HOW THE KENTUCKY DERBY IS CELEBRATED ON THE QUEEN MARY 2

As far as I know, the only evidence of the Queen Mary 2 celebrating the Kentucky Derby is me having two mint juleps, and taste-testing Woodward Reserve and Makers Mark Kentucky bourbons. No Old Forrester on the ship. Also I don't hold much hope for the sports channels to show the derby. All they play are soccer, auto/bike racing, darts, with an occasional NBA game.

While testing Kentucky whiskies, I also saw a Japanese scotch. So I tried it too.

Post-time for this 150th Kentucky Derby is 6:57 PM ET today.

The heavy favorite is Sierra Leone at 3-1. He is a late closer, and there are 20 other horses running, so that could be a major problem. Starts out of gate 2.
I like longer shots, and my favorite is Forever Young (right), a 10-1 shot from Japan out of the 11th position. He has never lost yet.

Last night was Gala Evening Attire night, so I had on my ascot set. For those who don't know, ascots are making a fashion comeback.

The origins date back to the late 19th cetury when it was worn by fashionable British gentlemen to formal daytime events such as horse races and weddings.

In fact, the ascot comes from the Royal Ascot horse race.
You might ask, what is the difference between an ascot and a cravat? An ascot looks like the above, and more specifically, should be 50 inches in length from tip to tip, 1-inch wide at the neckband and 3 inches wide. A cravat is any cloth tied around the neck for decorative purposes.
Actually, this all stated millennia ago when cravats were normal wear for men.
Women, of course can also embrace this classic accessory.
How to purchase an ascot.

Go to Amazon.com.
Pick what you want.
Price ranges from $10 to $25 each.
You should get a matching handkerchief, also called pocket square.

How to tie an ascot.

Tonight was the second gala tuxedo night, so I again wore my ascot, with matching handkerchief.

This was a special dinner tonight at the Steakhouse, for which we had to each pay $50 more. Choice of steaks.

Even choice of knives.

My meal, ribeye with red and white wines, plus an assortment of fries and onion rings. This was a splurge, for I usually avoid these. The french fries were great, and so were the onion rings. I thought the third one was to be a special kind of potato chip because the menu said triple fried chips. Turned out to be the British version of chunky fries that come with fish and chips.

The steak came from the UK, and was worth the extra expenditure. Alas, wasted a lot at the end. One can eat only so much.

Ended with cheeses.

However, the night was just beginning, for we next went to their night club, called G32.

As there will be no night life tomorrow (ship arrives into New York early in the morning on Sunday), we went back to our favorite bar, the Commodore Lounge. But the pianist had just ended his evening. Had a glass of Dalmore scotch.

Walked a decent 5040 steps, almost all of that after dinner.

One more day left on the Queen Mary 2.

Oh, the first new Cunard ship in 14 years, the MS Queen Anne, started her maiden voyage from Southampton last night, a send-off with spectacular fireworks.

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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