The story of the day is Super Hurricane Melissa.  Plus, that World Series game last night deserves a few comments.  But first, tracking President Donald Trump. Trump spent yesterday meeting with  Japan Emperor Naruhito , the nation's symbolic leader, at the Imperial Palace.  Naruhito is 5'8" and 65 years old and Trump is 6'3" and 79. Then today, he met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi.  A lot of flattery and gift-giving from Takaichi. She told him that Japan would be nominating him for the Nobel Peace Prize. I should mention, though, that Trump is getting nowhere with Putin. And seems to have lost influence over Netanyahu. Gave him a golf bag signed by Hideki Matsuyama, as well as a putter used by former PM Shinzo Abe. Trump announced approval for the first delivery of U.S. missiles for F-35 fighter jets, but which Japan purchased. Lunch was American rice and American beef. They did sign a deal on rare earth minerals, as well as a document heralding a new "...

 Shohei Ohtani just played the greatest game in baseball history.  To quote MSNBC: This is Beethoven at a piano. This is Shakespeare with a quill. This is Michael Jordan in the Finals. This is Tiger Woods in Sunday red.   This is too good to be true with no reason to doubt it. This is the beginning of every baseball conversation and the end of the debate: Shohei Ohtani is the best baseball player who has ever played the game, the most talented hitter and pitcher of an era in which data and nutrition have made an everyman’s sport a game for superhumans. And Friday night, when he helped his Los Angeles Dodgers win the pennant with a 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, was his Mona Lisa. How was this for a beginning?  In the top of the first inning, he struck out the side, then led off the bottom with a home run. When he hit his second homer, where the ball traveled 469 feet in the fourth inning, he had more hits ...

  Today, no Trump, no science, no nostalgia....only Major League Baseball.  So if you hate this subject, please return tomorrow.  Fantasy baseball, quoting ESPN, is a silly little game, but once you play, you'll be hooked for life. Allegiance shifts from your traditional favorite team to those players you draft for your fantasy teams.  I'll probably again sign up for three teams.  I'm not into the NBA nor NHL, and there are no college games of any kind in the summer.  The sport to watch then is only Major League Baseball.  Each game you see becomes more meaningful when your players are on the screen, and every pitch or plate appearance by your player is consequential to you.  You cheer players not on your team to strike out or pitch a home run ball or get injured, accepting the morality that this is all fake and not real. I'll also watch the Los Angeles Dodgers on TV, for they play just about all their games televised into Hawaii.  One's day ...

On this Day 13 of our cruise on the Norwegian Encore from Seattle to Miami, I feature Guatemala and  Costa Rica.... no t Guat a mala and Costa Ric o .  Then, of course, on November 3, we remain on board and sail away to Southampton, UK. But before the topic of today, here is something from the morning  New York Times,  sharing the latest doings of Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican Party. Republican Campaign Meet the new Project 2025: The America First Policy Institute, a right-wing think tank,   is planning for a Trump win . It wants ultrasounds before all abortions, work requirements for Medicaid and federal workers who can be fired at will. Trump said   he would fire Jack Smith , the special counsel who indicted him over the Jan. 6 riot and classified documents, if he were elected again. His lawyers are also seeking to   dismiss the Jan. 6 case , arguing that Smith was illegally appointed. Trump has floated the idea of   replacing income taxe...