MORE HODGE PODGE

 As of today:

I don't see the USA, but the CDC reports that 208,564,894 have been fully vaccinated, or 63%.  Vermont leads with 78% and Hawaii is #6 with 76%.

Comparing regions, note that Asia had the highest Delta wave, but Europe is suffering more from the Omicron variant (seven day moving average of new cases per day):

Don't tell Republicans (states like Alabama and Texas have banned such a thing), but a national digital vaccine card has emerged.  It's known as the SMART Health Card, is voluntary, with minimal personal information--name date of birth plus dates and brands of vaccination doses--but using a QR code, can get you into venues requiring proof of vaccination.  It is available from more than 400 sources.  How to get yours?  Click here.

For further details:

• Only thirteen states so far, including Hawaii.
• Canada.
• CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Walmart.
• 427 issuers.

A couple of days ago, when the USA had more than 400,000 new cases and about a thousand new deaths, China had 165 new cases and no new deaths.  Nevertheless, they locked down a third city, mandating, now, 20 million to stay at home.

In Zhengzhou, a city of 12.6 million, a Ms Wang posted on her WeChat platform that four days ago she got locked down with her blind date after visiting his house for a meal.  Said she was getting old, her parents arranged more than 10 blind dates, and on her fifth one, they learned they could not leave that home.  She said, the situation was not ideal.  He does cook well, but doesn't speak much.

We're past the middle of January and there remains a lot of uncertainty about the Academy Awards this year.  The first one was held in 1929, and the past two have been subdued with no host.  Who even remembers that the Best Picture last year was Nomadland.  That was a bleak movie.  The South Korean film, Parasite was the previous year's best.

What do we know about the 94th?

• Who will be host?  The favorite at this time is Spider-Man Tom Holland.  Did you know he is British?

• 
  When?  March 27, on ABC.
• Where?  Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
• When will the nominees be announced?  The morning of February 8.
• How many categories?  23.  I shouldn't do this, but there are some finalists in some of them.  Original songs being considered (how many do you know?):

“So May We Start?” from “Annette”
“Down To Joy” from “Belfast”
“Right Where I Belong” from “Brian Wilson: Long Promised Road”
“Automatic Woman” from “Bruised”
“Dream Girl” from “Cinderella”

“Beyond The Shore” from “CODA”

“The Anonymous Ones” from “Dear Evan Hansen”

“Just Look Up” from “Don’t Look Up”
“Dos Oruguitas” from “Encanto”
“Somehow You Do” from “Four Good Days”

“Guns Go Bang” from “The Harder They Fall”

“Be Alive” from “King Richard”

“No Time To Die” from “No Time to Die”
“Here I Am (Singing My Way Home)” from “Respect”
“Your Song Saved My Life” from “Sing 2”

• Here are the films being considered:

“Belfast” (Rotten Tomatoes 87/91)
“Dune” (RT 83/90)
“Last Night in Soho”  (RT 75/90)
“The Matrix Resurrections” (RT 63/63)
“No Time to Die” (RT 83/88)
“The Power of the Dog”  (RT 94/83)
“A Quiet Place Part II”  (RT 91/92)
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”  (RT 93/98)
“tick, tick...BOOM!”  (RT  88/96)
“West Side Story”  (RT 92/94)

There was a time when I went to two films almost every weekend, usually at the Ward Theaters, with lunch at Buca, Rinka or Merriman's.  I would have seen most of the above, but probably not A Quiet Place II because I walked out of AQPone, nor The Matrix Resurrections because hated the previous ones and Spider-Man, 'cause I avoid comic book features.  

The original West Side Story, incidentally, got 93/84 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.  That was 60 years ago.

Thinking about traveling?  Alan Fox of Vacations To Go (must be rich, for he donated $2 million to Wake Forrest football) offered the following:

On December 26, news outlets reported that a ship sailing in the Caribbean had 55 cases of Covid onboard. Four days later, on December 30, the CDC raised their warning against cruise travel to level four, their highest level.

Apparently not taken into consideration by the CDC was the fact that 55 cases represented 1.1% of the 5,000 people on board and that almost all were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.

Compare that to positive Covid cases for all of America, which numbered 4,573,183 in the 7 days ended January 7. Based on the current US population of 329 million people, that means that 1.4% of everyone in America tested positive that week.

And the 1.4% positive rate for everyone in America is vastly understated as many Covid carriers are asymptomatic and don't get tested. Many others take their tests at home due to long lines and the shortage of tests in many testing locations. Neither of these categories of Covid carriers, both of which are huge categories, are counted in the 1.4%, meaning the actual number of Americans infected with Covid was much higher.

Alan Fox
Executive Chairman
Vacations To Go
5851 San Felipe Street, Suite 500
Houston, TX 77057

The CDC also warns you not to travel to these countries.

Level 4: COVID-19 Very High

Avoid travel to these destinations. If you must travel to these destinations, make sure you are fully vaccinated before travel.

• Andorra
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Aruba
• Austria
• Barbados
• Belgium
• Belize
• Bonaire
• Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Botswana
• Bulgaria
• Burkina Faso
• Burma (Myanmar)
• Canada
• Cayman Islands
• Central African Republic
• Chad
• Croatia
• Curaçao
• Cyprus
• Czech Republic
• Denmark
• Dominica
• Estonia
• Eswatini
• Faroe Islands
• Finland
• France
• Georgia
• Germany
• Gibraltar
• Greece
• Greenland
• Guernsey
• Haiti
• Hungary
• Iceland
• Iraq
• Ireland
• Isle of Man
• Italy
• Jersey (part of the UK)
• Jordan
• Latvia
• Lebanon
• Liechtenstein
• Lithuania
• Luxembourg
• Malawi
• Maldives
• Malta
• Martinique
• Mauritius
• Monaco
• Montenegro
• Mozambique
• Namibia
• Netherlands, The
• North Macedonia
• Norway
• Papua New Guinea
• Poland
• Portugal
• Réunion
• Russia
• San Marino
• Saudi Arabia
• Serbia
• Seychelles
• Slovakia
• Slovenia
• Somalia
• South Africa
• South Sudan
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• Trinidad and Tobago
• Turkey
• Ukraine
• United Kingdom

China is safe.  And that's about it.  But forget trying to get in, even for the Winter Olympics.  Not close to totally opening up.

Whatever you do, don't go to the USA and Europe.  No kidding!  While not listed above, the USA is at Level 4.   You know what is scary?  We were supposed to board the Island Princess on our global cruise in two days from San Pedro.  Fortunately, Princess cancelled that cruise.

According to this notice from Norwegian Cruise Line, they now require 100% of guests and crew to be fully vaccinated.  Something to consider if you want to travel.  Norwegian begins the 7-day Hawaii cruise in March.  Or more details here.

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Want to attend Stanford University?  Go to these high schools.

What high schools feed the most students to Stanford?  One site listed :

• Menlo School (last year 18 kids)
• Phillips Exeter
• Phillips Andover
• Harvard Westlake 
• Thomas Jefferson HS
• Lawrenceville
• St Paul's
• University (San Francisco)
• College Prep School (Oakland, CA)- 4-5 per year
• Albuquerque Academy
• Hockaday (Texas)

Various comments indicated these are expensive private schools.  Another said, while they weren't listed, two public high schools in Palo Alto probably sent more because many Stanford professors send their children there.  

Then there are schools where getting into Stanford is essentially impossible.  I went to McKinley High School in Honolulu, and I don't know of anyone else from there who went to Stanford as a freshman.  And that was 64 years ago when I got accepted.  But then, I didn't check.

Amy Schneider is now in third place in consecutive Jeopardy wins, overtaking James Holzhauer's 32-game streak.  Only five to go to pass Matt Amodio's 38 wins.  Current host Ken Jennings had a 74 game winning streak in 2004.  Schneider so far has total winnings of $1,111,800, leaving her still in fourth place.  She is on Jeopardy later this afternoon.

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