BELMONT JEWEL and UFOs???

I've previously featured Mint Julep from the Kentucky Derby and Black-Eyed Susan from the Preakness Stakes.  Tomorrow is the final race of the Triple Crown.  The drink of the Belmont Stakes is the Belmont Jewel:

1.5 oz Woodford Reserve®
2 oz Lemonade
1 oz Pomegranate Juice
Orange Zest
Shake vigorously with ice and serve in a rocks glass with ice. Garnish with a lemon.

In case you didn't know, Grenadine is made from pomegranate juice, and is sometimes mentioned as the ingredient in this drink.

Wait a minute, I searched further, and this source said that The Belmont Crown was the official drink:

• Peach Orange Ketel One Botanical Vodka
• Elderflower
• Grapefruit Sour
• Pressed Lemon
• Sparkling water

What is elderflower?  Sure, it's a flower, but apparently it is also brewed into a kind of cordial, with or without alcohol.  But I went to other sources, and they all sided with the Belmont Jewel.  So I'll skip the Belmont Crown.

What is the cuisine of the Belmont Stakes?  This is a big deal, for they hire 1300 staffers to work with 80 visiting managers and chefs from around the country.  There will be 725 sale locations.  Basically, they serve everything, including hot dog, pizza, pretzel, hamburgers, cheesesteaks and so forth.  But also things like:

• 
  Arepas (right) corn flatbread from South America.
• Belmont beef tenderloin (in a fancy sandwich).
• Belmont charcuterie (like a sausages in bun and stuff)

• 
  Bacon bourbon caramel popcorn (right).  I bought the ingredients and will attempt to make this tomorrow.
• American farro salad of tomato, feta cheese, cucumber and basil.
• Manja pasta ...or spaghetti and meatballs, with Pecorino Romano cheese.
• Roasted chickpea and tomato salad, with a Middle Eastern flair.

The Belmont Stakes itself is a sidelight, but Essential Quality, who was the Kentucky Derby favorite, but finished fourth, is again the favorite at 2:1  Also prominent is Rombauer at 3:1, who won the Preakness.  No Bob Baffert horse, for he is currently under investigation.  This the longest of the three races, so stamina will make a difference.  Post time is 6:49PM EDT.  There will be rain on Friday, but Saturday is expected be mostly clear with a high of 82 F.

Japan is what it is because of how children are schooled:

But one shortcoming is that individuality is compromised. Here is an article that talks about 25 kids that made $1 million before graduating from high school.  None is from Japan.

Then there is 9-year old Ryan Kaji.  However he is only half Japanese, from his father, and half Vietnamese, from his mother.  But he grew up in the USA, and started Ryan's World at the age of 3, and, using You Tube, is now worth $50 million.

Jeffrey Preston Bezos, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, at the age of 16 was a fry cook at MacDonalds.  He became the richest man in the world.  Jack Ma?  He failed the entrance exam at the Hangzhou Teacher's Institute, and got rejected by Harvard's business school 10 times....TEN TIMES, which shows he has something called persistence.  He founded the Chinese version of Amazon, known as Alibaba.  However, Ma is only worth around $50 billion.  Bezos is approaching $300 billion.

Oh, got to add one more bit of news.  The Pentagon finally released its UFO report.  No evidence of aliens...but did not say the various sightings were definitely not...whatever that means.  They looked at 120 incidents over the past 20 years.

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