The Daily Dose/February 25, 2025
By Gaylon Kent – America’s Funniest Guy™
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
CAPSULE AMERICAN GANGSTER FRANCHISE REVIEW: The Godfather; book by Mario Puzo and three movies by Francis Ford Coppola: One of the pleasures of reading is, finally, getting around to books others enjoyed a half-century ago.
Dry, Technical Matter: We have no idea why it took so long to get around to The Godfather. We like novels and we have the same interest in mobsters some others have. Confounding the matter even further – even if it doesn’t make it any more interesting – is our folks had the book around the house growing up…An uncle was a cop back then and we admired him, so we were pretty law and order as a kid and may well have turned our nose up at it.
I’ll Make Him An Offer I Think Will Be To His Liking: The series chronicles the Corleone family, New York City mobsters. The patriarch is don Vito Corleone (played by Marlon Brando) and his son Michael (Al Pacino) eventually takes over the business. There are the usual dealings anyone with even a passing interest in the mob is familiar with.
Dry, Technical, Matter II: The book was really good, earning just a notch below our highest mark. The Godfather movie was excellent, about as good as we’ve seen, though we are hardly movie buffs here.
Thank You, Siskel And Ebert: The Godfather II was really good, too, perhaps a notch below the first one, if only because we thought it meandered a bit much at the start. The Godfather III was less good – Coppola only agreed to do it because he needed the money, a lousy reason for any artist to ply his trade – but the plot twists involving real-life events were nice…The ending, where a lot of people get whacked at the same time, was too confusing for us.
Affairs Of The Heart: We fell in love with Sophia Coppola, too. She was generally panned in this film, too, which we don’t understand. She wasn’t in any danger of having the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress named after her, but she did her work competently, if not brilliantly.
Get Your Official Daily Dose Rating Scale Right Here: 1 – The very best; 2 – Very good; 3 – Good; 4 – OK; 5 – A steaming pile.
Final Rating: 2: Note this is for all four elements collectively. Had Godfather III been as good as the other elements, we would’ve given it our highest mark, something regular readers of this crap know is not passed out with the rations.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody – Sparrow gets mentioned in a survey. Today’s Diary.
The gent detailed his complaints, noting the PM guy (the AFDM) wasn’t doing anybody any good, but the “overnite guy” (ol’ Sparrow) was very helpful, a credit to the hotel who would probably end up being humanity’s savior…
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On This Date
Extra, extra, read all about it.
In 1933 – The USS Ranger (CV-4) – the US Navy’s first aircraft carrier built for that purpose – is launched in Newport News, Virginia. Ranger began sea trials in May 1934 and she was commissioned the following June. During World War II she served in the Atlantic Ocean, as she was deemed too small for her own task force in the Pacific. Ranger was decommissioned in 1946 and sold for scrap the following year.
In 1941 – The Boston Bruins’ NHL record undefeated streak comes to an end in a 2-0 loss to the New York Rangers. The Bruins had gone 15-0-8 in their previous 23 games, breaking the record of 19 the Rangers had established the season before. The Montreal Canadiens broke the record with 28 in 1977-78 and the record is now 35 by the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers. The Bruins finished the season with an NHL-best 27-8-13 record and defeated the Detroit Red Wings in four games for the Stanley Cup title.
In 1995 – Wade Hayes is at #1 on Billboard’s country chart – then known as the Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart – for the first of two consecutive weeks with Old Enough To Know Better. It was the first of 14 country hits for Hayes, his first of six Top 10s and remains his only appearance at #1 on a Billboard chart. The song also went #1 country in Canada.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…but you may believe the effect is not always as magnificent as the promise.
Will Durant
The Story of Civilization, Vol. X: Rousseau and Revolution
Answer To The Last Trivia Questions
Knowledge is power.
The NCAA all-division men’s basketball record for most assists in a game is 37 by Patrick Maher of Division III Grinnell College in Iowa on January 6, 2014. This is not one of the two games where Grinnell’s Jack Taylor scored more than 100 points.
Today’s Stumper
Match wits with Gaylon. It’s not that hard.
What was the US Navy’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier? – Answer next time!
