The USA has had 46 presidents.  Presidents Day was first established in 1879 as Washington's Birthday.   Back then there were only three other federal bank holidays:  Christmas, New Year's, Independence. So February 22 was added as the fourth. George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, 292 years ago.   Well, not quite, for we were then on the Julian calendar, and he came on February 11.   The Gregorian calendar--to more accurately mark the solar year--was adopted in 1752, adding 11 days. I looked back to 2022 and all the way up to 2034, and  none of these Mondays were and will be on February 22 .   With all that history, the  federal government still calls this day Washington's Birthday . Congress passed the  Uniform Monday Holiday Act  in 1968, which officially took effect in 1971, shifting the fixed date of February 22 to the third Monday of February.   Lincoln's Birthday had been celebrated by some states on February 12, so they just combined the two presidents

Today, back to Covid-19.   During the past week , the World had nearly 400,000 new cases with 1830 deaths, dominated by the U.S. at 135,000  new cases and 722 deaths.  Of course, the numbers are considerably higher around the globe for many countries have stopped reporting.  Note, though, that the flu has blown past Covid in deaths, for a bad year produces nearly 1000 deaths/ week, with weekly highs more than 2,000 in those years.  But first, some departures into a couple of newsworthy topics. Chris Christie yesterday announced he is leaving the Republican primary race, and took jabs at all his opponents in the process. This move significantly will impact on the New Hampshire primary.  Nikki Haley now has a decent chance to beat Donald Trump, more so if DeSantis and Ramaswamy also drop out. Trump 39% Haley 32% Christie 12% Ramaswamy 8% DeSantis 5% However,  two days ago  I reported that the third primary on February 24 in South Carolina, where Haley was once governor, still has Trump a