THE 1950'S ARE DISAPPEARING

 I today received this video clip of the 1950's.  This is Sunday, click on that and reminisce a bit.  Of course, you need to be really old to appreciate those days.

I don't remember much of my years from zero to 9.  I am what I am today because of my experiences from 10 to 19. That's a period from 1950-1959.  Those days are disappearing.  Really.

To begin, on my cable system there are 50 Music Choice channels.  Starts with 800 Hawaiian.  Then from 801, too too much noise of today, with three even for toddlers.  Then 826 has music from 2000 to the present, followed by 90's, 80's, 70's, solid gold (essentially 95% 60's), into four country stations, a mix of stuff through jazz and swing (meaning 1940's) and classical into #850.  There is nothing from 1950-59.  Of course zero from 1939 backwards, but most of those people are long gone anyway or can't hear too well.

Was that just accidental?  Nope.  As  you know, I now have Echo with Alexa.  I ask her to play all kinds of music.  60's?  Sure, a whole Prime channel for those.  50's?  Initially, she got confused, and asked me to purchase the full Prime package first.  

However, today, I tried again, and something has changed:

• I asked her, please play music from the year 1950, and she did Beethoven's Fifth.  Hmmm.
• Then what about 1951, and some country song came on.
• 1952?  She played Elvis.  Needs some work here, for he was 18 in 1953 when he released My Happiness.
• 1949?  Came on songs of that year.
• So Amazon is actually expanding their offerings, for free.

For those still alive, there was the Spanish Flu and intolerance of the '20's, while the '30's were economically difficult, for the Great Depression was still ongoing, and the '40's had World War II, so were even more terrible.   But our Greatest Generation was created.  All settting the stage for the wonderful '50's.

1950 began with the Korean War, saw the start of the early Vietnam War, suffered through nuclear testing, and saw the U.S. appearing to drop behind the Soviet Union in the Cold War, especially in space.  There was the Suez Crisis, Cuban Revolution and the Mau Mau in Kenya.  However, African de-colonization began to occur, the European Common Market formed, the U.S. ended our occupation of Japan, the Nationalists escaped to Taiwan, Alaska and Hawaii became states, success of the Marshall Plan (Berlin), inflation only ranged from 1-3%, the transistor was developed, television took over, photovoltaic cells were invented, the double-helix was discovered, polio was cured, first nuclear power plant opened in the Soviet Union, NASA was organized, and here were the top ten films (half are foreign and half came from 1957):

1. 
   Seven Samurai (1954), Rotten Tomatoes 100 reviewers / 97 audiences
2. Rear Window (1954), RT 99/95
3. Paths of Glory (1957), RT 95/95
4. Ikiru (1956), RT 98/97
5. 12 Angry Men (1957), RT 100/97
6. Witness for the Prosecution (1957), RT 100/95
7. Wild Strawberries (1957), RT 95/94
8. The 400 Blows (1959), RT 100/94
9. Sunset Boulevard (1950), RT 99/95
10. The Cranes are Flying (1957), RT 96/94

From Wikipedia, the music of those days:

Popular music in the early 1950s was essentially a continuation of the crooner sound of the previous decade, with less emphasis on the jazz-influenced big band style and more emphasis on a conservative, operatic, symphonic style of music. Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Frankie Laine, Patti Page, Judy Garland, Johnnie Ray, Kay Starr, Perry Como, Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Dean Martin, Georgia Gibbs, Eddie Fisher, Teresa Brewer, Dinah Shore, Kitty Kallen, Joni James, Peggy Lee, Julie London, Toni Arden, June Valli, Doris Day, Arthur Godfrey, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Guy Mitchell, Nat King Cole, and vocal groups like the Mills Brothers, The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Four Aces, The Chordettes, The Fontane Sisters, The Hilltoppers and the Ames Brothers. Jo Stafford's "You Belong To Me" was the #1 song of 1952on the Billboard Top 100 chart.

Radio stations don't play their songs anymore.  Save for PBS, TV ignores them. Then from mid-decade:

Rock-n-roll emerged in the mid-1950s with Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Gene Vincent, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino, Little Richard, James Brown, Bo Diddley, Buddy Holly, Bobby Darin, Ritchie Valens, Duane Eddy, Eddie Cochran, Brenda Lee, Bobby Vee, Connie Francis, Johnny Mathis, Neil Sedaka, Pat Boone and Ricky Nelson being notable exponents. In the mid-1950s, Elvis Presley became the leading figure of the newly popular sound of rock and roll with a series of network television appearances and chart-topping records. Chuck Berry, with "Maybellene" (1955), "Roll Over Beethoven" (1956), "Rock and Roll Music" (1957) and "Johnny B. Goode" (1958), refined and developed the major elements that made rock and roll distinctive, focusing on teen life and introducing guitar solos and showmanship that would be a major influence on subsequent rock music.^[12] Bill Haley, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Johnny Horton, and Marty Robbins were Rockabilly musicians.

You also don't hear them anymore.  Here are the top 65 songs of the 50's, in ten minutes.  Every #1 Billboard #1 hit of the 1950's, in nine minutes.

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YOUR NEXT GLOBAL ADVENTURE: Cruises

This could well be my most important posting of my life.  Nothing to do with saving Humanity and Planet Earth, but the ramifications could be life-changing for some.  I'm not organizing anything, but we've invited our friends to join us, and they might also be able to take advantage of our bargaining with cruise lines.  Then, there are the 2 million plus of you out there in 221 countries who have read this blog, and might want to tag along.

To bring you up to date:

• My cabin mate (I'll come up with a more appropriate term later) and I are considering tossing in a cruise or two on our upcoming Grand Around the World Adventure (GAWA2--and I should come up with a better acronym)

• 
  On a January cruise from Honolulu to Dubai, or somewhere in between by mid-March so that we can begin the air part of the journey to Dubai, then parts further west to Honolulu.  Of course, those living elsewhere can start where you are and link with us.

• 
  European river cruise from probably Basel, Switzerland to Amsterdam, the Netherlands.  By the end of this phase, the tulips should be blooming.  I will have a posting comparing possible options after settling on the first cruise portion.

• 
  For this upcoming trip I use GAWA2 because I already had a Business Class GAWA, my Greatest Around the World Adventure six years ago.  65 days, including a Tauck River Cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam, and perhaps my best one day on any trip, in Venice, where I met my Blue Bar Pigeon.  Also an incredible stay in Dubai.  There were, though, two mishaps, the first where I lost my wallet on an Asiana flight (which was miraculously returned to me intact) and a lost tooth in Istanbul.

• 
  There was also a MUFA (My Ultimate Fantasy Adventure) in 2014, while only Circle Pacific and not worldwide, this 31-day long journey on Business, ended with a Crystal cruise from Tokyo to Honolulu, and overall might have been my most enjoyable of all.
• Then there was MUGA (My Ultimate Global Adventure) in 2013, which involved First Class travel for 51 days, where the final two weeks involved a week of golf in Napa and another another of wine-tasting throughout Sonoma and Alexander Valleys.

A January departure makes sense because most around the world cruises depart that month.  Plus, a year from now, while the pandemic should be over, caution will prevail, so ship travel will mean boarding only with a travel passport showing your vaccination details.  I take my second Moderna shot next week.

I notice that all Norwegian cruises now offer 30% off, PLUS, FREE open bar, specialty dining, excursions and wifi.  While there will be considerable reluctance for all companies to match that, this posting will focus on negotiating favorable rates with cruise lines, so if an agent is reading this, please send me a quote (PatKenTak@hotmail.com) on cost of a double room per person, mentioning those perks, and in consideration of the following:

• 
  The type of stateroom will be described below.
• In general, right side front half of ship facing forward.
• With a bath tub.
• Balcony with no obstruction.
• Two preferred offers at discount or free would be:  open (even if limited) bar and wifi.
• No kids and excursions will later be determined.
• Will find our own air travel accommodations as necessary.
• Cost/person for boarding in HONOLULU.  If this is NOT allowed, please quote anyway as restricted.  We can fly to Los Angeles if absolutely necessary.
• Deposit/person.
• First decision date to send more money.
• When full payment will be required.

My favorite and most traveled line over the seas is Crystal, and their Serenity is currently scheduled to take 116 days to depart from Miami on 17 January 2022 or Los Angeles on 2 February 2022, with a stop in Hawaii on February 8.  A deluxe forward stateroom with verandah for the entire trip costs $54,425/person.  If the cost is prorated to board in Honolulu and disembark in Sydney, which would be on February 6, or 18 days on the ship, using simple mathematics, dividing 116 into 18 and multiplying by $54,425, the cost showing no discount should be around $8450/person ($469/day).  After spending a few days in Sydney, the intent then would be to begin a Business Class Around the World Journey with Star Alliance.  Anyone wedded to Delta, American or whatever can also consider OneWorld or SkyTeam.

To the Crystal agent reading this, the quote should be for two people in the same balcony room from Honolulu to Sydney, mentioning what you can about amenities and perks.

Cunard this year celebrated a century of global cruising.  They tend to be a bit stuffy and formal.  But that is what I've heard, haven't yet stepped on board, save for the Queen Mary, which served the company from 1936 to 1967, and is now a tourist attraction in Long Beach, California.

Cunard has two world cruises:

• Queen Victoria:  10 January 2022 to 9 April 2022, 108 days, Southampton to Southampton, UK
• Britannia Balcony room from $24,000
• Arrives in Honolulu on Day 33, February 11
• Arrives in Sydney on Day 51, March 1
• Using the same mathematics (something most cruise lines don't really do), would cost around $4000/person. ($222/day).
• Brittania Club room would be $6600/person ($367/day).
• There will be two of us in the same stateroom, and ONLY from Honolulu to Sydney.
• So to the Cunard agent reading this, please quote for both the Britannia Balcony and Club rooms, mentioning what you can about amenities and perks.
• Queen Mary 2 goes eastward, 10 January 2022 to  2 February 2022, 22 days, Southampton, UK to Dubai
• As this ship is going in the wrong direction and not stopping in Honolulu, I'll skip the details.

Late in 2019 we spent a wonderful cruise on the Diamond Princess in the Orient.  Fortunately, we left the ship a month before that fateful incident when this passenger from Hong Kong boarded, causing the first bombshell introduction to the current pandemic.  Our trip convinced me that the Island Princess would be adequate for this global trip.  Fortunately enough:

• The Island Princess departs on a global cruise from Los Angeles on 19 January 2022, a 111-day journey.
• 51 destinations
• 6 continents
• 29 countries
• 34,000 nautical miles
• 25 UNESCO World Heritage sites

• 
  As there is a stop in Honolulu on January 25, perhaps we can board here.
• From Honolulu, the ship arrives 47 days later in Dubai on March 13, just in time for the World Expo.
• Doing the similar math, the cost would proportionately be $6412/person for a balcony stateroom.  That would be $136/person/day.
• A mini-suite would also be fine, but my reading of the Princess site is that this category is sold out.  But this only means that eager travelers only paid a minimal deposit.  When the time comes, a lot of staterooms will suddenly become available. 
• So to the Princess agent reading this, I would like the quote to be for two people from Honolulu to Dubai.  Plus, indicate something about amenities and perks.  Also, put us on the waiting list for a mini-suite.

If anyone reading this works for an airlines or similar travel organization, you also subscribe to a separate service that can get cruises for ridiculously low rates, as we did for the Diamond Princess.  If we cannot reach any kind of reasonable accommodation from any cruise line, the other option will be to wait until a couple of months before the departure date.  That might turn out to be what will happen, for the air portion of the global adventure need not be made until a month before that portion starts.  There are always seats available in paid business class, and especially so for the next year or so with the variants spooking the pandemic.

Finally, we will be staying at Marriott/Sheraton, for their international hotels generally have a club lounge with free buffet breakfast and free cocktail hour with appetizers.  Of course, it would help if you were a platinum member.  Thus, this perk almost eliminates (you don't want to eat large meals three times/day on a global trip) meal costs, save for those must-go-to Michelin 3-star or Pellegrino Best 50 restaurants.

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YOUR NEXT GLOBAL ADVENTURE: Some Incredible Past Achievements

From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):

        DAY  USA  WORLD   Brazil    India    South Africa

June     9    1093     4732        1185        246        82

July    22     1205     7128        1293     1120       572

Aug    12     1504     6556        1242       835       130

Sept     9     1208      6222       1136      1168        82

Oct     21     1225      6849         571       703        85

Nov    25      2304    12025        620       518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748      1224       299      465

Jan     14     4142    15512       1151       189      712          

          19       2804    14760      1183        161     839    

          20       4385    17350      1382        152     566

          21       4363    16578      1335        161     647          

          26       4045    15879      1206        127     680 

          27       3916    16873      1319        134     753 

          28       3908    16388      1439        162     555

Summary:  The USA COVID-19 new deaths/day is slowly declining.  Not necessarily so for many other regions of the world.

First a bit of politics.  From this morning's New York Times:

The big picture: “The Affordable Care Act is a highly flawed, distressingly compromised, woefully incomplete attempt to establish a basic right that already exists … in every other developed nation,” Jonathan Cohn, another longtime health care journalist, writes in “The Ten Year War,” a forthcoming book. “It is also the most ambitious and significant piece of domestic legislation to pass in half a century.” Also: By the end of Trump’s presidency, the uninsured rate probably rose close to 10 percent, from 8.6 percent in the Obama administration’s final year. Through executive action, Biden may be able to reduce it to about 8 percent over the next four years, according to my reporting. The bigger question is whether Biden can persuade Congress to pass a new law that would go further than Obamacare did, by making coverage less expensive for more people. Otherwise, at least 25 million Americans are likely to remain uninsured.

A global journey is a once-in-a-lifetime dream for most.  Over 80% of world citizens have never even boarded a plane.  Two-thirds of Americans have never been on a cruise.  The thought of taking an actual global trip, typically lasting two months, or 80 days if you're a romantic, is only for the most adventurous with sufficient funds.  It's a passion for me, as I have done this perhaps a dozen times.  But why not you?

As you need to begin somewhere, first, hope that the pandemic will largely be over by January of 2022, for that's my target date to begin my next, and probably final world tour.  Fortunately, most around the world cruises begin then.  I've never done this by ship, but can actually be cheaper than the standard way, flying.  Of course, you can combine ocean and air, as I'm contemplating for my next.

On flying, the easiest way is to use something like Star Alliance (although other major airlines have their own package) around the world:

• Over 1300 destinations in more than 195 countries
• Take a full year to complete your journey.
• Use 16 flight coupons or legs.
• The cost depends on class of service and miles traveled:
• Economy:  $5000 plus or minus $1000.
• Business:  $11,000 p or m $$1500.
• First:  $20,000 p or m $4000.  However, most airlines have severely curtailed first class travel, so I can't recommend this alternative today.
• The last time I checked, the following airlines could be used:

Adria Airways (JP), Aegean Airlines (A3), Air Canada (AC), Air China (CA), Air India (AI), Air New Zealand (NZ), ANA (NH), Asiana Airlines (OZ), Austrian Airlines (OS), Avianca (AV), Brussels Airlines (SN), Copa Airlines (CM), Croatia Airlines (OU), Egyptair (MS), Ethiopian Airlines (ET), EVA Air (BR), LOT Polish Airlines (LO), Lufthansa (LH), Scandinavian Airlines (SK), Shenzhen Airlines (ZH), Singapore Airlines (SQ), South African Airways (SA), SWISS (LX), TAP Portugal (TP), Thai (TG), Turkish Airlines (TK) and United Airlines (UA).

Of course, some of you fly Delta or American or whatever else, but there are two other alliances:  SkyTeam and Oneworld.  

The problem with going global using ship and plane is that there is no partnership between the two.  Thus, for example, say you start in Los Angeles.  If your take a 56-day cruise to Dubai, then use an airline global fare to get you back to Los Angeles.  You will have left over a trip from Los Angeles to Dubai, which you need to use by a year of the date you first left LA.  But that could be the beginning of your second adventure.

If you're wealthy with not so much time available, there are other options.  TCS World Travel offers a $128,000 package that will take 20 days to 7 destinations for 48 guests on a Boeing 757.  Departure on 19February2022 from Seattle, flying West.  Frankly, the stops are rather mundane.

Dubai should be the highlight of your next world trip because their World Expo begins in October of 2021 and extends to the end of March 2022.  What other important events will occur in 2022?  I'll report on them in a future series posting.  To further inspire you, I will start with some incredible past global achievements.

You can go around the world like Magellan's men, where 200 embarked, and three years later, 18 returned.  No, I guess you wouldn't want to do this that way.  The more traditional ones include:

• George Francis Train (left) went in 1870, taking 80 days, if you don't count the two months he spent in Paris assisting in the French Revolution.  Jules Verne saw this accomplishment in a city newspaper, and wrote the book.  Train was not pleased, but did okay, for while on this crazy journey he was also kind of running for president of the USA.  He did later form the Union Pacific Railroad.    Went to jail 15 times, but mostly for the cause of peace in France and the U.S. 

• Phileas Fogg, from Verne's story, succeeded, but almost lost $12 million (about the worth today), for he forgot that when you go East, you gain a day.  It's okay if you do it by boat, but if you fly, you want go West, where you will lose a day.  Why?  Your body better adjusts.

• King David Kalakaua of Hawaii in 1881 became the first reigning monarch to complete such a journey.

• Nellie Bly, a New York World reporter succeeded in 1889 and wrote, Around the World in 72 Days, mostly to beat the 80 days of Verne.  Amazon has her paperback on sale for $10.

• 
  Train went around the world two more times, partly to break Bly's record, accomplishing his second in 67 days (1890) when he was 61 years old, and the third the following year in 64 days.  He is said to have the 26th most important brain, among 107 other famous people.  Where?  I'll get into this later.
• 
  A few weeks before the stock market crashed, the Graf Zeppelin in 1929 flew around the world in 21 and a half days.  William Randolph Hearst (remember him from my postings about Citizen Kane?) backed this venture, placing on board a correspondent, Lady Grace Drummond-Hay (here she is waving from the dirigible), who became the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by air.

• 
  In 1961 Yuri Gargarin took one hour and 48 minutes to make one orbit our Planet Earth.  The Soviet Union had already sent Sputnik into space in 1957, which inspired me to become an engineer, and Gargarin's success is one reason I also once worked for NASA.

• 
  Pastor Arthur Blessitt has been carrying a 45 pound wooden cross across 324 entities, walking so far 42,279 miles since 1968.  This mission continues, but he did find time to run for president of the USA in 1976.

• From 1979-82 Britishers Ranulph Fiennes and his team followed the Greenwich meridian, first going south from Greenwich, arriving at the South Pole on 15December1980, then continuing on to reach the North Pole on 11April1982, finishing in Greenwich on 29August1982.  The whole thing was planned by wife Ginny Fiennes.  The group mostly ate bread, cereal and coffee.
• In 1992 an Air France Concorde went around the world in just under 33 hours.

• From the UK Robert Garside,(right), from 1997 to 2003 took 2,062 days to run around the world.
• From 1997 to 2012 Russian PhD physicist Vladimir Lysenko circled the globe several times using car, motor boat, yacht, ship, kayak, bicycle and foot.  He has visited all 195 countries of the UN.

• 
  Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg had planned to take Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered aircraft, around the world in five months, but it took from 9 March 2015 until 16 July 2016, mostly because they were stuck in Hawaii due to battery damage.

If you click on this Wikipedia page, you will find a lot more.  Another site for how these global journeys have gotten shorter and shorter, beginning with Magellan's crew feat of 1082 days from 1519-22, and including George Train's 80 days in 1870.  

To commemorate the 500th anniversary of the first global circumnavigation and the 50th of Man on the Moon, in July of 2019, a nine-person crew used a Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER ultra long-range business jet to complete a global flight in 46 hours, 39 minutes and 38 seconds over the South and North Poles, an average of only 535 MPH.

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