The Twelve Days Of Gheorghemas: Day Nine

On the ninth day day of Gheorghe-mas, Big Gheorghe gave to me:

Nine things worth dancing over

3 Genetic Tests on day 8.5

Eight Things I'm Thankful For

Seven Books for Reading

Six Top Episodes of Ted Lasso

Five Beers and Tunes

Four Resolutions

Three Gheorghemas Gifts to Give Yourself

Two Stones of Weight Loss (Your Mileage May Vary)

and Running Gags with Quatro Kitties

While the original musical inspiration for the 12 Days of Gheorghemas had nine ladies dancing, that comes too close to conjuring up images of noodie (as Zman would type) bars in North Jersey.  So instead, Big Gheorghe in all his wisdom focused on highlighting a few things that are worthy of breaking into a little happy dance.  Maybe not Alfonso Riberio Shirtless happy, but here are 9 things that in 2021 might make you happy. 

1. 8.47 BILLION Vaccinations Administered globally:

The politicizing of vaccines both here in the US and in other countries is frustrating, but it is worth celebrating the fact that in 2021 novel new vaccine technologies were brought to market and ~9 billion shots were administered in 184 countries.  Distribution remains lopsided in favor of the wealthiest nations, but we are now administering close to 40 million doses a day and Bloomberg estimates that in another 4 months, 75% of the world population will have at least one does. That is worth celebrating as we look for the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel.  In addition,  as we get older and older, I unfortunately hear my self saying "fuck cancer" more and more often.  The developments in mRNA technologies could provide personalized cancer "vaccines" to target cancer cells.   If we can avoid killing each other, some serious health breakthroughs may be just around the corner.  

2. China Defeated Malaria:  Speaking of the treatment of infectious diseases, after 70 years of fighting malaria, China was successful in 2021 in eradicating the disease.  They went from having 30 million annual cases in 1940 to zero today.  China has been a leader in developing new technologies and providing government support to help stop mosquitos before they spread the disease.  Malaria remains a major global heath issue, with 241 million people being infected in 2020.  You don't have to trust China (or "chiner" as Donnie would say) however, between the roadmap they set out and the new malaria vaccine recently approved by the WHO, there is reason to be hopeful that malaria can be wiped out.  

3. The greatest use of a key change ever: This is so good....seriously I laugh every time.

4.Continued Developments In Space Travel and our Understanding of the Universe: This year a bunch of billionaires along with William Shatner and my wife's old boss shot themselves into space.  The US landed another rover on Mars and it generated oxygen.  There were additional discoveries about black holes and the origins of the universe.  Not bad for a world of people working from home.    Even if you are against plutocrats launching themselves into space, it remains pretty cool that if we can keep from killing ourselves  (anybody sense a theme?) that a true new age of space exploration may be just around the corner.  Plus, you can always take a page out of Elon Musk's playbook and make fun of Jeff Bezos for creating a rocket that looks like a turgid wang. 

5. Live Music Returns:  While I'm not the live music aficionado that some denizens of this backwater of the internet are, I have missed live music a lot during the pandemic.  Little did Whit, Rob & I know back in March of 2020 that the DBT/Carbon Leaf weekend would be the last in person shows we would see in a while.  Jazz Fest did not happen this year, but I have been back to Wolf Trap, the 9:30 Club and our local Tally Ho theatre over the past few months and it feels good.  

6. Bernie Sanders at the Inauguration Memes: This guy wanted to be leader of the free world.   Thanks to Mayor Pete and Amy K dropping out we were saved from Bernie losing to Trump.   But Big Gheorghe didn't bring us Bernie, he brought us the memes and they were glorious.   

  

7. The Yankees did not win the World Series: With the exceptions of Teej and TR, this makes just about every decent human being happy.  

8.Pork Shots at the Texas State Fair: The food network does an annual round up of the best State fair food innovations.  This year, the list can be found here.  It contains some very interesting global offerings like the Kerala Fried Chicken Kati Roll.  It also has some abominations like Peanut Butter & Spicy Jelly Tater Tots or Pickle Pizza.  However, the highlight has to be Port Shots at the Texas State Fair.  I would not be able to do this concoction justice so I will just quote Food Network's thoughts:

At the State Fair of Texas, the competition is steep no matter the category. But in the realm of savory snacking sensations, Glen and Sherri Kusak, the duo behind vendor Hans Mueller, have come up with a bite-sized treat that packs a huge flavor wallop. Their Pork Shots start with a base of Texas smoked sausage that’s wrapped with hickory smoked bacon, forming a miniature bowl that gets filled with creamy mac and cheese. The Kusaks sprinkle the outside with a secret sweet-spicy BBQ rub that pulls all the savory flavors together into a knockout bite that reminds you that everything, including flavor, really is bigger in Texas. The pork shots are served as a shareable treat, but we won’t blame you if you keep the whole order for yourself.

9. The Best Self Defense Video Ever: This is old (2018) but it still makes me laugh every single time.  There are plenty of videos on the internet they try to teach you how to disarm your local insurrectionist or Antifa follower - this one shows how things might actually go down:

Merry Gheorghemas to all and to all a good night!