The Daily Dose/October 20, 2020
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Leading Off
Notes from around our human experience.
USA! USA!: We still find it incredible that Donald Trump still has a chance at being reelected. Here we are two weeks before Election Day – almost four years into his term – and America is not great again. We still suck. The Democrats should be naming the score, but they’re not.
Dry, Technical Matter: Trump’s delayed and inept handling of the coronavirus has covered his hands in blood. He is the worst president in any of our lifetimes and, perhaps, the worst democratically elected leaders in human history. He is a lying sexual predator who believes the moon is part Mars, which in itself should disqualify him but hasn’t because Trump commands the same loyalty that rich bullies have commanded since antiquity. Some things do not change.
Fly In The Ointment: Among the things that do not change is that countries come and go and we’ve long said America is about ready to go. Maybe not today or tomorrow but if you and me – we the people – don’t do something, America will roll over and call it a day before this half-century is out. We cannot continue with perpetual war, mindless spending and a citizenry that is a partisan, fractured and bickering mess with impunity. If concerned and conscientious citizens do not take charge right now the Great American Experiment will end.
The Bottom Line: Our country is dying and we are letting it. Anyone who genuinely believes America has a bright future and is on a collision course with peace and prosperity is high, legally in more and more states. We are not, we are halfway between the influence we once had and the oblivion that awaits us. In two weeks we can either stay the course or signal to ourselves and the world that we are demanding better.
Today At The Site
Writing worth reading. Usually.
The Diary of a Nobody: There’s not any snow in the forecast, but Sparrow’s going to ge the snow tires put on anyway.
In a display of foresight virtually unprecedented, yours truly made an appointment to get the snow tires put on this Thursday…I called the tire store in the next county, where I’d purchased them last year, and by chance, they had an appointment Thursday when regular readers of this crap know I’m in the next county anyway…Usually, I’m pretty late getting this done, generally around Thanksgiving, but not this year…The only fly in the ointment is it’s been dry lately and isn’t scheduled to snow for five weeks…I appear to be the only one thinking snow tires right now, too, because Dale, the guy who took my call, said he was wide open for appointments Thursday and usually by this time you’ve got to wait a week or two to get in.
Backstairs at the Monte Carlo: Gaylon’s plan to get some face time with a pretty dealers fails miserably.
I get to the EDR a little early cause Lisa’s next break is also at 0100 and if she sees me there she probably will sit with me and no sooner do I sit down then Ted clears Code Four Carlin for his 10-10!
Crap! Carlin will probably sit with me, and, while I like Code Four Carlin, I do not want him sitting next to me when I am trying to attract a woman. Snot running down my nose would do a better job of that.
Inevitably Code Four Carlin does join me and Radtke does, too, and all I can do is wave at Lisa as she goes and sits somewhere else. Sigh. The best-laid plans of mice and bachelors and all that.
The Bottom Ten/NCAA Week 8: With multiple weeks between games and postponements due to COVID, the race for the ESPNCup is in even more chaos than usual. Offered with our compliments this season.
4. South Florida (1-4; lost to Temple 39-37)
Mitigating Factors: Bulls blow 11-point 3rd-quarter lead with Total Team Effort (TTE), as defense gives up two scores, offense chips in fumble returned for touchdown, special blows 2-point conversion…ADs of both schools pleased as announced attendance of 782 about what they would have drawn even without COVID restrictions.
…The Tough Get Going: With only win coming in opener, and with remaining teams combining for robust .519 win percentage, Bulls in prime position to take home first Tostitos Plaque – issued to team with longest losing streak in season that actually includes a win.
Next Loss: Tulsa (10/23)
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.
Click here for the first two months of the funniest Vegas memoir ever.
Criminals, Courtesans and Constables
Gaylon’s latest novel takes place everywhere from throne rooms to death row.
Click here to read the first four chapters with our compliments.
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On This Date
The long march to today.
In 2011 – Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is deposed and executed by the people he ruled for 42 years in a battle between the National Liberation Army and Libyan Army forces still loyal to him west of Sirte, Libya. Gaddafi, as part of the Arab Spring, had been clinging to power for most of the year and was on the run when he was captured while hiding in a drainage pipe. While exact details of what followed have never been confirmed, Gaddafi was beaten before being killed and his death after being captured remains a war crime. Qaddafi had taken power in a 1969 coup.
In 1989 – The Houston Cougars establish a new NCAA all-division record for most total yards in a game in a 95-21 win over SMU. The Cougars had 1,021 total yards – 250 rushing, 711 passing – breaking the record of 883 total yards done by Nebraska against New Mexico State in 1982 and the record still stands. Houston led 59-14 at halftime.
In 1962 – Bobby Boris Pickett and the Crypt-Kickers are at #1 on Billboard’s Hot 100 for the first of two consecutive weeks with Monster Mash. It was the first of three chart singles for Pickett, his first of two Top 40 hits and remains his only #1 song. The song returned to the Hot 100 on two further occasions, in 1970 (#91) and in 1973 (#10) and spent a total of 37 weeks in the survey. In 1962 the song peaked at #9 on Billboard’s soul chart and in 1973 it peaked at #3 in Great Britain.
Some Philosophy Crap
The wisdom of the ages. Whatever.
No one’s ever seen anyone before. So you can get away with a lot by just pretending you belong wherever you happen to be.
Gore Vidal
Empire
Answer To The Last Trivia Question
It’s not who you know, but what you know.
Before Nothing From Nothing established a new Hot 100 record by falling from #1 to #15, the record for biggest drop from #1 was held by The Sound of Silence by Simon and Garfunkel, which fell from #1 to #12 in 1966, a mark that was tied by in 1974 by Barry White with Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe.
Today’s Stumper
Cheaper than Trivia Night at the bar.
What country occupied Libya when Muammar Gaddafi was born around 1942 (the exact date of his birth is not known)? – Answer next time!
