OMGA 6: New York to Honolulu

I've been to New York many times. My most previous was six years ago when I took a Panda Tour for Hawaii football at West Point to play Army. Stayed at the Sheraton, a short walk away from the Marriott Marquis. This was the prime hotel for the 1964 New York World's Fair, and was at that time called the Americana. 501 feet high, this was once the tallest hotel in the world, with around 800 rooms.

Our flight from Honolulu arrived early in the morning, and the 200 in the group had to wait in one of the ballrooms until mid-afternoon. I was a Sheraton Lifetime Platinum member, so thought I'd check if I could get my room early. I did, was successful and took a nap at 8:30AM while the others just did not do much. It was raining outside.

We had a nice visit to West Point, although we lost the game. Also went to Yankee Stadium, had a Nathan's foot-long and garlic fries with beer. Went to see Book of Mormons and Beautiful. Used the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus, and, of course, was first greeted by by Blue-Bar Pigeon at Times Square.

My best meal of the trip was at an Italian restaurant, Azalea, ending with a Capellini Bolognese with truffles, etc. Two tours of Manhattan essentially led me to all the attractions, like One World Trade Center, the Wall Street Bull, Empire State building, United Nations, with a boat ride to the Statue of Liberty.

Watching One World Trade Center brought me back a third of century earlier when my wife and I had diiner at Cellar in the Sky.

What a trauma for us, as immediately coming to mind was an incredible dinner we had in a restaurant called Cellar in the Sky, located inside Windows of the World at the top of the North Tower. A very private space with 35 seats, it had a prix fixe menu hand-written on a ceramic page, and featured a guitarist. We recalled another couple trying to sneak out the menu and being caught. Our waiter gave us ours, and we kept it until....don't know what happened to it.

Well, so many memories. But on OMGA, we spent 6 days in the Marriott Marriott. Very expensive, but worth it, for the hotel is right at the World Trade Center. And our room view was of the falling sphere every New Year's Eve.

As the hotel paid for the $55 Hop-On/Hop-Off bus fare, we took it twice to see all the attractions twice. The weather was coolish, especially on the upper deck.

Other highlights included the memorable A Beautiful Noise, the life story of Neil Diamond. Neil Fradiani was exceptional in that role. He will appear tonight in the finale of American Idol, for he was the winner in 2015. The three hour show will be on ABC at 8PM EDT, and 7PM in Hawaii.

The best meal was our lunch at Michelin 3-Star Le Bernardin. That's Chef Eric Ripert. This is a French seafood restaurant. While there, it occurred to me that many of the meals we had on the three cruise ships were at least as good as what we were having. However, read this review to see photos and hear how someone more epicurean experienced Ripert's cuisine.

Speaking of enjoyable moments, one of them was my last real meal in Manhattan. It was raining a bit, I was wondering what to do for lunch, and there were two obvious choices, Popeye's and MacDonald's, as they were just across the street below me.

I first checked MacDonald's, and decided on a double quarter pounder with cheese and fries, for $12. I also had to drink the large can of Foster's beer in my refrigerator.

This was the most satisfying meal I had on the entire trip.

On Day 53 we left New York for Honolulu on Alaska Air, with a change of plane in Seattle. Won't bother you with the details, but we almost missed the first flight because the airline never told us the plane was leaving at 11:45 instead of 1PM. And, oh, both planes were Boeing 737 MAX 9s, the one that blew out it's door. At least we got a beautiful view of Mount Rainier, and arrived home healthy and happy.

Who keeps up with boxing these days, but Ukrainian Oleksandr Usyk became the first undisputed heavyweight boxing champion in 24 years, yesterday beating Britisher Tyson Fury in Saudi Arabia. Usyk is 6 inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter.

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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