@blissweb 1 January 2021 more from that month

And then there were the masks. There has, I suppose, been something pitch-black silly about seeing the many ways that people have misworn them—omitting noses, covering only chins, dangling them off ears. It’s macro failure demonstrated on a micro level, but at least we’re trying. On a hot summer day, I witnessed what could be the pinnacle of the genre: a man walking down the street wearing a pair of ski goggles, ostensibly as prophylactic, his mouth and nose uncovered but his eyes safe and sound. Mostly, though, people of good will stayed inside and apart when they could, and the jokes were to be found on screens, maybe shared with those locked in with us, but better enjoyed alone, with our feeds. There was a sharp break from the lonely-together gloom on Saturday, November 7th, around noon, when the election was called—people joined up (too close for comfort in many instances) to shout and dance and sing, and see the world around them anew. With the celebration, a fount of humor burst forth: a weekend of great jokes—four seasons’s (of total landscaping) worth—compressed into a matter of hours. After that release, it was back to authoritarian gesturing, bad-faith trolling, covid spikes, lots of doom-scrolling, occasional hope-scrolling, and maybe, every once in a while, a little joke-scrolling. Here are some of the things that brought levity to a tough year.