The Daily Dose/December 25, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
Leading Off is enjoying its annual holiday break and will return after the first of the year. Still though, the warmest greetings of the season are issued.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – After a spurt of activity, Sparrow settles down for a leisurely day off, even by his standards.
After that, yours truly was too lazy to even retire to the chair for some reading, going directly to the couch to listen to some things and I actually ended up nodding off a bit and the cat even came by and rested on my chest for a while.
The Regular Guys/Chapter 23 – Part V – Larry’s kidnapping, Day 4: the police find out where Larry is being held.
“If this were a TV movie Larry could tell us the situation in some sort of code we would’ve already worked out,” Lenny said, his first attempt at humor since Larry had been taken.
Sam Rider laughed.
“That’s movie stuff, Lenny. In real life, he’d simply utilize the Ring of Power in his Regular Guy utility belt and break free.”
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 336 BC – Christmas is celebrated on December 25 for the first time in recorded history, in Rome under Constantine, its first Christian emperor. It’s a date that corresponds to the winter solstice on the Roman calendar and is also nine months after the Annunciation, the date celebrated when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would father God’s son. For centuries Christmas was a minor celebration on the church calendar behind Epiphany and the Annunciation, though it gained prominence when emperors and kings were later anointed or crowned on the date.
In 1894 – The University of Chicago becomes the first eastern college football team to play on the west coast, defeating Stanford 24-4 in a game played at the Haight Street Grounds in San Francisco. A newspaper account noted the average weight of Stanford’s players was 161 pounds, while the average weight of Chicago’s players was 172. Stanford won the rematch 12-0 on Dec 29 in Los Angeles and Chicago finished the season 14-7-1 while Stanford finished 6-3.
In 1976 – Songs in the Key of Life by Stevie Wonder is at #1 on Billboard’s album chart – then as now known as the Billboard 200 – for the eleventh of 14 non-consecutive weeks. The album produced four Hot 100 singles, including the #1 songs I Wish and Sir Duke, songs which also went to #1 on Billboard’s soul chart. The album also went to #1 in Canada, Holland and France and remains Wonder’s biggest selling album to date, selling over 5 million copies.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
If you were born in an orange box, would that make you an orange?
Len Deighton
Spy Hook
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
The Bee Gees last #1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 was Love You Inside Out, which spent one week at #1 in 1979.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
When did Christmas become a federal holiday in the US? – Answer next time!
