The Daily Dose/December 7, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
Leading Off will return.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow is early for his appointment to have the snow tires put on. Today’s Diary.
I still had over an hour-and-a-half to kill before the appointment to get the snow tires put on…It was only a 15-minute drive to The Shire but I didn’t really want to drive any more than I had to, so I went to a thrift store and got a book and then went to the tire place, way too early, announced my presence and, typical of someone with 13-years of Lutheran schooling, apologized for being early…I settled in in an uncomfortable chair and started reading and soon after that a guy comes in and asks for my keys and they must’ve had a cancelation or something because an hour later, 15 minutes before my original appointment, I was done, on the way home, god bless these people.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1982 – Charles Brooks is executed by the state of Texas, the first person executed by lethal injection in the United States. It was also the first execution in Texas since 1964. Brooks and his accomplice, Woody Loudres, had been convicted of murdering an auto mechanic and both had been sentenced to death. Loudres’ conviction was later overturned and he served eleven years of a 40-year sentence. Justice was relatively swift back then as Brooks had been sentenced to death in 1978.
In 1980 – The San Francisco 49ers establish a new NFL record for the biggest deficit overcome to win a game, overcoming a 28-point deficit in a 38-35 overtime win against the New Orleans Saints. The 49ers trailed 35-7 at the half, tied it with a touchdown with 1:50 left in the fourth quarter and won it on a Ray Wersching field goal. It remains the largest regular-season deficit overcome and the all-time record is now held by the Buffalo Bills, who overcame a 35-3 deficit to defeat the Houston Oilers, now the Tennessee Titans, in a January 2003 playoff game.
In 1963 – The Singing Nun is at #1 for the first of four consecutive weeks with Dominique. The song also went to #1 in four other countries including Argentina and New Zealand and peaked at #7 in Great Britain. The Singing Nun – known as Sister Smile in Europe – had no other chart singles, making her one of the few acts whose only Hot 100 hit went to #1. Fame was not kind to the Singing Nun. She left the convent in 1966, saw little money from her recordings and, along with her partner Annie Pecher, killed herself in 1985. The Singing Nun, born Jeanine Deckers, remains the only Belgian to have a #1 song in America.
Quotebook
Rome had completed the fatal cycle known to Plato and to us: monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchic exploitation, democracy, revolutionary chaos, dictatorship. Once more…an age of freedom ended and an age of discipline began. – Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. III, Caesar to Christ
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The final state to ratify the 13th Amendment to the Constitution – which outlawed slavery – was Mississippi, which ratified it in 1995 after rejecting it in 1865.
Today’s Stumper
Who was the first act whose only Hot 100 hit went to #1? – Answer next time!
