The Daily Dose/August 9, 2022
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
3…2…1…BLASTOFF AGAIN: We don’t like to write about the same topic over and over, but yesterday’s tidbit about the South Korean lunar orbiter and a recent item about the Apollo program being ahead of its time got us thinking that it was so far ahead of its time that a smart, prosperous county like South Korea is obliged to have it KPLO probe take four months to get to the moon when 50 years we could get an entire Apollo mission – to the moon and back – done in eight days.
Dry, Technical Matter: The KPLO is taking a fuel-efficient route that sees it heading out towards the sun near what is called Lagrange point L1 (there are five), a gravitationally-stable point about 930,000 miles away. When it almost gets there, it will allow gravity to pull it back towards the moon and will enter lunar orbit in December.
Do You Wonder Why You Don’t Get Invited To More Parties?: This route is actually being pioneered by the US lunar orbiter CAPSTONE, which was launched in June and is taking a similar route to the moon.
Back On Message: You know, some are achieving and maintaining states of arousal over the prospect of further lunar exploration – including our own Artemis mission which through crossed fingers and much prayer hopes to have humans back on the moon by 2025 – but we had humans on the moon 50 years ago. Forgive us if we’re yawning.
The Bottom Line: Apollo showed spirit, it showed guts, it showed our age-old desire to conquer the unknown. America took a flier on that spirit though, when we declined to send men to Mars and that’s our loss because we could have used that momentum to have stayed ahead of our time, and eventually made ahead of our time the stats quo. We missed out on untold technological advances who knows where we’d be now. Perhaps the latest space missions can recoup some of that loss, even if it’s taking them four months to get to the moon.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow is moderately busy at the veterans service office. Today’s Diary.
Yours truly advised S that the VA sometimes issues a zero percent rating, which is their way of saying our bad, your disability is, indeed, service-connected, however, it’s not really causing you any compensable difficulty…S understood this and seemed to perk up when we told him it can always get worse and earn him a higher rating in the future.
———
Click here to get in on the laughs.
4Ever & Ever ($8.99) and monthly ($2.99) plans available.
Click here for complimentary chapters of all of Gaylon’s books.
It’s easy reading on any device.
———
On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1944 – The US Forest Service authorizes the creation and use of Smokey Bear in an effort to help reduce forest fires. Smokey was created in part because many firefighters were away fighting World War II, leaving fewer able-bodied men to fight fires at home and the first posters featuring Smokey would appear in October. Smokey was an instant hit, inspiring a doll in 1952 and he even has his own zip code, 20252, in Washington, DC.
In 1900 – The US wins the first Davis Cup – then known as the International Lawn Tennis Challenge – taking an insurmountable 3-0 lead in the best of five match competition at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston. The tournament was conceived by four members of the Harvard tennis team and the cup was named for Dwight Davis, who paid for the trophy. The fourth match was called at 9-9 in the second set and the final match was not played. The US has won the most Davis Cups with 32 titles.
In 1969 – Charlie Pride is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart for the only week with All I Have To Offer You (Is Me). It was the eighth Top 40 and Top 10 country hit for Pride and was his first of 29 country #1s in a chart career that spanned from 1966-89. Pride was the first Black to hit #1 on a Billboard country chart since the Nat King Cole Trio and Louis Jordan did it in 1944 and the song also went #3 country in Canada and peaked at #91 on the Hot 100. Pride died of COVID in 2020.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Truth is generally the best vindication against slander.
Abraham Lincoln
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Four countries have produced yacht clubs that have won the America’s Cup: the United States, New Zealand, Australia, and Switzerland. Great Britain won the inaugural race that would become the America’s Cup.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Who was the oldest player to play in a Davis Cup match? – Answer next time!
