The Daily Dose/March 15, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

CAPSULE LUNAR ECLIPSE REVIEW: Lost in the cacophony of our busy, go-go lives can be Mother Nature putting on a show, like it did early Friday morning with a lunar eclipse. 

Those Who Remember The Past Are Destined To Repeat It: We love eclipses here at The Daily Dose and longtime readers of this crap will, no doubt, remember our classic review of the 2017 total solar eclipse. Seventy-eight seconds in a lifetime with billions of them, likely the only 78 seconds we’ll spend in that environment. 

Back To The Future: We keep really odd hours right now, so we were up for the eclipse but had to scramble to get a minute’s viewing. It was worth it, with the moon appearing red for reasons which, thankfully, go well beyond the scope of this column. 

Dry, Technical Matter: Lunar eclipses occur when the moon is not only behind Earth, but is  in our shadow, and it has to be near where the moon crosses the ecliptic, points known as lunar nodes. If it’s not, Earth, moon and the sun will not be in proper alignment. 

What The Hell’s The Eliptic: The word has assorted meanings, but for lunar eclipse purposes, it refers to when the moon crosses Earth’s orbit. 

Oh, Jesus H: Both eclipse and ecliptic come from the old Greek word eklepein which means, in part, “…to fail to appear”. 

The Bottom Line:  As we noted in our 2017 solar eclipse review, eclipses look just as they have for billions of years: we see the same thing the Incas saw and that the Sumerians saw and that everyone has seen since time immemorial and you do not have to be Galileo to strongly suspect they will look the same for billions of years to come. This is as good a reason as any to go out of your way to see every eclipse you can. It’s a time when the 60 seconds in a minute and the 60 minutes in an hour mean nothing: you are as timeless as you are going to get. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Heading into the finale, Sparrow’s had a good week in the sack. Today’s Diary. 

8.5 hours for the day and 47.0 hours for the week…

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———

On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 2019 – A lone gunman kills 51 people and injures 89 more in separate shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand. The gunman, Brenton Tarrant, had published a manifesto online before the attack and live-streamed the first one on Facebook. He was arrested when his car was rammed by a police car while on his way to commit a third shooting and two weeks later he pled guilty to numerous murder and attempted murder charges. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, the first such sentence ever passed down in New Zealand.

In 1970 – Bobby Orr of the Boston Bruins becomes the first NHL defenseman to have 100 points in a season in a 5-5 tie with the Detroit Red Wings. Orr had two goals and two assists, with the 100th point coming on a second-period shorthanded goal. Orr finished the season with 120 points and broke the record the following season with 139 points, a record for defensemen that still stands. 

In 1980 – Willie Nelson is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the second and final consecutive week with My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys. It was the twelfth of 25 Top 10 country hits for Nelson and his fifth of twelve country #1s. The song also went #1 country in Canada, peaked at #44 on the Hot 100 and was Billboard’s 8th-biggest country song of the year. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

…let us raise our conceptions to the magnitude and the importance of the duties that devolve upon us.
Daniel Webster 

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

In the Open Era, a player has won a major without losing set 52 times, eleven times by a man. 

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.

Who holds the NHL record for most career points by a defenseman not named Boddy Orr or Paul Coffey? – Answer next time! 

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The Daily Dose/March 14, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

Leading Off will return. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow gets a shoulder massage. Today’s Diary. 

Hell, it wasn’t soreness; it was pain…We pointed this out to the gal and she yelped with delite, noting this was a “trigger point” that would help muscle recovery…Based on the pain we were feeling, we were skeptical, but what do we know?

———

Would you like 4Ever & Ever access to Gaylon’s crap?
Of course you would.
Click here. It’s only $24.99.

Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device. 

———

On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 1967 – The body of former US President John F Kennedy is moved to its permanent burial place at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. Kennedy originally was to be buried in his native Massachusetts, but a suggestion Defense Secretary Robert McNamara to bury him at Arlington was approved by Mrs Kennedy. The Kennedy family offered to pay the entire cost, but the government only asked that they pay for the cost of the grave, about $200,000, about $1.7 million in today’s money. 

In 1971 – Ken Rosewall of Australia wins the Australian Open with a 6-1, 7-5, 6-3 win over Arthur Ashe. It was the third of four Australian Open titles for Rosewall and seventh of twelve Grand Slam titles and was the third and final Australian Open runner-up finish for Ashe, to go with one title. Rosewall did not lose a set during the tournament, the first time that had happened at a major tournament in the Open Era. 

In 1964 – The Beatles are at #1 on Billboard’s  Hot 100 for the seventh and final consecutive week with I Want To Hold Your Hand. It was the first of a Hot 100 record 20 #1 songs for the group and it went to #1 in nine other countries, including West Germany, Norway, and Great Britain, and was Billboard’s #1 song of the year. The song was replaced at #1 by She Loves You, which was replaced by Can’t Buy Me Love, which remains the only time in Hot 100 history an act replaced itself at #1 twice. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

If we save ourselves, we save at the same time all the nations which surround us. If we perish, we shall cause all of them to perish with us.
Alexis De Tocqueville
Democracy In America

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

Four songs spent at least six weeks at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982: Centerfield by the J Geils Band, I Love Rock & Roll by Joan Jett & the Blackhearts (seven weeks), Ebony and Ivory by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder (seven weeks), and Eye of the Tiger by Survivor. 

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.

How many times in the Open Era has a player won a major without losing a set? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/March 13, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

HUT, HUT, HIKE: There are a couple of ways to look at changes to the College Football Playoff (CFP): a big picture view and a detailed view. We are going to bore you with both. 

Dry, Technical Matter: The current version ends after this coming football season and nothing has been decided beyond that, though there is a TV contract with ESPN in place. 

Shorthand Me: On the one hand, they can do whatever the hell they want as long as the title game is held at the Rose Bowl on either New Year’s Day or Monday, January 2. They can have as many teams as they want, seed them however they want, issue as many byes as they want – all will be well with the world if the college football season ends on January 1. 

This is both traditional and practical. The tradition is obvious, even to those that run college football. . As a practical matter, keeping the CFP out of January will avoid conflicts with the NFL playoffs and weekday CFP games. 

Dry, Technical Matter II: Heck, make it a celebration of college football and hold the lower level national championships and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. 

Write This Down: What we would like to see is a 16-team tournament starting on the first weekend in December. The dates for the regular season can be adjusted accordingly and with everything the big schools have done to the sport, the season can begin a week or two earlier without problems. 

The Bottom Line: The SEC and Big Ten, of course, will try to ram through whatever will make them the most money. Too bad, because with some foresight a 16-team tournament ending on New Year’s Day would become an American classic quicker than you can say “strength of schedule”. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow runs into Carolyn at the grocery store. Today’s Diary, 

She had a recipe printout in her cart for vegetarian shepherds pie, which we found funny because by her own admission, she doesn’t cook…

———

Would you like 4Ever & Ever access to Gaylon’s crap?
Of course you would.
Click here. It’s only $24.99.

Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device. 

———

On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 1639 – The Massachusetts legislature decrees that the then-unnamed college it founded three years earlier be named after Rev John Harvard. The year before, Harvard had bequeathed to the school half his estate and his library of 400 books. Harvard, then unnamed, had been founded by the Massachusetts colony in 1636 and graduated its first class in 1642. Today, Harvard College is the undergraduate college of Harvard University. 

In 1999 –  Evander Holyfield and Lennox Lewis retain their respective world heavyweight titles in a 15-round split draw at Madison Square Garden in New York City. Two judges scored the fight for each boxer, while the third scored it a draw, a controversial decision as most thought Lewis had won, with the AP scoring the fight 117-111 in favor of Lewis. Immediately after the fight the WBC, WBA, and IBF ordered a rematch, which Lewis won in November. 

In 1982 – The J Geils Band is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the sixth and final consecutive week with Centerfold. The song also went to #1 in Australia and Canada, peaked at #3 in Great Britain, and was Billboard’s 5th-biggest song of the year. It was the sixth of nine Top 40 hits for the group, their first of two Top 10s, and remains their only #1 song. In February, the album the song came from, Freeze-Frame, spent four weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 Album chart

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves?
Friedrich Nietzsche

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

The NHL began playing 82 games in a season in the 1995-96 season. 

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.

How many songs spent at least six weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 in 1982? – Answer next time!

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/March 12, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

Editor’s Note: while working on today’s Leading Off segment, we thought the subject matter seemed awfully familiar, and some research showed we had written about the same thing on April 29, 2024. We offer this item again: 

THE PLANET’S GOING TO HELL, BUT LET’S TALK SONG RANKINGS: Today’s Leading Off segment is inspired by yesterday’s trivia question, which concerned Billboard’s biggest song for 1962. The answer is Stranger on the Shore, by an English act named Mr Acker Bilk.  

Dry, Technical Matter: That Billboard ranked it as their #1 song of the year is almost interesting because the song only spent one week at the top, a rather short amount of time for year-end chart-topper, especially when you consider three songs that year spent five weeks at #1. 

Need To Know: Billboard’s specific formula for their year-end rankings is kept secret – sort of like the Colonel’s combination of eleven herbs and spices. But it is generally known to involve an inverse points system – a point for a week at #100, a hundred points for a week at #1 and so on – plus some other factors. 

Oh, Jesus H: It should be noted, too, that over the years this system has resulted in a non-#1 song ending the year at #1. 

WTF: We have never understood this methodology for ranking songs at all; for our money the most weeks at #1 takes precedence, with ties broken by the most weeks in the Top 10 and if that doesn’t break the tie, then most weeks in the Top 40 and then most weeks in the Hot 100.

Running The Numbers: Using this methodology, the #1 song of 1962 is I Can’t Stop Loving You by Ray Charles, which spent five weeks at #1 and eleven weeks in the Top 10, giving it the nod over two Four Seasons songs – Big Girls Don’t Cry and Sherry – which also spent five weeks at #1, but spent ten and seven weeks respectively in the Top 10. 

The Bottom Line: This is boringly subjective, of course, and any chart issued by Billboard demands respect, but we disagree with them: peak position, followed by the assorted tiebreakers is, for our money, the only logical way of ranking songs. And using The Daily Dose methodology, Stranger on the Shore – with one week at #1 and eleven weeks in the Top 10 – would’ve been the 18th-biggest song of the year, not the biggest. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow deals with a Jekyll-and-Hyde guest. Today’s Diary. 

The gal was tedious, tho…She called for an update on her request while we were still looking for her goddamned humidifier and she sounded priviliged, just like Ma Sparrow did when she was in the mood to irritate everyone…To her credit, tho, she was genuinely grateful when we delivered exactly what she was looking for…

———

Would you like 4Ever & Ever access to Gaylon’s crap?
Of course you would.
Click here. It’s only $24.99.

Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device. 

———

On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 2009 – American financier Bernie Madoff pleads guilty to charges stemming from a $36 billion Ponzi scheme he ran. Madoff pled guilty without a plea bargain – perhaps to avoid testifying against employees and said the scheme began in the early 1990s, though an ex-employee admitted to falsifying records in the 1970s and the government was never able to determine exactly when the fraud began. Madoff died in prison in 2021 at age 81. 

In 1966 – Bobby Hull of the Chicago Blackhawks establishes a new NHL record for most goals in a season in a 4-2 win over the New York Rangers. Hull’s third-period goal was his 51st of the season, breaking the record of 50 established by Maurice Richard in 1944-45 and later tied by Bernie Geoffrion in 1960-61 and by Hull the following season. Hull finished the season with 54 goals and broke the record again with 58 goals in 1968-69. The record is now 92 by Wayne Gretzky of Edmonton in 1981-82.

In 2021 – Oliva Rodrigo is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the eighth and final consecutive week with Drivers License. It was the second chart single for Rodrigo and her first of 24 Top 40 hits, nine Top 10s, and three #1s songs. The song went to #1 in 24 other countries, including Israel, Norway, and Great Britain, was Billboard’s 8th-biggest song of the year, and won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Solo Performance. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

Great events make me quiet and calm; it is only trifles that irritate my nerves.
Queen Victoria

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

The Confederate constitution specified one 6-year term for the president of the Confederacy.

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.

When did the NHL go to an 82-game schedule? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/March 10, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

Leading Off will return. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow reports the hotel’s restaurant will soon start offering 

…it was plain this news thrilled the AFDM…He was moving his hands as if he were auditioning for Dance Fever, and he all but achieved and maintained a state of arousal. 

———

Would you like 4Ever & Ever access to Gaylon’s crap?
Of course you would.
Click here. It’s only $24.99.

Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device. 

———

On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 1861 – The constitution of the Confederate States of America is adopted by delegates in Montgomery, Alabama. The constitution was similar to the US version, though slavery was “recognized and protected” and it included line-item veto power for the president. It replaced a provisonal constitution, and the original version is in a rare book library at the University of Georgia. It remained in effect until the Confederacy lost the Civil War in 1865. 

In 1918 – The first NHL playoff game is played, a 7-3 win by the Toronto Hockey Club over the Montreal Canadiens in game one of a 2-game total goals championship series at Arena Gardens – latter the Mutual Street Arena – in Toronto. Toronto would win the series 10 goals to 7 two nights later to win the O’Brien Trophy, an award discontinued by the NHL in 1950. Toronto would later defeat the Vancouver Millionaires of the Pacific Coast Hockey Association in five games for the Stanley Cup. 

In 1963 – Carl Butler and Pearl are at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the seventh of eleven non-consecutive weeks with Don’t Let Me Cross Over. It was the first of eleven Top 40 country hits for the husband and wife duo, their first of two Top 10 songs, and remains their only #1. Later versions by Jerry Lee Lewis/Linda Gail Lewis and Deborah Allen/Jim Reeves both went Top 10 country. The song also peaked at #88 on the Hot 100. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

It is hard to define morality, for each age makes its own definition to suit its temper and sins.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol. X: Rousseau and Revolution

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

Stranger on the Shore by Mr Acker Bilk was Billboard’s #1 song of 1962. It spent one week at the top, plus 21 weeks in the Hot 100 and eleven weeks in the Top 10. 

Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.

What was the length of the term for the Confederate president? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!