The Daily Dose/February 23, 2026
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
USA! USA!: At the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, the US won two hockey gold medals, with both the men and the women beating Canada 2-1 in overtime in the gold medal game. This should teach Canada a thing or two about turning down the idea of becoming our 51st state.
USA! USA! II: The women’s win wasn’t really a surprise, with the surprise really being it took overtime to beat the pesky Canadians. The US had won seven straight against Canada, including a decisive 5-0 win in the preliminary round. It was the third gold medal for the US women, and the two countries have met in seven of the eight gold medal games.
USA! USA! III: The men’s win was a surprise, as Canada had a hell of a team. But the US had the best goalie on the planet, Connor Hellebuyck, with his brilliant, almost impossible, stick save keeping the Canadians from winning in regulation.
Dry, Technical Matter: It was the third men’s gold medal for the US and their first won on foreign ice (1960 – Squaw Valley, California; 1980 – Lake Placid, New York). It was the fifth silver medal for Canada, to complement nine golds.
Rubbing It In: Not only did Canada go oh-for-two in Milan, but a Canadian team hasn’t won the Stanley Cup since 1993. Since then, two teams from Florida and one from Las Vegas, of all places, have won it.
The Bottom Line: Look, Canada, we like you. You’re a good neighbor, and you’re being more tolerant than we deserve for all the crap we’re foisting on you and the rest of the world right now. But hockey’s our national game and has been since our big silver medal finish – something Canadians can relate to – at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games. Had you accepted our 51st state invitation with some alacrity, there’s a good chance some of your players could’ve made our team, and they would be wearing gold medals now.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has the latest on the hotel’s key situation. Today’s Diary.
…the new key safe – which cost three grand we looked it up – [is] mostly unused, doing about the same job as if we just threw all keys in a pile at the end of the day.
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1903 – The US leases 45 square miles of Guantanamo Bay in southeastern Cuba, for an annual rent of $2,000 in gold coin. The US unilaterally adjusted the rent in 1934, and now pays Cuba $4,085 annually, checks Cuba has only cashed once since the 1959 revolution. It is the only US base in a socialist country and remains the oldest US base in a foreign country. The lease can only be ended by bilateral consent or a full US military withdrawal.
In 2014 – Canada wins the Olympic ice hockey gold medal, defeating Sweden 3-0 in the gold medal game at Sochi, Russia. It was the ninth and most recent gold medal for the Canadians, and the third and most recent silver medal for Sweden, to go along with two gold medals. Finland defeated the US 5-0 for the bronze medal.
In 1991 – Whitney Houston is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with All The Man That I Need. The song also went to #1 in Canada and Cuba, peaked at #`3 in Great Britain, at #1 n Billboard’s soul chart, and was their 16th biggest song of the year. It was the 12th of 22 Top 10 songs for Houston and her ninth of eleven #1s.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
But he understood too that widespread misery also sprang from a privileged aristocracy that crushed the peasantry’s opportunity for self-betterment, and from the church, the vehicle used by kings and noblemen to bind the citizenry in the shackles of ignorance, superstition and subservience.
John Ferling
Adams vs Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
The countries/territories with the shortest phone numbers are Tokelau and Niue, both Polynesian islands, which have 4-digit phone numbers.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Which is the only country besides Canada and the US to play in the women’s hockey Olympic gold medal game? – Answer next time!
