The Daily Valet. - 6/29/20, Monday

✔️ Reaching New Heights

June 29, 2020

Monday, June 29th Edition

Cory Ohlendorf, Editor in Chief of Valet.

So much for getting on a plane ...

Cory Ohlendorf , Editor ⋯ @coryohlendorf

Today's edition is presented by

Today’s Big Story

Coronavirus Cases Pass 10 Million

In America, infections in new hot spots are surging

The coronavirus pandemic reached a new milestone on Sunday, with confirmed deaths surpassing half a million around the world and the number of confirmed cases topping 10 million, reports the Wall Street Journal.

More than 2.5 million of those cases are in the United States.“We are 4% of the world’s population; we are 25% of the cases and the deaths,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on ABC’s This Week. The countries with the next highest totals are Brazil, Russia, India and the United Kingdom.

In April, roughly a month after the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a pandemic, deaths topped 100,000. In early May, the figure climbed to 250,000. Now it has doubled in less than two months.

According to NPR, some parts of the world have managed to bring the virus under control. South Korea, was averaging just a few dozen per day at the end of May, though officials have noted a slight resurgence. And New Zealand had mostly eradicated the virus by mid-May and went 24 days with no new cases before identifying two this month.

It’s clear that masks will be necessary to keep the spread minimized. And even the White House is coming around to the idea. After Vice President Mike Pence urged the public to wear masks during a visit to Texas on Sunday, the Trump campaign postponed two events he was to headline this week in Florida and Arizona.

Meanwhile, people on six continents are already getting jabs in the arm as the race for a COVID-19 vaccine heats up. British and Chinese researchers are currently testing vaccines and America is set to open the largest trials—30,000 people will test a government-created shot—starting in July.

↦ FYI: Wondering what activities are currently deemed safe to do during the pandemic? The New Yorker spoke with experts to get the answers.

How Travel Continues to Change

Would you fly or stay in an Airbnb right now?

Airbnb co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky told Axios in an interview that global travel may never fully recover, and that he sees a future where people travel much more within their own countries, possibly for longer stays.

“I will go on the record to say that travel will never, ever go back to the way it was pre-COVID; it just won't,” Chesky said. He also predicted national parks may be a popular travel destination post-pandemic, as most American metropolitan areas are within driving distance of a park.

Meanwhile, airlines are trying to find their way as a handful of brave travelers return to flying. According to the Washington Post, with few rules in place, air carriers and airports are adopting their own strategies for combating the crisis.

For instance, American Airlines has decided to throw out social distancing measures on its planes. The airline quietly announced on Friday that it will start to fly its planes at full capacity beginning July 1. Which seems like ... a bad idea.

↦ First Person: This writer flew on several U.S. airlines to see how they're handling the pandemic ... the differences were staggering.

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NBA Players Want to Promote Social Justice on Jerseys

The social statement may appear in place of a player’s last name

A lot has happened since the NBA paused its season. The world is not only battling a pandemic, but Americans have also been rallying for racial injustice. These are the kind of issues that make some fans and players believe that there's more to be done than simply playing basketball, reports Complex.

Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul, president of the National Basketball Players Association, told ESPN's “The Undefeated” on Saturday that the players' union and the league are collaborating to allow players to wear jerseys with personalized social justice, social cause or charity messages on the backs instead of their last names during the upcoming restart of the NBA season.

The personalized statements on jerseys are part of a long list of social justice messages the players plan to make through the remainder of the season, which restarts July 30 in Orlando, Florida. Personalized jerseys could say such things like “Black Lives Matter” or “I Can't Breathe,” bring light to a social or charitable cause or even display the names of George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, who were killed by police in recent months.

If the NBA does indeed decide to go through with this decision, it wouldn't be the first league that has taken action in this matter. When the Premier League resumed earlier this month, it replaced player last names on the back of jerseys with the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” Their uniforms also featured a sleeve patch, which is set to remain for the rest of the season.

↦ FYI: 16 of 302 NBA players tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of the season's restart.

Milton Glaser Dies at 91

He was America’s pre-eminent graphic artist

You might not have known Milton Glaser's name, but you knew his work. His resume is a never-ending scroll of “hey, I know that!” images, including logos for museums and art institutions, brands like Brooklyn Brewery and DC Comics, posters for Mad Men and Bob Dylan, along with a string of famous book covers.

He was the co-founder of New York magazine, but his most famous contribution is probably the “I ♥ New York,” campaign—that's the original concept sketch from 1976 shown above. With that simple emotive heart, you might say he introduced the first emoji.

He died Friday, on his 91st birthday. According to Vanity Fair, the Bronx-born Glaser was a product of some of New York’s finest free educational institutions—having attended the High School of Music & Art and The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Despite such a long, storied career he managed to stay current. And savvy. Because Brooklyn Brewery was a start-up without much money, Glaser took a stake in the company instead of a fee. Today it's global brand and that logo was the thing that made him financially independent and able to only do the work he wanted to do. We should all be so lucky.

↦ Dig Deeper: Glaser's book explores his posters, publication designs and record covers, along with store and restaurant designs and toy creations ... all of which define the look of our time.

In Other News

Other Things We’re Talking About Today

The stuff we want to buy now

Beyoncé’s new visual album

The Floor Is Lava

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Look Better in Just 10 Minutes

That’s how long it took to erase my unruly grey hairs

Maybe it was my-home quarantine haircuts. Perhaps it was the stress of a global pandemic and an economic downturn. But I was noticing a lot more grey hairs popping up lately. So, I figured, why not give this new custom dye kit a try? After all, who’s going to see me if I messed up? I could always buzz it.

Turns out, this kit was made for social distancing. Color&Co, a start-up from L'Oréal, connects you with professional hair colorists for fool-proof results. You fill out an online questionnaire or video chat with a colorist and then a salon-quality custom hair color is made just for you and your needs. Instead of a simple boxed color, they adjust the depth and tone for a perfect shade. A few days later, a box arrives with everything you need.

Honestly, I was surprised at how easy it was. The kit includes a gel you apply around your hairline (so no messy drip stains) and the dye works in just ten minutes. Then you rinse with a conditioner and you’re done. I think I was a little lazy applying the dye on the sides—it didn’t fully saturate the hair so there were still some grays poking through. But, to me, that just made it look all the more natural. But I’ll definitely be reordering.

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