A MILLION DOLLAR WINNER

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     3      1094    5886        830     1083       174
            9      1208    6222        1136      1168        82

Oct      8        957    6420        730       967       160

          21      1225     6849         571       703         85

Nov     4      1199      8192         276       511         74 

          11      1479    10178         564       550        60

          17      1615     10502       676       472        118

          18      1964     10970       754       587       124 

          19      2065     10758       644       584       115

          20      1999     11136       521       562         88

          23        972       7951       344       481         65

          24      2216     11742        638       489        115

          25      2304     12025      620       518        118

          30      1238       8291       317       482         58

Summary:  Well, things seem to be looking a lot better.  But let's wait until tomorrow, or maybe next week, to celebrate.

In the 20-year history of Who Wants to be a Millionaire, no celebrity had won a million dollars, until last night.  David Chang, cuisine personality, finally made it.  Did you know that Benjamin Harrison was the first president in the White House to have electricity?  As Chang is a celebrity, his charity, Southern Smoke Foundation for restaurant workers, gets the dough.

He was stumped on that final question, and called Mina Kimes, who works for ESPN.  While she must be pretty smart, having graduated from Yale, she actually was not sure, had two possible answers, but ran out of time to give the second, and wrong, answer.  Her mother is from Korea, as are David's parents, one from the North.  Alan Yang, an Emmy-winning director, was the lifeline.  He did well.  His parents came from Taiwan and he went to Harvard.  Keep up the good immigration.  Chang spent a goodly amount of time in Japan learning the craft, including at the Park Hyatt Hotel.  Maybe I met him, as I once mostly stayed there.

Chang is the founder of Momofuku in New York City and producer of the Netflix series called Ugly Delicious, which Rotten Tomatoes reviewers bestowed a 100 rating for both seasons.  I posted about him in June.

He has won seven James Beard awards.  Five of his sixteen restaurants around the world are among the Pellegrino 100 Best.

Good a time as any to mention the various cuisine series I am watching.  The first three, all on Netflix, including Ugly Delicious, were summarized in October.

• Midnight Diner  (5S S1 10e e9, 25 minutes long), 100/94
• The setting is a 12-seat Izakaya in Shinjuku, Tokyo.
• It's open only from midnight to 7AM.
• Customers are prostitutes, Yakuza, and simple folk who work at these hours.
• There is always a story that rivals the food.

• 
  After holding back for months, I finally had the courage to fix myself the The Master's most popular dish yesterday,  small amount of butter on hot rice.  I did enhance this bowl, though, with some ikura (salmon eggs).

• 
  Kaoru Kobayashi plays the chef, who prepares simple foods, but anything anyone would want if he has the ingredients.
• There have been two films:
• Midnight Diner (2014) 83
• Midnight Diner 2 (2016) 83

• 
  Samurai Gourmet (1S  98 12e e8)  
• 12 20-minute episodes
• Recently retired salaryman with nothing to do becomes a Japanese foodie.
• He is, in his mind, accompanied by a samurai, who shows him how brusqueness gets response.

• 
  But this salaryman (played by Naoto Takenaka), with an understanding wife, balances the team (with samurai) with his consideration.
• While the cuisine is a bit higher class than in Midnight Diner, there is a range.  With a goodly amount of imbibition.

• Also from Netflix, Taco Chronicles (2S, 13 total episodes, 30 min each, e2 100/94

• Mexican food, focusing on tacos.

• This is Mexico's favorite street food, but the variety is endless.
• The tacos actually came from the Mediterranean.
• What you get depends on where you are in Mexico.
• And there are now more than 7000 Taco Bells, first opened in 1962, and certainly not featured in this program.
• I've enhanced this dish into a bowl.

• James May Oh Cook!  (1S  100  e2) (Amazon Prime)
• He is not a cook, but a presenter.
• He owns cars:

 2005 Saab 9-5 Aero, Bentley T2, Rolls-Royce Phantom, Triumph 2000, Rover P6, Alfa Romeo 164, 1971 Rolls-Royce Corniche, Triumph Vitesse, Jaguar XJS, 1992 Range Rover Classic Vogue, Fiat Panda, Datsun 120Y, Vauxhall Cavalier Mk1, a Ferrari 308 GTB, Ferrari F430, Ferrari 458 Speciale, 1984 Porsche 911, 2005 Porsche Boxster S (which he claims is the first car he has ever purchased new).^[47] May currently owns a 2009 Porsche 911 Carrera S facelift, a 2014 BMW i3, a 2018 Alpine A110, a 2019 Tesla Model S 100D,^[48] a 2015 Toyota Mirai, a 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale which he ordered following his exit from Top Gear and the VW Beach Buggy used in The Grand Tour Special "The Beach Buggy Boys"

My song #27 is Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.  From the age of 5 to his death at 35, he composed more than 600 pieces of music.  You'd think, what a shame to have died so young.  People don't realize that the life expectancy around 1800 was only between 30 and 40, depending where you lived.  He actually had a full life, although never was very healthy (typhoid, rheumatism, gum disease, etc.), and his face was pitted from smallpox.  There are a hundred theories on how he died.  Similarly, ask a 100 experts and you might well get 100 different answers for Mozart's best.  So I've simplified the selection.

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