The Daily Dose/December 21, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON HERE?: What’s really funny to watch about our politicians, us humans, really, is how they engage in behavior they’ve earlier condemned. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is doing just that right now. Fresh off of ignoring interference in the House’s impeachment investigation – as she had every right to do – she is now delaying delivering the two articles of impeachment to the United States Senate until Senate Republicans come to an agreement on, among other things, letting witnesses be called.
Fly In The Ointment: Pelosi has as much right to make those demands as you and I do, which is to say none at all. The Senate is fully within its rights to hold whatever trial it can get a majority of senators to vote for, just like the House was within its rights to conduct its investigation however it saw fit.
Dry, Technical Matter: This brings up a rather dull argument about whether or not President Trump has actually been impeached. On the one hand, sure, of course, he has, the House voted to do so this week. On the other hand, those who say he really hasn’t because the Senate is not in receipt of the articles of impeachment have a point, too, because it’s a two-part process: the House impeaches and the Senate holds a trial. You can’t have one without the other, it’s right there in the Constitution. The House has the sole power of impeachment and the Senate the sole power to try all impeachments.
Get Your Daily Dose Policy Right Here: We’ve said this before: impeachment, almost by definition, is a partisan process, but this whole imbroglio is giving almost daily lessons in partisan one-upmanship. Taking into consideration the current fractured, bickering and partisan state of both America’s government and her citizens, this is hardly a surprise, though.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: The Wife hires a maid to help clean The Shire.
Now, I am on record as enjoying vacuuming, especially with our world-class Kirby, and regular readers of this crap know it’s about the only household cleaning chore I am any good at…But…We’re paying Maria a C note for four hours of work – and The Wife always lets her knock off waaay early – so why the hell am I vacuuming???…Well, because The Wife asked me to, that’s why…The upside is it does keep me from having to get on my knees and scrub something and don’t think I’m not cognizant of this.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1913 – The first crossword puzzle appears in the New York World. It had been invented by World employee Arthur Wynne and was diamond-shaped with a hollow center. Though similar to other puzzles, it was the first puzzle to provide boxes for players to enter letters into. It was initially known as the word-cross puzzle and became the cross-word puzzle after a typesetting error and, of course, the hyphen was eventually dropped.
In 1975 – George Blanda of the Oakland Raiders becomes the first NFL player to score 2,000 points in a career in a 28-20 victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. Blanda kicked four extra points in the game, giving him 2,002 points for his career. Blanda’s mark is now good for seventh on the all-time list and the mark is now held by Adam Vinatieri with 2,673. Blanda had come into the NFL in 1949 with the Chicago Bears and his 26 seasons of professional football remain an NFL record.
In 1985 – Lionel Ritchie is at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first four consecutive weeks with Say You, Say Me. The song went to #1 in four other countries, including Norway and South Africa, peaked at #8 in Great Britain and would later spend two weeks at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart. Due to when it charted, Say You, Say Me was Billboard’s second-biggest hit of 1986 and won both Golden Globe and Academy awards for Best Original Song. It was Ritchie’s fifth and final #1 song as a solo act.
Quotebook
How not to be forgotten? How to retain the floor for life? That was the question ambition asked but did not answer. – Gore Vidal, Washington, D.C.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
Marke Howe is the NHL’s all-time leader in career shorthanded goals by a defenseman with 28. To date, 586 NHL defensemen have scored a shorthanded goal.
Today’s Stumper
What is the longest word ever used in a published crossword puzzle? – Answer next time!
