WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND

Here is my TV schedule for today. I'll watch the PGA Championship because I golf, the Preakness to fix the perfect cocktail, or two, of this occasion, give a nod to Armed Forces Day, glance at some Major League Baseball games because I do have three fantasy teams, two presently leading their league and one in second place, and watch a Netflix or Prime program or two.

The PGA Championship is close to completing Day 3.

On CBS for the weekend.
The Oak Hill Golf Course in Rochester, New York is challenging the pros, not only the layout, but the weather , with chills, rain and winds.

At this writing point, Canadian Corey Conners lead by two strokes at -6.
Right behind are Justin Rose, Victor Hovland, Brooks Koepke and Bryson DeChambeau, who looks lean and menacing. Because of a whole bunch of the top former PGA members deserted the American tour and joined the 48-man LIV Golf circuit, we are seeing players like him for the first time in a long time.
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#1 John Rahm and #2 Scottie Scheffler, the latest Masters winners were favored? Rahm will be lucky to be 10 strokes back when the day ends, but Scheffler is lurking.

The 2023 Preakness Stakes has a post time of 1:01PM today at the Pimlico Race Course in Maryland. Kentucky Derby winner Mage is the 8-5 favorite. Keep an eye on 6-1 Blazing Sevens. My interest in this race, however, is the official drink, the Black-Eyed Susan, named after the Maryland state flower. Only invented in 1973, exactly 100 years after the first race in 1873, the recipe has evolved. Secretariat won half a century ago.

Now, bourbon, vodka, peach schnapps, orange juice, sours mix, orange slice, cherry.
I could not find peach schnapps, so I bought a bottle of Peach Bourbon.
This chicken meal is not traditional at Pimlico, especially not so with tuna sashimi. To watch the final race, I thus had a Maker's Mark, the more official bourbon.

This is the second jewel in the Triple Crown. In three weeks, The Belmont Stakes. The Preakness has geldings, which carry 126 pounds, and fillies with 121 pounds. Yikes, all male racers are castrated to make them calmer and more easy to handle. A filly becomes a mare at the age of 4. I delayed publishing this posting until the race was decided, and Bob Baffert's (eight win here, a record) National Treasure won, with Blazing Sevens #2 and Mage #3.

When I was young, I relished Armed Forces Day. It is always on a Saturday in May, and I remember getting into tanks and the like. Parades. President Joe Biden, of course, said all the right things. And they should be thanked for putting their lives on the line. As best as I can determine, Honolulu does nothing on this day. Even Stars and Stripes did not mention anthing relevant, except to show where military types can get discounts.

Can't end Armed Forces Day like that, so here are some memorable songs. From World War I, Over There. World War II? Spotify has 120 of the best, with #1 being Vera Lynn with We'll Meet Again. #2 Glenn Miller's Moonlight Serenade and #3 Gracie Field's Wish Me Luck (As You Wave Goodbye). Vera Lynn also had a popular version. She also had #120, Goodnight Wherever You Are. Two of my favorites ranked #7, As Time Goes By (only 1 min 35 seconds, click on it, most memorable), with Dooley Wilson, and #8, Sentimental Journey, sung by Doris Day.

The movie with songs that defined the Vietnam War was Good Morning Vietnam, with Robin Williams. 89/82 by Rotten Tomatoes.

The soundtrack began with Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas.
The final song was What a Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong.

I was planning to now go to Netflix and Prime, especially noting the Rotten Tomatoes 100% productions, but I'll leave that to another day.

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 suspicio...

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...

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 a...

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