The Daily Dose/August 2, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
The Sunday Bottom 5
The very best of the very worst of the week that was.
1. Major League Baseball – Valiantly holding on to season that has already seen 16 games postponed and the Marlins and Phillies put in time out for a week…Triple-headers required to finish season by Christmas to be scheduled for three innings for each game, with starting pitchers required to complete only opening warm-ups to get credit for win.
2. COVID-19 – A timely and competent response by US and we’re likely living a normal life again, with infection, death rates probably down to non-panic inducing numbers…America did not get a timely and competent response, though, and citizens unwilling to take precautions now have blood on their hands, just like US government.
3. President Trump and the 2020 Election: Mr President, you have no more power to alter the date of the 2020 general election than the Sunday Bottom 5 pollsters do…Your ignorance of the presidency, the constitution, of established norms, is as funny as it is sad and our tolerance of it is tragic.
4. The Bottom Ten – Status of American classic for this fall still up in the air, as panic B-10 pollsters feel with NCAA season starting four weeks later mitigated somewhat by knowledge season probably isn’t going to be played anyway…Some B-10 pollsters threatening to “opt out” from pressures of weekly voting to spend more time with bar tabs.
5. President Trump Fact Check – US economy expected to spike next month as fact-checking president now country’s biggest growth industry….Click here for this week’s assortment of half-truths, misinformation and outright lies.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow encounters a guest with a sheathed dagger. Today’s Diary.
And one hell of a time to have forgotten my own knife, tho if you think I’m going slasher at work you are high because I will ensure it won’t come to that…Anyone carrying a dagger like that probably knows how to use it and friends, in close quarters the best defense against a dagger is to flee because you will be stabbed before you can reach for your gun, presuming you’re packing…Besides, even I’d’ve remembered my knife, I’ve long forgotten some modest knife training I’ve had tho, as I recall, a lot of it’s being ready and acting decisively.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Changes are coming to the Employee Dining Room.
We’re just hoping they don’t install one of those deals where you have to swipe your employee badge to get into the EDR. (Rumor has it Monte Carlo is the only casino on the Strip that doesn’t.) This would blow. Official Monte Carlo policy dictates employees are entitled to use the EDR only once per shift, but this rule could not be more violated if prizes were issued for non-compliance. A lot of employees – like security officers, for instance – go to the EDR on their breaks in addition to their lunch hours and there are so many day shift officers there for breakfast you could have briefing in the EDR.
Click here for the first two months of complimentary entries.
Criminals, Courtesans and Constables: Chapter 5 – The States: Our hero gets sent to the States and sees Monica for what turns out to be the last time in a very long time.
We had no idea. There was always the assurance of next time and by now I had gotten accustomed to our casual departures to the extent a stake wasn’t driven through my heart anymore. When the doorman opened our limo door and addressed us by name that winter day, neither of us knew we were leaving the resort for the last time. Our limo dropped us off at the airport and we went to our separate terminals.
It would be many years before I would see Monica again, and there were times it appeared that we might never see each other again at all. When we did, it was in the exact opposite of a 5-star hotel, or even a bloody airline terminal.
Click here to read the first four chapters with our compliments.
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On This Date
History’s long march to today.
In 1870 – The world’s first underground subway opens in London. Known as the Tower Subway, it was 1,340 feet long and had a diameter of 6 feet, 7.75 inches and ran underneath the River Thames between Tower Hill on the north bank and Vine Street on the south bank. Passengers were transported by a cable-hauled wooden carriage, though this was not profitable would later be converted to a pedestrian walkway. The subway would close in 1898 after the Tower Bridge opened and today houses water mains.
In 1992 – Jackie Joyner-Kersee wins the gold medal in the heptathlon on the 1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics. Joyner won the 100-meter hurdles, the 200-meters and the long jump to finish with 7,044 points to beat Irina Belova of the Unified Team and Sabine Braun of Germany. It was the second consecutive gold medal in the event for Kersey, who had established the world record at the 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics and she also earned the silver medal at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Her world record of 7,291 points still stands.
In 1975 – The Eagles are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the only week with One of These Nights. The song spent 14 weeks in the Top 40, ten of those weeks in the Top 10. It was the second #1 song of 1975 for the group (Best of My Love, one week) and their second of five #1s for their career. The song also peaked at #23 in Great Britain and was Billboard’s ninth biggest song of the year.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
…those emotions and desires never leave you. The song transcends your age and continues to speak to that part of you that is both exhilarated and frightened about what tomorrow brings. – Bruce Springsteen, on Born To Run
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
The Beatles’ 20 #1 songs on Billboard’s Hot 100 spent a total of 59 weeks at #1. They are fourth on the all-time list behind Mariah Carey (82), Elvis (79) and Rihanna (60).
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
What events comprise the heptathlon? – Answer next time!
