The Daily Dose/September 19, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
HUT, HUT HIKE: Despite college kids getting COVID left and right, despite games being postponed, despite not knowing the long-term health effects, the Big Ten Conference decided this week to play football this year. In August they had decided not to.
Fly In the Ointment: The Pac-12 Conference is the only malingerer now amongst the Power 5 conferences, but there reports even they are trying to get around pesky government regulations that are preventing some of their teams from practicing.
Fly In The Ointment II: Being the only Power 5 holdout now is bad. One, it’s a PR black eye. After all, other conferences are playing football, what’s the Pac-12’s hold up? Two, by not presenting football games for networks to televise they will lose out on a lot of money and their athletes will lose a year of competition. The consequences of this, frankly, will be enormous.
Dry, Technical Matter: So what? As noted, colleges are hotbeds for the coronavirus and while those who point out young college kids seldom die from COVID have a point, there are no guarantees. Besides, what happens 20 years from now when someone gets an ailment that is directly attributable to having had the COVID he got playing college football? We’ll tell you what will happen: they will be on their own. Do you think any college or conference is going to care? Of course not. If they truly cared they wouldn’t have played football this year in the first place.
The Bottom Line: Hardly for the first time, NCAA schools are doing a brilliant job of being pimp and whore at the same time. Their only concern is making money and screw it if some kids get sick now or years later. A year from now and probably many years from now, a decision not to have played football in 2020 will probably be looked upon as prudent. Prudence, however, does not rake in millions of dollars.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: The cat purrs in Sparrow’s ear.
So there was time to kill after completing morning project work, so I went to bed and laid down and listened to stuff and – as she’s been doing since it’s cooled off and covers are needed – the cat came in and stood post on my back…She even, and I am not making this up, stuck her face in an ear and purred, a first after nine years together…Good gravy, that was adorable and I was careful not to move because she’ll sometimes flee at the first movement.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Outside officers are now carrying extra ammo.
I’ll carry an entire armory if they want me to, but it’s my own personal theory that if ten bullets didn’t do the job, ten more aren’t going to make a whole hell of a lot of difference. For his part, Redneck Randy said if he needs more than two rounds something’s wrong.
Free Stuff
The same trick the drug dealers use.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo
Clock in with the graveyard crew of the Monte Carlo Security Department on the glamorous Las Vegas Strip.
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Criminals, Courtesans and Constables
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 1777 – The Battles of Saratoga begins in the American Revolution in upstate New York. The plan involved British elements invading from Canada in an attempt to split New England from the middle and southern colonies. While the British did win a battle at Freeman’s Farm, anticipated reinforcements from the south and west never appeared, the Americans won the Battle of Bemis Heights on Oct 7 and the British surrendered a bit later.
In 1955 – Ernie Banks of the Chicago Cubs establishes a new major league record for most grand slam home runs in a season in a 6-5, 12-inning loss to the St Louis Cardinals. Banks’ seventh-inning grand slam off Lindy McDaniel was his fifth grand slam of the year, breaking the record of four that had been done twelve times previously. Banks’ mark would later be tied three times and the record is now six, done by Don Mattingly of the New York Yankees in 1987 and Travis Hefner of the Cleveland Indians in 2006.
In 1964 – The Animals are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the third and final consecutive week with The House of the Rising Sun. It was the second of 17 Top 40 hits for the group, their first of three Top 10 hits and remains their only #1 song. The song spent only eleven weeks on the Hot 100, seven of them in the Top 10. An old folk song of unknown origin, the song also went to #1 in France and Great Britain and the song has hit both the Hot 100 and Billboard’s country chart assorted times over the years.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty. – Thomas Jefferson
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Chicago’s last appearance on the Billboard Hot 100 was Chasin’ the Wind which peaked at #39 in 1991.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
Who were the American and British commanders at the Battles of Saratoga? – Answer next time!
