THE TRUTH ABOUT OUR FIRST THANKSGIVING

From Worldometer (new deaths from COVID-19 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     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82

Oct      8        957    6420          730       967        160

          21     1225     6849           571       703         85

Nov     4      1199       8192         276       511         74 

          11       1479    10178         564       550         60

          14      1260       8823        727       449         53

          17      1615     10502        676       472        118

          18      1964     10970        754       587        124

          19      2065     10758        644       584        115

          20      1999     11136        521       562          88

          23        972       7951        344       481          65

          24      2187     11710        638       489        115 

          25      2304      12025       620       518        118

Summary:  Terrible.

Apparently, AstraZeneca/Oxford made a mistake in conducting their vaccine tests, so doubt is being cast.  

• Sometimes you learn something from a goof.  This could well turn out be good news, for half a dosage could well be closer to the sweet spot for effectiveness than a pre-calculated full one.  
• If this is true, then double the dosages will be made available for a vaccine that is ten times cheaper with simple storage in a standard refrigerator for months, as opposed to the Moderna and Pfizer versions, which need extreme cold for storage.
• While the messenger RNA platforms of Moderna and Pfizer might sound more high tech than the chimpanzee virus from A/O, sometimes solutions come from strange places.

From The New York Times this morning:

• Daily deaths in the U.S. have exceeded 1,600 in recent days, more than double the level of one month ago.
• Daily deaths in the U.S. have exceeded 1,600 in recent days, more than double the level of one month ago.
• Senator David Perdue, Republican of Georgia, sold at least $1 million worth of stock in the financial company Cardlytics weeks before it announced disappointing results and its share price tumbled.

• Travel, virtually: Tour 52 places around the world. Admire some abstract architecture. And foster the spirit of travel at home.

A large tom turkey at the age of 5 months (when they are sold) can weigh up to 44 pounds.  In the wild they only get up to 24 pounds.  Large ones are not being purchased this year.  As a pet they have around a 10-year lifespan.  Wonder if a new market will be created this year.  On that note, before I go into the true story of Thanksgiving, here are a few six-word memoirs about thankfulness sent to the New York Times:

• Family reunion in January, before COVID.
• Miss family, but safer for them.
• Saved a lot of lipstick money.
• Mom, 87, rocking pretty, pandemic ponytail.
• Windows have never been so important.
• I'm just thankful for indoor plumbing.
• My parents did not get it.
• Wasn't too late to say sorry.
• Dr. Fauci and all truth-speakers.
• Pandemic baby after years of trying.
• Toddler see Audrey Hepburn, says "Mama."
• Water cooler chats with six-year-old son.
• Survived first semester of online university.
• To be a United States citizen.
• Vaccine is coming, Trump is going.
• Biden won the election--thank God.
• Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia.
• Paris Climate Agreement returns in January.
• Red or white, and occasionally rose'.
• Fell in love at 75.
• Solitary Thanksgiving means no turkey. LOBSTER.
• I am thankful to be thankful.

And, incidentally, I did have a LOBSTER dinner, but it was for Thanksgiving eve:

I grew up with the myth of Plymouth, and how there was racial harmony and sharing of food in the fall of 1621.  David Silverman last year released:  This Land is Their Land--The  Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth Colony and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving.

When the pilgrims arrived at Plymouth in 1620, 400 years ago, the Wampanoags offered peace, but mostly to protect themselves from their rivals, the Narrangansetts.  The alliance led to colonial expansion, the spread of disease and exploitation.  Thanksgiving for the Wampanoags is a day of mourning, rather than a moment of giving thanks.

Silverman is a professor of history at George Washington University.  He says:

The myth is that friendly Indians, unidentified by tribe, welcome the Pilgrims to America, teach them how to live in this new place, sit down to dinner with them and then disappear. They hand off America to white people so they can create a great nation dedicated to liberty, opportunity and Christianity for the rest of the world to profit. That’s the story—it’s about Native people conceding to colonialism. It’s bloodless and in many ways an extension of the ideology of Manifest Destiny.

Not so:

• The Pilgrims were supposed to head for the Hudson River, much further south, but they actually first landed at Provincetown, Massachusetts in November of 1620.  There was a hostile Nauset tribe, so they left and ended up at Plymouth Rock in Patuxet a month later.

• 
  The Mayflower was not the first contact.  The Wampanoags had been in conflict with Europeans for a century.  Indians were regularly captured and sold as slaves.  You need to look from early in the 16th century up to the 18th century to understand the complicated relationships.
• More than half on that ship were not seeking religious freedom.  They were there to make a profit.
• Note that there were several contending camps:  various Indian tribes, early settlers versus England, and immigrants from other European countries.
• Even within each tribe there was dissension.  Add to this the different interpretations of who owns land among competing cultures.  These tribes had been in the Massachusetts region for 12,000 years.
• 
  The Whites celebrated Thanksgiving not by feasting, but instead, fasting and prayer.  There was a meal in October of 1621, but a tense one.  The Reverend Alexander Young later wrote about a peaceful dinner to boost tourism.  More than a century later, President Abraham Lincoln picked up this setting in 1863 and declared Thanksgiving as a public holiday to foster national unity.

• 
  Later Europeans were also Catholics and Jews, so these Protestants wanted to assert cultural authority to the newcomers.  Thus the myth about Pilgrims and Indians sharing land and resources.
• New Englanders wanted to downplay the Indian Wars and slavery, pushing Thanksgiving as a feel good experience to hide the really dark past.
• Further from Silverman:

This is about as contrary to the Thanksgiving myth that one can get. That's the story we should be teaching our kids. They should be learning about why native people reached that point, rather than this nonsense that native people willingly handed off their country to the invaders. It does damage to how our native countrymen and women feel as part of this country, it makes white Americans a lot less reflective about where their privilege comes from, and it makes us a lot less critical as a country when it comes to interrogating the rationales that leaders will marshal to act aggressively against foreign others. If we're taught to cut through colonial rhetoric we'll be better positioned to cut through modern colonial and imperial rhetoric.

In 1610 there were 6,600 Wampanoags.  This dropped to 400 in 1677 after outbreaks and wars.  Today, close to 3,000.

A first step in appreciating Thanksgiving is forget what your kindergarten teacher told you.  Then remember that ALL lives matter.  Next year appreciate your gathering on Thanksgiving with family and friends and thank God that Joe Biden is President.

Back to turkeys, why do you think we serve them on Thanksgiving?  The Pilgrims/Wampanoags had some fowl and venison, but almost certainly not this specific bird.  Turns out that turkeys are impossibly cheap in November and large enough for a group of people.

Song #32 will come from Franz Liszt:

• Liebestraum
• Hungarian Rhapsody

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer and said to be one of the greatest pianists of all time.  He began composing at the age of eight.  One of his teachers was Antonio Salieri, who was depicted as a rival of Wolfgang Mozart in that popular film.  He did not poison Mozart.

Liszt in his early 20's formed friendships with Hector Berlioz, Niccolo Paganini and Frederic Chopin.  At the age of 30 he became a kind of rock star with showmanship on the piano, as his concerts were known as mystical ecstasy.  Women fought over his silk handkerchiefs and velvet gloves.

He received an honorary doctorate in that period, and in time gave away much of his proceeds to charity and humanitarian causes.  Largely retired from touring at the age of 35 to returned to composing.  His daughter Cosima married both Hans von Bulow and Richard Wagner.  Two children died in his 50's, so he went to live in a monastery outside of Rome, and became a priest.  He passed away at the age of 74.  

Dreams of Love (English for Liebestraum) is a 1970 Hungarian-Soviet film of his life.  The Hungarian version is 174 minutes long, with the Soviet film 150 minutes and American 130 minutes.  Can't find it anywhere.

He was a prolific composer.  Here is one top ten list.  Not there is Liebestraum, published in 1850.  These are three solo piano works.  No. 3 is the most popular.

There are 19 Hungarian Rhapsodies, with No. 2 in C sharp minor by far the most famous.  This is my favorite #32.

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WHAT DO YOU REALLY KNOW ABOUT VACCINES?

From Worldometer (new deaths from COVID-19 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     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82

Oct      8        957    6420          730       967        160

          21     1225     6849           571       703         85

Nov     4      1199       8192         276       511         74 

          11       1479    10178         564       550         60

          14      1260       8823        727       449         53

          17      1615     10502        676       472        118

          18      1964     10970        754       587        124

          19      2065     10758        644       584        115

          20      1999     11136        521       562          88

          23        972       7951        344       481          65

          24      2187     11710        638       489        115

Summary:  as feared the pandemic is not relenting.  

         

The coming Thanksgiving and Holiday periods will only worsen the rise of COVID-19 hospitalizations.  The question now is, will the USA reach a third of a million deaths by the inauguration of Joe Biden?  Around the World, the contagion is spreading.  For how long more?

On the political front:

• Certainly President Donald Trump will pardon a bunch of his cronies.  His staff is at work on how he will be able to pardon himself before being convicted.
• President-elect Joe Biden's policies are pretty obvious:
• Re-join the international arena, including the United Nations, to cooperate on global warming remediation and a range of topics abandoned by Trump.
• Reverse the environmental actions by Trump.
• Maintain an element of checks regarding China initiated by Trump, but work with allied countries to better contain what is looming as an international threat.
• Restore green energy activities, but in a transitional manner in tune with the price of oil, which, at $42/barrel, is a third the value of what it was a decade ago.  

Surely this is a prank, but first seen from a helicopter last week in Utah's Red Rock Country was a three-sided monolith 10-12 feet tall.  2001 had one of these at the beginning of film.  But this one was black and four-sided with a precise ratio of 1:4:9, or 1, 2 and 3 squared, supposedly left (thousands throughout the Universe, actually) by advanced extraterrestrials.

On afterthought, my posting on the truth about Thanksgiving is better presented tomorrow for obvious reasons.  Today is science day, so I'm crystallizing the essence of vaccine knowledge so you can anticipate the next phase of this current pandemic.

Looks like, worldwide, people are not taking sufficient precautions like mask-wearing and avoiding crowds.  Asymptomatic cases are causing havoc and there is yet no certainty of what percentage is represented by this group.  I suspect it will be just above 50% when someday determined.  So the solution comes down to an effective vaccine and successful inoculation program.

A vaccine contains a biological agent resembling a disease-carrying microorganism to provide immunity to that disease.  Mostly, it provides memory through antibodies and T-cells for the body to recognize the threat and react accordingly.  Vaccination is the process to apply this vaccine.

Edward Jenner used those phrases in 1798 when he transferred a virus, Vaiolae vaccine, which caused cowpox, into human subjects to prevent smallpox, a disease found in Egyptian mummies.  However, as early as the 10th century, China first used inoculation to control this ailment.   Louis Pasteur in the 1880's introduced a better second generation vaccine. The term smallpox was used from early in the 16th century to distinguish it from syphilis, which was known as the great pox.

In the 18th-century, 400,000 people in Europe annually died from smallpox.  Two out of three who got infected survived, but they were usually permanently disfigured in some way or went blind.  Smallpox killed up to 300 million just in the 20th century.  As recently as 1967 there were 15 million cases each year.  It took some effort, but smallpox has now effectively been eradicated worldwide since 1980.

Vaccines for tetanus and diphtheria followed in the 1920's.  The solution for Mumps came in the later 1940's.

Measles is so contagious that close contact will result in 90% infection of non-immune individuals.  In 1531 measles was responsible for killing half the population of Honduras and 20% the Hawaii population in the 1850's.  Between 1855 and 2005 measles is estimated to have killed 200 million worldwide.  Deaths remain at higher than 100,000/year

In the U.S., the infection rate was 3000 per million in the 60's, but with widespread childhood vaccination, the drop was to 1 in a million by 2000.  There remain outbreaks in certain communities, like Hassidic Jews in New York City, who avoid vaccinations, not because of Jewish laws, but a matter of attitude.  Natural health advocates, like Joseph Mercola, who has a degree in osteopathic medicine, tend to also shun vaccinations, arguing that nature provides a better cure.  His contention is that Big Pharma is evil.  He might be right, but the modern world offers alternatives, and some are better than others.

You would think a vaccine has long been available for measles, but it was only in 1963 that Maurice Hilleman of Merck developed the first vaccine, which was improved in 1968.

In the 1950's polio was largely eradicated by Hilary Koprowski and Jonas Salk, with Albert Sabin's oral vaccine in 1961.  Transgenic plants have been experimented with for next generation vaccines.

I was on the board of a company that was working on a vaccine for malaria. That was twenty years ago. This mosquito inflicted disease kills more than 400,000 annually.  Bill Gates announced $168 million to develop a next-generation malaria vaccine.  That headline was mis-named, for it should have stipulated, to develop the first ever officially approved malaria vaccine. Here are ten other diseases with no vaccine:

• Common Cold.
• Chagas disease (American trypanosomiasis)
• Chikungunya
• Dengue
• Cytomegalovirus
• HIV/AIDS
• Hookworm infection
• Leishmaniasis
• Respiratory Syncytial Virus
• Schistosomiasis

In 1989 I visited Papua New Guinea and survived an experience I will never forget.  I stupidly went there without taking any malaria precautions.  I also lucked out in La Reunion when I unknowingly went there in 2005 during a peak of their Chikungunya epidemic.

Why no vaccine for those diseases above has everything to do with priority and spending.   If the modern world had been threatened by any one of them, a vaccine would have been developed by now.  Future vaccines should eventually come for heart ailments, cancer and Alzheimer's disease, but lifestyles and the economy are not threatened by them, so there is no urgency today.

The success for a COVID-19 vaccine was almost predictable.  The USA alone has thus far spent $9 billion.  Double that sum and more for the rest of the world.  On May 4 the World Health Organization organized a telethon, gaining $8.1 billion in pledges from 40 countries.  Bill/Melinda Gates personally gave a third of a billion for this effort.  But you say, the next aircraft carrier will cost close to $15 billion when ready.  The Military-Industrial Complex is a very formidable lobbyist.  So was this Pandemic.

While success was expected, the challenge was formidable: 

• For never has a vaccine been so quickly made available.  
• The ability of science to use genetic sequencing helped.  
• By April, 80 companies in 19 countries were in this bio-gold rush.  
• As of last month there were 321 COVID-19 vaccine candidates, with 56 candidates in clinical research:  41 in Phase 1-11 trials and 15 in Phase II-III trials.
• Today, there apparently are ten vaccines almost ready.  
• Russian hackers have been active.  

• 
  WHO announced that 165 countries representing 60% of the world population have signed on to a COvAX plan for licensing and distribution to get their most vulnerable 20% quickly vaccinated.

• 
  On June 4 a virtual world summit (with a somewhat reluctant USA) raised $9 billion to support the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Imunization for 300 million children in under-developed countries.  The Gates Foundation dedicated $1.6 billion.

• 
  China:
• Provides low-interest loans to any vaccine developer.
• Made land available for production plants.
• By June, 6 of 11 vaccine candidates were coming from China.
• Gave $2 billion to WHO for COVID-19 programs.
• Provided $1 billion to Latin America and the Caribbean for vaccine accessibility.
• They then added Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

• 
  The USA announced Operation Warp Speech on May 15.
• Chief Advisor is Moncef Slaoui.
• Working with seven companies, including the top three:  Moderna, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
• The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is a little less effective at 90%, but can be stored at room temperature and is cheaper by a factor of ten.

• 
  In general, companies have agreed to provide the vaccines at low cost, with profits to come later.
• There is a world attitude of rushing a vaccine even at risk, for the long-term effects will not be learned until much later.
• The measles vaccine and infection provide life-time immunity.
• There is no hint of immunity knowledge about the COVID-19 vaccines.

• 
  COVID-19 cases and deaths for the World are continuing to increase, and are expected to maintain growth until early next year.
• Herd immunity means that at least of 75% of the world needs to actually be vaccinated.
• The annual flu shot in the USA usually is taken by only half the population.
• However, there are signs that the 75% inoculation rate could be reached, maybe even in Year One, for some countries will make it mandatory.  Also, too, travelers on planes and ships will almost surely be required to show a global vaccine passport.  Perhaps this ID will also be required for restaurants and entertainment venues like sporting events.
• Even if herd immunity is never attained, it is unlikely for a significant next wave later next year, although certainly, like the seasonal flu period (cold weather periods in both hemispheres), there will be some return of COVID-19 again when schools open and cooler temperatures keep people indoors.

Song #33 is Polonaise in A, composed by Polish Frederic Chopin in 1842:

On hearing Chopin's Polonaise, Sand was left with a deep symbolic impression which she communicated to Chopin in their private correspondence. In one of their letters, she wrote passionately, "L'inspiration! La force! La vigueur! Il est indéniable qu'un tel esprit doit être présent dans la Révolution française. Désormais cette polonaise devrait être un symbole, un symbole héroïque!" ("The inspiration! The force! The vigour! There is no doubt that such a spirit must be present in the French Revolution.

George Sand (Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin) was Chopin's soul mate, although six years younger than her.  She was short, smoked cigars, wore male clothing and had numerous affairs with both sexes; the one with Chopin went on for a decade.  They separated two years before his death at the age of 39, at which time he was penniless.  She was not there at his funeral, but others like Franz Liszt and Victor Hugo, were.

He composed over 230 works, mostly for piano.  Polonaise in A (by Arthur Rubinstein) came in his decline.  Reportedly, You Tube has 1500 pieces by Chopin.  Three hours of his best.  Not enough?  8 hours more.

The 1945 biographical film A Song to Remember earned Cornel Wilde an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.  Merle Oberon played George Sand.  Improptu in 1991 featured Hugh Grant as Chopin, Judy Davis as George Sand and Julian Sands as Franz Liszt.

- 

HOW DEMOCRATS CAN WIN BOTH GEORGIA SENATE RERUN SEATS ON JANUARY 5

From Worldometer (new deaths from COVID-19 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     3      1094    5886        830     1083         174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168          82

Oct      8        957    6420          730       967        160

          21     1225     6849           571       703         85

Nov     4      1199       8192         276       511         74 

          11       1479    10178         564       550         60

          14      1260       8823        727       449         53

          17      1615     10502        676       472        118

          18      1964     10970        754       587        124

          19      2065     10758        644       584        115

          20      1999     11136        521       562          88

          23        972       7951        344       481         65

Summary:  Wow, a significant drop.  Let's see what happens tomorrow.

As expected:

• Ken Jennings, a former “Jeopardy!” champion, will be the game show’s first short-term guest host after the death of Alex Trebek.

Jennings is noted for winning 74 straight times.  He will moderate his first show on January 11.

Now that the GSA has approved the transition, the only political game in the country are the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia.  This posting will be pundit-worthy,  meaning boringly specific, so many of you should just come back tomorrow when I attempt to determine the truth about our first Thanksgiving. 

When Barack Obama became president in 2009:

• He had the benefit of a House Democratic majority, and a Senate that was 49-49, with two Independents voting with the Democrats.
• This is why Obamacare became law. 
• In 2011 the House turned Republican, making legislation tougher.
• In 2015 both sides went Republican, making it impossible for Obama to do much, including trying to add a Supreme Court associate justice.
• In 2019 the House had a Democratic majority, but the Senate remained Republican, making Supreme Court appointments a breeze for Republican President Donald Trump.
• From 2021 the House will remain Democratic, but the Senate currently has two more Republicans, and the balance will be determined by those Georgia reruns.  
• If both seats are filled by Democrats, VP Kamala Harris becomes the deciding vote, allowing President Biden considerable freedom.
• If only one, and certainly two, reruns are won by Republicans, President Biden will have difficulty doing anything too ambitious.

68% of Georgia's eligible citizens voted.  Not as good as Minnesota's 80%, but better than the 55% of Oklahoma.

The Georgia turnout was surprising in these ways:

• The Black voter turnout was relatively low from the expectation.
• The Never Trump Republicans leading to a Biden victory was not as significant as you might think, for two legendary Republican suburban counties, Cobb and Gwinnett, ejected Republican local government executives for Democrats

Here is the ethnic breakdown of Georgia:

• 52%  White
• 32%  Black
• 10%  Hispanic
•   4%  Asian
•   2%  Other

Status of races:

• Jon Ossoff (D) is 33, while David Perdue (R) is 70.
• Perdue was caught in an insider trading scandal and more.  For those reasons, he refuses to participate in the December 6 debate.  He is a millionaire who is accused of buying his initial election to the Senate.
• When the two candidates faced each other before the November 3 election, Ossoff shredded Perdue so devastatingly that videos from their exchange went viral.
• Ossoff interned in the office of former Congressman John Lewis.  Science degree from Georgetown and M.S. from the London School of Economics.

• 
  Kelly Loeffler (R) is White, Raphael Warnock (D) is Black
• Loeffler is enmeshed in a stock scandal and is linked to Q-Anon.  She is also critical of Black Lives Matter and is extremely conservative.  Is wealthy.
• Warnock is a pastor at a church in Atlanta where Martin Luther King Jr. once preached.  The National Review says he is a radical.  But this publication is a conservative magazine.

Georgia has not elected a Democratic senator since 1996.  Here is the state runoff policy:

• Nov. 18:  voters can begin to request an absentee ballot.  The return can be by mail or official drop boxes.  Must be received by 7PM on January 5.
• Dec. 7:  voter registration deadline.  Can be done online.  If a person will become 18 by January 5, that person can register.
• Dec. 14:  in-person voting begins.
• Jan. 5:  last day to vote.  Polls close at 7PM

Points of interest:

• Initial betting odds favored Warnock and Perdue.
• Betting odds have slightly shifted in the Democratic direction.
• As of a week ago, the GOP had a -400 (80%) chance of having 51 or more seats.
• Democrats had a +275 (27%) chance of gaining 50 seats.
• Note:  given any type of betting odd, go to the right column under ODDS CALCULATOR and CLICK ON THIS.

• Spending will be high:

This will be the first time there's been a Senate runoff in Georgia since 2008. According to Kantar/CMAG data, nearly $245 million will be spent on the Georgia runoffs on TV and radio ads since Election Day by candidates and outside groups. This has gone up since last week with expanded buys mostly by outside groups American Crossroads ($40.3m) and McConnell affiliates Senate Leadership Fund ($32.2m). Candidate spending most is Ossoff with more than $43 million, followed by Loeffler with $41 million, Warnock with $36.9m and Perdue with $28.8 million

So how can both Democrats win those Senate seats to overcome those almost overwhelming odds?

• Hope Donald Trump shows up to support the Republican candidates.  His request for another recount should tick off a number of locals.  Plus, let's face it, he's immoral, arrogant, misogynistic, racially provocative, etc.
• Democrats can look forward to the high presence of Obama, Biden, Harris and an assortment of celebrities.
• Make obvious that in the next four years Georgia will have a lot more Federal money coming into the state with Democratic Senators.  Senator Schumer can promise at least one of them an Appropriations Committee seat should Democrats prevail.

• 
  Have Michael Bloomberg quietly donate $100 million for the two Democrats.
• Find another $100 million, in addition to all the above.
• Nail Perdue and Loeffler for illegal stock trading.  Keep bringing up their greed.
• Give voters this choice:  DO YOU WANT TO BUILD A FIREWALL FOR THE REPUBLICANS TO PREVENT MAKING AMERICA BETTER...OR INSTALL TWO DEMOCRATS FOR A MORE PROGRESSIVE AND SAFER AMERICA.
• IMPROVE THE BLACK VOTE TURNOUT!  Just a 10% increase will make that crucial difference.
• Follow up with potential democrat voters...again and again and again.  Make family and friend connections work, with Stacy Abrams leading the way.
• ENHANCE THE YOUTH VOTE!  Bring in rock stars.

I'm now down to #34, and Pyotr (Peter) Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto is it.  He did so much for music, but the reason I select this particular piece is that in 1958 Van Cliburn played it, with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3, to win the first International Tchaikovsky Competition.  That year I was on my way to Stanford and not all that much interested in classical music.  Van Cliburn's victory changed that.

The timing was monumental, for Sputnik had embarrassed the USA in 1957, and this contest was designed to demonstrate Soviet cultural superiority during this relative peak of our Cold War.  Kind of reminds you of Jesse Owens winning four gold medals at the 1936 Summer Olympics of Hitler.

The setting for the then unremarkable 23-year old Van Cliburn was fearsome.  This was his first international trip.  The Soviet Union was a bitter enemy.  A group of 50 best pianists from 19 countries were invited to Moscow to compete against a formidable group from home.  Dmitri Shostakovich chaired the effort.  When the dust cleared, the judges had to ask Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev if it was okay to award an American.  Their leader replied:  Is he the best piano player?  Then give it to him.  Van Cliburn returned home to a ticker-tape parade in New York City and his recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 was the first classical recording to sell more than a million copies.

Said he, I remember the evening I arrived in Moscow.  The people were so friendly.  That's the same reaction I had when I first went to that Soviet city in 1988 before the Fall of the Berlin Wall.  The people were so friendly.  I wondered how they could be so nice in such a dangerous nation.  And it was so sincere.

Van Cliburn, being gay, had major problems in the American society of those days.  While important, he semi-retired in 1978 at the age of 44.  However, in 1987 he was asked to give a formal recital at the White House for the summit meeting between President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev, the first time he took the stage in nine years.  That gathering led to the end of the Cold War.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 455 to 30,046, the first it closed above 30,000 in history.  President Donald Trump had a one minute press conference on this 30,000 record.  It was to brag.  He actually had no clue that the market broke that mark because he was leaving office.

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