It's been a dismal week for the world.  Enough about wars and politics for today.  Ah, Friday, and I'll only report on the joy of life, more specifically, mine. Well, actually, the first topic is a sad one, with good memories.  One of the icons of American Pop,  Neil Sedaka, passed away .  He was a year older than me.  I recall his performing in Honolulu in 1976 ( watch this 27 minute video ) on New Year's Eve, and again 43 years later in 2019.   Wrote over 1000 songs , helping define the sounds of the 1960's with  Breaking Up is Hard to Do  and  Calendar Girl .  He successfully transitioned into a super star with  Laughter in the Rain , and saw songs like  Love Will Keep Us Together  covered  by others .  According to Google AI:  resilient, melodic and iconic.  Here is a  medley from 42 years ago .  Sedaka had a way for making you happy, which is the theme of today, I've traveled th...

I am into fantasy baseball, but I have no fantasy teams for this World Series.  Usually, I don't care much about these games after the regular season ends because I have no players to follow.  Plus, I'm almost always on a world journey in the Fall.  This year, I just returned from a short trip to California to search for Petite Sirah in Paso Robles, and won't do my end of the year spectacular until November 21, when I embark on what looks to be an incredible adventure through the Orient, where I won't return to Honolulu until January 24.   While I know that my global readers couldn't care less about American baseball, there is something about the World Series this year that has fully captured my interest.   I spent around 8 hours, for example, glued to my TV watching the pre-game, Game 3 and post-game of the 18-inning victory by the Los Angeles Dodgers over the Toronto Blue Jays .  I enjoy sports watching, but this was kind of ridiculous. But firs...

 But first, two sports matters: About that  NBA gambling problem , won't say much, except to just be aware of further developments. The World Series games begin today.  They open with the Los Angeles Dodgers at Toronto Blue Jays at 8PM EDT.   Not to worry about the change in daylight savings time, for this will occur Sunday, November 2 at 2AM, where most states will set their clock back to 1AM so some of you can get one hour more sleep. All games will be on Fox, FS1 and Fox Deportes, also streaming on Fubo, Fox One, DirecTV, Sling, You Tube and Hulu....if you subscribe to them. First team to win 4 games will become the champion. Starting pitchers in Game 1 will be Blake Snell for the Dodgers and Trey Vesavage for the Blue Jays, a rookie. Here are the details of other games. Game 2:   Saturday, Oct. 25, 8 p.m. ET in Toronto. Game 3:   Monday, Oct. 27, 8 p.m. ET in Los Angeles. Game 4:   Tuesday, Oct. 28, 8 p.m. ET in Los Angeles. Game 5 (if necessary): ...