Remembering Robert Litvak; Flu Season Is Off to a Nasty Start–Coachella Valley Independent’s Indy Digest: Oct. 31, 2022

Indy Digest: Oct. 31, 2022

In 2015, my friend Ellen Meany—with whom I’d served on the Association of Alternative Newsmedia board of directors—reached out to tell me an old college friend of hers was moving to Palm Springs. Robert Litvak was his name (although she still called him Bob, because that’s the name he used in college).

I contacted Robert and told him a couple of friends and I were going to Bar for a drink during Dining Out for Life (DAP Health’s annual fundraiser, during which restaurants donate a portion of the day’s sales), and asked if he wanted to join us. He did.

Before long, Robert was part of our regular circle of friends. He was funny and sarcastic, and he had a love of musical theater. He doted over his dog, a Jack Russell terrier named Spud. He had an affinity for men who were a year or two younger than he was, and he was constantly—constantly—dealing with turbulent renovations on his house. Creating memes was a hobby. (Retired after working as a casting director, in communications, and for Microsoft, he had plenty of free time.) As he became established in Palm Springs, he became more and more involved, joining the Modern Men chorus; not long ago, he joined the Palm Springs Plaza Theatre Foundation board of directors.

He was also … quirky. In April 2020, during the darkest part of the pandemic shutdowns, a group of friends met outside of my apartment complex to take a walk—masked and socially distanced—through downtown Palm Springs. It was a Saturday evening, and virtually everything was closed. I’ll never, ever forget that walk because of how creepy and eerie it was.

On the way back, as we walked by another complex, we encountered a woman delivering food that she apparently sold out of her home. We had no idea who she was, but that didn’t stop Robert from talking her up and agreeing to buy some food—some sort of seafood dish—from her, right there on the spot. Again, this was during the scariest days of the pandemic, when people were washing their groceries, and he was buying seafood from a random person in a parking lot. We all thought he’d lost his damn mind.

We checked in with Robert the next morning, half-jokingly, to make sure he was still alive. He was—and he reported that the food was delicious.

About two years ago, Robert started having issues with his stomach and digestive system. He went to multiple doctors, yet nobody could figure out what was wrong. At one point, he thought it might be a long COVID problem. At another, he suspected mold as the culprit. Despite all the varied theories, the root of the issues remained a mystery.

About two months ago, Robert was in such severe pain that a friend took him to the emergency room. The doctors did some scans—and diagnosed him with stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer.

Why weren’t these scans done earlier? Nobody seems to have an answer for that.

The doctors told Robert he had one to two years to live. He endured one fairly easy round of chemotherapy, but reacted badly to the second round. That started a down-hill slide.

Sunday morning, Robert H. Litvak passed away. He was 62 years old.

I called Ellen to let her know. Through tears, I thanked her for introducing Robert into our world.

I don’t normally use expletives in the Indy Digest, so I ask you to forgive me for this exception: Fuck cancer.

So long, Robert. You were one of a kind, and I am so very happy that you were our friend.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• SARS-CoV-2 levels in Palm Springs’ wastewater are trending in a bad direction. As the latest report says: “The average number of copies (per liter) recorded at the city’s wastewater treatment plant increased. The test results for the October 25, 2022, sample has not come in at the time of posting. The data from October 24, 2022, is about the same as the week before; however, the trendline is going up.” Have you gotten your booster yet? If not … it would be a good idea to do so.

• While you’re at it, you probably should get your flu shot, too, if you have not already done so—because it’s looking like this flu season is going to be particularly ugly. ABC News reports: “Flu season is making an early comeback as flu-related hospitalizations are the highest in over a decade for this point in the season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There have been an estimated 880,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza illnesses, 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 flu-related deaths nationally this season, according to data released on Friday. Just this past week, there were 2,332 newly-admitted patients in hospitals, over a third of the total 6,900 flu hospitalizations this season already. H3N2 is the predominant viral strain currently spreading. Previous seasons with mostly H3N2 viruses have been of higher severity, particularly for older adults and young children, the CDC says. It’s still too early to tell if this trend will continue.”

• If you’ve purchased Foster Farms chicken patties at Costco recently-ish, CBS News has some info you should know: “Foster Farms is recalling roughly 148,000 pounds of fully cooked frozen chicken breast patties sold at Costco because they may contain pieces of hard and potentially sharp plastic, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Eighty-ounce bags of breaded chicken breast patties with rib meat are being recalled because they could have ‘hard clear pieces of plastic’ in them, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said Saturday. The recalled products were shipped to Costco distribution centers in Arizona, California, Colorado, Utah and Washington, and may have been shipped to Costco retail locations, FSIS announced.”

• Elon Musk has owned Twitter for less than a week, and he’s already making an awful mess of things. First up: He apparently has decided that blue-check verification will no longer be free. The Verge says: “Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave. The directive is to change Twitter Blue, the company’s optional, $4.99 a month subscription that unlocks additional features, into a more expensive subscription that also verifies users, according to people familiar with the matter and internal correspondence seen by The Verge. Twitter is currently planning to charge $19.99 for the new Twitter Blue subscription. Under the current plan, verified users would have 90 days to subscribe or lose their blue checkmark. Employees working on the project were told on Sunday that they need to meet a deadline of November 7th to launch the feature or they will be fired.” Charming!

• Next up is this NBC News headline: “Open season on trans people? Far-right celebrates ‘liberation of Twitter’ Far-right figures and groups appear to be testing the boundaries of Twitter’s moderation policy under its new CEO, Elon Musk, by posting anti-LGBTQ slurs.” Sigh. A little more: “On Friday, conservative podcaster Matt Walsh, who describes himself as a theocratic fascist, lauded Musk’s acquisition of the company and encouraged his over one million followers to start misgendering trans people. ‘We have made huge strides against the trans agenda,’ Walsh tweeted. ‘In just a year we’ve recovered many years worth of ground conservatives had previously surrendered. The liberation of Twitter couldn’t have come at a more opportune time. Now we can ramp up our efforts even more.’”

• Related-ish: CalMatters’ Emily Hoeven notes that the attack on Paul Pelosi, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s husband, is indicative of a number of problems California faces, such as: “The same day that police say suspect David DePape broke into the Pelosis’ San Francisco home and shouted ‘Where is Nancy?’ before attacking Paul Pelosi with a hammer, a Pennsylvania man pleaded guilty in federal court to threatening to kill Democratic U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell of Fremont. Last month, a San Ramon man was convicted of threatening the life of Democratic state Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco. In June, a California man was charged with attempting to murder U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Meanwhile, many California public health officials who enforced pandemic restrictions encountered violent threats, prompting some to quit. And 15% of local election officials have left their jobs since November 2020 amid persistent harassment and increasing claims of voter fraud, according to a California Voter Foundation report.”

• And finally … ProPublica investigates an increase in political endorsements by churches—and the fact that the IRS is doing little about it. It starts off with an anecdote regarding an anti-candidate sermon given by Brandon Burden, a Frisco, Texas, preacher: “What Burden said that day in May 2021 was a violation of a long-standing federal law barring churches and nonprofits from directly or indirectly participating in political campaigns, tax law experts told ProPublica and The Texas Tribune. Although the provision was mostly uncontroversial for decades after it passed in 1954, it has become a target for both evangelical churches and former President Donald Trump, who vowed to eliminate it. Burden’s sermon is among those at 18 churches identified by the news organizations over the past two years that appeared to violate the Johnson Amendment, a measure named after its author, former President Lyndon B. Johnson. Some pastors have gone so far as to paint candidates they oppose as demonic. At one point, churches fretted over losing their tax-exempt status for even unintentional missteps. But the IRS has largely abdicated its enforcement responsibilities as churches have become more brazen. In fact, the number of apparent violations found by ProPublica and the Tribune, and confirmed by three nonprofit tax law experts, are greater than the total number of churches the federal agency has investigated for intervening in political campaigns over the past decade, according to records obtained by the news organizations.”

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