The Daily Dose/April 16, 2024
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
CAPSULE MOVIE REVIEW: The Wizard of Oz: Let there be no suspense here: 85 years after its release, The Wizard of Oz is not only still fun to watch but, by any measure, remains a world-class film.
Back To The Future: This is only the second or third time we’ve seen The Wizard straight through, without commercial interruption. Like others of a certain, we watched it every year around Easter on CBS, back in the Stone Ages before on demand viewing. Also, this was the first time with the awesome, 21st-century power of being able to stop it and move back and forth at need.
Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead: We first utilized this function to watch two or three times the number where the Munchkins celebrate the Wicked Witch of the North’s death with a celebratory song and procession. The fact it still makes us smile says something, though we’re not sure what.
And Toto, Too: And this was also our first time watching it since acquiring a cat in 2011 and watching Toto being taken from Dorothy by evil Miss Gulch – who still needs a man – was newly heart-rending.
Here Scarecrow, You Want To Play Ball: Any movie that lives down the ages is brilliantly cast, of course, but Margaret Hamilton, in particular, belongs on any short list of perfectly cast characters. She used to scare the hell out of us as kids and while we’re too old to be scared now, she did her work supremely well.
But We Digress: We’re hardly Mr Cinema, but offhand others on this list are Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln and Mo’Nique, who played the welfare mom in Precious.
Eye In The Sky: Video surveillance makes its debut in this film, with the Wicked Witch of the West’s crystal ball monitoring Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion’s progress to Emerald City
Good Work If You Can Get It: My ideal job would be in Emerald City: I would wake up at noon, report to work at one, have lunch for an hour, and then knock off at two.
There’s No Place Like Home: Also, we noticed this for the first time: why in thee hell did the Tin Man help release the ropes that let the balloon with the Wizard in it loose?
Get Today’s Daily Dose Rating Scale Right Here: 1 – The very best; 2 – Very good; 3 – Good; 4 – Average; 5 – A steaming pile.
Final Rating: 1: This is as still as good as the medium can produce, deserving of its place on every short list of the best movies ever. If you haven’t seen it for a while, do yourself a favor and go see it again.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow talks with Gabby. Today’s Diary.
Boy, we came really close to entering the Gabby Chat Vortex (GCV) tonite…Actually, I strongly suspect we did.
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 2007 – A mass shooting on the campus of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Virginia, kills 32 people. There were two shootings by Seung-Hui Cho, one at a dormitory and another at a classroom building, where Cho killed himself as police closed in. Seventeen others were injured in the shooting, while six others were injured after jumping out of windows to avoid being shot. At the time, it was the largest mass shooting in US history and remains the country’s largest school shooting.
In 1910 – Matthews Arena, then known as Boston Arena and the oldest indoor hockey rink on the planet still in use, opens with an ice show in Boston. The first hockey game was played on December 14, with Harvard defeating MIT 4-2, and over the years has housed all Boston-area major college hockey teams, plus the Boston Bruins and Celtics, as well as the New England Whalers (WHA). Northeastern University now owns the building and it houses their hockey and basketball teams.
In 1966 – Wilson Pickett is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Top Selling R&B Singles chart – for the sixth of seven consecutive weeks with 634-5789 (Soulsville, USA). It was the fourth of 17 Top 10 soul hits for Pickett and his second of five #1s and the song also peaked at #13 on the Hot 100 and at #36 in Great Britain. The song featured background vocals by Patti LaBelle and Issac Hayes playing keyboards.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
If you do not wrangle, you will not be blamed
Lao Tzu
Tao Te Ching
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Gold, silver, and bronze medals were first awarded at the 1904 St Louis Olympics.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What is now the largest mass-shooting in US history? Answer next time!
