MY GREATEST SUPER BOWL TAILGATE EVER

First, a refresher on what you should absolutely avoid if you have not been vaccinated and boosted.  But for those who got all those recommend dosages, even if you catch COVID-19, the odds are very, very high that your symptoms will only fall between a weak flu and a cold.  

Or, you could be one of the 40% or so who will show no symptoms.  

• As of late last year, it looked like the asymptomatic rate of this virus was 40.5%.  
• This rate for the seasonal flu is said to be around 33%.
• One study showed the asymptomatic rate of the common cold was 60%
• You need to be careful with venereal diseases, for the asymptomatic rate is around 66%.

So to continue, here are where you are most likely to become a statistic of this pandemic:

• Crowded and poorly ventilated sport or entertainment theater:
• If no one is wearing a mask and are talking = 54%.
• Everyone is wearing a mask and there is some talking = 24%
• If everyone is wearing a mask and there is no talking = 5%.
• Speaking loudly can increase the spread by a factor of 50, while singing can raise this impact to 99 times more.
• Of course, some venues require completed vaccination or negative test for entering.  I don't think this measure was taken for any of these above examples.
• 
  A poorly ventilated room with no mask-wearing and people doing heavy exercising = 99%!
• Avoid indoor events and activities with shouting, singing and heavy exercise.
• Gregarious people are more dangerous than wallflowers.
• Avoid karoake rooms.

• 
  Churches are too often the cause of superspreading.  Religious organizations tend to support vaccine mandates, but there are exceptions:

In Northern California, the pastor of a megachurch hands out religious exemption forms to the faithful. A New Mexico state senator will "help you articulate a religious exemption" by pointing to the decades-old use of aborted fetal cells in the development of some vaccines. And a Texas-based evangelist offers exemption letters to anyone — for a suggested "donation" starting at $25.

• 
  Until herd immunity reinforced by boosters is reached, superspreading events will continue to cause epidemics.

• There is always an uptick in new cases a week or two after holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• One international business conference in Massachusetts led to 90 cases, leading to spread of 20,000 infections.
• Ten percent of certain indoor locations account for 80% of infections.
• 
  I continue to be astonished that capacity crowds at indoor stadia for basketball, hockey and football have not spread the Omicron variant.  Hardly anyone is wearing a mask to these events, and there is a whole lot of cheering, loudly.  Maybe this is because no one is conducting a comprehensive study.

Finally, from the New York Times this morning:

So on to the subject of the day, for there was a time when I went to college football games, where tailgating was a good part of the fun.  In the past I frequently hosted Super Bowl parties, but at home.  More recently, my 15 Craigside apartment has been the site of special meals, where I'm usually alone.  I still call this tailgating.

This weekend was special because today is Valentine's Day, providing a reason for complementing the celebration.   Over the past couple of days I explained why the theme of my football meal was linked to Louisiana, where the state colors are purple, green and gold.  LSU, for example uses two of those three, and Tulane the green.

So of course I started with a purple martini accompanied by green olives stuffed with blue cheese.  Even the onion was purple.  Too bad the cheese was not cheddar.

Where did that purple come from?  Empress 1908 Gin from Canada uses 8 botanicals, one being butterfly peas blossom.

The Popeye in the restaurant name is not from the comic strip character.  The inspiration was Jimmy Popeye Doyle, the Gene Hackman character in The French Connection, a film Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave a 97 rating.  The orange color matched well the uniform of the Cincinnati Bengals, which barely lost.  Last year I won the 15 Craigside Super Bowl pool.  This year I tied for first, with three others.

I splurged on a Stanford Collection Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon, a rather expensive wine from St. Helena in Napa Valley.

For an early Valentine's dinner, we took it to the limit.  I don't think I have ever had both o-toro and chu-toro sashimi on the same dish, with Japanese wagyu steak, myoga, hot sake, cold Kirin beer and that same Stanford Cab.

Happy Valentine's Day.

-