SUPER BOWL SUNDAY

Super Bowl Sunday is a wonderful day for me. No politics, ignore the pandemic and be somewhat pious. So I will start with comedy. Sure, that was an atheist, but it was funny.

So let me balance this near blasphemy with the most popular religious song in history. According to this source, it is Amazing Grace, by John Newton. Absolutely beautiful. Watch it.

But the voice sounded female? I searched and found this John Newton film, one hour and twenty minutes long, called, The True Story of Amazing Grace (the whole movie). I checked Rotten Tomatoes, and there was only one film called Amazing Grace, and reviewers only gave it a 26 rating. Benedict Cumberbatch and Albert Finney star, and TTSOAG did not have them. Plus, AG was almost two hour long.

So went to Wikipedia, and found out that John Newton was born nearly 300 years ago in London, first worked on slave ships, and himself became a slave, of Princess Peye of the Sherbro People (now Sierra Leone in Africa). Newton escaped and became Captain of several slave ships. But then he converted and became a Church of England cleric. While doing that, he wrote Amazing Grace, here sung by Aretha Franklin. She won a Grammy for this performance.

Some wonder: Which is more popular, watching an NFL game on TV or going to church? Not sure why that survey in the pie chart to the right, for most Americans go to church Sunday morning.

Found an article that indicated most NFL games draw 25 million or so on Sundays, while 125 million Americans go to church. But the writer indicated that he thinks that number is closer to 93.7 million. Church membership has declined. From Gallup:

But 50% of what, and of that, how many actually bother with Sunday services? Again went to Wikipedia, and saw that Gallup reported in 2013 only 39% of Americans actually went to church on Sundays. The graph above indicated that in 2013 the membership was 59%. In other words, if you do the mathematics, 107 million Americans probably go weekly to church.

But Super Bowl Sunday is different. Some churches organize Super Bowl parties. However, this Sunday falls during a pandemic, services are not the same anymore. Ironic that the Supreme Court on Friday relaxed restrictions to church going.

In any case, as 100 million watch the Super Bowl and 100 million go to church on Sundays, so it is a tie in typical years. Actually, it doesn't matter much because most attend services in the morning, and the Super Bowl will begin at 6:30PM EST, or 3:30PM on the west coast. Anyone can do both on the same day. But in 2021 the Super Bowl will dominate because of the pandemic.

My cuisine choice of the day started with fruits and yogurt. I have been preparing for this day well. Before the pandemic, my weight ranged from 160-165 pounds. A month ago, the diet I used (mostly vegetables, no snacks, no desserts) dropped me to 155 pounds. Then a month ago 154, two weeks ago 153 and the other day, 152.4. I have not been that low for a third of a century.

So I settled on super snacks, to enjoy without guilt foods I've been bypassing:

Brunch: hot dog fried in wagyu fat, placing both on a bun. Add mustard, catsup and hot sauce, with cut onions. Might have some potato chips, plus a Kosher dill and Mezzetto hot peppers. Beer and chardonnay.
Halftime: wagyu beef sandwich, with a beer and red wine I have not yet selected.

Early evening: artichoke and Portuguese sausage pizza, plus boiled peanuts.

I've been experimenting with the peanuts.
Usually I add salt and something else, like li hing mui powder.
I decided this time to add nothing in the boiling process, where it's important to carefully make sure that the peanut itself is al dente.
I will then split the batch into four servings and freeze three bags.
To the fourth, I plan to add some vinegar, salt and truffle oil.
Microwave.
When I consume the others I will try out different flavor options.

Photos tomorrow.

Finally, my choice in this battle of the ages: 25-year old Patrick Mahomes against 43-year old Tom Brady. I'll be wearing red and gold, for anyone who wears a MAGA hat doesn't deserve my support. Unfortunately, the Bucs also use red and gold, but they do add black.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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