The Daily Dose/January 23, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off
Leading Off will return.

Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has a busy morning at the hotel, to include changing the bag in the document shredder and having a guest call to inform him she had just had her period, a Sparrow first.

I’ve been working front desks a long time and this marked the first time a woman called to advise me of the status of her menstrual cycle…Her concern seemed to be that her employer’s credit card would be billed, so maybe she was worried that “Damaged Sheet – Period” would appear as a line item on the bill… No I said, we’re not in the habit of doing that…

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On This Date
In 1960 – Man reaches the farthest depths of the ocean when Jacques Piccard and US Navy Lieutenant Don Walsh rode the submersible Trieste to a place known as Challenger Deep, about 200 miles southwest of Guam, 35,797 feet below the ocean’s surface. Trieste took four hours and 47 minutes to reach the bottom and the return trip took three hours and 15 minutes and while at the bottom, communications with the support ship took about seven seconds each way.

In 1944 – The Detroit Red Wings defeat the New York Rangers 15-0, establishing NHL records for Most Consecutive Goals, Most Assists (37) and Largest Margin of Victory in a game. The Red Wings fell one goal shy of the NHL record for most goals in a game established by the Montreal Canadiens in March, 1920 when they defeated the Quebec Bulldogs 16-3.

In 1971 – Lynn Anderson is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the fifth and final week with Rose Garden. The song also peaked at #3 on the Hot 100 and, interestingly, was recorded when there was some extra time at the end of a recording session. It was the first of three consecutive and five total #1s on the country chart for Anderson and Rose Garden remains her only Hot 100 appearance.

Quotebook
He was not so unreasonable-usually- as to demand both freedom and the fruits of popular slavery.
Sinclair Lewis
Arrowsmith

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Simon and Garfunkel have had four #1 songs on the Billboard Hot 100: The Sound of Silence, Mrs Robinson and Bridge Over Troubled Water. 

Today’s Stumper
How did Challenger Deep get its name? –Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/January 21, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off: The Biggest Song Ever…Maybe
Yesterday in the popular On This Date feature we highlighted The Twist by Chubby Checker, which was spending its third and final week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 this week in 1962. It was the second time The Twist had hit #1 and it remains the only song to top the Hot 100 in separate chart runs, a tidbit I know all trivia buffs will appreciate.

Now, The Twist might not be the biggest selling single of all-time, and it is 13 weeks behind the Hot 100’s all-time leaders for most weeks at #1, but we’ve always felt The Twist deserves to be called the biggest hit because it went to #1 twice. Every other #1 song only went to #1 once.

There are different ways of ranking songs, though. Ages ago (and today, actually, thanks to the magic of the Internet) I used to listen to the radio show American Top 40 hosted by Casey Kasem. You may have, too. While we generally enjoyed the show, Casey would annoy me by using a different methodology for ranking songs in his year end survey. The AT40 staff would assign points depending on a song’s chart position and songs were ranked based on the points they earned and not their peak position. (Whether points were based on Hot 100 or Top 40 performance was never entirely clear, at least to me.)

This led to some whack rankings. You would have a #1 song rank below #50 for the year, while at the same time songs that peaked at #2 or #3 would finish the year in the Top 10. Heck, in 1973 Why Me by Kris Kristofferson peaked at #16 but spent 19 weeks in the Top 40 and 38 weeks in the Hot 100 – both extraordinary totals – and finished in the runner-up spot on Casey’s Top 100 of 1973 countdown.

We’ve never understood this, frankly. Call us traditionalists, but a song’s ranking should be solely based on its peak position. You can further break it down by weeks at #1 and if that’s a tie most weeks at #2 and so on. But for our money a song that spent even one week at the top is bigger than the couple of songs that spent ten weeks at #2, so making #1 on two separate chart runs trumps everything. Billboard tends to agree with this, too, consistently ranking  The Twist #1 on the assorted All-Time charts it has run, usually on a significant anniversary of the Hot 100.

Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow wishes guests would stop puking in their rooms, plus he has the latest water readings from the hotel.

I was sitting here reviewing my findings from today’s testing when BOOM it hit me, let’s test the snow outside!!!…I had no idea what to expect…I didn’t know whether our snow was OK or whether it was riddled with acid rain…As it turned out, it’s the lowest ranking we’ve had so far, trailing only the 001 produced by the filter at The Shire.

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On This Date
In 1861 – Jefferson Davis, calling it the saddest day of his life, resigns from the United States Senate, twelve days after his home state of Mississippi had seceded from the Union. Two days later Davis, a graduate of the United States Military Academy, was appointed a major general in the Army of Mississippi and on February 9th would be inaugurated president of the Confederacy.

In 1979 – The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Dallas Cowboys 35-31 in Super Bowl XIII, becoming the first team to win three Super Bowls. The Steelers would win their fourth Super Bowl the following year and their record for Most Super Bowl Wins now stands at six. The national anthem was sung by the Colgate 13 and the halftime show was a tribute to the Caribbean. It was the fifth and final Super Bowl played at the Orange Bowl in Miami.

In 1984 – Yes is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for their first and only time with Owner of a Lonely Heart. The song would spend two weeks at #1 and was Billboard’s eighth biggest hit for 1984. Owner of a Lonely Heart remains the group’s only appearance at the top of a Billboard chart: the song also went to #1 on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, while Yes’s highest charting album a was 1972’s Close to the Edge, which peaked at #3.

Quotebook
Order is the mother civilization and liberty; chaos the midwife of dictatorship.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization: The Reformation

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Dick Enberg was the play-by-play announcer for the UCLA/Houston basketball Game of the Century. Bob Petit was his color commentator.

Today’s Stumper
What are the two songs that have spent ten weeks at #2 on the Billboard Bot 100? –Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/January 20, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy

Leading Off: Capsule Book Review
The President’s Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs and Michael Duffy

Though there have usually been past presidents knocking around – the last time there wasn’t was in 1973 after Lyndon Johnson died. It lasted until Richard Nixon resigned and himself become an ex-president – the establishment of an unofficial club of ex-presidents is rather recent. It started when President Truman enlisted the help of former President Herbert Hoover to help feed Europe after World War II. It has continued to this day and over the decades has marked one of the few times in Amerian politics when partisan politics has been tossed aside to do something constructive. As this book shows throughout, regardless of their triumphs and humiliations, the one bond club members share is that each member knows only ones that have occupied the Oval Office know what in the hell’s going on, because they are the ones who have shared the burden.

Sometimes this teamwork, or lack thereof, is public, as when president’s George Bush and Bill Clinton tag-teamed to raise money for disaster relief, and sometimes it is not, such as when candidate Richard Nixon did his darndest to undermine President Lyndon Johnson’s efforts at negotiating an end to the Vietnam War, something Johnson was well aware of but, curiously, never put to advantage.

The President’s Club is a lively, engaging and sometimes wryly funny book and will provide insights into the presidency that both presidential newcomers and veterans will enjoy.

Final Ranking: B. Highly recommended.

Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow chats about the big sellers at the sundry stand and the cookie tray he prepares at the hotel, plus it’s Asian night at The Shire for dinner, tho The Wife doesn’t permit the use of chopsticks.

…then sometime in the afternoon, I am not entirely sure when, they put out a tray of cookies…Stay away from these…I don’t think anyone is under any delusions that they are fresh from the oven, but neither can you be entirely sure how long they’ve been sitting…These things keep forever and will probably be the only foodstuffs remaining after the next time an asteroid barrels into Earth.

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On This Date
In 1937 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt is inaugurated president of the United States for the second time, becoming the first president to be inaugurated on January 20. This followed the passage of the Twentieth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1933, which mandated this. The amendment also fixed the starting date of the new Congress on January 3. Previously both a new presidential term and the beginning of a new Congress had been on March 4th.

In 1968 – The Houston Cougars defeat the UCLA Bruins 71-69 at the Houston Astrodome, in what then called the Game of the Century. The game was a rematch of a national semifinal from the previous season when the Bruins had defeated the Cougars and the loss ended UCLA’s 47-game winning game streak. It was also the first regular season college basketball game broadcast nationwide in prime time and the attendance of 52,693 was the largest for a college basketball game up to that time. The Astrodome was in a football configuration for the game, and the court, which came from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, was in the middle of the arena, far from the nearest seats.

In 1962 – The Twist by Chubby Checker is #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second consecutive week, and third non-consecutive week. The song had also hit #1 for one week in September 1960 and while it is not uncommon for a song to drop from the top spot and return a week or two later, The Twist remains the only song in chart history to hit #1 in separate chart runs.

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 first time an airplane took off from a ship was on November 14, 1910, when Eugene E ly took off from the USS Birmingham at Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Today’s Stumper
Who was the play-by-play announcer for the national TV broadcast of the UCLA/Houston Game of the Century. ? –Answer next time!

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