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. ...

Some good news first.  The  S&P 500  has looked terrible the past month, but gained 117.42 or 2.13%, on Friday.  Monday? I've had a melody rolling around in my head since yesterday.  Not a particularly memorable tune, but I thought I'd today focus on that song,  Venus .  First, let me go back to that ancient Greek marble sculpture created between 160 and 110 BC.   Venus de Milo or Aphrodite of Melos  was rediscovered in 1820 on the island of Milos, Greece, by a farmer,  A lot of intrigue, but the French eventually bought the statue, where Louis XVIII had it displayed in the Louvre in 1821.   In 1964, she was exhibited in Tokyo and Kyoto, the only time she left the Louvre. Now visited by 7 million people annually. The Greek goddess of love is Aphrodite, whose Roman counterpart was Venus. Made of Parian marble, the statue is probably larger than the reality, for it is 6 feet 7 inches tall.  Missing are both arms....