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Sunday, October 4, 2020

 MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.


YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:



           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82
July     19      412    4606          715       675          85
           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142
           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64
           17      879     5568          857    1174          67
           18      958     5464          826    1221          85
           19      657     5141          708    1149          83
           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  
           21      384     4129          455    1056          39
           22      979     5725          809    1056        126
           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88
           24      942     5872          818    1144          77
           25      895     5819          826    1093          29
           26      737     5306          732    1123          64
           27      276     3933          335    1040          22
           28      355     3837          385      777        188
           29      977     5846          849    1178           81
           30      955     6203          952    1179           67
Oct 1    1      920     5583          805    1096         132
             2      864     5603          664    1071           43 
             3      755     4795          580      937           29

Summary:  

  • Looks like Africa is sidestepping this pandemic.
  • While Latin and South America continues to show coronavirus strength, countries in Europe are especially entering a new wave stage, for France is now #4 in new cases, with 16,972, to India with 75,479, USA at 49,856 and Brazil at 24,602.
  • Only three U.S. states are reporting a decline in new COVID-19 cases compared to last week, while 21 states rose.  Wisconsin broke an all-time high.  Hospitalizations rose for the first time since July.

On 23 September 2020 I presented the scientific view of why we are here.  Today, from the religious perspective.  One of Paul Gauguin's most famous paintings is, Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are we Going?

At the heart of the issue is the age-old question, what is the meaning of life?  Read this Wikipedia summary, where, after traipsing through all of history with the most eminent philosophers of their day, a passage appears:

In Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, there are several allusions to the meaning of life. At the end of the film, a character played by Michael Palin is handed an envelope containing "the meaning of life", which she opens and reads out to the audience: "Well, it's nothing very special. Uh, try to be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations."[213][214][215]


Good an explanation as any.  The film, incidentally, was rated 86%/83% by Rotten Tomatoes.  

For Christians, here are 78 Bible verses about why you are here.  Other religions fall in among many of them.  My scientific treatment just went into evolution, or how we came to be, not answering the question itself.  You can read between the lines and extract an essence that does not pretend to know the answer, suggesting that we are here because of a random order process.  Using a similar train of thought, from The Bible, it all began with God and Genesis.

But why did he create us?  From Christianity:

Some things cannot be fully comprehended. Infinite things, eternal things, matters of God's sovereignty—these transcend our finite and temporal minds.


The oldest religion, Hindu, suggests something similar:

You cannot constrain limitless into your limited perception i.e., intellect. So if you ask a meaning to this existence, there’s no meaning to this existence. It just happens. That is what this culture and its scriptures continuously say.

Hindu has consistently been in tune with science, and as to why we are here, both answers are remarkably the same.


President Donald Trump indeed contracted COVID-19, has various pre-conditions, is elderly, and has a 10-20% chance of dying.  The White House so obfuscates any information detrimental to their cause that you really don't know how truly sick he is today.  Chances are high, though, that he will survive and generally return to his normal self in a couple of weeks, if not Tuesday.  

If he does not, I provided the succession line yesterday:  Pence, Pelosi and Grassley, in that order.  This legislation was only enacted in 1947 after the death of FDR.  


Mike Pence is only 61, but Pelosi is 80 and Grassley is 87.  Wow he is really old.  I actually knew him when I worked in the U.S. Senate, but that was 40 years ago.  This was because he had a Republican hydrogen bill to match Senator Spark Matsunaga's, and I coordinated with Grassley's staff to form a bi-partisan partnership.  I'm today still trying to figure out how he was so visionary, for he has not shown this tendency since then.

Incidentally, if Trump, for whatever reason, cannot run on November 3, it gets really complicated for Republicans.  It is not automatically Pence as their candidate.  The Republican National Committee would need to come up with a Prexy/Veep slate by involving all 168 national members, three from each state and territory.  But their chairlady, Ronna McDaniel also has this coronavirus...and might have been the one to give it to Hope Hicks and the President.  Ronna is Mitt Romney's niece.

Further, most states have already sent out their ballots, and would each need to figure out a recovery strategy.  This could get into the courts.  In the meantime, the U.S. Senate is in disarray, for at this very moment, three Republican senators have this disease.  Non-mask wearing?  Heck of a Trump strategy to delay the vote into next year when the vaccine becomes a reality.

So back to my reality, I'm at #87, and both songs are linked to personal relationships when I was a student at Stanford:

I frankly haven't learned that much more 60 years later, but in those days I was particularly naive and innocent with no experience at all.  I failed twice, and blame myself.

In most ways, these songs are more in my memory than those girls.  Funny how the mind works.


It's All in the Game not only was popular then, but I had bet with a room mate that this song was played on the radio more than his favorite, whatever that was.  Every so often when I saw him entering the dormitory, I put on this song, and invariably, he found a way to delay his entrance.  More so, I remember this song as a negative experience, which is almost as memorable as a positive one.


A Certain Smile
 was the title of a movie where the lead actress looked just like the person I knew.  I haven't seen this film since college, but will need to look for it in Netflix or Amazon Prime.  Again, not a favorable relationship, but still meaningful.  I more deeply react to A Certain Smile, so that is #87.

I should add that Hurricane Marie at 80 MPH will strengthen into a Category 3.  However, while at one time the track was towards Hawaii, she has sufficiently shifted more northerly and will get nowhere close to my state.

The most active Atlantic hurricane year ever, as Tropical Storm Gamma will brush the Yucatan, and possibly strengthen into a hurricane before making landfall over Mexico:


Note, though, that there are three more disturbances (those Xs) that could become Delta, Epsilon and Zeta.  


Is that the end?  Nope, to follow would be Eta, Theta and Iota, then Kappa Lambda and Mu.

-

Saturday, October 3, 2020

NAP TIME

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.


YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:



           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82
July     19      412    4606          715       675          85
           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142
           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64
           17      879     5568          857    1174          67
           18      958     5464          826    1221          85
           19      657     5141          708    1149          83
           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  
           21      384     4129          455    1056          39
           22      979     5725          809    1056        126
           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88
           24      942     5872          818    1144          77
           25      895     5819          826    1093          29
           26      737     5306          732    1123          64
           27      276     3933          335    1040          22
           28      355     3837          385      777        188
           29      977     5846          849    1178           81
           30      955     6203          952    1179           67
Oct 1    1      920     5583          805    1096         132
             2      864     5603          664    1071           43 

Summary: Not much change.


From this global pandemic now infecting the most powerful person in the world...Donald Trump, a wild stretch today into naps.  To begin, the U.S. Army just reported:

Turns out Beetle Bailey had it right all along.

The loafing comic-strip Army private has been sleeping on duty for 70 years, to the frequent fury of his platoon sergeant. But on Wednesday, the Army released new guidelines for optimal soldier performance — and they include strategic and aggressive napping.

More so:

“Soldiers can use short, infrequent naps to restore wakefulness and promote performance,” the new manual advises. “When routinely available sleep time is difficult to predict, soldiers might take the longest nap possible as frequently as time is available."

I take naps because I have difficulty sleeping at night.  Typically, I doze off in two or three hour stretches and wake up twice/night.  I succeed 95% of the time to sleep within a few minutes the first time, but the second time, who knows.  However, I usually end up with 5-7 hours/night.  I thus take a nap for an hour or two in the afternoon, when my blood pressure is very low after lunch.  I sleep better in this condition.  I find these naps to be especially satisfying, for I feel so much better for the rest of the day.  In the long term, I'll live longer.  While somewhat controversial, this report says that napping for an hour will increase your longevity.  But watch out:  long naps can reduce your life expectancy.  Maybe more than anything else, though, knowing that I have the opportunity to nap if I don't get enough sleep at night reduces any anxiety.  However, I'm retired.  Good luck if you're not.

How much sleep should you have?


I once worked for Senator Spark Matsunaga, who The Washington Post reported as the Senator Who Never Sleeps.  He did spend long hours at work and only went home for a couple of hours in the early morning.  What he was doing in his office I will not share here, but my problem was that he kept dozing off at hearings.  It was embarrassing.  

Donald Trump only sleeps from 3 to 5 hours/night.  I doubt if he takes naps, although...maybe.  Others:

  • Barack Obama:  5 hours
  • Bill Clinton:  6 hours
  • George W. Bush:  9 hours
  • George H.W. Bush:  2 hours...but he took naps
  • John Kennedy:  took 1-2 hour naps in the later morning
  • Calvin Coolidge:  11 hours
  • Winston Churchill napped from 4:30PM to 6:30PM, virtually every day
  • Thomas Edison:  3-4 hours/night...but took a lot of naps.
I'm at #88 of my favorite songs.  These all were popular during my college days:
The Twist
 by Chubby Checkers got awfully close.  This song was originally released by Hank Ballard in 1958, but Chubby's cover in 1960 gave birth to the dance craze.  It reached #1, and in 1962 hit #1 again to become the only song to return to that spot.  More importantly, The Twist was named by Billboard as its top #1 SONG OF ALL-TIME.  

I went to a concert in Honolulu where he was one of the featured performers in a group of oldies.  I think this was filmed in Hawaii, reflecting the others in the cast.
Patricia
, though, is my choice for #88.  Before I even showed up in Palo Alto, I spent the summer in Oxnard working at the Naval Civil Engineering Laboratory.  One afternoon my brother took me to a party in Los Angeles hosted by a radio DJ. He was a very successful Hispanic who wore ten wrist watches and said, pick one, it's yours, with Patricia blaring in the background.  I didn't, but can say he got them from companies bribing him to play their records.  This was the era of payola.  The song itself is seared in my mind because of this experience.

Prado came from Cuba and settled in Mexico.  He was known as the Mambo King, with Mambo #5 his most popular.

My #88 itself was #1 in the nation the week before the Billboard 100 began in August of 1958.  The first #1 was thus Ricky Nelson's Poor Little Fool.  To bring you up to date, #1 today is Dynamite, by BTS from South Korea.

I'll close with Starry Night, a Paris exhibit of Vincent van Gogh.  I've been to THE van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, which is wonderful, and have a copy of his Blue Iris painting on my Manoa Campus office wall, but this French presentation is worthy of your look.

-


Friday, October 2, 2020

OMD: Our President has COVID-19

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.


YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:



           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82
July     19      412    4606          715       675          85
           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142
           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64
           17      879     5568          857    1174          67
           18      958     5464          826    1221          85
           19      657     5141          708    1149          83
           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  
           21      384     4129          455    1056          39
           22      979     5725          809    1056        126
           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88
           24      942     5872          818    1144          77
           25      895     5819          826    1093          29
           26      737     5306          732    1123          64
           27      276     3933          335    1040          22
           28      355     3837          385      777        188
           29      977     5846          849    1178           81
           30      955     6203          952    1179           67
Oct 1    1      920     5583          805    1096         132

Summary: It's not getting better, and as the Fall encroaches, all signs point to a worsening of the pandemic.


An October Mega Disaster (OMD) struck the White House.  Both Melania and Donald Trump were diagnosed positive for COVID-19.  Worse, they are not asymptomatic, and the President was already showing signs of fatigue yesterday when he actually went to his New Jersey fundraiser even though he knew that close aide Hope Hicks (shown here with Trump) the previous night tested positive.  Signs of a serious cluster loom as several White House staffers have also tested positive.


From Joe Biden:

In a tweet today morning, Biden said he and his wife “send our thoughts to President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for a swift recovery. We will continue to pray for the health and safety of the president and his family.”


Biden, Kamala Harris and VP Mike Pence tested negative.  Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) also just tested positive, and a couple of days ago met with Supreme Court nominee Amy Barrett (left).

One point to underscore is that if you have been in close contact with an infected person, you might not show any symptoms for a week or two.  This is why people are quarantined for two weeks.


A few questions come up:

  • Will the Pence-Harris debate occur next Wednesday (USA Today's Susan Page moderates)?  Almost surely.
  • What about Trump-Biden on October 15 in Miami (Steve Scully of C-SPAN for a town meeting)?  Not quite 14-days for the quarantine, and good reason for Biden to magnanimously indicate that they should wait until...
  • ...the third presidential debate in Nashville (Kristen Welker of NBC).  Of course, both debates could be done virtually, but this OMG allows Biden to graciously avoid going through another uncomfortable encounter.

Some other thoughts and potential conspiracy theories:

  • If Trump and Pence go on ventilators, Nancy Pelosi becomes acting president.  Can she scuttle the Supreme Court confirmation process?  Who knew that Senator Chuck Grassley, not Mitch McConnell, was, then, next in line.
  • Was Hope Hicks' infection a Democratic ploy?  Nope, for all signs are that this is related to Republicans meeting each other.  It's possible that the contagion started a week ago when Trump and Hicks met with Ronna McDaniel (right), chairwomen of the Republican National Committee.  She tested positive soon thereafter.  This will gain clarity over the next few days.  
  • Are those "mild" symptoms truly mild?  Trump, for the first time in eons, did not tweet last night.  In any case the usual symptomatic process is a cold-like initial effect, followed by something closer to a flu, then the worse illness you will ever get, for some.  Unfortunately, the President has pre-conditions, said to be just about obese with a pre-diabetic blood count.  Plus, what was wrong with him twice this year when his personal doctors refused to provide details?  Finally, he is 74, and the mortality rate increases with age.
On 13 April 2020 my blog was titled:  A Fitting Bachi.  Here is what I said:

This could well have been the last straw.  Bachi is the Japanese term for retribution, facing the music, punishment for lying and so forth.  Considering the damage he has done, and observing the grateful reaction of  Boris Johnson to recovering from COVID-19, wouldn't it be convenient and appropriate for Donald Trump to catch this novel coronavirus infection?

In my favorite music countdown, I'm now at #89.  This one is simple.  Will You Love Me Tomorrow by the Shirelles.  Has nothing to do with title itself.  Just symbolically, it kept getting played during memorable periods when I was on the Stanford campus.  The Shirelles came to the Garden of Allah.  My girlfriend during that period had this song at her top, from when she was still in high school in 1960.  I recall my eating club had a champagne party the night before, where this song must have been played a couple times, but when we woke up the following morning, January 20, 1962, the whole campus was covered with snow.

The song was written by Gerry Goffin and Carole King (their marriage was coming to an end just about the time they put this together), and the Shirelles released the record in 1960.  It hit #1 on Billboard, the first by a black all-girl group.  The original pressing actually gave the title only as Tomorrow.  Some radio stations banned it because the lyrics were too sexually charged.  Billboard named WYLMT #3 on their list of 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.   

Carole King herself recorded this song in 1971, which  was on her Tapestry album.  Playing background vocals were James Taylor (King had four marriages, but not to him) and Joni Mitchell.  I saw the Broadway musical Beautiful when I was last in New York City, and the song was featured, at least in part, four times.

-

Thursday, October 1, 2020

THE BEST NETFLIX COOKING SERIES

MY WORLD IS CHANGING.  THE SHIFT TO A NEW SYSTEM BY GOOGLE IS LIMITING THIS BLOG SITE.  I WILL CONTINUE A WHILE IN THE PRESENT FORM, BUT THIS LOCATION WILL SHORTLY BECOME THE SITE OF MY FUTURE BOOK DRAFTS FOR YOUR COMMENT.  MOSTLY, THOUGH, I WILL JUST TOSS IN INTERESTING STUFF.  THIS WILL CONTINUE AT LEAST UNTIL I REACH #1 OF MY FAVORITE SONGS AROUND THE EVE OF  THE NEW YEAR.

YOU ARE INVITED TO MY NEW BLOG SITE IF YOU WISH TO CONTINUE READING WHAT I'VE BEEN DOING FOR MORE THAN A DOZEN YEARS:



           DAY USA   WORLD   Brazil      India   South Africa
June      9    1093    4732        1185       246          82
July     19      412    4606          715       675          85
           22     1205    7128       1293     1120        572
Aug      1    1462     6429       1191       765        193
          10       534     4813         593     1013        198
          12     1504     6556       1242       835        130
          30       369     4182         398       960          47
Sept     3     1094     5886          830    1083        174
            6       432     4129          456    1008        110
            9     1208     6222        1136    1168          82
           13      392     3905          389    1140          20
           14      480     4374          454    1054          52
           15    1197     6001        1090    1283        142
           16    1012     6085          967    1139          64
           17      879     5568          857    1174          67
           18      958     5464          826    1221          85
           19      657     5141          708    1149          83
           20      294     3891          330    1135          13  
           21      384     4129          455    1056          39
           22      979     5725          809    1056        126
           23    1112     6328          906    1152          88
           24      942     5872          818    1144          77
           25      895     5819          826    1093          29
           26      737     5306          732    1123          64
           27      276     3933          335    1040          22
           28      355     3837          385      777        188
           29      977     5846          849    1178           81
           30      955     6203          952    1179           67

Summary:  Another bad day for humanity.


My day now is simple:  I eat three meals with no snacks in between, take a nap, do some exercising, watch TV and go to sleep.  I do go out once/week to shop for essential cuisine enhancement items and now and then try to walk 18 holes on a golf course.

Sports programs have returned with the MBL playoffs, the NBA has their final and college sports have returned,  meaning my Netflix time will be reduced.  As it is, I"m watching so many series that I can't remember where I left off.  So today, to guide me in the future when I return to any program, I will identify what episode in which season is next for me.  Today I focus on cooking programs with Rotten Tomatoes ratings at 100%, or close.

I consider the first one to be the most enjoyable, and sixth the least, in that order:

  • Ugly Delicious
    :  two seasons, both 100%.  Chef David Chang travels the USA to enjoy foods like tacos, pizza, etc.  Lot of swearing.  Chang is a James Beard awardee and director Morgan Neville has won an Oscar.  At episode 3 of season 1.
  • The Chef Show:  three seasons, with S1 at 100%/96%.   Involving filmmaker and actor Jon Favreau and chef Roy Choi, with interesting guests like Gwyneth Paltrow, Seth Rogen (if you clicked on this series, you will see the full 30 minute episode featuring him) and...David Chang.  A spinoff of the movie The Chef.
  • The Great British Baking Show:  eleven seasons, with S1, S2 and S11 gaining 100% scores.    You've seen this program on PBS since 2010, for 95 episodes have been filmed.  Must have worked because it's lasted that long, and significantly increased sales of baking ingredients and accessories in the UK.  I never bothered to watch even one show until my first on Netflix. There have been some scandals.  For me, next, season 1, episode 2.  If I have absolutely nothing else to do, I might someday return..
  • Kantaro:  The Sweet Tooth Salary Man:  first season rated at 100%.  Good show if you like desserts.  I now avoid them, so might not return until the pandemic is over.  Next, S1, 3rd episode.
I'm now down to #90, and these songs occurred at a time of transition when I graduated from Stanford and found myself in Naalehu, Hawaii, the southernmost city in the USA.  The Florida Keys only go down to around 24.5 north latitude.  Naalehu is at 19NL.  If Puerto Rico becomes a state, it is at 18NL.
Having just left the Bay Area, San Francisco is today my second favorite spot on this planet, after also working at the NASA Ames Research Center, and spending two summers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.  I probably have landed at the SFO Airport at least a hundred times if not 250.

Kyu Sakamoto I particularly remember because I have a close friend in Japan who told an incredible story that saved his life.  He (my friend) was just late for a flight from Haneda to Osaka, but the door was still open when he was denied boarding.  He was so upset that he sat down and wrote a note complaining of his treatment.  He placed it in his pocket and stormed away.  This was Japan Airlines 123, which crashed, killing all crew members and 505 of the 509 passengers.  It still is the deadliest single-aircraft accident in airline history.  Sakamoto was one of the casualties.  My friend showed me his crumpled note.

The first two actually did not become popular until after 1962, so Johnny Get Angry is #90.  Why I remember this song is that I had just met Pearl, and lived in a cottage with a trainee from Sudan.  His name was Johnny.  One night I cooked, the next him and third to a restaurant.  The problem is that he tended to prepare brains, kidneys and other organs.  Ever been in a kitchen with kidney being boiled?  The whole place smells of urine.  But my memory of Johnny is otherwise all good.  I expected him to become president of his country when he returned.  I recall driving from Naalehu to Kona with Pearl and Johnny, Johnny Get Angry came on as we were reaching our destination (during the daytime, Naalehu was too far from Hilo and Honolulu signals were blocked off by Mauna Loa, so radio reception only came on near Kona).  He was the happiest person on Planet Earth when that song played.

This was Joanie Sommers' only hit.  Other one-hit songs during this period included:
That was 58 years ago.

As this is a foodie posting, two of my meals, the celebratory one being Dungeness Crab because I weighed myself and saw 155.8 pounds, the lowest I've been in a quarter century, and probably more, for during my professional career I wavered between 160 and 165, with an occasional foray up to 167 after trips.  As some of you know, I am allergic to crustaceans, except when prepared alive.  Something to do with histamines forming in them after death, and my body overreacting to them.  Of course, I feel terrible hearing the discomfort as the heat is applied.  But I also consume veal and beef and carrots, and all of them were once living.


That wine deserves mention because of all those years I have subscribed to Stanford wines, this is the best Chardonnay ever offered:


I also had one of my favorites:  artichoke, foie gras pate', prosciutto and croissant, with a large salad, beer and that Goldschmidt:


As I complete this posting, here is what I see right in front of me:


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