EGGS....and SMOKE GETS IN YOUR EYES

Okay, why are eggs so expensive? Actually, if the media did not inform me, I would not have noticed. However, the average person in the U.S. eats nearly an egg a day (278/year), and is troubled by a doubling of the price. From the New York Times this morning:

One reason is the price of feed:

But grain prices were higher a decade or so ago, and there was no effect on the cost of eggs then.

So what about avian flu? Yes, there were outbreaks last year, and 44 million egg-laying hens were killed. 43 million similar birds were sacrifice eight years ago, and the price of eggs did jump, but not quite as much now. Further, 44 million hens only account for 10% of all egg-layers.

Some might actually turn to alternatives, but eggs are eggs and can't really be substituted. Anyway, people today go shopping and barely notice a $5 item. We'll survive this crisis.

Oh, another piece of news. There are reports that 200,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded in the Ukraine war. President Vladimir Putin, on the 80th anniversary of their triumph in World War II, vowed that Russia will be victorious again.

However, Wikipedia shows lower numbers. Maybe when you add wounded this could be.

Changing the subject again, I've always liked Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. The song was written by Jerome Kern and Otto Harbach for the 1933 musical Roberta. The first recorded performance was by Gertrude Niesen (left), under the orchestral direction of Ray Sinatra, Frank's second cousin. The B-side was Jealousy, another of my favorite. Well, not this one. The song I remember was actually titled Jalousie, composed by Jacob Gade in 1925. The first hit recording of SGIYE, however, was by Paul Whiteman and his orchestra in 1934.

My all-time favorite is by Irene Dunne, who performed the song in the 1935 film Roberta, co-starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Randolph Scott. If you click on that, you can see the whole film, rated 86/66 by Rotten Tomatoes. Here, Dunne singing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes.

Lovely to Look At was a 1952 film remake, with Kathryn Grayson's Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. My second favorite.

Most remember the 1958 Smoke Gets in Your Eyes by the Platters, which hit #1. I used this version because it has the lyrics about what the song is all about. This second version shows them singing.

There have of course been numerous also popular renditions:

Benny Goodman Orchestra.
Glenn Miller recorded this song in 1944, but soon died in World War II, and this performance wasn't released until 1995.

Nat King Cole sang it.
Jo Stafford.
Blue Haze in 1972.

By now you know that the the so-called greatest of all-time Tom Brady finally retired from football as the oldest starting quarterback at the age of 45. Well, there is a new film, 80 for Brady, with his participation, and starring Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda, Sally Field and Rita Moreno. Their combined age is 335. Now you know the reason for the title. Rotten Tomatoes reviewers did not like it, giving it 64%, but audiences scored it at 88%. Good preparation for the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 12.

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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