The Daily Dose/May 29, 2023
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
Editor’s Note: today’s item originally ran on Memorial Day 2020.
USA! USA! Today is Memorial Day. Now, between this and Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day, it can get confusing as to who to honor, so we will clarify it for you: Memorial Day honors those who have died fighting our country’s battles. So don’t bother thanking a living veteran today. Save that for Veterans Day. Armed Forces Day is the time to give those currently serving a pat on the back.
FunFact: One thing Memorial Day is not is a time to bicker about the worthiness of the wars we’ve fought. Save that for another time. Why our country called is not important today.
Dry, Technical Matter: Tracing the origins of Memorial Day is not easy, as over two dozen places claim to have held the first one and putting flowers on veteran’s graves predate the Civil War. It is almost interesting to note it did not become an official federal holiday until 1971. Memorial Day was long known as Decoration Day.
A Personal Note: We’ve gotten off pretty easy in our family. We’re veterans ourselves and we have relatives (father, brother, grandfather, 5x great-grandfather, uncles) who have served in Desert Storm, Vietnam, both world wars and even the Revolution and all came back. Not everyone is so lucky. Family members dealing with this find little comfort in knowing their loved one(s) died an honorable, heroic death. Veterans still deal with the horror of seeing comrades die in front of them and some still wonder why luck favored them and not their buddies.
The Bottom Line: So do something today in tribute to those who have died. It’s tough this year, of course, because the usual parades and cemetery ceremonies are being canceled. And you don’t have to fast or rend garments, either. If you can’t attend a ceremony, please consider putting a candle in a window or putting a flag up. Those who have died fighting our wars would appreciate that.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow gets ready for Monday. Today’s Diary.
The big thing we did was make sure our Legion uniform was ready for Monday’s ceremony at the cemetery because if we put it off until we head out the door for the hotel tonite we’d invariably forget something…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1886 – Coca-Cola is advertised for the first time, with founder John Pemberton placing an advertisement in The Atlanta Journal. The beverage, invented by Pemberton, had first appeared in Atlanta a few weeks earlier and the ad was simple, advising readers that the drink was delicious, refreshing, and exhilarating, not to mention invigorating. While History has not passed down the cost of the ad, Coca-Cola today is one planet’s biggest advertisers, spending over $4 billion a year.
In 1997 – The Utah Jazz win the NBA’s Western Conference title for the first time, defeating the Houston Rockets 103-100 in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. Utah guard John Stockton’s had the game-winner with a 3-pointer at the buzzer. The Jazz had won the NBA’s Midwest Division and had beaten the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers in the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Jazz would lose the NBA Finals 4 games to 2 to the Chicago Bulls, a feat they would repeat the following season.
In 1971 – The Rolling Stones are #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Brown Sugar. The song also went to #1 in Switzerland, Canada, and the Netherlands, peaked at #2 in Great Britain, and was Billboard’s 18th-biggest song of the year. The song was the sixth of their eight #1s and was their 13th of 23 Top 10 hits. Though credited to the songwriting team of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, the song was mainly written by Jagger.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
When everybody owns everything nobody will take care of anything.
Aristotle
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Billboard’s #1 song of 1983 was Every Breath You Take by The Police, which spent eight weeks at #1.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was the Rolling Stones’ first #1 song on the Hot 100? – Answer next time!
