On July 21, Netflix debuted a new documentary,  Sunday Best:  The Untold Story of Ed Sullivan .  I still remember growing up of watching the Ed Sullivan Show on Sunday nights.  So, as last night was Sunday night, I watched this new production. This all began as a radio program, Summer Silver Theater, that first aired on CBS in 1932, then in 1941, hosted by Ed Sullivan. This was first 15-minute gossipy talk-and-interview shows of Jack Benny Irving Berlin, Florenz Ziegfeld, etc. When it returned in 1941, it was called the Ed Sullivan Variety on CBS. From 1943-1944 as Ed Sullivan Entertains, a variety show on CBS. Then in 1946 as Ed Sullivan's Pipelines, a 15-minute program on the Blue Network. Finally, television. Toast of the Town on 20June1948. This first program featured comedians Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, singer Monica Lewis and Broadway composers Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II previewing the score to their then-new show,  South Pacific . This Bro...

Last week I posted a two-part series on red wines.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I will make it a five-part series with a visit I made in 2019 to France, where we tasted champagne and Bordeaux wine and cognac.  Parts 4 and 5 will be posted on subsequent Tuesdays. But first, a few newsworthy items. As my  blog expressed yesterday , President Donald Trump has transformed himself from dud to hero. Looks like that  fragile ceasefire for the Israel-USA vs Iran War is holding.   Lot of questions about where those 880 pounds of enriched uranium might be  to  future role on how the International Atomic Energy Agency can check on Iran  to  how long the ailing 85-year old Ayatollah can hang in there  to  a million others.  However, give Trump credit for solving this war in less than two weeks.  Israel still has that Gaza Strip problem, and there continues the Ukraine-Russia war, but the world today is in a safer place than yesterday. ...

Before our science topic of this Wednesday, first the latest in the politics of the USA. About Trump reciprocal taxes and Liberation Day, let's start by being realistic.  The U.S. has a sizable trade deficit every year mostly because our exported products are too expensive.  Start with a simple matter of what it costs to produce anything.  Unions are part of the problem, too, but workers here get paid from $30 to $40/hour in many industries.  That is what is earned by employees in China...but per day.  And that's high, for here is what is the  monthly wage in these Asian countries per month :  China $193-332, Vietnam $107-$156, India $74-$223 and Cambodia $122. In the Rose Garden at 4:10PM EDT today, you can yourself  watch President Donald Trump's Liberation Day remarks : Tariff speech shared some facts, exaggerated a lot, downright lied here and there, and continues the process of screwing up the best current economy of the world, ours. There wi...