The Daily Dose/January 1, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
One of the almost interesting notes from the holidays is that my wife and I took it off. The whole thing. Well, we did eat well on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day, but we didn’t buy presents and ignored our already modest social obligations.
It started shortly after Thanksgiving, when neither of us was in the mood to put up decorations. We have a nice Christmas village and some other decorations, including some lights we bought last year. I asked my wife if she was interested in the same tone I would have used to inquire if she wanted me get a case of the clap, and she wasn’t any more interested than I was. So no presents for each other and no decorations. I didn’t even listen to too much Christmas music, which I usually enjoy.
What’s funny is I’ve already been out of the present buying racket for many years. I can remember going to the family Thanksgiving gathering one year and afterward we drew names, which was silly because my mom and my aunts and uncles all bought presents for everyone. It was, I suppose, designed to get slackers like my dad and his sons and a few others off their duffs to buy at least one present.
Anyway, one year in my 20’s the name I drew was my own. I looked at the slip for a second, thought this was my ticket out of the present buying racket I never really enjoyed and stuffed it in a pocket without missing beat. A few days later my mom calls me and asks if I drew my own name because she and my aunts had been busily piecing together who drew whose name and the only way anything worked was if I drew my own. I fessed up, Mom wasn’t entirely pleased, and I haven’t bought, or received, too many presents since.
If you splurged this holiday season, great, we hope you enjoyed it. We certainly enjoyed ours. Happy New Year. We plan on making our time serve us instead of merely marking time this year, and we hope you do, too.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow is busy at the hotel.
The bar closed at 2315…I am not making that up!!!…A bar in a tourist town closed down before midnight on New Year’s Eve…Business was slow, tho, and the workers probably had their own parties to go to, so perhaps it wasn’t that surprising.
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On This Date
In 1362 – The Grand Duchy of Lithuania becomes the first country to celebrate the new year on January 1st. The duchy lost its independence in the 16th century and today encompasses portions of present day Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, the Ukraine and Poland.
In 1916 – The Washington State Indians, now known as the Cougars, defeat the Brown Bruins 14-0 in the Tournament East-West Football Game, now known as the Rose Bowl, played at Tournament Park in Pasadena. It was the second college football bowl game ever and the first since Michigan defeated Stanford 49-0 in the 1902 Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl has been played annually since the 1916 game and the 105th edition will be played today between Washington and Ohio State.
In 1977 – Rod Stewart is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the eighth and final week with Tonight’s the Night. It was the second of four #1s for Stewart and the song also went to #1 in Canada and was Billboard’s #1 song of 1977. At the time, it was the most weeks any song at spent at #1 on the Hot 100 in the 1970’s, a mark that stood until Debby Boone spent ten weeks at #1 with You Light Up My Life later in in 1977.
Quotebook
Everyone has it within his power to say, this I am today, that I shall be tomorrow.
Louis L’Amour
The Wandering Drum
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Whitney Houston holds the record for Most Consecutive #1 Songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 with seven. The streak started with Saving All My Love For You in October of 1985 and ended with Where Do Broken Hearts Go in April 1988.
Today’s Stumper
What is the second-oldest college football bowl game? –Answer next time!
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