Last week I posted a two-part series on red wines.  On this nostalgic Tuesday, I will make it a five-part series with a visit I made in 2019 to France, where we tasted champagne and Bordeaux wine and cognac.  Parts 4 and 5 will be posted on subsequent Tuesdays. But first, a few newsworthy items. As my  blog expressed yesterday , President Donald Trump has transformed himself from dud to hero. Looks like that  fragile ceasefire for the Israel-USA vs Iran War is holding.   Lot of questions about where those 880 pounds of enriched uranium might be  to  future role on how the International Atomic Energy Agency can check on Iran  to  how long the ailing 85-year old Ayatollah can hang in there  to  a million others.  However, give Trump credit for solving this war in less than two weeks.  Israel still has that Gaza Strip problem, and there continues the Ukraine-Russia war, but the world today is in a safer place than yesterday. ...

  The view from our Moxy Hotel room towards the port.  But that does not look like the Queen Mary 2. Taxi to the Queen Mary 2. Checking into any cruise ship is a slow and sometimes painful experience.  This one was no different.  We had been traveling for nearly 6 weeks, so we missed getting an important document that others had.  Took us a bit longer, then, to get through the system, only to find another line.  We were sent to an area with six elevators, but 5 were being used to bring luggage to the rooms.  Waited and waited and finally got to our floor.  However, my suitcase was not there.  This same thing happened on our Tauck Tulip cruise.  My baggage went to another room, and I did not get it until 8PM after I had given up hope.  Some canapés provided by Costco (we worked through them to get this cruise paid) and champagne, provided by the ship. Not much of a view from our veranda. Still no suitcase, so went to dinner. Cocktail...

From  Worldometer  (new  COVID-19 deaths yesterday):           DAY    USA    WORLD      Brazil      India      South Africa 2020 June     9     1093     4732         1185        246       82 July    22      1205     7128         1293      1120     572 Aug    12      1504     6556        1242        835     130 Sept     9      1208      6222       1136       1168       82 Oct     21      1225      6849         571        70...