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.

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

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 only couple in the history of this event who failed to drink bee

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