First GOP Primary Debate

Yesterday night was the first GOP Presidential candidates’ debate. There were 8 candidates. 1 former Vice President, 5 present/former Governors, 1 Senator, and 1 Rich Businessman. Of course, the leading candidate Donald Trump decided not to participate. 

Before the debate, I was thinking that everyone is going to pound on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. But Surprise Surprise Surprise. Everyone started to blast Vivek Ramaswamy. Looked like they did not like this unknown and inexperienced rich businessman from nowhere is tied to the second place. Here are some examples: 

Chris Christie - I’ve had enough already tonight of a guy who sounds like ChatGPT. 

Mike Pence – You are a rookie with no government experience. 

Vivek Ramaswamy handled all of them well except Nikki Haley. Nikki Haley gave Vivek a left-hook on foreign policy. She ripped him about his stand on Russia’s war with Ukraine and China-Taiwan conflict. 

There was no good debate on economic issues. People care about rising prices and not about UFO. 

Chris Christie alone criticized Donald Trump. All other seven were either supporting Trump or keeping quiet

Every newspaper and television network, after the debate,  started to grade these 8 candidates in 3 categories. Winner. Middle of the Ground. Loser. The only person who was consistent in all the rankings is Vivek Ramaswamy. He came as a winner. 

Political commentator Carol Swain said: Vivek Ramaswamy was the clear winner of the debate. He would make a great vice-presidential choice for DonaldJTrump or RonDeSantis. None of the other candidates did themselves any good. I recommend they pack up and go home." 

Next debate will be on September 27 in California. Let us see how many people qualifies to be here.

Strange Airport Codes

WOW – Willow, Alaska

FUN – Funafuti, Tuvalu 

BUM – Butler Airport, Missouri 

BOM – Mumbai Airport 

MAA - Chennai

DAD – Da Nang, Vietnam 

COW – Coquimbo, Chile 

SAD – Safford, Arizona 

BOO – Bodø, Norway 

ODD – Oodnadatta, Australia 

FAT – Fresno, California 

and finally 

FUK – Fukuoka, Japan

If you know of any strange airport code, please let me know in the comment section.  Thanks.

Pongal and Sambar Vadai combo

(The following was sent to me by my dear friend, the world famous, Cuddalore Chandrasekhar.  I translated it in English.)

Pongal and Sambar Vadai combination must be handled very carefully. 

I would order Pongal and Sambar Vadai together. Still, some idiot (server) will bring the Pongal only and say “sambar vadai varudhu sir (sambar vadai is coming sir)”. It is as cruel as separating couples in the month of Aadi. 

Let the Pongal become cold. Like, until the village festival will not start until the big honcho comes to inaugurate it, until the sambar vadai comes I cannot eat even a small portion of Pongal. 

Cut the sambar vadai with spoon and a small portion of Pongal simultaneously should be enjoyed like tabla by Zakir Hussain and Thavil by A. K. Pazhanivel (jugal bandhi). 

Some restaurants will not give a spoon for Pongal. It is not etiquette to use the same spoon for Pongal that was used for sambar vadai. That is disrespecting the Pongal. Therefore, we should take a small portion of Pongal with hand, touch it with sambar or chutney, put it in the mouth and then use the spoon to cut a portion of sambar vadai to eat. 

If we eat the Pongal with hand, then the moistness of the sambar makes the fingers sticky. If we touch the sambar vadai spoon with the same sticky fingers, it is disrespecting the sambar vadai. 

Therefore, even if I lose my self-respect, I should clean the sambar/chutney stickiness of my fingers by licking them good and then touch the spoon meant for sambar vadai. 

In spite of these complicated rules, it will take less than 5 minutes to finish the Pongal and sambar vadai combination. 

An ideal leader in emergency is Pongal and his lovely partner is sambar vadai.