First I'm intrigued by the sudden popularity of this blog site.  Visitors: All Time 8307449  Today 774535  Yesterday 882129  This Month 2796190  Last Month 653676  In other words: 8.3 million viewers since this blog began 18 years ago. 0.775 million today, which has a few hours to go. 0.882 million yesterday. 2.8 million this month. 0.654 million last month. My first blog was on at the end of April 2008, so this site is now a little more than 18 years old. 18 divided into 8.3 million gives 1263 visitors per day. Yesterday, there were 0.88 million visitors, a record that will be broken today. Could well reach 1 million viewers today, which would be 792 times more than my daily average. For reasons I can't comprehend, this blog site has gone viral. There was a jump in visitors during our recent 50-day trip to the USA and Canada. Historically, I do get more viewers on a trip. But we returned almost 3 weeks ago, and the exponential viewership began this week. My blog postings ...

Well,  Time  magazine was right.   The Trump-Putin summit fizzled, and ended earlier than expected .  Worse,  Putin won .  Their next session will be in Moscow.  When?  And, in case you were wondering, Putin is 5'7" and Trump 6'3". Way back in 2014,  Guinness World Records deemed the Got Talent franchise the most successful reality TV format worldwide.   At that time, there 58 countries showing their own version of the program.  The whole concept began with  Britain's Got Talent,  created by Simon Cowell.  However, disputes delayed their release, and the first to air was  America's Got Talent  in 2006.  They both run during the summer. The latest ranking  (13August2025) , however, shows the following: #    1  Idol franchise  3.2 billion, 23 years,  2002 to 2025, but did not air in 2017. #    2  Got Talent franchise  500 million in 190 markets, 20 ye...

Nothing about that liar today, but one note on the Israel-Hamas ceasefire plan mentioned by President Joe Biden on Friday.  Today, Ophir Falk, chief foreign policy adviser to Benjamin Netanyahu, said that  Israel agreed to the deal .  In the meantime, Israeli forces are now entering Rafah.  Maybe more importantly, it appears that  Hamas responded positively to the offer .  A lot more to come before an actual agreement.  But this is the closest the Gaza Strip has been to peace since October 8. America's Got Talent is back into Season 19 on Tuesday nights on NBC for two hours, followed on Wednesday with a one-hour results show.  This year each judge will get two Golden Buzzers. I saw the first episode earlier this week, and the following individuals impressed me: Ballerina Ashlee Montague balance act on champagne bottles .  Amazing. I hate dog acts, but  Adrian Stoica and Hurricane were heartwarming . Baby Dev , all of 2 years old, can rea...