The Daily Dose/July 7, 2026
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
ALREADY WITH THE DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER: One of the almost interesting aspects of writing is writing something you’d long thought about.
Hut, Hut, Hike: A good example of this was The Bottom Ten/Team of the Quarter Century column that ran at the end of the last college football season. We’ve been writing The Bottom Ten in assorted places all century, and we first started thinking about the Team of the Quarter Century column when we did the Team of the Double Aughts column in 2010. When the time came to write it, it was a great pleasure.
USA! USA! Same with the USA250 columns we wrote last week. We don’t remember when we first thought of doing USA 250 columns, but it was years ago. Nothing really asserted itself, though, until the last week of June, which was cutting it a bit close, if you ask us. We would’ve thought something would’ve asserted itself before then, but writing is an interesting animal: you never know when inspiration is going to hit, so we didn’t worry about it.
Dry, Technical Matter: We ended up doing three columns: our usual July 2nd screed on how this is the real Independence Day, because it is the date Congress actually declared the colonies to be states. For the 3rd, we had some thoughts on what our Founding Fathers might think of their country today, and for the 4th, we offered an accounting of the day’s proceedings of the Continental Congress, written by John Adams.
The Bottom Line: For better or worse, we don’t force words, and by no means were USA 250 columns guaranteed. When words are there, we write them down, and if you like them, great. If you don’t, it’s a free country. But we weren’t going to force anything, because that’s not writing, that’s typing, and if we couldn’t produce something from the heart, we weren’t going to waste your time. We were pretty pleased with the results, though, and we trust you were, too.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – At the hotel, the back office freezer is gone. Today’s Diary.
The big news is Head Housekeeper Gloria just noticed, after three days, that the back office freezer is gone…I am not making that up…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1981 – President Ronald Reagan nominates Sandra Day O’Connor to the US Supreme Court, the first woman so nominated. O’Connor was then sitting on the Arizona state court, and prior to that had been a state legislator. O’Connor would be confirmed by the US Senate in September and replaced Potter Stewart, who had retired. O’Connor served until her own retirement in 2005, the first change on the Supreme Court in eleven years.
In 1912 – Jim Thorpe wins the men’s pentathlon at the 1912 Stockholm Summer Olympics. Thorpe won four of the five events (long jump, 1200 meters, discus, 1500 meters; did not win javelin) and later in the Games, Thorpe won the decathlon. His medals were stripped from him the following year for having played semi-professional baseball and were reinstated in 1982. The pentathlon – not to be confused with modern pentathlon – was last contested at the 1924 Paris Games.
In 1979 – Donna Summer is at #1 on the Billboard 200 album chart for the second of six non-consecutive weeks with Bad Girls. The album also went to #1 in Canada and Finland, peaked at #23 in Great Britain, and was Billboard’s 8th-biggest album of the year. It was the first of three #1 albums for Summer and produced three chart singles, including two #1s, Hot Stuff and the title track.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
There is not much sense in setting one’s foot upon the road and not traveling the fullest possible distance.
James Madison
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
Two signers of the Declaration of Independence had sons or grandsons serve as president of the United States: John Adams (himself the 2nd president) had son John Quincy Adams serve as president, and Benjamin Harrison V had son William Henry Harrison and grandson Benjamin Harrison similarly serve.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What were the five events in the pentathlon at the ancient Olympic games? – Answer next time!
