Apparently,  there are about 165 million salmon caught every year (Google AI). Seems like a lot. Makes you question whether it’s even worthwhile to be a salmon.

But it may be that if Edie and I stopped eating salmon, the catch would be considerably smaller. Consider this weekend. Friday night, Hannah and her family came over, and we had salmon. I either overbought or they underate, so Saturday Edie and I had salmon for lunch. Saturday night, we ate at friends’ house and they served salmon. Sunday, we had lunch at a restaurant with Edie’s cousins, and without considering our recent past, we both ordered salmon.

Last night, going with friends (2/3 visiting from Seattle), we said, “basta!” and ordered pasta.

The moral of this story is……non-existant.

What else? Oh, yes. Winter vacation.  We have nothing planned. But we thought it would be nice to go some place warm and interesting for a week or so during February or early March, and I thought about Panama City. There is an old city, modern high rises,  a beach or two, a canal (yes, my process was indeed “a man, a plan, a canal, Panama” or was it the reverse?), trips to rain forests and more  including – believe it or not – dozens of kosher restaurants. Then, our president-elect says we are (he is) going to take back the Panama Canal (remember when that was called Indian giving? for shame), and we think Americans might be personae non grata.

So maybe we should just go to Greenland and see the Northern Lights. Whoops. Same problem. But we could also see the Northern Lights from parts of Canada. Whoops, again. Maybe we should just stay where we are.

Some people living in other countries may wonder if Americans are excited to have a president who wants  to more than double our size. Let me just say this. Manifest Destiny ain’t what it used to be.

At any rate, and on a very different topic, I have been called to active duty and will soon be leaving for deepest Nebraska to join my NORAD crew mates tracking Santa tonight. It promises to be very exciting. In many households, Santa will be served latkes, not cookies, and we are not sure whether his belly full of jelly will approve or whether he will have to curtail his flight. He has also been warned to stay out of the skies of New Jersey for obvious reasons, but he may not listen to us. The weather report for Trenton, therefore, is “cloudy, with a chance of latkes”.

And with that, good tidings to all. Etc Etc.