‘AMERICAN COMEBACK?' Trump has released a new ad claiming “Under President Trump, the United States is writing the greatest comeback story in history!” “The ad frames Trump's response to the pandemic, including his ban on travel from China, as effective at mitigating the spread of the virus, which has infected more than 1 million people and killed 67,686 people in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Nearly 40,000 people arrived in the U.S. on direct flights from China in the two months after Trump imposed the restrictions, The New York Times reported in April. “
HORRIFIC. Trump administration projects 3,000 coronavirus deaths per day by early June.
DEMEANING. Ellen's 2014 Oscars bodyguard has some bad things to say about his treatment by the talk show host: “When you see her on TV, people fall in love with her but it is a false facade and bravado.”
AMERICAN HORROR STORY. Leslie Jordan says Lady Gaga took him in the woods and got down on him and started riding him.
ROYAL SEPARATION. Meghan Markle reportedly yelled at a member of Kate Middleton's staff, and that prompted the first discussions about leaving Kensington Palace.
RUSSIA. Healthcare professionals have been dying in suspicious “falls” from windows.
GOFUNDME OF THE DAY. Funeral expenses for DJ Warren Gluck who died suddenly last week.
WARNING OF THE DAY. From NYC's East Village.
GUARDIAN. What gay men can teach us about surviving coronavirus: “Since around 1980, when the first cases were identified in the US, 700,000 people have died of Aids. In my lifetime, it went from an epidemic with no cure to one for which we have the tools to at least approximate herd immunity. People still die. There are no certainties. And the blood sacrifice we give at the clinic every few months reminds us of this.”
MALE MODEL MONDAY. Chase Mattson, Lucas Loyala, Tom Hutch, Sergio Carvahal, Ivo Buchta and MORE.
CASUALTY. J. Crew files for bankruptcy. “J.Crew's woes have been exacerbated by the pandemic, which has forced stores to shutter, throwing the retail industry into disarray. Retailers that were already struggling, including Neiman Marcus and J.C. Penney, are now under pressure to potentially file for bankruptcy sooner than they hoped.”
WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN. Adam Lambert was set to tour with Christina Aguilera this summer.
MAYO CLINIC. Mike Pence admits he should have worn a mask.
HURRICANE SEASON. 2020 predicted to be big: “The prediction is for 19.8 +/- 4.4 total named tropical cyclones, which corresponds to a range between 15 and 24 storms, with a best estimate of 20 named storms. … The assumptions behind this forecast are (a) the persistence of current North Atlantic Main Development Region (MDR) sea surface temperature (SST) anomalies (+1.1 °C in early to mid-April 2020 from NOAA's Coral Reef Watch) throughout the 2020 hurricane season, (b) the development of mild El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO)-negative conditions by boreal late summer and early fall 2020 (ENSO forecasts here; we used mid-April 2020), and (c) climatological mean conditions for the North Atlantic Oscillation in boreal fall/winter 2020-2021.
EARLIER THAN THOUGHT? Doctor says coronavirus was present in France in December: “Yves Cohen, head of intensive care at the Avicenne hospital in Paris, caused a stir by telling BFM TV that tests had been repeated on samples from 24 patients admitted to the hospital for pneumonia in December and January, and that one from December 27 was positive. The patient, a 53-year-old man, had not travelled to China.”
COMING FRIDAY. An Ariana Grande and Justin Bieber duet to benefit families of COVID-19 first responders.
TEST KITCHEN TRY OF THE DAY. Improving boxed mac and cheese.
TRAILER OF THE DAY. The Big Flower Fight. “Ten pairs of amateur gardeners from around the world push their skills to the limit as they compete to create stunning, supersized floral sculptures.”
MONDAY MIRROR IMAGE. Jake T. Austin.
