The Daily Dose/August 25, 2026
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes From Around Our Human Experience
HUT, HUT, HIKE: Longtime readers of this crap know today would’ve been the day the 2026 Bottom Ten made its debut with the reliably funny Preseason Q&A kicking things off.
Fly In The Ointment: But not this year. The inspiration – the bedrock of the creative process – for the feature isn’t there anymore, and with that gone, it’s time to call it a day.
Dry, Technical Matter: To have carried on would have seen every word forced, and that’s not writing, friends; it’s typing. You, me, and the Bottom Ten pollsters – a group of drunks as imaginary as they are real – deserve better than that.
The Bottom Ten Medal Stand: We’re “pretty sure” the blame for this can be laid directly at the feet of The Bottom Ten/NCAA Team of the Quarter Century edition that ran last year. We had been looking forward to that column for many years, and – even though there were subsequent NFL Bottom Tens to write – it proved a satisfying way to go out.
Mitigating Factors: Though the NFL Bottom Ten took a handful of bye weeks over the years, the NCAA Bottom Ten never missed a week. Come hell or high water, good times and bad. Once or twice over the past two-and-a-half decades, when times seemed almost beyond tolerance, it was the only refuge a week offered.
The Dan Henning Trophy: We go way back with The Bottom Ten, first reading it in the Los Angeles Times as a boy. A really funny writer named Steve Harvey wrote it, and we seem to recall it ran on Wednesdays; we usually read it out loud to Dad.
This Is Don Criqui Reporting: Years later, it’s the Double Aughts, and we’re writing and editing for an internet company in Las Vegas, and the combined forces of a desperate need for content and not having a whole hell of a lot to do otherwise found us writing our own Bottom Ten.
B-10 TitleTrak Radar: We’ve long said there were two parts of a year, the part when we were writing The Bottom Ten and the part when we weren’t, and only the first part was worth a damn. True enough. It was also true that if you enjoyed reading it half as much as we enjoyed writing it, you enjoyed it an awful lot.
The Bottom Line: But times change, and it’s time for The Bottom Ten to go. It’s been the best of friends, and we say farewell with the fondest of memories and the broadest of smiles. We hope you do, too.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow haggles with a potential guest. Today’s Diary.
– I can waive the parking fee, but there’s not a whole lot of leeway otherwise.
This was a lie, of course; I could lower the rate to a few bucks and waive whatever the hell I wanted…My authority is that broad…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1814 – The British occupation of Washington, D.C. in the War of 1812 continued, with British troops burning the Library of Congress and the Treasury and War Departments. This came a day after the British burned the White House, Capitol building, and the Washington Navy Yard, and marked the second time – the first was during the American Revolution – that the British had captured America’s capital without winning the war. The War of 1812 ended the following year with inconclusive results.
In 1922 – The Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs establish new major league records for the most runs and the most hits in a game in a 26-23 Cubs victory. The teams combined for 49 runs and 51 hits, and research into whose records they broke was inconclusive. The record for runs still stands, and on July 10, 1932, the Philadelphia A’s and Cleveland Indians combined for 58 hits in an 18-inning game won by the A’s 18-17.
In 1979 – The Charlie Daniels Band is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the only week with The Devil Went Down to Georgia. The song also went #1 country in Canada, went #14 pop in Great Britain, and peaked at #3 on the Hot 100. It was the third of twelve Top 40 country hits for Daniels, his first of three Top 10s, and remains his only #1 country hit and his biggest pop hit. Daniels died in 2020, and his chart career ran from 1973-2003.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…anarchy is not the result of the commitment, all at once, of a serious crime, but people who fail to be strict about minor matters also destroy the guard that protects more serious concerns.
Plutarch
Roman Lives
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
Four of Mark David Chapman’s five shots hit John Lennon.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What team holds the record for most runs scored in a major league game? – Answer next time!
