MY LAST LUNCH?

From Worldometer,  COVID-19 new deaths:

           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa

June      9     1093    4732        1185      246         82

July       1       676    4857        1057      438         92
             2       687    5155         1277      377         95
             3       616    5170         1264      444       108
             4       254    4494         1111       610         74
             5       251    3572          535       421       173
             6       378    3573          656       474       111
             7       993    5504        1312       479       192
             8       890    5507        1187       491       100
             9       960    5411        1199       479       118
           10       849    5416        1270       521       140
           11       731    4995          968       543       111
           12       380    4118          659       500       108
           13       465    3729          770       540         93
           14       935    5414        1341       586       174
           15     1001    5760        1261       614       107
           16       963    5742        1299       680       216
           17       946    5559        1100       676       135
           18       813    5011          885       543       144
           19       412    4606          715       675         85
           20       545    4040          718       596       140

           21     1119    5669        1346       671        195
           22     1205    7128        1293     1120        572
           23     1166    6318        1317       755        153
           24     1141    6199        1178       761        250
           25       908    5689        1111       690        312
         

Summary:

• Well, better than yesterday.
• In the USA, 16 states set single-day new case records and hospitalizations are up, meaning that deaths will continue to stay in the vicinity of quadruple digits/day.

But my crisis for the day is Hurricane Douglas:

Contrary to all projections, Hurricane Douglas has not weakened.  He is still at 90 MPH, with these winds out to a diameter of 60 miles.  The tropical storm circle diameter is more than 200 miles.  Why has Douglas maintained strength?  The waters surrounding the Hawaiian Islands are 1.5 degrees F WARMER than the open Pacific Ocean yesterday, plus that wind shear usually protecting us by decapitating most hurricanes has moved slightly west.  The center of his eye will miss the Big Island, possible edge on to northern Maui, and same for Molokai and Oahu.  Kauai could be more direct, but too early to tell.  In any case, my apartment remains in the cone of concern.

On this Sunday, just looking for a religious excuse to feature my cuisine of the week while keeping an eye on Hurricane Douglas, I'm naming my Japanese wagyu / ahi sashimi meal yesterday as My Last Lunch?.   Mind you, not suggesting that there is any analogy between Jesus and me, but this segue allows me to share with you a few things you might have missed about his Last Supper:

Here are a few speculations that might surprise you:

• While Jesus had no idea this was to be his last supper, he and his 12 Disciples consumed unleavened bread and wine, plus probably figs, olive oil and honey.  
• However, at the time of da Vinci, eels and orange slices were popular, so Leonardo just added them.
• Unleavened bread is made from flour and water with no yeast.  Matzo bread is almost like a cracker.

• Any idea what wine they drank?  Did you know, to start with, that Noah planted the first vineyard?
• Adam was created in Year 1, and with Eve received a son, Seth, in the Year 130.
• Noah was born in 1056 and died in 2006 at the age of 950.
• Jesus was born around the Year 3900
• Thus, Adam must have been created around 3900 BC.
• But even if time is a variable in The Bible, it is said that from the creation of the world to Noah was 2000 years, and another 2000 years from Noah to Jesus.  Thus, the 3900 years is in the ballpark of reality.

• So, anyway, 2000 years after the first vineyard, Roman wines were quite sophisticated, with Bordeaux already prominent.  Incredibly, around the time of Jesus, the average citizen in Rome drank one standard size (750 ml, or slightly more than 25 ounces) bottle of wine/day.

• But chances are good that the Last Supper served Judean wine, for the imported Roman wine was far too expensive for commoners.  
• The wine could have been red or white, and probably flavored with honey and herbs.  Plus, the odds are high that some psychoactive additive like opium, mandrake or cannabis was added.  Remember that Coca Cola had traces of cocaine into 1929 when Prohibition changed the formula.  

So from Jesus' Last Supper to my Last Lunch, here's hoping my fate will be more favorable.  But first, on this Sunday, an aspect of religion that pervades most of our society, which is a moral attitude that makes this a great country, even if currently mis-led by a sinful lout.   Second, I had a brunch today and will skip lunch, so my gastronomical feast of yesterday remains as a last lunch, for Hurricane Douglas is soon to arrive.

My possibly last lunch:  Nagasaki wagyu beef and Hawaiian ahi (yellow-fin tuna) sashimi.  Dipping sauce:  sake, hot chili water, soy sauce, horseradish, lime, calamansi, plus dots of truffle oil.

The wine was a surprisingly drinkable 1998 Stanford Cabernet Sauvignon.  The bouquet and color were amazingly fresh.  A slightly elevated tannin feel.  Note that the "cork" is black rubber:

I watched the Giants-Dodgers baseball game:

Dining standards improved from the year 33 AD (Jesus was born between 6 and 4 BC, and died somewhere between AD 30 and 36) to 2020.  There might be something sacrilegious about watching a Major League Baseball game, but I certainly wasn't going to tune in 700 Club or New Hope.

Then for after dinner last night I searched for the best hurricane film of all time.  Found five of them just related to Hurricane Katrina:

• When the Levees Broke
• Hours
• Hurricane on the Bayou
• Trouble the Water
• Treme

Treme for four seasons scored 97%/93% on Rotten Tomatoes and When the Levees Broke:  A Requiem in Four Acts by Spike Lee got 97%/96%.  In this series were Harry Belafonte, Mike Myers and Wanton Marsalis.  255 minutes long.  Unfortunately, Amazon wanted to charge me $9.  For Treme, I had to join HBO, which was more expensive.

While searching around, I happened to notice something titled Red Dot on the Ocean, so I went to Rotten Tomatoes, and saw that audiences gave it a 100% rating.  Some reviewers' 100% movies are too esoteric, but the audience is never wrong.  Turned out to be a good choice for my mood last night.

Not quite a hurricane, but there were two typhoons.  What stood out was that everything about the film was 180 degrees different from my life and desires.  I was a good student, had a secure life, never accomplished much and ended up euphoric.  Nothing wrong with that, but Matt Rutherford had a learning disability, lived in a cult environment while growing up, sunk into drugs/stealing, and ended up in prison several times.  Nothing serious, but he was royally screwed up.

Said Matt:

When I was 18, I decided I was going to do three things.  The first was ride a mountain bike alone through Southeast Asia. I did that [in the early 2000s]. The second was to cross an ocean alone. I did that (twice). That was behind me. The third was to start an organization that promotes literacy in war-torn third-world countries.” 

Then about this film, he eventually linked with Chesapeake Region Accessible Boating, a non-profit to give the disabled sailing experience.  They helped him accomplish two of his goals at once--sail the Northwest Passage and circumnavigate the Cape Horn--alone and non-stop around the Americas in a relatively crummy 27-foot Albin Vega, a 27,000 mile journey that took him ten months to complete.  Save for  his supporting organization, everyone else said this was crazy and dangerous, and they were right. His parents thought he would not survive, but were clearly proud about the intent.  He overcame storms, icebergs and large ships.  Surprising his father the most, Matt succeeded.  Earned two Guinness records, for no one had ever done this in such a small craft.

I found the catharsis of this movie rewarding and eminently satisfying.  Seeing something I would not dream of doing was far better than me being perpetually wet, eating freeze-dried food and suffering through the range of emotions from terrifying stress to utter boredom.  I'm much happier in my 15 Craigside cocoon than contending with the fury of Mother Nature.  Matt accomplished challenging personal goals.  I'm on the other end of the ambition spectrum:  merely trying to save Planet Earth and Humanity, while initiating the Blue Revolution.

I will close with Don McLean's American Pie, the day that the music died.  If you're old enough, you know that that day was 3 February 1959 when Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper perished in the crash of the American Pie, the name of the plane.  What you might not have realized is that this 1971 hit also represented later deaths, like the assassinations of President John Kennedy, his brother Bobby, Martin Luther King and John Lennon, plus the early passage of Janis Joplin, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and more.  But even more so, that the song's message carries forever into the future, for you can now add the killing of Breonna Taylor.  On this Sunday, a good time for a 9-minute pause with American Pie.

I just took this photo at 10:04AM Hawaii time, with the eye moving in the left direction towards Honolulu:

It certainly looks to me like my apartment will be engulfed in some red and purple.

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