The Daily Dose/April 11, 2024
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
CAPSULE BOOK REVIEW: Lazarus by Morris West: Regular readers of this crap know that this is the fourth book by West that we’ve read. Two of the first three were good. The third was not.
Whew: We can add this to the good pile. Lazarus is the third book in a trilogy that began with The Shoes of the Fisherman (very good) and continued with the mediocre The Clowns of God.
Dry, Technical Matter: In this one, Pope Leo XIV finds himself facing open-heart surgery and, possibly eternity. He comes through it, though, and is a changed man and a changed pope, with definite ideas about bringing the Catholic Church kicking and screaming into the 20th century. There are also plots to kill Leo and kidnap two civilians.
Yay: This book works because West sticks to his strengths. A Catholic himself, he is his most readable when writing novels about popes and cardinals, about his church, and about the spiritual aid and comfort us humans have needed since time immemorial.
Boo: Hardly for the first time, his civilian characters are vapid, offering banal and trite dialogue and sometimes you find yourself wondering if West (1916-99) had ever spent time with real-life humans before.
Welcome Back: West also trots out familiar themes in this one. There is a pope looking to shake things up and a Curia that isn’t. There are deformed children and a faithless priest. There is a spy-novelesque subplot and while this likely didn’t cause John le Carre or Len Deighton to lose any sleep, the ending wasn’t too bad.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Rating Scale Right Here: A – The very best; B – Very good; C – Good; D- Average; F – A steaming pile.
Final Rating: B: That West is a steadfast Catholic who, nonetheless, is working through some issues is plain but he continued to believe despite the stresses the centuries have placed on his church. He produces the usual amount of wisdom we’ve come to expect from him and the pope, the cardinals and priests we meet are worth knowing. His civilians are still annoying, but they make up a smaller part of the story.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow does some whining. Today’s Diary.
…we are now, officially, whining about our new days off: we simply have an awful lot of them.
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1979 – Ugandan dictator Ida Amin is deposed following the taking of the Ugandan capital by a combination of Ugandan and Tanzanian troops. Amin fled to eastern Uganda, but soon went into exile, first in Libya and then Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003. Amin had seized power in a 1971 coup and History still considers him one the most brutal despots in modern history. He joined the Ugandan army in 1946 as an assistant cook.
In 1989 – Ron Hextall of the Philadelphia Flyers becomes the first goalie to score a goal in an NHL playoff game in an 8-5 win over the Washington Capitals in Game 5 of the Patrick Division semifinals. Hextal scored an empty net goal with 1:02 remaining in the game and the win gave the Flyers a three games to two lead in a series they would win in six games. Hextal scored a regular-season goal in December 1987 and was the first goalie to score regular-season and postseason goals, a feat later accomplished by Martin Brodeur.
In 1960 – Percy Faith is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the eighth of a record-tying nine consecutive weeks with Theme From a Summer Place. The song tied the record for most weeks at #1 on the Hot 100 established by Bobby Darin’s Mack the Knife in 1959, a record that was later broken by Debby Boone’s You Light Up My Life (ten weeks, 1977) and is now held by Lil Naz X and Billy Ray Cyrus (Old Town Road, 19 weeks, 2019). It was the second and final #1 for Faith on a Billboard pop chart.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Wisdom came to him not by nature, but by trials.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol VI: The Reformation
Regards Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
To date, 88 athletes have won Olympic medals in different sports, the most common the 24 athletes who have won swimming and water polo medals. The combinations that have happened only once include track and field/tennis, boxing/soccer, and art competitions/shooting.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
Who succeeded Idi Amin as president of Uganda? – Answer next time!
