The Daily Dose – Sunday, July 29, 2018
In Sparrow’s back in the swing of things in the garden after two days away, reporting that one of the hanging plants appears to have thrown in the towel on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody. At the hotel, there is a plumbing leak in the kitchen where Sparrow prepares breakfast, a leak that includes coffee grounds, while at the retailer, Sparrow shares is family-secret hot dog recipe with Mary, then watches helplessly as Felicia approves an exchange he personally would have said no to.
Comedienne Jackie Kashian has The Thought for the Day. We were in Denver recently and heard her bit on genocide stories her grandmother told and a line about not wanting to be the first to die particularly resonated with us and serves as today’s Thought.
The Sunday Bottom Ten will return. While it only runs once a week preparing for it goes on daily and recall we took a couple of days off this week and the thought of throwing one together without our usual TLC was more than we could bear, so we are giving it the week off.
On This Date:
In 1993 – The Israeli Supreme Court acquits suspected Nazi death camp John Demjanjuk of all charges. He had been deported to Israel from the US in 1986, accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a guard at the Treblinka extermination camp and in 1988 and had been convicted and sentenced to death. In 2011 Germany had convicted him of being an accessory to the murder of Jews at another death camp, though because Demjanjuk died before his appeals could be heard, he remains not guilty in Germany.
In 1983 – Steve Garvey of the San Diego Padres doesn’t play in the second game of a doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, ending his consecutive games played streak at 1,207. Garvey had dislocated his thumb sliding into home in the opener, won by the Braves 2-1. Garvey’s streak began in 1975 when he was with the Los Angeles Dodgers and remains the longest such streak in National League history.
In 1967 – The Doors hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first time when Light My Fire moves up from #3. Light My Fire would spend three weeks at #1, making it The Doors biggest hit and would re-enter the Hot 100 in 1968, peaking at #87.
Many thanks for reading,
Gaylon
The Thought for the Day – Jackie Kashian
None of us wanted to be the first to die, so we all died. – Jackie Kashian
Jackie Kashian is an American comedienne. Originally from Milwaukee, she now lives in Los Angeles and has been a practicing comedienne since 1986, with the usual appearances, awards and accolades funny people of her ilk receive over their careers. Today’s thought comes from a funny bit about her Armenian grandmother talking about a genocide she survived. They were held captive by some Turks, but there was only one Turk for a couple of hundred prisoners and Jackie, then a kid, asked not unreasonably why everyone didn’t just go and tackle the guard and kill him, which led to today’s Thought. It is every artist’s duty to say what they feel needs to be said every time they ply their trade, be they a sculptor, a writer or a performer and when an artist manages to cut right to the heart of our human experience, like Ms Kashion did here, it is the summit of what creating is about.
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The Daily Dose – Saturday, July 28,
Sparrow’s back, reporting on his trip to the big city to see The Wife and the Dead Sea Scrolls on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody. Sparrow reports he was suspicious the Scrolls might be frauds because they’re not in English and they wrote right to left besides. He also took his old boots, that he had never bothered to take out of his car, to a cobbler to get fixed. He and The Wife had dinner at Chinese joint in a strip mall.
The Thought for the Day is back, too, with regular contributor Henry David Thoreau providing a quote from his diary about when it is necessary to travel. Thon 1reau kept his diary for over two decades and it can be found in book form and made for very good reading.
On This Date
In 1995 – Mexico records its highest temperature ever, 125.6, near Mexicali, which is on the border with the US, a couple of hours inland from the Pacific Ocean. We happened to be living across the border from Mexicali, in California’s Imperial Valley, at the time and when I signed off from my radio show at 12 noon the temperature repeater in the studio read 124 degrees. Friends, at that heat you don’t even want a breeze because it feels like you stuck your head in an oven.
In 1963 – Stan Musial of the St Louis Cardinals strikes out three times in a game for the only time in his career, all against Chicago Cubs starter Dick Ellsworth in a game won by the Cubs 5-1. In his 22-year career, Musial played in 3,026 games.
In 1979 – Donna Summer is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the third week with Bad Girls. It was Summer’s third of four #1’s and also topped Billboard’s Dance and R&B charts and also went to #1 in Canada. It would spend five weeks atop the Hot 100, and was Billboard’s #2 song of the year.
Many thanks for reading. Please consider a subscription and we will see you again tomorrow.
Gaylon
The Thought for the Day – Henry David Thoreau
We only need travel enough to give our intellect an airing. – Henry David Thoreau, diary entry, 11/20/1857
Thoreau, one of the few of our species who only needs one name, might well be, along with Gore Vidal, the most frequent contributor to this feature. Thoreau kept a diary for 24 years, from 10/22/1937 until the day he died. A naturalist and a philosopher, Thoreau also earned a living in his family’s pencil factory and his book Walden remains a classic of American letters. Thoreau, incidentally, is fully qualified to offer this quote: he traveled infrequently, spending most of his time in his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts.
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A Couple Of Days Off…
Friends, we will be taking the rest of the week off. Everything will return Sunday morning.
Many thanks,
Gaylon
The Daily Dose – Wednesday, July 25, 2018
Sparrow is currently bickering with the state Legion office about the date of the fall conference of the Legion district he commands on today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody. At their spring conference they had decided on their usual late September date, but this week the state office informed him they had scheduled it for late October.
Francis Bacon, a past contributor to the feature, has The Thought for the Day. A champion of the tenet that the only real knowledge comes from experience, Bacon today talks about certainties and doubts, and how one usually leads to the other.
On This Date:
In 1934 – Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss is assassinated by the Nazis. It was a coup attempt by the Germans following, among other things, Dollfuss’ banning of the Austrian Nazi Party. The coup attempt failed, as Dollfuss’ successor was able to stave off the Nazis until they annexed Austria in 1938.
In 1956 – Roberto Clemente of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits an inside the park grand slam home run in the bottom of the ninth to give the Pirates a 9-8 victory over the Chicago Cubs. It was the second of ten inside the park home runs Clemente would hit in his career and remains the only time in major league history a game ended on an inside the park grand slam.
On July 26, 1958 – We will not be producing a column tomorrow, but we wanted to note that Elvis Presley moved into the #1 spot on Billboard’s Best Sellers in Stores chart on this date. It would spend two weeks at the top. It was the last #1 song on the Best Sellers in Stores chart before the release of the first Billboard Hot 100 on August 4.
The Thought for the Day – Francis Bacon
If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties. – Francis Bacon
Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was an English writer, statesman and philosopher who has contributed to this feature before. The grain of today’s Thought is hardly a surprise from a man often regarded as the founder of empiricism, a philosophical branch which believes knowledge comes from experience. Bacon had a habit of living beyond his means and don’t cross him: he played leading roles in the executions of Mary, Queen of Scots and his friend, the Earl of Essex, who planned a revolt against Queen Elizabeth I. Bacon’s influence on both the philosophical and natural sciences over the centuries has been profound.
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