The Daily Dose/January 14, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off: Hut, Hut, Hike
All right, it’s time for the final whining of the season about how our country determines its major division college football champion. Our every-hour-on-the-hour calls this past month for a 32- team, NCAA Division I Football Championship are falling on deaf ears, so let’s work with what we have.
Actually, taken in the context of what we are being force-fed, the recent College Football Playoff (CFP) did it’s work rather well…Plainly, Clemson and Alabama were the two best teams in the country. The way they sashayed through the CFP semifinals established that. Yes, Ohio State and Washington should have been able to show what they had in a playoff, but no one was complaining about the Clemson/Alabama title game.
Could we please end this on New Year’s Day, though? Nobody really cares about college football after either January 1st or Monday, January 2nd. It’s time to go back to work and the NFL playoffs are starting soon and pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks. It’s good to have college football in the rearview mirror.
Consider this: New Year’s Day could start off with the Sugar Bowl, followed by the Rose Bowl and then the CFP title game and the day would probably become an American classic quicker than you can say “selection committee”. The semifinals could be played on the third Saturday in December, rotating between the Cotton, Peach, Orange and Fiesta bowls.
New Year’s Eve could be a football fest, too. Hold the I-AA, Division II and Division III national championship games on January 31. The 23 people who genuinely care about the NCAA’s small school national championships will find the games.
Would this stop our annual whining? No, of course not; only a 32-team NCAA Division I football playoff that began the first Saturday in December and ended on January 1st would do that. But having the CFP title game on New Year’s Day would cover a multitude of sins.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow takes more water impurity measurements, scams some pizzza at the hotel and makes dinner for The Wife.
The Wife even let me do the dishes – a sign at how tired she was because usually she doesn’t let me clean anything because I’m no good at it – while she enjoyed a bath.
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On This Date
In 1784 – The Congress of the Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, in Annapolis, Maryland, then the capital of the United States. The treaty had been signed the previous September and Great Britain would ratify the treaty in April and the American Revolution would officially end on May 12, when diplomats exchanged ratified copies in Paris. Of the treaty’s original ten articles, only the first one, concerning American sovereignty, is still in effect.
In 1943 – Alex Smart of the Montreal Canadiens becomes the first player to score three goals in his first NHL game. Smart had two goals in the closing seconds of the second period added another goal in the third and finished the night with four points as the Canadiens defeated the Chicago Black Hawks 5-1. Smart would finish the season and his NHL career with five goals in eight games. His record was tied several times before Auston Matthews of Toronto scored four goals in his first NHL game on October 12, 2016.
In 1978 – Johnny Paycheck is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles chart – for the second of two consecutive weeks with Take This Job and Shove It. Though Paycheck had eleven Top 10 hits on the country chart from between 1966 and 1978, Take This Job and Shove It would be his only #1. The B side of this single, Colorado Kool-Aid, also charted, peaking at #50 on the country chart. Paycheck was born Donald Lytle in Ohio in 1938 and had his name legally changed in 1964. He died in 2003.
Quotebook
I wanted to – know.
That is it. That is all there is, to want to know.
Gore Vidal
Empire
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The Green Bay Packers were the first team to win consecutive Super Bowl titles, defeating the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl I and the Oakland Raiders in Super Bowl II.
Today’s Stumper
Who signed the Treaty of Paris for the United States? –Answer next time!
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