The Daily Dose/July 19, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Chris tells Sparrow there are some Mennonites staying at the hotel. Today’s Diary. 

He noted they were on their way from Ohio to Montana and you don’t have to be Lewis and Clark to realize that going thru here isn’t the most direct route…

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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it. 

In 1977 – The first GPS satellite signal is sent from space and received by a station in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The first operational satellite would be launched the following year and all 24 satellites were operational by 1993. GPS traces its origins back to a 1960s Air Force satellite passive ranging system designed for precision bombing and later developed into a program to help submarines navigate at sea. 

In 1903 – Maurice Garin of France wins the first Tour de France bike race, defeating his closest opponent by 2 hours and 59 minutes. It was the first of two Tour titles for Garin, though his 1904 championship was taken away after being disqualified for reasons History has chosen not to record, though accusations of riders taking trains were rampant throughout the race. The race was organized by a Paris newspaper to increase lagging circulation and the overall leader – now identified by a yellow jersey – was identified by a green armband. 

In 1975 – The Isely Brothers are at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Soul Singles chart – for the first of three consecutive weeks with Fight the Power (Part 1). It was the 29th of 74 soul hits for the group, their 13th of 29 Top 10 hits, and their second of seven #1s in a chart career that has spanned from 1962 to last year. The song also peaked at #4 on the Hot 100, their third and final Top 10 pop hit. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

…that is only an approximation, after all, to be corrected by one’s own judgment from the data of a thousand voyages.
Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

Eddy Arnold & His Tennessee Plowboys hold the record for most consecutive weeks at #1 on a major Billboard singles chart, 55 weeks in 1947-48 with five different songs. 

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

What country had the most riders win the Tour de France? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/July 18, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow works at the VSO. Today’s Diary. 

…it was rather poignant, actually, helping a man who had everything he needed to move in six shopping bags, a duffel, and a backpack.

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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 1389 – The English and the French agree to a truce in the Hundred Years War, when Richard II of England and Charles VI of France agree to the Truce of Leulinghem. The kingdoms agree, among other things, to continue peace negotiations and to conduct a joint crusade against the Turks. Though repudiated in 1402, this would be the longest truce of the war which lasted from 1337-1453 and resulted in a French victory. 

In 1921 – Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees establishes a new major league record for most career home runs in a 10-1 win over the Detroit Tigers. Ruth’s 8th-inning home run was the 139th of his career, breaking the record of 138 established by Roger Connor between 1880-97. Ruth would retire in 1935 with 714 home runs, his record was later broken by Henry Aaron and is now held by Barry Bonds (762). When he retired, Connor was also the all-time major league leader in triples and walks. 

In 2009 – The Black Eyed Peas are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the second of 14 consecutive weeks with I Gotta Feeling. It was the fifth of eleven Top 10 hits for the group and their second of three #1s and went to #1 in 21 other countries, including Great Britain. The song followed their own Boom Boom Pow #1 which spent twelve weeks at the top, giving the group 26 consecutive weeks at #1, an all-time Hot 100 record that still stands.

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

I chuckled above my sorrows when I found out in all the haphazard my judgment or my good genius had faithfully stood by me.
Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

Billboard’s country chart was called the Hot Country Singles chart from 1962-1990. 

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

What act holds the record for most consecutive weeks at #1 on a major Billboard singles chart? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/July 17, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience. 

Leading Off will return.

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow’s an idiot. Today’s Diary. 

What’s funny is that ol’ Sparrow had some zero clue how to change rooms from OOO to ready to rent…You’d think we could – it’s routine front desk function, after all – but we’ve never had to do it before, I am not making that up…

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Click here to get in on the laughs.
4Ever & Ever ($8.99) and monthly ($2.99) plans available.

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. 

Due to time constraints, these items have run before. 

In – In 1996 – TWA Flight 800 – service from New York City to Rome via Paris – explodes 12 minutes after takeoff from John F Kennedy International Airport. After the usual suspicions about it being a terrorist attack subsided, a federal investigation determined the explosion was likely caused by a fuel tank explosion caused by a short circuit. All 230 people on board died and this remains the third-deadliest aviation accident in US history. 

In 1976 – The Montreal Summer Olympics begin. The Games featured 92 countries and 6,084 athletes and the Games were opened by Her Majesty, Elizabeth II, the Queen of Canada. Among the competitors were Princess Anne of Great Britain, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II, and Taro Aso, a future prime minister of Japan. Women competed in basketball, team handball, and rowing for the first time and Andorra, Antigua and Barbuda, the Cayman Islands, and Papua New Guinea all participated in their first Summer Games. 

In 1971 – Jerry Reed is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the fifth and final consecutive week with When You’re Hot, You’re Hot. It was the first of three #1 country songs for Reed and his first of six Top 10s. The song also went #1 country in Canada, peaked at #9 on the Hot 100, and was Billboard’s fifth-biggest country song of the year. The song was written by Reed and refers to a back-alley craps game. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

I felt that there could be no turning back and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.
Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

Father Junipero Serra was born in Petra, Crown of Aragon, which is now part of Spain. 

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

For how long was Billboard’s country chart known as the Hot Country Singles chart? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/July 16, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

The Sunday Bottom 5
A ranking of some things.

1. Tommy Tuberville – Alabama US senator holding up routine military appointments so he can force-feed personal morality down US military’s throat…Thanks, Senator Tuberville!  

2. Vice Presidential Tie-Breaking Votes In US Senate – Another wonderful commentary on our partisan, fractured, bickering government/society, Vice President Kamala Harris obliged to cast record-tying 31st tie-breaking vote this week, matching mark set by John Calhoun who – in a simpler time – took leisurely seven (7) years to do it…History also remembers Calhoun as massa who called slavery “a good…a positive good”.

3. Mass Shootings – The 3-hole staple…The half-year numbers are in, with Americans from sea to shining sea marveling over record-setting 28 mass killings – defined as four (4) or more deaths – to start 2023, tho gun nuts herald fact only 27 were shootings…While some malcontents whine about total, America, collectively, doesn’t really care, because if we did we’d do something about it.  

4. MLB All-Star Game Uniforms – Good gravy, who hell designed these, Stevie Wonder???…Or maybe some kids with finger paints…Sunday Bottom 5 pollsters remain “pretty sure” that having players wear their team’s uniforms would be objected to by no one at all. 

5. Ms. Netherlands – For first time, Ms Netherlands was born a guy…Look, we appreciate that sometimes work orders get mixed up and birth genders aren’t what someone was meant to be, but it’s not fair to have those born as boys compete with those born as girls, though Sunday Bottom 5 pollsters “pretty sure” they will never understand what advantage a trans-woman has over a real woman in a beauty pageant and “strongly suspect” they don’t really want to know. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

Cheapskates rejoice! It’s Read Free Sunday (RFS) at The Diary.

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow is obliged to deal with some idiots at the hotel. Today’s Diary. 

…and by now were wondering how she ever got out of childhood with the usual credentials.

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Click here to get in on the laughs.
4Ever & Ever ($8.99) and monthly ($2.99) plans available.

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 1769 – Catholic priest Father Junipero Serra founds the first mission in California, Mission San Diego de Alcala, in what was then Spanish-occupied Alta California and is now San Diego. It was the first of 21 missions in California and the first of eight founded by Serra. The mission was seized by California in 1834 and was restored to the Catholic Church in 1862 and the original mission burned in a 1777 native uprising. The current church was built in the early 19th century and is the fifth to stand on the site. 

In 1897 – Cap Anson of the Chicago Colts – now the Cubs – becomes the first major league player to reach 3,000 hits in a 2-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles at Chicago’s West Side Grounds. Anson would retire after the season with 3,081 hits and would remain baseball’s career hit leader until Honus Wagner broke his record in 1914. The feat has since been accomplished by 31 other players. 

In 1966 – Tommy James and the Shondells are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Hanky Panky. The song also went to #1 in Canada and peaked at #39 on Billboard’s soul chart – their only soul chart appearance – and was Billboard’s 19th-biggest song of the year. It was the first of 13 Top 40 hits for the group, their first of seven Top 10 hits, and their first of two #1s (Crimson and Clover, two weeks, 1969)

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

…the voyage which I am now to narrate was a natural outcome…of my lifelong experience.
Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

The National League’s all-time leader for most home runs by a designated hitter is Marcel Ozuna of the Atlanta Braves with 42. 

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

Where was Junipero Serra born? – Answer next time!

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The Daily Dose/July 15, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™

Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience. 

CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: Sailing Alone Around the World by Joshua Slocum: One of the pleasures of reading is finding something that makes your all-timer list, something as good as you’ve ever read. The really fun part of this is you never know when this is going to happen. 

Dry, Technical Matter: The book chronicles Slocum’s 1895-98 circumnavigation of the globe, the first done alone. He and the Spray left Boston on April 24, 1895, and his initial plan was to sail through the Mediterranean Sea and the Suez Canal, but a brief, though invigorating pursuit by pirates at Gibraltar convince him to turn around and go around South America, through Australia, and around the southern point of Africa before heading home. He returned to Newport, Rhode Island early in the morning of June 27, 1898, after a voyage of over 46,000 miles. 

Heave To And Halyard The Rampart…Or Something Like That: One thing we found astounding was Slocum’s navigational skills. Relying almost exclusively on some navigational charts – one of which ended up being eaten by a goat – intuition, and the experience purchased by “a thousand voyages”, Slocum managed to follow the course his mind’s eye had set out from the start hitting every small island in vast oceans that he wanted to, and the Spray was so well-built it stayed on course seemingly out of habit, with the helm lashed in one place no small amount of the time. 

But We Digress: Here is the official Daily Dose rating scale: 

1 – The very best
2 – Very good
3 – Good
4 – Not too bad
5 – A steaming pile

Final Rating: 1 – We take care here to ensure that even a 3 rating means a work has merit and we seldom toss the highest rating out there, but Sailing Alone Around the World deserves it. Plain-spoken and entertaining, Slocum spent his entire life doing what he was put on this earth to do – sailing ships on the open sea – and the resulting wisdom is issued by someone who learned it in his own school. Slocum was believed to be lost at sea in 1910. 

Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually. 

The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow lays a good foundation for the finale in the sack. Today’s Diary. 

14.5 hours for the day and 38.0 for the week, a wonderful daily total, a strong comeback after a slow start to the sleep week, and a good head of steam heading into the finale, the all-you-can-get Saturday Sleep Session (SSS)…

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Click here to get in on the laughs.
4Ever & Ever ($8.99) and monthly ($2.99) plans available.

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 1838 – Ralph Waldo Emerson delivers what History refers to as the Divinity School Address to the graduating class of Harvard Divinity School, in addition to local ministers and school professors. A Harvard Divinity School graduate himself, Emerson stated that following one’s moral intuition is better than following religious doctrine and it is not required to believe in the miracles of Jesus. It was a very radical speech for the time, with Emerson surprised at the almost universally negative response it received.

In 1980 – Johhny Bench of the Cincinnati Reds establishes a new major league record for most career home runs by a catcher in an 11-7 over the Montreal Expos. Bench’s 5th-inning home run was the 314th of his career as a catcher, breaking the record of 313 established by Yogi Berra between 1946-65. Bench would retire in 1983 with 327 home runs as a catcher and the record is now held by Mike Piazza with 396. 

In 2017 – Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Beiber is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the eighth of a record-tying 16 consecutive weeks at #1 with Despacito. The song went to #1 in 16 other countries including Ecuador and Italy, peaked at #2 in Great Britain, and was Billboard’s 2nd-biggest song of the year and its 9th-biggest of the decade. The 16 weeks at #1 tied the record established by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men with One Sweet Day in 1995-96 and the record is now 19 weeks by Lil Nas X and Billy Ray Cyrus with Old Town Road in 2019. The song remains the only #1 song for Fonsi and Daddy Yankee and was the fourth of eight #1s for Beiber. 

Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.

…what was there for an old sailor to do? I was born in the breezes, and I had studied the sea as perhaps few men had studied it, neglecting all else.
Joshua Slocum
Sailing Alone Around the World

Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.

The Bastille was built between 1357 and the 1380s to defend Paris from English attacks. 

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

Who holds the National League record for most career home runs by a designated hitter? – Answer next time!

Share Gaylon! Go!