Daily Dose/July 2, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
WHAT THE HELL’S GOING ON HERE?: Happy Independence Day from all of us here at your Daily Dose.
Really, Come On, What’s The Deal?: Regular reader(s) of this crap know we love doing this, pretty much every year, if possible, because most Americans go to bed at night on July 3rd wallowing in the ignorance that tells them that on the 4th their nation will celebrate the anniversary of its independence from Great Britain.
And You Wonder Why You Don’t Get Invited To More Parties: Those in the know, however – like those who read this column – are tediously aware that America’s actual independence day is today, July 2 because this is the day the Continental Congress adopted the Lee Resolution which declared – and this is a quote from the Congressional journal of the day – that:
Resolved, That these United Colonies are, and, of right, ought to be, Free and Independent States; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British crown, and that all political connexion between them, and the state of Great Britain, is, and ought to be, totally dissolved
Here Comes The Dry, Technical Matter: It came immediately following the referring of some routine correspondence to the Board of War and Ordnance and immediately before it “resolved itself into a committee of the whole” to take up the matter of the Declaration of Independence, which it would not approve until two days later!
More Dry, Technical Matter!: There were those in that Second Continental Congress, like future President John Adams, who presumed July 2nd would end up America’s national holiday because, silly them, this was the day America actually declared its independence.
Wrong-o: That wasn’t the case though, of course, as the 4th of July, the day the Congress approved the infernal Mr Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence, has turned out to be America’s national holiday.
The Bottom Line: Fine. Be that way. We’re lighting a sparkler tonight, anyway. Happy 2nd to all of you.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow talks about knife placement on his belt. Today’s Diary.
Some of you may be wondering exactly where on my belt I am keeping the knife…
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Gaylon spends a lot of time with a sniveling guest.
What he wanted to chat about wasn’t specified, but I got the impression he wanted to talk to me specifically.
I was right. Though others had attended to him, I had been his responding officer, a bond apparently too tight to break.
Friends, the $2.99 4Ever & Ever special for The Diary of a Nobody and Backstairs at the Monte Carlo won’t last forever, so click on the button to take advantage of it right now.
On This Date
History’s long march to today
In 1962 – The first Walmart opens in Rogers, Arkansas. Founder Sam Walton had 24 Walmarts (then known as Wal-Mart) opened in Arkansas within five years and in 1968 opened stores in Missouri and Oklahoma. Today Walmart has over 11,400 stores in 27 countries and is the world’s largest company by revenue and the planet’s largest private employer. Walmart has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since 1972 and has been listed on the Dow Jones Industrial Average index since 1997.
In 2002 – The 16 major league games played today establish a new major league record for most home runs hit in both leagues in one day, with 62 home runs being hit by 53 players. The mark breaks the old single-day record of 57 established in 2000. The Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers combined to tie the record for most home runs in a game by both teams with 12, a record they had first established in 1995. The 62 home runs remains a record, and the single-game mark is now 13, done by the Arizona Diamondbacks and Philadelphia Phillies last year.
In 1977 – Bill Conti is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the only week with Gonna Fly Now, also known as The Theme From Rocky. The song was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song and remains Conti’s only Top 40 hit. The song peaked at #52 in Great Britain in 2007 and a version by Maynard Ferguson also hit The Hot 100 in 1977, peaking at #28. Only the Theme From Dynasty, which peaked at #54 in 1982, kept Conti from being an ultimate one-hit-wonder.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
The problem was you had to keep choosing between one evil and another, and no matter how you chose, they sliced a little bit more off you, until there was nothing left. At the age of 25 most people were finished. A whole god-damned nation of assholes driving automobiles, eating, having babies, doing everything in the worst way possible, like voting for the presidential candidate who reminded them most of themselves. – Charles Bukowski, Ham On Rye
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Hank Williams, Jr, has yet to have a song hit Billboard’s Hot 100.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
What company has been a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average the longest? – Answer next time!
