The Daily Dose/November 16, 2019
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
CAPSULE HARLEM WIZARDS REVIEW: The Harlem Wizards, Moffat County High School, Craig, Colorado: We don’t spend an awful lot of time being entertained here at The Daily Dose, prefering to entertain you, but the opportunity to see the talent and humor basketball exhibitions like this offer up close was too good to pass up.
Fly In The Ointment: The only downside was the Wizards were playing the dreaded faculty from assorted schools in town. It should be noted, however, that you do not go to these things to see players D it up and pass and pick away. You go to have some laughs and to see first-class athletes dribble and pass and dunk. As it was, the Wizards didn’t play a whole lot of defense and the “game” was close the whole way, with the Wizards pulling away late because they can play above the rim and science teachers can’t.
Back On Message: While this was the first time seeing the Wizards, we’ve seen their kindred spirits the Harlem Globetrotters many times. In fact, they did their winter training at our high school, Los Angeles Lutheran, where we learned the secret of how Curly Neale made his half-court shot: he practiced it 100 times a day, a lesson we really weren’t willing or able to learn back then.
Dry, Technical Matter: The Wizards were formed in 1962, have played over 6,000 games on five continents and in 22 countries and today field four teams.
Oh Yeah: There were the usual half-court shot, too, by Rocket who nailed it, nothing but net, don’t even start. Rocket shoots these underhanded, too, what we used to call a granny shots growing up.
Final Rating: B – Like all great performers – or waiters or sports officials, for that matter – the six talented players wearing Wizards uniforms gave the impression they had spent the entire year waiting for this particular show. This despite the fact they’d had one the night before and had a four hour drive to their show the following night. A fun time, highly recommended.
Today At The Site
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has news on the plot next door to The Shire. Today’s Diary.
In other news from around town, actually right next door, Devon, or whatever his name is, I might’ve forgotten, has put one of the plots on the land adjacent to The Shire on the active market…There’s been a For Sale sign up for a couple of months now but until this week it actually hadn’t been listed anywhere…Now it is…175 for a lot a bit, tho not a whole lot, bigger than ours, replete with shells of a house and a garage…The listing heralds the opportunity to “capture” the growth of our small town and, horror of horrors, possibly change the zoning for commercial use…Neither The Wife nor I are particularly thrilled with this prospect, but we’re not in a position to buy it, so there isn’t much we can do.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life.
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On This Date
In 1532 – A force of about 180 Spanish soldiers led by Francisco Pizarro captures the Incan leader Atahualpa, commander of a force estimated at 80,000, in what History refers to as the Battle of Cajamarca, in what is now northwest Peru. Pizzaro had arrived in Cajamarca the day before and captured Atahualpa after deciding this was was the only real option, retreat and trying to defeat the entire Incan being impractical. Atahualpa was executed the following July, strangled at his request because he believed being burned at the stake would mean his soul would not make it the afterlife.
In 1958 – Jim Brown of the Cleveland Browns establishes a new NFL record for single-season rushing yardage, finishing a 20-10 victory over the Washington Redskins with 1,163 yards on the season. Brown rushed for 152 yards on 27 carries for the game and finished the year with 1,527 yards. Brown broke the record of 1,146 yards established by Steve Van Buren of the Philadelphia Eagles in 1949 and Brown would break his own record with 1,863 yards in 1963. The NFL’s single-season rushing record is now held by Eric Dickerson, who rushed for 2,105 with the Los Angeles Rams in 1984.
In 1974 – Shirley Brown is at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart – then known as the Hot Soul Singles chart – for the first of two consecutive weeks with Woman to Woman. The song also peaked at #22 on Billboard’s Hot 100 and in 1978 the song was a hit on Billboard’s country chart for Barbara Mandrell (it went to #4 and also hit #92 on the Hot 100) making Woman to Woman one of the few songs to chart on all three major Billboard singles charts. It was the first chart single for Brown and remains her only appearance at #1 on a Billboard chart.
Quotebook
Action must be guided by both intellect and experience. We learn…but we must also test what we learn in the world. It is not enough to simply meditate.
Deng Ming-Dao
365 Tao
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
The NHL record for most points in a game is ten, done by Darryl Sittler of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who had six goals and four assists in a February 7, 1976 game against the Boston Bruins.
Today’s Stumper
Who broke Jim Brown’s 1963 NFL record for most rushing yards in a season? – Answer next time!
