First, the news of the day. Al Jazeera  says excessive U.S. demands led to failure of talks. BBC  indicated that oil prices are rising?   Are they? Checking American WTI crude for the past month, the price seems to have recently stabilized in the mid $95/barrel range. Interesting that European Brent Crude prices are now around $12/barrel higher than the WTI price . The other newsworthy item is that the  2-hour marathon threshold was finally attained, twice. The first marathon over the official distance was won by American   Johnny Hayes   at the   1908 Summer Olympics , with a time of 2:55:18.4. [ 17 ] This distance of 26 miles plus 385 yards was established in 1921. Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya lowered the record in the 2011 Boston Marathon to 2:03:02, followed by countryman Moses Mosoc in 2:03:06. In  2019, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge ran a specially tailored race in Vienna called the .50 Challenge, arranged by British billionaire Jim Ratcliffe....

Our final leg of this Viking Octantis cruise will take us from Quebec to Toronto.  Let me continue with two days of meals.   Slept through breakfast.  Lunch was okay.   Plus. Ended with a coffee sugar cone, Dinner. A nice German Riesling with a bit of sparkle. Steak. Salmon. Ended with a Chocolate Decadence. At this point we cruised past Montreal. A casino, I'll say more about this Biosphere when we return to Montreal in August. The moon was out. We skipped breakfast, but had a truly wonderful lunch.  Well, I'm allergic to crustaceans, so had very little of the following. This was my lunch.  Two soups, huge salad with a Norwegian hot dog, plus Bloody Mary and beer. But then, as we were having lunch, the Octantis went through the Massena, New York locks. Ship rose at least 20 feet, and probably more.  The water level increases as we near Lake Ontario. Had a peanut butter sugar cone at the end of the show. Tonight I'll feature our Entertainment...