Welcome back, kittens. Seems like we’re here every Tuesday these days, “here” being both online and at Rideau Cottage, the substantial, foursquare, and quite un-cottage-like brick home in which the Prime Minister and his family live. He’s working from home during this, the Second of the Waves, which is why we’re here, and I can’t find myself annoyed by it. God knows, I love to see a man in good outerwear.
It certainly beats the sterile briefing room that we have had since the start of the summer. We may never see Seymour again, but we have seasonal porchscaping instead, and that’s what I call an upgrade!
Yes, I’m taking joy where ever I can find it these days. even in seasonal porchscaping. I ain’t proud.
And yes, we are still naming these posts after old Paul Naschy werewolf films, because it’s 2020 and the idea that things are supposed to make sense is just so 2018. Today’s film is La Noche de Walpurgis, which translates as Walpurgisnacht, but I’m betting you don’t speak German any better than you speak Spanish, so The Bloody Pit of Horror blog gives us a full run-down of all the other names by which this movie goes. You know it’s a totally crap movie when it has aliases. If I were to release this movie I’d do it under an assumed name too.
- aka: Blood Moon
- … aka: Night of the Vampire
- … aka: Shadow of the Werewolf
- … aka: Walpurgis Night
- … aka: Walpurgis Night: Wolf vs. Vampire
- … aka: Werewolf Shadow
- … aka: Werewolf vs. Vampire Woman, The
- … aka: Werewolf versus the Vampire Woman, The
We’re going with the last name, because, again, why the fuck not?
Interestingly:
Here is your trailer, which is fun to watch while we’re all waiting for the briefing to start. And here is the full movie on YouTube, in case it’s really, really fucking late.
“Things happen that have never been seen by human beings,” so, basically #Peak2020. Perfect. “See it with someone you hate” oh man, ALL of the taglines from this movie work to sum up this year.
Now, to the cards. We’re overdue for the Seventh Generation card, and it’ll come one day, but that day is not this day. Sorry, kittens, you’ll just have to keep returning to the well. The blog. The RSS reader. The email subscription. I dunno, is the internet many places, or is it all one, and divisions purely arbitrary distinctions born of limited perspectives?
I am speaking, you understand, I am speaking only of the internet.
Oh, right, the cards:
And all the previous bingo episodes are on the Briefing Bingo Category page. Someday we’ll even create a Covid-19 Briefing Drinking Game but we’re in the middle of a sobriety pledge right now (day off to celebrate Freed Jeremy Hammond Day) so get back to us in January.
And here is our actual video for today, which 848 people are currently watching. And now, half an hour late, even us.
We’re jumping into the middle of the questions, but you can tick your “Donc” square at least.
Mark your “Starts more than ten minutes late” square. So it’s not just us.
Yes, mark your “New porchscaping” square. And I guess if we’re also doing squares that rarely/never change, might as well mark off the “Facial hair” square too. Will we see “cleanshaven” again? I wonder. “Back at Rideau Hall” is clearly in play (cottage/hall, whatever, it’s on the grounds of Rideau Hall). And “Holiday decorations” too, so seasonal porchscaping is a twofer!
Oh yes, mark your “Outdoors” square too. And “Outerwear” as is only right and proper. Rideau Cottage does NOT count as “on location.” Not after all these months. And finally at 23:25, Trudeau emerges from the house to begin the briefing. Mark your “Mask” square.
It was nice of him to wait for me, really it was. And I almost would have made it on time, if I had one of those coffee makers you could program. But I don’t, so I was in the kitchen brewing some Kickass blend. Priorities!
And yes, “Begins in English”. He usually only begins in French if the briefing is in Quebec.
Oh yay /sarcasm, new record daily highs of Covid-19 in multiple provinces. People, have you MET other people? Do you really like them that much, enough to potentially kill them? Even *I* would not go out and socialize with a group of people, and I HATE my roommate (I don’t, I just hate the fact that he lives here, in the house that he owns).
Now we have “Audio issues” and “Touches mic” and I should totally make a square for “Deja vu because we did this in the First Wave” for sending the military in to old folks’ homes.
Update on personal protective equipment, vaccines, and therapeutics: Since last week, we’ve sent more than 2.9 million pairs of nitrile gloves to the provinces and territories. We’ve also sent out 4.6 million rapid tests over the past few months – and millions more are coming.
We’ve received more than 24 million syringes and needles, which we’ll use when we have a vaccine. On that front, we heard promising news yesterday about AstraZeneca and Oxford University’s vaccine candidate. We already have an agreement for up to 20 million doses of it.
We’ve also signed an agreement for up to 26,000 doses of Eli Lilly’s therapeutic drug, and we have options for thousands more doses. This treatment was developed in partnership with Vancouver’s AbCellera Biologics, and is part of our support for researchers here at home.
Originally tweeted by Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) on November 24, 2020.
He’s doing his OWN summaries on Twitter? How did I not notice until now? Great, thanks, you do my work for me!
“Every step of the way” and “Finds a new way to give Canadians money” squares active for yet another new rent subsidy and wage subsidy. And “Second Wave”.
You can only mark “every step of the way” once per briefing, no matter if he says it a dozen times. Which we might see today.
“Rapid tests” square is active. Trudeau is specifically mentioning the amount of money the federal government is pouring into Alberta. Recent polls have his approval rate there at 55% while the CPC premier’s popularity is down around 30%, so this is perfect game theory in action.
Seriously, Trudeau needs an “every step of the way” intervention.
And there’s your “App” square, half an hour in. 5.4 million Canadians have downloaded it so far. Be like Sasha. Sasha was asymptomatic, but had the app, and got a notification he’d been exposed, so he went in and got tested, only to find it was positive. He’d never have known otherwise.
For once, they didn’t swap out the sign language interpreters. The mind! It fairly boggleth!
I think I need to add a square for microphone bobbling to the Seventh Generation Bingo Card. Which I’ll be making today and posting probably Friday, when there will almost certainly be another Covid-19 briefing.
Meanwhile, in New Brunswick, things are getting fraught.
Tick your “Donc” and “You can see your breath” squares. There are over 900 people watching the video of today’s covid-19 briefing. FINALLY it seems like people are catching on to these, and of course I miss half an hour of it.
And your “Vaccine” square too.
“No one place gets done with Covid-19 until all places are done with Covid-19.”
Interesting. 2800 watching the CTV live coverage of the briefing today, vs about 1000 watching CPAC. And 3200 watching the CBC version too. But then, we’ve always been outliers. still, this is the MOST popular briefing we’ve seen in terms of viewership. I wonder why.
Oh, who am I kidding? It’s clearly that they want to play Briefing Bingo. RIGHT? [hint: the correct answer is RIGHT!]
Shout-out to the moderator, who does not hesitate to yell at the Prime Minister “And again in the OTHER official language” or words to that effect. Can you imagine the job listing? “Must be willing to yell at Justin Trudeau repeatedly.” How did O’Toole not at least apply?
Tick your “Building back better” square, even if it did come from a mere reporter. Also your “Drinks water” square. That was the PM. No idea if the reporters are drinking, but if experience is any guide…well…have you MET one?
Tick your “Twinkleface” square. No idea why he’s twinkling at reporters, but he’s twinkling. Mark it.
Mark your “PPE” square. I wonder how long they’ll have a glass of water on the podium? Ottawa’s bloody cold. To keep it liquid through the winter, they’ll have to replace it with vodka or gin, and wouldn’t THAT be a fun briefing? I really do have to get working on that drinking game.
I need a square for “layered outerwear” because I can see a tie, shirt, fleece jacket, and wool coat. I need a “Five Eyes” square, clearly. Good to see some questions around that. And mark your “Two Michaels” square.
“Coercive Diplomacy” should be a square. So far it’s only been applied to China, but it could have applied to Twunt’s administration as well. And mark your “My aunt calls during the briefing” square. Four Fucking Times. That’s a new personal best.
And that’s a wrap.
Meanwhile, in the US:
But also:
raincoaster 
Reblogged this on #OpCovid19 and commented:
The Canadian Covid-19 Briefing for Tuesday, November 24, 2020. Featuring Justin Trudeau (aka Prime Minister Zoolander), Paul Naschy the Spanish werewolf, Linus, and somebody in the press at the New Brunswick briefing who forgot to mute their mic when they took their phone into the bathroom with them. WILL WE EVER KNOW WHO IT WAS???