THE JOY RIDE OF THE HARRIS-WALZ TICKET

The problem with the Summer Olympics being in France is that many TV stations surprise you with who won. I've found MSNBC and CNN to be especially efficient at this. I said yesterday that France's Victor Wembanyama is 7'6". Nope, only 7'4". There have been taller players in the NBA:

7'7" Gheorghe Muresan and Manute Bol, although maybe Bol might not quite have been up there, and was only 200 pounds.
7'6" Shawn Bradley, Tacko Fall, Slavko Vranes and Yao Ming, although maybe he was only 7'5".

I'm watching the France-USA gold medal basketball game, but won't tell you who won, or even who is leading. But can I mention someone named Steph Curry? He is only the 8th best 3-point shooter ever in the NBA at 43%. You know who is #1? Steve Kerr, with 45.4%, and coach of the Team USA.

NBC has not been entirely clear on which events will be covered by your NBC, USA or Peacock channels on the final day, Sunday. Best I can tell, the USA women's volleyball team against Italy will be carried live at 7AM EDT on your NBC channel, or maybe only on Peacock. Italy is the clear favorite. However, I saw where the U.S. women's basketball game against France for the gold might be carried by the USA channel at 6:30AM on Sunday, although 9:30AM EDT on NBC has also, and more prominently, been mentioned.

Then the Closing Ceremony begins at 2PM EDT on NBC with a recap of unforgettable moments. The actual ceremony will start at 3PM EDT, for 2 hours. Looks like 62-year old Tom Cruise will be a "surprise" performer. Now that Taylor Swift's Vienna concerts have been cancelled, she, too might now participate.

Not the Olympics, but the Williamsport Little League games begin on Wednesday with 20 teams. One of them will be Central East Maui from Hawaii. The Lahaina tragedy was a year ago, so their being here is doubly rewarding. The team has an overpowering pitcher in Evan Tavares, and he was why Hawaii beat Southern California yesterday. However, he couldn't finish the final inning because he went over the 85 pitch limit, and he is the only good pitcher on the team. The final two outs took an eternity.

Yes, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz continue their joy ride, for the just released New York Times / Sienna poll shows that they have caught up with Trump and surged past him in the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

The poll was conducted between Aug. 5-9 and asked likely voters in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin about their attitudes toward Harris and Trump. When asked who they would vote for if the election were held today, Harris received 50 percent support to Trump’s 46 percent — a marked improvement compared to President Joe Biden’s performance against Trump in earlierTimes polling. When third-party candidates and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are included in the race, Harris remains ahead by 5 percentage points in Michigan, 2 percentage points in Pennsylvania and 6 percentage points in Wisconsin, with a fading Kennedy averaging just 5 percent support.

Last month Donald Trump led Joe Biden in all these states.

It's pretty clear which team will win the electoral votes in 39 states. Seven remain competitive:

Pennsylvania.
Wisconsin.
Michigan.
North Carolina.
Georgia.
Arizona.
Nevada.

There are four fringe states where the Trump-Vance team currently is ahead, but could still come into play.

Ohio.
Virginia.
Florida.
Texas.

The Harris-Walz team has attracted so much more funds and a growing number of additional volunteers. Definitely, the age factor has been reversed, for Trump has become very old. The younger generation seems to be leaning in the Democratic direction. Maybe as importantly, Republicans for Harris are waking up, and more and more are making this known.

To close, thanks for the JOY. That Camo hat is going viral. And "only" for $40. Joy shirts for $16.

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...

OSAKA EXPO: Day One

Well, the day finally came for us to go to the Osaka Expo. We were told ahead of time that the long walks would be fearful, giant lines will need to be tolerated just to get into the Expo, with those ocean breezes, it would really be cold, and so forth. Maybe it was pure luck, but we avoided all the above warnings We had a grand day, and are looking forward to Sunday, our second day at the Expo. So come along for an enjoyable ride. Our hotel is adjacent to the Tennoji Station, a very large one with several lines. We upgraded our Suica card and caught the Misosuji red line towards Umeda. Transferred to the Chuo green line at the Hommachi Station. This Osaka Metro train took us to the Yumeshima Station at the Expo site. It was a very large mob leaving the train and heading to the entrance. Took only a few minutes to get to the entrance. This mob was multiplied by at least a factor of ten of those already waiting to enter. However...

WHY YOU SHOULD CONVERT TO A JAPANESE HIGH TECH TOILET

Did you know that Oktoberfest in Germany is mostly in September? The very first day of Oktoberfest 2021 was supposed to be today, September 18, extending into October 3. Well, as in 2020, Oktoberfest was cancelled. So why is it called by that month when it is held mostly in September? The first celebration in 1810 was in October. Did you also know that Oktoberfest is held only in Munich? These days seven million drink more than a liter ( about three typical cans ) of beer each, costing around $11. Except for my wife and I when we followed the crowd to board the S-Bahn to the fairgrounds near Old Town. It was drizzling a bit. We bought a large pretzel outside of a typical barn where beer is served. We did not know that you needed to get this inside the hall. So no one came to serve us beer. After a while we decided to have lunch, and the restaurant we settled on only served wine. Thus, we might have been the ...

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