How To Stay Sane During a Pandemic

Feeling a little jittery? Have the couch cushions settled irrevocably into the shape of your personal rear end-type area? Has the excitement of binge-watching season 7 of “Home Boyz from Outer Space” faded?

I have two suggestions.

The first is a streaming channel called “The Great Courses.” The offerings are a real grab bag. I concentrated on history, starting with Amanda Podanyi, who in addition to knowing everything there is to know about ancient Mesopotamia, was the bass player in the band that became The Bangles.

Then I moved on to ancient Mesoamerica, a subject I knew very little about other than a vague idea that they played something like basketball, and of course knowledge gleaned from the classic 1964 film “The Wrestling Women vs. the Aztec Mummy.”

A foray into Gnosticism made me understand why the early Christian church wanted to stamp this stuff out, and did you know the Etruscans invented pizza?

The beauty of these programs, which are essentially lectures with two camera angles and maybe some slides, is you can fall asleep during them and rewind if you’re feeling ambitious.

But I was tired of staring at screens. So, well ahead of schedule I started my usual summer program of rereading old favorites.

I highly recommend an old Eric Ambler omnibus, “Intrigue.” It contains four novels: “A Coffin for Dimitrios,” “Journey Into Fear,” “Cause for Alarm” and “Background to Danger” — plus, in the edition I own, a forward by Alfred Hitchcock. 

You will not be disappointed. As Hitchcock points out, the heroes are very ordinary people who get tangled up in extraordinary circumstances. Not a lot of gadgetry and fight scenes, just slowly mounting tension, economically described.

I always reread the Bertie Wooster novels by P.G. Wodehouse in the summer. I always find something new, even though I have read them dozens of times.

In “The Code of the Woosters,” Bertie is discussing the personality of his friend Gussie Fink-Nottle with the latter’s fiancée, the soupy Madeline Bassett.

Bertie refers to Gussie as “a sensitive plant.”

Madeline replies: “Exactly. You know your Shelley, Bertie.”

“Oh, am I?”

I don’t know how I missed that in the first 47 readings of “Code.”

The other writer I revisit every year is Robert B. Parker, best known as the author of the Spenser detective novels.

What’s fun here, besides devastating descriptions of university faculty, extremists and poetry readings, is how over the course of 47 Spenser novels Parker moved from fairly lengthy exposition to a style almost completely dependent on dialogue, as with this scene from “Small Vices”:

“You ever wanted kids?” I said to Hawk.

“I like them a little older,” Hawk said.

“No, you animal, I meant have you ever wanted to be a father?”

“Not lately,” Hawk said

So put down the remote (unless you are watching a ferociously academic lecture series) and dig out an old favorite book.

The couch isn’t going anywhere, and neither are you.

The author demonstrates how to watch serious educational television during a pandemic. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

The author demonstrates how to reread P.G. Wodehouse during a pandemic. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

The author demonstrates how to watch serious educational television during a pandemic. Photo by Patrick L. Sullivan

Latest News

Joseph Robert Meehan

SALISBURY — Joseph Robert Meehan the 2nd,photographer, college professor and nearly 50 year resident of Salisbury, passed away peacefully at Noble Horizon on June 17, 2025. He was 83.

He was the son of Joseph Meehan the 1st and his mother, Anna Burawa of Levittown, New York, and sister Joanne, of Montgomery, New York.

Keep ReadingShow less
Florence Olive Zutter Murphy

STANFORDVILLE, New York — It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Florence Olive Zutter Murphy, who went home to be with the Lord on June 16, 2025, at the age of 99.

She was born in Sharon, Connecticut on Nov. 20, 1925, and was a long time resident of the Dutchess County area.

Keep ReadingShow less
Chore Service hosts annual garden party fundraiser

Chore Service hosted 250 supporters at it’s annual Garden Party fundraiser.

Bob Ellwood

On Saturday, June 21, Mort Klaus, longtime Sharon resident, hosted 250 enthusiastic supporters of Northwest Corner’s beloved nonprofit, Chore Service at his stunning 175-acre property. Chore Service provides essential non-medical support to help older adults and those with disabilities maintain their independence and quality of life in their own homes.

Jane MacLaren, Executive Director, and Dolores Perotti, Board President, personally welcomed arriving attendees. The well-stocked bar and enticing hors d’oeuvres table were popular destinations as the crowd waited for the afternoon’s presentations.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bach and beyond
The Berkshire Bach Society (BBS) of Stockbridge will present a concert by cellist Dane Johansen on June 28 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church.
Provided

The mission statement of the Berkshire Bach Society (BBS) reads: “Our mission is to preserve the cultural legacy of Baroque music for current and future audiences — local, national, and international — by presenting the music of J.S. Bach, his Baroque predecessors, contemporaries, and followers performed by world-class musicians.”

Its mission will once again be fulfilled by presenting a concert featuring Dane Johansen on June 28 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 29 Main Street, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Keep ReadingShow less