Nero Wolfe: The Final Deduction, Gambit, A Right to Die + 2 collections

“I’m not above lying, or below it, but the truth will do now.”

An FBI man spends so much time pretending he’s looking somewhere else that his eyes get confused; they’re never quite sure it’s okay to admit they’re focused on you. His jaw is even worse off. It is given to understand that it belongs to a man who is intrepid, daring, dauntless, cool, long-headed, quick-witted, and hard as nails, but it is cautioned that he is also modest, polite, reserved, patient, bland, and never to be noticed in a crowd. No jaw on earth could handle that order. The only question is how often it will twitch, and sideways or up and down.

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continuation of my policy of relaying relevant updates about Wax

Their call center obviously runs entirely on computers but apparently distance work isn't all that easily set up bc of their proprietary system. They're going to transfer regular employees to distance next week and have already sent the risk group members home with their computers. Wax says (thinks?) they have to set up VPNs for everyone's work computers at home.

As for the rest of Finland, my friend who works at Ikea says she is actually more busy right now, which... kinda bowled me over. waxjism has been to the supermarket Friday, Tuesday and today, and we went together on Monday (to a different one), and the only shortages she's seen were the one store out of tissues Friday. (On Monday the local one had the TP aisle mostly empty, but they still had a big end-cap display of packages and a bunch of paper towels as well.) So anyway, if grocery stores are less crowded, I'd think normal retail would be too... but she says that they have seen fewer customers, but because they have a bunch of employees out on sick leave due to risk groups etc, and an uptick in online orders and click & collect orders, plus a bunch of new regulations to follow for cleaning etc, they've been run off their feet! I suppose people are suddenly noticing all the furniture, linens, and scented candles they don't have now that they're home during the day? It really doesn't seem like something I can easily imagine a bunch of people risking social distancing for...

Monday evening the prime minister of Finland announced people over 70 are confined at home and shouldn't go out at all, but yesterday there was a headline denying that cops would be shadowing elderly people spotted out and about. ("Doesn't sound like a very effective quarantine then," said my Dad, but I think overall the Finns are a very law-abiding people, so perhaps it will still be.)