The Daily Dose/March 7, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience…
USA! USA!: The surprise, of course, is not that the race for the Democratic presidential nomination was whittled down to two after the Super Tuesday primaries. It may not have been expected by some – and Lord knows the lousy prognosticators here didn’t call it – but it is hardly the Upset of the Year.
The news is who the party that likes to brag about how diverse and inclusive it is has left for us: two white men. Two white men in their 70s. Two white, straight men in their 70s.
Fly In The Ointment: This from the party that once nominated the first black and the first woman for the presidency. This from a party that loves to celebrate its diversity and once had men and women, young and old, white and black, gay and straight in their 2020 race.
Go In Peace, Serve Grandpa: So barring a phenomenon on par with planetary alignment, it is highly likely our next president will be one of three white males whose average age is 76. President Trump was already the oldest president ever at inauguration, 70, and that record will be broken next January no matter who wins and either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden would be older at inauguration than Ronald Reagan, 77, was when he left office.
Now, we’re not anti-70-year-old white male here. Hell, we hope to be one ourselves one day, but good gravy, this group has a monopoly on the remaining major-party candidates and both the Republicans and Democrats could have done better than this. The GOP could have done better than a lying sexual predator who believes the moon is part of Mars. The Democrats, with a wide, diverse pool to choose from, could have done better, too. But 70+, white males are either the one in power or the ones getting the votes…Nobody forced them on us.
Gaylon For US Senate…Vote Early, Vote Often: As always, we get the government we deserve. We get yesterday’s thinking from old white men, it’s all our fault; we’re voting for them. We miss out on the vigor and flexibility of someone not approaching 80, our bad. We are not going to get different until we start demanding it at the ballot box.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow has the latest from the gym. Today’s Diary.
Had a good but not great workout this morning…Yes, I upped the weight on two exercises but on two other exercises, I only got the max weight up eight times…This isn’t an unmitigated disaster, of course, because eight times means you’re building muscle, too and as we’ve noted here from time to time doing as few as six reps – with six being all you can do – per set has merit as well.
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On This Date
Great moments in us.
In 1941 – The German submarine U-47, among the most successful German submarines of World War II, is lost at sea northwest of Scotland, disappearing without a trace. Over the course of ten patrols starting in 1938, U-47 was responsible for sinking 31 Allied vessels and damaging eight more. Exactly why U-47 vanished isn’t known, though no one familiar with submarine warfare of the era dismisses the possibility that U-47 was sunk by their own torpedo. 45 officers and men died.
In 1960 – Austin Carr of Notre Dame establishes a new NCAA tournament record for most points in a game in a 112-82 win over Ohio in a Mideast Region opening-round game in Dayton. Carr had 61 points breaking the record of 58 established by Princeton’s Bill Bradley in 1965. Carr also scored 52 points in a second-round loss to Kentucky, a feat he would duplicate in a 1971 tournament game, making Carr the only person to score 50 or more points in three NCAA tournament games.
In 1964 – The Beatles are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the sixth of seven consecutive weeks with I Want to Hold Your Hand. It was the first of a record 20 #1 songs on the Hot 100 for the group and the sixth of 14 consecutive weeks the group would hold onto the #1 spot with three different songs (She Loves You, Can’t Buy Me Love). The song went to #1 in seven other countries including Norway and Great Britain, was Billboard’s biggest song of the year, the fifth-biggest of the decade and ranked 48th on their 60th-anniversary Hot 100 in 2018.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them.. – Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Eight people who either played in or worked for the United States Football League are enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame: George Allen, Sid Gilman, Jim Kelly, Marv Levy, Bill Polian, Steve Young, Reggie White and Gary Zimmerman.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
How many Top 10 hits did the Beatles have on the Billboard Hot 100? – Answer next time!
