As the World Turns . Sure, there was a TV soap opera from 1956 to 2010 on CBS that had 54 seasons and 13,858 episodes. About a fictional town in Illinois on the tribulations of upper class families. Produced mostly female stars, like Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore, Marisa Tomei and Amanda Seyfried. Was not the longest running, for that title belongs to Guiding Light . In London, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer ( on the right ) is expected to resign tomorrow. Andy Burnham ( on the left) will probably be the next PM.  Who is he?  Another day. Brexit has seriously hurt the economy,   Hate crimes have increased in England and Wales. But London remains very safe for visitors.   Just use common street sense, as you should anywhere you go. About homicide, London is 3 times safer than New York City, 5 times better than Los Angeles and 15 times lower than Philadelphia and Chicago. About that Memorandum of Understanding discussion between Iran and the USA: Has n...

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...

While love and happiness prevail, my mind nevertheless wanders and wonders a lot.  I see homeless people and realize that with only a wrong decision or two, that could have been me.   I have been lucky,  Very lucky. I consider my life to be a success.  Of the  117 billion born , surely I rank in the top one-tenth of one percent.  In other words I am among the best 11.7 million  Homo sapiens  who ever lived.  I'm tempted to improve this by another order of magnitude to 1.17 million, for it has only been in the past century that life became tolerable for most, but all this analysis is meaningless, for what is success? In this thoughtful mood, I looked back on certain points in my life and wondered where I would be today if I made another decision.   A big one was, which college? As a junior at McKinley High School in Honolulu I was only an above-average student, with no athletic talent and little social skills. Then my life chang...