portrait of the German nihilist with no concern for human sympathy was partly an invention of the young, angry-ish artist himself and the rise of the German New Wave.  Herzog is no naive Romantic, but he's not at all above asking essential questions as to what we share, even when communication is difficult.

In an early (and quite beautiful, completely essential) documentary Handicapped Future (1971) it's made clear that Herzog's humanism isn't of a sentimental or brotherly love sort, but it is humanism.  It's a humanism of our individual struggles as thinking, imagination-filled creatures.  Very early in the film he interviews a girl in a wheel-chair and asks her about her dreams  -- "Do you dream a lot like that?"  He's audibly taken aback when she tells him she dreams plenty at night, but during the day at school she shouldn't, even while her friends are playing outside without her.

Dreams are what make us fully human, even more than love itself.  To deny dreams, to make it harder for another person to dream their dreams, is the definition of cruelty.  And the modern world can be very cruel.

As a corollary, difficult dreams are more sacred than the easy ones.  Impossible dreams are what make us fully human.

Project Herzog Part I: Overview ("Dignified, Heroic, and Stupid Stupidities")

For about the past two and a half months, almost exactly in conjunction with the coronavirus outbreak here in South Korea and throughout the world, I've watched 63 of Werner Herzog's 66 feature and documentary films.

My first encounter with Werner Herzog came as a college student, when a religious studies professor offhandedly mentioned Aguirre, the Wrath of God as an interesting take on divine inspiration gone wrong.  In any event, I really enjoyed it but I'd be lying if I said I'd fallen in love.  Any Klaus Kinski performance is worth your attention, at least for a few minutes, but I more vividly remember watching it in conjunction with Roland Joffe's The Mission (1986, R.I.P. Ennio Morricone) which deals with similar history and themes.  (Also, a roommate swore the soundtrack to the latter was really good for having sex to.  Memory is always over-determined, just like history.)

Along the way through graduate school I remember seeing Fitzcarraldo (1982) in the context of colonial / post-colonial studies /excesses, and not really thinking too much about it other than the obvious insanity of pulling a ship over a mountain.  (And succeeding.)  And somewhere I watched Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979).  It's Herzog's only pure horror film, and I really loved its slow, ponderous tension, making no compromise to the growing phenomenon of slasher / gore films.  And of course knowing nothing about their on-set relationship, Kinski was riveting.

It was in the mid-naughts, staying with my sister for about a year, that I came across Grizzly Man (2005) just about the time it came out, or maybe a year or so after.  I remember watching it with my sister and her husband and, at the end, not really knowing what to make of it.  Or even to be honest, how to feel about it.  I could sense the deep empathy and curiosity -- who wouldn't throw away the bullshit of modern life to go live with gorgeous, powerful, innocent bears?  But there was also a sense of judgement -- Herzog's constant theme of nature's indifference to humankind -- that never let you forget that Timothy Treadwell was fucking crazy, despite the purity of his intentions.  (John Krakauer's film version of Into the Wild came out in 2007, and I remember that and the sound-track were also big at the time.  Five years after 9/11 and into the forever wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, moving back to nature was a comforting, if pitifully naive thought, for many of us Americans.)

So Grizzly Man was definitely the experience where I had to find out more about this dark, obscurantist German nihilist, who happened to also be capable of deeply human, humane works of both sympathy and critique.

I moved to South Korea to teach English in 2008.  From there I managed to stay up to date with what followed -- Encounters at the End of the World (2007) and Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010).  It's entirely possible that these initial contacts with Herzog have made me remember them more fondly than they deserve, but upon watching (and re-watching where necessary) every film ever made by him I'm still willing to bet that he was at the height of his cinematic powers between 2003 (Wheel of Time) and 2010.  (This includes 2004's The White Diamond.  This is where the title of this first post comes from, as Werner warns a man hell-bent on self-destruction that "heroic stupid" and "stupid stupid" are never the same thing.)

"children who do not necessarily have access to the internet"

As the coronavirus continues to rage globally, people are forced to adjust to hard times.  In Kenya, church pastors are taking to "balcony churches":

"The balcony church started when a Sunday school teacher at the cathedral delivered a service to children on their balconies to entertain them while they were stuck at home. The service was a success, and the teacher enlisted Machira’s help to spread this mtaani – 'in the neighbourhood' in Swahili – Sunday school. While All Saints Cathedral has been providing online services for young people, Machira says the mtaani helps him reach more of them.

'This Sunday school mtaani allows us to do ministry to children who do not necessarily go to church,' said Machira. 'And children who do not necessarily have access to the internet.'

Soon after its first Covid-19 case was announced in mid-March, Kenya closed down schools. 'You’ll find children being confined in their houses from the time they wake up till the time they go to bed,' said Machira, who has three children himself. 'It’s been a difficult time.'”

It's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, but local, bottom-to-top initiatives like this one provide some optimism.

None Of This Is Normal, Mid-2020 Edition

Trump is A-OK with Putin issuing bounties on US troops abroad.

I'm guessing this has little effect on anybody.  After three years, I think people are pretty well set on who they'll vote for this November.  To be blunt, when have most Americans cared about dead or maimed US soldiers anyhow?  At least ones not in their immediate family?

Exceptionalism

Elephant Gym, "Finger" live

Here's some Taiwanese math rock for you.

Meanwhile, a literal plague is engulfing America because Freedom-Loving Patriots can't be bothered to wear a fucking mask when they go out to buy cheeseburgers and cheap shit made in China.

"gangsters have never caused any racket or trouble in the hospital"

Tattoos are fairly verboten in South Korea, as they connote criminal activity.  Times are changing however, and Western influences are always on the rise.  Enter Dr. Cho, a plastic surgeon who know offers tattoo services (including tattoo removal):

"It has been changing for the better. But it’s still too early to say that tattoos are being positively accepted by this society. The mainstream still feels negative toward tattoos — a lot of people don’t understand why people get tattoos. But there is no right or wrong here. Tattoos definitely don’t inflict harm on others. It’s different than smoking. What’s on my body may disgust others, but that’s their problem.

It was interesting when I first started business in tattoo. I mean, it wasn’t exactly a pretty picture when a man who looked like he belonged in a gangster mob and a woman getting double-eyelid surgery were sitting next to each other in the waiting room. And the nurses were intimidated [by such clients] too. But such gangsters have never caused any racket or trouble in the hospital.

After about a decade in this business, a lot of other doctors were beginning to understand what I do. I don’t only draw dragons. I also do medical tattoos, such as evening out the skin tone of patients with vitiligo."

I've defnitely seen a surge in the popularity of ink over the past ten years among my students.  A lot of them go with small, hard-to-notice ones, but no small number (especially men) are going for full sleeves and such.

"I wanted to see the world / Then I flew over the ocean / And I changed my mind"

Phoebe Bridgers, "Kyoto"

I spoke with my Dad last night for Father's Day (Sunday morning, his time).  My sister is out visiting him right now, which is a treat for him and also a reassurance.

He lives with his girlfriend in the middle of nowhere, Washington State.  He asked me how much I enjoyed the Trump Rally in Tulsa (in his mind-set, everybody loves Trump and watches FOX News for at least five hours a day).

Anyhow, his girlfriend wants to leave and go back to Florida.  My Dad, at 91, is definitely entering into the early stages of dementia.  It could be a bluff, who knows, and that's part of the reason my sister went out in-person.  She'll go again in August with my nephew.  It's no secret now that we're getting into "maybe this is the last time they'll get to spend time together" territory.

To be blunt, this woman is horribly abrasive and a compulsive liar.  And as unpleasant as she is by nature, not even my Dad's money can seem to keep her around any longer.  (We aren't talking mega-bucks, but a very comfortable full-on Federal pension that comes in every month.  She was scraping by with her criminal son on Social Security back in Florida.  She's claiming she wants to go back to that.)

I'm 95% certain I'll return to America in February.  The idea is that I'd move out to Bellingham and stay with my dad.  (He can't live alone any longer.)

Given that Trump has literally given up on fighting the coronavirus, I'll be moving back to a country in the middle of a pandemic with no health insurance to speak of and presumably looking for some kind of work in the middle of what's going to be a major recession at best.

I've got savings, but I'll probably need to buy a car as soon as I get back.  Insurance.  Gas.  Tires.  Some drunk asshole yanking off your side-view mirror just because.  All that shit I've gratefully not had to worry about for over a decade.

My mom died at 51, relatively young.  Ovarian cancer.  1992.  About one month before I graduated from high school.  A whole different set of nightmares and complications.  But it was over in under a year.

There's no good way to watch a parent die, obviously.  But given his isolation and refusal to consider moving back east, this is looking like the only viable plan.

I Can't Even....

Ya know, I think the kids are alright.

Tik-Tok K-pop fans doing the Macarena in front of their "fake" Trump rally tickets.

I cried genuine tears of hilarity this morning over this.

2020, never fire your script writer.

"my butt is getting numb"

Werner Herzog lets us know how he's handling quarantine in his current hometown of LA in this recent interview:

"His original surname was Stipetić (reflecting his Austrian mother’s Croatian heritage) but he reinvented himself, taking his father’s surname long after his father had left the scene. He still has Stipetić siblings; they look at him askance. He chuckles. 'How should I say this? My younger brother is critical of my work. He finds some of my films awful. And my older brother, he thinks every single film I’ve made is lousy and boring. "Argh, you’ve done another one. My butt is getting numb." But this is fine. I’m transparent. I do not hide behind the films or hunker down in the trench. I stick my head up. And I can live with that because I know who I am. I’m at ease with who I am.'”

Herzog interviews are always great, but this one is excellent.

Little James Needs To Write

When I began Project Herzog, my deep-dive into every film ever made by Werner Herzog, I was naively hopeful that maybe my attempt would outlast the coronavirus.  Alas, it's pretty clear to me now that "going back to normal this fall" isn't going to happen.  It might in Korea, with its robust tracing program, but I don't see it happening in the US or UK, not by a long shot.

Anyhow, I'm running into a bit of problem as I reach the "hidden gem / thankfully forgotten" phase of things.  YouTube is pretty generous with material, especially some of the early, short experiments that I figured I might never find.  Strangely though, even some of Herzog's relatively recent feature films have been really difficult to find.  (Thankfully, some might say.)

There have also been a few films where I couldn't find a set of English close captions.  This is actually not as big of a deal as I once thought, because one of my theories is that Herzog's main theme is the excruciating difficulty, if not impossibility, of genuine human communication.  (I speak no German, obviously.)

My students will be taking their final exams in two weeks (very late, I know) but I do have some spare time this weekend to push though on my final assault to the peak of Mount Werner.  It's been worthwhile, but I'm also confident in saying that there are more than a handful of his projects that you can avoid and still live the happiest of lives.  I am eager to point them out!

And there are definitely a few obscurities that you should deal with, warzen and all.  I think that's the main goal here, but I will have a little something to say about each and every work I was able to watch.

The Politics of Meat

As the coronavirus rages around the world and the debate over Asian "wet markets" (where animals are slaughtered on demand) continues, I was surprised to find out so many of them currently operate in America:

"Some so-called 'wet markets' in Asia, named for the common practice of hosing them down with water, stock exotic wildlife alongside live animals, providing a potential nexus for diseases to spread. This has led to growing calls around the world to ban them, even though the precise history of the coronavirus pandemic, widely thought to have originated at a seafood market in Wuhan, is still unclear.

But the term 'wet markets' has become confusing in the process, mixing up wildlife consumption with less exotic traditions, such as the poultry markets of New York. This has led to a situation where, in the rush to create a safer food system, culturally significant food practices, which pose comparatively minor public health risks, are coming under threat.

In New York, animal rights groups have begun campaigning vigorously on issues of food safety, including staging protests outside markets. A recent petition by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) urges officials to shut down 'blood-soaked slaughterhouses' in New York, specifically referring to the facilities as 'wet markets' in an accompanying video. Peta has also urged the World Health Organization (WHO) to denounce live animal markets globally. The WHO has resisted these demands, saying that live markets provide food and jobs for millions of people.

There are a ton of things intersecting  here: animal rights, public health, and access to fresh food in poor neighborhoods.  And who's not to say a freshly killed chicken from one of these dingy markets isn't significantly healthier than the pre-packaged, steroid-laden chicken breasts from a "clean" meat packing facility?

"I Want Some Fancy Sauce..."

"Fire Chicken Mayo," or basically, Korean Fancy Sauce.  Instead of ketchup, use chili paste.

It's addictive as hell.  So much so that I won't buy it again any time soon for fear of eating up the whole thing at once.  I schmeared it over some dumplings I fried up last night and, well, let's just say I owe the exercise bike a few extra kilometres this week.

Also, obligatory Step-Brothers reference.

Just Sayin'

If Southern Confederate flag-humpers wanna talk about their sacred "culture," let's do it --

food
music (esp. this)
literature / poetry
dance

IT'S ALL FROM AFRICAN AMERICANS / SLAVE PATHWAYS

(I'll grant you Faulkner. Even he'd have to agree with me.)

— Antifa Means "Kill All Nazis" James (@wetcasements) June 15, 2020

"Johnson soup"

Budae-jjigae (Army base stew) is an interesting Korean dish, based on traditional technique but implementing Western ingredients like hot dogs, American cheese, and Spam.  The story of its creation is part history and part ingenuity:

"Heo, who passed away in 2014, told her story at every opportunity. She used to stir-fry leftover meat from the nearby US Army base at a small odeng (fish cake) stand when a regular customer suggested she make the meats into a spicy soup with rice.

'Back then there wasn’t a lot to eat, but I acquired some ham and sausages. The only way to get meat in those days was to smuggle it from the army base,' Heo told the BBC in 2013. 'We had to make do with whatever the soldiers had left over. We’d make a stew with whatever came out of the base, and my recipe was copied and spread throughout Korea.'

With the dish’s success, Heo turned her humble stand into a restaurant and opened Odeng Sikdang in 1960. Soon, restaurants serving the dish began to pop up near US military bases across the country. After US president Lyndon B Johnson visited South Korea in 1966, rumours circulated that he was a fan of the stew – giving budae-jjigae the nickname 'Johnson-tang' ('Johnson soup')."

My own go-to place when I hanker for budae-jjigae is right across from my office.  I could eat it happily in any season, but for some reason my (Korean) boss usually wants to have it in spring time.

"I'm high as a Georgia pine"

I've linked to this before but hey, it's the 50th anniversary of Dock Ellis' no-hitter performance pitched while ganked out of his gourd on LSD.  (And to balance it out he popped a ton of speed as well.)

This is the kind of American exceptionalism I can actually get behind.

Beer Me

Daegu, South Korea.

"nobody's going home"

Dave Chappelle, "8:46"

"This is the streets talking for themselves."

Of Confederate Statues And The Names Of Traitors

A simple question: Why are a number of U.S. army bases named after Confederate traitors?  (And rather incompetent ones at that?) Well:

"Three of the biggest bases in the United States are named after Confederate leaders, including some who were famously inept.

Fort Bragg in North Carolina, the headquarters of the Special Forces, bears the name of Gen. Braxton Bragg, a commander often assailed as one of the most bumbling commanders in the war. Bragg was relieved of command after losing the battle for Chattanooga in 1863, then served as a military adviser to Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

Fort Benning in Georgia, the home of Army infantry and airborne training, is named after Brig. Gen. Henry Benning, who led troops at Antietam and Gettysburg. In remarks in 1861 laying out slavery as the reason for secession, Benning warned that abolition would lead to 'black governors, black legislatures, black juries, black everything. Is it to be supposed that the white race will stand for that?'

Fort Hood in Texas is named after John Bell Hood, who resigned his commission in the U.S. Army to fight against it. His 'reckless' command hastened the fall of Atlanta, one historian wrote, and his losses at the Battle of Franklin were so disastrous that they have been called the 'Pickett’s Charge of the West,' in reference to Gen. Robert E. Lee’s failed charge at Gettysburg."

Thing is, I have a little history (ahem) with this issue.  Way back in 2013 I posted an article to Metafilter on this same issue.  Even blunter and from the New York Times, "Misplaced Honor" by Jamie Malanowski asked:

Confederacy Tears Are Sweet And Delicious

Summer of 2020:

we learn the sound of Confederate/slave owner statues hitting pavement is beautiful beyond words.

— Antifa Means "Kill All Nazis" James (@wetcasements) June 11, 2020

UBI Time?

South Korea is unique in a lot of ways -- a relatively low tax country with an excellent national healthcare system, but often criticized for failing to provide older, retired folks a basic level of subsistence.  Is it time for the country to embrace Universal Basic Income?  Maybe:

"Basic income, in which a certain amount of money is paid to all members of society to cover minimum living expenses, has become a major topic of conversation and debate for politicians.  

Even some conservatives are increasingly eager to push the idea.

 On June 3, Kim Chong-in, head of the emergency committee of the main opposition United Future Party (UFP), started the discussion on basic income by introducing the concept as 'economic freedom to buy a loaf of bread.'"

Note: Advanced Conversation posts are used with my adult conversation students.

"a socially fair and feasible way"

Has anything good come from COVID-19?  Well, yeah.  Air pollution in big cities is down, and wildlife is thriving in areas that have been closed off to human traffic.

Exhibit A:

"'Mexico City is a stunning example of air quality improvements,' says Chafe. 'They are dealing with it in a holistic way. They know they have many sources and realise it has a huge impact on life expectancy and quality of life. The situation is not perfect, but they have made really impressive progress.'

Building on that – here and elsewhere – will be the key after lockdown, she says. 'We have seen an improvement in air quality in the past few months. It has been happening for the wrong reasons and in a sad situation. I hope we can now find a way to achieve the same results in a socially fair and feasible way.'”

Exhibit B:

"Pandemic lockdowns have given nature a breather all around the world, bringing animals to unexpected places. Cougars toured the deserted streets of Santiago, the Chilean capital. Wild boars have strolled through the lanes of Haifa, Israel. Fish catches off Vietnam are teeming again.

In Thailand, nature rebounded quickly, too. In late April, a herd of about 30 dugong — a relatively rare marine mammal — showed up off a cape once crowded with tourist boats. Leatherback turtles and blacktip reef sharks have returned to other holiday hot spots, too. (In other places, elephants and monkeys that normally play a part in the tourist trade are suffering, however.)"

As a species we'll either make the necessary course corrections when it comes to our Earth and our people or we'll die out, deservedly so.  It's really that simple.

Jesus Christ, What A Pack of Lawless Assholes

If this isn't symbolic of the sea-change in how Americans view cops in 2020 I don't know what is:

"Law Enforcement ‘Strategically Deflated’ Tires During Minneapolis Protests"

(They were using knives, natch.)

"more troubled with the actions of the Minneapolis police"

As bad as 2020 has been for the world, I think it will also mark a number of turning points.  Up first, the realization that police cause more violence than they prevent:

"A Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Sunday found that a majority of Americans are more troubled with the actions of the Minneapolis police that led to Floyd’s death, rather than by violence at some protests. The poll was conducted among 1,000 people from May 28 to June 2, just days after Floyd was killed on May 25 by a police officer who pinned him down by the neck with his knee, and early on in the (largely peaceful) protests.

Despite some criticism surrounding images of looting and arson, the poll found that only 27 percent of voters thought the violence of protesters was more concerning than the actions of the police and Floyd’s death — a contrast to the 59 percent that found the latter far more troubling. A big caveat: As with much else in American life, there’s a stark partisan divide. Nearly half of Republicans (48 percent) said they were more concerned about the protests, while 81 percent of Democrats found the police killing of Floyd a bigger issue."

I'm sure folks like my FOX-loving father are positively awash in images of broken glass and burning convenience stores, but anybody earnestly watching social media this past weekend saw almost nothing but peaceful (joyful?) protests by multiracial crowds, singing and marching for peace in their cities and towns.

Put simply, the "Ugga-Bugga Scary Black People!" noise machine doesn't work any longer.  That it ever did in the first place is one of our countries many original sins.

Daegu Is Punishing Me Already

To state the obvious, this is Daegu's early June heat.  It only gets worse, and it goes all the way through September.

And that rain later in the week?  Cool refreshing wawa from heaven?  Not so much.  It's hard, nasty sideways rain (jang-ma) that does little to actually cool things down.  It floods everything, making even walking treacherous, and by the time it finishes the humidity has sky-rocketed to sauna-like levels.

I beg of you all -- please break out your tiny, invisible violins for me now.

Just A Thought

What's clear to me mid-2020:

A solid 1/3 of humanity _wants_ dictatorship(s).

— Antifa Means "Kill All Nazis" James (@wetcasements) June 3, 2020

"weaponized racism"

NAACP President Derrick Johnson on what makes the public executions of black men possible in America:

"Under no regime but racism could kneeling for eight minutes and 46 seconds on the neck of a man who had already been handcuffed – and who was pleading for breath as bystanders screamed that he was dying – be considered a fitting police response to the suspected use of a counterfeit $20 bill. Five years ago, New York City police choked Eric Garner to death for selling untaxed cigarettes at about $1 apiece. Through such grim arithmetic, we learn exactly how much Black life is worth to America’s police forces.

Each year, more than 1,000 civilians nationwide are killed by police – and Black people are three times more likely to be slain than white people, despite also being more likely to be unarmed. Only 1% of those officers ever face charges. This kind of weaponized racism takes a toll on Black people nationwide. It starts early: the vast majority of Black families find it necessary to have 'the talk' with their children. No, not the one about the birds and the bees. This talk prepares them to expect unfair and disrespectful treatment from police – and to accept such treatment because the slightest objection could result in their death."

How any sane person could look at America right now and think a #BLM protester is more dangerous than a cop is beyond me.

"a game without a winner or even an ending"

"The adventure 'The Giant's Bag,' for example, contains dozens of lines of dialog, exchanges that would simply have no place in [traditional war-gamer Tony] Bath's considered reflection on the passage of fictional history.  The story itself follows the attempts of a greedy wizard (presumably played by Gygax's son Ernie) to con a churlish but canny giant out of its rucksack -- without violence, merely with trickery.  In fact, the magician first allies with the giant to acquire a sunken treasure, and only after trying to take advantage of his oversized companion's feeblemindedness does he get his comeuppance.  Gygax's examples show more problem solving than carnage, less warfare in a political context than simple plundering of any wealth in plain sight.  The accounts of Dungeons & Dragons ignore the fate of nations and focus instead on the episodic unfolding of a fictional life, that of a person, and thereby created something new: a wargame without wars, a miniature game without miniatures, and a game without a winner or even an ending."

-- Jon Peterson, Playing At The World

Let's Do This

I know, I know Joe Biden is highly imperfect but at this point I refuse to even engage with the Purity / Sarandon Left.

Just let me know now if you're going to help Trump get re-elected so we can block each other and move on with both our lives.

— Antifa James (@wetcasements) June 1, 2020

Some Inside Pedagogy

While my college classes have been put off for the entirely of the spring semester (first semester in South Korea) tonight I'm teaching a handful of adult students.  I haven't done any in-classroom teaching since last January.  Anyhow, we're doing coronavirus vocabulary.  Fascinating!  Here's my list:

Coronavirus Vocabulary

Virus
Coronavirus (crown virus)
Quarantine
Symptom (n)
Symptomatic / Asymptomatic (adj)
Lockdown
Social Distancing
Epidemic
"Flattening the curve"
Fever / Take temperature
Immunity / Herd Immunity
Patient Zero
"Work from Home"
Super-spreader

Other than "Eating whole pints of Ben and Jerry's in my boxer shorts at 3 a.m." what did I miss?

"asking neither worship nor obedience"

"When at last he turned the machines off and began to detach electrodes, the serenity Orr had felt did not lapse, like the induced mood of a drug or alcohol.  It remained.  Without premeditation and without timidity Orr said, 'Dr. Haber, I can't let you use my effective dreams any more.'

'Eh?' Haber said, his mind still on Orr's brain, not on Orr.

'I can't let you use my dreams any more.'

'"Use" them?'

'Use them.'

'Call it what you like,' Haber said.  He had straightened up and towered over Orr, who was still sitting down.  He was gray, large, broad, curly bearded, deep-chested, frowning.  Your God is a jealous God.  'I'm sorry, George, but you're not in a position to say that.'

Orr's gods were nameless and unenvious, asking neither worship nor obedience.

'Yet I do say it,' he replied mildly."

-- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Lathe of Heaven