The CDC has finally recommended wearing masks indoors when not at home. This advice could have saved thousands of lives if it had been issued while you were being schooled on the glories of Hydroxychloroquin, and being subjected to musings on the benefits of shooting up disinfectant or shoving a UV light up our ass. Why is this painfully obvious lifesaving advisory just coming now? You know exactly why. In some cases, insanity can be fatal, even if you're not the one who's insane.

+ Biden Asks Fauci To Join His Team, Will Urge 100 Days Of Mask-Wearing. (I wish we could backdate the mask wearing part.)

+ "I'm just astounded by the dysfunction, the willingness to just stay the course as hundreds of thousands of people die, and the unwillingness to innovate in literally any way. I've realized that when we need to rise up as a country, we have truly no moral capacity to do it. It's just the most mind-bending, complete Twilight Zone experience that makes you ask why the hell we even bother." Think you're bummed about America's reaction to the pandemic? Infectious disease experts face disillusionment as COVID-19 pandemic worsens.

+ "Vehicle travel in early November was as much as 20% lower than a year earlier, but it surged around the holiday and peaked on Thanksgiving Day at only about 5% less than the pandemic-free period in 2019."

+ "Most said that even with vaccines, it would probably take a year or more for many activities to safely restart, and that some parts of their lives may never return to the way they were." NYY Upshot: How 700 Epidemiologists Are Living Now, and What They Think Is Next.

+ Zeynep Tufekci with a very interesting look at a South Korean study on how the virus travels indoors (or, why you should get all restaurant orders to go...).

+ Italy bans travel between towns over Christmas. (Since the beginning of the pandemic I've wondered why there weren't at least some similar suggestions made in America. Wouldn't limiting ourselves to our own towns have limited spread? Maybe I just hate traveling.)

The pandemic has changed the way a lot of companies do business. Some of those changes could stick around. Starting this month, new Warner Bros movies will appear on HBO Max (and stay there for a month) at the same as they hit movie theaters. Now, that makes perfect sense. But in the post pandemic world that theater chains have been eagerly awaiting, it could be a big blow to their businesses. As theater screens keep getting smaller and home theater screens (especially those powered by projectors) keep getting bigger, this move was probably inevitable; especially now that the money is so clearly in streaming subscriptions. Maybe the content owners should distribute TV series and miniseries to movie theaters. It's the better content these days anyway. And imagine how many tubs of popcorn you could down watching all of Queen's Gambit in one sitting. Variety: Hollywood, Theater Owners Sound Off on Warner Bros.' Bold HBO Max Move: "I guess the movie theaters will just be Halloween stores now." (Sadly, most of them are too small.)

What to Hear: If you're looking to up your music game by going down a best-of rabbit hole, Redef has you covered with Best Music of 2020: The Year in Lists.

+ What to Watch: YouTube: 2020's top-trending videos and creators.

+ What to Review: Pocket's best articles of 2020.

+ What to Check Out: Top 19 Creative Projects Made During the COVID-19 Crisis.

+ What to Read: "If the world could see how you are living, they would not see you as a tech visionary, they would see you as a drug addicted man who is a cliche. And that's not how you should go down or be known. Your body cannot take not sleeping. And the amount of N2O you are doing is not natural. You will not hack sleep and you will not outsmart nature." A prophetic letter from Jewel is just one of the heartbreaking elements of this look at The Self-Destructive Last Months of Tony Hsieh.

"The thing that is most worrying is what seems to be happening among the people who have lost their jobs because of the pandemic. The jobs report offers clues that what was once temporary unemployment is becoming more permanent — in ways that, if unchecked, could do long-term damage to millions of families and to the economic potential of the United States." NYT Upshot: A Jobs Report Without Silver Linings. And we're heading towards a new lockdown mode that could send job growth into reverse mode soon.

"A vaccine may be around the corner, but how long will it be until you get the shot? Health officials are considering vaccine timelines that give some Americans priority over others. If you're a healthy American, you may wait many months for your turn." NYT: Find Your Place in the Vaccine Line.

"Menendez raised the issue after The Washington Post reported that Pompeo and his wife, Susan, have invited more than 900 guests to an indoor holiday party at the State Department on Dec. 15 that includes food and drinks after the department encouraged employees to avoid 'non-mission critical' in-person gatherings due to the risk of spreading the coronavirus." WaPo: Senior Democrat calls on Pompeo to cancel holiday parties.

+ The flouting of rules is one of the few bipartisan actions of 2020. Vice: Elected Officials Just Can't Stop Violating Their Own COVID Restrictions.

"Either the President actually believes what he is saying, in which case he is crazy, or he does not, in which case he is engaged in the most cynical attack on American democracy ever to come from the White House." The New Yorker's Susan B Glasser: The President Is Acting Crazy, so Why Are We Shrugging It Off? (Evergreen headline...)

+ He's probably both crazy and seditious, but he's also got the gift of grift. WaPo: Trump raises $495 million since mid-October, including a massive haul fueled by misleading appeals about election fraud.

"Five hospital beds have been wheeled out, making way for a lone school desk. Nurses clad head-to-toe in white protective suits, goggles and masks will take turns serving as proctors. At the center of it all will be an 18-year-old high school senior with the coronavirus, taking the most important exam of her lifetime." LA Times: South Korea holds high-stakes college exam as COVID-19 cases rise.

Wired: "Someone living along the Ganges River in India recently received a gift that we can safely say no one on Earth had ever gotten before. At first, it must have looked like an ordinary plastic bottle floating down the river, save for the rod poking out of its top, like a sailboat with a mast but no sail." The Incredible Journey of the Electronic Plastic Bottle.

"Yes, there was suffering, heartache, and noise. But if you look carefully, this strange year also served up something surprising: reasons to be hopeful. Here are 18 new ideas that just might shape our whole future." GQ: The Best Things About the Worst Year Ever. (Medieval subscribers to GQ are like, "Wait, you consider this a bad year?")

+ The New Yorker's Barry Blitt comes in just ahead of deadline with the best cartoon of the Trump era.

+ Grandmother graduates college with her granddaughter.

+ 104-year-old WWII vet beats COVID-19 in time for birthday.

+ Penn student who aged out of foster care wins prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. (Netflix miniseries in 3,2,1...)

+ House passes historic bill to decriminalize cannabis. (Hopefully there's a grandfather clause, because I've been high since the mid 90s.)