Again, nothing much going on around the world today, but this unusual hot weather could turn to snow in New York and New England this weekend .  Cities like Chattanooga, Birmingham and St. Louis could challenge heat records today dating back more than 125 years.  Then on Saturday, there could be some snowflakes in the northeast.  Not much, and mostly only at elevation, but the first snowfall is always exciting for most. One bit of sad news is that the first American pope, Robert Francis Prevost, or Pope Leo XIV, a year and a half into service, found out that he has lung cancer.  No details yet.  Here is a video. Yesterday, I reported on the embarrassing situation of the USA being mediocre, if not poor, in excellence of airports and airlines.  Those, unfortunately, could very well be mere symptoms of our possible decline as as the world leader.. On the other hand, according to Google AI: Many prominent analysts argue that talk of American decline is a recurr...

Just around the time I finally got around to watching the movie,  Conclave  ( Rotten Tomatoes  93/86 ), the  real Conclave voted American Cardinal Robert Prevost as the new Pope Leo XIV.   No one saw this coming.  No American had ever been pope since the first one nearly 2000 years ago.  For those who know nothing about religion, Pope Leo XIV now becomes the Bishop of Rome and leader of the Catholic Church with a membership of 1.4 billion for as long as he continues.  By the way, St. Peter, one of the apostles of Jesus, was the first pope. No one saw this coming. The heavy favorite was Cardinal Pietro Parolin (right), the Vatican's secretary of state under Pope Francis. Cardinal Prevost's betting odds hovered in the range of 2% to 1%....or less . He was born in Chicago, spent periods in Peru, but most of his youth and professional life in that city. Started with a math B.S. from Villanova in 1977, but went on to earn a Licentiate of Canon Law and ...