My first posting on Monday said: Here it is, Monday morning, when I review what happened over the weekend and what is to come this week, and there is almost emptiness. I then went on to write about a non-news item.  Well, I was right.  Nothing much happened this week. Before going on to my topic of this Saturday, I can report that this will be the longest summer ever.  How?  What? Monday, May 25 is Memorial day, which has become the unofficial beginning of summer. Labor Day, the unofficial end of summer will come on September 7. This 105-day period is the longest summer you will ever experience in your life. Of course, if you're old enough, you saw a 105-day summer in 2015. And this happened 17 times more since 1900. Ethel Caterham from the UK is 116 years old. If she is still alive on Memorial Day, this will be her 17th longest summer.  Well, 16th until Labor Day this year. This matter of official summer length is, actually, quite complicated. The astronomical...

  A few postings ago, I was musing on how travel and movies are related.  For example: I enjoy those films that occur in places I have visited. Sometimes, those movies allow me to live vicariously, that is, transpose myself into certain settings. Then, too, there are places I will never visit because they are too physically challenging or dangerous or not within my current need for luxury. So here are a few films that allow me to enjoy them as a safe watcher, for I would not ever want to in that location or situation. To start, I noticed there were free films from SLING on my Roku site, so I thought I'd give them a try.  I hate cold and will never again go to Russia.    Transsiberea n  appeared to be just about right.   Rotten Tomatoes  gave ratings of 91 by reviewers and 65 by audiences.  When there is a huge discrepancy between the two, I usually like audience over reviewers.  However, the awfulness factor seemed attractive s...

 I retired in 1999 at the age of 59, so I've had a quarter century of bliss.  But more about that later. Then there is Bette Nash.  She passed away last month at the age of 88.  She was an avid New York Yankees fan, and last lived at a retirement community in New Hampshire. Was born in 1935. Hired in 1957 by Eastern Air Lines as a legal secretary, but attended its charm school and became a stewardess in 1958, the year I graduated from high school. Kept working as a flight attendant through her marriage to James Nash in 1973, and had a son, who has suffered from Down syndrome.  She continued working. Switched to Trump Shuttle in 1989 after Eastern's shuttle and 17 aircraft were sold to Donald Trump. But, as most of Trump's enterprises fizzled, including this one, she moved to U.S. Airways Shuttle, which became American Airlines Shuttle in 2015 when those companies merged. Honored by American Airlines for 60 years of service , given diamond earrings by chairman CE...

In a word, yes, you should continue to worry about Covid-19 when you travel.  Although we luckily avoided getting sick on our 53-day world journey, just around the time we returned, three of the residents at 15 Craigside where we live came back from trips and tested positive.  I also learned that we have a resident who traveled outside of Hawaii on three occasions after the pandemic was declared over, and each time contracted this virus while on the road.  They were all up-to-date in every Covid vaccination, including the latest booster.  But because of that, symptoms were mild. As I once devoted Thursdays to this disease, let me today bring you up to date on the latest info. In 2017, the leading causes of deaths in the USA were heart disease, cancer and accidents. During the pandemic, Covid-19 replaced accidents at #3. In 2023: Heart disease:  702,880 Cancer:  608,371 Accidents:  227,039 Covid-19:  186,552 Stroke:  165,393 Respiratory causes...