WHO IS THAT GIRL WITH THE GREEN HAIR?

Yesterday I was all set to watch the Grammys, something I've generally avoided, for I don't recognize anything being awarded.  I searched back and found a posting I wrote in 2011, where I quote:

The Grammys derived from and are in the shape of the Gramophone (the invention by Emile Berliner), although Thomas Edison did win a Grammy award last year.  The initial award ceremony occurred in 1959 when I was a freshman in college (the Song of the Year was Domenico Modugno’s Nel Blue Dipinto di Blu) and first televised in 1971 as I was close to finishing my PhD.

I went on to say that this 2011 version was probably the first one I had ever watched from beginning to end.  Click on the above reportage, for in those days the program featured singers like Mick Jagger and Barbra Streisand.

Also yesterday, I had the title of this posting already decided:  Who is Izzo?  Born as Melissa Viviane Jefferson, this singer-songwriter-rapper-flautist was recently on the cover as Time's Entertainer of the Year.

You probably don't know her, too.  For one, while she is already 31, only began to crank out hits the past few years.  She received 8 nominations for this 62nd year of the Grammy Awards.  However, she ended up winning in "only" three minor categories.  The Rolling Stones have been around since 1962 (58 years!!!) and won three, total.

I should not, but I will comment on her weight.  She has a Body-Mass Index of 44.2 .

Thus, I switched the focus, so okay, who is that girl with the GREEN HAIR?

She, too, might look like 31, but is only 18.  Her full name is Billie Eilish Pirate Baird O'Connell...raised in Los Angeles.  She won five Grammys, including the top four categories.  Her debut EP in 2017 was Don't Smile at Me (this is the entire half an hour album). Her first real album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? (this, too, is the full album, 43 minutes), was released last year.  So quickly, but she now has 13 platinum and four gold singles, with two records in Guinness.

About that second album title, last night I was into another adventure trying to sleep, and came up with a possible combined solution.  I generally have difficulty sleeping because my mind is too active.  The fewer problems I have, the harder time I have at falling asleep.  This current euphoric stage I'm in has this downside.

So I checked, and the Sleep Foundation indicated, YES, meditation can help.  Secondly, I take high blood pressure pills and I sometimes, combined with food and exercise, can get a bit dizzy because my pressure drops too much.  I wonder if I take half a pill half an hour before I go to bed, then the other half when I wake up to go to the bathroom, this adjustment can help me sleep better?  The Mayo Clinic reported that high blood pressure can cause sleep deprivation.  I'll let you know in a week or so.

But back to Billie, while she might be a bit strange, does write her own songs, with older brother Finneas, who also produces the effort.  Finneas Eilish won two Grammys.  Can you believe this list of stars who have never won a Grammy?

• Snoop Dog (nominated 17 times)
• Bryan McKnight (16 tries)
• Bjork (14)
• Katy Perry (13)

• Diana Ross (12)
• Nicky Minaj (10)
• Tupac Shakur (7)
• Depeche Mode (5)
• Queen (4)
• Guns N' Roses (3)
• Justin Bieber (3)
• The Who (2)
• Janis Joplin (2, posthumously)
• Run D.M.C. (1)
• Journey (1)
• Kiss (1)

• Jimmy Hendrix (1)
• The Grateful Dead (1)
• The Kinks (0)
• Spice Girls (0)
• Abba (0)
• Beach Boys (0)

• Bob Marley (0)
• The Doors and Jim Morrison (0)
• Buddy Holly (he died the year of the first Grammys, but was not nominated--here with Ritchie Valens, who also perished in that plane crash--of course, every reverence was given to Kobe Bryant, who suffered a similar fate yesterday)

Mind you, the Grammys did recognize some of them with Lifetime Awards.

Who wore what?  Lil Nas X, with BTS:

Jennifer Lopez with Smokey Robinson:

Ariana Grande, in the middle:

Joy Villa:

About President Donald Trump, with Benjamin Netanyahu at his side, revealed was the intention of unveiling an infallible Middle East peace plan tomorrow, which was supposed to have been announced today.   Perhaps John Bolton's leaked  bombshell book threw the timing off.  In any case, not only is Trump in trouble, but Netanyahu is in worse shape back home and not quite at this time truly running his country.  Oh, also, no representatives from the PLO or Iran or...all the other impacted countries, plan to show up.

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THE BEST IN CHINESE CUISINE

I asked one of my floor neighbors, who is Chinese, what do you eat on New Year's Day.  She said jai, known also as Buddha's delight, a vegetarian dish, that in some societies add seafood or eggs.  Like the Japanese ozoni, the details depend on from where came the recipe.  What else?

Notice that enhancement of luck is a primary goal:

• fish:  to increase prosperity
• dumplings,  spring rolls and good fortune (round and gold color) fruit:  wealth
• glutinous rice cake:  higher income or position
• sweet rice balls:  family togetherness
• longevity noodles:  happiness and longevity

Not on that list, but driving back for the Ala Wai Golf Course, I stopped by On On to get some Peking Duck:

Half a duck is too much for me, so I selected the best pieces and fried some in butter and the others in Japanese wagyu fat:

That's a piece of wagyu on top of the duck.  This was my meal for the 1974 film version of Murder on the Orient Express, one of my binge-watching expeditions.

Two days ago I talked about the two carpenter bee stings I got at the Ala Wai Golf Course.  I then noticed what I think were ant bites, one which swelled my ankle with a square-shaped rash, no doubt while golfing.

On Saturday, off I went to celebrate Chinese New Year in Honolulu Chinatown.  On the way there I stopped by the Cultural Plaza for lunch:

My blue-bar pigeon led the way, first to Fook Lam, which had a long line, then to Tai Pan which had none:

I ordered Shanghai Soup Dumplings (remember, this is on the lucky list for the day):

The above was my final dumpling, and note that the cognac bottle is empty, and so was the 25 ounce can of Rolling Rock, which cost all of $2 at the nearby liquor store.  I started by trying to pour the cognac on to the dumpling, but the spoon was too small.  So I settled with the tea cup, something I will continue to do in the future.

Somewhat concerned about my ability to safely walk, I then headed for Chinatown and was met by some Chinese beauty queens:

I wouldn't have shown these chicken feet, except that a few feet over were...guess what?

Figured out what they are?  Lemons.

Nian gao (is gau the local spelling?) and...guess what?

Pig skin.  Then I thought about the duck soup I had made with the remainder of the Peking Duck, so picked up some Chinese peas, Chinese cabbage (won bok) and a small abalone:

The sign says $400/pound.

To complement the soup I got three kinds of dim sum:

For dinner, duck soup plus those veggies with sliced dried abalone and those dim sums, fried in butter:

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CHINA: Another Pandemic?

Over the next few days I will focus on China.  Today, for example, is Chinese New Year 4718, the Year of the Rat.  On July 4 the USA will be 244 years old.  You would think that a rat year would not be auspicious, but the year of the goat (that was in 2015--repeats every twelve years) is the unluckiest Zodiac sign.  The dragon, which is the only mythical animal in the group, is the most coveted.  That is my sign, and, as I have now lived into the Year 2020, my next goal is to get into 2024, the next Year of the Dragon.

I pretty much annually post on this special day, as for example last year and in 2018.  That was the year of the Dog.  Donald Trump is a Fire Dog, and according to horoscope, his health luck was supposed to be unlucky, wealth luck was to be good and this was the year not to fret over minor things.  Melania is also a dog, and there was worry about the marriage of two dogs.

A few days ago over dinner talk, I somewhat pooh-poohed over-concern about the Chinese coronavirus.  At that point only four had actually died, and the common flu kills between 250,000 and 500,000 annually.

I pointed out my Huffington Post article of nine years ago entitled A Pandemic Worse than the Swine Flu, and I repeat a portion of it here:

1. The regular flu kills one in a thousand, while the swine flu seems closer to one in a hundred. That previous avian flu of a decade ago has a 60% mortality rate, but it is not all that contagious. The fear is that the swine flu will morph into a more dangerous form. The potential of this happening is very low, and, in any case, it is appearing that all 50 or so variations might turn out to be treatable with one vaccine. So, certainly, continue the vigilance and spend my tax dollars to develop a common vaccine, but don’t close down countries and schools, and, by the way, tourists can safely return to Mexico and Hawaii.

2. The numbers are embarrassingly obvious. Since the so-called epidemic was announced only a little more than a month ago, we have had about 500 cases and 3 deaths a day. I wouldn’t want to be one of those statistics, but consider that a million people daily contract some form of flu and at least a thousand die, every day, usually from complications (heart, pneumonia, etc.). This terrifying swine flu is thus hardly detectable noise. I might further add that traffic fatalities number 3000/day, but we drive on.

Why, then, has the world, epitomized by the World Health Organization (which can best be appreciated if you know the internal workings of the United Nations), gone bonkers over the swine flu? I would like to speculate on the reason. I think it has to do with our political way of life influenced by the world wide web (WWW), as sensitized by the terroristic act of September 11, 2001. Add the palpable need to cover your rear.

There were a couple more paragraphs, but let me close with one more:

Swine flu, though, conjures dark images of your mortality. The communications industry, like CNN, saturates air time on such issues because they know people will watch. The WWW picks it up and decision-makers are hopelessly influenced. The cascading circle of information gains a life of its own. The truth is that the truly dangerous virus is not the swine flu, but the medium itself. The pandemic is this resultant overreaction.

Of course, in the totality of things, it's better to overreact than be decimated by what might have been prevented with smart decision-making.

Historically, there was the 1918 flu pandemic, which might have sickened a third of the world population, killing up to 50 million.  The global population was then around 2 billion, compared to 7.6 billion today, so a proportional comparison would mean something closer to 200 million deaths today.

Some blame World War I for the crisis, for people in Europe were weakened and in stress, and the global spread was caused by soldiers returning home.  Just in the U.S. 675,000 Americans died, and the national average life expectancy dropped by 12 years.  The H1N1 virus (right) was the cause, and returned in 2009 as the Swine Flu.  But there was no equivalent epidemic.  H1N1 is endemic in pigs and birds.

The source this time is a cousin, the coronavirus, the same culprit which caused SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome, in 2002-3.  There were 774 deaths in 17 countries.  I particularly remember this period because in the heat of the epidemic, a colleague at the University of Hawaii and three of his students traveling through Southeast Asia began to get sick.  They decided to return home.  While ill, they somehow snuck through the immigration checks and returned to Honolulu, only to get confirmed that they had SARS.

Thus, when you think of what is happening in China today, link back to SARS nearly two decades ago.  First, this type of ailment is not all that highly contagious.  Chances are there needs to be direct contact with the affected when they are in that transmittable stage, which is mostly in the second week of the illness.  You will not contract this coronavirus when an exposed patient has not shown symptoms.  The odds are that this epidemic will begin to wane within six months.  Saying all that, if people around the world begin to die from this currently active virus, then that will be a sign that something is different, for this virus is known to mutate.

Seventeen years ago China also reacted to SARS by building a new hospital in Beijing, and in SIX days.  This time Wuhan, the epicenter, specifically at a seafood market, has initiated construction of two, specifically to take care of coronavirus patients.  One will be ready next week.  The Ala Wai Golf Course takes a year to re-pave its parking lot.

This time the central government has also locked down Wuhan and several other nearby cities.  That is unprecedented.  Could well be because during the Chinese New Year so many travel to return to their roots.

Clearly, the government knows something we don't.  London's Imperial College, for example, speculated that up to 10,000 in China had this specific condition when the official tally on January 18 was 62 cases.  All current rumors and signs point to a fear that SARS this time will be worse, and maybe 10 times so.  However, even with 100,000 getting sick and 10,000 deaths, that would be less than 3% of expected deaths from the flu this year.  Yet, the trepidation of 1918 weighs heavy, and what if Chinese authorities are still hiding something horrendous?

Well, as terrible as might be the above, I am getting on with my life and celebrating Chinese New Year with a wide array of cuisine, which I'll report on in the days to come.  Last night I had Peking Duck, today I'll stroll into Chinatown and have, perhaps, Shanghai Soup Dumplings, and on Monday, 15 Craigside has our annual Chinese New Year lunch.

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