Kiko remains a hurricane , but should by tomorrow weaken into a tropical storm.  If the eye went over Hawaii, there would still be some devastation and a lot of flooding.  However, the track has been predicted to pass sufficiently north of the state such that high surf and associated damage might well be the only problem. In the West Pacific is  Typhoon Tapah,  which just attained typhoon strength today and made landfall over China well away from Macao. The Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of America are eerily quiet as high season begins.  No serious ocean storms are predicted for at least the next week. In the East Pacific is  Post-Tropical Cyclone Lorene  so inconsequential that it is not even shown on the map. She was a hurricane on September 3, strengthened to 85 MPH on the 4th, but later that day lost hurricane status. Almost all ocean storms in the East Pacific threaten Mexico, especially the Baha Peninsula, but only very rarely extend into California....

There is a La Mancha in Spain, but there is no real Man of La Mancha. This all began with Miguel de Cervantes. Was born in Spain in 1547  (?, maybe ) and passed away in 1616 at the age of 68. Considered to be the greatest Spanish writer, best known for what is said to be the first modern novel,  Don Quixote , perhaps even the best book of all time.  As translated by Edith Grossman, widely regarded as one of funniest and most tragic  books ever written. Cervantes spent most of his life in relative poverty and obscurity. At the age of 22, moved to Rome, where he worked for the household of a cardinal. Enlisted in the Spanish Navy infantry a year later, 1570, and got severely wounded, losing use of his left arm and hand. There are no portraits of him, but this one to the right is generally used. In 1575 was captured by Barbary pirates, and ransomed to Madrid five years later. First significant novel, published in 1585, was  La Galatea . Don Quixote  was publis...

My blog yesterday ended with some beautiful photos, indicating that these were sent to me by, for me, a relatively new informant, Gan Jing World.  Before I go into this mysterious organization, though, first, a question.  Do you want to be a billionaire? Turns out that the jackpot for the Powerball drawing tonight at 10:59 PM EDT is up to $1.8 billion. This is the second-highest grand prize in history, to the $2.04 billion jackpot won in November 2022. By the way, there is also Mega Millions, which had a $1.602 jackpot in August 2023.  Costs $5/ticket. But back to Powerball, say you match all five numbers.  Are you then a billionaire? Nope.  You have two options. Take a one-time cash payment, and while that is $1.8 billion, for the moment you are a billionaire.  However, the way this works, you only get $826.4 billion. Or, take 29 annual payments to get the full $1.8 billion.  But you still need to pay taxes and wait for 29 years to get it all. Either ...