The Daily Dose/May 13, 2019
By Gaylon Kent America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off Leading Off will return.
Today At The Site The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow buys some bird seed at the retailer, lifts weights, and mows the lawn, as The Wife heads out for a couple of weeks with her kids. Today’s Diary.
Bought some bird seed while I was at the retailer, too…Any guy married for more than two minutes knows there are some battles you fight and some battles you don’t fight, and I’ve waved the white flag on the bird seed front: I now buy the premium bird seed…The Wife prefers it to the 500 lbs-for-a-dollar crap I still prefer, and I suppose there is some merit to her claim we get nicer birds with the primo stuff, tho we’re hardly running an arboretum here at The Shire.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables: Friends, my latest novel is now available, for $3.99 until later this week when the price goes up a couple of bucks. Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables is about a nice guy who runs high-class call girls in and out of 5-star suites and throne rooms, collects ransoms and runs from the constables. Hilarity ensues. Seriously.
On This Date In 1995 – Allison Hargreaves of Great Britain becomes the first woman to climb Mount Everest with the aid of either oxygen or a Sherpa guide. The previous year Hargreaves had climbed to 27,500 feet before weather obliged her to turn back. Three months later Hargreaves was killed shortly after reaching the summit of the mountain K2. She was survived by a husband and two children.
In 1983 – Reggie Jackson of the California Angels becomes the first major league player to strike out 2,000 times in a career, going 0-for-5 with three strikeouts in a 5-4, 12-inning loss to the Minnesota Twins. Jackson would retire with 2,597 strikeouts, a record that still stands, as well as 2,584 hits, 563 home runs, and 1,702 RBIs.
In 1978 – Yvonne Elliman is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the only week with If I Can’t Have You. It was the fourth of five Top 40 hits for Elliman and her only #1. The song was written by the Bee Gees and was the fourth and final #1 song from the Saturday Night Fever soundrack that was written specifically for the soundtrack. Three other previously released songs that had hit #1 – Jive Talking and You Should Be Dancing by the Bee Gees and A Fifth of Beethoven by Walter Murphy – were included on the soundtrack, as well.
Quotebook The tragedy of life is not that man loses, but that he almost wins. Heywood Braun
Answer To The Last Trivia Question Lionel Ritchie was a part of two #1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 as a member of the Commodores: Three Times a Lady and Still.
Today’s Stumper What pitcher was responsible for Reggie Jackson’s first major league strikeout? – Answer next time!
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Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Sunday, May 1 I was relieved late at the hotel this morning and, actually, I thought I got off easy getting relieved at 0730 because I thought I was going to be there until 0900…Tammy usually comes in at 0700 on Sunday mornings but Front Desk Manager Candace, for reasons we’re all certain she thought good, switched things up so Tammy came in at 0900 and Denise at 0700.
The Daily Dose/May 12, 2019
By Gaylon Kent America’s Funniest Guy
The Sunday Bottom V Celebrating the worst of the week that was:
US Tariffs – Like most everything else President Trump says, claim latest round of China tariffs “go directly to the Treasury of the U.S.” as true as saying sun rises in the north…Tariffs are paid by the American company that imports Chinese goods…Sunday Bottom V pollsters “pretty sure” you are surprised by this.
Horse Racing – Sport that developed first electronic meddling in sports – the photo finish – finally has Kentucky Derby decided with instant replay, resulting in first winner ever by DQ…A day at the track could become thing of the past, as horses dying left and right at Santa Anita, more legalized gambling in America, threaten sport’s future.
US Tariffs II– Since tariffs are paid for by US companies who pass the cost on to us consumers, tariffs are really nothing more than a tax on you and me, we the people…Sunday Bottom V pollsters “pretty sure” we deserve better than this.
2020 – Between president who either ignores or doesn’t know facts, perpetual war and mindless spending, elected officials who only produce fractured, partisan, bickering government, America has work to do Election Day 2020.
US Drone Strikes – Though US laying low recently in Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, 978 deaths in 2019 nothing to sneeze at as Special Olympians in Pentagon issuing high fives as almost 99 percent of deaths militant adults…Sunday Bottom V pollsters “pretty sure” drone strikes an act of war despite fact US hasn’t declared war on anyone since deciding to smack around Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania in World War II Source: Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Death totals are minimums taken from estimated range.
Today At The Site The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow sells a couple bottles of premium water at the start of his shift and The Wife packs for her road trip. Today’s Diary.
(I seldom see anybody in management at the hotel…The salesman that sold The Wife her new car knows GM Barbara and asked how I liked working for her and I had to say I had no idea because I’ve literally seen her two or three times in my life and one of those times was when I was working at the retailer.)
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables: Friends, my latest novel is now available, for $3.99 until later this week when the price goes up a couple of bucks. Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables is about a nice guy who runs high-class call girls in and out of 5-star suites and throne rooms, collects ransoms and runs from the constables. Hilarity ensues. Seriously.
On This Date In 1551 – The National University of Lima is established by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. Though not the first university in the New World – the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic was established in 1538 – it remains the oldest continuously operating university in the Americas. It is now known as the National University of San Marcos.
In 1962 – The expansion New York Mets become the first team in major league history to win both games of a doubleheader with home runs in their final at-bat, defeating the Milwaukee Braves 3-2 and 8-7. Craig Anderson was the winning pitcher in both games, the final two wins of his major league career. Anderson would go 0-16 the rest of 1964, plus 0-2 in 1965 and 0-1 in 1966. The Mets finished 1962 with a 40-120 record and the doubleheader sweep represented five percent of their wins that year.
In 1984 – Hello by Lionel Ritchie is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second and final week. The song went to #1 in eight other countries including Great Britain, where it spent six weeks at #1. The song was also in its second of three weeks at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart and was Billboard’s seventh biggest hit of the year. It was Ritchie’s fourth of five #1 songs as a solo act on both the Hot 100 and soul chart.
Quotebook They stir up a soul from its depths, and rouse, as with trumpet call, courage, energy, and enthusiasm, where before was only the blackness of despair. Harriet Beecher Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Answer To The Last Trivia Question Josef Mengele was the other Nazi Israeli agents were looking for in Argentina when they captured Adolf Eichmann.
Today’s Stumper How many #1 songs was Lionel Ritchie a part of as a member of the Commodores? – Answer next time!
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Posted in2019|Comments Off on The Daily Dose/Sunday, May 12, 2019
The Daily Dose/May 11, 2019
By Gaylon Kent America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off We do not like sex abuse any more than you do, but this week’s announcement by Pope Francis this week announcing that all church personnel are not required to report sex abuse and/or its cover-up to their superiors almost made us laugh.
Good gravy, after decades of public disclosure of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, mainly of boys 11-14, though also of some girls, a thousand years after a monk first wrote about a book railing against sexual abuse and depravity by the clergy, and perhaps two thousand years after it first started happening, the church is now requiring people report child molestation?
It was Francis’s first definitive action on the matter in his seven-year pontificate and comes at a time that has seen cardinals in the United States and Australia being disgraced as abusers and several US states opening investigations into the church, with some American bishops releasing lists of priests that have been accused of sexual abuse. It is interesting to note the pope’s decree does not require anyone in the church to report anything at all to any civil authority.
While reading this the same thought we’ve had about the Republican Party came to mind: why are these people still around? The GOP hasn’t produced a decent elected president since Eisenhower and the Catholic Church allows and tolerates its clergy to sexually abuse boys.
But Catholics are staying with their church. Membership, while declining in some countries, is still over one billion baptized, Catholic adherents, regularly supporting an institution that has its leaders regularly molesting children. It’s human nature. Religion was our earliest attempt to explain our existence: its up and downs, eclipses and floods, good harvests and bad harvests, successes and failures. And us humans still need that guidance, not to mention freedom from the fear of death. And the Catholic Church, for better or worse, is still there to dispense those things to its adherents.
There are other churches out there, though, and we can personally vouch for one of them: we had 13 years of Lutheran schooling, a religion where clergy are allowed to marry and enjoy more or less normal sex lives, and these things never happened.
Today At The Site The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has some leftovers from Thursday, and he updates his VSO website. Today’s Diary.
The lawn didn’t get done…Regular readers of this crap know Thursdays is prime lawn mowing time, but we got home from town late and I was beat anyways, however I would’ve done it anyway, but the excuse of some scattered sprinkles presented itself and I was pleased to put it off until next time.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables: Friends, my latest novel is now available, for $3.99 until later this week when the price goes up a couple of bucks. Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables is about a nice guy who runs high-class call girls in and out of 5-star suites and throne rooms, collects ransoms and runs from the constables. Hilarity ensues. Seriously.
On This Date In 1960 – Nazi Adolf Eichmann is captured by agents of the Israeli government in Buenos Aires, snatched after getting off a bus on his way home from work. He was kept at a safe house for nine days while his identity was confirmed and agents searched, unsuccessfully, for another Nazi, and was later drugged, dressed as flight attendant and smuggled out of the country. Eichmann was tried, convicted and executed in June, 1962. Earlier this century declassified documents showed both the US and West Germany knew Eichmann was in Argentina, but decided it was in their interest to do nothing.
In 1977 – Ted Turner, owner of the Atlanta Braves, begins and ends his managerial career, at the helm of the Braves’ 2-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates, the team’s 17th consecutive loss. After the game, Turner is told by the National League to step down because a manager cannot have a financial interest in a team and the Braves would win the following night under coach Vern Benson, and previously fired manager Dave Bristol would return to manage the remainder of the season.
In 1974 – Grand Funk Railroad is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second of two consecutive weeks with The Loco-Motion. It was the second #1 for Grand Funk Railroad after 1973’s We’re an American Band and their second of four Top 10 hits. The song also went to #1 in Canada and was Billboard’s sixth biggest song of 1974. It was a remake of Little Eva’s 1962 hit, which also went to #1, making it the second song to go to #1 by two different artists. The first was Go Away Little Girl by Steve Lawrence and then Donny Osmond, and the feat has been repeated on seven other occasions.
Quotebook Let everyone mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made. Henry David Thoreau Walden
Answer To The Last Trivia Question The other songs besides Hound Dog to go to #1 on Billboard’s pop, soul and country charts were Don’t Be Cruel, (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear and Jailhouse Rock by Elvis and Wake Up Little Susie and All I Have To Do Is Dream by the Everly Brothers.
Today’s Stumper Who was the other Nazi Israeli agents were looking for when they captured Adolf Eichmann? – Answer next time!
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Posted in2019|Comments Off on The Daily Dose/Saturday, May 11, 2019
Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, May 9 And The Wife has a new car!!!…I am not making that up.
She’s had the same car since I met her, and it was old enough then, and she has been making noises about a new car for a couple of years and I always told her sure, whenever you’re ready…We make pretty good livings and could more or less easily afford one.
The Daily Dose/May 9, 2019
By Gaylon Kent America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off Two years ago the guided-missile destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a civilian container ship off the coast of Japan. Seven sailors were killed and the damage was so extensive Fitzgerald left dry dock only this week, and it is still not close to being seaworthy.
Recently, the Navy announced the two remaining officers facing criminal charges, the commanding officer, Commander Bryce Benson and Lieutenant Natalie Combs, will have those charges dismissed, which means no one will stand trial for the incident, though others charged avoided trial by accepting a plea deal. The decision came after defense attorneys accused the Chief of Naval Operations and other senior Navy leaders of what is known as unlawful command influence, which is military-speak for opening your yap when it would have been better to keep it closed.
Benson was originally charged with negligent homicide, a charge the Navy later dropped, and he and Lt Combs were charged with dereliction in the performance of duties through negligence resulting in death and improper hazarding of a vessel. Both received letters of censure from the Secretary of the Navy that carry no legal sanction but will ultimately end their naval careers. Not only was Benson relieved of duty, but so were his executive officer and senior enlisted man and shit rolled uphill, too, as both the squadron and task force commanders were fired as well and the commanders of the 7th and Pacific fleets were allowed to retire ahead of schedule.
Like you might have, we’ve read both the Secretary of the Navy’s censure and Commander Benson’s rebuttal and we feel the Navy investigation that showed a tired and improperly trained crew obliged to work with equipment that was not functioning properly was probably closer to the truth than Benson’s rebuttal. We’ve navigated naval vessels in our younger days and our experience is that properly trained crews that are not exhausted do not crash into other vessels.
It’s too bad Benson is not facing trial for this; he deserves this as much as we do, whether he was or was not criminally negligent. You and me – we the people – and the sailors who died under Benson’s command were entitled to see what came out at the trial.
Today At The Site The Diary of a Nobody: It’s a busy day for Sparrow. Today’s Diary.
Other than that, it was dead slow at the VSO today…No one…No appointments and no walk-ins, either…Not vet walk-ins…The Wife came to visit because she had some business at DMV, also in the courthouse, and a gent from a service club came by to chat about their veteran assistance fund…Still tho, it’s a good thing I’m not a commissioned salesman, I’d’ve had to start cold calling veterans asking if they had any claims to file.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
The drivel simply does not stop: please click on the button to read The Diary of a Nobody. $5.99 includes all entries, past, present, and future.
Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables: Friends, my latest novel is now available, for $3.99 until later this week when the price goes up a couple of bucks. Criminals, Courtesans, and Constables is about a nice guy who runs high-class call girls in and out of 5-star suites and throne rooms, collects ransoms and runs from the constables. Hilarity ensues. Seriously.
On This Date In 1092 – The Lincoln Cathedral in Lincoln, England is consecrated 20 years after construction had begun. Though damaged over the centuries by fire and earthquake, the cathedral still serves parishioners and is also known for housing a nest of peregrine falcons in its bell tower the past decade or so, which has helped save the bird from extinction. It was the tallest building in the world from 1311-1549, replacing the Great Pyramid of Giza and being replaced by St Mary’s Church in Stralsund, Germany.
In 1984 – The Chicago White Sox defeat the Milwaukee Brewers 7-6 in 25 innings, completing a game that had started the previous day and suspended after 17 innings earlier that morning because of an American League curfew. The games was tied 3-3 at the end of nine innings and both teams scored three runs in the 21st inning and Harold Baines hit a home run in the bottom of the 25th to win it for the White Sox. At 8 hours and 6 minutes, it is the longest game by time in major league history and at 25 innings it remains the longest game in American League history and the longest major league game played to a decision.
In 1953 – Willie Mae ‘Big Mama’ Thornton is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Race Record Best Sellers chart – for the fourth of seven consecutive weeks with Hound Dog. It was Thornton’s only appearance on a Billboard singles chart, though her album Stronger Than Dirt spent two weeks on Billboard’s album chart in 1968. Hound Dog, done by Elvis Presley,would later – along with Don’t Be Cruel –spend eleven weeks at #1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart as a double-sided single. Elvis also topped the country and soul charts with Hound Dog, the first of four songs to top all three major Billboard charts.
Quotebook I had found what I was looking for- a man like myself, but one who in his search for meaning had discovered a worthwhile object for his life; who had paid every price and not counted it a sacrifice; who was paying it still and would pay it till he died; who cared nothing for compromise, nothing for his pride, nothing for ourselves or the opinion of others; who had reduced his life to the one thing that mattered to him, and was free. John LeCarre The Secret Pilgrim
Answer To The Last Trivia Question The Elegants were the first group to go to #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with their first single and never hit the Hot 100 again. Little Star spent one week at #1 in 1958.
Today’s Stumper What three other songs have also topped Billboard’s pop, soul and country chart? – Answer next time!
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Posted in2019|Comments Off on The Daily Dose/Thursday, May 9, 2019
