HAVE YOU EVER HAD FUGU?

  From Worldometer (new  COVID-19 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    25     2304    12025        620         518      118

Dec    30      3880    14748      1224        299      465

Jan     14     4142    15512       1151        189      712              

Feb      3       4005    14265       1209       107      398

          25       2414    10578        1582       119      144

Mar     2        1989     9490        1726        110      194

          17        1289     9736        2736       171       74

          24          936   10206        3158       277       55

          25        1405   10470        2244       249     121

          26        1165   10331        2639        257    163

          30          873   10854        3668        355      78

          31         1115   12301         3950       458      58

April   6           906   11787         4211        631       37

           7          873   12996         3733        684      79

         13          819   12848         3687       1026      68

         14          921   13550         3462       1037      75

Summary:   The pandemic is lingering.

From the New York Times this morning:

Coinbase went public on the Nasdaq stock exchange, the first major cryptocurrency company to do so.

Muldrow Glacier in Alaska is experiencing a rare phenomenon: It’s flowing 100 times faster than normal.

Bernie Madoff, the architect of a $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme, has died in prison at 82.

Someone sent me this You Tube piece on the puffer fish, or fugu.  

My first experience thirty years ago in Kita-Kyushu involved consuming two fugu testicles.  Click on that link to learn why,  Soon thereafter, for two years, I was at my creative best, with the Blue Revolution being one of the products.

In 2018 I was asked to give a talk on hydrogen at Kyushu University.  They paid for the trip, business class, and provided a requested fugu dinner.  I again had two testicles.  However, no brilliance returned.

At one time in the past deaths were into three digits annually from fugu poisoning, especially from the liver.  Yet, the cuisine experience was very expensive.  Most of the current deaths come from fishermen who catch the fish and ill-prepare it for friends and family.  Today, safe fugus are farmed and there are chains serving the full course for a relatively cheap price.

One is Torafugu-Tei.  I went there seven years ago and ate THREE fugu testicles, hoping that my imagination would be enhanced.  No such luck.

To quote from that posting:

Imagine a squashed golf ball, almost crisp on the outside and a high viscosity liquid inside.  Mine was grilled and, while you dip them in a soy/lime sauce, the interior remains almost scalding hot, and has the consistency of heavy cream with a salty taste...after all, this is mostly...gasp...sperms.  Three balls.  At this point I think the top of my mouth felt tingly.

The whole meal cost $85, including beer and sochu.  More so, they served so much food that two people could have shared this.  Nearly a quarter century before, just one gonad cost $75.

After dinner, I walked back to the Tokyo Westin, went to Compass Rose, where they keep a bottle of my 20-year old Yoichi whisky, which I had with a Ghurka cognac-infused cigar while viewing Tokyo Tower.

On my next stop in Tokyo I'll need to finish off the bottle because that could well be my final chance.

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