Tom Faranda's Folly

Pete Rose

Wow. Gone at 83. I was not a fan; he played for the Cincinnati Reds and was (my opinion) an arrogant obnoxious character. BUT he sure could play baseball. He got the deserved nickname Charlie Hustle when Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle commented on him running to first base after being walked!

this is posted on wikipedia -

Rose died at his home in Las Vegas, on September 30, 2024, at the age of 83. He had attended an autograph event in Franklin, Tennessee, the day prior.^[97][98] He was the first player to die while still ineligible after being banned by one of Landis's successors, as well as the first player to die while still ineligible since William D. Cox's death in 1989.

 

Here is the NY Times on Rose -

Pete Rose, one of baseball’s greatest players and most confounding characters, who earned glory as the game’s hit king and shame as a gambler and dissembler, died on Monday. He was 83. His death was confirmed by the Cincinnati Reds, the team with which he spent most of his career. No cause was given. For millions of baseball fans, Rose will be known mainly for a number, 4,256, his total of hits, the most for any player in the history of the game. But he was a deeply compromised champion.

Hamas Commander killed by Israel led UN Refugee Agency Teachers' Union

So Hamas has infiltrated UN Agencies?

A Hamas commander in Lebanon who was killed in an Israeli airstrike overnight was an accredited member of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, the embattled agency confirmed after his death.

While leading terrorist activities, Sherif also headed the UNRWA teachers’ union in Lebanon. Though employed by the U.N. agency, Sherif was suspended without pay in March due to allegations involving “his political activities,” UNRWA told the Times of Israel in a statement.

Pope's politically incorrect message in East Timor: Keep having babies

Yeah very politically incorrect. Excerpt from this column, which is by Phil Lawler in the online magazine Catholic culture, is below the link.

“How wonderful that here in East Timor there are so many children,” Pope Francis said during a homily preached at an outdoor Mass on September 10.

That sentence is not taken out of context—not the sort of line a friendly pastor might toss off to calm down parents of restless children in the congregation. The Pope’s entire homily was about children and birth. In a meditation on the day’s reading from Isaiah (“A child has been born for us, a son given to us”), the Pope remarked that the arrival of a child is “a shining moment of joy and celebration,” a sign of hope.

At the end of the Mass, Pope Francis returned to that theme in impromptu remarks. “I hope you continue to have many children,” he told the faithful of East Timor. He warned them to be wary of foreign influences that might change their attitude toward children, of those who “want to change your culture, want to change your history.”

The mainstream media in the West paid scant attention to the Pope’s natalist message (perhaps because the editorial slant of most major media outlets favors those foreign influences that the Pope decried). But consider how rare it is for a major public figure from Europe to advise a Third World audience to keep having lots of babies. The ideology of Planned Parenthood and Zero Population Growth holds sway in the Western world. And since that ideology has always been heavily infected with racism, the West has come to discourage the birth of babies, but especially the birth of brown and black and yellow babies.

Brigid does dinner with her England crowd

Not the whole England crowd since her nephew Tom, his wife Tamazin (sp?) and their three children aren't there. Names are below the picture.

Clockwise, the seemingly wild-eyed lady is Brigid's saintly sister Libby. Next to Libby is her daughter (and Brigid's niece) Rachel, Rachel's son Richard, Brigid, Rachel's husband Shadi, and their two daughters Charlotte and Lizzie.  Libby has six grandchildren.

Sunday wordle - a failure

Oh well. Lost my 21 day streak. Correct word is RIDER.

Whacko Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones - getting what's coming to him

With his Infowars website and unfortunately he had a following for his "ideas". End of the line for him though - claiming the Sandy Hook school shooting massacre was a "false flag" or never happened.  For more of Alex Jones "thoughts" go here - other opinions

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' Infowars show is likely to be shut down within a few months, after a federal bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday that plans to sell off the assets of Jones’ media company, Free Speech Systems, can move forward. Net proceeds from any sales will go to Sandy Hook families who won some $1.5 billion in damages from Jones for spreading lies that the 2012 school shooting never happened. Some of Jones’ followers harassed and threatened the families for years.

Attorneys for a group of the families called Tuesday’s decision “a significant step forward” toward a “fair and equitable” resolution for all of the families.

“FSS will now be sold at auction, meaning Alex Jones will no longer own or control the company he built,” said attorney Chris Mattei. “This brings the families closer to their goal of holding him accountable for the harm he has caused."

A court-appointed trustee for Jones’ personal bankruptcy case has already begun the process of auctioning off the components of Free Speech Systems, the parent company of Infowars. Listed for sale is everything from production equipment to domain names and the Infowars vitamin and supplement online store.

Saturday wordle - an ace !

Yes, again luck trumps skill.

NY Times: "The Greatest City in the World, Some Really Lousy Mayors"

Fun essay; although they unfairly paint Ed Koch - I think he was an excellent mayor and without a corruption stain. It's not a long article.

You have to go way, way back — to the days of the secular saint Fiorello La Guardia — to come up with a New York mayor unencumbered by enough baggage to sink an ocean liner. Why this is so is open to debate. It may well be that in a city that is the nation’s financial, media and fashion capital, the best and the brightest find local politics a less than worthy pursuit; there are so many other ways to make money and a name for oneself. It is also possible, in a city whose principal defining endeavor has been the pursuit of wealth as far back as when it was called New Amsterdam, that political exigencies and human frailty almost inevitably lead even well-meaning politicians down perilous rabbit holes.

 

Friday wordle

3 minutes.

Friday cocktail: the Fine and Dandy

The guy spends 3/4's of the video talking about the 1930's musical Fine and Dandy (the first successful Broadway musical to feature a complete score by a female composer, Kay Swift)    but I've skipped ahead to the actual making of the cocktail.

Here's a similar recipe - this recipe and the video says it's a shaken not stirred cocktail, but we've done both and stirring is fine. Experiment and vary ingredients to taste. For my taste 3/4 oz. lemon is preferred.

INGREDIENTS

2 oz. gin

1 oz Grand Marnier (or any orange liqueur, we have Grand Marnier on hand)

1 oz lemon juice

Dash of orange bitters (or angostura bitters)

 

Brigid in England - I asked her to send me a selfie; instead -

She sent me this - 

Brigid actually missed her 6PM flight from JFK Tuesday, but they put her on a 9PM one and she made all her connections to her sister Libby's house.

Thursday wordle

Took 3 minutes

 

NYC Mayor Adams responds to his federal indictment

The indictment has something to do with money.

 

New speed record (set by a woman) for completing the Appalachian Trail

Amazing. I've excerpted come stuff below the link but if you are into big sports accomplishments hit the link for the whole story.

One of the most grueling records in American endurance sports fell late Saturday night in northern Georgia. Tara Dower, a 31-year-old ultrarunner and long-distance hiker born in North Carolina and based in Virginia, reached Georgia’s Springer Mountain, the southern terminus of the Appalachian Trail, at 11:53 P.M. She completed the arduous southern thru-hike of the iconic trail, crossing 14 states and 2,197 miles, in 40 days, 18 hours, and 5 minutes. It’s the fastest known time for hiking the iconic trail in either direction.

Her finishing time cleaves approximately 13 hours off the 2018 benchmark set by Belgian runner Karel Sabbe, who in 2018 hiked the trail from south to north. It also returns the overall record to a woman for the first time since 2015, when Scott Jurek eclipsed Jennifer Pharr Davis’ then-record by only three hours.

***********************

“The number of people that have hiked the Appalachian Trail before Tara in less than 50 days is ten, only one of them a woman,” explained Liz Derstine, who set the women’s record for a northbound hike in 2020 at 51 days and joined Dower for a stretch of the trail earlier this week.

“And Tara has done it faster than all of them, including the men,” Derstine added. “This is one of the greatest achievements of all time. It’s huge.”

*******************

Appalachian Trail guru Warren Doyle told me that one of Dower’s secrets to success was her consistent speed on the trail. On most days she hiked slower than Sabbe’s pace, he said, but she traversed more total miles. “She put in longer workdays,” Doyle explained Friday, just as Dower neared the North Carolina-Georgia border. “I hope this puts it to rest: It’s not about speed. It’s about endurance. It’s not the Fastest Known Time. It’s the Shortest Known Time.”

********************

In recent years, as the popularity of FKT attempts have grown, corporate sponsorships and larger support crews on trail have become de rigueur. Dower, however, kept her posse small, with only her mother, Debbie Komlo, and a hiker she befriended on the AT in 2019, Megan “Rascal” Wilmarth, joining her the entire time. (Multiple other hikers others paced her or arrived at assorted trailheads to offer help, but they came and went.)

Dower and Wilmarth slept in a Ford Transit van nicknamed “Burly,” while Komlo trailed them in her Dodge Durango. They worked relentlessly to get her in bed by 10 P.M. and up at 3 A.M., feeding her upwards of 10,000 calories each day. They also replenished Dower’s massive snack box of, as Komlo put it, “not a lot of healthy stuff” with Rice Krispies Treats, Twizzlers, Gushers. Four times a day, Dower downed a 320-calorie protein shake.

“At stops, we just shoveled food into her face,” Wilmarth told me. “We’d always have a sit-down meal, but, of course, she wouldn’t sit down.”

 

 

Wednesday wordle

Two minutes

Cardinal Dolan criticizes Kamala for turning down invite to Charity Al Smith fundraiser

So much for unity. There is a long tradition for both Presidential candidates to attend this NY Catholic Charities fundraiser. Hit the link to see Dolan speaking for one minute on the issue. He says they are still trying to get her to change her mind. The picture is from the 2016 dinner.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan slammed Kamala Harris' surprise move to skip the annual Al Smith dinner, ... The dinner benefitting Catholic Charities traditionally has been used to promote collegiality and good humor, with presidential candidates from both parties appearing on the same night and trading barbs. Donald Trump has attended the dinner in both 2016 and 2020, while Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden - albeit online - also attended when running for president.

Dolan, the Archbishop of New York City, said he was 'disappointed' in Harris' decision to instead campaign in a battleground state less than three weeks before Election Day.

'We were looking forward to giving the vice president an enthusiastic welcome, and we were confident that she would find this – you know, she speaks very much about high ideals and how it's good to get away from division and come together in unity and all,' he said.

He then made a troubling historical point about the last time a Democrat told them no.

'We’re not used to this. We don’t know how to handle it. This hasn’t happened in 40 years, since Walter Mondale turned down the invitation. And remember, he lost 49 out of 50 states. I don't want to say there's a direct connection there, but … we're not giving up,' Dolan said. 

The cardinal, who plays a prominent role in the dinner, has been highly critical of Democrats, writing a 2018 Wall Street Journal op-ed that carried the headline, 'The Democrats Abandon Catholics.' 

Harris' team wants her to spend as much time as possible in the battleground states that will decide the election rather than heavily Democratic New York, a campaign official said Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss campaign plans and confirming a decision first reported by CNN. 

Her team told organizers that she would be willing to attend as president if she's elected, the official said.

The former president and current Republican presidential nominee confirmed in a Truth Social post on Monday that he would speak at the October 17 dinner, calling it 'sad, but not surprising' that Harris had opted not to attend. 

Tuesday wordle

Took quite a few minutes.

"15 Seconds into Kamala interview, Oprah Decides to Endorse Trump"

Haha. I saw several bites from the interview - without a teleprompter Kamala is an airhead.

It only took 15 seconds for Thursday evening's "Unite For America" open forum with Kamala Harris to change Opray Winfrey's mind and lead her to endorse Donald Trump. "I kept thinking, this can't be real life," Winfrey told her best friend, Gayle King, following the star-studded event. "She might actually be retarded.

Harris, who was reportedly enthused about attending the forum since it was a safe space full of political allies who wouldn't ask her tough questions or press her on her answers, still refused to answer questions anyway.

"You know, greens? And grits and — you know, the meat. You gotta' have meat," Harris cackled while answering a question from Jennifer Lopez. "My grandma always said 'If you don't eat, you're gonna get beat' — HAHAHA — and that's why it's important to feel united here at this event, which is, when you think about it, called 'Unite For America.' Think about those words. No, think about them. Unite. We are united. Together. Like X-Men 2, which was also called X-Men United. But think about it. They weren't united, were they? They allied with Magneto and then found out — big surprise — he betrayed them at the last minute. Because he only thinks about himself. Just like Donald Trump."

"And that's how I'll fix the economy."

Viewers were astonished when Winfrey suddenly donned a MAGA hat during the event, though Harris did not appear to notice.

 

Monday wordle

Took 7 minutes

Honest Schlomo Discounts...

From my friend JC.

NY Times on local annoying pest - Spotted Lanternflies,

Brigid hates these things, which do like our back and side yards. Squish is the word. Hit the link for the full article, mostly referencing NYC - not much on the suburbs.

The Squishy Truth About Why You’re Seeing Fewer Spotted Lanternflies Your stomping may have helped trim this invasive insect’s population. But experts say other factors probably explain their reduced numbers around New York City.

Ms. Moore is not the only one who has noticed. Although there is no official count of the insects, spotted lanternflies have been more difficult to, well, spot in the city this summer, experts said. If 2020 was the year the invasive insects took New York City, 2024 might be remembered as the year New Yorkers got their city back.

************************************

“They’re still out there,” said Brian Eshenaur, an invasive species specialist at Cornell University. “But we’re just not seeing them at the numbers we have in the past couple years.”

Could it be that New Yorkers’ fancy footwork has kept the bugs’ population at bay?

“We like to think that we’re making a difference by stomping on the spotted lanternfly,” Mr. Eshenaur said, noting that a single female can lay more than 100 eggs in a season. “So if we’re doing that, yeah, we might be making somewhat of an impact.”

****************************

Over the last few years, some birds, spiders and wasps might have learned that lanternflies could make a tasty meal; these predators might now be helping to keep the lanternfly population in check, establishing a new ecological equilibrium. “I think they’re just integrating into our ecosystem,” Ms. Moore said of the lanternflies.

***********************

“This is the first year we’ve actually seen bugs in our vineyard,” said Kareem Massoud, a winemaker at Paumanok Vineyards on Long Island. This summer brought just a few insect invaders, but Mr. Massoud is bracing himself for a mass arrival next summer.

Unfortunately, he said, there’s not much that he can do to stave off the swarms. But anything that keeps the insects’ numbers down will help. “So keep squashing them,” he said.

***************************

The total reports of lanternfly sightings are down statewide, Mr. Logue said, but it’s difficult to quantify the decline.

As of Sept. 10, the agriculture department had received about 9,800 reports in 2024, compared with 31,200 reports by the same date last year. However, the department has also announced that people living in areas with known lanternfly infestations, including New York City, no longer need to report the insects.

But he and several other experts noted that factors other than squishing the bugs may have more to do with their decline. “You’ll notice I mentioned that one last,” Mr. Eshenaur said in an interview.

Sunday wordle - an ace!

luck and skill.

Just finished "The Chosen", Season Four

What a wonderful series, which gets better and better each year. Brigid flies to England for 15 days on Tuesday to see her sister and we wanted to finish the eight episodes before she left.

It's easy to see The Chosen for free - for instance if you already have Amazon Prime it is available on it. Or you can get the app for your phone and cast it onto your television. Or I suppose watch it on your computer. If you haven't watched it I would suggest you not start with season one - watch the first episode of season four (spoiler alert ... it's about the end of John the Baptist, who is played brilliantly by David Amito. And Amito is a very funny guy!)  and decide if you like it. Then go back and start with season 1, understanding that the first two episodes are about Mary Magdalene and Nicodemus, which some people think is an odd way to start.

Incidentally women play a prominent part in the series, as they did in Jesus' ministry and the early Church.

With shrinking, aging population, China is raising it's retirement age

When you have a one child per family rule - they couldn't foresee this?  note tha their life expectancy - supposedly - is the same as the US. Maybe our 100,000+ deaths a year from fentanyl while china discourages drug use - they execute dealers.

China's retirement ages are currently amongst the lowest globally. Reform is urgent with life expectancy in China having risen to 78 years as of 2021 from about 44 years in 1960 and projected to exceed 80 years by 2050. At the same time, the working population needed to support the elderly is shrinking.

The retirement age will be raised for men to 63 years old from 60, while for women in white collar work it would be raised to 58 years from 55. For women in blue collar work it will be increased to 55 from 50.

The changes are set to come into force on Jan. 1, 2025 and be implemented over a 15 year period.

Having people work for longer would ease pressure on pension budgets with many Chinese provinces already reeling from large deficits. But delaying pension payouts and requiring older workers to stay at their jobs longer may not be welcomed by all of them.

Not mentioned - to qualify for a pension you need to be in the plan for 20 years instead of the current 15.

Saturday wordle

four minutes

Bummer. Tim's Stepinac football teammate & now LV Raider defensive end - Malcom Koonce out for season.

Whew. Koonce had a knee injury just before the season began and it's now been determined he will have surgery. This is his 4th season - end of his contract and he would be hoping to have a great year and then get a big contract from the Raiders or someone else.

He had eight sacks last year in the last nine games, including three in one game on Mahomes when the Raiders beat Kansas City. According to this, if he had a similar good year, he'd be in the 12 to 14 million a year contract area.

Here's a cool 3 minute video of some of his highlights from last year. 

 

Friday wordle

Four minutes

Friday cocktail: "The blur" - sparkling wine and chartreuse

Very similar to "The Last Word" with the sparkling wine subbed for gin.

Favorite Brunch Drinks: How to Make The Blur from Nopa in San Francisco

The drink is flavored with Green Chartreuse, a French herbal liqueur that has been made by the Carthusian monks since the mid 1700s. It's naturally green from the chlorophyll in the 132 plant extracts that go into its flavor; it's pungent and spicy, and a little goes a long way. At Nopa, the Chartreuse brings out the herbal flavors in a flute of sparkling wine, and the mixture balanced with an eye-opening pour of tart lime juice and delicately sweet maraschino liqueur. The result is less like a cocktail and more like improved sparkling wine, and it would be just as welcome as a pre-dinner sip.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 ounces Green Chartreuse

• 1 1/2 ounces Maraska Maraschino liqueur

• 1 1/2 ounces freshly squeezed lime juice, from 1 to 2 limes (I just use bottled lime juice and suggest using only 1 ounce)

• Cava or other dry sparkling wine

Thursday wordle

One minute vid: Delusional Don says he "is going to win NY"

Uh huh. in Uniondale NY. Unfortunately everything else he says in the next 40 seconds is true.

 

"83 year old hiker rescues herself"

In the Catskills. Hope I can manage to get lost and self-rescue overnight when I'm 83!

They were out looking for her all night.

At 12:55 a.m., Forest Ranger Franceschina and local police checked the hiker’s residence and confirmed she had not returned home. Franceschina and Stratton began linear searches over Big Indian and Fir mountains, where she was scheduled to hike.

Wednesday wordle

Archbishop Chaput: "The Pope and Other Religions"

I posted this yesterday, Pope Francis - all religions lead to God?  and the usual suspects complained. I'm just sooo dumb.

Here is just about my favorite prelate, Capuchin Archbishop Charles Chaput on the Pope's comments. It's in the journal First Things. 11 paragraphs, if you hit the link it takes five minutes to read. Gives a different perspective on what the Pope said from the other posting perspective, but both are valid.

Pope Francis has the habit, by now well established, of saying things that leave listeners confused and hoping he meant something other than what he actually said.

At the end of his recent trip to Singapore, the pope left his prepared remarks for an interreligious group of young people and offered some general reflections about religion. Since his comments were extemporaneous, they naturally lacked the precision that a prepared text would normally possess, and so hopefully what he said is not quite what he meant.

According to news reports, Pope Francis suggested that, “[Religions] are like different languages in order to arrive at God, but God is God for all.

**********************

The bishop of Rome is the spiritual and institutional head of the Catholic Church worldwide. This means, among other things, that he has the duty to teach the faith clearly and preach it evangelically. Loose comments can only confuse. Yet, too often, confusion infects and undermines the good will of this pontificate.

Christians hold that Jesus alone is the path to God. To suggest, imply, or allow others to infer otherwise is a failure to love because genuine love always wills the good of the other, and the good of all people is to know and love Jesus Christ, and through him the Father who created us.

Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., is the archbishop emeritus of Philadelphia.

Coming: Radioactive cancer technology

Radiation directly to the cancer cells.

 

Tuesday wordle

Tough. Took ten minutes and then I was a bit lucky.

Investigation begins into the Titan submersible implosion

From the NY Times. The picture below the excerpt is the wreckage, shown at the inquiry.

Titan Submersible Company Neglected Safety Concerns, Ex-Employees Say

The company operating the Titan submersible, which imploded in the ocean last year, killing five people on board, was plagued with equipment problems in the years before the disaster, and had fired an engineering director who would not approve a deepwater expedition, according to testimony at a Coast Guard hearing on Monday.

The Titan had experienced dozens of problems during previous expeditions, including 70 equipment issues in 2021 and 48 more in 2022, investigators revealed on Monday, the first day of two weeks of testimony on what went wrong during the submersible’s ill-fated June 2023 trip to view the Titanic shipwreck on the floor of the Atlantic Ocean.

For part of the winter before the fatal accident, the investigators said, the Titan was stored in bitterly cold temperatures outside a facility in Newfoundland, with no protection from the elements.

Then, less than four weeks before the fatal mission, the craft was tested and then found “partially sunk” two days later, following a night of high seas and fog.

**************************

The first witness was Tony Nissen, a former engineering director at OceanGate, the underwater exploration company that operated the submersible. He was visibly shaken after seeing the Coast Guard’s initial presentation on the long series of problems that plagued the Titan in the months and years before the voyage, and called the problems “disturbing.”

Mr. Nissen said he was fired in 2019 after he refused to approve an expedition to the Titanic wreckage that year because he deemed the Titan’s hull to be unsafe. OceanGate, he said, lied about the problems, and instead blamed the cancellation of that mission on problems with a support ship.

“It wasn’t true,” he said. “We didn’t have a hull.”

He described an earlier instance, in April of 2018, when the Titan was apparently struck by lightning while in the Bahamas for testing. He told the chief executive of OceanGate, Stockton Rush, who later died in the implosion, that there was a good chance that the strike had compromised the Titan’s hull. Mr. Nissen said Mr. Rush refused to believe him, insisting, “It’ll be OK.”

Pope Francis - all religions lead to God?

All the Pope haters immediately jumped to a certain conclusion. Here is what he said in Singapore and a correct interpretation.

 

Monday wordle

Turns out, Trump does not get the "same level of protection" as Biden or Kamala Harris

This is nuts. He's running for President.  The speaker is the Palm Beach County Sheriff, Ric Bradshaw. It's the last 20 seconds of a three minute video.

Sunday wordle

Today, 80th anniversary of Pacific Battle of Peleliu

This was supposed to be a short campaign; it took over two months. Peleliu is a small island near the Philippines and very debatable that it was even needed to be taken. Over 1,600 US troops died - and nearly 11,000 Japanese soldiers. The video is two minutes long.

 

One year ago; That's me, entertaining two hot babes at 10520

People in the know, will know.

 

Saturday wordle

Pope Francis criticizes Trump and Harris over "anti-life" policies

“Both are against life, be it the one who kicks out migrants or the one who [supports] killing babies,” Francis reportedly told journalists during a press conference aboard his papal plane. “Both are against life.”

He argued that Scripture says migration is a right and that anyone who doesn’t welcome a stranger is committing a “grave sin.” In 2016, Francis said Trump’s plans to build a border wall was “not Christian.”

********************

Meanwhile, Francis said Friday that to have an abortion is to “kill a human being.”

“You may like the word or not, but it’s killing,” he said. “We have to see this clearly.”

Harris, if elected, hopes to sign a bill protecting abortion nationwide.

*****************

“One should vote, and choose the lesser evil,” Francis said when asked what American Catholics should do. “Who is the lesser evil, the woman or man? I don’t know.”

“Everyone in their conscience should think and do it,” he said.

The U.S. bishops conference has designated abortion as the “preeminent priority” for American Catholic voters this cycle.

Friday wordle

Four minutes

Yanks beat Red Sox on Judge grand slam homer.

Ahhh the Red Sox. As the man says "Judge cranks one!"

 

Gingrich: "Pope ... Concludes 45th Apostolic Journey Abroad"

This is from Callista Gingrich who is the wife of Newt. I had forgotten or never knew that she had been the US Ambassador to the Vatican. It's a nice summary of his trip and where he visited. Brigid and I did watch some bits on EWTN and youtube. Love this picture.

Pope Francis’s 45th Apostolic Journey to Asia and Oceania was marked by a deep commitment to dialogue, fraternity, compassion, and environmental stewardship – all of which resonate with the core messages of his papacy.

Friday cocktail - by popular request - the Sidecar!

Another three ingredient cocktail - cognac, orange liqueur, and lemon juice - which changes as you vary the ratios. You don't have to sugar the rim, and you can add demarara syrup. The link below the video shows four variations and answers the question of which came first, the cocktail or the motorcycle attachment.

 

1:30 / 7:48 Sidecar Cocktail Three Ways - Best Cognac Cocktail?

Thursday wordle

Four minutes

Singer Jon Bon Jovi talks woman off jumping from a bridge.

Good on Bon Jovi! Here is the short version and a link to a longer - 3 minutes version - is below it.

 

Here's the long version -

Incredible moment Jon Bon Jovi stops woman from potentially jumping off a bridge