The Daily Dose/January 14, 2017
By Gaylon Kent
America’s Funniest Guy
Notes from around the Human Experience…
CIRCLE OF LIFE AND ALL THAT: We don’t get too worked up over death here at the Daily Dose, and very little space in this column is spent on people dying. The death rate remains – as it has since time immemorial – a healthy 100 percent and each of us has a death to look forward to. Even our own death is a foregone conclusion, though we hardly see how humanity will muddle forth without this column, The Thought for the Day and The Bottom Ten.
Fly In The Ointment: Not only is our end inevitable, but to make our journey on this planet completely fraught with peril the extent of that time is unknown its end is indeterminate. So we’re not in a state of depression over the recent deaths of three men who influenced a wanna-be sports announcer and, later, a new sports official.
We would, however, like to respectfully request of those who are in charge of these things stop having my early influences die in packs of three.
Dry, Technical Matter: Earlier this year Dick Enberg died. We grew up in LA when Enberg still did California Angels games and boy oh, boy, LA was a great place, and the 1970’s were a great time, to be a kid who wanted to be a sports announcer because Enberg was just the tip of the iceberg. Vin Scully, Chick Hearn, Jiggs McDonald and then Bob Miller were all there to be enjoyed and influenced by. Not only that, Jimmy Lennon was the greatest ring announcer ever and John Ramsey is still the ideal PA announcer, doing PA at seemingly everything except the high school track regionals. There was Chick Anderson calling races at Santa Anita. All of these men are on the short list of the best there was at what they did.
Then Keith Jackson, the Voice of College Football for a lot of us, died Friday and Doug Harvey, one of ten umpires in baseball’s Hall of Fame, died Saturday.
We’ve done some umpiring ourselves and Harvey’s influence, primarily about how a good umpire conducts himself and goes about his work, was profound. We met him once, too. Many years ago we were radio announcers and amongst our duties was announcing the games for Central Union High School in El Centro, California, where Harvey graduated from. He noted the best pitcher he ever saw was Sandy Koufax and the toughest call was a close swipe tag. Harvey’s death gets personal, too, because we know his son Todd.
The Bottom Line: We don’t get too worked up over death. The ashes of my dad, mom and brother are under the bed and their deaths didn’t cause us to weep and rend garments and we kept their ashes mainly because the had to go someplace.
But if whoever is in charge of these things could space these out a little more, we’d be obliged.
ON THIS DATE! ON THIS DATE!: The Congress of the Confederation ratifies the Treaty of Paris, which ended the American Revolution, on this date in 1784.
All Over But The Shoutin’: While the war was long over, the Treaty of Paris still had not taken effect yet. Great Britain ratified the Treaty in April, and the Treaty officially went into force on May 12 when everyone exchanged ratified copies in Paris.
Dry, Technical Matter: The Treaty of Paris has ten articles. Some were ignored and some, especially the ones concerning boundaries, were difficult to enforce because no one really knew what in the hell was going on there. Only the Article 1, which grants the United States sovereign and independent status, is still in force.
Great Moments In Meeting To Defeat Hitler: American President Franklin Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill begin a ten-day conference in Casablanca, Morocco on this date in 1943. Known by History as the Casablanca Conference, it was held to plan further Allied strategy in World War II. The conference produced the Casablanca Declaration, which announced the Allies would accept nothing less than unconditional surrender from the Axis powers.
Up, Up And Away: Prior to the Casablanca Conference, FDR became the first president of the United States to fly by airplane, leaving from Miami to Casablanca on January 11.
“We’ll Be Back After A Station Break.”: The Today program debuts on this date in 1952 with Dave Garroway hosting. It is still on the air today, the fifth oldest American television show.
Hut, Hut, Hike: The first NFL Pro Bowl is played on this date in 1951. 53,676 fans wander into the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to watch the American Conference, led by Cleveland Browns quarterback Otto Graham, defeat the National Conference 28-27.
It was the first NFL all-star game since 1942 and came three weeks after the Cleveland Browns had defeated the Los Angeles Rams 30-28 in the NFL Championship Game.
Quotebook: If you are extraordinary, be extraordinary. People only err when they try to be who they are not. – Deng Ming Dao, 365 Tao
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: There wasn’t a Trivia feature last time, silly!
Today’s Stumper: What are the four American TV shows that have been on the air longer than Today? – Answer next time!
