The Daily Dose/December 18, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
Leading Off is in time-out for today. It will return.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has the latest gas mileage figures for the new ride. Today’s Diary.
The latest gas mileage figures from Monday’s fill-up are in: 31.23 MPG, well less than the road trip figures, but consistent with what we’ve had for the tuff country driving I subject the new ride to.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
Friends, the final NCAA Bottom Ten column of the season will move Thursday.
Click here to get in on the laffs: Sparrow, The Bottom Ten, the funniest books you’ve ever read. We offer 4Ever and Ever access, or cheapskates can purchase books and columns individually.
On This Date
In 1898 – The first officially recognized land-speed record is set about 15 miles north of Paris when French aristocrat Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat drives an electric car 39.23 MPH. The record would be broken ten days later when Belgian Camille Jenatzy drove 49.93 and the two would exchange record-breaking drives through the following spring. The current land speed record is 763.035 MPH by Britain’s Andy Green, a record that has stood since 1997.
In 1932 – The first National Football League championship game is played with the Chicago Bears defeating the Portsmouth Spartans – now the Detroit Lions – 9-0. The game had been scheduled for Wrigley Field but was moved indoors to Chicago Stadium, home of the NHL Black Hawks, because of weather concerns. Previously the NFL had given the league title to the team that finished the regular season with the best record, but both teams had finished the season with 6-1 won-loss records (ties were disregarded) and they had tied their two regular-season meetings. The game proved to be so popular the NFL has played championship games every year since.
In 1965 – Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season) by the Byrds is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the third and final consecutive week. It was the second and final #1 song for the group (Mr Tambourine Man, 1965) and their second of three Top 40 hits and the song also peaked at #26 in Britain. Songwriting credit is given to Pete Seeger, who took most of the lyrics the Bible’s book Ecclesiastes, written before Christ, with Seeger adding the “time for peace” and “turn, turn, turn” lines. The lines from the Bible remain the oldest lyrics for a #1 song in Hot 100 history.
Quotebook
Man must deal with himself. It is his reality he must face each morning when he rises. He must be, he must move, he must create. – Louis L’Amour, The Lonesome Gods
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Besides the 1972 Miami Dolphins, four other teams finished an entire season without a loss are the 1929 Green Bay Packers (12-0-1), the 1923 and 1922 Canton Bulldogs (11-0-1, 10-0-2) and the 1920 Akron Pros (8-0-3).
Today’s Stumper
What is the fastest humans have ever traveled? – Answer next time!
