The Daily Dose/October 9, 2024
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
ENTER YOUR OWN CATCHY LEAD LINE HERE: Earlier this week, we did one of our patented Capsule Reviews on The Sopranos, the show from earlier this century about a mob family in northern New Jersey. We thought it was as good a show as TV has produced.
Up Next On Most Of These NBC Stations: We have some idle hours in our life right now so, feeling warm and fuzzy toward the mob, we started in on Tulsa King. Sylvester Stallone plays a New York mobster released from a 25-year stint in the joint and, immediately upon his return, is dispatched to Tulsa, apparently to oversee his family’s expansion project.
Capsule Capsule Review: Everything about this show is good. Sly has become a friend over the years and it’s good to make his acquaintance again. But nothing about Tulsa King is great. This is apparent, sometimes painfully, immediately after seeing every episode of The Sopranos.
Live, You Are There Coverage: As we noted in our review, in The Sopranos, it’s as if the Goomba Network deployed cameras and followed real mobsters on their rounds. In Tulsa King, you are obviously watching actors play roles. This is not an indictment: this is what actors do, they play roles.
Oh Hell, Here We Go: But it got us thinking about why some things are good and some things are great, because the difference between good and great isn’t very much.
Dry, Technical Matter: Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne thought the difference was only three percent and our experience sports officiating showed something similar. The difference between champion and runner-up was seldom more than that, and the difference between the best high school officials and the merely good high school officials wasn’t all that great, either. The difference usually involved hard work.
The Bottom Line: We’re not entirely sure why some achieve greatness and some merely do good. As one of our pen names is fond of saying, though, you do not summit Everest by wandering around the Gobi Desert. No one every achieved greatness by accident. You have to want it.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow has an alarm go off at the hotel, though he doesn’t hear it.
…the guy reported even more gibberish: it was a system peripherals alarm, zone 647, which seems like a lot zones for a 117-room hotel…This alarm was “not restored”, tho the simultaneous kitchen hood alarm had been restored.
The Bottom Ten/NFL Week 7 – It’s the tightest race for The Dan Henning Trophy ever.
Owner Genghis Khan resumes threats to kidnap coaching staff families as first win of 2024 knocks Jaguars not only off B-10 top spot, but off medal stand, too…
Rams out-rush and out-pass Packers, but establish strong B-10 credentials by giving up 14 points off of consecutive 2nd-half turnovers…
With team dangerously close to challenging for AFC East lead, owner fires head coach in desperate attempt to get Jets back on solid B-10 footing…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1995 – The Amtrak Sunset Limited, service from New Orleans to Los Angeles, is derailed on a bridge over a dry riverbed in western Arizona. Notes were found at the scene linking the derailment to a group displeased with the government’s handling of the 1993 siege in Waco, Texas. One person was killed and 78 were injured and the saboteurs were never identified, much less found.
In 1934 – The St Louis Cardinals win the World Series, defeating the Detroit Tigers 11-0 in the seventh game at Navin Field in Detroit. It was third of eleven World Series titles for the Cardinals and the fourth of seven losses for the Tigers to go with four championships. The score remains the highest shutout win in a World Series seventh game, a mark tied in 1985 by the Kansas City Royals. History refers to the 1934 Cardinals as the Gas House Gang.
In 2010 – Bruno Mars is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the second of four consecutive weeks with Just the Way You Are. It was the first chart single for Mars and his first of 22 Top 40 hits, 17 Top 10 hits, and seven #1s. The song also went to #1 in ten other countries, including Venezuela, Israel, and Great Britain, was Billboard’s 18th-biggest song of 2010 and 15th-biggest song of 2011, and their 22nd-biggest song of the decade.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The glue of rapport and trust that holds men together during difficult times was being poured and starting to set.
David J Peck
Or Perish in the Attempt: Wilderness Medicine in the Lewis and Clark Expedition
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Knowledge is power.
Aaron Rogers of the New York Jets holds the NFL record for most completions by an active player with 5,112.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
When was Amtrak founded? – Answer next time!
