A few weeks ago, in an attempt to take a babystep towards normalcy, I decided to stop using my social media and internet time to share angry (yet pithy and often hilarious) political rants and start using it to research some new speakers for my home office/jail (or as I call them, Speakers of the House Arrest). It turned out that asking Twitter for an opinion on tweeters resulted in responses that were more heated and opinionated than most political exchanges, but I completed my research, masked up, and picked up a new set of speakers; a purchase that, at least in the moment, satisfied my bass desires. Since then, I’ve played nothing but Run the Jewels and Rage Against the Machine, so my social media diatribes—while maintaining their pithy hilarity—have become even more angry (and they’re now in stereo!). But at least I experienced some retail therapy and replaced the drumbeat of bad news with a plain old drumbeat. And apparently, I was among the last Americans to give this strategy a shot. AP: “US retail sales jumped by a record 17.7% from April to May, with spending partially rebounding after the coronavirus had shut down businesses, flattened the economy and paralyzed consumers during the previous two months.” (The market is reacting positively to the numbers, but it’s unclear whether it’s the start of a trend. Maybe I’ll start researching subwoofers. My country needs me.)