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Yes, you should still wear a mask on the plane

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Today's Agenda

Don't be that guy.

Masked Transit

Pre-pandemic, a not-uncommon sight on the New York City subway was the occasional tourist wearing a face mask as if they'd just prepped for surgery and wandered through the wrong door. That's odd, you'd think, as you sneezed into your hand and grabbed the subway pole before eating a slice of pizza a Brooklyn man had himself just sneezed on. Why is that person wearing a mask?

Now, one Covid pandemic later, you know the answer. Some of us will never ride the subway unmasked again. But even after everything we've been through, there are still many Americans who believe masks impinge on their freedom and/or respiratory system and will straight-up trash this Walmart if you think otherwise. And now that the vaccinated can roam maskless in many places, anti-maskers have even more reason to get upset when asked to cover up their laughing gear.

One place where this still happens a lot is airplanes, writes Brooke Sutherland. People are cramming onto planes more and more in a desperate quest for new scenery. But not all of them are vaccinated, and a deadly variant is spreading. And even though planes have great ventilation, it can't overcome the industrial-grade misting power of your seatmate's face holes. So airlines are asking people to stay masked up. And this makes some people very mad:

This behavior isn't helping anything, folks — not the airlines, not the crew, not your fellow passengers, not the economy. And it certainly won't help you to be banned from American Airlines for life (as tempting as that may sound). So be a sport and wear a mask on the plane, ya turkey. And subscribe to Brooke's newsletter. And read the whole thing.

Another Successful Infrastructure Week

Earlier this week, this newsletter suggested you squash your silly dreams about a big infrastructure plan getting through Congress. Then yesterday came news President Joe Biden and some senators had come up with a bipartisan infrastructure plan that, if not "big," was at least "existent." Now, sadly, even that plan seems to be wobbling on the edge of extinction. But Jonathan Bernstein invites us to admire the difficulty of building such a plan in a governance system with "Finnegan's Wake" levels of pointless complexity. As of this morning, he was optimistic the Rube Goldberg device necessary to get some decent infrastructure in this country would actually work. But if one basketball falls the wrong way, the whole thing goes bust.  

Further Politics Reading: 

Telltale Charts

Speaking of Rube Goldberg devices, everything in our energy system is connected, even when it thinks it isn't. Texas, for example, prides itself on its independence from the rest of the grid, which is partly why its people proudly froze this winter. But that debacle also hurt natural-gas production, which hit gas supplies in California, writes Liam Denning, making it harder for that state to back up its parched hydroelectric power this summer. We're all in this together.

Victoria's Secret begins new life as a stand-alone company with a musty image, writes Andrea Felsted. It's trying on a more-inclusive, less-Epstein-y look, but consumers now have many other options. 

Further Reading

Bitmain's mining-rig retreat won't affect Bitcoin's price or supply. It will just lower competition for a while. — Tim Culpan 

Bubble-tea purveyors are trying to fill the Chinese beverage niche where Luckin failed. It won't be easy. — Shuli Ren 

There's no reason for Boris Johnson to reward Vladimir Putin's bad behavior with a summit. — Therese Raphael 

How to help your cash-strapped kids and grandkids buy a house. — Alexis Leondis 

ICYMI

Derek Chauvin was sentenced for George Floyd's murder.

Covid is back on cruise ships.

Venice is fighting overtourism.

Kickers

The ground is always moving beneath you. (h/t Ellen Kominers)

Area sea lion crashes interview about plague of sea lions.

"Dragon Man" may be humanity's closest relative. (h/t Scott Kominers for the past two kickers)

A coronavirus plagued humanity for generations 20,000 years ago.

Conan O'Brien says goodbye (again).

Notes: Please send snail art and complaints to Mark Gongloff at mgongloff1@bloomberg.net.

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