The last day of 2020, and it's getting worse.   From  Worldometer  (new deaths 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     9     1208     6222        1136      1168        82 Oct     21     1225     6849          571       703        85 Nov     11     1479     10178        564       550        60            25     2304    12025         620       518      118 Dec       1      2611    11891         697       500      109            29     3398    13791       1075       285      497            30     3880    14748       1224       299      465 Summary:  Worst day ever for the USA, not only a record-breaking 3880 new deaths, but with an additional 234,550 new cases.  Next week should be even worse. All the information download for 2020 has been terrible.  Howev

As this pandemic has been so domineering, had to bring this table up to date:      From  Worldometer  (new deaths 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     9     1208     6222        1136      1168        82 Oct     21     1225     6849          571       703        85 Nov     11     1479     10178        564       550        60            25     2304    12025         620       518      118 Dec       1      2611    11891         697       500      109              9     3265    12342         848       337      142            10     3107    12932         769       487      173            11     3031    12401         652       440      205            14     2976    12635         909       384      210            16     3538    13535         968       357      16

Again, no Trump nor COVID-19, but I should comment on the Georgia Senate runoffs, with voting day being a week away on January 5.   About a third of the voters  have cast early ballots, similar to the general election.  Voters so far in Georgia   are 55 percent non-Hispanic white, 32 percent non-Hispanic Black and 13 percent of other races ( or of unknown race ) .   My early viewpoint was that both Republicans would win, and the betting odds then favored them.  Today, still the same, although there has been a small trend in the Democratic direction.  Still, the two Republicans ( with David Perdue even more so ) remain solid favorites in the -150 to +150 range, meaning 60% chance for the Republican candidate and 40% for Democrat candidate. Here are some of the latest odds from bookmakers across the globe, as betting on elections is not allowed within the United States at legal wagering outlets. There is an exception domestically for sites such as   PredictIt , which are exempted by the

I'm trying to avoid Trump and COVID-19 for the rest of the year.  I saw two films and started watching two Netflix series rated 100% by Rotten Tomatoes:                                           ROTTEN TOMATOES                                             Reviewers   Audiences         My Grade Ma Rainey's Black Bottom         99           80                    C+ Midnight Sky                                54           25                     B Travelers                                     100           97                      B+ The Uncanny Counter                 ?          100                      B- I won't say much about each so you can yourself assess the productions.  Plus, I only saw one episode each of those two series. With such high ratings by Rotten Tomatoes, I'm somewhat shocked that I just did not enjoy Ma Rainey's Black Bottom .  The acting was superb.  But the whole movie was one-dimensional in many ways.   Viola Davis was commanding as Ma, the female

A Profound Mystery is not a song.  Tried You Tube and found one video on the subject .  However, not worth your while to click on it.  No dictionary even defines Profound Myster y, but that is because it only does this for an individual word.  Appropriately enough, as this is Sunday, most of the reference to this term comes from religious sources. God is a Profound Mystery.  So is the Big Bang.  Experts dally around the term, but no one can pin down the reality or unreality. Similarly, I don't know why my favorite song is  Wakare No Isochidori .    It is distinctly possible that of the 7.6 billion people living on Planet Earth, I am the only person who has it as #1.  WNI is the only song that was written and first popular in Hawaii, then gained some fame in Japan.  When?  Not sure, but probably in the 1930's.   Here is a quote from a posting of a decade ago , when I traveled from Sapporo to Wakkanai, the northern most city on Japan: I was listening to some Japanese music on m

I grew up in my family, went to college and always had roommates, graduated and spent six months in Naalehu, mostly alone, then got married, until my wife passed away 47 years later.  I then lived a single life for five years, moving next door into 15 Craigside six years ago, joining 200 others in our seniors' community.  That pretty much sums up my 80 years.  I enjoyed the solitude, but feel comfortable around people. I'm now here at 15 Craigside for the rest of my life because they promised to take care of me forever, even if I run out of money.  Of course, the catch is that they only let you in if you can afford it, and make sure you never deplete your resources. Life here has been good...no, make that great.  We just got notified that our Moderna vaccination will come soon.  It is amazing that we have not had even one COVID-19 case among the 15 C residents.  In the USA, with less than 1% ( 0.8% ) of the national population,  45% of all pandemic deaths have occurred in nurs