Usually, by the time I sit down to write a post, I have some idea of what I am going to write about. Today, I don’t, so we will just have to see what happens.

Baseball: First, let me say that I am happy with the way the Major League playoffs are turning out, although I have not been paying close attention. I am fairly neutral as to the winner of tonight’s game between the Cubs and the Brewers, although I’d probably root for the Brewers quietly. Not sure why. The winner of that game will play the Dodgers for the National League pennant. I don’t like the Dodgers or the Phillies (the Dodgers won their series), but I would have rather watched the Phillies (since they have three Nats – Harper, Turner and Schwarber). I would root for either the Cubs or the Brewers over the Dodgers.

As to the American League, what could be better than a playoff series between Seattle (the only team never to have been in a World Series) and Toronto (the only team representing the remaining English speaking (okay, and French speaking) democracy in North America. I am not sure I have a favorite in that series; I want them both to win.

Nobel Prizes: I find it interesting that the prize for literature went once again to someone I have never heard of – Lazlo Krasznahorkai. As a side note, I have learned that he is the first Krasznahorkai ever to win a Nobel Prize. This shouldn’t be surprising because the name was apparently made up by his father, who was looking for a Hungarian sounding name to replace is Jewish sounding name, so that the family could live with fake identification during the Holocaust. It worked, and the family decided to keep the name. If you Google the name, you will find zero references to anyone else.

More often than not, the Nobel literature prize is won by someone I have never heard of. Last year, it was Han Kang, and before that the prize went to people like Abdulrazak Gurnah, Olga Tokarczuk, Patrick Modiano, Svetlana Alexievich, Jon Fosse, Annie Ernaus, Peter Handke, Mo Yan, Tomas Transtromer and more. Most of the winners (and this is obviously okay) have not written in English, and surprisingly many have not been translated into English, even after they win the prize. Of course, there have been English language winners in recent years, as well. One was Alice Munro, now under much criticism for (if I have this right) closing her eyes to some sexual irregularities going on in her house. Another was Bob Dylan, which was an abomination in my opinion. And a third was poet Louise Gluck, who I would have met in the late 1960s, if I had followed the advice of a young woman I met at a part in New York City, who invited me to leave the party with her and come meet her sister. Had I said yes, who knows what might have happened? Louise Gluck might never have written another poem.

Gaza:  So, who governs Gaza today? Is it still Hamas? Is it Israel? Is it Trump? Is it nobody? That is one basic question for which it seems there is no answer. I have some other questions. Assuming the hostage/prisoner swap goes off over the next couple of days, as seems to be anticipated, there will be approximately 2,000 Palestinians currently in Israeli prisons being released. The majority of these are people who have been arrested over the past two years during the current fighting, but some have been held longer than that, and some have been held for what have been called life sentences for various crimes involving terrorism and murder. They will all be turned over to [fill in the blank] in Gaza. And then what? Where will they stay, since 90% of Gaza homes have been destroyed? Will they live in tunnels, or in tents, or where? Will they be given priority over normal Gazans, who don’t know where they will be staying either? And will they be forced to stay in Gaza (where they will undoubtedly form the next generation of Hamas or Hamas-like leaders), or will they be allowed to leave Gaza? And if so, where will they be allowed to go, and will they be able to leave their next place and go anywhere they want?

And as to Gaza generally, I assume that food supplies and medical supplies will increase, but it takes a long time to rebuild destroyed cities, and the people of Gaza will suffer for a long time under the best of circumstances. And under whose control will this rebuilding be started? Israel does not want to give up control for security reasons, Trump favors an international consortium led by Trump, Palestinian groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad say that only Palestinians will rule Gaza, and so forth.

Yes, I have many questions about Gaza.

Qatar: I don’t think that Qatar is going to have an air force base in Idaho, but they will apparently use a base to train pilots in our most advanced aircraft, and will certainly become privy to much about the American military that they currently are not privy to. Qatar is a strange place. It has acted as a “neutral” (?) in negotiations to try to end the Gaza war, it has been the home of Hamas leadership, it has also been home to a major United States Air Force base, it has been (legitimately) accused of putting billions of dollars into American universities to support Arab Studies programs that have been at the heart of the pro-Palestinian movements and demonstrations on campuses across the country. Qatar, largely through its sovereign wealth fund, has invested a lot of money into American real estate and business projects, and is a major partner in Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners investment fund. It has pledged to increase its investments in the United States by a very large amount. But Qatar also has close ties with Iran, and with the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Clearly, Trump is allying himself very closely with Qatar. Will this be good, or disastrous? I, for one, have no idea. Qatar is clearly a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.

This marks the end of this post. I still have no idea what I am going to write about today.