The Daily Dose/July 20, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
Editor’s Note: Today’s Leading Off item first ran one year ago today. Except for some minor factual corrections, it runs as it did then.
“WE COPY YOU DOWN EAGLE…”: Today is the 52nd anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the moon and of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin becoming the first humans to walk on another heavenly body.
Here We Go Again: Regular readers of this crap know our feelings on this matter: Apollo 11 – indeed, the entire Apollo program – was mankind’s finest hour, one of History’s few lines of demarcation separating all that came before from everything that followed. We mark the occasion every year in this space – either here or in On This Date, sometimes both – because we feel it’s important to look back and say “look what we did, not bad”.
We went to the moon!
Fly In The Ointment: And we haven’t gone back since. Apollo 17 left the lunar surface in 1972 and not only haven’t we returned to the moon, no American, no human, has left lower Earth orbit since then. Our own opinion is that had we wanted to, America could have put humans on Mars in the 1980s but we didn’t want to. Congress canceled Apollos 18-20 and there never was a push to go to Mars.
Dry, Technical Matter: Why this does not cause every one of us to go stand in the corner in shame is beyond me. Greatness – and its attendant failure – was there for the taking and America took a pass, ignoring man’s instinct to explore places they’ve never been.
The Bottom Line: And we’re the lesser for it. For a while now, Americans have been content to be well-fed and well-entertained and we can no longer be bothered to pay attention to our government and we are reaping that harvest right now, with our country now at the midway point between relevance and oblivion.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – At the hotel, someone messed with the morning coffee service set-up. Today’s Diary.
For reasons I’m sure someone thought good, the trash can was moved so one of its long sides was parallel to and almost up against the wall, with the napkins moved – again, for supposedly good reasons – to the area in front of the new trash can location…Well, needless to say this could not stand, and I switched it back the instant Amy left, tho it’s not entirely certain she was responsible for this travesty against the natural order…Officially, there are no suspects.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1976 – Man reaches Mars for the first time when the American Spacecraft Viking 1 lands on Martian soil. The spacecraft had been launched the previous August and Viking 1’s mission lasted over six years until NASA lost contact with it in November 1982. Its sister spacecraft Viking 2 would land on Mars in September.
In 2006 – The Oneonta Tigers and the Brooklyn Cyclones play only the fourth game in professional baseball history to go at least 26 innings in a 6-1 Tigers win. The game took 6 hours and 42 minutes to play, was tied at 1-1 at the end of nine innings and a crowd of about 200 of the original 9,000 remained at the end. In 1920 the National League Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers also played a 26-inning game and in 1966 the Miami Marlins and St Petersburg Cardinals played a 29-inning Florida State League game. The longest game in professional baseball history went 33 innings, an International League game between Rochester and Pawtucket in 1981.
In 1974 – Bobby Bare is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the only week with Marie Laveau. It was the 34th of 58 Top 40 country hits for Bare, his 13th and final Top 10 hit and remains his only appearance at #1 on a Billboard chart. The song was written by Shel Silverstein and Baxter Taylor and also went to #1 on Canada’s country chart.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
We can only add our efforts…until we slowly move the mountain.
Deng Ming-Dao
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Besides pitcher, Cy Young also appeared in five major league games as a first baseman, three in 1896 and two in 1897, with the Cleveland Spiders of the National League.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was Bobby Bare’s biggest hit on Billboard’s Hot 100? – Answer next time!
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