The Daily Dose/May 19, 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 issues the first Stupid Guest of the Night Award in a while. Today’s Diary. 

He asked that someone for maintenance be dispatched forthwith to his room to get to the bottom of it and he sounded peeved when we told him we were it, tho we told him we’d be happy to come look at it if he wanted…

———

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 1743 – What today is known as the Celsius temperature scale comes into being when French physicist Jean-Pierre Christin inverts the then-in-use Centigrade scale, which at the time had water boiling at 0° and freezing at 100°. Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius had invented the centigrade scale the year before, though the scale wasn’t named after him until 1948. The Celsius and Fahrenheit scales intersect at minus-40°. 

In 1984 – The Edmonton Oilers win the Stanley Cup, defeating the New York Islanders 5-2 in game five to win the series 4 games to 1. It was the first of four consecutive and five overall titles for the Oilers and remains the only runner-up finish for the Islanders, to go with the previous four titles. With the win, the Oilers become the first former WHA team to win the Cup, and they broke the Islanders’ streak of 19 consecutive playoff series wins, an NHL record which still stands. 

In 1984 – Julio Iglesias and Willie Nelson are at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the second and final week with To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before. The song also went #1 country in Canada, peaked at #17 in Great Britain, at #5 on Billboard’s Hot 100, and was their #1 country song of the year. It remains the only #1 country hit for Iglesias and was the ninth of 13 country #1s for Nelson. The song was written by Albert Hammond and Hal David.  

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

…in a small way, in time, I accomplished my desire.
Capt Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

The fewest runs scored in a doubleheader by both teams is one, by the Boston Beaneaters and the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sept 4, 1902. Boston won the first game 1-0, and the second game was a 0-0 tie called after nine innings because of darkness. 

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

What team has won the most consecutive Stanley Cup Finals? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/May 18, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

The Sunday Bottom 5
A ranking of some things.

 1. War! War! War! – Israel’s genocide in Gaza continues, with further attacks on refugee camps and private residences, all while starving the area…Russian/Ukraine War rolls on, too, with hot new Russian offensive planned, though Sunday Bottom 5 pollsters “pretty sure” this remains a war that nobody needed and only Vladimir Putin wanted. 

2. Donald Trump and the Mantle of Idiocy – From free Air Force One – a gift from Qatar – that will need billions of dollars to rebuild from the ground up to bickering with Bruce Springsteen and Walmart, America continues to be witlessly led off the top of Trump’s head….Sunday Bottom 5 pollsters “strongly suspect” we’ll survive Trump Era, but boy, complete lack of leadership will take years to recover from. 

3. Pope Shoeless Joe I – The new, interim 3-hole staple…Pope’s beloved Chicago White Sox a lusty 4-5 following his election, as Roman curia works on special encyclical designed to get team berth in 2025 baseball playoffs…White Sox send special delegation from equipment staff to Rome to get blessings on latest shipments of bats, baseball, and jock straps. 

4. Mexican Navy – Aichiwawa!!!…Tall ship on international goodwill tour crashes into Brooklyn Bridge, killing at least two people and snapping ship’s masts…Investigation ongoing, but early signs point to a special Shots y Pinata party on ship’s bridge that failed to notice ship drifting to the right a little. 

Donald Trump Fact Check: – Click here for a check on claims made by President Trump on prescription drug prices…Courtesy of the AP.

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow deals with adults hell-bent on enjoying themselves. Today’s Diary. 

…regular readers of this crap know that “no fun allowed after hours” is my motto, and we came very close to waddling over there and looking at them crossly with our hands on our hips.

———

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 1969 – Apollo 10, – commanded by Thomas Stafford, with John Young and Gene Cernan – launches from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The mission was a test run prior to Apollo 11’s lunar landing and exploration in July, and the mission went off without major glitches and on the way home, the command module flew at 24,791 mph, the fastest speed ever traveled by humans. To prevent the astronauts from attempting a lunar landing, the LM had only carried half the fuel required for landing and ascent. 

In 1929 – The Brooklyn Robins and the Philadelphia Phillies establish a new major league record for most runs in a doubleheader in a 20-16 Brooklyn win and an 8-6 Philadelphia win. Research into whose record the 50 combined runs broke was inconclusive, and the record is now 54 by the Boston Red Sox and Philadelphia Athletics in 1939. Both games were played in less than five hours and used a combined eleven pitchers. 

In 1985 – Kool & the Gang is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Black Singles chart – for the only week with Fresh. The song also went #11 pop in Great Britain, went to #1 on Billboard’s dance chart, peaked at #9 on the Hot 100, was Billboard’s 15th-biggest soul song of the year, and its 89th-biggest pop song. It was the eighth of nine #1 soul songs for the group.  

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

It would be four more years before I could even begin to understand that the known landscape must be abandoned again and again and again.
James Chace
What We Had

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

The first #1 on the first Billboard album chart was The King Cole Trio by the King Cole Trio  on March 24, 1945. It spent three consecutive weeks at the top. 

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

What is the major league record for fewest runs in a doubleheader? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/May 17, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: What We Had by James Chace: We humans read for many reasons, and one of them is for insights into our collective human experience. For our money, the best at doing this are, in no particular order, are Gore Vidal, Will Durant, and Louis L’Amour, and we’ve obliged regular readers of this crap to suffer through quotes of theirs in the Some Philosophy Crap segment for years. 

Dry, Technical Matter: One of the pleasures of reading is finding an insight of this sort where you really didn’t expect it, and we certainly weren’t expecting it here, because Mr Chace’s memoir was more meandering than anything. 

Dry, Technical Matter II: Chase (1931-2004) was an American historian who grew up in Fall River, Massachusetts. His memoir is about a prosperous town and his prosperous family, both of which eventually find hard times. 

Write This Down: We were forging ahead in good spirits though, honestly, we were considering putting it down when we came across Mr Chase cutting our human experience down to one sentence. It’s from a recollection about working in one of his family’s cotton mills: 

I learned how easy it is to prefer unhappiness to simple risk. 

Holy Living F*ck: Good gravy, this is life in a nutshell: those who get on in this life exchange this unhappiness for some risk. They know themselves and the life they were put here to live, and they go and live that life. It’s how things get done, it’s how talents are maximized. It’s how we got humans to the moon and back safely. It’s how humanity advances, both individually and collectively. 

Fly In The Ointment: On the other hand, those who shrug and accept less than they are meant to be are the ones unwilling to accept a little risk, unwilling to break away from the herd, unwilling to take a road less traveled. Every day it’s our call. 

Get Your Official Daily Dose Rating Scale Right Here: 1 – The very best; 2 – Very good; 3 – Good; 4 – OK; 5 – A steaming pile. 

Final Ranking: 2: The above line wasn’t the only morsel of wisdom, and they bump the final ranking up a bit because outside of some wisdom, we found the book to be rather dry. Chase’s family does have an assortment of oddities, but your family does, too. Some wisdom, though, is what you pay us writers for, and Chace delivers that, and What We Had is entitled to high marks.  

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow is in his element discussing flag etiquette. Today’s Diary. 

No flag flies above the US flag, tho US law does allow for a pennant to fly above the flag when a Navy chaplain is conducting church at sea for sailors and Marines…  

———

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. 

Editor’s Note: due to time constraints, the first two items ran in 2019. 

In 1954 – The United States Supreme Court issues its landmark Brown v. Board of Education opinion, ruling unanimously that separate public schools for whites and blacks are unconstitutional. The case stemmed from a 1951 class-action suit by parents of students in Topeka, Kansas after the parents had attempted to enroll their kids in the closest public school, but had been turned down and instead referred to the nearest segregated school. Before reaching the Supreme Court, a Kansas district court had ruled in favor of the Topeka Board of Education.

In 1968 – Frank Howard of the Washington Senators establishes a new major league record for most home runs in five consecutive games with eight, homering once in a 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. The following day Howard would hit two more home runs, tying his five-game record and establishing a new mark for most home runs in six consecutive games with ten. Both records would be tied by Barry Bonds in 2001.

Today – Bad Bunny is at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for the fourth non-consecutive week with Debi Tirar Mas Fotos (I Should Have Taken More Photos). It’s the ninth chart album for Bad Bunny, and his fourth #1. Fuerza Regida is at #2 in the survey with 111XPANTIA, marking the first time in the history of the Billboard album charts that two Spanish-language albums have occupied the top two spots. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

For it is a good general rule among men that they are ungrateful, fickle, liar and deceivers, fearful of danger and greedy for gain.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

Reggie Leach of the Philadelphia Flyers was the MVP of the 1976 Stanley Cup playoffs. 

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

Who had the first #1 on Billboard’s first album chart? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!

The Daily Dose/May 16, 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 has to repair the heater. Today’s Diary. 

Now, you don’t have to edit Heating and Air Conditioning Today to strongly suspect if the heater fired up – it had been off for a week or two – it was working, and the thermostat is copping an attitude…

———

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 1866 – The US Congress establishes the nickel 5-cent piece. Previously, the government had issued a 5-cent coin known as the half-dime and 5-cent fractional currency notes, which would stay in circulation until 1876. The nickel joined two- and three-cent coins that  remained in circulation throughout the 19th-century. The current nickel is three-quarters copper and one-quarter nickel. 

In 1976 – The Montreal Canadiens win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers 5-3 in game four to sweep the series. It was the 19th – and the first of four consecutive – of an NHL record 24 Cup wins for the Canadiens and the first of six runner-up finishes with the Flyers, to go with two titles. Montreal defenseman Rick Chartraw, born in Venezuela to American parents, remains the only player born in South America to win the Stanley Cup. 

In 1953 – Percy Faith & His Orchestra featuring Felicia Sanders is at #1 on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart – a predecessor to the Hot 100 – for the first of ten consecutive weeks with The Song From Moulin Rouge (Where Is Your Heart). The song was Billboard’s #1 song of the year, and a version by Mantovani went to #1 in Great Britain. It was the first of two #1 songs for Faith and remains the only #1 for Sanders.

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

But shortsighted men undertake policies for their immediate advantage, paying no heed to the slow poison hidden within them.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

The oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the US is St Augustine, Florida, founded in 1565 by the Spanish. 

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

Who was the MVP of the 1976 Stanley Cup Finals? – Answer next time!

Share Gaylon! Go!

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

Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.

PRESIDENT TRUMP AND THE MANTLE OF IDIOCY: The witlessness of the Trump Administration continued this week with his executive order regarding prescription drug prices. It was heralded as giving drug companies 30 days to lower prices. 

Fly In The Ointment: The order is pure Trump: all bluster and no substance. there is no legal mechanism for enacting price reductions and is, in essence, a request. The order is so powerful, pharmaceutical stock prices rose after the announcement; the industry was expecting worse. 

Snake Oil For Sale: Any reductions would only affect the government’s price for drugs for Medicare and other federal programs, like VA medical care. There is no reason to think it will affect the price paid by private insurers and retail buyers. 

Dry, Technical Matter. This is typical Trump braggadocio: claiming to cure all ills when, in actuality, nothing will be accomplished. Trump won’t care, either: his only realy goal is to draw attention to himself and he’s done that. He’s already moved on to accepting a new jet from Qatar and butting in on college sports. He continues to offer ignorance and blather to a country that still  – after ten years – cannot get enough of it. 

The Bottom Line: Trump’s executive order does reaffirm that heath care in this country remains a fiasco. In fact, it is to the point where we should either adopt a single-payer system or get the government out of it entirely and return doctors and health insurers to the free market. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has to scramble for a place to eat. Today’s Diary.

The Mexican joint in the next county was closed!!!…

———

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 1607 – The first permanent English settlement in the Americas is established at Jamestown, Virginia, then known as James Fort. It was established by the London Company, which had made landfall in April, originally settling at the mouth of the James River, about 30 miles south. The first representative assembly in America, the House of Burgesses, met at the Jamestown Church in 1619. The town was abandoned in the 1750s after the capital was moved to Williamsburg. 

In 1980 – Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers has the first quadruple-double in NBA Finals history in a 108-103 win over the Philadelphia 76ers in game five. Johnson had 14 points, 15 rebounds, 10 assists, and 10 turnovers and the feat has not been duplicated. The ten turnovers broke the Finals record of nine established by Gus Williams of Seattle the year before, and the record still stands. The Lakers would win the series in six games. 

In 1977 – Leo Sayer is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the only week with When I Need You. It was the fourth of eight Top 40 hits for Sayer, his third of four Top 10 hits, and his second and final #1. The song went to #1 in four other countries, including Zimbabwe and Great Britain, peaked at #94 on Billboard’s soul chart, and was their 24th-biggest song of the year. The song was written by Albert Hammond and Carole Bayer Sager. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

In a word, other men’s armor will either slip off your back, or weigh you down, or constrict your actions.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince

Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.

Five countries – Great Britain, the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Switzerland – have won the America’s Cup. 

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

What is the oldest continuously inhabited European settlement in the US? – Answer next time! 

Share Gaylon! Go!