SEPTEMBER 3 IS NATIONAL CINEMA DAY

Sometimes a national day can provide free goodies. Well, today is National Cinema Day, and perhaps 30,000 theater screens across the nation are only charging $3 for a seat. Here is the National Cinema Day websight to find your cheap ticket. Read this article indicating that AMC and Regal Cinemas are most likely to participate. AMC and Cinemark also offer food deals, as for example, AMC has a $5 food/popcorn combo.

Unfortunately, Hawaii has no AMCs. We do have Regal, Cinemark and Marcus. Also our Consolidated theaters are participating, all day on this Saturday. Plus, they will sell you popcorn and soda of any size for $3.

Otherwise, for those who like to stay home, here are 28 films you can watch on your Amazon Prime Channel and 44 from Netflix.

I just saw The Lost City and Licorice Pizza, free on Prime. Want a show with stars? TLC has Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum as criss-crossing partners, escaping from Daniel Radcliffe's billionaire villain, with Brad Pitt playing a long savior cameo role, something he must have created in his mind throughout his career, and talked someone into allowing him to play it in TLC. Pitt was probably the highlight of a production that got okay 79/83 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. I liked the film, although there was a sense that I have seen a half dozen productions similar to it. There will of course be a sequel.

LP got a rave 91 score from Rotten Tomatoes reviewers, but only 65 from the audience. I kind of understand why, as I almost dropped out several times, but did finish it. The two main characters, a super-experienced 15-year old high school male and a high-twenties average female, are ably supported by Sean Penn playing an aging William Holden, the actor, while Bradley Cooper is dominant as Jon Peters, then husband of Barbra Streisand. The setting and accompanying music reflect USA 1973. Maya Rudolf makes an appearance.

I might add a Prime series I have not yet begun to watch, Paper Girls. About four 12-year old newspaper delivery girls who, seeking a stolen walkie-talkie, stumble across a time machine being used by warring teenage mutant aliens in time travel. Is a somewhat comedic coming of age sci-fi adventure. A well-worn theme of the past being changed for the good of the future. Just premiered this summer. Got excellent 90/88 ratings from Rotten Tomatoes. There will be a second season.

I'll close with a documentary from Netflix, Barbra: The Music...The Mem'ries...The Magic!, which got a Rotten Tomatoes audience rating of 100%. Essentially a 2016 concert tour stop in Miami when she was 74. Billboard ranks her as the greatest female artist on their chart. Plus two Academy Awards, five Emmy Awards, nine Golden Globes and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Typhoon Hinnamnor looks to thread the path between South Korea and Japan around midweek, meaning that Cheju Island will be seriously impacted:

Hinnamnor is approaching some warm waters, and could still today or tomorrow strengthen into a Category 5.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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