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ANOTHER BIG VIEWING WEEKEND

For soccer fans, the USA plays Vietnam at 9PM EDT (3PM Hawaii) on your Fox channel.  So far, there have been four games, and both New Zealand and Australia won their initial matches.

Lionel Messi makes his American debut tonight at 8PM EDT (2PM Hawaii) with the Miami FC against Cruz Azul in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  You need to have access to Apple TV and have an MLS season pass, plus will be in Spanish on Univision.  Team is appropriately dressed in Barbie Pink.

The Open at the Royal Liverpool Golf Course has completed day 2, and Brian Harmon of the USA leads by 5 strokes over Tommy Fleetwood of Scotland.  The cut was +3, 8 strokes behind Harmon, and includes the following players:  Adam Scott, Scottie Scheffler, Brooks Koepka, Padraig Harrington, Rickie Fowler and Patrick Cantlay.

  • At +2 was Cameron Smith, who won this tournament last year.
  • Missing the cut were Keegan Bradley, Collin Morikawa (2021 winner), Tony Finau, Billy Horschel, Justin Rose, Shane Lowry (2020 winner), Phil Mickelson, Ernie Els, Justin Thomas (at +11), Dustin Johnson (+13) and Jazz Janewattananond (+22), to the right, wearing the appropriate Barbie color.
  • Hole number 15 stretches out to 620 yard, the longest hole in Open history.  
  • The 17th is only 136 yards.
  • Travis Smythe got a hole in one, but ended with a +8 to also miss the cut.
  • The story of this tournament is the pot bunker.  There are 82 of them.  Players had to hit backwards to get out of some predicaments.

On Saturday night Pluto will be at opposition with the Sun, Earth in between, significantly brightening this dwarf planet.

  • Lost planet status in 2006.  
  • You still cannot see it with the naked eye and will need at least a 12" telescope.  
  • Pluto was discovered by a Kansas farm boy, Clyde Tombaugh, in 1909 after he built his own telescope.
  • Is slightly smaller than our Moon.
  • Has five moons, 
  • A surface temperature around -385 F.
  • Has an oval orbit, with a tilted path, unlike almost all the planets.
  • Named for the Roman God of the underworld, suggested by 11-year old Venetia Burney in 1930, the same year that Mickey Mouse's faithful dog, Pluto, made his debut
  • The only spacecraft that got close was NASA's New Horizons in 2015.

Barbie and Oppenheimer opened this weekend.  Barbie should make at least $100 million for this 3-day+ period, and is hoping for $150 million.  Oppenheimer should get $50 million, although there is hope for $100 million.  Checked on the prices, and those Titan Luxe with Dolby ATMOS audio reclining seats at the Consolidated Ward Theaters will cost seniors $20 on Saturday and $14 on Tuesday.  So we save $24 by going on Tuesday.  If I go, this will be my first movie theater attendance in 3.5 years.  Rotten Tomatoes?  Scores of 90/80 for Barbie and 93/94 for Oppenheimer.  The first rating is by reviewers, while the second represents the audience.

SHWEEKEND, or Shark Week 2023, begins on the Discovery channel at 8 PM EDT (2PM Hawaii) on Sunday....and ends on Saturday, July 29 at 9 PM EDT.  Here is the entire schedule.

  • Jason Momoa this year will serve as  your guide through nearly 20 hours of predation.
  • Previous hosts:  Peter Benchley (he wrote Jaws) Shaquille O'Neal and The Rock.
  • Shark week is almost always in July, and premiered in 1988.
  • It was originally devoted to conservation efforts to correct misconceptions about sharks.  
  • Over time it because so popular that most of the programs now show how awesome they are, with controversial mock documentaries.
  • I've posted on sharks now and then.  Here is one from a decade ago.
I've of course expounded on this issue numerous times, including very recently, and also only a month ago, where I reported that sharks kill, oh, five of us each year, but we decimate up to 100 million of them.  Of course, it can be worse, as the world consumes 50 billion chickens/year...and how many them are known to murder a human? 

I'll close with more entertainment news.  America's Got Talent had two performers this week worthy of your viewing.  31-year old Chakra Khan from Indonesia was memorable.  Said Heidi Klum, one of the judges:  I mean you have a very unique, very sexy, very raspy voice. Wow! You do have a voice that really stands out that you will not forget. It’s very very special.

Two moms united by one heart sang okay.  But you need to watch this video to appreciate them, and the remarkable coincidences.  A tear-jerker.

What a life:
  • Served in World War II and aided with the the liberation of a Nazi concentration camp in Landsberg, Germany.
  • Best remembered for his 1962 hit, I Left My Heart in San Francisco.  What timing, for I had just graduated from college in the Frisco area and left my heart there when I left to return to Hawaii.
  • Won 19 Grammy Awards, including in 2014 with Lady Gaga, their Cheek to Cheek album.
  • Was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in 2015, but continued performing, releasing another album with Lady Gaga, Love for Sale, in 2021, making him the oldest person to release an album of new material.

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