Totally off the grid
What's it like when you're one of the last to know? Also, 7 other things worth your time.
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I’m not exactly totally off the grid this week, but I am still on vacation. (No, really, I promise; Kate’s holding down the fort and I’m only checking in six times a day…)
Apropos, I wanted to share some interesting stories of people who actually were off the grid during major world events, and who returned to find that things were suddenly very different.
For instance, meet Zach Edler, who went on a weeks-long rafting trip with a dozen friends on the Colorado River and through the Grand Canyon … beginning in February 2020.
By the time they came home on March 14, 2020, it seemed the whole world had changed (New York Times, $):
[A]s they took the last paddle strokes of their journey, Mr. Edler and his friends were some of the last people on the planet unaware that the novel coronavirus had exploded into a once-in-a-generation pandemic, setting off a global health and economic crisis and shutting down large parts of American life.
In moments, the man waving to them from the banks of the river would tell them that the world they were returning to looked vastly different. […] He had one question: Have you been in contact with the outside world?
They hadn’t. [T]he friends hadn’t heard anything in more than three weeks. No cell service. No news. Not even a passing dispatch from fellow travelers.
Slightly less dramatic, but featuring a much longer timeframe, there’s the story of the isolated researchers who spent months on a remote island—apparently with very limited internet access—and returned in December 2020 to learn just how extensive the pandemic really was.
"I had definitely heard a few things about it," crew member Matthew Butschek II, 26, told CNN. "But between other diseases like SARS and swine flu, I thought, 'It's just the next thing. Nothing big.' I really thought it'd have already passed by the time we all got home."
Less confirmed (but we’ll give the benefit of the doubt here) is the guy who lived off the grid—somewhere in California or Oregon, I think—who came into town for the first time in a year last December, only to wonder what the heck was going on with all the masks.
Of course, as big as the pandemic has been, for my generation, the real “where were you when it happened?” moment will probably always be 9/11.
This couple was on the road in a remote part of Australia back then, going days without contact with the outside world.
We forget, perhaps, that in 2001, we were not quite yet tethered to our phones, ready to learn even wildly inconsequential news at a moment’s notice. Doubly so, if you were traveling abroad, and didn’t have international coverage.
Similar, but for a completely different reason:
Let’s end today with a story that’s sort of the opposite of the stories we’ve shared so far. I heard this one only second-hand, and quite a long time ago. But there’s no simple way for me to check it out, so I’ll just share it and let you decide if it’s plausible.
It goes back to the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center: February 26, 1993. That was a Friday, which becomes important. The story stars a friend of a friend I knew in college, who was working his first “real job” in the WTC at the time.
When the bombing happened, he was fine, but trains were down; he couldn't get back home. So he did what any recent college graduate might do: He picked up a case of beer and headed to a friend’s apartment to crash for the weekend.
They hit every bar, hit on every girl—I mean, he had a great story, right? Never a dull moment. The next thing he knew, it was Monday morning.
And the reason I’m sharing this story 28 years later … It turns out it had never occurred to him to call his parents to say he was OK. (Like 70% of my stories, I have to add the context you might already know: This was “pre-cell phones.”)
One result: News stories at the time shared the terrible news of the deaths of six people and injuries to more than 1,000 others—along with at least one person missing.
That missing person, if I’ve been correctly informed, was this friend of a friend. Moral: Well, it’s easier now, but when something big happens and people might be worried about you, let them know you’re okay.
7 other things worth your time
The US Senate handed President Biden an “agenda win” Wednesday, passing a $3.5 trillion plan for bolstering family services, health, and environment programs along party lines, just a day after passing a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Both bills now move to the House. (AP)
Homeland Security has issued an “awareness bulletin” to local law enforcement around the US, warning of calls to violence on social media being made by militant groups convinced that QAnon will restore former president Trump to power in August. (NBC)
Marine archaeologists exploring a submerged ancient Egyptian city have found wicker baskets more than 2,400 years old that still contain fruit. The finds may have been part of a lavish burial: “Spectacular ceremonies must have taken place there,” said researcher Franck Goddio. (Smithsonian)
Shorter commute, but less pay: Tech company employees who switch to permanently working from home may see their salaries drop by 10% or more if their home office is in a lower cost-of-living area. (Reuters)
A Canadian working with a North Korean cultural exchange group in China has been convicted of espionage and sentenced to 11 years in jail in a closed-door trial, just days after another Canadian lost his appeal against a death sentence for smuggling. Canadian officials say the decisions are a form of “hostage diplomacy” meant to free Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou, who is awaiting extradition in Canada. (BBC News)
It might take more than half an hour for this pizza delivery—the seven astronauts on the International Space Station will be receiving a rocket bearing pizza, fresh fruit, and cheese this week, along with their next batch of equipment and experiments. (Sky)
Calling all Kyles: The city of Kyle, Texas, wants you…to come to their September 4 festival and help set a Guinness World Record for most Kyles in one place. (UPI)
Thanks for reading. Photo credit: Pixabay. Want to see all my mistakes? Click here.
After one year in college, in June of 1994, I moved to a tiny atoll in the Marshall Islands to build a school. The island had no electricity, running water, plumbing, or contact with the outside word. I was meant to stay less than a year but I ended up staying for more than a year, learning to speak fluent Marshallese, and generally living a carefree existence. When I came back to college I was given a thing called an email address and the Internet now existed. Weird.
In 2001 I was working in South Korea. The firm I worked for hosted a company-wide event in Las Vegas from September 6-8. I decided to extend my stay to attend a friend's wedding in L.A. on September 9. I drove back to Vegas on the 10th and was going to fly back to Korea on the 11th. All that changed that morning as I watched the events unfold in my Vegas hotel room. I got moved from my fancy hotel as the police took over and it took me another two weeks to get back to Seoul.
In December 2004, still living in South Korea, a colleague and I made plans to spend Christmas in Phuket, Thailand. We told our firm and our families of the plans and then flew to Bangkok on December 22nd. In Bangkok the first night we went out to a bar in Sukhumvit (Thai: สุขุมวิท) where we met a bunch of expats that were talking about going to a full moon party on Ko Pha Ngan (importantly, in the Gulf of Thailand, not the Indian Ocean). My colleague decided he wanted to go with them so we didn't buy flights to Phuket the next morning. I wasn't very intrigued to go to the full moon party but hadn't made up my mind what to do. Finally I decided to hitch hike overland to Vientiane, Laos (one of the people I'd met the night before told me how great Laos was). Unfortunately I didn't tell anybody of my change of plans. I was in Laos for 5 days, until December 28th when I flew back to Bangkok. While I was gone an earthquake and tsunami killed over 200,000 people and thousands in Phuket. When I arrived back in Bangkok and was riding a tuktuk to my hotel the streets were lined with plywood caskets and I didn't know why. When I got to the hotel (the same place I had stayed the first night in Bangkok and still had a reservation for my last night) my reservation was voided. When I tried to check in they called the U.S. Embassy. I was on a list of missing foreigners and they had already notified my company and my parents. I ended up being stuck in Bangkok for another few days because my flights were also voided to make space for emergency workers.
Although not on the same scale, last year on March 12, as part of a pre-planned itinerary, I made the 4th stop on a three-week long trip in Austin to attend SXSW. Of course it had been cancelled a week before but I had to stay overnight in what was then a ghost town with SXSW banners hanging everywhere, and then flew back to DC on the 13th, one of 5 people on the plane.
I guess I have a knack for being on the road at crucial moments.
Just saw your Other Things list. 1. Ain’t holding my breath. 2. Crazy, damn fools creating chaos. I hope they get surprised and finally shut down. 3. 😳 on the archeological find of the year! Yay science! What a wondrous experience to encounter such. 4. Let’s see how we can screw our employees that kept us going through all this, one more time. 5. Stinking NK for their dirty deeds. Even if an exchange is worked out there’s no guarantee they’ll return Canada’s hostage in good health. 6. My husband would be all about that pizza delivery via rocket ship. 7. With Texas being one of the worst states for any kind of leadership concerning Covid, Kyle, Tx might not have that great a chance to set that record. Maybe next year?
Bye again.