The Daily Dose/November 4, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.  

Leading Off will return. There’s nothing going on right now anyway.

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow fields a complaint from a guest who can’t tell the difference between an idling truck and his room’s heater.   

Experience has taught that it can be useful to close your eyes here and let your ears take charge and zero in on the noise, so I did that and BOOM it turns out the noise is coming from off to my right, in the area where the heat until is kept…Or where I think the heating unit is kept…I’m not entirely certain what’s in there…Another lesson the years have taught is don’t go knocking on the guest’s door here, but you do want them to know you looked into their problem and it’s appropriate to call them and the guy said thank you, don’t bother him further on the matter, he’ll come to the front desk and take care of later in the day. 

The Bottom Ten/NFL Week 10: It’s the usual hilarity in the race for the most coveted trophy in sports, The Dan Henning Trophy – symbolic of NFL Bottom Ten supremacy. 

7. Cincinnati Bengals (2-5-1; defeated Tennessee 31-20) – Bengals quest to shed worst team never to win B-10 title mantle takes big hit with upset win…Bengals offense morale at rock bottom after producing leads not even their defense could blow…Next Loss: Pittsburgh (11/15)

On This Date
The long march to today.

In 1890 – The world’s first underground railway – the City and South London Railway – opens in London with six stations and 3.2 miles of track. The line opened with electric locomotives – a method still in its infancy – because the company contracted to provide the originally-planned cable-hauled trains had gone bankrupt. The railway operated until 1933 and the unused tunnels served as a bomb shelter in World War II. 

In 1973 – Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warriors begins an NBA-record streak of 65 consecutive games scoring at least 30 points in a 135-132 victory over the Detroit Pistons. Chamberlain had 58 points in the game and would not score fewer than 30 points in a contest until February 24 when the Boston Celtics held him to 26 points. Research into whose record Chamberlain broke was inconclusive and the record still stands. Chamberlain finished the 1961-62 season averaging 50.4 points per game, another NBA record that still stands. 

In 1957 – Elvis is at #1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart – a predecessor to the Hot 100 – for the third of seven non-consecutive weeks with Jailhouse Rock. It was the ninth of 18 #1 songs for Elvis and his 19th of 107 Top 40 hits. The song also went to #1 on Billboard’s country and soul charts making Elvis one of three acts – the Everly Brothers and Billy Ray Cyrus are the others – to have #1 songs on all three charts. The song also went to #1 in South Africa and Great Britain. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever. 

Oh, what low joke was Fortuna playing on him now? Arrest, accident, job! Where would this dreadful cycle ever end?
John Kennedy Toole
A Confederacy of Dunces

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know. 

A.C. Green played for the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat during his NBA career.

Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar. 

How many #1 songs did Elvis have in Great Britain? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/November 2, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.  

ALREADY WITH THE DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER: There’s an old saying : success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. This is true in a lot of endeavors – we can offer sports officiating as a personal example – but is not entirely true in the writing racket, where anything worth reading comes from inspiration provided by the heart. 

Sure, once inspiration hits the writer must buckle down and get to work, but the person who starts a project for any reason other than having been inspired to do so isn’t writing, he’s typing. 

We’re Sure There’s A Point Around Here Somewhere: The inspiration for yesterday’s Sunday Bottom 5 column came after we had already written the item. We went with the fresh inspiration and three items ended up being replaced. Since we don’t really have a place for the original three items – and because we needed material for today’s Leading Off, we offer them here today: 

Batter Up: TV ratings for the recent World Series were the lowest ever, with about half the viewers of your average NFL game and about three-quarters of what they used to be back when baseball was actually our national pastime…Shows that scored more ratings than the World Series this week included Nesting With Birds, Door Handles Tonight and Fluoride Fun. 

More Batter Up: Has there been a more confusing sports hire in recent memory than Tony LaRussa, now 76, being hired to manage the Chicago White Sox? Offhand, it’s the most head-scratching sports hire since the Detroit Lions hired Matt Millen as president, both of which made as much sense as hiring me to change your oil. Sure, LaRussa has had a lot of success in the past, but his recent employment history shows someone completely out of touch with today’s game and the players who play it. 

Bon Appetite: We were also going to include an item about Ginos, a new joint we ate at last week because someone recommended it. It was good. The burger was among the best we’ve ever had – and we’ve had our share of burgers – and probably yours, too – over the years – and the French fries were battered which you don’t see every day, but the mozzarella sticks were only average, good but nothing original. Key will be next week’s Stromboli sampling. We have a lot of street cred here, too. Stay tuned. 

The Bottom Line: The most important presidential election of our lifetimes is tomorrow and we’re writing about this. Well, we’ve written about the election, of course, and we wouldn’t have had anything fresh to offer and, besides, we know you and the rest of humanity enjoyed today’s Sunday Bottom 5 insights. Have a good day and don’t forget to vote. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody: At the hotel, Sparrow handles the time change with aplomb. 

The big news is for the first time in two years here ol’ Sparrow remembered to set the time on the PBX phone right at 0200…It’s not particularly difficult – it’s even rather intuitive if you’ve never done it before – but the thing is you gotta remember to do it and not think it’s changed automatically like your computer because it’s not, it has to be changed manually…In what, hopefully, is a proof ol’ Sparrow isn’t losing his mind in his advancing years, he actually remembered it yesterday and put a reminder in the front desk log book for today and even highlighted it yellow.

(By the by, it’s important to change the time so people get their wake-up calls on time.)

On This Date
The long march to today.

In 1959 – Charles Van Doren, who two years earlier had had a long winning streak on the TV game show Twenty-one – testifies before a Congressional committee that he had been given the questions and answers beforehand. Van Doren had been a teacher at Columbia University at the time of his appearance, and the producers had concocted the scheme in the hopes of reversing declining ratings. This was one of several quiz show scandals of the era and Van Doren would otherwise remain silent on the matter until a magazine essay in 2008. 

In 1990 – The Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets establish a new NBA record for most points scored in a non-overtime game in a 162-158 Warriors’ victory. The teams broke the record of 318 points established by the Nuggets and the San Antonio Spurs in January 1984 and the record still stands, the fourth-highest scoring game in NBA history. Golden State led 87-83 at halftime, the 170 points establishing an NBA record for most points by both teams in a half, a record that would be broken five days later when the Nuggets and Spurs scored 173 points in the first half of their game. 

In 1968 – James Brown is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles chart – for the fifth of six consecutive weeks with Say It Loud – I’m Black and I’m Proud (Part 1). It was the 47th of 110 soul hits for Brown and his seventh of 17 #1 soul songs, both marks that remain on the all-time soul chart Top 5. The song also peaked at #10 on the Hot 100, Brown’s sixth of seven Top 10 pop hits.

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever. 

For Confucius, true wisdom is to know the extent of what you don’t know quite as well as you know what you do know.
Gore Vidal
Creation

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know. 

Woman in Love was Barbra Streisand’s only #1 song in Great Britain, spending three weeks at the top in 1980. 

Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar. 

What is the NBA record for fewest points scored in a game by both teams? – Answer next time!

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