THE GLORY OF GEORGIA

From Worldometer:

        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

          14       970     6075           716       694       123

          20       952     6169           662       714       164

          21     1225     6849            571       703         85

          22       973     6470           503       683       102

          23       903     6526          566       656        48

          27     1039      7023          530       519         45

          28     1030      7116          487       509         58

          29     1047      7172          565       568         53

          30      988      7513          529       550         66

Nov     4      1199       8192          276       511         74

            5      1201      9067          622       704         46

Summary:   From The New York Times this morning:

The U.S. recorded more than 121,000 new virus cases yesterday, breaking the record of 100,000 from a day earlier. The resurgence is not confined to any one part of the country: 23 states have recorded more cases in the past week than in any other seven-day stretch

A great day for the USA and Joe Biden.  He will be declared the President-Elect today.  For me, this wasn't a victory, but a kind of relief.  The hero in all this is the State of Georgia:

• Amazingly enough, Biden edged Trump in total votes.  This will go to a recount, but it doesn't really matter what happens because Pennsylvania eliminated Trump.
• The more important recount has to do with the Senate races:
• For sure current Republican Kelly Loeffler will have a runoff against Democrat Raphael Warnock.

• 
  But it is looking like incumbent Republican David Perdue (left) will get just a shade below 50% of the votes against Democrat challenger Jon Ossoff, meaning this race, too, will need to have a runoff.

• 
  As it currently stands, Republicans have 50 and Democrats have 48 in the U.S. Senate.
• Two Democrats will make VP Kamala Harris the tie-breaking vote on anything that happens in the Senate.
• Can you imagine who the Democrats will send to Georgia over the next two months until the vote on 5 January 2021:
• President Joe Biden, VP Kamala Harris, Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, etc.
• Mega bucks from Michael Bloomberg and others.

• 
  Who will the Republicans send to help?
• Surely not Donald Trump.  Probably Mitch McConnell, but he might actually hurt the Republican's cause.  What he has to do is tell Trump to retire gracefully.  Ivanka and her husband just will not be able to do much.  Maybe someone can reason with him to leave without too much fuss, but run again in 2024.  He will "only" be 76.  Biden will be 78 later this month.

• 
  Defense Secretary Mark Esper was close to actually resigning on Wednesday, but got talked into staying, probably by his generals, active and retired.  Better off he not doing anything rash for Trump in reaction to the loss than someone else he puts into the slot who will do anything.

About the State of Georgia, here are a few things of interest:

• It is one of the 13 original colonies.
• Named for King George II.
• It is the largest state east of the Mississippi River.  You would think that Michigan, Wisconsin and Florida should be bigger, but this statement has something to do with lakes and stuff.

• 
  Has the oldest state park in the nation.
• The University of Georgia in 1785 became the first state-supported university.
• Wesleyan College in Macon was the first college in the world chartered to grant degrees to women.
• The Okefenokee in south Georgia is the largest swamp in North America.
• Elberton is the Granite Capital of the World.

• 
  The sculpture on the face of Stone Mountain (Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Generals Stonewar Jackson and Robert E. Lee) is the largest in the world.  With the recent reaction about confederate statues...

• 
  John Pemberton of this state formulated Coke.
• CNN headquarters in Atlanta.
• Nation's top producer of peanuts, pecans, peaches and Vidalia onions.
• Claims to be the chicken and watermelon capitals of the world.

• 
  Hogzilla, the largest wild hog, over 1000 pounds and 12 feet long. was killed in Alapaha, Georgia.
• Fort Benning is the largest infantry training center in the world.
• In 1945 it became the first state to lower the legal voting age to 18.

• 
  Martin Luther King Jr., Pirate Blackbeard, Jackie Robinson, Kanye West, Hulk Hogan and Spike Lee come from this state. 
• Has both the largest aquarium and busiest airport in the world.
• The Master's Golf Tournament begins this year on November 12.

I've have been to Georgia only once, after I earned my PhD in 1972 and drove from Baton Rouge up to New York, then across the country to San Francisco.  In Atlanta, my wife, her parents and I went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game against the New York Mets on August 8.  The Braves lost 6-13, but the reason why I remembered is that we were sitting in the top section of the right field line when the stadium was the shape of a toroid (circular).  A foul ball came bouncing in our general direction and, amazingly enough, with all the people around, my wife got the ball.  She gave it to her father, who was a pitcher in his youth.  This became his most prized possession.

Interesting that 93% of the 376 counties with the current highest number of new case/capita are those that voted for Donald Trump.  Says a lot about negligence with mask-wearing!

Can't leave without the latest Hitler Rants parody, this one about Trump losing the presidential election.  This is a must see.  On October 28 Hitler explained why Trump would win.

The finalists for my favorite song #54 are from Glenn Miller:

• In the Mood
• Moonlight Serenade

Alton Glenn Miller was born in 1904 and disappeared on 15 December 1944 over the English Channel flying to Paris.  He bought his first trombone from milking cows in Missouri.  Family moved to Colorado, where in 1920 he was named the best high school left end (football) in the state.  He entered the University of Colorado in 1923, and while there composed Moonlight Serenade.  He dropped out of school to pursue a music career.  One of his early songs was co-written with Benny Goodman.

In 1928 he moved to New York and became a member of Red Nichol's orchestra.  That year he was in the Broadway pit, with Goodman and Gene Krupa, for Irving Berlin's Strike Up the Band (which became the film in 1940) and George Gershwin's Girl Crazy.

In 1928 he was in the All-Star Orchestra with Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman.  In the early to mid 1930's he worked with The Dorsey Brothers.  He formed his first band in 1937.  According to Goodman:

In late 1937, before his band became popular, we were both playing in Dallas. Glenn was pretty dejected and came to see me. He asked, "What do you do? How do you make it?" I said, "I don't know, Glenn. You just stay with it."^[29]

Miller was regularly criticized for being too commercial.  But his response was, I don't want a jazz band.  He discovered a popular formula and stuck with it.

What Miller did was develop a unique sound and tone that differentiated his music from other bands.  He compared it to Japanese Gagaku and Hindu purity.

From 1939 to 1942 he performed for Chesterfield cigarettes on CBS radio, and his team included people like the Andrews Sisters, Tex Beneke, the Modernizes, Ray Ederle and Kay Starr.  He signed up for three films, completing Sun Valley Serenade (this is the whole movie--RT: 84 audience) and Orchestra Wives (again, the whole flick--RT: 81), but volunteered into the U.S. Army before the third.

So in 1942 he gave up the equivalent of $300,000/year in 2020 dollars to join the war effort.  He was turned down by the Navy for being too old.  He talked the Army into hiring him to form a modern U.S. Army Band.  His final performance was on 27 September 1942 playing Jukebox Saturday Night, featuring Harry James on the trumpet.  He went in a captain and was soon promoted to major

But danger surrounded him in England.  A V-1 flying bomb demolished his office in Bedford, killing 70 of his officemates.  He survived, but on 15 December 1944, a single-engine UC-64 Norseman he was on departed from the outskirts of Bedford for Paris.  The probable cause, reported in 2014, was the carburetor, which was known to ice up in cold weather.  One conspiracy theory is that he was sent by General Dwight Eisenhower to negotiate a peace deal with Nazi Germany.

After the war, his ghost band was led by Tex Beneke.  The band's pianist was Henry Mancini.  But there was a lot of controversy about this effort from Miller's family.

The Glenn Miller Story with James Stewart was released in 1953.  Rotten Tomatoes gave it 88/80 ratings.  BBC Radio aired The Real Glenn Miller Story.  Watch this 56-minute program.

Of course Moonlight Serenade, Glenn Miller's theme song, and first effort at composing, is my song #54. This was almost always the last song played at a dance in my early days, and occupies a soft spot in my heart.

Remember when Gangnam Style from South Korea had the most number of views on You Tube?  Then it was overtaken by Despacito.  Well, there is a new #1, also from South Korea:

‘Baby Shark’ breaks records

The most-viewed YouTube video in history, as of this week, is a two-minute ode to a family of sharks. With nearly 7.1 billion views, the catchy children’s song “Baby Shark” broke the three yearlong run at No. 1 for the 2017 single “Despacito.” The song created an empire for its producer, the South Korean educational brand Pinkfong, that includes merchandise, a live touring show and an upcoming Nickelodeon TV series.

What's happening?

Repetition is one reason. Children do not get tired of watching the same video over and over. Four of the top 10 most watched YouTube videos are children’s programming. And last year, the highest earning YouTuber was 9-year-old Ryan Kaji (real last name is Guan, and the family lives in Texas), who reviews new toys and games on his channel. He earned $26 million in 2019, Forbes reported.

“YouTube is the most popular babysitter in the world,” the C.E.O. of a management company focused on digital stars said in 2019. The pandemic has likely exacerbated this, with many families spending more time at home.

Finally, the NFL will have an interesting matchup of Kyler Murray (Arizona Cardinals) versus Tua Tagovailoa (Miami Dolphins) on Sunday.  Was Tua's game last weekend the real him...or not?  Murray beat out Tagovailoa for the Heisman Trophy.

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