A DOG, A HORSE, TWO CHINESE CHESS CHAMPS AND EUROVISION

What is a PBGV? One of 210 dog breeds, Petit Basset Graffon Vendéen, competing at the Westminster Kennel Club dog show this week. Named after Buddy Holly, the designer below prevailed over 2500 dogs.

PBGVs are bred to chase, not kill, rabbits, and are so extroverted, friendly and happy, that they make superb therapy dogs. A newcomer to Westminister, but popular in Europe, for Soletrader Peek A Boo (or Jilly) beat more than 20,000 dogs in the Crufts 2013 held in Birmingham, England, the largest annual competition. Costs $100 to enter Westminister and only around $25 for Crufts.

From Yahoo:

What You Can Buy for the Cost of Owning a Show Dog?

If you think bankrolling a show dog isn’t the best use of a quarter million dollars, there are a lot of other things you could buy. For the same cost of owning a show dog, you could buy:

A three-bedroom home in Birmingham, Ala., Des Moines, Iowa, Minneapolis, Minn., or many other places across the country.
Four years of college. The cost to attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst for an out-of-state student is $47,000, so you’d pay less to send your child there for four years than you would to show your dog at Westminster.
A 2020 Lamborghini Huracán EVO.

A week ago I had an enhanced Mint Julep for the Kentucky Derby. The name Secretariat kept coming up in the discussion. Why?

This was the 50th anniversary of his Triple Crown, and still holds the fastest time in all three races. His 31-length victory in the Belmont Stakes is regarded as maybe the greatest race in history.
As a three-year old, he was syndicated for what is worth nearly $40 million today.
His stride was just about 25 feet.
Weighed around 1155 pounds.
Ate 15 quarts of oats/day.
In a 16-month career, came in first 16 times, second thrice and third once.
Sired 341 winners from 663 foals. The last group was born in 1990, and two offspring remain alive today. He passed away in 1989 at the age of 19.
Had a heart (22 pounds) 2.5 times that of the average horse (8.5 pounds).
Going back further than five generations, Secretariat is found in the pedigrees of every Derby entry except for one: Derma Sotogake, one of the two Japanese-bred colts.

China's 31-year old Ding Liren was crowned the 17th world chess champion by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi. Did you know China does well in chess? They do, for the current women's champion is Ju Wenjin, who beat compatriot Lei Tingjie last year.

What happened to Magnus Carlsen of Norway? He defeated had defeated Nepomniachtchi, originally from Russia, in 2021, but chose not to defend. Ding qualified for the tournament only because Russia was banned from competing. Ding was almost inactive since 2020 because of the pandemic.

Last year Ukraine won the Eurovision song contest. However, as they are at war, Liverpool of the UK (came in #2) is hosting the 67th edition. Thirty-seven countries entered, including Australia. The final will occur on Saturday, tomorrow, May 13, at 2000 BST, and 26 countries have qualified. Will be covered by Peacock in the USA beginning at 3PM EDT, with Johnny Weir as commentator. Remember him from the Winter Olympics? NPR picks Cha Cha Cha by Kaarija from Finland to win.

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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