The Super Bowl in Las Vegas and an easy dish ...

My husband and I visited Las Vegas in the late 1960s or early 1970s. Then, it was not the popular city it is now. I remember that it was a city in the center of the Nevada Mohave Desert where there were some casinos and motels. In my memory the city is pictured as in the two top photos of the vintage postcards below.

A few years ago we stopped several hours at the Las Vegas airport on our way to Los Angeles. This airport had greatly been updated. There were slot machines everywhere: in the concourses, the gates, and more. Later I read an airport article stating that the Las Vegas Airport slot machines had generated one billion dollars in all-time revenue.

I even bought a postcard for my cousin in France showing the Las Vegas Eiffel Tower replica (50% of the Paris tower.)

Now, Las Vegas is famous for its large luxurious casinos with top international entertainers. In 2019 2.9 million visitors came to its five-star resort hotels, gourmet restaurants, the various shopping malls, high-end stores and 24/7 entertainment. It is the largest city in Nevada. The new Allegiant Stadium, a domed multi-purpose stadium, was opened in 2020. At 1.9 million dollars it is the second most expensive stadium in the world, after Los Angeles 5.5 billion stadium. Allegiant Stadium claims that it is the first NFL (National Football League) stadium powered by 100% renewable energy. On February 11, 2024, Las Vegas hosted its first Super Bowl there, a highly publicized football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.

For my overseas blogging friends I'd like to mention that sports are very important in the USA. Football is the #1 sport, American football that is, played here and in about 30 other countries, compared to the other football, the one called "soccer" here but played in 211 countries around the world. Many children in the US start playing football at about 12 years of age. It is played in high schools, colleges and universities, plus professionally. Nearly 1.04 million high-school athletes (with 16,000 teams) and 81,000 college athletes (with 858 teams) play football in the US. Football has a huge impact on a college, on its culture and campus life. Colleges and universities make more money from sports, and are more interested in sports than academics, education, travel, arts, etc. A winning team will boost a university enrollment. Enormous amounts of fans will crowd college football stadiums to cheer their school team. My late husband did not watch much sport on television, unless it was a big game between Ohio State University's Buckeys team and another university. He was an Ohio State University alumnus. My youngest daughter is a fan of the "Dawgs," the University of Georgia's Bulldogs team where she graduated, and my son-in-law is a fan of the rival GA team, the Yellow Jackets, from Georgia Tech University where he graduated. But since both took their medical residencies at Ohio State University, they are fans of the Buckeyes, too. Fans like to wear their university team's tee-shirt and buy team merchandise.

The National Football League (NFL) has the highest average attendance of any professional sports leagues. The Super Bowl, its championship game, ranks among the most-watched sporting events here with the highest average attendance. The league in 2023 had an annual revenue of around 18.6 billion dollars. In 2023, sports generated $520 billion in revenue to the U.S. economy. It can be understood this way: a million seconds is 12 days, a billion seconds is 31 years and a trillion seconds is 31,688 years. Top professional football athletes can obtain salaries of more than 55 million dollars a year. I mention all this because money is what drives the USA. With such a huge audience, companies paid up to $7 million for a rare 30-second advertisement slot on television. By November 2023, all commercial slots had been purchased for the Super Bowl of February 11, 2024. Companies try to come up with unusual, innovative or funny commercials; they also use well-known celebrities for their ads to stand out. The commercials are watched attentively, and rated. In the commercials below pop-star Beyoncé is on the left, actor Ben Affleck on the left of the center photo and actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is on the left in the right picture.

Some people who are not avid football fans still watch the Super Bowl Halftime shows. Most colleges feature marching bands and drill teams during their shows; the Super Bowl did too when it started in 1967. But in 1993 the Super Bowl featured Michael Jackson. That year more fans watched him than the game. Since then the Super Bowl Halftime shows have been headlined by some of the most popular contemporary musicians. Some of the past entertainers have been: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Sting, Paul McCartney, Bruno Mars, U2,Bruce Springsteen, The Temptations, Tony Bennett, Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, Lady Gaga, Janet Jackson, Diana Ross, Britney Spears, Madonna, Prince, etc.

This year the Super Bowl generated more media frenzy because there was the added attraction of the relationship between Taylor Swift the pop culture superstar and the Kansas City Chief tight end Travis Kelce. Taylor's fans all over the world, called the Swifties, are obsessed with the relationship. They were agonizing because Taylor Swift, on her worldwide Eras Tour, was performing in Tokyo Saturday night February 10th, the eve of the Super Bowl, and might not show up in time. To illustrate what a big deal the Swift-Kelce romance is, the Embassy of Japan in the U.S.A. issued a statement to reassure the fans.

But no fear, Swift quickly flew on her private jet and covered the 5,500 mile journey to Las Vegas in time. Another 882 private planes landed for the game in the Las Vegas airports as well. Well-known celebrities from entertainers to politicians and sports stars were seen at the Super Bowl, such as Jay-Ze,Beyoncé, Paul McCartney, Canadian singer-songwriter Justin Bieber, Elon Musk, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Lady Gaga, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sheryl Crow, Shaquille O Neal, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel, and many more. The romance has generated an intense amount of attention and provided millions in revenue to the KC Chiefs and other marketing companies. I have not watched a Super Bowl in a long time but decided to turn my kitchen TV on the game and watch it while cooking. I also took some photos from the television.

Since I did not want to spend much time cooking I decided to cook something in one pot only. I had two egg yolks leftover from baking some meringue cookies earlier and came up with a type of spaghetti carbonara, but without the spaghetti. I called it Super Bowl Carbonara, It was fast and easy in my cast iron frying pan. I wouldn't say it was a 5-star recipe but something simple and stil pretty good. You may wish to give it a try. The recipe is below.

Super Bowl Carbonara: 2 packages of Ramen noodle soup, any flavor because only noodles are used, spice packs are omitted. 2 egg yolks. 1/3 green pepper, chopped, and 2 green onions, sliced, white parts separated from green parts. 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, plus extra for sprinkling when done. 2 cups warm water, plus another 1/2 cup for egg mixture. 1 tsp garlic powder, 1/4 teaspoon each of thyme and oregano, salt and pepper to taste. 1 tsp olive oil. Fry bacon in cast iron frying pan or other pan, remove to paper towel. Remove bacon fat but leave 2 tablespoons in pan and add 1 teaspoon olive oil. Fry green pepper and the white parts of the green onions in the pan, remove. Add 2 cups warm water to pan and add the Ramen noodles. Bring to a boil while flipping the noodles and separating them with two forks. Sprinkle salt, pepper and seasoning. Turn heat to medium-low. When noodles have softened (about 2 or 3 minutes or so) turn heat off. While noodles were cooking add 1/2 cup warm water to egg yolks in a small bowl (or if too much water left in noodles, use that.) Whisk Parmesan cheese in eggs. Toss egg mixture into noodles, turn heat on low, and keep tossing a minute or two until creamy. Add crumbled bacon, the green parts of the onions, and the cooked green pepper and white parts of green onions. Serve sprinkled with grated Parmesan cheese. Voila.

As an aside, one of the players for the Kansas City Chiefs at the Super Bowl, Lucas Niang, is French and has dual citizenship. His parents moved to the US from France. His father is French and his mother from the Ivory Coast, or Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa. Lucas speaks fluent French. Here he is below.

After the meal I went to watch the game on my large TV in the den. It looked like the San Francisco 49ers were ahead but then the game turned to the Kansas City Chiefs. We had some glimpses of Taylor Swift in her suite cheering with her friends. She was wearing her gold necklace with the number 87 - that is her boyfriend Travis Kelce's tee-shirt number.

The game became gripping during the overtime. The end escaladed quickly to a thrilling victory for the Kansas City Chiefs, their third Super Bowl victory in the last five years. They defeated the San Francisco 49ers 25-22 and declared champions.

Travis Kelce hoisted the Lombardi Trophy on the podium and then descended onto the field. He joined Taylor, saying "Come here, baby girl." They hugged and embraced.

This game gathered the highest ratings since the Apollo II 1969 moon landing. A staggering 123.4 million viewed the game and 202 million watched at least part of the game across all TV networks and via streaming. The insane amount of attention being paid to the Taylor-Travis romance helped with teenage girls watching the Super Bowl for the first time. The reason for this fascination is because this is the classic American romance in a way: the cheerleader or most popular girl falls for the handsome football star. Or in this case, Taylor Swift (voted woman of the Year 2023 by Time Magazine,) the pop culture megastar is dating the popular and talented Kansas City handsome tight end = two famous people making their fan base swoon. Dr. Helen Fisher, an anthropologist and a senior research fellow at the Kinsey Institute who has studied the chemistry of romantic love said: "It was charming, so real, so human, so unrehearsed and so dramatic." She explained that the phenomenon behind the interest in this romance is called "emotional contagion." She added it is the same as why we tear up when our friends cry or get hungry when those around us are eating. This is the type of fantasy love story the American public loves.

Everyone needs a little romance in their life!

Postponed Tour de France 2020 ... and Slovenia

 

The month of July came and went and no Tour de France to watch.  For a while we were afraid it would be cancelled because of COVID-19, but it was postponed until September.  I watched it on television or by streaming on my iPad.  As you can see from the heading photo (courtesy Nice Matin) the 2020 Tour de France started on the French Riviera in Nice.  Below is the route.

The 107th Tour started in Nice on August 29, 2020 and concluded in Paris on September 20, 2020.  It ran for 23 days with two rest days.  The total distance was 3,484 km or 2,165 miles.  There were a total of 176 riders from 22 teams (8 riders per team.)  The 21 stages included 9 flat, 3 hilly, 8 mountain stages and 1 individual time trial.  For more information on the Tour de France in general, please go to Tour de France on the right of my blog under Categories.  It was odd to see the riders wearing masks.  Below in black is Colombian Egan Bernal who won the Tour in 2019 and in green my favourite rider from Slovakia Peter Sagan.

This year I did not watch the Tour as carefully as in previous years because there were many riders I did not know.  But as usual the landscape views along the route were outstanding.  I took more pictures of the sights than the riders and with 21 days of viewing I ended up with over 200 photos.  The commentators give facts on culture, castles, churches, villages, history and natural sights of each area of the stages.  Some of my friends watch the Tour just to see the landscape and listen to the cultural information.  Two helicopters follow the Tour and four motorbike photographers along the route capture all these lovely shots.  You can see the helicopter above the mountainous road below, at 12 o'clock, and the motorbike photographers.

Below views from stages 1, 2 and 3 - please click on collage to enlarge.
 

From stages 4 through 6 -

From stages 7, 8 and 9 -

From stages 11, 13 and 14 - 

As the helicopters were flying over the western central area of France the commentators mentioned that near the city of Vasles was a sheep reserve.  I was intrigued and looked for it.  It is called "Mouton Village" (mouton is sheep in French.)  It is a large protected park planted with more than 4,000 trees: araucaria, eucalyptus, etc. to house the sheep in their original habitat.  It is the first park in France to host twenty-two sheep breeds from around the world, such as the "rabbit-headed" sheep (Border Leicesters,) the Racka sheep from Hungary with their unusual spiral-shaped horns and the Romanov from the Upper Volga in Russia.  Below are some of their sheep (the park can be visited by the way) -

The small town of Vasles (population 1,100) also counts two castles: an old medieval one built between 1467 and 1471 and a private one, called Castle of the Sayette.  I checked this last one and found out that it has been the home of 26 generations or seven centuries of de la Sayette family.  They opened a small hiking trail on the castle ground last year and the sheep from Mouton Village used it to move to higher fields during the summer.  Below is the Chateau de la Sayette.

The helicopters often take close-ups of the castles below.  The commentators seem to be working for the French Tourist Office because they immediately enumerate all the pertinent historical details of the various landmarks - such a great variety of castles to stare at from my den sofa ...

Photos from stages 15, 16 and 17 - 

There were fewer spectators along the route this year but those present were following recommendations to wear masks and to keep safe distancing.  The riders themselves, when not in the race, were wearing masks.  The devil was also wearing a mask (this devil fan has been in the sidelines of the Tour since 1993.)

Ready for more castles?

The castle in the center of the collage above is the Castle of Virieu.  It was built in the 11th century by Wilfrid de Virieu.  In the 18th century it was remodeled and extended.  Some of the interior rooms can be visited as well as the main courtyard displaying cannons given by King Louis XIII in 1622.  The family also hosts fairs and festival on the castle grounds.  Since the 13th century the de Virieu family has also owned another castle nearby, the Castle of the Pupetieres, shown in the extreme bottom left of the collage below.

Below is a painting of the Castle of Virieu by British artist Richard Cole.

Photos from stages 18, 19 and 20 -

Toward the end of the Tour it was obvious it would be won by either of the two Slovenian riders.  Slovenia? It was not a country I studied when I was in school back in the days, so I checked.  A Balkan country, the Republic of Slovenia was the first republic that split from the former Yugoslavia and became independent.  Its population is only 2 million.  It is located in central Europe and bordered by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Croatia.  It is shown in red in the map below.

Slovenia is a stunning little country with glacial lakes, spectacular mountain peaks, clear blue rivers and extended forests.  Rick Steve, the American Travel Writer, says of Slovenia: "...It is an underrated gem in the heart of Europe ... Located where the Germanic, Mediterranean and Slavic worlds come together, Slovenia enjoys a happy hodgepodge of cultures while also presenting plenty of its own unique character.  And much like the country as a whole, its capital city of Ljubljana is a delight to explore, yet remains relatively undiscovered... Tiny, overlooked Slovenia is one of Europe's most unexpectedly charming destinations..."  Below are some photographs of Slovenia courtesy Rich Steve and the Slovenian Tourist Bureau.

On Sunday morning September 20, 2020, my cat Mitsouko and I watched TV for the conclusion of the Tour de France.  It is always a treat to see the riders arriving in Paris along all the favourite landmarks.  The City of Paris had only allowed 5,000 spectators; the streets were almost empty.

Then it was over.  This is the general ranking: overall first place winner - Tadej Pogacar of Slovenia for the team UAE.  He also won the polka dot jersey as best climber and white jersey as best young rider.  2nd overall place - Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, 3rd place Richie Porte of Australia.  The green jersey (fastest runner) went to Sam Bennett of Ireland.  The most combative went to Marc Hirschi of Switzerland.  The winner, Tadej (pronounced TaDay) born on September 21, 1998, was the youngest cyclist to win the 2019 Tour of California.  He also won 3 stages in this Tour de France.  He is the first Slovenian winner of the Tour de France and at 21 became the second youngest winner since 1904.

 

I took a last picture from my TV screen as the sun was setting over Paris.

Le Tour 2019

This year the Tour de France celebrated 100 years of the Maillot Jaune, the yellow jersey.  Since 1919 the leader of the general classification of the Tour de France has been wearing this yellow jersey.  It started on 19 July 1919, about ten days after the signature of the Treaty of Versailles (the peace treaty ending World War I.)  At that time the fans watching the race were unable to distinguish who was the race leader.  Until then the leader only wore a small green arm band.  The newspaper l'Auto, the original organizers of this bicycling race (started as a publicity stunt for their paper) decided that the tour leader should wear a bright colored jersey.  They decided on the color yellow because that was the color of their newspaper; it was also as an homage to Octave Lapize, winner of the 1909 Tour, who wore a yellow jersey and was killed in the war.  In addition, because of scarcity after the war and yellow not being a popular color, these jerseys were cheaper and available in all sizes.  The first yellow jersey was worn by Belgian cyclist Firmin Lambot (1886-1964) who won the Tour de France 1919.  Below is the route of the 1919 Tour, 5,560 km long (3,450 miles.)

 Twenty unique yellow jerseys were made this year, one for each stage.  Each jersey was customized to show a historical symbol of this 100 year old jersey and of the 2019 Tour.  Some of the background designs included city and landscape symbols of the race as well as outlines of celebrated former riders, like Eddy Merckx of Belgium who won five Tour de France.  Originally, the yellow jersey was made of wool but it was quite warm and became heavy when water logged, so it stopped being made of wool in the 1960s.  Below are photos of 4 riders in yellow: 2019 Tour winner Egan Bernal of Colombia, next to Eddy Merckx of Belgium.  Bottom left is Greg Lemond, of the USA, winner of 3 Tour de France, next to Julian Alaphilippe of France who wore the yellow jersey during 14 stages in the 2019 Tour.

The 106th Tour started on July 6, 2019, in Brussels, Belgium and ended on July 28 on the Paris Champs-Elysees, where it has ended since 1975.  The race was 3,480 km long (2,162 miles) and consisted of 21 daylong stages.  176 riders (12 teams of 8 riders each) from 30 countries started the race; the race ended with 155 survivors  -:)  There were 7 flat stages, 5 hilly and 5 mountain stages.  The 2019 Tour was a race for hill-climbers as they rode stages in the Vosges Mountains, The Monts du Lyonnais, two in the Massif Central, four in the Pyrenees and spent three and a half days in the Alps.  I watched most of it while cleaning my house in Georgia.  I would sort things in front of the television in the mornings so I could watch it.  The last fornight the weather in greater Atlanta was below average, usually in the high 70s to low 80s (24 to 27 C) while it was abnormally warm in France (and in Nashville) reaching temperatures over 100 F (38 C.)  The race was exciting as usual with memorable events.  I would not have wanted to miss my yearly virtual escapade to France.

It was addictive for me and I kept looking at my TV to follow some of the best cyclists from around the world.  They rode in large cities, small villages, valleys, near lakes, fields and mountains.  It was a treat to watch the risk-taking cyclists in this thrilling race.  (Click on collage to enlarge.)

Unexpected high drama came when during the 19th stage, last Friday, it was shortened due to foul weather in the mountains.  After the riders had crested Col d'Iseran, the organizers halted the race because of hailstones, mudslides and snow.  Below are the riders near Col d'Iseran unaware of the road conditions ahead.

Frenchman, Julian Alaphilippe was the yellow jersey holder for 14 stages to the delight of his French fans.  But during that last shortened stage he lost his jersey to the young Colombian, Egan Bernal, who kept it to the end in Paris.  Here I'll quote Joshua Robinson of the Wall Street Journal: "This was the most exciting Tour de France in three decades ... the crackle of this Tour came down to one man.  He is a 132-pound Frenchman with a goatee named Julian Alaphilippe--and he was the one to light the fuse...  "They like seeing me race the way I race, with panache, with movement," Alaphilippe said after his stunning time-trial win.  "I wanted to burn my legs until they failed."  France hadn't seen one of its own wear the yellow jersey for so much as a day in five years..."This has been a Tour à la française." Truly,  the 2019 Tour belongs to smiling Julian Alaphilippe, nicknamed Loulou by his fans.  He was the emblem of this tour.  Below are photos of Julian, and one in the last stage wearing blue along Egan Bernal wearing the yellow jersey.

 Along the way the helicopter team that shoots the race from overhead offered us stunning aerial images.  It is like a travelogue of fabulous scenery.  (Photos courtesy Helicopteres de France.)

The range of architecture in castles, from medieval to 19th century, is amazing.  The aircraft captured the cyclists but also gave us unique glimpses of these historical buildings.  No wonder the Tour de France is the most watched sports competition in the world.

One of my favorite riders, the famed and charismatic Slovakian sprinter Peter Sagan, beat Erik Zabel's record and won his seventh green jersey overall in a Tour de France.  This prize is awarded to the leader in the points classification dominated by sprinters.  Peter said "It's nice to win this seventh green jersey.  I'm also surprised.  Every year I come back to try my best.  I'm very glad that I could achieve something like this because the green jersey is something like the yellow jersey for the GC riders.  I'm happy that I could hold the record."  Photos of Peter and of his custom-painted S-Works Venge bike, couresy TdeF.

On the side of my blog you can read more on the Tour under the category Tour de France.  In my post of July 22, 2009, titled "What is the Tour de France?" I mentioned some of its history; click here to read it.   In my post of July 20, 2011, "Tour de France in the Alps" I explained the meaning of the colors of the leaders' jersey; click here to read it.  Egan Bernal officially won the 2019 Tour de France last Sunday, July 28th, shown in photo below.  He is the first Colombian and first Latin American Tour champion.  He is also the youngest winner in modern race history and in addition won the white jersey as the race's Best Young Rider.  Peter Sagan won the green jersey.  Romain Bardet of France won the polka dot jersey in the King of the Mountains classification.  Frenchman Julian Alaphillipe was judged the most combative rider - someone the race jury decided showed a "fighting spirit" during the race.

 This has been an exciting Tour, unpredictable and filled with dramatic moments.  The French spectators would have liked to see Alaphillipe win the Tour since no Frenchman has won it in 35 years, but, c'est la vie... Jean-Claude Killy, the champion ski racer, said the French love sportsmen and don't really like sports.  I believe that Julian Alaphilippe, a brilliant athlete with great personality, won their hearts, even though he did not finish in first place but in fifth.  The contest is over for 2019, now we have to wait until July 22, 2020, to see the Tour start in Nice, on the French Riviera.  I can't wait ...