The Daily Dose/January 19, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
HERE WE GO AGAIN: A couple of events – one recent, another coming up – have reinforced a lesson History continually offers us: not much ever really changes.
Here, Alexei, Have Some Tea: Recently the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin imprisoned a political opponent, noted malcontent Alexei Navalny, to be held for 30 days until they decide to do something else with him. Navalny has had the nerve to point out corruption in the Russian government and to organize protest rallies, something never looked upon with any particular favor in Russia.
Dry, Technical Matter: Navalny was returning home from Berlin, where he was recovering from a poison attack last summer, generally believed by everyone except some Yangtze River pole boat operators to have been done by the Russians.
I Do Solemnly Swear…: Three decades after he first tried, Joe Biden assumes the presidency Wednesday, taking control of a nation that 245 years into its democratic experiment is still a partisan, fractured and bickering mess. In fact, short of Abraham Lincoln, no president has taken the oath at a more divisive or more perilous time. Heck, Trump has followers so disillusioned and bamboozled that unless Biden has some magic fairy dust to sprinkle around at high noon tomorrow, we will still be a mess, but at least we’ll have some sanity in the White House.
The Bottom Line: The more things change, the more they stay the same. Billionaire blatherskites command loyalty. Leaders lock up dissidents – or kill them, in the case of Saudi Arabia – things that have been going on since time immemorial. We in America have the power, through regular elections, to demand competent government, but we keep delining to do so, preferring to keep reelecting those who divide us. We deserve better than the country we have now, but we are not demanding at the ballot box. The Biden Administration will provide no small measure of stability, but boy, America is at one of her strongest ebbs right now.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
Read Free Fortnight is in progress, so go, scoot and enjoy today’s edition of The Diary with our compliments.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow needs a haircut. Today’s Diary.
The flowing locks are still in dire need of being cut…It’s not too bad up top or on the sides because it’s combed back, but the back is really starting to curl…I don’t have anyone to impress right now and I’m not running for anything, so vanity is the only reason to get it cut now and yours truly doesn’t have sufficient vanity to go and get a haircut right now simply because it’s too long…
——–
Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device.
Columns, books, shopping lists, click here to get in on the laughs.
4Ever & Ever ($8.99) and monthly ($2.99) plans available.
———
On This Date
The long march to today.
In 2007 – Four men – three Brits and a Canadian – become the first explorers to reach the Antarctic Pole of Inaccessibility (the point farthest from a coastline) without any mechanical aid. The group had arrived using only kites and skis and arrived after a journey of 48 days. The pole is at 82 degrees south latitude, 546 miles from the South Pole, and in 1958 a Soviet group had established a research station there via a tractor convoy.
In 1991 – Wayne Gretzky of the Los Angeles Kings and Vincent Damphousse of the Toronto Maple Leafs establish and tie NHL All-Star Game records for career and single-game goals in an 11-4 Campbell Conference win over the Prince of Wales Conference at Chicago Stadium. Gretzky had his eleventh career goal to break the record held by Gordie Howe and Damphousse had four goals, tying the record established by Gretzky and Mario Lemieux and since tied many times. Gretzky would retire with 13 career goals, still the All-Star Game record.
In 1959 – The Platters are at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of three consecutive weeks with Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. The song also went to #1 in five other countries including Italy and Great Britain and peaked at #3 on BIllboard’s soul chart and was Billboard’s sixth-biggest song of the year. It was the fourth and final #1 song on a Billboard pop chart for the group and the song returned to the Hot 100 in 1973 when a version by Blue Haze peaked at #27.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Begin to free yourself at once by doing all that is possible with the means you have, and as you proceed in this spirit the way will open for you to do more.
Georges Clemenceau
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
India has won the most Olympic gold medals in men’s field hockey with eight. The Netherlands and Australia have each won three gold medals, the most amongst women’s teams.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Billboard’s biggest song of 1959? – Answer next time!
Go Gaylon! Visit Gaylon on Facebook here.
