Beatles – "I Should Have Known Better" (1964)

I should have known better

With a [county] like you

A few days ago, I woke up to find an e-mail from my county’s department of health that invited me to schedule an appointment for a covid-19 vaccination at a local high school.

I responded to it toot sweet, and was rewarded with an e-mail that read as follows:

this very welcome message:

Your Vaccination Appointment is Confirmed!

This message is to confirm that [2 or 3 lines] is scheduled for a vaccination appointment at:

Venue/Location: Richard Montgomery High School

Address: 250 Richard Montgomery Drive, Rockville, MD 20852

Date: 02/11/2021

Time: 09:20 am

We look forward to seeing you!

Your Vaccination Provider

I quickly showered, got dressed, and headed out – leaving my home early enough to make sure I would arrive at the vaccination site well before my appointment time.  

When I arrived at the school’s parking lot, it was absolutely full.  So I parked at a nearby bank and hustled over to join a very long line of vaccine hopefuls outside the high school.  

Here’s how Bethesda Magazine described the scene that greeted me:

PEOPLE WAITED OUTSIDE IN LINE FOR 

TWO HOURS-PLUS ON THURSDAY 

AT VACCINE SITE IN ROCKVILLE

In near-freezing temperatures Thursday afternoon, a line of people anxious to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Rockville’s Richard Montgomery High School stretched from one side of the building, past the baseball stadium and onto Fleet Street in the surrounding neighborhood.

Many in line had been waiting two hours or more, despite having an appointment for Thursday’s vaccination clinic.  And many were elderly.

“Well, it’s not fun.  The line is about three blocks,” said 79-year-old Michael Stolar.

*     *     *     *     *

I didn’t stand around for two-plus hours.  As I was walking toward the end of the line, I heard a woman in an official-looking yellow jacket shouting instructions to the assembled multitudes.

“ONLY HEALTH-CARE WORKERS AND THOSE 75 YEARS OLD AND OLDER WILL BE VACCINATED TODAY – NO TEACHERS, NO ONE AGES 65-74!” she bellowed as she walked up and down the line of people waiting to get vaccinated.

“I’m not the one who makes the decisions!” she responded to those who protested that they had been given appointments for shots.  “Call your County Council member and complain!”

There was clearly no point in arguing with her or anyone else.  So I called it a day and skedaddled rather than wasting any more of my time.

*     *     *     *     *

I’ve lived in Montgomery County, Maryland – which borders Washington, DC – since 1982.

When USA Today ranked the 25 best American counties to live in, “MoCo” – which is what we residents called our beloved county for short – easily made the cut.  (There are 3243 counties and county equivalents in the U.S., so that ranking put MoCo in the top one per cent.) 

Here’s how USA Today explained why MoCo – which is the most populous of Maryland’s 24 counties, with just over one million residents – ranked so high on that list:

Montgomery County is one of the most affluent and well-educated counties in the country.  The typical Montgomery County household earns $100,352 a year, far more than the $55,322 national median household income.  An estimated 58.1% of adults in the county have a bachelor’s degree, a larger share than all but 10 U.S. counties.  Montgomery County residents also have some of the best health outcomes in the nation. The life expectancy at birth in the county is 81.5 years, approximately 2.4 years longer than the national life expectancy.

One reason that our citizenry ranks as high as it does when it comes to education is that there are a large number of government scientists who live in MoCo.

We’re home to the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (formerly known as the Bethesda Naval Hospital), The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (which includes the National Weather Service), the US Department of Energy, the US Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards & Technology, and others too numerous to mention.

In other words, our county is chock-full of biologists, chemists, computer scientists, engineers, epidemiologists, geneticists, meteorologists, physicists, physicians, statisticians, and other assorted scientific types.

Given all that brainpower, you would think that MoCo could administer a covid-19 vaccination program in an organized and efficient manner.

GUESS AGAIN!

*     *     *     *     *

The last few weeks, my Facebook news feed has been full of “Woo-hoo, I got my covid vaccination today!” announcements from friends and relatives who live in or around my humble hometown of Joplin, Missouri.  (Most of them have gotten not just their first shots, but also their second shots.)

Meanwhile, those of us who are in the same age group here in MoCo sit and wait . . . and wait . . . and wait.  

Why is that?  There’s no simple answer to that question – “It’s complicated,” as they say.

But one reason things are so f*cked up in MoCo is that the county and the state are NOT on the same page when it comes to vaccination priorities.

*     *     *     *     *

Last October, the Maryland Department of Health published a draft covid-19 vaccination plan that seemed to me to make sense.  Here’s an excerpt:

The initial highest priority groups may include:

– Healthcare personnel likely to be directly exposed to or treat people with suspected or confirmed covid-19

– People at increased risk for severe illness from covid-19, including those with underlying medical  conditions and people 65 years of age and older

– Other essential workers, who by the nature of their position, are unable to reduce their risk of exposure (e.g., first responders) 

But somewhere along the way, politics reared its ugly head, and the state in its infinite wisdom decided on a totally F.U.B.A.R. set of vaccination priorities.

At the top of the revised vaccination-priority heap are the members of group 1A – health care workers, nursing home residents and staff, and first responders.  (I’ve got NO PROBLEM WHATSOEVER with any of those groups getting the highest priority when it comes to vaccinations.)

Next comes group 1B – which includes those who are over 75, those in assisted living and other “congregate facilities” (a term that appears to have been chosen to obfuscate the fact that it includes prison inmates), and those in the “education” and “continuity of government” groups – which includes many elected officials, including members of the state legislature.  (We’ll take a closer look at the utter bullsh*t being spread by some state legislators to justify why they deserve special treatment – possibly at the cost of the lives of other Marylanders – in the next 2 or 3 lines.)  

Adults aged 65-74 – who were correctly referred to in the original draft priority document as being “at increased risk for severe illness from covid-19” – have been demoted to group 1C.

In theory, we in the 65-74 age group in Maryland are now eligible to be vaccinated.  But because there aren’t enough vaccine doses here to take care of all the 1B group yet, we’re still waiting.

*     *     *     *     *

The Washington Post recently published an opinion piece by a Johns Hopkins bioethicist and a Yale medical school professor that was titled “The best vaccination strategy is simple: Focus on Americans 65 and older.”

That’s because people over 65 account for only 16 per cent of the population but more than 80 per cent of covid deaths – their risk of death or hospitalization is MANY TIMES higher than thirty- and forty-somethings.  (You can click here to read the article in its entirety.)

But Maryland has chosen to flip-flop on vaccination priorities rather than following what those experts recommended in that Washington Post piece.  

“Follow the science” is our official mantra.  “Follow the science, except when the science conflicts with political considerations” is closer to the truth. 

The clearest proof of that is the state’s decision to move government officials and teachers into group 1B – where they have priority over the 65-74 group, whose members are at MUCH GREATER risk of dying if they get covid.  

Keeping the courts functioning is important, of course.  But that doesn’t mean that judges and their staffs deserve higher vaccination priority than seniors and other essential workers – like grocery store employees, who can’t do their jobs remotely.  EVER HEAR OF A ZOOM CALL, YOUR HONOR?

(By the way, the Maryland State Bar Association has demanded that ALL attorneys be given the same high priority as judges.  Doing that is necessary for the proper functioning of the justice system, don’t you know?  That’s hypocrisy with a capital “H,” of course.  Most attorneys – including me – never go into a courtroom, and can easily avoid coronavirus exposure while still doing our jobs.  And even litigators can handle their business – depositions, hearings, etc. – through video conference calls.)  

*     *     *     *     *

The MoCo county executive and the head of the county health department had the gall to blame we, the people, for the snafu at the vaccination clinic where I had the appointment that turned out not to be an appointment.  

It comes as no surprise, of course, that they failed to man up and accept responsibility for the mess, but chose instead to blame the victims of their incompetence.

MoCo's chief health officer and county
executive say the snafu was our fault 

The county’s spin is that the problems were caused by people sharing vaccination sign-up links that were not intended to be shared – resulting in a lot of people signing up when they weren’t eligible to sign up yet.

All I know is that I filled out the registration page – including my birthdate – and was sent a confirmation by the county.

If I wasn’t eligible because I’m too young, why didn’t they reject my application and tell me to try again later?

Instead, I was sent a personalized confirmation with a specific appointment time.

According to MoCo, that’s the great state of Maryland’s fault.  MoCo used a website created by the state to book vaccination appointments.  Because the 65-74 group is eligible under current state guidelines, we were allowed to sign up for this clinic even though MoCo had planned all along to only give shots to health care workers and the 75-and-over crowd.

To be honest, I had my doubts about the whole thing from the outset.  It seemed a little too easy, given how screwed up things had been up to this point.

To quote today’s featured song, “I should have known better.”

*     *     *     *     *

Of course, the fact that some ineligible people were given appointments when they shouldn’t have been was only one of the problems at the vaccination site I was shooed away from – despite being given an appointment.

For example, why did eligible people have to wait in line outside in the freezing cold for two-plus hours to get shots?  

That’s a problem that’s unrelated to the crowd of ineligibles, who were promptly sent home – leaving only eligible people to wait in line.  If the number of eligible vaccine recipients and the number of vaccine doses matched up – as they should have after all the ineligible people were sent home – why did things run so far behind schedule?  

I’m not surprised that the process didn’t run like clockwork – no one would complain about a reasonable wait beyond his or her appointment time.  But to be given, say, a 10:00 AM appointment and then have to wait in line in the freezing cold until 1:00 PM?  

How did that happen?  I’m guessing the county didn’t arrange for enough nurses (or others who could administer shots) to be there, or that they didn’t get everything set up in time.  

This wasn’t the first vaccination clinic that MoCo has had, and I do know that some of the previous clinics at other high schools have gone off without a hitch – no masses of ineligible vaccine hunters showing up, plenty of shot-givers to handle the crowds, etc.  That’s why I suspect that it was the county that did most of the pooch-screwing this morning.

*     *     *     *     *

Things could be worse, I suppose: I might live in California.

From the San Jose Mercury-News:

CALIFORNIA’S MEDICAL MARIJUANA 

RETAIL WORKERS MOVE TO HEAD 

OF VACCINE LINE, AHEAD OF TEACHERS

It was with a sense of accomplishment that young cannabis entrepreneur Jerred Kiloh scheduled his first COVID-19 vaccine appointment for Feb. 11 in San Francisco.

Kiloh, owner of the Higher Path Collective in Sherman Oaks and president of the United Cannabis Business Association, was one of the movers and shakers responsible for nudging medical marijuana retail workers toward the front of California’s vaccine eligibility line, before some educators, emergency workers and food and agriculture workers. . . .

“Cannabis delivery drivers before school bus drivers and teachers?” Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner tweeted in response to a Los Angeles Times column. “Makes no sense to me.”

Edison High School teacher Mike Walters said teachers are too essential to be passed over by cannabis industry personnel when it comes to COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

“Teachers should be prioritized ahead of the cannabis dispensaries,” said Walters, who teaches U.S. history and government at the Huntington Beach school. “We’re kind of on the front lines with these kids on a daily basis. I hope the quicker we get this vaccine to teachers then the quicker we can get all kids back in the classroom, instead of just a few of them.”

The Biden Administration’s new CDC director has said that it is possible to reopen schools safely even if teachers aren’t vaccinated – so I’m skeptical of the decision in Maryland and elsewhere to give teachers priority over seniors, who are MUCH more likely to die from covid if they are infected.  (By the way, the high-priority “education” group in Maryland isn’t limited to classroom teachers – it includes support staff who may have zero contact with students.)

But this time, I’m on the side of the teachers – to give marijuana dispensary workers vaccination priority over teachers seems ridiculous. 

Of course, I’ve never been a big pot guy. 

*     *     *     *     *

That was quite the rant, wasn’t it?

Delivering such a rant is tiring.  But fear not – I’m not too tired to deliver yet another diatribe about a much-beloved Lennon-McCartney song. 

“I Should Have Known Better” was released on the A Hard Day’s Night album in July 10, 1964.  It was released a few days later as the B-side of the “A Hard Day’s Night” single – which was the fifth of the Beatles’ six singles to reach #1 on the Billboard “Hot 100” in 1964.

“I Should Have Known Better” was a typical “Beatlemania”-era Lennon-McCartney song.  It had a catchy tune and a bouncy beat, and it mixed in an occasional minor chord to keep things interesting – but the lyrics were nothing special.

Like most of the early Lennon-McCartney songs we’ve been discussing, this one is a “songlet” that would have been unacceptably short without some gratuitous repetition. 

Let’s consider the structure of the record, which is 2:44 long – which is probably about average for a track of that era:

Verse 1

Verse 2

Bridge

Verse 3

Guitar solo (based on the verse)

Verse 2 (repeated)

Bridge (repeated)

Outro

Strip away the redundant repetition and do a little rearranging, and you get this:

Verse 1

Verse 2

Bridge

Guitar solo

Verse 3

Outro

That would make the song about 2:00 long.

You may disagree, but I’d rather have a tight little two-minute record than one with 45 seconds of superfluous padding.

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to listen to “I Should Have Known Better.”

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon:

Bryan White – "Eugene You Genius" (1994)

Tell me, Eugene, I just gotta know

Can I go down and buy it

At the grocery store?

Pushing an eight-month-old baby around the neighborhood is thirsty work.

So after spending time recently with grandson number two, I was in the mood to drop by a bar with a good selection of craft beers on tap and a friendly bartender to serve me a pint.

Fortunately for me, the H Street Lounge in Washington, DC – which has a very impressive craft beer list – was just a few blocks from where I dropped off my grandson after our visit.

The H Street Whole Foods

Did I mention that the H Street Lounge is located inside a grocery store? 

That’s correct – it’s located inside a new Whole Foods store in Washington, DC.

*     *     *     *     *

I had never been in a grocery store that sold craft beer on tap for consumption on the premises.

The H Street Lounge had a number of local beers, starting at only $5 a pint, including beers from breweries in DC (Atlas’s “NSFW” imperial black IPA and DC Brau’s ESB), Virginia (Old Ox’s “Black Ox” rye porter and Hardywood’s “The Great Return” IPA), and Maryland (Jailbreak’s “Feed the Monkey” hefeweizen and RAR’s “Bottom Feeder” blonde ale.)

Some of the beers on tap
at the H Street Lounge

Its offerings also included number of beers that didn’t originate in the DMV – including some exotic, high-gravity (i.e., high alcohol) brews.

For example, there were three beers from the Captain Lawrence brewery in New York State – including the “Seeking Alpha” 12% triple IPA – and Unibroue’s “La Fin du Monde,” a Belgian-style tripel that’s brewed in Quebec.    

Even casual craft beer fans are familiar with Boulevard’s highly-regarded “Tank 7” farmhouse ale.  Instead of Tank 7, Whole Foods was pouring “Saison Brett,” a hard-to-find limited-release Tank 7 variant.

Another rare beer available by the pint at that Whole Foods was Firestone Walker’s “Bretta Weisse,” a Berliner weisse that’s aged for eight months in French oak tanks called foeders.  

This way to the H Street Lounge

The famous Tröegs “Mad Elf” ale – a holiday brew flavored with cherries and honey – sells out quickly every year.  But the H Street Bar was offering this 11% ABV ale at a very good price.

The piece de résistance of the bar’s draft beer list was the 2016 Goose Island “Bourbon County Stout,” a legendary 13.8% ABV imperial stout that’s aged in bourbon barrels for the better part of a year.  

*     *     *     *     *

You may think it’s odd to go to a grocery store for a draft beer.  

The Whole Foods that’s home to the H Street Lounge is as much a restaurant as it is a grocery store.

Like most Whole Foods stores, this one offered a dazzling array of pricey prepared foods that you could either take home or bring to the bar to have with your beer.  You’re not limited to a salad bar and some ready-to-eat soups and sandwiches – the Whole Foods also sells made-on-the-premises pizzas and sushi and ramen and bao buns and raclette and a whole lot more.

Smoked pork shoulder ramen

Nearly all the customers drinking craft beer in the H Street Lounge when I stopped by the other evening were also enjoying the store’s food offerings.  And the majority of those people had their kids with them.

*     *     *     *     *

We have plenty of Whole Foods stores in the Maryland suburbs of DC.  But none of them offer craft beers on tap.

That’s because the great state of Maryland – unlike DC and neighboring Virginia – forbids it.

The Great Seal of Maryland

In fact, Maryland forbids not only the sale and consumption of draft beer in a grocery store, but also the sale of six-packs of beer to take home.

I’m not going to bore you with a long rant about lobbyists and special-interest legislation and all that jazz.

Suffice it to say that we Marylanders can’t buy beer (or wine) in grocery stores, drug stores, warehouse club stores, or other chain stores thanks to our terrible, horrible, no good, very bad state legislature.

*     *     *     *     *

Maryland is home to a number of very good craft breweries.

The Whole Foods store in DC that is home to the H Street Lounge sells six-packs of beer from a number of those Maryland breweries – including Evolution, Jailbreak, Manor Hill, Monocacy, Oliver Brewing, and Union Craft.

Monocacy Brewing beers for sale
at the H Street Whole Foods

But once you cross the DC line and enter Maryland, you can’t buy those Maryland beers (or beers from anywhere else) at a Whole Foods store.  

Or, for that matter, at a Wegman’s or a Harris-Teeter or a Trader Joe’s or a CVS or a Walgreen’s or a Walmart or a Costco or a 7-Eleven.

That’s what I said – you can’t buy beer at a 7-Eleven in Maryland.  What exactly is the raison d’être of a 7-Eleven if you can’t buy beer there late on a Friday or Saturday night when the liquor stores are closed?

These Union Craft beers are also
available at the H Street Whole Foods

(Note: The statement that you can’t buy beer at a 7-Eleven is accurate in most, but not all Maryland counties.  Maryland’s alcohol laws vary significantly by county, which makes it almost impossible to make accurate generalizations about what is legal and what is not legal in Maryland.)

*     *     *     *     *

Millions of Marylanders live just a short drive from DC or Virginia, of course, which means it’s not all that hard for them to cross state lines and contribute to the economies of our neighboring states.

This popular DC liquor store is just
one block from the Maryland line

Have I ever crossed state lines to stock up on beer and wine – thereby depriving Maryland of the tax revenues it would have collected if I had done my shopping closer to home?  

I think I’ll plead the Fifth rather than answer that question.

*     *     *     *     *

Oklahoma native Bryan White was only 20 years when he released his eponymous debut album in 1994.

“Eugene You Genius,” the first single from that album, stalled at #48 on the Billboard “Hot Country Songs” chart, but two other singles from Bryan White made it all the way to #1, and the album eventually went platinum.

Two singles from his second album almost were #1 country hits, but his popularity waned over the next few years.

In 2012, White turned to Kickstarter to raise money to pay for a new album.  The $34,889 he received from contributors was enough to pay for only a six-song EP, Shine, which he released in 2014.  

Here’s “Eugene You Genius.”  It’s not the greatest song ever featured on 2 or 3 lines, but there are very few grocery store-themed songs out there.

Click below to buy the song from Amazon: