The coronavirus – aka COVID-19 – has arrived here in the United States. It’s basically a type of influenza: it produces symptoms like the flu, it spreads like the flu…. And because of the way it spreads, the standard flu protocols are the way to respond to it.

There are three things everyone is stressing:

1. Masks won’t help protect you.

2. If you do come down with something, stay home.

3. Wash your $@#! hands.

The latter is the one that people really need to follow. Wash your hands often, with soap and water (hand sanitizer is OK – provided it’s at least 120 proof (60% alcohol)). And no light rinse; you’ve got to do it for at least twenty seconds.

So how can you time yourself for twenty seconds?

How about singing along?

This little game show ditty was written to be exactly thirty seconds long:

Opening Day is fast approaching – this chorus is 25-30 seconds long, depending on how you sing it:

Television theme songs (at least the ones from back in the day when they had lyrics) would usually run around thirty seconds. Any less, and there was no point to them; any more, and you’re cutting in to the show’s running time. Here’s one where the lyrical portion runs just about thirty seconds:

Speaking of TV back in the days, advertising jingles would rarely last more than about thirty seconds – they had to fit the length of a commercial:

Stay safe, and sing along!