The Daily Dose/May 19, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around the human experience.
WARNING! DRY, TECHNICAL MATTER COMING UP: One of the items in yesterday’s popular On This Date segment concerned the liftoff of Apollo 10, a dress rehearsal for Apollo 11’s first lunar landing two months later. The mission did everything but land on the moon, with astronauts Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan even flying the lunar module (LM) to within eight miles or so of the lunar surface.
Dry, Technical Matter: Long-time readers of ours know our interest in the space program and one thing we’ve long wondered about is whether Stafford and Cernan had been tempted to land on the moon.
Dry, Technical Matter: After all, they had a LM ready in all respects to do so. Sure, they might have lacked the lunar landing simulator time that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were enjoying, they were otherwise competent United States astronauts and no doubt were still in possession of the test pilot’s urge to go, just for funsies, knock on the unknown’s door to see what was there.
Dry, Technical Matter: Well, during our research for yesterday’s On This Date item, we came across the reason why they did not. Seems NASA knew who they were sending into space and took an appropriate precaution: the ascent module of the LM – what would lift them off from the moon – did not have enough fuel to get back to the command module. Stafford and Cernan could have landed, but they could not have returned.
Dry, Technical Matter: For his part, Cernan suspected this might have been done on purpose:
A lot of people thought about the kind of people we were: ‘Don’t give those guys an opportunity to land, ‘cause they might!’”
Dry, Technical Matter: Cernan later commanded Apollo 17 and remains the last human to set foot on the moon.
Dry, Technical Matter: This is, somewhat, reminiscent of a precaution taken for Apollo 11, namely President Nixon having a speech ready in case Armstrong and Aldrin had been stranded on the moon. Fortunately, and even though there have been deaths in the space program, we’ve been spared having someone stranded on the moon.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: Sparrow balances his checkbook. Today’s Diary.
The bank book balanced very easily today, tho that is hardly a bulletin because there hadn’t been a whole lot of transactions since Saturday when I had to do everything but call in Treasury Department auditors to get it balanced…There was a recurring charge and a couple of other charges, but some subtraction yielded a reconciled register app and bank statement in short order.
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On This Date
History’s long march to today
In 1649 – The English Parliament declares England a republic. The move followed the English Civil War and the execution of Charles I on January 30. England would remain a republic (defined a country that is not a monarchy) until 1660, when Charles II, son of Charles I, became king. This period is known to History as The Interregnum.
In 1956 – Dale Long of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a home run in a 7-4 victory over the Chicago Cubs. It was the first of a major league record eight consecutive games Long would homer in, a streak that has matched twice (Don Mattingly, 1987; Ken Griffey, Jr, 1993) but otherwise still stands. Long would bat .555 with eight home runs 19 RBIs during the streak. Long broke the record of six straight, which had been done on several occasions.
In 1973 – Stevie Wonder is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the only week with You Are The Sunshine of My Life. The song was in its fourth of seven weeks in the Top 10 and spent a total of 13 weeks in the Top 40 and 17 weeks on the chart. It was the third of nine #1 songs on the Hot 100 for Wonder and the song also peaked at #7 in Great Britain and at #3 on Billboard’s soul chart. The first four lines of the song are sung by Jim Gilstrap and Lani Groves, who also provide background vocals on the record.
Quotebook
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
Talent hits a target no one else can hit; genius hits targets no one else can see. – Arthur Schopenhauer
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
From the first Billboard country chart in 1944 through the chart dated May 16, 2020, eight #1 songs have had the word “country” in the title. The most recent was God’s Country by Blake Shelton in 2019.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
During his streak, how many stadiums did Dale Long hit home runs in? – Answer next time!
