The Daily Dose/January 4, 2021
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
OH, JESUS H: Saturday, in our popular On This Date segment, we noted that Earth made its closest point of approach to the sun for 2021 – 91,399,454 miles – that day. This phenomenon is known as perihelion and happens, for now, a couple of weeks after the start of winter. The opposite, the point when Earth is farthest away from the sun, is called aphelion and happens a couple of weeks after the start of summer.
Dry, Technical Matter: Those who read Saturday’s entry also know that the date of perihelion is changing. In the 13th century, it fell on the winter solstice and in 4,000 years, more or less, perihelion will occur on the spring equinox.
Dry, Technical Spoiler Alert: The following figure is the answer to today’s Trivia feature, but the farthest the Earth would be from the Earth this century came on July 4, 2019, at 94,513,216 million miles.
Oh Hell: We did even more research – imagine that – and found that in the 1,000 year period from 1500 through 2500 the closest and farthest Earth would be from the sun both came in the 16th century: 91,377,789 miles on December 17, 1545 and 94,533,397 miles on June 17, 1509. We still don’t know if we are relieved or frustrated that we were unable to find an even broader range of perihelion/aphelion figures.
Thank You, Captain Science: You might think that with our distance from the sun varying by as many as three million it might affect our weather, but, plainly it does not because it’s winter and we’re closer to the sun and we are still freezing our keisters off here at the home office. The earth’s orbit has little bearing on temperature. The key is the tilt of the earth’s axis, and in winter we are tilted farther away from the sun than we are in summer.
The Bottom Line: Uh, there’s really not a Bottom Line point to this item, the Upset of the Year, we know. We had some extra information that there wasn’t room for in the limited space obliged by the popular On This Date segment lying around and we wanted to share it with you.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – At the hot springs, Sparrow watches a kid spit water on his sister.
The sister whines, loudly and to no one in particular, that Justin had spit water on her and immediately mother springs into action, requesting Justin’s immediate presence…To show how serious this was she motioned him with an index finger which I seem to remember meaning big trouble when issued by Ma Sparrow.
Mom, however, immediately referred the matter to Dad so Justin, back in the pool, waded over while Dad, in timeless Dad fashion, didn’t appear to know what had happened…Still tho, the son sat next to his dad and Dad whispered something in his ear which, judging by the body language, appeared to carry an us-against-them tone.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 2010 – The world’s tallest building, the Burg Khalifa in Dubai, officially opens. It is 2,722 feet tall – more than half a mile – and has 163 stories and elevators that travel over 1,600 feet, both of which are world records, too. It replaced Taipei 101 as the world’s tallest building and retains the title today. The building also has 2,909 stairs going as high as the 160th floor.
In 1984 – Adrian Dantley of the Utah Jazz ties the NBA regular-season record for most free throws in a game in a 116-111 win over the Houston Rockets in a game played in Las Vegas. Dantley went 28-for-29 from the line to tie the record established by Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia Warrior on March 2, 1962, and the record still stands. The all-time record is 30, done by Bob Cousy of the Boston Celtics on March 21, 1953, in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.
In 1975 – Elton John is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds. It was the third of eight #1 songs for John, a figure that includes his appearance on That’s What Friends Are For with Dionne and Friends. The song also went to #1 in Canada, peaked at #10 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s 34th biggest song of the year. The song was originally released in 1967 by the Beatles, though it was never released as a single.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.
Joseph Heller
Catch-22
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Tony Dorsett currently ranks 10th on the NFL career rushing list with 13,259 yards.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was the last American building to be the tallest in the world? – Answer next time!
