SPAM, WAGYU, MATSUTAKE AND BREAD

Financial Times provides frequently updated electoral college information on Biden vs Trump.  Ignore all the hype you will hear.  Go to this site for the true data.

Here is an interesting graphic by The New York Times:

Donald Trump actually leads Joe Biden in the age category from late forties to mid sixties, then also high seventies to low eighties.  Interesting.  Further:

But winning only a couple of slices of the country’s age spectrum isn’t enough to win a presidential election. The CNN and NBC polls both showed Trump trailing by double digits nationwide. New polls yesterday showed him losing in Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

From Slate:

...he’s on that monoclonal antibody cocktail that we don’t even know the side effects to, because it hasn’t been well studied. Then he’s on the remdesivir, which is really a brand new medication in the context of COVID, which itself can cause alterations to your brain and your behavior. And then add on the steroids. It’s just very hard to parse out in the context of lots of different things happening and having a potential effect on his brain right now.

About steroids:

We tell people that it can make them feel really hyper. It can make them behave very strangely. I’ll warn family members that they may see a personality change just so that people are aware. If somebody already has a preexisting condition like anxiety or a psychotic disorder, we’re very, very careful about that decision to prescribe steroids, because for some patients, it’s actually not worth it. I’ve had patients who say, “I have terrible anxiety and steroids, even though I need it for my asthma exacerbation, steroids are actually worse.”

I was sent this 8 min 30 sec clip on how important SPAM is to Hawaii, so I thought I'd revisit this processed meat, which I reviewed two and a half years ago:

     IS THERE ANY FOOD WORSE THAN SPAM

That can of Spam in this photo from that posting?  Still have it.  The expiration date is next month.

Thus, I felt compelled to take my meal enhancement to the opposite extreme.  I had a piece of Japanese Wagyu Beef from Miyazaki in my freezer, and noticed the first appearance of Matsutake Mushroom at Marukai.

The wine:

As Japanese Wagyu Beef sells for $100/pound at Marukai, note that this Matsutake Mushroom only went for $60/pound.  But this is because the quality was low.  I did not get that sought after essence of fragrance that in Japan can command $1,000/pound.

Sticking to food, I add this heart-touching tale about bread, an old lady and wisdom of Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia:

I tend to question this sort of tale, so went to Snopes.  If you have any time, read that very long review.  Their conclusion was that there was something close to this story that might have happened in Indonesia, but they found no conclusive proof that LaGuardia, of later airport fame, was involved with this story.  At one time I placed this landing site as the worst in the world.  However, it is being upgraded for re-commissioning next year.

I'm now at #80 of my favorite tunes, and it is To Know Him is to Love Him, by the Teddy Bears.  The song was released just when I was starting my freshman year in college, and transitions tend to be emotional.  My roommate thought the Him was God or Jesus.  Only when researching for this posting did I learn that TNHitLH is on the gravestone of Phil Spector's dad, who committed suicide.  Phil not only wrote the music, but was one of the three Teddy Bears, the only group he ever joined.

Seven years ago I published an article that became one of my most popular:  The 60's--Girl Grooves.  Here are a couple of quotes:

The Ronettes began as a family act and originally were of African-American, Cherokee, Irish-American and Puerto Rican heritage.  The lead singer, Veronica Bennett, changed her name to Ronnie, from which came the Ronettes, and she certainly took a roller coaster of a life, beginning with their linkage to Phil Spector.  In 1963 they recorded Be My Baby, featuring Phil's Wall of Sound. 

Cher performed her first back-up vocal for this song.  She was then the girlfriend of Sonny Bono, who was working for Spector, who began living with Ronnie.  They eventually got married.  The Ronettes accompanied the Beatles on a 14 stop tour through America in 1966.  But Phil kept Ronnie home in jealousy, so the group had to completely reconform.  His mental illness was already undoing him (to the right more recently).  RS after divorcing PF reformed an entirely new Ronettes, but that failed.  Ronnie Spector  (left) continues to tour today.  She turns 70 on August 10.

Of course, there is that recent turmoil in Phil Spector's life, who in 2009 was convicted of second degree murder.  Here are Helen Mirren as his lawyer and Al Pacino as PF in the 2013 movie entitled Phil Spector, suggesting that, perhaps, there were extenuating circumstances.  

He is now 81 years old and will be eligible for parole in 2025.

Typhoon Chan-Hom brought a lot of rain to Japan, but the eye turned away from Japan:

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