The Daily Dose/January 20, 2017
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The Daily Dose/January 20, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR: Donald Trump – Donald Trump! – takes office as the 45th president of the United States today. We don’t do a lot of predicting here at The Daily Dose, preferring wise-ass post-mortems, but we feel pretty safe making the following statement:
Donald Trump was a national embarrassment as a presidential candidate and as president-elect. He will be an embarrassment as president of the United States.
It’s difficult to argue with this because the best indicator of future performance is past performance and let’s not forget Trump was a misfit of a private citizen, too. America elected someone president whose only real talent, and it’s something he does supremely well, is drumming up interest in himself.
Dry, Technical Matter: Trump likes to blame the media for some things but you know what? He should be buying them champagne because he would not have been nominated, much less elected, without them. A real media would have conducted a proper vetting of Trump’s utter lack of qualifications for the White House and had him dismissed from the GOP race in a few days. Instead, Trump meant big ratings and clicks and the media kept him in the race as the other candidates fell by the wayside.
Despite the fact the GOP has control of the US Senate and House and of the White House, nothing is going to get done. The big-picture that have plagued us for years and that will ultimately destroy this country if not attended to, will remain.
Gaylon For Congress…Vote Early, Vote Often: When I was campaigning for the United States Senate in 2014 and the US House last year, I always said our biggest problem was our economy, that America needed an economy anchored in low taxes and free markets.
We still do need an economy anchored in low taxes and free markets, but it is no longer our most pressing issue.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Policy Right Here: Our most pressing issue is an American society that is bitterly divided. We are divided politically, and ethnically and socially and economically like never before. And President Trump is not going to make it any better. There’s no way. He is too gauche, too uninterested in anything other than promoting Donald Trump, too uninterested in civility or in anything other than drumming up interest in Donald Trump.
America cannot continue this divided. Sure, this country has always been divided, going back to before the founding of this republic, but it’s more so this time. In the past we were always able to accept our divisions without rampant gunfire. No more. Gunfire is now one of the primary forms of interaction in this country, right behind saying “good morning” and we don’t see it getting any better in the near future.
MORE HOT PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION ACTION: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and John Nance Garner are sworn in as president and vice president on this date in 1937, the first time an inauguration was held on January 20 since the passage of the 20th Amendment in 1927. It’s the second term for both, although Garner would be replaced by Henry Wallace for FDR’s third term.
FunFact: Before the 20th Amendment, presidential terms began and ended on March 4.
I Do Solemnly Swear: On this date in 1981 the 52 American hostages being held in Iran are released, 20 minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president of the United States.
Well, Great…The Middle Of Nowhere: A team of three British and one Canadian man reach the southern pole of inaccessibility – the point in Antarctica the farthest from any ocean – on this date in 2007. It was the first visit by anyone since the Soviets had left in 1958, and they were the first ever to do it without mechanical assistance, making the 1,093-mile trip entirely with skis and kites.
Viva The Motherland: On arrival, they were met by the large, gold statue of Vladimir Lenin the Soviets had left there.
Thought For The Day: I was summoned by my Country, whose voice I can never hear but with veneration and love…– George Washington, first inaugural address.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The other two people besides Gene Cernan (Apollo 10, Apollo 17) to fly to the moon twice are John Young (Apollo 10, Apollo 16) and Jim Lovell (Apollo 8, Apollo 13). Lovell is the only man to do go twice without landing.
Today’s Stumper: The end of the Obama Administration ends an era where four of the last five presidents were elected to and served two terms: Reagan, Clinton, George W Bush and Obama. This happened one other time in American history. Name the presidents involved.– Answer next time!
The Daily Dose/January 19, 2017
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The Daily Dose/January 19, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
UP…UP…AND AWAY: Gene Cernan, famously known as the last human to set foot on the moon, died this week. He was 82.
Cernan’s death means half of the twelve men who have walked on the moon are now dead and the six that remain aren’t getting any younger. The youngest is Cernan’s shipmate Harrison Schmitt who is 81. The oldest is Buzz Aldrin, the second human to set foot on the moon, who will be 87 Friday. The time is coming when the world will have no one alive who can tell us what it is like to walk on another heavenly body. Our loss.
And Still Heavyweight Champion of the World: Cernan, frankly, is likely to retain the title of Last Human To Set Foot on the Moon for quite some time. Even if America dropped everything and tried to send someone back to the moon as soon as possible, it would probably take us a decade to get back, itself a sign of how far our country has fallen.
Get Out Your History Books: Recall that in the 1960’s America started from nothing and went to the moon in less than a decade. In fact, we did it in just over eight years, 2,983 days to be exact, from the time President John F Kennedy set the goal before Congress on May 25, 1961 to the time Neil Armstrong took man’s first step on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Dry, Technical Matter: Cernan, Harrison Schmidt and Ron Evans left for the moon on December 7, 1972 and returned to Earth on December 19. Cernan and Schmitt become the last humans to depart the moon on December 14.
Return To Earth: Anyone familiar with Cernan knows his role as the last human to walk on the moon moved him deeply. He called it the great moment of his life and fretted that nothing he’d ever do would measure up to that. He also fretted that his final words on the moon would not be up to the moment.
Cernan fretted needlessly. His words as he left the moon were as momentous as Neil Armstrong’s “one small step” line, which had heralded man’s arrival on the moon. Cernan’s quote remains one of our favorites:
America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow.
Great words, one of those rare instances in human history where the right person had the right words at the right time.
Fly In The Ointment: Unfortunately, America has taken a pass on her destiny of tomorrow. Not only have we not been back to the moon, not only have we not been to Mars, we can’t even send anyone into space anymore!
Not going back to the moon, frankly, isn’t really important. We are still the only nation to put humans on the moon and doing it again isn’t going to make that much of a difference.
Not going to Mars, though, boy, we should all be hanging our collective heads in shame over that one. We failed. By not following-up in the successes of the Apollo program, we failed the world, we failed History and most of all we failed ourselves. Had we wanted to, we could’ve had men on Mars in the 1980s. Don’t doubt that. Spurred on by Apollo’s momentum, good old American innovation and Fate’s general approval that is issued whenever someone or something tries to better themselves, being on Mars could’ve been routine decades ago.
It is reasonable, though not definite, to suppose the innovation required by this effort probably would see us leading substantively better lives than we do now.
Our Loss: Today, instead of having a colony on Mars, America is mired in war and debt and domestic violence. Later this week a misfit named Donald Trump will become president and America is on her way to being tossed aside History’s scrap heap if we don’t do something in the next generation or so.
CAN SOMEONE LEAD US IN A REBEL YELL, PLEASE?: Georgia secedes from the United States on this date in 1861, joining South Carolina, Florida, Mississippi and Alabama, who had seceded earlier. In April the battle of Fort Sumter would begin the Civil War and, ultimately, eleven stataes would secede and form the Confederate States of America. After getting their keesters handed to them by the North in the Civil War, all would rejoin the Union.
Can Somebody Please Turn The Lights Off When You Leave A Room?: Thomas Edison’s system of providing electricity from overhead wires goes into operation, in Roselle, New Jersey, for the first time on this date in 1883.
Edison built the system to show that large areas could be provided electricity. A nearby steam generator sent electricity to wires that went to a store, the train depot, 40 homes and 150 street lights.
Fly The Friendly Skies: Noted recluse Howard Hughes sets a new record by flying from Los Angeles to New York in seven hours, 28 minutes and 25 seconds on this date in 1937. Hughes broke the record of 9 hours, 27 minutes set by Howard Hughes a year earlier.
FunFact: The first cross-America record recorded came in 1911, when Calbraith Perry Rogers flew from Sheepshead Bay, New York on September 17, 1911 and arrived in Pasadena, California on November, 5.
Oh Jesus H: The current record is 64 minutes, held by the supersonic Sr-71 Blackbird, which did it in 1990.
The Long And Winding Road: Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie is arrested in Bolivia on this date in 1984.
Barbie had an illustrious career as a war criminal, earning the nickname The Butcher of Lyon for his torture and killing of French prisoners in World War II. He also gained notoriety for sending 44 Jewish orphans to a concentration camp. After the war, he had been employed by the CIA to help with anti-communism efforts in Europe. Barbie eventually settled in Bolivia, where he lived comfortably, at least until the new government decided to have him arrested.
Barbie refused to acknowledge the legality of his extradition to France, and spent most of his trial in his prison cell. He was convicted, sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 1991.
Thought For The Day: Enriched by a singular event that is larger than life, I no longer have the luxury of being ordinary. – Gene Cernan
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The first NFL team to change cities were the Decatur Staleys, who moved to Chicago and became the Bears in 1922.
Today’s Stumper: Gene Cernan is one of three people to fly to the moon twice. Who are the other two? – Answer next time!
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The Daily Dose/January 18, 2016
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The Daily Dose/January 18, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
MR. SPANOS, U-HAUL ON LINE TWO: The big news in the San Diego Chargers becoming, again, the Los Angeles Chargers, is not that they moved. NFL owners have, for years, been giving a clinic and pulling up stakes whenever a city refuses to yield to their extortion demands. We’re used to it.
No, what we found interesting is that the Chargers would leave San Diego for Los Angeles, of all places.
In San Diego, they were beloved, the big cheese, the big man on campus. In Los Angeles, they will be an afterthought, behind the Dodgers, the Lakers, the Rams, USC football, UCLA basketball and maybe even the Kings.
Little Ralphie Has The Jammers’ Helmet: If the LA T-Birds were still skating at the Olympic Auditorium, they’d probably be an afterthought behind them, too.
Heck, the Chargers won’t even be the second most popular football team in town, they will be third behind the Rams and the Raiders.
We’ve Got A Business To Run: Dean Spanos, though, really had no other option. To stay in San Diego without a new stadium was folly. Simply by signing the letter to the NFL announcing his intention to relocate the value of his business increased from $2 billion to $3 billion.
Even if the Spanoses continued mediocre leadership continues to produce average on-field results, the Chargers will still be more profitable and valuable than they were playing in their old stadium. They might even be more profitable and valuable in LA than in a new stadium in San Diego.
FunFact: If they win they will become a license to print money because no one embraces a winner like Los Angeles does.
More Hot, NFL Relocation Action: Oakland is about to lose the Raiders again because Oakland is showing no more interest in subsidizing their NFL team than San Diego did. It is not definite the Raiders will move to Las Vegas, but Nevada said yes to the NFL’s demands, to the tune of $750 million, and Raiders owner Mark Davis has indicated he will ask his fellow NFL owners for permission to move. The Las Vegas Raiders and the Los Angeles Chargers, both in the AFC West, could be meeting two times a season as soon as this year if permission is granted and the Raiders don’t want to be a lame-duck team in Oakland.
The Bottom Line: Sure, it’s tough to see a civic institution leave, but the Dodgers left Brooklyn and other teams have ripped the hearts out of their old cities and the sun continues to rise in the east every morning. The Chargers had no choice. They have a business to run and it will be run more profitably in Los Angeles, even if their arrival there was met with a collective yawn.
THEY’RE YOUR PROBLEM NOW, MATE: The first ship in what History refers to as the First Fleet, arrives in Botany Bay, Sydney, Australia on this date in 1788, bringing 75 convicts that would form the first permanent European settlement in Australia.
The rest of the fleet, ten ships, would arrive over the next couple of days, bringing between 1,000 and 1,500 people, total.
Oh, Bloody Hell: The first European to visit Botany Bay had been British Navy Captain James Cook, who had visited the east coast of Australia in 1770. His glowing reports of area had been instrumental in leading the British to set up a penal colony there. On arrival, officials and convicts found poor soil, insufficient fresh water and trees that broke the tools they were using to cut them down with.
Great Moments In Eugene Ely: Eugene Ely becomes the first person to land an airplane on a ship on this date in 1911, landing a Curtiss Pusher on the deck of the USS Pennsylvania, which was anchored in San Francisco Bay.
WTF? The Pennsylvania had to be wondering what in thee hell was going on. Designed and built as an armored cruiser, the Pennsylvania had a deck built onto its after deck for the landing. Eventually, it was renamed the Pittsburgh, spent most of World War I patrolling Latin America and was decommissioned in 1931.
Back On Message: Though Ely is not as well-known as some early aviation pioneers, the previous November Ely had become the first person to fly an airplane off a ship. Ely would die in October, 1911, at the age of 25, breaking his neck after leaping from his crashing aircraft.
Dry, Technical Matter: Congress awarded Ely the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1933.
Great Moments In Blacks Playing Hockey: Willie O’Ree becomes the first black to play in the National Hockey League on this date in 1958. O’Ree, a winger, was playing for the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Hockey League at the time, and was called up to the Boston Bruins following an injury. O’Ree would play in two games for the Bruins that season, and 43 more in the 1960-61 season.
Warm, Personal Remembrance: We can remember watching O’Ree play with San Diego Gulls, then of the Western Hockey League, in late 1960’s.
O’Ree did not exactly open up the flood gates for blacks in the NHL. The next black wouldn’t appear in an NHL game until 1974 and today there are about two dozen playing for NHL teams.
Thought For The Day: But their lives, as he planned, would be up to them…He left his successors with the burden, and the freedom, of making their way. – Richard Brookhiser, George Washington on Leadership
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The longest running TV show on America television is NBC’s Meet The Press, which is in its 69th season.
Today’s Stumper: Which was the first National Football League team to change cities? – Answer next time!
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The Diary of a Nobody 1/15/17 – Drivel From Sparrow!
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Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Sunday, January 15
Aisle two again!!!
Not only that, I spent the last half-hour making sure the frozen and dairy cases were squared away…I got exactly zero minutes and zero seconds on my beloved Aisle 5.
I didn’t like this at all.
Paul, who runs the section, came up and asked me if I would help him “zone” frozen and dairy…”That would be a no” was my initial thought, but you gotta be flexible when you punch a clock and, frankly, the frozen and dairy cases were both disaster areas…They hadn’t had attention in hours…Exactly what in the hell Paul was doing the past few hours wasn’t immediately clear, but I’m sure he had other duties.
Part of the reason they were disasters was they weren’t well stocked, so the job wasn’t too hard, but I don’t have a knack for stuff like this and I hope I don’t have to do it again…I think I’d rather work the evil Scan-N-Go aisle.
I don’t know how to do things like this well…Not only that, I’m lousy at it…Any regular reader of this crap knows I do not clean or organize items well…My personal desk is the best possible example of this…It is messy and unorganized, tho I usually know where everything is.
And I didn’t get a whole lot done either….Maybe one side, because people are always coming up and asking where something is
I am losing weight…A couple of co-workers at the retailer have noticed this, tho all the babes at the resort are keeping this to themselves, probably to maintain order in the workplace.
I blame The Wife for this…She has been feeding me very well lately…She and Her Majesty meal prep relentlessly, so I am sent to work with lots of healthy stuff…Today we were still getting mileage out of the turkey she bought last week, and she added a can of peas, my favorite…Since I was working both jobs today, she included something for my break at the retailer, too.
She doesn’t give me a whole lot either…Sure, it’s enough to ensure a growing boy like me gets his nutrition, but it’s hardly a Hungry Man portion, either…It is filling tho, and it is keeping me away from those tasty convenience store hot dogs and fried chicken sandwiches I like more than I should…Some might have noticed I am not officiating basketball this year, and until recently I have not been eating all that well some days.
There was even a yummy when I came home from the retailer after 9pm…She had made some chicken sausage that was apple flavored and some homemade stuff she called Hamburger Buns, probably because in some fantasy universe that’s what they could be used for…They have sweet potatoes and some coconut flour and some seasonings and other goodies in there…I hope they never get within 20 miles of any burger I’m eating, but they were really tasty by themselves, and it gave it some nice time together at the kitchen table after a long day.
I am sufficiently smaller that Iam going to wear the size-smaller pants for work I bought a while ago and have never really felt comfortable in…They’re probably still a smidgen tight, but I should be able to breathe and having them on will be good for morale.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
The Diary of a Nobody was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
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