GOODBYE PYEONGCHANG

Thought I'd do you a big favor by inserting a second posting today, my final thoughts on the PyeongChang Winter Olympics:

• Turned on my TV when the women's ice hockey match between Canada and the USA ended in a 2-2 tie.  Watched the overtime and shootout.  That game winning goal by Jocelyn Lamoureux-Davidson was priceless.

• I watched the men's curling team against Sweden for the gold.  At 12:45AM SFO time, USA was behind in the 5th end (or innings if baseball).  I fell asleep.  I still take partial credit for the 10-7 win.

• Conversely, every time I saw a woman U.S. figure skater perform, she fell.  I thus stopped watching to improve their chances.  They still did poorly.  But those two teenagers from Russia were incredible.  15-year old Alina Zagitova got gold, while 18-year old Evgenia Medvedeva had to settle for the silver.  Alina was the second youngest Olympic gold medalist. Youngest?  Tara Lipinski in 1998.  She and Johnny Weir, a two-time winter olympian, made for a fine team at the PyeongChang Winter Olympics.

• The highest cost ticket for all Winter Olympic games is the men's hockey championship, this year with Russia against Germany.  Yes, both the USA and Canada got beaten.  However, the second most expensive is the Figure Skating Exhibition Gala, where selected stars let their hair down and perform whatever they want and they will not be judged. Some will do tricks much too risky to attempt in competition.  In 1994 France's Surya Bonaly (right) landed a backflip on one skate, even though this is banned.  So tune in to NBC from 8-11PM EST tonight (Saturday), which begins at 5PM if you live in San Francisco, as I do today.

-

MY BEST LUNCH IN A LONG TIME...PLUS

Earlier, I had an excellent dinner at Hexx in the Paris Hotel.  Scroll down to my posting yesterday for the details. 

Seriously, I had my best lunch in a long time on the tenth floor of the Paris Hotel Eiffel Hotel Restaurant.  That #1 lunch goes back six year to Pierre Gagnaire (left) at the top of the Lotte Hotel in Seoul.

A couple of decades ago, Pearl and I had lunch at Le Jules Verne, on the second floor of the real Eiffel Tower in Paris.  The view was spectacular, but the food was only okay.

The Eiffel Tower Restaurant in Las Vegas offered an even more terrific scene, with the ultimate in fine cusine...and the charge was actually reasonable, a fifth the cost of my Pierre Gagnaire lunch.  And that was in Seoul, Korea, where food costs are as low as they can get for a national capital.

I always begin a French lunch with Kir Royale.  I then added a glass of Duckhorn Decoy Cabernet Sauvignon.  The fountains of Bellagio came on and made for an unforgettable total experience:

I ordered foie gras pate', Sevruga Caviar and escargot:

I have had each separately, but never together.  I like to combine hot/cold, sweet/sour, etc., and this assortment allowed me to enjoy a dozen and more combinations of these delicacies.  For example, just dipping a small amount of pate' into the hot escargot butter provided a memorable taste that will someday need to be repeated.  Some combos:

Here is part of the kitchen:

As I had a $20 credit for they not cleaning my room, for one of my lunches I had an American hamburger with onion rings and beer:

What a burger, with blue cheese, and the onion rings were phenomenal.

On my final day in Las Vegas I walked to my next hotel, the Marriott Grand Chateau, via The Strip.  Goodbye Paris Hotel:

Next door is Planet Hollywood, connected to the Miracle Mile Shops:

There are two ABC Stores in this mall.  I stopped by La Salsa Cantina:

Something you don't see in Hawaii...a Mexican staff.  Then, across the street from those Miracle Mile Shops, hello Marriott Grand Chateau:

My view was of the McCarron International Airport and MGM Grand.  For dinner I brought back to my room a salad and some spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread from Sbarro, which I heated in the room microwave oven:

That's a bottle of Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir, one of Pearl's favorites.

This hotel has no casino.  It is a family time-share.  The TV channel choices were bountiful, including ten stations for reasonably current films (free) and more listenable music channels than Music Choice back home, minus two dozen rap/rock stations.  The international selection was unusual: Filipino, Korean, Irish...plus French,  American, Mexican and Italian, those four meals above.

You would think that the airport being so close you could almost walk to the terminal.  However, a taxi cost me $19.  Goodbye Las Vegas.

My plane to SFO had a hydraulic problem, so they just cancelled the whole flight.  They put me on standby an hour later, but I couldn't get on the next option. Finally, third plane at sunset, hello San Francisco.

The good news is that if I had to connect to my flight back to Honolulu, I would have missed that flight.  Caught BART to the Powell Street Station and had a five minute walk to the Marriott Marquis, three hours late.  I was so exhausted that I had dinner in the hotel:  San Francisco Clam Chowder in a Boudin Sourdough Bowl, plus french fries and a glass of Prosecco.  An excellent beginning to my next few days in the City by the Bay.  Hmmm...was that an earthquake?

Tomorrow, the largest Chinese New Year Parade outside of China, plus the biggest orchid show in America.

-

WINTER OLYMPICS 2018: What Happened?

The 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea are coming to a close.  2,952 athletes from 92 countries competed in 102 events across 15 different winter sports.

The USA had placed first and mostly second at all these events since Salt Lake in 2002.  This year we will probably end up fourth.  Norway will prevail.  The U.S. has 63 times the population of Norway.  Norway had 109 competitors in 11 sports, while the U.S. had 242 (largest team in Winter Olympics history) in 15.  So what happened?

Who really cares, anyway.  Well, NBC does, for ratings have been dismal.  Poor U.S. performances for sure hurt, plus timing (Seoul is eleven hours away from New York), and there seemed to be uncertainty what would be shown when and where on TV.  You could plan ahead for the 52nd Superbowl because you knew it would start at 1:30 PM EST on February 4.  Not so for the Winter Olympics.  Then too, watching skiing or almost whatever, it was hard to tell which country was being represented.  There was no clear distinction among national uniforms, except for those tiny words on the sleeve.

None of the nearly 3,000 Olympians was paid to participate.  However, if an American won a gold medal, the value was $37,500, silver $22,500 and bronze $15,000.  Team members split those amounts.  If your name is Shaun White, his gold was piddling, for he pulls in $10 million/year and is said to be worth $40 million.

If you won from Singapore:  gold $750,000, silver $375,000 and bronze almost $200,000.  No Winter winners, but Joseph Schooling did get a million Singapore dollars for beating Michael Phelps in the recent Rio Summer Olympics.  Schooling is currently swimming for the University of Texas.  He has actually being going to school in the U.S. since the 8th grade.

The most memorable moment for the USA had to be the gold for our women's ice hockey team, chronic losers to Canada.  The score went into overtime, and that failed to determine the winner.  So it came to a shootout, where finally the U.S. prevailed, winning gold medal for first time since 1998.  This is the team that  a year ago threatened to boycott the World Championship.  But USA Hockey buckled, and the women got what they wanted, including winning that 2017 World Championship.

The official 2018 Winter Olympics Jerk was unanimous:  Vice President Mike Pence.

Pence’s job in Pyeongchang isn’t limited to creating awkward moments and bashing the press. He is also there for diplomatic purposes—a tough task, given that he is the representative of a president who recently deemed Haiti and several African nations “shithole countries.” How has that been going? Well, Pence reportedly arrived late to a Friday dinner hosted by South Korean President Moon Jae-in, then left early and skipped the very special dessert. At Friday’s opening ceremony, Pence was one of the few people in the stadium who notably refused to stand and applaud when the combined North Korean and South Korean teams entered together. Photographs indicate that, during the opening ceremony, he either conspicuously ignored or entirely failed to recognize Kim Yo-jong, the sister of Kim Jong-un, despite the fact they were literally sitting an arm’s length apart.

Hopefully, First Daughter Ivanka Trump will not become official jerk #2.  She came for the Closing Ceremonies, and while about the only one left in the Administration with any kind of positive vibe, she did begin by dissing North Korea, maintaining the Trump viewpoint.  Once an enemy, always...except if you're incoming Senator Doug Jones or future Senator Mitt Romney...see a looming pattern?

In some media circles Kim Yo-jong is North Korea's Ivanka.  Unfortunately, they won't meet.

Prediction:  even though Mirai Nagasu of the U.S. only won a bronze medal, she will became the face of Toyota's Mirai, a hydrogen-powered fuel cell car.  If this vehicle succeeds, she will have a PR job into the 2030's:

I tried curling once and did as shakily as my skating and skiing.  However, a potential highlight of these Olympics could well be USA beating Sweden for the gold.  They upset Canada to get here.  Tonight at 10:35PM PST.  The closing ceremony will be shown live on Sunday morning at 6AM EST, which is 3AM Pacific and 1AM Hawaii times.

Then again, you can watch this finale that night, but by then you will know that there was no missile attack.  Jessie Diggins (left), who with Kikkan Randall won gold for their  cross-country sprint, will carry the American flag.

The 2022 Winter Olympics will jump only 669 miles away to Beijing:  February 4-20, 2022.  Beijing will become the first city to ever host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.  

It's only 637 miles to Tokyo, which hosts the 2020 Summer Olympics.  The 1964 Tokyo Summer Olympics marked the re-arrival of Japan back into world economic power status.

Oh, I'm leaving Las Vegas today.  Back to San Francisco.

-