THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN XXXIX

What's the difference between:

1. The pandemic and Baroque opera?
2. An airplane and a parachute?
3. A ride along a path by the ocean and beginning a Sousa march?

Answer:

1. Purell and Purcell  
2. The optimist invented the airplane and the pessimist the parachute.
3. Bike up the strand and strike up the band

Credit:
2: G.B. Stern