The Daily Dose/April 20, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience
USA! USA! The calls to normalize American life are getting louder. It’s a tough decision: do you re-open America and sign more death warrants, or do you continue to do what you can to mitigate the death toll and keep people locked up and unemployed? It’s akin to being obliged to pick a favorite strain of the clap. People are still dying, we have some zero clue how many people have the virus and a vaccine is nowhere in sight and it is reasonable to believe returning to normal will increase, probably significantly and maybe even exponentially, the death toll.
Running The Numbers: While daily death totals both in the US and around the world are dropping after peaking on April 14, COVID-19 is still racking up impressive death rates: In the US the death rate amongst closed cases is a man-sized 36%, a total that would make the plague stand up and take notice. Worldwide this death rate is 21%, itself an impressive figure. In terms of the overall population, the totals are still small: a 0.00031% infection rate and a 0.000021% death rate amongst our planet’s 7.7 billion people.
Dry, Technical Matter: We can’t help wondering what would have happened had America had a prompt and competent response to the coronavirus. We didn’t, of course, and while we’re not doctors, nor have we ever played one on TV, we think an educated guess would put the death toll at about ten percent of America’s current total and, perhaps, a timely, competent and aggressive response might have cut it even further. Our government has blood on its hands.
The Bottom Line: We’ve said this before: Mother Nature has been sending new illnesses our way since time immemorial and there is going to come a time when we are going to have to come to terms with the havoc the coronavirus and COVID-19 are wrecking on us.
We can’t keep our country locked down until a vaccine appears because that may never happen. Eventually, people are going to want to get out of the house and they will need to work and we need a haircut. The sooner we can get America moving again, with some measure of safety and practicality, the better.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: The first lawn mowing of the season is in the books. Today’s Diary.
Cody actually came by and got the lawn done this afternoon…This has to be considered an upset because it was cloudy and windy with rain in the forecast when I got up (see Sleep Log below), so I texted him and said it was OK if he put it off because, needless to say, I would have…He texted me back, tho, saying he was actually in the yard raking and, as it turned out, he brought a buddy along, too…Hardy souls, but they got it done and the yard looks sharp…The dead leaves are all gone and the lawn’s mowed and I didn’t have to do any of it myself…
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On This Date
Great moments in us.
In 1999 – The Deepwater Horizon drilling rig, owned and operated by BP, explodes in the Gulf of Mexico south of Louisiana and Mississippi. The explosion killed eleven workers and the spill wasn’t sealed until September 2010 with the total discharge estimated to be 210 million gallons, the largest marine oil spill in history. BP pled guilty to assorted criminal charges, agreeing to four years of federal monitoring and the paying of $4.525 billion in fines.
In 1982 – The Atlanta Braves establish a new modern major league record for most consecutive wins at the start of the season in a 4-2 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. It was the twelfth straight win for the Braves, breaking the record of eleven established by the Oakland A’s the previous season. The Braves would finish with 13 straight victories, a mark that was tied by the Milwaukee Brewers, then in the American League, in 1987. The all-time major league mark is 20 consecutive wins, done by the St Louis Maroons of the Union Association in 1884.
In 1974 – MFSB featuring the Three Degrees are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 with TSOP (The Sound of Philadelphia). It was the first chart single and only Top 40 hit for MFSB and the second of three Top 40 hits for the Three Degrees and remains the only #1 song for both. The song also went to #1 in Canada, peaked at #22 in Great Britain, was in its only week at #1 on Billboard’s soul chart and was Billboard’s seventh biggest song of the year. The theme to the TV show Soul Train, it was the first song from a TV show to hit #1 on the Hot 100, though the feat had been accomplished on earlier Billboard pop charts. .
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…his life seemed to prove that the valorous were the favorites of fortune. He was simply inviting the Convention to do what he had done repeatedly – to aim as high as possible and to strain every nerve to attain the goal.
John C Miller
Alexander Hamilton: Portrait in Paradox
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Giorgio Moroder’s biggest hit on the Hot 100 as an artist was Chase, which went to #33 in 1979.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
What was the first theme song from a TV show to reach #1 on a Billboard pop chart? – Answer next time!
