“It happens. It happens a lot. It’s essential the discarded wife remain dignified. She must not wail and weep, except in the shower when the kids are in pre-school and she’s alone in the suburbs with all the other weeping, wailing wives. The discarded wife must not be bitchy or unkind about the new improved wife. She must suck it up but without developing a sour face. It is better for all concerned if she is thin. “
“Nine Perfect Strangers” Liane Moriarty, Flatiron Books, New York 2018
Boarded an Air Canada flight to London at Toronto’s Pearson Airport to make a connecting flight to Athens. As a flight to Rio was boarding at the same time as my flight to Athens a big commotion and two huge streams of passengers were all mixed. There were also a large group of children with cerebral palsy on the flight that had to be carried to their seats. There was a two-hour delay with all the commotion and good old Air Canada with its supreme customer service ability failed to keep us posted about the delays. The acquisition of Canadian Airlines by Air Canada has caused a mess at Canadian airports. Flights have been cancelled and passengers bumped off oversold flights. My flight to London was oversold by thirty people. How on earth is that possible? Only Air Canada management can answer that. They were offering $200 cash or a $500 voucher. We Canadians love our Air Canada!
Continental breakfast of bagels, crumpets, juice and tasteless New York City coffee. The ATM machine advised me I had no funds available to make a cash withdrawal. I had to phone my bank in Toronto and find out what was going on. In error they had cleared a postdated cheque Two hours later I finally get some cash! Caught a matinee of Amadeus which was superb. It was held at the Music Box Theatre. It has a well used hang dog décor but still was impressive. Had an emergency stop at a McDonald’s restaurant. A real filth pit.
Went to visit sister Barbara and went to a restaurant Patsy’s known for its pizza. The joint was jumping. The pizza, Chianti and the Caesar Salad were excellent. Tomorrow is last day in New York.
“That particular group of solidly married friends was meant to envy her, or they’d pretend to envy her anyway, for all those years, but it seemed that being childless and single in your thirties was very different from being childless and single in your fifties. No longer glamorous. Now kind of tragic.”
Liane Moriarty “ Nine Perfect Strangers”, Flatiron Books, New York 2018
How long will it take wine consumers to put aside their Argentinian Malbec and move to Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon? Given the hype over Argentinian Malbec in the past 15 years with the Argentinian government onside promoting an annual Malbec Day throughout the world it could be some time before Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon matches up and sands proudly beside its Malbecian brother. But remember Chianti, Soave and Lambrusco once had their heyday and crashed to surface and after many years of rehab they resurfaced . Yes remember the Eaton Boys here in Canada. Their lack of management skills it can be argued brought the Canadian retail giant down. Motto is because you are in the spotlight bulbs can and do burn out. One also may want to keep an eye on New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. Some of it is of atrocious quality and it still flies off the shelf. I should add the top RKS Wine red wine in 2022 so far is an Argentinian Cabernet Sauvignon.
Is the Cicchitti 2019 Mendoza Cabernet Sauvignon ready to spar with Mendoza Malbec?
On the nose ample black cherry and blueberry oozes about with traces of cactus pear, shades of chocolate and root beer. The high alcohol content of 14.5% is in the background clamouring for some recognition. I’m not sure that is a good quality to have. Alcohol should be integrated into the wine not hovering above threatening to take all the attention. On the palate the alcohol distracts from the tannins but it may be that they are mild. The palate seems trumped by alcohol so one senses power and little fruit. Unfortunately as the wine opens up an overactive acidity lurches out of the shadows. Ready for a wine mugging?
I find 14.5% in this wine overpowering. High alcohol is not necessarily fatal to a wine. In many cases it can, with great skill, be integrated into the wine so that it is hardly noticeable.
High alcohol and acidity rob the wine of any possible star status.
I think this might pair with venison or a breast of duck with a port wine and cherry reduction sauce.
(Cicchitti Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, Mendoza, Argentina, Bodega Cicchitti, Mendoza, Argentina, $17.00, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 24849, 750 mL, 14.5%, RKS Wine Rating 82/100).
Chapter 4 “Some of the Path of Destruction of COVID-19”
So you now know it originated from Wuhan, China with the co-operation either knowingly or innocently with the American presidential administration.
We know that it gave China a relatively tame go but ravaged Italy and Spain initially and gradually took a severe death toll of 3,678,000 in the United States. Any country or continent without a fully functioning and accessible medical system was not as originally thought hammered mercilessly. When the first wave hit the low African case count perhaps was the most unexpected but not the most surprising. Most Mideast states like Iran and Iraq were pummelled. India and Pakistan were not busted in the chops which as many of my colleagues predicted they would be. Bad reporting the mainstream medical establishment cried. Actually as many of us had concluded their low case count was based on the scientific fact most of the population had not been vaccinated against measles and smallpox. It was incorrectly thought that the vast amount of turmeric, cumin and curry in the mostly vegetarian Indian diet boosted the immunity system of many Indians.
I mention the first wave but there were many more like one in September 2020 we attributed to premature reopening of economies. There were two minor waves in 2021. By the close of 2022 Canada was in its seventh wave.
The September 2020 (which carried on into March of 2021) wave struck with a vengeance as the opening of economies was a green light to “mass murder” a term commonly used by many towards the political decision makers who gleefully opened the economy in a quest to return to normalcy. The fact of so many First Worlders took to flying here and there to be with their families particularly for Christmas and New Years augmented the death toll causing it to be nicknamed the Santa Claus surge. Successive surges of COVID-19 took another 375,000 Americans. Canada lost 75,000 of its citizens and again to due poor diet and health Canada’s First Nation citizens comprised 20,000 of the 75,000 dead. Aboriginal communities throughout the globe suffered the same high death rate. The elderly in Canada’s scandalously ill maintained long term care facilities were virtually eliminated. The lack of measles and chicken pox vaccinations seemed more of an immunity grantor in the Third World countries. The mainstream medial establishment weaned on Big Pharma propaganda and rigged peer studies would never believe a lack of vaccinations was in effect very effective immunity against COVID 19.
So the COVID-19 death toll was very hefty;
Where measles and chickenpox vaccination rates were low it seemed that fact offered some natural immunity to COVID 19.
Then poof, herd immunity kicked in in 2024 and the virus was gone according to the global politico-medico elite. Well viruses are very clever. They never die but rather mutate and so get ready for COVID-19 Plus.
There is more to COVID-19’s history than statistics and we’ll get to that soon.
By the time an incompletely tested a vaccination was ready in late 2020 it was too late because COVID-19 was on its way to continual mutation originating in South Africa which started with the second wave. The efficacy of the vaccine was reduced to lower than 50%. With each new wave Big Pharma licked its greedy chops. A vaccine for each strain. A corporate management’s senior management team’s dream! Big management bonuses funded by fear and manipulated by greed. At one point a silent minority in the medical system seeing countless reinfections amongst the vaccinated began to wonder if the vaccination game was a sham. Of course, challenge the politico medical elite on vaccination efficacy you risked being categorized as a right-wing nut.
You ask were there any “winners”? On a proportional basis Sweden was the country with the lowest death rate due to its strict social distancing, high nutritional standards and excellent socialized medicine. On the other hand Greece with less than a first class medical system acted aggressively throughout the COVID-19 waves did very well almost as good as Sweden. What was their secret? The Mediterranean diet? Any answer is possible with the Wuhan virus!
Up at 7:45 for a shave and shower in a huge marble bathroom. Continental breakfast buffet in the lobby restaurant “Coach House”. My goodness coffee in New York City so far has been mediocre. Fruit juices and bagels. Out on the streets at 10:45. Off on the subway to Times Square. Full of small-town tourists with their mouths open snapping pictures. Lots of hustlers shaking down small towners. “Special Tours”, discounted meals at restaurants and shoddy souvenirs. Walked down the street for many blocks to the home of Eloise, The Plaza. Then to MOMA with a good selection of Picassos and Warhol. Lunch in the bustling restaurant in the basement of soup, frittata and fresh rolls. What a filthy and revolting bathroom real Istanbul quality! A stroll along 5th Avenue full of gringos gawking at the windows of the fashion house shops. Went to meet sister Barbara at Cabana the Cuban restaurant she has been raving about. The chicken wings and coconut shrimp were worth all the sisterly hype. Nice decor and a good time was had by all.
Chapter 3 “Where Did COVID-19 Originate?”
The “Big Daddy” as we now call COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China. Well sort of. There was some manner of fallacy when the late President of the United States Donald J. Trump called COVID-19 the “Wuhan Virus” or the “Chinese Virus”. Time has since renamed him the “Lysol President” quite a compliment for a president who launched a failed coup d’etat. The “China Virus” and “Wuhan Virus” became known as the Sino-American virus by those people in the know looking to apportion responsibility.
The virus originated in a secret laboratory in the United States in early 2018 in an attempt to create a super-virus that the United States would unleash upon its enemies of which it had many. Hand in hand with the creation of the virus United States Big Pharma was also developing a vaccine to protect its own citizens and those of it allies against this super virus. The nuclear era was to end and was to be replaced by something more deadly and once the vaccine was manufactured it could be sold by Big Pharma for a huge profit.
The Lysol President had just about been ruined on somewhat of a regular basis by “whistle blowers” and his horrific stewardship was rewarded with two impeachment attempts. Well a guilty US research scientist blew the whistle on what she thought was an attempt to supplant God. Yes a fundamentalist Christian the FBI had failed to thoroughly investigate!
It is unknown if President Trump had any knowledge of the research project nor how far the whistleblowers whistle had penetrated the administration of the Office of the President. What is known that a very high ranking American intelligence official had the project transferred to Wuhan, China to a bio-medical research laboratory on the outskirts of Wuhan where a joint team of Chinese and American scientists in an attempt at rapprochement were to work on the project together. Chinese American relations had been through a rocky period at the time due to tariff wars and American suspicion about China’s 5G telecommunications network but matters had been temporarily satisfied to the satisfaction of the Chinese and American governments. Both the United States and China were becoming a bit jittery with the expansionist moves of the great dictator Putin of Russia despite his botched invasion of Ukraine. Perhaps there was more to this than we know now but the whistle-blower had “fallen out” of a window at her condominium so what further information she may have had was taken to her grave.
Well a sloppy duo of researchers working late at night in the Wuhan research facility dropped a vial of the virus they were working on which exploded upon hitting the floor sending shards of glass through the scientists’ protective suits. The clean up or cover up was immaculate other than some of the liquid in the vial staying on the skin of one of the scientists. Working late these two scientists had decided to grab a bowl of noodles and bat brains at Wuhan’s “Wet Market”. Well that is where COVID-19 seems to have originated if leaked Chinese security documents were correct. One of the scientists then headed on a European vacation to Italy and to Spain for two weeks and we all know now how COVID-19 spread so quickly to Italy and Spain. Chinese tourists and international travel soon spread COVID-19 throughout the globe.
So yes COVID-19 reared its ugly head in China in late 2019 but to say it was a “Wuhan Virus” or “China Virus” is inaccurate. It was the result of Sino-American co-operation and good old negligence. The Wuhan laboratory strangely burnt down due to an “electrical malfunction”. Remaining vials were removed prior to the “electrical malfunction” and incinerated and we medical specialists often wonder what about the vapours from the incineration. Did a cloud of infectious airborne particulate matters coat part of Wuhan?
We are all so tired of COVID and are now facing a seventh wave. Understandably you may not want to watch “Another Spring” or perhaps you have a keen interest in witnessing how a smallpox outbreak in 1972 Yugoslavia was managed effectively.
Ground zero was Muslim clergyman Ibrahim Hoti who travelled to Iraq on a Hajj and most likely contracted smallpox at a bazaar in Baghdad and brought it back to Yugoslavia on February 15,1972 after his long bus trip. Diagnosis took some time as Yugoslavia had its last smallpox case in 1930. Most of the country had been previously vaccinated and it was thought the first cases were an allergic reaction to penicillin. The first correct diagnosis was on March 14, 1972 in Kosovo and the disease spread to Belgrade. The Yugoslav government reacted with lightning speed responding with a mass revaccination campaign of close to 18 million citizens, strict quarantine and declared martial law. By May 8th smallpox was squashed in Yugoslavia.
The archival footage most in slow motion and black and white with a spooky soundtrack adds starkness and seriousness. And smallpox you can see is a vicious disease covering the body with sores so the body looks like a gigantic sore. It liquifies its victims many who hemorrhage to death.
There were only 35 deaths in Yugoslavia and 175 infections.
Draw the lessons you want from the documentary but it might cause you to think:
Oddly enough I spent some 3 months in Yugoslavia in 1972 just after the outbreak. In those days one travelling to Europe had an up-to-date smallpox and cholera vaccination.
This 2022 documentary is a French/Serbia/Qatar production directed by Mladen Kovačević.
Washington State red wines seem to be on an impressive role according to RKS Wine.
Can the streak continue with a High Heaven Majestic Pines 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Columbia Valley? Heading south to California quality Cabernet Sauvignons can run a hefty price tag. And in the under $30 price range it is a chore to find a winner.
On the nose the Majestic Pines Cabernet Sauvignon blueberry rules the roost with strong supporting roles for black cherry and an extras performance from milk chocolate. A full-bodied wine with reticent tannins. Big Washington cherries on the palate. Medium length finish. Not complex but very well constructed. Portobello burgers or Mushroom Wellington might be a majestic match and for the carnivore beef burgers or pasta with a corned beef sauce.
80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Merlot.
Nice to have a Cabernet Sauvignon not aged in oak. This one aged two years in stainless steel.
Washington’s winning ways continue.
(High Heaven Majestic Pines 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley AVA, High Heaven Vineyards, Prosser Washington, $19.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 15671, 750 mL, 13.8%, RKS Wine Rating 90/100).
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