The Daily Dose/July 26, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Editor’s Note: Longtime readers will recall, perhaps fondly, the old Daily Dose format used today. It is being given a test run again.
WHILE WE WERE OUT: Lost in the cacophony of the Apollo 11 retrospective of the past few days was the sentencing of convicted drug vendor Joquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, who was sentenced to life in prison last week, a sentence he is appealing and one he will serve at the Supermax prison west of Pueblo, Colorado. There he will join an A-list of archcriminals like the Unabomber, the Shoe Bomber and the Boston marathon bomber.
Dry, Technical Matter: El Chapo was convicted in February of assorted drug trafficking, money laundering, racketeering and murder charges.
Ladies And Gentlemen Of The Jury: Has El Chapo’s conviction and sentencing made any difference whatsoever into either how drugs are imported into America or consumed by citizens? Of course they haven’t. Americans are still consuming a lot of illegal drugs and people on both sides of the border are still dying every day.
More Dry, Technical Matter: Is our border with Mexico racked with violence over coffee? No, it is not. Why? Because coffee is legal. Coffee growers and exporters only need to find people to sell their coffee to and arrange to have it imported.
Write This Down: The drug war is silly. Mexican drug lords are merely vendors trying to move product into a country that has a large demand for it. Legalize drugs and the attendant violence with trying to get drugs imported into and sold in America goes away. Drug lords go from being eveil arch-criminals to mere vendors trying to move some product, product that, as noted, there is a great demand for here in the United States.
Oh Yeah: America should legalize whatever someone wants to put into their body.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow is back to feeling good and a guy comes by The Shire to give an estimate on new tile in the shower. Today’s Diary.
At 4pm a guy came by to give us an estimate on our bathroom…Long-time readers of this crap may – or they may not – recall that The Wife tore the tile off the lower part of the shower…She then used an old shower curtain and some duct tape to protect the bare areas, a field repair that is still holding up, and for a while now she has been making some of her infamous noises about getting it fixed…She wouldn’t be here for the estimate, and she left instructions for me not in any way, shape, or form mention our expected budget for this evolution…I then made a joke about telling the guy we’re expecting to spend about 15 grand on this – which we’re not – which almost made The Wife pass out.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1861 – Major General George McClellan is appointed commanding general of the Army of the Potomac, the US Army element charged with the defense of what was then known as Washington City. McClellan, a talented administrator and organizer, presided over improvements in the defense of Washington City and his army grew from 50,000 to 168,000 men. Unfortunately, he seldom led those troops into battle. Although he was named general-in-chief of the Union armies in November, 1861, McClellan’s hesitancy and tactical indifference when he did fight saw him relieved of all Union army responsibilities by November 1962.
In 1951 – Jim Russell of the of the Brooklyn Dodgers becomes the first player in major league history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in the same game twice in a career. Russell homered in the first and fifth innings as the Dodgers defeated the St Louis Cardinals 7-5. Russell had first accomplished the feat in 1948 as a member of the Boston Braves and though rare at the time, this feat has since been accomplished so many times it no longer has any statistical significance. Other sites that list this feat as having occurred in 1951 are incorrect.
In 1975 – Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for their only week with The Hustle. The song also went to #1 in Canada, had earlier spent a week at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart and also earned a Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance. Though The Hustle was McCoy’s only Top 40 hit, he was an accomplished songwriter and producer. He died of a heart attack in 1979.
Quotebook
One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.
Sophocles
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Hoyt Wilhelm started 52 games in his major league career.
Today’s Stumper
Who replaced Major General McClellan as general-in-chief of the Union army? – Answer next time!
