Musings from Jay (blog site permanently frozen 11/05/2024 morning)

  Jessica Pegula is the half Korean daughter of a multi billionaire who made his money in oil and gas and owns a number of sports franchises including the NFL Buffalo Bills and NHL Buffalo Sabres. That means zero in terms of reaching the top of the tennis pyramid where what counts is skill and experience and hard work. She works incredibly hard and is super focused and calm and disciplined. In a very short time, she went from number 76 in 2019 in tennis to number 3 in the world. Besides singles, she is also a great doubles player (plays with Coco Gauff). She is at peak form right now and is a strong contender for the Australian open. That would be her first grand slam win if she wins.  It is one’s character, talent, grit and hard work that really helps you reach the top. Family wealth helps only in terms of developing contacts and providing the  opportunity. Update 1/26/2022: Pegula lost in the Australian open quarter finals in women's singles and lost in semifinals ...

  Most people would say the Vatican. Which was true.  The wealthiest temple in India was the Tirupati temple in south India.  However, in 2011, a new one arose that was wealthier than both of them combined.  There is a temple in the old kingdom of Travancore (most of the state of Kerala in India) called Padmanabha swami temple in Thiruvananthapuram. The king of Travancore a long time ago made the idol of the temple the true head of state. He then took on the title of administrator and governed the kingdom and so did all his successors. The wealth of this temple grew for thousands of years, and all the wealth was in its vaults.  In 2011, the supreme court ruled that the temples wealth should be audited. 6 vaults were known to exist, but the auditor discovered two additional hidden inner vaults. In all these vaults were untold riches. An appraisal of the vaults already audited was put at 20 to 40 billion dollars. But you cannot really put a dollar value since a ma...