The Daily Dose/April 1, 2026
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
UP, UP, AND AWAY: We don’t know about you, but we we are as pleased as we we are surprised that NASA’s Artemis II mission hasn’t – as we write this – been delayed yet. Depending on when you’re reading this, of course, it still could be.
Dry, Technical Matter: Artemis II is scheduled to lift off anytime between 6:42 pm and 8:42 PM EDT today. The mission is scheduled for ten days to test various systems, including life support and deep-space systems. Artemis will fly by – but not orbit – the Moon before turning around and returning home. Its closest point of approach to the Moon will be a bit more than 4,000 miles, and it is scheduled to splash down off the coast of San Diego.
Get Out Your History Books: Its planned trajectory will take them 4,700 miles beyond the Moon, marking the farthest we humans have been from home and breaking the record set by Apollo 13 of 158 miles past the Moon. It is also expected to break Apollo 10’s record speed of 24,791 mph, achieved on reentry.
LOL: One thing we’ve found funny in the lead-up to the launch is articles noting the space race going on between the Chinese and us regarding which country will be the first to land men on the Moon. NASA is on record as hoping to do it by 2028, while China wants to do it – stop us if you’ve heard this before – before this decade out.
For The Record: China has flown seven unmanned missions to the Moon, four of which landed.
The Bottom Line: People, listen, there is no race because it’s over, won by us in 1969. It was a heck of a race with the Soviets, too, and even though they had their share of attainments, America remains the only country to put humans on the Moon. If the Chinese really want to impress us, they can bring one of the six American flags we put on the lunar surface back to Earth.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – The Sparrow For Congress phone is up and running. Today’s Diary.
To show my strong fiscal credentials, we got the least expensive phone and the least expensive plan we could find: a flip phone designed for old farts scared of technology…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 2004 – Google launches the Gmail email service. Today, Gmail has approximately 1.8 billion individual users, each of whom have an average of 1.7 accounts. It holds a bit more than 25% of email market share, good for second behind Apple,which has a bit less than half, and in 2022, about 121.6 billion emails were sent daily via Gmail. Before Gmail could launch, Google had to buy the gmail.com domain from the Garfield comic strip, which was planning to offer an email service.
In 1954 – Gordie Howe of the Detroit Red Wings establishes a new NHL playoff record for the fastest goal from the start of the game in a 4-3 overtime win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in the fifth and final game of the Stanley Cup semifinals. Howe scored nine seconds into the game, breaking the record of ten seconds that had been established by Dickie Moor of Montreal on March 25, and the record is now six seconds by Don Kozak of the Los Angeles Kings in April 1977. The Red Wings later won the Stanley Cup in seven games over the Montreal Canadiens.
In 1967 – The Turtles are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the second of three consecutive weeks with Hapy Together. It was the fourth of nine Top 40 hits for the group, their second of five Top 10s, and remains their only #1 song. The song also peaked at #12 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s 8th-biggest song of the year.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Men almost always prefer to walk in paths marked out by others and pattern their actions through imitation…a prudent man should always follow the footsteps of the great and imitate those who have been supreme.
Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
George III was king of Great Britain from 1760 to 1820.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Billboard’s #1 album of 1967? – Answer next time!
