TOMORROW WILL BE OCTOBER 1

Today, a little bit of everything, beginning with the return plans for our stranded astronauts. I've had several postings on their plight, and at one time their rescue would not be until February of next year.

SpaceX launched NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, their 4-seat Crew-9 capsule docked with the International Space Station yesterday. I guess the USA and Russia are still cooperating on something.
But, whoops, there will be no early return.
NASA astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore have been stuck on the ISS since June 6.
The four will return to Earth in February.

The death toll from Hurricane Helene is now up to 119, and will continue to grow, for there are 600 or more still unaccounted. Most of those killed, 73, are from the Carolinas (46 in North Carolina, where as much as 30.78 inches of rain fell), 25 in Georgia and 13 in Florida. Several million are still without power. At this point the total damage estimate has risen above $100 billion.

Tomorrow begins October, when JD Vance and Tim Walz have their first and only debate. I don't think I have ever watched a Veep debate, but will this time.

Starts at 9PM EDT from the CBS Broadcast Center in New York City.
Will run for 90 minutes.
Moderators will be Norah O'Donnell and Margaret Brennan of CBS.
No audience.
Open mikes.
Here is something I did not know: Walz is nervous about this event and says he is a bad debater.

What is Israel doing? They are creating a second front in Lebanon, assassinating Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah in an air strike of Beirut, and even bombing Yemen, while awaiting the involvement of Iran.

Last week I suggested that 67-year old Shigeru Ishiba, on his fifth try, would be selected as the next Prime Minister of Japan. He won. My favorite was 43-year old Shinjiro Koisumi, but only because of his youth. John F. Kennedy became president at that age.

The Major League Baseball season ends today with two previously postponed games to determine which two of the Braves, Mets and Diamondbacks will enter the playoffs, beginning tomorrow. Easy to explain, but you wouldn't be interested in the details anyway. On the other hand, the Mets beat the Braves in game one, and has qualified. The management has the pleasant task of winning to eliminate the Braves, allowing the Diamondbacks to get in, or losing, to face Milwaukee instead of San Diego.

My three ESPN fantasy baseball teams did well: one will end up in second place, another will be first, and the third is currently tied for first, and the two games today will decide who is champion. I want my players to steal bases and hit home runs.

Kris Kristofferson passed away at the age of 88 at his home on Maui. What a life.

A Rhodes scholar at Oxford.
Captain and Ranger in the U.S. Army.
Got married in 1961, but divorced in 1968, relegated to sweeping floors at Columbia Recording Studios in Nashville.
Commercial helicopter pilot for oil platforms off Louisiana, and even, unannounced, landing one in Johnny Cash's front yard.

First big hit was Me and Bobby McGee in 1970. He sang it, but the more popular version was by his then lover, Janis Joplin, who died that year of heroin overdose at the age of 27.

Sunday Mornin' Coming Down, about one hangover too many, recorded by Ray Stevens in 1969, but made more popular by Johnny Cash in 1970.
For the Good Times, recorded by Bill Nash in 1968, Kristofferson in 1970 and also that year, by Ray Price, who took it to #1 on Billboard.

Can't believe it, but also in 1970, wrote Help Me Make It Through the Night, inspired by Frank Sinatra, and later that year performed by Sammi Smith, becoming her signature song.
Did some acting, in a 1974 Martin Scorsese film, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, with Barbra Streisand in the the 1976 A Star is Born, alongside Wesley Snipes in the 1998 Blade and others.

Married Rita Coolidge in 1973, had a daughter, difficult relationship, divorced in 1980.
Was the founding member in 1985 of The Highwaymen alongside Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings, and the song I best remember is Desperados Waiting for a Train.

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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