WHERE IS MELANIA? / OMG Adventure

Part 2 of our OMG Adventure follows the further travails of Donald Trump.

• Someone came up with having his sycophants and potential Veep candidates show up at his trial.  Yesterday, two U.S. senators and a rep, plus. 

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  Today, Speaker Mike Johnson and Vivek Ramaswamy.  Son Eric has been there, and so has his wife, Republican National Committee co-Chair Lara Trump.
• But no other close family has come.
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  The biggest missing piece is Melania Trump.  All reports show that she won't show.  Too  bad, for jurors are human, and her daily presence, holding his hands coming and going, can make that crucial difference.  Perhaps she can be enticed to show up at the end for some reward.  After all, their marriage has become a business arrangement.

Oh, in case you missed it, Michael Cohen again was on the stand today, with Todd Blanche of the defense attempting to poke holes in his story.  He seems always to be at Trump's side outside of court.

• No action scheduled for Wednesday. 
• Final grilling of Cohen to occur on Thursday.  The prosecution said he will be their final witness.
• Will Trump himself testify for the defense?  Almost surely no.  They might have someone procedural individual do something, but maybe not.  It is possible that they will have no one.
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  On Friday, Trump will go back to Florida for son Baron's graduation, then fly to Minnesota to attend the Republican Party's Lincoln Reagan Dinner.  Baron is 6'7" tall and has not selected a college, although New York University might be high on his list.  This photo was taken in 2020.

So on to Our Monumental Global (OMG) Adventure.  

• It was in 1982 that my wife and I boarded Pan American flight 1 westward for an around the world trip.  
• I've accomplished this feat many times since then.  
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  Pearl passed away 15 years ago, but I've found a new travel partner who wishes to remain mysterious.
• She and I flew to France in March of 2019, and we had amazing stops at Tattinger for champaign, Bordeux for red wine and Cognac for cognac.  
• The highlight was Chateau Lafite Rothschild.  We finished a $900 bottle for free.

OMG Adventure was our first around the world trip. together.  Among the highlights included a few days each in Tokyo.  Dinner at Robuchon's and at least one cherry blossom tree.  This was a big disappointment, for we were a week too early.

We didn't do much in Singapore, and the highlights were our breakfast buffet at the Marriott Tang Plaza.

Our signature experience in Bangkok was rooftop dining at Sirocco.

I also visited my tailor, who crafted seven more vests.

There was a particularly interesting bread at breakfast in the Bangkok Sheraton Grand Sukhamvit...rainbow colored.  Close your eyes, and it tastes like bread.

It is 3033 miles from Bangkok to Dubai, and 2839 miles from Dubai to Munich.  A limousine picks you up at 6:30AM, and the first flight leaves a 9:30AM, arriving in Dubai at 1PM.  There is a 2.5 hour break in their lounge, with the second leg leaving Dubai at 4:30PM, arriving in Munich at 8:50PM.  There is a 5 hour time difference between Bangkok and Munich, so 8:50PM in Munich is really 1:50AM in Bangkok.  Considering that we left our hotel in Bangkok at 6:30AM, ending up at the Westin Munich at 3AM Bangkok time, the trip took 21.5 hours.

We found some favorable times and "cheap" first class seats, so took this long journey, for Emirates is famous for pick-up/drop-off service, caviar and a plane with two showers if you fly first class.  While the first leg was truly enjoyable, the second was just too much for my body.  I was sleepy and could not possibly have a second order of caviar, for the salt content is just too high.  How much is "cheap?"  Feel free to check the Emirates site.

I've had some fine times in Munich, but did almost nothing this time.  One disappointment was that the white asparagus season had just begun, but restaurants did not yet offer it.

Then on to Copenhagen.  Walked to Tivoli Gardens, where we saw a lot of cherry blossoms and more.

I should mention that in every stop, I was met by my Blue-Bar Pigeon.

I'm running out of time, so will finish my OMG Adventure series tomorrow.

Let me close, though, with two bits of news.  Having just come from Times Square, I should add that George Clooney will adapt his Academy Award-nominated 2005 film, Good Night, and Good Luck, and open in the Shubert Theater.  This will be his Broadway debut.  The movie got good 93/83 scores from Rotten Tomatoes.  Clooney directed the film, but will play Murrow in the show.

As I alerted you to rookie Victor Wembanyama before the NBA started play, and he went on to become the unanimous pick for rookie of the year. let me introduce you to Caitlin Clark, who opened play today.  However her Indiana Fever team lost 71-92 to the Connecticut Sun.  She was the highest scorer for the Fever, but shot poorly.

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