The Daily Dose/January 28, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
WHERE WERE YOU WHEN…: Today’s On This Date segment features an item on the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, one of those moments we all tend to remember where we were when it happened.
Run Silent, Run Deep…More Or Less: We were in the Navy, underwater on an old diesel submarine called the Blueback somewhere off the southern California coast when a radioman named Scott Brown came into the control room and announced that he had just caught the tail end of a broadcast, didn’t hear everything, but did hear the announcer say they were still searching the Atlantic for survivors. Later, the executive officer got on the horn and filled us in.
More Warm, Personal Remembrance Stuff: Now that we think about it, we can remember where we were when Columbia disintegrated, too. It was February 2003 and it was the final days of the Harry Wendelstedt School for Umpires in Daytona Beach, just up the coast a ways from Cape Canaveral. We were all seated in the bleachers at Field 1 when Harry stood in front of us and told us what happened.
Hut, Hut Hike: Like you may well have been, we were watching Monday Night Football when John Lennon died. Dad and I were spared the Howard Cosell announcement, however, because, per Dad policy, the TV volume was turned down so we could listen to Jack Buck and Hank Stram announce the game on KNX 1070-AM, the CBS Radio station in LA.
Oh, Jesus H: The station broke the news, interrupting the game with the series of tones that told you something big was happening. Dad and I looked at each other and as I recall it was pretty exciting: bulletins like this were exciting in the pre-Internet era.
Dry, Technical Matter: Like you probably did not, we slept through 9/11.
The Bottom Line: It’s funny what we collectively remember over the course of the era we’re sharing, the waypoints that mark our American journey. Odds are another event of this sort won’t happen today, but you never know because the fates like to keep us on our toes.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – At the hotel, Sparrow declines to issue a discount on a weekend rate. Today’s Diary.
…and without even telling her to bend forward and whistle Dixie gave her the rate the system was asking – which I seldom do: $224.99, plus tax.
She didn’t like that all and seemed to think she could invoke the divine right of cheapskates because she dismissed the rate out of hand, calling it – and I am not making this up – “inappropriate” and wondered if I “could do better”.
Well, I could., of course…Regular readers of this crap know rates are not engraved on tablets that are issued from atop Mount Sinai – they’re whatever the hell I say they are – but with that snotty attitude, I’m not budging.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1986 – The space shuttle Challenger explodes and disintegrates after structural failure 73 seconds after lift-off from Cape Canaveral. The explosion resulted in the deaths of five astronauts and two civilian payload specialists and was determined to have been caused by an o-ring failure on the starboard side solid rocket booster caused by cold weather, a circumstance NASA had been warned about. It was the first of two shuttles to disintegrate during flight, preceding the Columbia disintegrating during reentry in 2003.
In 1996 – The Dallas Cowboys become the second NFL team to win five Super Bowls, defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 27-17 in Super Bowl XXX. The Cowboys tied the mark established the previous season by the San Francisco 49ers, and the mark was later topped by the Steelers and the New England Patriots, both of which have now won six. It was the third time the teams had met in the Super Bowl and remains the Super Bowl’s most-played matchup.
In 1977 – The Bee Gees and other artists are at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for the second of 24 consecutive weeks with Saturday Night Fever. The album went to #1 in many other countries including Norway, West Germany and Great Britain, where it spent 18 weeks at the top. Saturday Night Fever was Billboard’s biggest album of the year and its 27th biggest of 1978 and won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…the ultimate opponent is the warrior’s own self…To actually overcome one’s own defects is the nature of victory.
Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Tom T Hall’s biggest hit on the Billboard Hot 100 was I Love, which spent one week at #12 in 1974.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
How many NFL teams have won multiple Super Bowls? – Answer next time!
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