A good headline always draws readers in (as someone who did that for a living, I should know). When I saw this one, it made me want to know more:

                                                  Japanese City Triggers Emergency Broadcast System After
                                                             Supermarket Accidentally Sells Deadly Blowfish

According to the story on Gizmodo, "The Japanese city of Gamagori in the Aichi Prefecture went into full alert mode earlier today after a batch of potentially deadly fugu fish was sold to customers at a local supermarket.

"As AFP reports, five packages of blowfish, also known as puffer fish, fugu fish, and globefish, were sold with their livers still intact. Blowfish livers contain a deadly toxin that can cause paralysis and asphyxiation, and there is no known antidote. Officials in Gamagori didn’t hold back once the situation became clear, activating the city’s emergency broadcast system and alerting residents from loudspeakers installed across the city."

First Hawaii with a false missile alert, now Japan with a blowfish warning. 

Make no mistake: Japanese take their blowfish very seriously. Considered a delicacy, it must be prepared correctly or there could be fatal consequences. I learned this firsthand from a former colleague at Belo in Dallas.

As a GI in Tokyo, he and two of his buddies went out on the town and wandered into a restaurant where blowfish was a featured item on the menu. No doubt fortified by sake, he told the server he wanted to try it.

He  watched the server go to the kitchen, where he had an excited conversation with the chef -- lots of hand gesturing. Some time later, they brought the blowfish to his table. I say "they" because he said at that moment, the entire staff of the restaurant gathered around  to watch as he took his first bite.

Needless to say, it must have been prepared right, because he lived to eat another day.

I'm all for trying new dishes, but I think I would draw the line at blowfish. I'll go with the fish and chips.

UFOs. I'll wager everybody has, at one time or another, seen something weird in the skies. According to this story, there were actually almost 5,000 reported sightings of UFOs in 2017. That's comes from the National UFO Reporting Center, which I confess I didn't know existed.

There's been a rash of UFO stories lately, fueled by the recent revelation of a program devoted to UFO activity in the U.S. Dept. of Defense, which included a detailed account of a close encounter by Navy pilots near San Diego.

Not surprisingly, California led the nation in UFO reports, logging 490 sightings. But guess what state was second? Yes, it's Florida, with 308. Apparently the Sunshine State attracts tourists from all over and outside the world as well. 

No doubt there is some correlation between the number of reports and overall population. But with almost a thousand miles of beaches, what alien wouldn't want to pay us a visit?

Another story looked at what U.S. counties had the most sightings  between 2001 and 2015. Florida made the top 20 on that list as well, with 621 reports coming from Miami-Dade County, and 619 from Broward County,

So keep those cell phone cameras at the ready, folks. The next "close enounter" could be yours.

While ticket prices haven't been announced, it promises to be competitive with other modes of transportation.

For us personally, it's great news. For the simple reason we love trains and train travel.

Twenty years ago,  we took our first train vacation on Amtrak. Typically, we decided to go big or not at all. Our route took us from Fort Worth to Chicago, Chicago to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Seattle, Seattle to Chicago, and back home to Texas.  A total of 11 days and almost 9,000 miles. And we loved it. We were totally hooked.

Since we moved to Florida, we have become regulars on Amtrak's Silver Meteor that runs from West Palm to New York. (Read more about it here). With the launch of Brightline, we'll have more reasons to heed the call of "All Aboard." We can't wait.

Do you know how bitcoins work? If so, please explain it to me.

Wikipedia knows what bitcoins are:

"Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency and worldwide payment system. It is the first decentralized digital currency, as the system works without a central bank or single administrator. The network is peer-to-peer and transactions take place between users directly through the use of cryptography, without an intermediary. These transactions are verified by network nodes and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin was invented by an unknown person or group of people under the name Satoshi Nakamoto and released as open-source software in 2009."

Okay, that was about as clear as mud. It goes on:

"Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services. As of February 2015, over 100,000 merchants and vendors accepted bitcoin as payment. Research produced by the University of Cambridge estimates that in 2017, there are 2.9 to 5.8 million unique users using a cryptocurrency wallet, most of them using bitcoin."

It must be just me. If there are upwards of five million people using bitcoins or something like it, I have to be the dumb one in the room.

To be honest, other than spending or making it, I don't give money a lot of thought. Wading into the weeds to learn how the "money sausage" is made and what makes a dollar worth a dollar can only lead to madness.

I do recall in school we were taught about the "gold standard," when money was backed by gold reserves. (How they determined the value of gold is a whole different kettle of fish. ) And dollar bills used to be "silver certificates," eligible to be traded for the equivalent amount of silver.

Of course, both have long since been abandoned, replaced by ... what? The answer, according to some, is "faith." We believe a dollar is worth a dollar, so belief becomes reality. If enough of us stopped believing that, the whole system might collapse and send us back to trading ears of corn for a pair of moccasins. 

Now we have bitcoin,  the "cryptocurrency" not tied to any nation; virtual money, as it were, to buy real goods and services. And the value of one bitcoin has skyrocketed. Did you see the recent story about former Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden? He is apparently in a dispute with his former financial advisor over a soured bitcoin investment involving $3 million. The story claims if the $3 million had been used to purchase bitcoins, it would today be worth $237 million. Not a bad return.

Time will tell if bitcoins are just a flash in the virtual pan or how in the future we'll conduct business on an everyday basis. Either way, just don't ask me to explain it.

Road Trip!

It's that Great American Tradition when, driven by wanderlust, a sense of new adventures or just plain boredom, we load as many of our worldly possessions as will fit or can be crammed into our vehicles and take off for parts both known and unknown. Inevitably, before going five miles, we strike our foreheads and say an expletive, remembering an item of great necessity we forgot to pack. And so it begins.

And here we are ... road tripping our way to Texas to see family and friends. Yes, we could hop on an airplane and be there in two hours (with an additional four hours or more of airport  parking, security lines and the dreaded delays). But why fly when you can enjoy seeing all the wonders of our Great Country up close and personal, especially parked in front of a sign saying "Road Work Next 117.2 Miles."

But I digress.

For Pam and I, we find it's the simple pleasures that are the best. And one of our guilty pleasures is definitely Raising Cane's Chicken. Along with the chicken, we especially love their dipping sauce and Texas toast. Their franchises haven't reached South Florida as yet, so we make it a point to scout them out as we head westward.

For entertainment, there's the commercial-free music stations on satellite radio, along with a handful of audio books we got from the North Palm Beach Library. The miles go zipping by, especially in parts of Louisiana and Texas, where the speed limit is 75. (There are toll roads in Texas where the posted limit is 85, BTW).

So here we are spending Thanksgiving with our Texas family. And right on cue, a cold front has blown in, dropping nighttime temps into the upper 30s and low 40s. After a decade in Florida, we hardly own a sweater anymore. So along with a road trip, that means a shopping trip. No matter. The house here has a big fireplace and a stack of wood outside. 

With the warmth of family and friends at hand, we already have much to be thankful for.
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Being an English major, and a general word geek, I always like discovering a new word. My new word for this week is "Nomophobia."

What is nomophobia? Basically, the fear of not having your cell phone. Short for "no-mobile-phone phobia" (although some argue it is more an anxiety than a true phobia).

Whether you have a weak signal, are out of range, a low battery or just plain left it at home. Any of those things could trigger a raging bout of nomophobia.

According to Wikipedia, the term "was coined during a 2008 study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organization evaluating anxieties suffered by mobile phone users. The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage". The study, sampled 2,163 people, found that about 58% of men and 47% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off. 55% of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones."

The study also equated the stress of doing without a mobile phone and a trip to the dentist.

Personally, I think anyone who has used a cell phone for any length of time has experienced some degree of nomophobia at one time or another. If you suddenly remember you left your cell phone at home, you'll drive 10 miles to go back and get it. How many times a day do you reach for your pocket or purse to make sure it's still there? Keys, driver's license, cell phone -- all things you keep on your person at all times.

And considering how the cost of smartphones continues to climb (now at $1,000 for the new iPhone X), it just makes the stress that much greater.

Just thinking about that makes my own nomophobia kick in.

Dept. of Pet Peeves: Movie Theater Seating.

Have you taken a break from Amazon and Netflix to go to the movies lately? While there's still something special about the big screen and sharing the experience, many movie theaters have started adopting a new seating policy that we really don't like: Assigned seating.

Normally, that's a good thing when attending an event, like a concert or a Broadway play. But when you go to a weekday matinee and you and maybe two other couples are the only ones in the theater ... it seems pretty silly.

Not only that, but also:

• It holds up the ticket line. The poor ticket sellers have to take the time to explain the seating chart, while the movie-goers suddenly have to make a decision on where to sit, leading to the "We're going to be here a while" face on the people behind them.
• If the people beside you do something  obnoxious, like crunch their ice, prop their feet up (sans shoes), talk loudly through the movie or check their cell phones (despite the multiple, 30 minutes of warnings prior to the movie starting), where you gonna go? You could change seats, and run the risk of taking someone else's seat.
• Sometimes you don't know where you want to sit until you enter the theater and survey the crowd. After years of movie-going as a "free agent," it feels weird to be a "captive audience."

And what exactly is the point? Maybe so advance ticket buyers can secure their seat ahead of time? I guess.

With all the advances made, from super wide screens to Barcalounger seats, there is still something to be said for the drive-in movie, where your choice of seats was "front" or "back."

Fake News.

We hear about it, read about it and see it reported about on a pretty much continual basis since the 2016 election. As polls continue to show, the credibility of the media has plummetted. Americans are increasingly questioning the validity of the information streaming on their mobile devices and elsewhere. As a lifelong journalist, it's a sad state of affairs.

But we should have seen it coming. Just as soon as the Internet hung its "Open for Business" sign, it was inevitable. The great thing that suddenly anyone could be a publisher was also the scariest thing. Who to believe -- Facebook or The Washington Post? The bloggers in the basement or the reporters in the newsrooms?

Full disclosure, I contributed to the problem long before it was recognized as a problem. Back -- way back -- when I served as a reporter and co-editor of my high school newspaper, "The Poly Parakeet," we hatched the idea of producing an April Fool's edition.

For my part, I concocted a story that the senior rings would be delivered a little differently. All the rings would be brought by truck, which would proceed to dump them out at the main entrance to Poly High School. Students would have to claim their rings by looking at the initials engraved on the inside.

Much to my surprise, not all students found it funny. One girl came to the student newspaper office crying, saying, "I'll never find my ring!!"

I called it satire; today it would be called fake news.

Even now, people still mistake satire (like what The Onion publishes) for news, regardless of how it's labeled or presented. It's just human nature: People will always believe what they want to believe. Like the earth is really flat and dinosaurs roamed the planet until a few thousand years ago.

There is a new report just out from the Pew Research Center that takes an extensive look at the issue via a bevy of experts. "The Future of Truth and Misinformation Online" notes: "Experts are evenly split on whether the coming decade will see a reduction in false and misleading narratives online. Those forecasting improvement place their hopes in technological fixes and in societal solutions. Others think the dark side of human nature is aided more than stifled by technology."

Not exactly reassuring. Gone are the days when we could turn on our TVs and let Walter Cronkite or John Chancellor come into our living rooms and tell it like it is. They had our trust. Who are we going to trust today not to give us fake news? That's the big question, isn't it?

Marty, what was I thinking? "The Rifleman" is a classic Western for sure! Let's return to the Old West and watch Connors fire away once again ...

Now a question. They made a few changes in the opening for the fifth season of the series. Like this better?

While we're talking about Chuck Connors, do you remember his other Western series, "Branded"? It even made its way into that classic movie, "The Big Lebowski." 

But before we leave the Western genre, I have to mention the all-time classic theme, in  my opinion. What do you think about this one, Marty?

Hard as it is to believe, but the holidays are almost upon us. And it's not too early to start thinking about what am I going to get Pam for Christmas.

This year, I may be in luck. The Neiman Marcus Christmas Book is out, and one of their 2017 "Fantasy Gifts" is offered for "The bubbliest personality you know."

Not only is Pam's personality bubbly, but also her taste in wine. She loves her champagne. Everything from a special occasion Dom to Veuve Clicquot to Costco Kirkland. And this gift is all about champagne.

Neiman's describes it this way:
  
"Kick things off with a first-class trip for four to Paris and a stay at Rosewood's Hotel de Craton with a 12-course dinner at L'Ecrin. Next, a private car will take you to meet with the 13th-generation wine-growing family behind Armand de Brignac. Tend the vineyards, sample the reserves, stroll the private cellar, and help finish your own cuvee. End the day with a helicopter flyover of Champagne's villages and vineyards. Then. spend the night at Domaine Les Crayeres, a majestic chateau, with a dinner at the three-Michelin-star L'Assiette Champenoise before enjoying Paris for one more glorious day and night. The fun doesn't end there. Delivered to your door: 12 bottles of each of the five Armand de Brignac to savor until your bespoke bottles are ready. And when the time comes, 24 bottles of the personally finished cuvee, each inscribed with the giftee's name."

Pretty spectacular, right? But probably not cheap, right?

Right. It's "only" $150,000.

Got to sign off now, and head for Costco.