SORRY ABOUT YESTERDAY.  I FINISHED THAT BLOG, BUT NEGLECTED TO POST IT.  You can read it by clicking on  THE HAPPIEST STATE IN THE USA . ************************ Yes, much of our Federal government is shut down.   Read this for details . The Hamas rejected President Donald Trump's 20-Point Gaza Peace Plan.   Watch this video . Defense Secretary Hegseth and President Trump yesterday summoned all the important generals into a room in Virginia and ....well,  here is what Jimmy Kimmel reported .  Quoting  Politico : Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s speech to top generals was supposed to serve as a rallying cry for military exceptionalism — but it didn’t land that way with many of the people it was targeting. Numerous defense officials — who watched senior brass scramble to Washington and then sit through a partisan speech from President Donald Trump and a return to old-school military standards by Hegseth — were left wondering why the event ...

But first, was there any movement on Ukraine-Russia peace talks?  Well, there is this  guitar duo .  Have you seen  Zelensky, Putin and Trump entertaining  as three tenors?  Watch  We Run the World . Four of my favorite cities are Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu. We are here in Vancouver, and this stop has been mostly wet.  But I've been here around a half a dozen times, and, aside from rain and cold, this city has much to offer. Our previous trip in October of last year began in Seattle, where we caught the Norwegian Encore for a 39-day cruise through the Panama Canal to Southampton, UK.  I've also been here at least 6 time, the first for the Seattle World Expo in 1962. The Encore's first stop was in San Francisco.  The San Francisco Bay area is my second home. Graduated from Stanford University. Worked at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View on the Search Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Spent two summers at the ...

Merry Christmas.  But first, from the  Honolulu Star-Advertiser : A Hawaiian Volcano Observatory geologist on Monday checks a webcam on the rim of Kilauea caldera. Kilauea began erupting again early Monday, with lava fountains up to nearly 300 feet. The eruption paused in the afternoon but lava resumed flowing onto the crater floor today . Every so often, the news of the day, or a film, or something just happens that reminds me of me.  Such is the case of a new series on Netflix,  A Man on the Inside .   Rotten Tomatoes,  95 reviewers and 92 audiences.   Read this article , which describes the production. Ted Danson plays an old, retired, engineering professor in the San Francisco Bay Area, whose wife has passed away.   Sort of like me. Of course you remember him.  Sam Malone on  Cheers , 275 episodes, where he won two Emmys and two Golden Globes.  And 53 episodes of  The Good Place , a comedy about a Heaven-esqu...