HAVE YOU DINED AT RIGO?

Vladimir Putin this weekend supposedly escaped an assassination attempt. This is the bridge where explosives were placed. Then again, maybe not, but it was the one he regularly traverses.

Remember, tomorrow is that bridge day that leads to July 4 on Tuesday, which is Independence Day, and a Federal holiday for all in the USA. Monday is a day off also for people in West Virginia.

For tennis fans, Wimbledon has already begun and will continue until Sunday, July 16, on grass courts, of which there are 18.

First began in 1877, all male.
Men still dominate, as the singles champ wins around $3 million, with $1.5 million for the female winner.

128 entrants in both male and female brackets. Actually, it's more than that, for there will be 15 titles when you add age categories, wheelchair competition, etc.
Novak Djokovic is favored at -150 (in other words, bet $150 to win $100, or has a 60% chance of prevailing). He has won this tournament the past few years.

#1 seed Carlos Alcaraz is at +350 (right, 22%).
Daniil Mevedev is at +1600 (6%).
#8 Taylor Fritz is the highest-ranked American at at 3% chance of winning.

Anyone know these favorites on the woman side?

Iga Swiatek (right, 29%)
Elena Rybakina (18%)
Aryna Sabalenka (17%)
#5 choice is American Coco Guaff at 7%.

Did you know that the four tennis championships are the U.S., French and Australian, all called Opens, with the fourth only known as Wimbledon. Different for golf, as the UK golf championship is only called The Open.
And, incidentally, this year The Open will be played at Royal Liverpool from July 20-23.

Just went to Rigo, a relatively new restaurant in Honolulu on Kapahulu Avenue. If you live here or plan to visit, I can highly recommend their cuisine.

Opened in 2019 where Genki Sushi previously sat, and long ago a bank, for the large vault is still there. The site had been vacant for a whole year. Japanese owners from Huge owns 30 restaurants, mostly in Tokyo, and 10 more Rigo's there. The cuisine is Spanish/Italian/Japanese fusion, prepared in an open kitchen showroom.

Rigo won a 2020 Hale 'Aina Award for Best New Restaurant in Hawaii. Is open daily from 11AM to 8PM, but the lunch menu is restricted, for they don't turn the Josper oven then. From left to right: manager Jimmy Otake, chef Masa Yoda and Atushi Iwasa.

Joining us were Leighton and Steve, who are both attorneys and classmates at Iolani. Leighton managed Blue Revolution Hawaii and Steve lives at 15 Craigside.

The decor was impressive.

You can see the kitchen where there is a Stefano Ferrara oven, with Chef Yoda, and the only Josper oven and grill from Spain.

We ordered some tapas, and also individually had a dish or two.

I had an excellent butter/shoyu spaghetti.

The pasta immediately above is their noted chilled Hokkaido scallop spaghetti. But we had it hot. I should mention that the wines are affordably priced. We had a Louis Jadot Rosé.

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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