DOLLY PARTON

                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

Mar     2        1989      9490       1726       110      194

April   6         906     11787         4211        631       37

May    4         853     13667         3025     3786      59 

June    1         287     10637        2346      3205      95

July     7         251      8440         1595        817      411

Aug    4         656    10120         1118         532      423

Sept    1       1480   10470           703        505      235

Summary:

• Oh my, the USA had 184,420 new cases yesterday.
• #2 was India with 45,971.
• Hawaii had 455 new cases, but 13 new deaths.  Got to be the highest ever.  The entire U.S. military only had 6 new deaths.
• Texas was worse with 24,030 new cases and 325 new deaths.
• The new deaths in Texas/million was 11.  Hawaii?  9.

From the New York Times, this Delta variant seems to have an effective lifetime of two months:

From the NYT  this morning:

• Doug Ducey, Arizona’s Republican governor, banned mask mandates in schools. Now some students are sick, and parents are angry.
• 
  The podcaster Joe Rogan, who has been critical of vaccination, tested positive. He said he had taken ivermectin, a veterinary deworming drug that experts consider unsafe.

Dolly Parton, singer and humanitarian is 75 years old.  Read this:

Good for Dolly Parton!!

Dolly Parton's lasting legacy... 

In 1990, the high school dropout rate for Dolly Parton's hometown of Sevierville Tennessee was at 34%. 

Research shows that most kids make up their minds in fifth/sixth grade not to graduate.

That year, all fifth and sixth graders from Sevierville were invited by Parton to attend an assembly at Dollywood.  They were asked to pick a buddy, and if both students completed high school, Dolly Parton would personally hand them each a $500 check on their graduation day.  As a result, the dropout rate for those classes fell to 6%, and has generally retained that average to this day. 

Shortly after the success of The Buddy Program, Parton learned in dealing with teachers from the school district that problems in education often begin during first grade when kids are at different developmental levels.

That year The Dollywood Foundation paid the salaries for additional teachers assistants in every first grade class for the next 2 years, under the agreement that if the program worked, the school system would effectively adopt and fund the program after the trial period.

During the same period, Parton founded the Imagination Library in 1995: The idea being that children from her rural hometown and low-income families often start school at a disadvantage and as a result, will be unfairly compared to their peers for the rest of their lives, effectively encouraging them not to pursue higher education.

The objective of the Imagination library was that every child in Sevier County would receive one book, every month, mailed and addressed to the child, from the day they were born until the day they started kindergarten, 100% free of charge.

What began as a hometown initiative now serves children in all 50 states, Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, mailing thousands of free books to children around the world monthly. 

On March 1, 2018 Parton donated her 100 millionth book at the Library of Congress: a copy of "Coat of Many Colors" dedicated to her father, who never learned to read or write.

I did walk the Ted Makelena Golf Course yesterday.  However, I skipped the 7-10th holes to have my apple lunch and contemplate nature.  On the way home I thought I'm sure my weight must have dropped, so at Marukai saw the most expensive blue-fin tuna price, an o-toro.

I've never seen fish at $90/pound before, so bought this piece.  How can I best complement this delicacy?  Well, 15 Craigside is in semi-lockdown, and they now deliver our meals to our apartment.  Today dinner was beef curry.  So, with hot sake, hot tea and cold Kirin beer, what a feast:

The 15C dinner also included a chocolate meringue pie, so I fried a small portion in butter and had this snack with a cup of milk.  I have avoided desserts for more than a year and a half now, but after golf my weight had dropped to 151.0, so I splurged.

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