First bicycle ride in 15 months today.

It was just a light ride around my little community, about a 3-mile round-trip. It felt so good! I highly recommend that if any of you who are fully vaccinated are still depriving yourself of familiar good-health habits you gave up during the pandemic, now is the time to reclaim this part of your life.

What's amazing is that even after all this time, my ancient bike worked great -- reliable braking, all gears worked fine, tires in good shape (although of course they needed inflating). Even more amazing, my ancient body still functioned well enough to complete the ride without pain or (much) strain.

In the Before Times, I was a destination bike rider. I seldom rode for "exercise," but rode to do an errand, visit a coffee shop, hang out with a friend, etc. The exercise was tangential. And, even though lots of people got out and rode during 2020 and early 2021, I just didn't feel like it. But today, it's a brand-new day!

John McLaughlin & Friends: "Straight No Chaser" (Benefit performance for India COVID relief)

Using the "Reply-To" field in email

Maybe I'm the last person to figure this out, but recently when I sent an email to friends and family (all blind-copied to avoid a rat's nest of overlapping "Reply All" responses), I wanted replies to come to both my wife and me, instead of just me. (Of course, a "Reply All" response would come to both of us if I had her address in the cc: field, but I knew many people would hit "Reply" instead of "Reply All," and for this message I wanted to set the default to make all responses come to both of us when recipients hit "Reply" in their email application.)

I stumbled upon a feature I'd never used before in my many decades of using email: the "Reply To" field. I could put both our email addresses in Reply-To, even though I was the sender, and responses would come to both of us! This avoided the need to forward responses to her and also made it easier for either or both of us to respond to messages and cc the other.

This is not a new feature by any means, but new to me, an old dog who thought he knew all the email tricks. So I'm posting news of this earth-shaking discovery in case it's beneficial to any other DUers. I was using MacOS Mail, so I can't absolutely guarantee that every other email platform allows multiple addresses to be populated in "Reply-To." However, it seems that this should work for most if not all email clients since the "Reply To" field is a standard element in email headers (Wikipedia link).

Here are some references with more detail:

• Receive Email Replies at a Different Address Than You Send From -- Gmail-specific (Lifewire) - https://www.lifewire.com/how-to-set-up-a-reply-to-address-in-gmail-1171966


• The "Reply-To:" Field -- Effective Use of Email Header Fields, Part III (Email Newsletter Publishing Strategies) - https://bit.ly/3bv5i2c


• How to Change the “Reply To” Address for Email Messages in Outlook (How To Geek) - https://www.howtogeek.com/298780/how-to-change-the-reply-to-address-for-email-messages-in-outlook/


• How to Add and Change the Reply-To Header in macOS Mail (Lifewire) - https://www.lifewire.com/change-reply-to-header-os-x-mail-1172887


• Using Multiple Reply Addresses In Mail (Mac Observer) - https://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/Using_Multiple_Reply_Addresses_In_Mail

You and every single individual you come in contact with.

Every single unvaccinated person who refuses to wear a mask and stay six feet away from others is risking the health of every other person in their household, every cashier they interact with, every person they sit next to or stand in line next to, etc. And they are risking the health of everybody each of those contacts encounters.

For those of us who are fully vaccinated, the risk is minimal but not zero. With so many others who haven't yet been vaccinated, the behavior of the anti-vaxxers puts us all at risk for future variants of the virus, as well as continued circulation of the existing virus and its existing and future variants. When our current vaccine immunity subsides in a few months, we'll again be at high risk until we get our booster shots (which we're hoping will be effective).

All this is to say nothing of the global effects of COVID carriers circulating among the general population, spreading the virus to create more asymptomatic and symptomatic carriers worldwide.

So it's not quite as simple as just saying, "Not vaccinated? Go ahead and die -- not my problem."

Fortunately, many U.S. businesses are starting to require proof of vaccination to enter as a customer or work as an employee, as reported in these stories:

• Denver Bar Requires Proof Of COVID Vaccination To Drink Inside Without Face Mask - https://news.yahoo.com/denver-bar-requires-proof-covid-041314592.html


• Most U.S. companies will require proof of Covid vaccination from employees, survey finds - https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/29/most-us-companies-will-require-proof-of-covid-vaccination-from-employees-survey.html

Happy Birthday Gil Evans

Paolo Conte: Sparring Partner