How to Avoid Fogging Glasses with a Face Mask: (from Nicholas Kristof’s NYT newsletter)

• “Tear off a small piece of a tissue, fold into a small oblong and place under the mask on the bridge of the nose … The tissue absorbs the steam of exhalation.
• “In the automotive section of a store or online, you can buy Rain-X, which is a spray used for anti-fog on windshields, etc. … Works great on regular glasses.”

Coincidentally at the grocery store today, a woman asked me, as she was struggling to put on her mask, how I managed not to fog my glasses when wearing a mask. I passed along the Rain-X tip to her. Now to find the Rain-X in Smokey’s workshop.

Given the resistance of a certain class of folks to wearing masks. I think we need some creative PSAs, ones that speak to those folks in ways they might accept. Political research has shown that, in order to reach people on the opposite side of the fence, we need to appeal to common values.

How about this: Strong masculinity* = Protecting one’s tribe = Wearing a mask.
* To combat the “Wearing a mask makes me look weak/pansy-a$$ed/feminine” BS.

Now we need some creative ad agency to make this appealing, not guilting or accusatory. I’m afraid that task is beyond me.

I’d like to see an ad with Tom Selleck, Chuck Norris, and Steven Seagal wearing masks and saying, “Real men wear masks.”

A friend sent me this John Lewis quote, which I printed out and posted* above my monitor.

“Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”

* The other quotes there, scattered among the Leonardo and Salvador Dalí prints:

• Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. – Niels Bohr
• In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.  -Johann von Neumann
• Bear in mind: the object of life’s journey is not to arrive at the grave in a well-preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, and shouting, “Holy $hit, what a ride!”
• The Rev. Martin Niemoller’s poem that starts out, “First they came for the Communists / And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.”