Why is the number 58 important this year?  This happens to be Super Bowl LVIII, roman numeral for 58.  Try to find Super Bowl 58 on any logo.  Maybe on a jersey. Alex Barrett of the 49ers will be the only #58 on the field.  Why does the NFL want to confuse people with a numbering system no one really knows? “The Roman numerals were adopted to clarify any confusion that may occur because the NFL Championship Game — the Super Bowl — is played in the year following a chronologically recorded season,” the NFL once wrote in a   postseason media handout . The thing about the Super Bowl is that it is not just a football game.  I went to a theater for the very first after the pandemic when I saw a double-bill of  Barbie  and  Oppenheimer .  I would never go to see  Barbie , which for me was colorful, and that was about it.  Loved  Oppenheimer  because that's the kind of film I like.  I predicted it would someday win a bunch of Oscars, which will no doubt occur on March 10.  Why I took a ri

  First, can't help but start the week with another Lukovich cartoon: Also, too,  David Brooks of the  New York Times  this week had an op-ed about Donald Trump. The world is saved in tiny steps over time, and  Anthony Blinken did personally meet with President Xi Jinping . Then, of course, today is Juneteenth, celebrated as a public holiday by more than half of our states, but not Hawaii.  We have too many days off as it is, and June 19 is too close to June 11, King Kamehameha the First Day.  While there is no slavery today in the country, Blacks do earn far less than Whites.  From the  New York Times  this morning. And for Republicans who are worried about how hourly wages are increasing too rapidly, the reality is that, accounting for inflation, minimum wages are actually lower than in 1978.  For those who can't subtract, that was 45 years ago.  Also from  TNYT . I'm doing fine, too.  Returned from Las Vegas 9 days ago, and when I first weighed myself at home 4 days ago,

Something about this trip to Las Vegas made me feel that I was getting out of touch with the lifestyle of today.  While the pandemic made travel difficult, we have been on three cruises during the past year or so, with a couple of international trips.  So what made this more recent experience particularly humbling? To begin, on the flight from Honolulu to San Francisco, everyone in business class seemed to be prepared with bluetooth earphones to listen to their TV screen.  Never occurred to me to bring something like that.  It took a couple of hours to gently inquire about the audio options.  The steward said, oh, here is an earphone, and this is where you connect.  Plus, they did not retrieve this ear plug device, so I had one for the next flight to Las Vegas, and back home. There were 100 channels linked to DIRECTV, close to being the equivalent of what is available at home.  There were also at least a hundred films available. When I got to the Circa Resort, after check-in, getting t