DONALD TRUMP NIKKI HALEY NICK DUNLAP TAYLOR SWIFT

Tomorrow is the New Hampshire primary, so I'll today skip Donald Trump and Nikki Haley. The only thing I'll say about Taylor Swift is that she was in Buffalo to watch another NFL game involving her latest lover. Travis Kelce scored a touchdown and pledged his love. Watch that. His brother tore of his shirt with the TD. The Chiefs beat the Bills and will play the Lions next weekend. Also, the 49ers vs Ravens. The two winners will be in the Super Bowl on February 11.

I'll focus on Nick Dunlap because I alerted you to him on Saturday, and he went on to be the first amateur in a third of a century to win a PGA event. Not much to say about the 20-year old, except that all the previous amateur winners went on to carve out a great career.

It was not easy.

He was the only amateur in the 156-player field, once known as the Bob Hope Desert Classic.
Dunlap was ahead by 3 strokes after day 3.
Lost the lead with a double bogey in the front nine.
Struggled to a 2-under 70, including two errant shots on the final hole.
But recovered with a 6-foot putt on the 18th to win by one-stroke.
Being an amateur, he will not get the $1.5 million first place prize, and also not the 500 FedEx Cup points, but now has a PGA Tour exemption through 2026.

Said to Dunlap by Phil Mickelson, the previous amateur who at 19 accomplished this feat: Such an impressive performance. Congratulations on an incredible win. This is just the beginning.

How has Mickelson done?

Is now 53 years old.
Is left-handed and nicknamed Lefty.
Has won 45 events on the PGA Tour, including six major championships.
When he won the PGA Championship in 2021, he became the oldest major championship winner in history at the age of 50 years, 11 months and 7 days.
Quit the PGA in 2022 because he was given a signing fee of $200 million to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour.
Otherwise, has career earnings in professional golf totaling another $111 million.

I'll end with the skinniest skyscraper in the world. Watch that video!

Called the Steinway Tower, is 1428 feet (4th highest in USA) tall overlooking Central Park in New York City, and was completed in 2022.
Why Steinway? Built on the site of Steinway piano, and sits over Steinway Hall, which itself has 16 floors.
Two elevators.
91 stories with only 60 luxury condos, 46 in the tower. Costliest sold for $66 million. Cheapest, $16 million for a studio apartment.
Cost $2 billion to build.
Tainted by a plethora of law suits.
Doesn't the building sway in high winds? Yes, up to three feet.
Near Carnegie Hall.
Actually I've been there, in a way. The headquarters of the American Society of Civil Engineers can be found in one of the lower floors.
Walk through one of the larger apartments that listed for nearly $30 million. What a view, and you're only on the 43rd floor.
Oh heck, why not a tour of a $54.6 million penthouse.
It is in perfect alignment with Central Park.

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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