Sparrow gets threatened on today’s Diary of a Nobody. It was in front of the retailer and the threat was issued by the sort of deranged man you sometimes see in parking lots and both men come through it unscathed. Plus Sparrow buys some windshield wipers.

One of our all-time favorite quotes is featured in The Thought for the Day from two years back. It’s from Garrison Keillor, and he talks about giving your very best or submitting a lesser effort. We like the quote so much we stole it, modified a bit, for the banner of this page.

We started back with substantive work on Criminals, Courtesans and Constables yesterday. For the past couple of weeks, we had been staring at the current chapter without enthusiasm. Sure, we’d make a change here and there but it was the literary equivalent of someone pecking at a meal they didn’t like. Finally, we said screw it and started in with a blank page and BOOM!, there you go, you’re humming on all cylinders again, going from putzing around aimlessly to knowing where you are headed and exactly how you want to get there.

On This Date:
In 1927: Ford produces the last Model T. It had been produced since 1908 and was the first car that was affordable to middle-class Americans. At the end the Model T was a bargain, costing $360, about $5,100 in today’s dollars. All told, 14.6 million Model T’s were produced.

In 1927: First baseman John Neun of the Detroit Tigers completes the ninth unassisted triple play in major league history, recording the last three outs in a 1-0 victory over Cleveland. It was the first unassisted triple play in one day and the last for 43 years.

In 1975: Freddy Fender hits #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with Before the Last Teardrop Falls, his only #1 song. It was one of 24 #1 songs in 1975 that only spent one week at the top spot.

Have a good day and thanks for reading,
Gaylon

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A rather routine day for Sparrow on The Diary of a Nobody. He frets over his low sleep total so far this week, discovers the coffee in the sack is not identical to the coffee in the can and, at the retailer, an older gentleman buys and returns the exact items he bought and returned last week, which reminds Sparrow of his dad.

Today’s Thought for the Day is from two years ago and features one of my all-time favorite quotes, from Gerald Ford. He talks about us citizens getting about as good of government as we choose to make it. Those who have followed my Congressional and US Senate campaigns know I talk about this every hour on the hour. We will always get the government we elect and if we aren’t happy with it we have only ourselves to blame.

On This Date: 
In 1868: Memorial Day – then known as Decoration Day – is observed in the United States for the first time.

In 1894: Bob Lowe of the Boston Beaneaters – now the Atlanta Braves – becomes the first major leaguer to hit four home runs in a game, in the second game a doubleheader vs Cincinnati. Lowe had gone 0-6 in the first game.

In 1970: Ray Stevens moves into the #1 spot in Billboard’s Hot 100 with Everything Is Beautiful. It’s the first of two #1’s for Stevens, and earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance.

Have a good day,
Gaylon

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Sparrow has complete coverage of the Memorial Day ceremony, which includes a Line of the Year candidate, on today’s Diary of a Nobody.

Also, it must have been J.R.R. Tolkien Week at The Thought for the Day last year because another quote from The Lord of the Rings is featured.

Inertia is the greatest force that moves a writer. If a writer is not moved by a force inside him he is not a writer he is a typist. That inertia is starting to assert itself with The Daily Dose and The Thought for the Day, though I am still working on the future classic Criminals, Courtesans and Constables so they will not be resuming tomorrow. This is the same inertia that asserts itself with The Bottom Ten like clockwork every August. You don’t have to go searching for it because it always presents itself.

On This Date:
In 1953: The summit of Mt Everest is reached for the first time, by New Zealander Sir Edmund Hilary and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay. They were part of a larger expedition that saw two others try to reach the summit first, an effort that failed. One of mankind’s great team efforts, both took the knowledge of which of them reached the summit first to their graves.

In 2010: Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies throws the 20th major league perfect game, defeating the Miami Marlin 1-0 in Miami. It came 20 days after Dallas Braden of Oakland pitched a perfect game.

In 1965: The Beach Boys ascend to the top of the Billboard Hot 1oo with Help Me Rhonda, which moves up from #4. It was their second of three #1’s and it also went to #1 in Canada. Help Me Rhonda is one of five #1 songs in 1965 that include a name in the title. The other names were Mrs Brown, Mr Tambourine Man, Henry VIII and Sloopy,

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Friends, greetings.

Today is Memorial Day. If you can, please take the opportunity to take in a Memorial Day ceremony. Odds are a veteran’s organization in your town is planning one and they generally take no more than an hour of your time. Some work and diligence go into these and really good ones may well make you weep.

Today on The Diary of a Nobody Sparrow talks about buying gas for a girl who needed some for her car, plus the usual whining about the lawn and he also buys some bird seed so the neighborhood birds don’t starve.

One of the questions we get asked from time to time is if there is ever any trouble finding stuff to write about for The Diary. No, there isn’t. When you’re a writer every person is a potential character and every situation a plot and we have a knack for making the everyday and the mundane more or less interesting. So there is never any trouble finding something to write about.

Not for the first time – and from two years back – J.R.R. Tolkien has The Thought for the Day. Today Tolkien talks about having long arms when victory appears to be slipping from your grasp.

On This Date:
In 1934: The Dionne quintuplets are born near Calder, Ontario on this date. They would later become the first quintuplets to not only survive infancy but also make it to adulthood. The first died in 1954 and today two of the sisters, now 83, are still alive.

In 1956: Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates establishes a new ML record with home runs in eight consecutive games. The record would be tied by Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees in 1987 and Ken Griffey, Jr. of the Seattle Mariners in 1993.

In 1966: Percy Sledge moves into the #1 position on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart with When  a Man Loves a Woman, replacing Monday, Monday by The Mammas and the Pappas. It would be Sledge’s only #1 hit.

Many thanks for reading, as always,
Gaylon

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