NEWS OF THE WEEK

The country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) was hit by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake the killed and injured thousands.  It was located near the city of Mandalay.

The State of Utah has passed a ban on floridation of drinking water.  Already, less than half of the state was using it.  Utah is the first state to order a ban.  Most European countries forbid it.

The USPS (US postal service) has issued a "Betty White" stamp; it is a "forever" stamp with her picture on it.  I am going to have a professional photographer take one of me for when my stamp comes out.

Last week's movie box office leader, "Snow White," fell way down this past weekend - word of mouth must have been bad.  The new leader is "A Working Man".  It's a thriller starring one of my favorites, Jason Statham.  

South Korean city governments are offering financial aid to young singles if they will marry and have children.  The birthrate in that state has fallen to .75 births per woman.  A country needs a little over 2 births per woman to maintain stability in their population.    

There is a twenty-year-old man from Virginia who is doing things on ice that no one thought possible.  World Individual title holder, Ilia Malinin, is amazing.  Go to YouTube and see what he can do.  

The Trump administrations tariffs hit the fan this week and the world is in shock.  The stock market guys don't know what to think so they are bailing out to see what happens.  Countries around the world are trying to decide how to react.  Not everyone agrees on what will happen.  

The US Department of Health and Human Services laid off 20,000 workers this week.  The total of all layoffs this year is now at about 55,000 plus about 75,000 who accepted buyouts.  How many people work for the federal government, anyway?  

Four brave souls, a cryptocurrency entrepreneur, a filmmaker, a robotics engineer and a polar explorer with a medial background, hopped in a SpaceX ship, atop a rocket  and went into orbit north to south over our poles.  They spent about 4 days up in space doing experiments and got back in one piece.  

They have announced a four movie deal to cover the lives of the Beatles - each man separately.  It will air in 2028.  I'm afraid that by then, most of their fans, me and my friends, will be dead.

Hooters restaurants filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  They now are in the same fix as Red Lobster, TGI Fridays and Buca di Beppo.  There seem to be a lot of Mexican and Chinese places to take their place.  

Russia is drafting 160,000 more young men to the military.

Robert Casey was installed as the Archbishop of the Greater Cincinnati archdiocese.  He replaces Dennis Schnurr who was forced to retire because of his age.  

Scientists have developed a blood test that can diagnose Alzheimer's disease with 92% accuracy.  It can distinguish between early and late-stage,.

The NFL has announced it could potentially play as many as 10 games out of the country by 2026 and maybe an 18 game regular season schedule.  

TikTok got a six month reprieve on it's forced sale to a non-Chinese entity.  Keep Tik'n kids.

NEWS OF THE WEEK - SPORTS

SPORTS EDITION

The final four college basketball teams were decided.  They will have a small one-and-out tournament this weekend in San Antonio to crown a champion.  Tonight we have Duke University with a high school aged man-child leading them; one of the top scoring teams ever, being coached by a young upstart versus Houston University coached by a guy whose been around the block way too many times, with five scrapy sorts who play defense for 40 minutes like their life depended upon it.  You can also watch Auburn University, led by a do-it-all super-star with a banged up elbow, who play close games every day and are coached by a grizzled veteran versus The University of Florida who play more players than other teams would dream of and are coached by a young guy who doesn't know any better.  Can't wait.   

The Cincinnati Reds completed the first week of their season on Thursday and no one knows what to think.  They lost two to the Giants - in one they gave up a lead in the ninth.  The Texas Rangers came to town and we creamed them 14-3; scoring more runs than in any game last year.  The next two games were lost despite sterling pitching performances.  They traveled to Milwaukee and the Brewers were treated to the same scenario that the Rangers enjoyed.  Another 1-0 loss; the third in a row.  On Friday, the Reds finally broke the drought but it wans't enough - losing 3-2.  As of today, the Reds stand 2-6; yuk.

The UC Bearcat basketball team played in a new made-up tounrament in Las Vegas called the crown.  They won their first game and lost the second.  The amateur college basketball players got $30k to split by the first win and missed out on $50k with the loss.  What are we doing here?

FC Cincinnati edged Nashville SC last weekend 2-1 to bring their record to 3-2-1 and 8th place in the MLS.  They host the NE Revolution tonight.  I find it hard to keep up with the soccer boys.

The Bengals are sitting tight and playing the waiting game with Trey Hendrickson, their All-Pro edge rusher.  They're also not signing available free agents.  I think they're waiting for the draft to see how it goes.  This is a calculated risk they could lose.  

XU announced that Rick Patino's son, Richard, would be their new head mens basketball coach.  The Italian father and son duo are both coaching at Catholic universities.   Say it isn't so.  

We're heading into "Masters" week.  In America, the most prestigious of all tournaments, will held in Augusta, GA, if it's not under water, beginning on Thursday.  The bookmakers are putting their money on Scottie Scheffler.  Rory McIlroy, John Rahm, Ludvig Aberg and Colin Morikawa follow him. in that order.  Tiger Woods is not ready to compete.      

KEEPING THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE

Here's a random thought I had the other day while seperating and folding a large load of laundry I took out of the dryer.  I may have been feeling sorry for myself.

"My mother had to iron most of the clothes she washed in our ringer washing machine for a family of five after hanging them to dry in the basement or back yard."  

Keep things in perspective.

LANGUAGE

 Not everyone had the opportunity to learn Latin in school as I did.   So, I'm going to give you a phrase you can use.  It's about as easy as they come.  Say it just as it looks.  Impress your friends.

"Spiro, spero"

Literally it says, "I breathe, I hope" 

The essence of the thought is "never give up, fight until your last breath."

Good advice.

MIDWEEK PRAYER

 Here is verse I've pilfered from a card passed out at a funeral.  The funeral people are a good resource for this type of thing.  They know how to touch people. (Pun inteneded)  These are intended to be the words of the deceased to her family and friends.  (I have made some changes - I hope you all like it)

Life is like a vapor.

On the side where you remain

it is there where time goes on

filled with joyful, timeless days.

I am quite alive, you see

and waiting here for you.

So, please live your life

with joy and love

until you are timeless, too.

We will laugh again together

When life will have no end.

No, this is not goodbye at all

It is, I will see you then.

Here is the picture on the other side of the card which attracted it to me.

  

VERY INTERESTING

 No one knows for sure, of course, but scientists think it is a good estimate that about half of all people lived before the year 1 AD.  Think about that.  It's been 2,025 years since then.  Before that were many thousands of years.  Now we have more people making more people. 

The above is not an April Fool's joke.  Here is my April Fool's joke.  I hope the ink holds out.

_                ,                _                        _      -                   _       !

😂

QUIZ

 Lots of people are eaten up by March Madness right now.  The Final Four will play next weekend to determine the tournament champion.  Here's a quiz you can grade yourself, ask other to help or quiz others.  

I've been exploring the cast of 64 "institutes of higher learning" involved in the tourney.  They each have a nickname.  I guess it's mandatory.   Of the 64 schools, 38 use an animal (not human) as their nickname. The other 26 use some kind of heroic person or identifier with meaning to the locals.  I'm going to list these 26 for you.  See how many schools you can identify.  Extra credit if you know the origin of the ones marked with an *  Have fun!

Aggies (2)

Trojans

Colonials

Commodores

Zips*

Flames

Mountaineers

Sooners

Spartans (2)

Tritons*

Volunteers

Gaels*

Raiders

Cyclones

Red Storm

Illini

Warriors

Cowboys

Rebels

CrimsonTide*

Boilermakers

Tar Heels*

Muskateers

SON DAY

 Happy Son Day!  

At least say hello to the Son.  

Thank Him for all the wonderful gifts you have been given.  

NEWS OF THE WEEK

 Last Friday, George Foreman passed away at the age of 76.  He made a fortune hitting people in the grill  and selling grills.  RIP  The two-time Heavyweight Champion boxer and Olympic Gold Medal winner had five sons (among his 13 children) and he named them all George Foreman.  

Columbia University had refused to make changes to it's DEI program until the President canceled the steady stream of money the government had been giving them for research and other use.  They did make the changes requested last Saturday. 

We have negotiators going back and forth between meetings with Ukraine and Russia trying to work out a common agreement to stop their war.  Good Luck.

The Pope has evidently recovered from his bout with pneumonia enough to go back to his quarters in the Vatican.  He had spent 38 days in the hospital.  

The NCAA mens basketball tournament wittle itself down to the final 16 teams and by tomorrow night their will only be four teams left.

Some scientists think that lonely people have begun to rely on ChatGPS and other AI applications for companionship.  They do talk back to you so kindly.

A group from the Department of Defense exchanged information about our military actions in Yemen on an application called.Signal.  Signal offers encrypted conversations but that doesn't work when you have a news reporter mistakenly included in the chat group.   Egg on their face!

23andMe has filed for backruptcy protection.  They have a lot of personal information about people (15 million or so)  that they could share.  Not gooed!

Trump is still using tariff threats as a means to get other countries to confirm to his liking. Will it work?

Scientists discover that marathon runners use up breain-cell insulation called myelin during races.  It takes about 2 months for them to recover.

Last weekend's box office receipts show that newcomer, Snow White, was on top of the movies playing.

The US stock market indicators were all down this week.  

South Korean automaker, Hyundai, announced 1 $21B investment in new plants in the US.

George Clooney is on the Broadway stage in a play called "Good Night, and Good Luck".  It set a record for income in its first week.  

The Reds opened their season by blowing a lead with two outs in the ninth inning.  What's new/

SPHERES

 You're about to hear more about spheres than you ever dreamed you would hear.  It won't hurt.  Learning something, for the most part, is harmless.

You are standing on Earth; within it's atmosphere.  Looking upward your eyes will see in order the troposphere (that's all around you and about 6 miles up), the stratosphere (airplanes can fly up there to about 30 miles up), the mesosphere (now we're into weather balloons and special planes from 30 miles to about 60 miles up), the thermosphere (watch out, there are satellites flying around here, it extends to 375 miles up), and the exosphere (here's where you'll see the space station or our distant satellites, it goes all the way to 6,200 miles up).  There is an ionosphere which overlaps several of these spheres and bounces radio waves back to Earth.  If you're wondering about the ozone layer, it's up there within the stratosphere. 

You may have heard of all that but you may not have heard about the spheres looking downward.  

The Earth is, on average, about 8,000 miles wide.  That's the mean diameter, give or take.  That tells us  that it is about 4,000 miles to the center of the Earth.  It's not just all mud.  We have some spheres involved there, too. 

You are standing on the crust.  More of the crust is under water but I assume you aren't standing on the ocean floor.  If you dig down a little ways, you'll be into the Mantle of the Earth.  The first 60 miles downward is know as the Lithosphere.  Dig past that for another 370 miles and you've been digging in the Asthenosphere.  Are your fingernails dirty yet?  Now, the next 1,430 miles down is called the Mesosphere part of the Mantle.  

If you've kept up with the math, you're down 1,800 miles right now.  You have reached the Core of the Earth.  The Core is made up of two parts, the Inner and Outer Core.  Remember, the whole distance to the center is about 4,000 miles.  The Outer core goes on for about 1,400 miles which puts you 3,200 miles below ground as we know it.  That leaves another 800 miles of Inner Core.

There will be a test on this next week.  I just love this stuff.

AGING

I'm technically 79 years old but I always claim to be 80 when people ask.  There are so many things people would never ask an 80 year-old to do.  It sounds so decrepit.  People expect much less . . .  and it makes my golf handicap seem better.  

I try to never allow aging to get me down; it's way too hard to get back up. Medical people are always asking if you fell down recently.  If you say "yes" or "no" it doesn't matter.  It never changes anything they do.  I wish they would at least say, "Glad you were able to get back up."

Today is opening day for the Reds (weather permitting).  Old people love baseball.  It moves as fast as they do.  Every bit of action is followed by a pause so there brain has time to catch up to what happened.  Go Reds!

MIDWEEK PRAYER

 Yesterday, our Church celebrated an event that changed everything.  The event is related in the gospel of Luke.  We call it the Annunciation (announcement).  An angel appeared to a teenage girl in Nazareth who had been promised in an arranged marriage to a man named Joseph.  Joseph was a woodworker and descendent of the House of King David.  The young girl accepted the invitation that the angel proposed.  She said, "I am the Lord's servant, may it happen to me as you have said."  Of course, her name was Mary.  The angel, in order to impress on Mary that what he was saying was true, disclosed that her very old aunt, Elizabeth, was six months pregnant.  Mary left immediately to see Elizabeth and to verify that it was true what the angel said.  When Mary got to Elizabeth's house in a different city, to visit and help her.  When Mary arrived, Elizabeth said in essence, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you. Blessed are you among all women and blessed is the fruit of your womb."  We now say, "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death."

BRAZIL

 Not sure why, but I've been thinking about Brazil lately.  How much do we really know about it?

Did you know that it was not only the largest country in South America, it is the fifth largest in the world.  The list goes Russia, Antarctica, Canada, United States, then Brazil.  Larger than India and Australia.  Brazil is the seventh largest country by population.  The list goes India, China, United States, Indonesia, Pakistan, Nigeria and then Brazil.  Yes, larger than Bangladesh, Russia, Mexico and Japan.  So, any way you look at it, it's big.

Here's some facts:  it's official language is Portuguese.  it's government is a republic like ours.  it has it's own currency, the Real (100 centavos makes one Real) dollar.  the religious conviction is 75% Christian with 49% Catholic.  

The capitol of the country is Brasilia and the largest city is Sao Paulo.  Their climate ranges from rainforest in the north to semi-arid sub-tropic in the south.  The most popular sport in the country is football (the soccer kind).  Auto racing sports are also very popular.  

Now, there is Rio de Janeiro, the second most populous and certainly the most famous city in the country.  From Mardi Gras party to sparkling beaches to Christ the Redeemer overlooking the city, it is world famous. 

Now I remember why I was thinking of Brazil?   Nuts!   I love those big babies.  They go quickly from the mixed nuts can.  Do they really come from Brazil?

LANGUAGE

Of course, languages interest me very much.  I have too much trouble with English to learn any others.  English words keep me plenty busy. 

I came across a Japanese word that I just love.  Most words in English embody a single thought.  I'm told that Chinese symbols convey meanings beyond just a single meaning but a complete thought. 

Okay, this is what I'm talking about.  I really have no idea if this is correct but it is so beautiful that I hope it is.  I use it all the time now.  The word is "KUCHISABISHII".   Kuchisabishii is not hard to say.  Break it down:  "Coo chee sa beesh ee'."  At least that's the way I say it.  I have no reference to go by.  Here's the definition I have:  "I'm not hungry but I'm eating something because my mouth is lonely."  Is that great or what?  The "lonely mouth" thing is a little far out but it conveys the idea.  One eats, sometimes, for no good reason except to pass the time . . . or just because it's been a long time since you've eaten last.  

It's sad but it does happen.  Does it happen to you?  

Now it sounds like the words a mother says to her young child when tickling and trying to induce laughter - "koochie koochie koo"  or "coochie coochie coo."  Babies eat all the time - sometimes it's only food that keeps them quiet.  I'm the same way.

Please never tickle me!

SON DAY

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT.  

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE.